Beginning November 29, Union College students and graduates can take advantage of a new electronic transcript delivery service—one that will dramatically shorten the time to send transcripts.
Union has partnered with Parchment, an academic credential management company that specializes in digital delivery, to send secure, paperless documents to any school in the world.
“The biggest improvement of this new system is that if they are financially cleared, students can now send their transcripts wherever they want in minutes,” said Salli Jenks, Union’s director of Records. She says the service will save the college money and free up more time to devote to improving other services.
When Jenks joined the Records office earlier this year, the staff were already exploring electronic delivery options. They ultimately selected Parchment because of the company’s good reputation and user friendly storefront and administrative dashboard. “It wasn’t too hard of a sell,” Jenks said. “It was a better and faster service for students and alumni, and a money-saver for the college—a win-win.”
Although the Parchment rollout is still in the early stages, Jenks estimates their staff will save several hours of work a week to begin with because they won’t need to spend nearly as much time confirming recipient addresses, mailing documents and answering questions about transcripts lost in the mail.
The Records Office plans to roll out a new feature in the near future that will allow students to order their transcripts directly through Union College portal. Jenks also hopes to implement other features that would completely automate the transcript processing system and make it available 24-7—even during holidays and weekends.
To use the system right now, students or graduates must have their financial account current and set up an account with Parchment to request transcripts.
To learn more, visit the the Union College Records Office transcript request page at https://www.ucollege.edu/academic-services/records-office/transcript-request, call 402.486.2529 or email records@ucollege.edu
By Kaylin Thurber, student writer