LORIS debuts new Proxy Access tab
Proxy Access to give third party ability to see account summary and invoice without jeopardizing confidentiality
Wilfrid Laurier University students will now be able to give account summary information and invoices to their parents or a third party through proxy access.
This summer, Laurier’s Information and Communications Technologies team, along with Service Laurier, announced their new “Proxy Access” tab on LORIS. This will allow students to give access to part of their LORIS account without giving away all of their information.
According to Necia Martins, manager of Service Laurier, the university started practicing paperless bills in the 2014-15 year, but students still assumed their parents were getting their invoices and bills.
After complaints were sent from students who were not notified about their e-bills, Service Laurier tried to meet parents and students halfway by launching the Proxy Access tab.
“ICT found the Proxy Access tab, they found that and brought it forward to us because we were trying to figure out how to get parents notified that a new e-bill had been posted because that was the number one complaint,” Martins explained.
“They didn’t even care about receiving an invoice, it’s just more or less being more aware.”
In a campus update on Laurier’s website, Shelagh Pepper, manager of Student Information Systems, said the proxy access “combines ease of access and enhanced experience for students along with cost-reduction for internal partners.”
According to Martins, Service Laurier and ICT are aware of the high volume of emails to students and can understand how notifications about invoices can slip through the cracks.
“[A proxy account] just adds that step of ease in just having your parents or someone else aware of whether there’s a new e-bill,” said Martins.
To add a proxy account, students will have to go to the Proxy Access tab on LORIS. There, students will be directed to a management page where they can add a proxy by providing an email address and name.
Students will then have to create a secret passphrase to verify the account, which will allow the students’ proxy to call Service Laurier and ask questions regarding account information.
After the student completes the process, their proxy will receive an email that will ask for the passphrase.
After the user sets up a password and account information, the proxy will have access to the students’ invoices and account summary.
As of now, Service Laurier is not running reports on how successful the tab is, but Martins believes students are starting to use it.
“We do believe there are a lot of students that are using it, we’ve had a few call-ins just asking about how to use the services and it seems like it’s going well,” said Martins.
Although students are getting more comfortable with the tab, Service Laurier still honours consent from students to let a third party have access to their financial information.
“We’re still allowing [consent] so we’re kind of in-between, so if you set up consent we still honour that you have that set up verses the Proxy Account, so I think we’re in the moment of transition.”
As of now, first-year students seem to be on board with the Proxy Access tab, while ICT and Service Laurier are hoping more upper-year students are getting involved with it.
