This article reviews the difference between an Official and an Assistant in ISSS Student, how to create each, and what permissions your ISSS office can give to Officials and Assistants in ISSS Student. 

An Official typically is a staff member who serves as a Designated School Official (DSO) or Alternate Responsible Officer (ARO) at an institution and can edit and send information to SEVIS.  An Assistant is a staff member who needs access to view SEVIS information, however would not need access to edit the information or send information to SEVIS.  Assistants are typically student workers within the ISSS office, marketing, or IT staff. They can be given access to adding comments, uploading documents, batch download documents, and edit website content. 

Both Officials and Assistants can be granted permissions in ISSS Student based on campus site, as well as other conditions that grant or restrict access to specific groups of students.

Note: In order to give Officials and Assistants permissions and privileges in ISSS Student, they will need to be added to the Facilitators group. To verify their permissions, go to Staff Admin > New Staff Member, and add them as an Admin under the Facilitators group. The Official/Assistant must have "ISSS Administrators" checked in Edit User Permissions > Scholar Module in order to use ISSS Student.  After this step is complete, you can add them as Officials or Assistants.  For more information on this step, see the Knowledgebase article Managing Staff Permissions.

This article discusses the following topics:

• Creating a New Official or Assistant
• Additional Conditions

Creating a New Official or Assistant

To create a new Official or Assistant in ISSS Student , click the hamburger menu icon to select Configurations > SEVIS Permissions. On this page, a dashboard lists all Officials and Assistants with access to ISSS Student, along with the names and codes of the campuses for which they permission.  

To add a new ISSS Student user as an Official or Assistant, click the Plus button in the bottom right corner.  A list of any ISSS uses in the Facilitators group who do not already exist on the Permissions page will appear.  Names can be entered in the Search bar to find specific individuals.  Click on the name of the intended Official or Assistant.

After selecting the user's name, you will land on the Permissions Manager for the individual.  The Permissions Manager has two tabs: Roles by Campus and Conditions.  The Roles by Campus tab is where you will designate the user as an Official or as an Assistant, as well as grant Assistant privileges and designate the campus sites to which the individual has access.

Note: Officials and Assistants will only be able to access information--such as student profiles, batches, and actions on the Student Request List--for campus sites to which they are granted permission.

On the Roles by Campus screen, you will see a list of available campus sites listed by Campus Code and Name of Campus.  The Role column reflects if the user is an Official at said campus, an Assistant, or "None" if the individual does not have permission to access information for a campus site.  When adding a new Official or Assistant, "None" will appear as the role for all campus sites until permission is granted.

Permissions for campus site can be granted and edited in two ways:

1. By clicked the Pencil icon in the Actions column to the right of the desired campus site.  Each campus site must be edited one at a time via this method; or

2. Selecting the check box to the left of the desired Campus Code(s), clicking on the Options button in the upper left hand corner, and selecting Edit Permission(s).  This method allows you to grant and edit permissions for multiple campuses at the same time.

Note: if you have multiple campuses for which you would like to grant permission for an Official/Assistant, you will need to make sure to edit the permissions for each campus.

After selecting "Edit Permission," a modal will open giving you the option to designate the user as an Official or Assistant for the campus site(s) in question.  When selecting Official, add the user's SEVIS User ID and click Apply.

If adding an Assistant, a list of privileges that can be granted to an Assistant will appear with checkboxes next to them.  Mark the checkbox next to the actions the Assistant should be able to do in ISSS Student for the designated campus site(s), then click Apply.

The possible privileges for an Assistant include: 

• Add Comment in the Student Profile
  • Tabs with edit access:
    •  History
      • SEVIS Assistants are able to see all history entries and comments in the comments log
        • They are able to add a new comment
        • They CANNOT see confidential comments
  • Tabs with View-only access:
    • Profile
    • Requests
    • Documents
    • Practical Training

• Upload Document to the Student Profile
  • Tabs with Edit Access
    •  Documents
      • Able to open existing documents
      • Able to upload new documents
      • Able to change type
    •  Requests
      • CANNOT add request
      • CAN see Pending Requests
        • CAN upload a document to a pending request
      • Batch/Post to RTI buttons are hidden
      • Able to have view-only access for Completed Requests
  • Tabs with View-only Access
    • Profile
    • History
    • Practical Training
  • Student Request List
    • Able to view request and Update
      • CANNOT approve/deny/request clarification ability
    • Able to upload a document to request
• Batch Downloads
  • Batch Manager - can see the list
    • Batch Actions (3 dot menu on each batch)
      • View Batch
      • Download Batch
      • Print Documents
      • SEVIS Message
      • Notify Student
      • For a failed batch - SEVIS Message > see the request > Request Clarification
  • Batch Manager Options menu
    • Print Documents
• Web Content
  • Site Pages > Home Content
  • Site Pages > Link Content
  • Site Pages > Document Center
  • Site Pages > Image Library
• Send Email

Once a user has been granted permission for a campus site as an Official or Assistant, the Role column for the campus site(s) will list Official or Assistant.  If the user has Assistant permissions, a list of the privileges they have been granted for each campus will be included.

Campus site permissions can be edited at any time by clicking the Pencil icon under the Actions column to the right of the campus in question.  Additionally, permissions for a specific campus site can be removed via the red Trashcan icon under Actions.

Additional Conditions

In addition to campus site, Official and Assistant permissions in ISSS Student can be limited based on the following conditions:

• Stage Status
• Visa Type
• Education Level/EV Category
• Major/Subject/Field of Study

Users who have individual permissions granted based on any of these conditions will only be able to access student records who meet the condition selections.  For example, if an Assistant's Stage Status conditions are set to Invited, Pre Arrival, and Check In, the Assistant will only be able to access the profiles of students in those 3 stages.

To edit user permissions based on any of these conditions, go to the Conditions tab in user's Permissions Manager.  If All is selected for a condition(s), the user will not be limited in accessing student records based on those conditions.

Note: when adding a new Official/Asisstant or editing permissions for the first time, "All" is the default setting for all conditions.

To restrict user permissions based on any of the conditions, select the Individual option to the right of the desired condition. A list of each individual option will be accessible to the right; click the checkbox next to the condition for which you wish to grant the user permission.

The following Individual selections are available for each condition:

• Stage Status - Check In, Continuing, Invited, Post-Completion/Graduated, Pre Arrival
• Visa Type - F-1, J-1.  If your office has configured any other visa types (eg. H-4, PR Pending) in ISSS Student, those will appear as an individual selection option as well.
• Education Level/EV Category - Associate, Bachelor's, Doctorate, Flight Training, High School, Language Training, Master's, Other, Other Vocational School, Primary, Secondary, Student Associate, Student Bachelors, Student Doctorate, Student Masters, Student Non-Degree, Student Secondary
• Major/Subject/Field of Study - complete list of CIP codes available in SEVIS

After setting desired conditions, click Save to update Permissions.  Once conditional permissions are set for a user in ISSS Student, the user will only be able to access the records of students who met the set conditions.