Eastern Michigan University Saves Time, Money with eTranscripts

Founded in 1849, Eastern Michigan University (EMU) is the second oldest public university in Michigan. It currently serves nearly 18,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University’s Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering and Technology; Health and Human Services; and, its graduate school.

EMU is regularly recognized by national publications for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education.

Although Clearinghouse Transcript Ordering (in which EMU has participated since 2005) streamlined EMU’s ordering process, staff still needed to download and input each transcript request manually and fulfill each order’s printing and mailing by hand. Before implementing eTranscripts, processing transcripts was the full-time job of two staff members.

Working with a Trusted Partner

In 2016, EMU began using Ellucian eTranscripts through the Clearinghouse, incorporating both outgoing eTranscripts and downloading the data directly into Ellucian Banner, the university’s student information system (SIS).

Christina Shell, a 22-year veteran of EMU, has been the university’s registrar for more than 15 years. “We work with the Clearinghouse on everything else — Transcript Ordering, degree verification, enrollment verification, StudentTracker — so we already had a trusted relationship. It made perfect sense to take that next step and implement eTranscripts, together with the download of the data into our student information system.”

The implementation process was straightforward, and EMU’s team appreciated the Clearinghouse’s step-by-step approach. “It was very easy, with clear and concise instructions, both for our IT department and for the registrar’s office. The Clearinghouse helped us work through the implementation in a very efficient way,” Shell said.

Dramatic Savings

Thanks to eTranscripts, the registrar’s office was able to cut the staff resource allocation for transcript processing in half — when one of the transcript processors retried, the office did not need to replace that staff member. One staff member can now handle all transcript-related tasks. In addition, to the significant savings created by eliminating one staff position, EMU continues to save more and more on paper and printing costs with eTranscripts.

eTranscripts has also enabled EMU’s registrar’s office to provide better customer service to students thanks to its fast turnaround. EMU students enjoy not having to worry about timing, mail delays, or street address errors. The university’s secure email processes help keep students’ transcript information safe.

The impact on the efficiency of the registrar’s office has been significant, as over 70% of the university’s transcripts are ordered and fulfilled automatically. The office has been able to redeploy those resources — staff, paper, mailing — and reenvision its processes to meet student customer service needs more effectively. “You can save those dollars or reallocate them to other things in your office,” Shell said.

“At first it was strange, not touching the transcripts, but because we have a trusted partner in the Clearinghouse, it quickly became a lot easier,” Shell said. “We’ve been very pleased with the relationship.”

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