On July 16, UConn International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) will implement a new case management software, Terra Dotta Software, which will change how international students and scholars apply for services from ISSS.
Many applications submitted to our office require the academic advisor to confirm academic information about a student before ISSS can process their application. ISSS requires the academic information to assess student eligibility under federal visa regulations for the requested immigration benefit. Examples include applications for OPT, CPT, Form I-20/DS-2019 extensions and reduced course loads. University staff and faculty may initiate other ISSS processes, such as visiting scholar DS-2019 requests.
Effective July 16, processes for providing academic confirmation and initiating requests will begin to change, as applications move from paper based to online forms that include a workflow application. Many of the common student requests will now require academic advisors to provide academic confirmation via email, instead of signing a paper form.
When students complete an online application for ISSS they will designate an academic advisor to provide required academic information. The designated advisor will receive an email from international@uconn.edu, asking you to log in to Terra Dotta to confirm the information electronically that used to be captured by paper form. Log in credentials will be provided in the email to the advisor. Upon receipt of both the student’s application and the advisor confirmation, the application will be complete and ISSS may process the benefit for the student.
To help prepare for this change, we recommend that you do the following:
- Add international@uconn.edu to your safe e-mail recipient list, to avoid the automated messages from going to your junk email. Please read this ITS support article to learn about marking messages as “Not Junk”.
- While the academic advisor on record should complete the academic confirmation, we recognize there are a few programs where the staff advisor or program coordinator typically completes academic verifications on behalf of the faculty program director. If this applies to your program, please notify your student population and your ISSS advisor liaison the names of the individuals authorized to complete the academic confirmation for ISSS applications.
- Advisors cannot forward the automated email to another individual to complete on your behalf. If you are unable to complete the academic confirmation, your student advisee will need to reopen their application and designate a different individual to complete the confirmation.
- As we transition to the new system, please note that not all forms and processes may change right away. Some application forms may initially remain paper based.
- We will send out separate information and offer additional training for processes that are department initiated, such as the DS-2019 request form for visiting scholars and student interns.
Thank you for your patience as we implement the new system. We hope that this will improve quality and efficiency of services for you, for our office and for our students and scholars. Please let me know if you have any questions.
For more information, contact: Rae Alexander/ISSS at rae.alexander@uconn.edu