What is this appointment on my calendar?
If you are enrolled in (or teaching) any class at (or through) the University of Saint Thomas, you have probably noticed that each of your scheduled class meetings appears on your Outlook calendar as an appointment in purple:
(Well... that's what Microsoft considers "purple," anyway. We Tommies have a better idea of what "purple" is, but, alas, Microsoft picks the colors.)
If you open that appointment, you will find a lot of other useful information about the course:
Many of you have four lecture-based in-person courses, plus maybe labs on top of that, filling your whole week with appointments! These appointments are created and managed by the Outlook Class Schedule process. Outlook Class Schedule has been running for over a decade, but faculty were added to it in J-Term 2024.
The information in your course appointments may fluctuate in the weeks leading up to the start of term, as rooms are assigned, instructors determined, etc. Not to worry! Outlook Class Schedule will update your class information automatically as new data is received.
How it Works
Whenever you register for a course in Banner (or when you are assigned to teach that course), Banner sends a notification to the Populate Student Calendars process. These notifications are queued up and processed in the order that they were received. It usually takes 10 to 20 minutes for your new course to appear on your calendar, although it can take up to 3 days at peak registration times.
Likewise, when you drop a class, the Populate Student Calendar process is notified and removes the course from your calendar as soon as it can, normally in about 10 to 20 minutes.
If you are registered for a course that has a major calendar change -- for example, the class changes to a different room, or a different professor -- Process Student Calendar will receive a notification as soon as your instructor or department saves that change in Banner. It will then update the course for all students in the class. This takes a little longer, depending on how many students are in the class, but you can plan on seeing the updates on your calendar in 30 to 60 minutes (except during peak registration times).
If you've waited a reasonable amount of time (a few hours normally; 3+ days at peak registration) and your changes have not shown up on your calendar, it might be a bug. Please send us a ticket.
FAQ
Q: I can't see all my courses on my calendar. Where are they?
A: The Populate Student Calendars process occasionally makes mistakes. This is especially true if you registered for a class between January and July 2023. Please just send us a ticket. We will investigate and fix your calendar up!
Q: I am a graduate student. My Outlook calendar says that we have class on Thanksgiving Day. Is that right?
A: Probably not. The Outlook Class Schedule does not have access to the academic calendars for all graduate programs, so it doesn't "know" about breaks and holidays. Consult your professor and syllabus. The Outlook Class Schedule is a tool many students find useful, but it is not infallible. Your professor is.
Q: I am taking a class at St. Kate's (or another ACTC school) (or a study abroad program). My Outlook course appointments don't seem to show up on the right days. Is that right?
A: The Outlook course appointments showed on your St. Thomas Outlook calendar are always based on the Saint Thomas academic year. For example, your Fall Outlook course appointments will always start the Wednesday before Labor Day and end the week before Christmas -- even though Macalester may start a week earlier and St. Kate's may end four days later. We do not actually know what the academic calendar is for the other ACTC schools, since they change slightly every term, and they don't always stay in alignment with ours.
For this reason, you must check with your ACTC school to find out when classes actually begin and end, because your Outlook calendar will not reflect any variation between our calendar and theirs.
ACTC (or study abroad) course appointments in your St. Thomas Outlook calendar are prominently flagged with a warning message that the days and/or times may not be correct, and that you must verify with the other institution.
Q: My calendar doesn't show a final exam time. Does that mean I don't have a final?
A: Not necessarily. Outlook Class Schedule reflects the University's official final exam schedule, but, if your class doesn't follow one of the standard schedule patterns (for example, an independent study with your professor), you may have a special final exam time. As always, Outlook Class Schedule is not infallible; your professor is. Confirm final exam times with your professor.
Moreover, since Outlook Class Schedule does not have access to all graduate academic calendars, it does not display any final exam time for graduate courses. See your professor!
Finally, some MATH courses (100- and 200-level courses other than MATH 108/109) have two possible final times: the standard scheduled final time, or the MATH Commons Final time. As long as your instructor is teaching more than one section of your course, he/she has the discretion to use the MATH Commons Final time instead of the standard time. Your professor will inform you which time is actually used.
Q: My instructor cancelled class on Friday for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Will my Friday class appointment disappear from my calendar?
A: No. Cancellations of individual classes are not recorded in University systems of record, so Outlook Class Schedule won't know about it.
Q: I am the instructor cancelling class for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. How do I submit that cancellation to the system?
A: You can't. There is no University system of record for individual class cancellations. Thank you for honoring Our Lady, but you will simply have to be clear with your students not to come to class on Friday.
Q: I got a text from UST Alerts that says all classes are cancelled because there's a blizzard right now, and there's a big banner on stthomas.edu that says "All classes cancelled due to snow," but my class appointment is still on my Outlook calendar. Should I go to class?
A: No. Emergency cancellations are not tracked by Outlook Class Schedule, which lacks the capability to update all 10,000+ student calendars in a timely manner. Please stay off the roads!
Q: I signed up for a course at Registration but it isn't showing up on my calendar. Does that mean I didn't get into the course and should never attend class?
A: First, double-check Murphy Online to verify your registration status. If Murphy says you are in the class, then you are in the class, regardless of what your calendar says! You are paying tuition for that class! Attend the class!
In case of any doubt, contact your professor.
However, if the class still isn't showing up on your calendar, that's an error. Please let us know about it so we can investigate and fix up your calendar.
Q: I like to keep my Outlook calendar empty. Can I opt out of Populate Student Calendars?
A: No.
(Sorry.)
Q: Can I delete or modify my course calendar appointments myself?
A: You certainly can! However, if your class schedule or instructor changes, Populate Student Calendars will update your calendar to reflect the new information regardless.
There is no way to delete these appointments en masse. They are not part of an Outlook meeting series, but are technically all separate Outlook appointments. The easiest way to delete them in a batch is to open your Outlook calendar, search for the class CRN to get a list of all appointments, and delete them one after another, like this:
Q: Did this used to be called something else?
During the past decade, this process has also been called Outlook Class Schedules, Outlook Course Appointments, BEP-Populate Calendars, Banner Events Publisher (Calendars), Populate Student Calendars, WMS Exchange Java O365, and Exchange Calendars. (And now all those terms are in the article, so they'll show up as keywords when somebody searches for one of the old names!)
Q: I have more questions.
A: We have more answers! Drop us a line through a ticket. We hope you continue to find this a useful feature of the St. Thomas Outlook environment!