This article takes users on a tour of the Terra Dotta from the department's view of a J-1 scholar profile.
For details on the Scholar's view, see Scholar Admin: Tour of Scholar View of the J-1 Scholar Profile.
For details on the ISSS Admin's view, see Scholar Admin: Tour of ISSS Admin View of the J-1 Scholar Profile.
The Header
The header remains common across all tabs, no matter if the scholar has a DS-2019 created or is still in the information-gathering stage. The top right corner lists the Department Admin's name and also the departments for which they have privileges. The Notification Bell is present and will generate an alert when they have received a response from ISSS Admin on a pending request initiated on a scholar's behalf. Clicking on the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the page will allow the scholar to securely log out.
Within a scholar's profile account, the thumbnail picture and scholar's information will remain on the top of the screen. From here, the department admin can add/update a photo used in the thumbnail for all parties to view (as can the Scholar or ISSS Admin) and also get a snapshot of scholar information.
Additionally, the Departmental Admin has several options they can take from each scholar record:
- Invite Scholar: Sends the scholar an invitation to the online portal so that the scholar can complete information pertaining to him/herself.
- Send for Approval: If any Approval Workflows have been configured that this user would fit into, this will trigger the approval to be sent. This could be used if approval is sought prior to the automatic transaction needed to trigger the workflow or if the approval request was withdrawn, click this to resend the approval notification.
- Email: Allows the department to email either/both the scholar or ISSS admin from the scholar's file without needing to exit the Terra Dotta. Emails sent from the Terra Dotta are retained in the scholar's History tab.
- Submit to ISSS Admin: Clicking Submit to ISSS Admin allows the Department admin to send a notification to ISSS Admin once the scholar's profile is ready for ISSS to review. Department admins can save the information and come back to individual profiles multiple times before sending for approval. Submitting to ISSS Admin does validate that the required fields are complete. For more on Submit to ISSS Admin see Creation and Validation of the EV below.
Department
This tab contains information specific to the department and site of activity. The Departmental Admin's information is carried over from the initial New Sponsorship Request. Additional fields are:
Department Contact Information panel
- Host Department
- Contact Name of Departmental Admin
- Phone of Departmental Admin
- Email of Departmental Admin
- Complete Campus Address
Faculty Sponsor Department Information panel
- Faculty Sponsor Department
- Faculty Sponsor Name (could be different than Departmental Admin)
- Faculty Sponsor Title
- Faculty Sponsor Email
- Faculty Sponsor Phone
Site of Activity Information panel
Now multiple sites can be added by clicking the + Add button located in the top right of the panel. One site must be indicated as the primary site of activity.
- Site of Activity Name
- Primary Site of Activity?
- Address Information
Exchange Visitor Information panel
This panel is gathering information about the nature of the EV's program
- Academic field of the teaching/research
- Primary function
- Description of the duties
- Proposed Job Title
Funding Information panel
Currency amounts and category information is gathered
- Funding from Institution
- Funding from Governmental source
- Funding from Sponsoring Organization
- Personal Funds
- Other
Exchange Visitor
The ISSS Admin view, Departmental Admin view, and Scholar's view of this tab are identical. This tab houses the information about the Exchange visitor and any dependent(s).
Provide Name of Exchange Visitor
- Exchange Visitor Family Name
- Given Name
- Middle Name
- Exchange Visitor Email
- Gender
- Date of Birth
Information
- Proposed Start Date
- Proposed End Date
- Proposed Visa Type
- Birth City
- Permanent Residence Country
- US-born Non-Citizen Reason
- Will scholar/employee be paid?
- How many hours a week will scholar/employee be engaged in proposed activity?
- Has the beneficiary ever been a J-1 exchange visitor or J-2 dependent of a J-1 exchange visitor?
Biographical Information
- Country of Birth
- Country of Citizenship
Contact Information
- Primary and Secondary Email Address
- Primary and Secondary Phone Number
- Foreign Phone Number
- Foreign Country Number
Address Information
- US Physical Address
- US Mailing Address
- Foreign Address
Dependent Information
- Status
- Relationship to Principal
- First Name
- Last Name
- Suffix
- Gender
- Date of Birth
- Birth City
- Country of Birth
- Country of Citizenship
- Country of Permanent Residence
Emergency Contact Information
- Name
- Contact
- Address
Note: the Scholar can enter Emergency Contact Information on their view and ISSS can also review/edit it. This can be tremendously helpful should a crisis arise. Located at the bottom of the Exchange Visitor tab is the Emergency Contact panel. If the Scholar enters, the ISSS Admin will be able to see a summary of information:
By clicking on the edit pencil (or + sign if no contact has yet to be entered), additional information can be found, additional contacts may be added and a primary contact designated. Perhaps the most helpful information in a crisis situation will be the information on the languages the contact speaks.
Additional Information
As mentioned in the Tour of the J-1 Scholar View, the information contained on this tab is dependent on the workflow that the ISSS Admin has set up. Below, you can see that the Department Admin has questions they must complete for ISSS, though they are not viewable by the scholar themselves.
Requests
After the scholar's academic objective has been created, this tab will contain the majority of the requests they need to transact from the ISSS office, the Scholar, and A/RO. Scholars or departments can initiate a request from the A/RO, then track the processing of the request. If the request is associated with a SEVIS batch action, then the batching information ("pending" or "processed") will also be shown.
Terra Dotta prevents multiple erroneous requests while providing the scholar transparent status updates that confirm how their request is being handled by the ISSS office. Both pending and completed request cards will show the most recent five requests, with a link to review older requests.
Documents
The ISSS Admin view, Departmental Admin view, and Scholar's view of this tab are identical. Documents are categorized by type; the document type menu displays on the left side. Scholar documents can now be moved after upload between document categories; if a document was unintentionally uploaded into the wrong document category, it can be moved into the correct document category.
Note: At this time, JPEG and PDF documents are supported in the documents tab.