SLA

Enrollment Management Services - 

Partnership Agreement 

Effective Date: October 7, 2024

Section 1. Document Overview and Objectives 3

Section 2. EMS Vision Statement 3

Section 3. Partners 4

Section 4. EMS Responsibilities 4

A. Overview 4

B. Services Provided 5

C. Report Requests 5

D. Measurements 6

E. Responsibilities 8

Section 5. Customer Responsibilities 9

Section 6. Feedback 10

Section 7. Yearly Review 10

Appendix 11

A. List of Tasks 11

B. Common EMS Terms 12

C. Ticket Status 13

Section 1. Document Overview and Objectives 

This Service Level Agreement (SLA) is the governing document between Lehigh University’s Enrollment Management Services (EMS) shared services team and the partners it supports outlined in Section 2. 

The objective of this document is to establish general responsibilities of EMS and its partners, set expectations of performance and response levels, and outline ways in which feedback will be continuously solicited and encouraged. All of this is done to ensure a successful partnership between EMS and those they support. Specifically, the document: 

• Provides an overview of the services provided by EMS

• Defines internal expectations of EMS members in relation to their work with partners, particularly in regards to communication 

• Outlines measurements of performance levels and service delivery through a ticketing rank system coupled with ticket priority levels

• Defines customer responsibilities both broadly and in specifics when appropriate 

• Shares how feedback will be collected for work on tasks, projects, and general engagement 

This Service Level Agreement is intended to be a ‘living’ document. To that end, it will undergo a yearly review process that will allow members of EMS and its partners to provide possible revisions. Details on this yearly review exercise are shared at the conclusion of this document.

Section 2. EMS Vision Statement

A collaborative, data driven, and student-centered team focused on providing reliable information and services to the Lehigh community while empowering students to take ownership of their academic journey.

Section 3. Partners

Partners are individuals, groups, or departments across campus who receive services provided by EMS. Partners include: 

• College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Enrollment Management team

• College of Business Graduate Enrollment Management team

• College of Education Graduate Enrollment Management team 

• College of Health Graduate Enrollment Management team 

• P.C. Rossin College of Engineering & Applied Science Graduate Enrollment Management team

• Office of Undergraduate Admissions 

• Office of Financial Aid

• Office of the Bursar

• Office of the Registrar

• Office of the Provost

Section 4. EMS Responsibilities

A. Overview

The Enrollment Management Services team strives for the highest level of customer satisfaction. 

• Enrollment Management Services will be available M-F 8:00 a.m. to 5:0o p.m. Please note, members of EMS that manage data loads have a modified schedule of M-F 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. as this allows for information to begin processing prior to all other daily tasks/work.  

• Normal processing deadlines may change and/or services delayed during peak periods of activity, the largest of which falls between December 1 - January 31.  

• Throughout each year there will be a number of blackout periods where EMS will be solely focused on specific processes. This list includes but is not limited to undergraduate decision processing for each EDI, EDII and RD.

• The team will gather for on-campus, in-service days biannually where task and project work will be limited throughout the day(s). These dates will be shared with partners two months in advance to ensure open communication and ample preparation for all.

B. Services Provided

The Enrollment Management Services team provides comprehensive services to departments across campus to support the enrollment needs of the institution from admission application through graduation and beyond. The services that EMS is involved in providing are broken down into regularly scheduled tasks, ad hoc tasks, and projects. An abbreviated list of these tasks as well as definitions of each grouping can be found in the appendix to this document.   

As a team fully committed to focusing our energies on Inspiring the Future Makers, we encourage our partners to consider the ways in which your task or project will help the University Make it New, Make a Difference, Make it Together. To foster this forward thinking, as of November 2023 we have added an optional question to our Jira ticketing system asking partners to share which initiative of the Strategic Plan their request most closely aligns with. 

C. Report Requests

When requesting reports the ultimate priority is ensuring FERPA compliance and that the appropriate steps are taken. To that end, each request will be reviewed by the University Registrar for federal compliance prior to any work beginning on the report. Generally, the following information will not be provided.

• Social Security Numbers

• Names with addresses and dates of birth

• Specific GPA information (although requests for if a group of students meets a certain threshold are generally fine)

• Student financial aid information (although if a student is PELL eligible may be provided depending on the need)

• Student information related to forms of payment

D. Measurements

Measurements are one of the evaluating criteria of the success of Lehigh’s EMS. To ensure transparency with partners as well as provide measures of success, Jira requests will be given an associated rank and priority. 

All Jira tickets will be given a rank of 1-6. These ranks are determined by the target turnaround time which is only counted while a ticket has a status of “In Progress”. (Please note, a full list of ticket statuses and their corresponding meanings can be found in the appendix to this document.) Additionally, while target turnaround time is used for this measure, it is understood that target turnaround will not be achieved in 100% of the transactions. Both EMS and its partners are committed to reducing the percentage of those transactions above the target turnaround over time by improving processes or operations. 

*Each summer meetings with EMS’s partners to determine their prioritization of tickets in the backlog and if any should be moved to another rank. 

In addition to being assigned a rank of 1-6, all Jira tickets will also be given a priority rating of low, medium, or high. While priority will not influence the rank that a ticket is assigned, it will determine where that ticket falls amongst those of the same rank assigned to an EMS team member.

Priority levels will be revised by EMS as needed and are roughly defined as: 

• High priority: a number of users are experiencing an issue and/or there is substantial impact to the office/team of which the customer belongs.

• Medium priority: a single user is experiencing an issue and/or there is slight impact to the office/team of which the customer belongs. 

• Low priority: daily work is not impacted and/or the request is desirable but not required. 

E. Responsibilities

To ensure that EMS delivers quality and timely service, the team commits to the following standards: 

• The top priorities for EMS will always be student-focused items including but not limited to getting students access to our environments and processing applications. 

• Once a Jira ticket is submitted, it will be assigned to a member of EMS services within 1-2 business days where it will then receive a rank and priority, both visible to partners. 

• In the event that a ticket rank needs to be altered after moving to “In Progress”, the customer will be notified and provided an explanation for the shift through a comment on their ticket. 

• Tickets with a rank of 2-6 will be personally acknowledged by a member of EMS within 2 business days. 

  • Given the quick turnaround time of tickets with a rank of 1, they will not be personally acknowledged before close unless there is an issue/question. 

  • During peak times between December 1-January 31, tickets normally assigned to a rank of 1 may be given a lower rank due to the volume of tickets received. Processing delays and updates will be shared with customers during periods of time where this happens. 

• In the event that EMS has additional questions regarding a partner’s ticket submission, they will pose these questions during initial acknowledgement of the ticket and the status will be set to “Waiting on Customer”.

• If there are no questions during initial acknowledgement of the ticket or once all of the questions have been fully answered by the customer, the ticket status will be set to “In Progress” and work will begin. 

• Any partner comments on an “In Progress” or “Waiting on Customer” ticket will be acknowledged within 3 business days. 

• Tickets submitted for projects (Rank 5) will require an initial project planning meeting. EMS will schedule this meeting to take place within 10 business days of the ticket being moved to “In Progress”. 

• Members of EMS will check in with our campus partners to ensure that the partners set priorities for the broader tasks/projects in their area.

• Any reopened ticket will be responded to within 3 business days. 

• If a member of EMS is out of the office, Rank 1-4 tickets will be reassigned to another member of the team in the interim. 

Section 5. Customer Responsibilities

To ensure all parties are fostering an environment that allows for progress and success, is it expected that:

• All requests should be submitted to EMS via a ticket at go.lehigh.edu/emticket or through email at emticket@lehigh.edu. If a request is submitted to a member of EMS via any other method including but not limited to email, Gchat, or Slack, the request will be forwarded to the ticketing system at the EMS member’s earliest convenience. 

  • Please note, response time calculation will start only once the ticket has been created at the EMS member’s earlier convenience. 

• Tickets should include a detailed explanation with all key information. When feasible and appropriate, a screengrab of issues or error messages attached to the ticket is ideal. 

• There will be times when a member of EMS will request additional information after confirming receipt of your ticket, moving the status to “Waiting on Customer”. Partners should respond to these inquiries within 3 business days. 

• As noted in Section 3, EMS will not begin work or move the ticket to “In Progress” until the customer has responded. 

• Tickets should only be reopened through commenting if the issue is directly related to that completed task. If there are new issues that have stemmed from previous work, a new ticket should be opened. 

• For Undergraduate information, please click here. 

• For Graduate information, please click here. 

• Tickets can be reopened within 5 business days of being closed by EMS. To do so, the customer should comment on the ticket including all details such as why the ticket is being reopened, when the issue was observed, and what additional work is still needed. 

• When submitting a request for a name load, a member of EMS will not begin work on the ticket until all information as outlined in the below documentation is submitted. 

• If submitting a ticket for what you suspect is a project (Rank 5), please add all stakeholders to the ticket after creation. EM Services will schedule a preliminary project meeting with all members included on the ticket. 

• As part of all EMS projects (Rank 5) key milestone dates will be determined and agreed upon by EMS and the customer prior to the start of work. In the event that these milestone dates are not met, the timeline of the project will be impacted and future dates pushed out at a rate proportional to the missed original date. 

• Any accounts that EMS supports and will need access to must use Keeper Security. This will ensure that passwords are in a secure vault and are accessible to all necessary parties.

• To ensure that partners feel comfortable using Jira ticketing system, please view the Jira Service Desk overview as well as how to view all submitted requests. 

Section 6. Feedback

Providing outstanding customer service is a key goal for EMS, which is committed to understanding the needs of our partners and providing space for and encouraging feedback. With that, customer satisfaction will be measured through: 

• Informal feedback shared during standing and/or project meetings 

• Formal feedback survey sent following the completion of any projects (Rank 5)

• Yearly customer satisfaction survey that will be sent the first Monday in May to Unit Representatives identified in Section 7

All feedback will be collected and reviewed by senior members of EM Services. 

Section 7. Yearly Review

This Service Level Agreement is valid from the effective date outlined above and until further notice. This agreement should be reviewed once per calendar year; however, in the event a review is not conducted during a specific period, the current agreement will remain in effect. 

EM Services is responsible for facilitating annual reviews of this document. Contents of this document may be amended as required, provided all stakeholders agree and changes are communicated to all impacted parties. 

Appendix

A. List of Tasks 

B. Common EMS Terms

Ad hoc tasks - items that are completed/created on an as needed basis. A ticket must be submitted through Jira to request that this task is completed. All communication between EMS and the customer takes place through Jira. 

Jira - an issue tracking system that allows for clear planning, tracking, and accurate work. All requests for assistance from EMS whether on tasks or projects must be submitted through Jira at go.lehigh.edu/emticket.

Priority - one of two measurements assigned to each Jira ticket by a member of EMS. Priority levels include low, medium, and high. Priority levels will determine where that ticket falls amongst those of the same rank assigned to a specific EMS team member. 

Project - a sequence of tasks that must be completed to attain a certain outcome through a temporary endeavor with a definite beginning and end. EMS projects will take more than 20 working hours to complete, must align with a Strategic Plan initiative, and will require the work of multiple members of the EMS team.

Rank - one of two measurements assigned to each Jira ticket by a member of EMS. Rank levels range from 1-6 and indicate the target turnaround time for the work on that ticket, type of work based on the scope of the ticket, and how and by whom communication with the customer will be handled. Please see page 6 for an overview of the rank system.

Regularly scheduled tasks - items that are completed/created to run according to a defined schedule with no dependencies. 

Trello - a web-based, kanban-style tool that is used to manage EMS projects. EM Services will create and oversee Trello boards, managing workflows and tracking tasks associated with projects. 

C. Ticket Status

Backlog - when the task/project is not an immediate need and will be done in the future, beyond the scope of what EMS can currently complete, or does not align with an initiative of the Strategic Plan. The Technical PM will meet with partners each summer to determine the priority of these tickets.

Closed - the task/project associated with the ticket has been completed. 

In Progress - the task/project associated with the ticket is actively being worked on. Only business days in which a ticket status is set at “In Progress” count towards the target turnaround time. 

Testing - indicates that testing is being completed on the task/project either by EMS or another campus partner such as LTS.  

Waiting for Support - the default status on all tickets once submitted. After internally being assigned to a member of EMS, they will review the ticket and route to the appropriate next status of either “Waiting for Customer” if there are questions, “In Progress” if nothing else is needed and work can begin, or “Backlog” if the work falls within the parameters defined as rank 6 on page 6.

Waiting for Customer - there are additional questions/items needed from the customer regarding the associated task/project on the ticket. While at this status, work on the ticket is not actively being completed nor is time being accounted for the target turnaround time. 

Please find the ticket status workflow on the following page.