Duplicate IDs Data Issue Documentation

Issue Summary

Duplicates occur in several instances, both with students and with staff; for example, when students are applying to multiple campuses, when students transfer from one campus to another, and when former students become employees (and vice versa). If an individual is not identified as already having an existing EMPLID in PeopleSoft and a new EMPLID is created, this creates confusion and poor experiences for the student or employee. Students’ credits are not all tracked toward graduation in a single space, financial aid awarded and payments made may credit to the wrong account, emails may arrive at unmonitored addresses, and pay history and tax-filing forms may have incomplete or duplicate data. Ultimately, all of these outcomes diminish the experiences of our students and staff and create work for multiple university departments.

Background

Duplicate IDs have been an existing issue since the implementation of PeopleSoft within the UMS; over the years, more than 11,000 duplicate IDs have been reported. Over the last decade, 6,000 duplicates have been cleaned up and deleted. Currently, there are 6,843 records needing attention. It is the goal of this workgroup to continue the clean-up and deletion process, as well as reduce the number of duplicates being created.

Proposed Solutions

• Establish ownership for creation, resolution, decision making and communication related to Duplicate IDs. This would include assigning responsibilities to Duplicate ID Coordinators at each campus to work with all functional areas to resolve duplicates identified. 
• Create documentation on creation of records, resolution of Duplicate IDs, and update training information based on annual review of documentation.  
• Establish consistent System-wide communication between parties involved in Duplicate ID resolution.
• Increase collaboration between HR and CS to minimize Duplicate ID creation within the two separate databases.
• Consistency in capturing names on forms used to create new EMPLIDs (i.e., registration forms and applications).