Educause Student Guide
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Administrative Experience
Taking care of business online
• Your campus experience will include some time spent taking care of practical matters, such as registering for classes, requesting transcripts, and paying tuition. Find out which transactions and the services that support them can be handled online and at a distance.
Texas State provides you with many ways to communicate with us and handle practical matters online. CatsWeb and BobcatMail give you unprecedented access to business functions at the university, just as TRACS gives you unique and effective ways to interact with your intstuctors and classmates. CatsWeb places all the links you will need for Enrollment and Registration, Billing and Payment, Academic Records, Computing Services and other student services at your finger tips.
Managing your personal information
• What personal information can you view online—your contact information, grades, degree progress, financial status, or other information?
CatsWeb gives you access to your student account balance, financial aid status and awards, schedule of classes, grades, transcript, degree audit report (progress toward your degree), and personal information such as addresses and telephone numbers.
• Can you update any of this information online yourself?
From CatsWeb you can change addresses and phone numbers, update personal e-mail settings and personal web directory information, create or reactivate your Texas State NetID, change your Texas State password or CATS PIN (Personal Identification Number) and create a personal home page on the Texas State web server.
Conducting business
• What administrative activities can you do online?
Students at Texas State can conduct a considerable portion of their university business online using CatsWeb. With CatsWeb, registering for classes, making schedule changes, paying bills, printing unofficial transcripts, learning course grades, and checking progress toward your degree is a breeze. You can also order your textbooks online and request a parking permit. CatsWeb also provides links to additional services available from the Registrar, Financial Aid and other student service offices.
• What campus and community services are covered by debit-card, smart-card, or one-card systems?
Once enrolled at Texas State, you will receive your own BobcatCard. The BobcatCard is your official Texas State ID, library card, and meal plan card - with many added features. All these services are built into a single card. Texas State students, faculty and staff use the BobcatCard for payment of services on and off campus with Bobcat Buck$, a prepaid declining balance account. If you choose the option of linking your BobcatCard to a Wells Fargo College Checking® account, you can use your BobcatCard as an ATM card with access to over 6,000 Wells Fargo® ATMs nationwide. Your Bobcat Card also provides authorized access to many campus facilities (e.g., Residence Halls) and is used for automated attendance tracking in large teaching theaters. Your BobcatCard could easily be the only card you need to access products and services both on and off campus.
• Is the school catalog - including course descriptions, degree requirements, and academic policies, and the semester/term schedule of classes - available on the Web?
CatsWeb provides you with major links to degree requirements, academic policies, and the schedules of classes for upcoming semesters in numerous convenient formats (e.g., by course, by instructor, by location, by date, etc.). Both our undergraduate catalog and graduate catalog are online in their entirety.
Privacy, security, and usage rules
Texas State is committed to providing you with a safe and secure environment in which to learn and study, both physically and electronically. Our Web site privacy statement describes the university’s practices for gathering and disseminating information via its web site. Your personal information is accessible only to the Texas State faculty and staff with a need to know. Texas State does not share your personal information except as provided by law.
Official university policies designed to enhance the security and privacy of your personal information include the following:
UPPS 01.04.00, Appropriate Release of Information
UPPS 01.04.30, Release of Information Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act
UPPS 04.01.01, Security of Texas State Information Resources
UPPS 04.01.07, Appropriate Use of Information Resources
UPPS 05.04.01, Release of Information Contained in UPD Records
• How does the campus protect students from identity theft?
We take identity theft very seriously at Texas State. Your social security number is NOT used as a university identification number. Instead we provide you with a unique Texas State ID number. Note, however, that Texas State is required to capture, store, and report your social security number in compliance with federal and state reporting requirements.
Texas State also assigns a unique Network Identifier (NetID) and password to you and every other individual authorized to utilize its network-based services. Access to sensitive or confidential information and functions requires individuals to “authenticate," or login, using that NetID and password to validate their identity. Such authentication is required to access sensitive information or functions such as BobcatMail, TRACS and many of the links from CatsWeb. Consequently, you should never disclose your password to anyone.
Texas State works continuously with students, faculty, and staff to keep its systems and networks safe and secure. However, when it comes to protecting your personal information, you hold the key. Most acts of identity theft do not exploit weaknesses in software or networks, but weaknesses in user practices. Texas State provides educational programs and resources to aid users in protecting their identities and to assist them if they suspect their identity has been stolen.
• How does the campus notify students of their rights under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)?
A complete description of the University’s FERPA policies and procedures is always available online at the Registrar’s Web site. The site includes answers to questions frequently asked by students, parents, faculty, and staff.
• How does the campus manage e-mail spam and spyware?
Texas State uses a server side spam filter to isolate suspected spam e-mail in a quarantine area on the server for special handling. An email message called a quarantine digest is sent to you, listing the sender, subject, and date of recently quarantined email messages addressed to you. You can review the digest for individual messages you’d like released to you, delete individual messages from the quarantine, or simply delete the entire digest. You can also set up personal “safe sender” and “blocked sender” lists.