The Summit Change Management Team is interested in your feedback on the effectiveness of our outreach efforts to keep you informed about the Workday implementation and goals of the Summit project. Regardless of how you have heard about the Summit project, we want to hear from you! 

Please take the Workday Student Readiness Survey. 

• This survey opens today, June 4, and will close Friday, June 20.

• It should only take about 3-5 minutes to complete. 

• All responses are anonymous. 

• Once submitted, you may enter your name for a chance to win 1 of 3, $5 gift cards to the Frances Perk Cafe in Williston Library. (Completing the form to enter the raffle will in no way be connected to your anonymous survey responses.)

If you have any questions, please contact the Summit Change Management team. Our team is grateful for your time and contribution ~ thank you!!

On April 25th, the Workday Student implementation leads and subject matter experts held a Customer Confirmation Session (CCS) to demonstrate initial configuration of our new student information system. During the session, they reviewed the first set of student-lifecycle topics discussed and decisions made, and noted key areas for improvement. 

Below, we’ve outlined some of the “wins” for our future system, by workstream: 

Academic Foundations

• There will be formal differentiation of non-standard terms for halves of semesters (e.g. Fall 1, Fall 2), allowing tasks like administering grades in the middle of the semester much easier;

• There will be more comprehensive and consistent tracking of student academic objectives.

Admissions

• Students’ test scores will be tracked through Workday, instead of in multiple systems, and be reportable for assessment;

• Student tags will allow reporting to focus more on specific populations;

• PaGE students will no longer be subject to manual processes for registration and billing, with these becoming automated through Workday.

Student Records

• Multiple Programs of Studies can be assigned to a student record concurrently, making it easier to track programs; 

• Non-credit student records will now show Continuing Education units; 

• An integrated Student Profile designed to show their current course schedule, their academic history, transfer credits external records, and degree audits will streamline the information displayed for faculty and staff.

Curriculum & Advising

• Cross-listed courses will now be able to exist as a single course definition, allowing for efficiency in maintaining descriptions; 

• The Reserve Capacity functionality in Workday will allow class seats to be set aside for defined populations of students;

• Workday will facilitate a more comprehensive degree audit. 

Student Financials and Financials Aid

• Workday will provide a centralized location for students to view and manage their financial information;  

• Student accounts will be maintained in one system and incorporate automated reconciliation processes; 

• A redefined charge code structure will simplify account charges; 

• Work-study earnings and reporting processes are being refined to ensure greater consistency between Finance, Student Financial Services, and the information reported back to students.

Technical Workstreams

• MHC data migrated from Colleague into our newest testing tenant (the CTCT) was validated at 98.7%, much higher than the expected target of 85%; 

• Security review is ongoing to make sure everything has been migrated correctly to Workday.

This session provided a look at the progress made so far, highlighted ongoing discussions, and will help guide the next steps as we move further into the project. Please feel free to watch the full presentation. The next CCS will take place in August. 

We will share more updates on the project this summer.

What’s the Workday Student Project team been up to? The end of April marks a significant milestone in the Workday Student implementation at MHC: after eight months of planning and numerous hours spent working with our consulting partners at Alchemy, we now have successfully built the Customer Testing and Configuration Tenant (CTCT)!

What is the CTCT? The CTCT is a dedicated digital environment in which critical business processes that support a student’s time at MHC, including activities like registration, advising and managing personal information through self-service, will be configured. 

Why is it important? This achievement marks a crucial step forward in our journey to launch Workday Student. The team will now begin configuring, building and testing processes in a secure environment that allows us to identify and address any potential issues proactively, minimizing disruption and maximizing the integrity of our student information. Each team member played a vital role in getting us this far, lending their expertise and effort to complex cross-functional conversations to document business requirements. The team’s collaborative spirit and willingness to engage over these past few months directly impacted this successful build.

What’s next? Stay tuned for future updates as we continue to progress towards a new student-centered vision for services and processes! We look forward to bringing sneak peeks of the tenant to various audiences around campus once the configurations are developed and tested. 

The Workday Student implementation team is working hard to configure MHC’s next student information system. But, do you know who’s on the team? Visit the Student Update webpage and read more about your colleagues and the workstreams they’re contributing their expertise to.

As the Workday Student project team continues designing and configuring our future student information system, we want to introduce each workstream and the key business and functional areas they represent. This is the first article in a series that highlights the Student project teams and their efforts.

What is a Workstream?

A workstream is a team of MHC staff and faculty that focus on building a particular component, or functional area, of Workday​. A workstream consists of a lead and multiple subject matter experts (SMEs). A workstream is a subgroup of the larger Workday Student Project implementation team.

There are 6 functional workstreams listed below. Functional workstream efforts are intertwined with technical workstreams for integrations, data, reporting, and security. All workstreams work both independently and collaboratively with one another to ensure all the functionality needed for our new student information system is identified, designed, and configured to meet MHC’s business needs. 

• Academic Foundations focuses on managing the foundational academic data and structures within Workday Student, including setting up academic programs, degrees, courses, and the overall structure of the College’s academic offerings. It also supports the alignment of student data with the curriculum.

• Student Records is responsible for managing student records, including course enrollment and registration processes, grades, transcripts, and academic history for students’ records. It ensures that all student data is accurate and easily accessible for reporting and compliance purposes.

• Recruitment & Admissions covers the processes of recruiting and admitting students,  and how Workday will interact with other administrative systems to support Prospective Students’ transition to the matriculation phase. The workstream manages student applications, applicant data, admission decisions, and the overall admissions lifecycle.

• Curriculum & Advising supports academic affairs, curriculum planning, and academic advising. It assists in the creation and management of course catalogs, advising workflows, academic planning, building student schedules, and ensuring students receive the necessary guidance and self-service tools to navigate their academic journey.  

• Student Financials workstream deals with managing tuition, fees, and other student-related financial transactions. It includes billing, payments, and maintaining financial records to ensure students' financial accounts are accurate and up to date.

• Financial Aid workstream focuses on managing the process of awarding and distributing financial aid to students. It involves tracking scholarships, grants, loans, and other forms of financial support, ensuring students receive the necessary aid for their education.

As the system is built, the workstream teams will conduct several rounds of testing through Fall 2026 to ensure that everything will work as needed when Student goes live in March 2027 to support Fall 2027 enrollment activities. The Change Management team is planning opportunities in advance of go-live for the campus community to see and interact with this functionality as it matures.   

If you have any questions about the Workday Student project in the meantime, please contact us using this form.

We are excited to announce that Mount Holyoke is now in the early stages of implementing Workday Student with an anticipated launch in March 2027 to support Fall 2027 enrollment activities. Throughout the summer and fall of 2024, a dedicated cross-functional team of Mount Holyoke staff and faculty have been working on this crucial College initiative. For information about this phase of the Workday project, including our timeline and goals, we invite you to visit the Workday Student Implementation section of the Workday site. Our project team will update this page regularly as well as provide updates through targeted communications.