The People in Your Neighborhood: Jenni Peterson

Jenni Peterson has lived in Minnesota all her life. "I haven't strayed far from the Twin Cities area," she said. "I grew up in St. Paul and still live there now."

Jenni and her husband got married in October 2012. They own a duplex in St. Paul with their two-year-old Boxer named Rocky. They live in one half of the duplex and then rent the other half.

Though Jenni hasn't lived anywhere else but Minnesota, she loves to travel. She has been to a dozen countries, including all over Western Europe, Japan, Israel, Belize, Mexico, and Canada.

Her favorite spots to visit are Belize, where she recently went on her honeymoon, and Barcelona, Spain. "I studied abroad in Spain and I also spent a month after college there," she said. "I have been to Spain three times and have spent a total of six months of my life there. It's one of my favorite places."



Not only does Jenni love to travel, but she also loves to eat. "If I could be anything, I would be a food and travel writer," she said. "I'd love to be like Jeffrey Steingarten, the author of The Man Who Ate Everything."

In fact, Jenni's love of travel and food is what helped her recently get the job as the Manager of University Veterans Services in One Stop. "When I was interviewing for the Manager position at Veterans Services, I did a presentation about my favorite food from each country that I've been to," she said. "I love studying other cultures and there is no better way to learn than to travel and eat."

Jenni has been working at the University and in One Stop Student Services for five years. Her first two years of working here, she was a One Stop counselor and then became a Senior Counselor in University Veterans Services. At the end of November, Jenni was promoted to the position of One Stop Manager where she manages University Veterans Services.

Now, Jenni oversees all of University Veterans Services, including managing the Veterans Affairs (VA) work-study students, three veterans coordinators, and five One Stop counselors. Jenni works with all students, but she primarily works with student veterans. Jenni will be working on the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) project in the coming months as well.

The best part about her job, Jenni says, is helping a "student veteran who has no idea where to start or go, and I'm able to help them transition to life at the U."

Jenni is in a unique position because she often has the chance to get to know the student veterans that come into her office. "There are roughly 750 students who receive GI Bill benefits, so we see them a few times a semester," Jenni said. "You get to be more familiar with veteran students and their families."

Though many people who work in University Veterans Services offices are veterans themselves, Jenni is the exception. "Prior to working here, I had little to no experience with veterans," she said. "I feel honored to serve veterans and University students as a whole."

One surprising thing you may not know about Jenni: she's an adrenaline junkie. She has gone skydiving, paragliding, and recently repelled 300 feet into a cave in Belize. "I'm a short woman so I don't fit the stereotype of the person who enjoys jumping out of planes," Jenni said. "But I love anything that gets my adrenaline going."

Jetset Jenni:
1. Her favorite movies are Casino and Amelie.
2. Jenni enjoys cooking, especially Mexican food, and loves to bake fresh bread.
3. People have often told Jenni that she looks like Natalie Portman.
4. Jenni is terrified of rodents, but bats are particularly frightening because they are "flying rodents."
5. Jenni studied Global Studies and Sociology and European Area Studies at the U.
6. Her favorite book series is the Millennium series by Stieg Larsson.
7. She loves the Flaming Lips. She has seen them in concert six times.
8. Her first concert was Alanis Morissette in junior high school.
9. Jenni loves to go camping, especially in the Boundary Waters.
10. Her best Halloween costume was when she dressed as a pumpkin sitting on a table. "My mom put a box over me to look like a table and my head was the pumpkin," she said.

Better Know a Unit--Scheduling Unit

Under the umbrella of the Office of Classroom Management (OCM), lives the Scheduling Unit, resulting in a departmental structure that makes the unit unique amongst their peers.

"Other universities have their scheduling units nested under the registrar's office," said Nate Meath, reporting analyst. "We have a unique advantage being tied to OCM because we work closely with the people who design the space we schedule."

In fact, the Scheduling Unit is revered among higher education institutions. "We are well known for having a handle on scheduling and being cutting edge in scheduling technology," said Bob Quinney, scheduling system administrator. "People from other universities often ask us how we do things and how our office is set up."

But the unit didn't always operate this efficiently. Sandie Carlson, lead scheduler, will be in Scheduling for 20 years this December. "When I first started, we were scheduling rooms for classes on index cards and coordinating with people on the phone," she said.

Some of the Scheduling Unit's job duties include maintaining the integrity of the course data in PeopleSoft for the class schedule, course guide, and course catalog. They also manage the scheduling process and software for scheduling classes and finals each semester.

The Scheduling Unit is responsible for a multitude of processes and systems, serving staff, faculty, departments, and all campuses. The diversity of their work is challenging, but it's what makes it interesting as well.

"We go through the same processes every semester, but it's always changing and challenging. The sheer volume of our work is impressive," said Sarah Kussow, course and scheduling manager. "In each semester, we schedule more than 3,000 final exams, manage roughly 16,000 course sections, and schedule more than 3,500 events for the Twin Cities campus."

One major project that the team just completed is the acquisition of the newest scheduling software, Astra Schedule. The implementation process is underway currently, and it will affect the work of the entire unit, as well as all University campuses.

"This new software will have a positive impact on our work," said Bob. "It is all web based, so delivering the necessary information to people will be much easier. There is more functionality available with this software as well, including the ability to customize calendars and automate final exam scheduling. Currently, this is done manually for more than 3,000 final exams each semester."

Other benefits to this new software include an efficiency in all of the Scheduling Unit's processes, a decrease in the current workarounds they utilize, and the ability to have one scheduling software licence for all University campuses.

The training for Astra Schedule will begin in February. The Scheduling Unit and people they have
identified as "major academic power users on campus" will be trained on how to use the new system. "We are taking a train the trainer approach and expect most users to be trained throughout the spring and summer," Sarah said.

Another major part of the Scheduling Unit's job is to collect space utilization data for all campus spaces. They monitor how efficiently they use space and provide data to ASR managers and University administration.

Nate also conducts scenario planning each semester to determine workaround solutions to problems that may arise. For example, if a building is suddenly unavailable for a period of time, the Scheduling Unit is responsible for figuring out where to reschedule and place those classes.

"It's hard getting people to understand what we do," Bob said. "People have a really simple view of scheduling, but don't realize how complex it truly is. We try to optimize by providing more services for the University while using fewer resources. We do more, with less."

Scheduling Unit:
Sarah Kussow, course and scheduling manager
Kurt Neiswanger, events scheduler
Bob Quinney, scheduling system administrator
Sandie Carlson, lead scheduler
Nate Meath, reporting analyst
Christine Mounts, reports coordinator
Robert Wilson, finals/ECAS specialist

Campus Relations Coordinator

A new ASR Campus Relations Coordinator position will be posted in the near future. The person hired for the position will serve as the representative and main contact point for all campuses and will be responsible for overseeing the resolution of various items. The position will help facilitate student and academic related issues, ensuring that each campus has a voice in university matters.

Maintenance outage Jan. 5-6

An annual data center maintenance outage will take place from 6 a.m. on Saturday, January 5 until noon on Sunday, January 6. During this time, all One Stop self-service applications (i.e. registration, grades, class schedule, etc.) will be unavailable.

So you stare at a screen all day. . .

This is not good. Gluing your precious peepers to a computer monitor for six or more hours a day can actually cause computer vision syndrome, or CVS (yes, it's real.) This is not to say we should all quit our jobs for less eye-damaging pursuits, but it does mean we should be aware of ways to give our eyes a break every once in awhile. Here are a few tips to do just that. (Thanks for Paula in OCM for suggesting this fun find.)

Adios to personal web space

U of M personal web space will be decommissioned June 30, 2013. In preparation for this, new personal web space folders will no longer be created as of Dec. 31, 2012. More information is available here. (Thanks to Grant in IT for this helpful announcement.)

ASR goals and accomplishments

We did some really cool things last year in ASR, and the plan is to keep doing more. Check out our accomplishments from last year, as well as our goals for 2012-13. We work hard to make a difference in students' lives, and that's something special. Go us!

Need a new place to hang?

Scheduling meetings with co-workers on other campuses can be tough. And a conference call can't replace a meaningful face-to-face conversation. So, what to do? A Google+ Hangout, of course! Google+ Hangout is a free video chat service from Google that enables group chats up to 15 people. It's similar to Skype, but allows for a group discussion rather than simply one-on-one. The technology is even so sophisticated that it knows how to focus on the person chatting. How cool is that? (If you don't have a webcam, you can still participate, but people won't be able to see you.)

Staff event videos available soon

The PowerPoints, video of students, and video of the staff event will be available on the ASR intranet soon.

Get ready for some staff appreciation!

The annual ASR staff appreciation event is Thursday, December 20 from 2-4 p.m. at the Library Bar in Dinkytown. Come celebrate the end of another successful fall semester with your co-workers. As always, the event will feature soda, coffee, appetizers, and door prizes! If you want to bring a really sweet door prize to add to the festivities, please bring it with you to the event.

Give the gift of giving

Just a reminder that we are collecting gift cards for the Student Parent Help Center during the month of December. The cards are given to student parents to help them purchase basic necessities, like groceries and diapers. Collection boxes are available in the various ASR buildings.

Stressed? Relief is a click away

It's easy to become stressed at work. Looming deadlines, piles of projects, and then throw in the upcoming holidays, and, well, life can feel a bit overwhelming. Setting progress deadlines, taking a break to walk around campus, not being afraid to ask for help, and planning (and taking!) a fun vacation are just a few ways to combat the stress of the season. Check out some more easy tips to help wind down as work winds up.

Veterans celebrated on YouTube

This year's Student Veterans Appreciation Day took place on Thursday, November 15 at McNamara Alumni Center, and the recognition didn't stop there. The University's student veterans were also highlighted on YouTube.
Though the event is now over, be sure to say thank you to a veteran you know. Their courage and bravery is admirable.

'Replyallcalypse'... yep, it happened

We've all been victim of an impulsive "reply all" at least once. Just be thankful your fast fingers didn't inundate 40,000 inboxes. Because that's just what one NYU student did, causing a virtual 'replyallcalypse.' So maybe that's a rare instance, but it is important to avoid hitting "reply all" to every single email you receive. Be sure the people copied on your response actually need to be kept in the loop. Are they key stakeholders for a project or main points of contact? If not, take it easy on the "reply all." No one wants an overly cluttered inbox.

Thank you, gracias, merci!

However you say thanks, be sure to do so this holiday season to a colleague who has gone above and beyond. You can request an ASR-themed thank you card by contacting Debbie Henderson. Just let her know how many you need. You even have two options to choose from and the envelopes are included. See how easy that was?

Option 1:

Option 2:

Senator sighting

Julie Selander, director of One Stop Student Services, and Bob McMaster, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Education, recently hosted a visit from Minnesota Senator Terri Bonoff. While on campus, Senator Bonoff, who was also recently appointed chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, received a tour of STSS to see the One Stop and University Veterans Services office and a few classrooms. Julie and Bob were proud to share the good work the University is doing regarding student services and science teaching.

The People in your Neighborhood--Bob Quinney

A Detroit native, Bob Quinney and his 100-pound, Standard Poodle named Spider currently live in Ventura Village in Minneapolis. His home, originally built in the 1880s, has been quite the project.

"I stripped the house to the studs when I bought it and put it all back together," Bob said. "I've built everything myself, including cabinets and replacement windows. It has taken eight years and I'm almost done."

When Bob isn't working on his house, he enjoys reading, watching movies, gardening, and knitting. He also loves to spend time with Spider.



"People always stop us on the street and ask what kind of dog he is," Bob said. "He makes quite an impression."

Bob has a Bachelors of Science in psychology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He also has taken numerous courses in art at Tennessee Technical University and the University of Minnesota. "I've probably taken enough to get another degree, but I haven't gotten one yet," Bob said.

Bob first started working at the University in December of 1997 in what was then called the Institute for Linguistics and Asian and Slavic Languages. During Bob's time at the University, he has moved around a few times and even left the U to pursue a job at another company.

In 2001, Bob joined the Scheduling Team in the Office of Classroom Management (OCM) for two years before moving to the Department of Art. However, he came back to OCM in 2005. Bob is now the Analyst and System Administrator for OCM's current scheduling system, R25.

However, as OCM transitions from R25 to Astra Schedule, Bob's work will remain much the same. "I focus primarily on ensuring that the interface between R25 and PeopleSoft stays in sync," Bob said. He will continue to make sure the system is up and running, monitor error logs, perform basic system maintenance, and be supervisor to two employees.

Before the U, Bob had a few interesting jobs, including for a tree cutting service company in Michigan. "I worked at this job when Detroit's elm trees were hit with Dutch Elm disease," Bob said. "It was tragic to have to cut down all these huge old trees with the disease."

Bob also worked at a gas utility company, which introduced him to the world of computers. "This was during the time when office computers were just getting introduced so the computer was the size of a table," Bob said.

And here's one interesting fact about Bob you probably never knew: Bob is also an avid singer.

He used to sing with a men's group at Wayne State University. They even sang at Westminster Abbey in London when they went on tour in Europe for a competition. They came in third place.

Bob's Bytes
1. His favorite movies are "Truly, Madly, Deeply" and "Lars and the Real Girl."
2. If Hollywood made a movie about his life, he would have Johnny Depp play him because "he's bizarre enough."
3. Bob has three sisters and one brother.
4. If Bob could be anything, he would be a migratory bird because there's "nothing better than flying."
4. Sly and the Family Stone was his first concert. The ticket cost $4.
5. When Bob was younger, he wanted to be a dentist. Now, Bob's biggest fear is going to the dentist.
6. Mumford & Sons is Bob's favorite musical artist.
7. Bob would love to have the superpower to make people disappear. "I guess I'd be an evil superhero," Bob joked.
8. The last book he read was called Wire to Wire by Scott Sparling.
9. Bob's favorite book is I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb.
10. If he could be a character for one day, he would be Atreyu from book The Neverending Story.

Your feet (yes, your feet) matter

If you have a propensity for wearing sky high heels or summer sandals during a Minnesota winter, your toes may be in need of some serious TLC. You probably weren't aware that a case of chronically swollen feet could actually be an indicator of something serious, like a cardiovascular problem or infection. Here are seven ways for employees to protect their feet. Thanks to OCM's Paula Seeger for suggesting this topic.

The People in Your Neighborhood: Lindsey Konerza

Lindsey Konerza considers herself a sports nut. She loves hockey, including the Minnesota Wild and the Gophers. In fact, she loves hockey so much that she says one of the reasons she married her husband, Jake, was because of his mutual love for the sport. "I was destined to marry someone who loves hockey as much as I do," Lindsey joked.

Lindsey and her husband will be married six years in January. "Our anniversary is January 13," Lindsey said. "I noticed one day that all of our major anniversaries fall on Friday the 13th. Hopefully, that's not a bad sign." Lindsey and Jake don't have any kids or pets right now, but will "hopefully someday." Right now, they live in Lindsey's home town of Woodbury.



She also loves Nascar and Indy racing. She has visited the Michigan International Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway and also saw the Indy Grand Prix in Sonoma County, California.

Lindsey is also an avid runner. For the past five years, she has done the Grandma's half marathon in Duluth with her husband and father-in-law. They are members at two wineries in Washington State and the Alexander Valley region of California. She also enjoys reading, cooking, remodeling her house (which just got a brand new kitchen), bowling, golf, and traveling. She would like to remind everyone that the U of M staff bowling league and golf league are always looking for new members!

Music is also a big part of Lindsey's life. Her husband is a music buyer for Target Corporation, which means that they often get to sample the local music scene. Some memorable moments so far have been Alabama Shakes at First Ave, Zac Brown Band at Target Center...and of course don't forget Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw at the first ever concert at Target Field.

Lindsey graduated from UMD with a degree in biology and chemistry. She recently completed her certification in project management from the College for Continuing Education, which helped her to get a new job in Financial Aid-Information Technology (FA-IT)

Before beginning at the University, Lindsey worked at Metropolitan State University in their Financial Aid Office.

In 2004, Lindsey started working in ASR. Originally, she started out as a One Stop Counselor and moved on to become a Financial Aid Counselor working under Larry Bloom in the Office of Student Finance. About two months ago, Lindsey was hired into one of the backfill business analyst positions for FA-IT.

"I update the batch schedule for various communications we send out," Lindsey said. "Recently, I have been attending the Plan and Discover sessions for the PeopleSoft upgrade."

She is known in her unit as the "resident scribe." Her work focuses on issues related to the student Campus Community side, and the pages in PeopleSoft that are crossing to/from Human Resources.

"My boss at my old job used to say to me, 'financial aid picks you, you don't pick it,'" Lindsey said. "It's not like I woke up one day and said to myself, 'I want to be in financial aid.' We are a small community of people, and our main goal is to make sure we can provide for students and parents to the best of our ability and make that transition easy."

Lindsey's Laws
1. Lindsey's favorite vacation spot is Hawaii and she is going for her sixth time in March.
2. New Kids on the Block was her first concert.
3. She has many favorite books but thoroughly enjoys receiving her monthly FoodTV magazine for new recipe ideas.
4. She knows every line to the movie "Christmas Vacation." Her other favorite movies are "Amelie" and "P.S. I Love You."
5. If she could have any career, it would be a wedding/party planner.
6. Her biggest fear is heights. Though her husband would say it is flying.
7. Growing up, she thought she may have wanted to be a doctor or a dentist, but the cost of school changed her mind.
8. The last book she read was from the Shopaholics series by Sophie Kinsella.
9. She loves the tres leche cake from Cafe Latte on Grand Ave. Secretly, her favorite place to eat is IHOP.
10. If she could be any movie character, she would be the female version of Daniel Craig in James Bond.

Better Know a Unit: Communications team

If you're in need of a few word and design savvy folks to help get your message out, look no further than ASR's communications team. They're responsible for facilitating and supporting the communication needs of all ASR units. "We treat communications like its own product," Communications Manager, Ingrid Nuttall, said.

She's not kidding. The team of six adeptly adheres to a rigorous list of clients, which includes all ASR units.

While much of the work the team handles is ongoing, they've recently completed several big projects. Graphic Designer, Sarah Hollerich, finished a series of colorful magnets depicting imaginative "monsters" that illustrate different StrengthsQuest talents. She also collaborated with Communications Coordinator, Elyse Paxton, to design flyers and brochures for the 2012 Student Veterans Appreciation Day that took place on Nov. 15.

Writer/Editor, Mandee Kuglin, developed a new ASR intranet, in conjunction with the web team, and she worked with Elyse to edit and communicate the release of the University's new scheduling tool Schedule Builder. Mandee and Sarah also launched and manage the new Live Like a Student Facebook page, which provides money-saving tips for college students. Meanwhile, Communications Coordinator, Kate Sophia, established the ESUP student project work stream website.

Juggling each client can be a challenge. "It's difficult to keep all the plates spinning," Kate said. Adapting to other units' business processes and often working under tight time constraints is also demanding for the team, as each project requires an exemplary level of creativity and attention to detail. The intricate and often complex details of financial aid are also a continuous learning experience for the Communications staff.

One of the biggest misconceptions of the team is not what you may think. "It isn't just writing well," Ingrid said. The ability to work collaboratively--often with little direction--and produce a high quality product requires innovation, imagination, and resourcefulness. The writing and/or designing is the byproduct. "We're constantly learning new ways of doing things," Kate said.

The team's diversity is ample, both in terms of personalities and approaches to work. But somehow it all works out. "We're all very different, but we all gel," Ingrid said.

Communications/OE Coordinator, Matt Tveter, agrees. "There's a genuine desire to get along and a mutual feeling of respect. No one says that something is a bad idea."

For Sarah, this type of collaborative team environment is a first. "I've never had a job like this before," she said.

Communications staff:
Ingrid Nuttall, Communications Manager
Matt Tveter, Communications/OE Coordinator
Kate Sophia, Communications Coordinator
Elyse Paxton, Communications Coordinator
Mandee Kuglin, Writer/Editor
Sarah Hollerich, Graphic Designer

Apples to... apples?

If two words look similar and sound similar, they probably have similar meanings... right? Not always. For example, take the words "appraise" and "apprise." Only one letter is missing from the latter, so how could the two words not be close to meaning the same thing? Well, actually, appraise means to estimate the monetary value of something (appraise the value of a house, for example) or to estimate the importance of something (such as to appraise the writing of Shakespeare). Apprise, on the other hand, means to give notice to or inform (for instance, to be apprised of a friend's travel plans).

Take charge of your IDP

Your supervisor may have mentioned doing an individual development plan (IDP), and if you haven't, now is the time to do so! It's not meant to be homework but rather a way to grow personally and professionally. Start by jotting down some of your goals for the next year or two. Ask people in similar positions (or in a position you'd like to have) about what they've done to succeed. If you're thinking of grad school, see if you can meet with an adviser or professor in the subject area you're interested in. There's no "right" way to fill out your IDP--it's up to you!

Get to know the Williamson Hall Cluster HR team

The HR team that is part of the Williamson Hall Cluster may be small in number, but they do much to serve ASR. The unit's three staff members make up Cluster 5 of the 40+ clusters that provide finance/accounting and HR services across the University. They serve several different departments, which include Admissions, McNamara Academic Center, University Counseling and Consulting Services, University Honors Program, and ASR.

The HR team is a local partner to the central Office of Human Resources and provides services on a local level to the ASR staff and managers.

Team members Marit Gladem, HR specialist, and Olga Kavun-Wozniak, HR/Payroll cluster lead, are responsible for many tasks. "We post open positions, provide consultation during the search process, perform background checks, and meet with new employees to review policies and benefits," Marit said. They also appoint staff, maintain and update employees records in PeopleSoft, manage different types of leaves, and assist managers with performance management issues. Melissa DeWees, principal office & administrative specialist, is responsible for posting student job openings, student hiring, entering the biweekly payroll, and processing employee absence requests.

The Williamson Hall Cluster was created in 2007. Prior to that, Marit and Olga had different roles within ASR; Marit worked in the Office of Student Finance as the department's HR contact, and Olga worked in Continuity and Compliance. Melissa joined the cluster in 2008, shortly after the cluster was formed. "The purpose of the cluster was to support one or two large departments, as well as a few smaller ones, to help provide more adequate HR staffing." Olga said. In addition to HR, the Williamson Hall Cluster also provides finance/accounting services and has four accounting employees.

The team is most busy with recruiting efforts and the hiring of student workers in April for summer employment. The month before school starts in the fall is also hectic. Fortunately, their work is mostly steady rather than having the peaks and valleys that other positions may experience.

Keeping track of changing policies, procedures, and benefits is the biggest challenge the team faces. That, and helping employees understand that the HR staff are not the rule makers. "We're just the enforcers," Marit said.

And sometimes being the enforcer is a delicate matter. "It's hard because we act as employee advocates, but we also support management," Olga said. "We really have our feet in both worlds."

Each of the five departments that the unit serves has its own set of policies and procedures, which the team must continuously be aware of. For example, ASR places a strong emphasis on professional development. As such, after six months of employment, ASR employees are allowed four hours per week to use to attend a class on campus. This is harder for smaller departments to do, however, because of coverage loss.

But, at the end of the day, it's all about making life as easy as possible for employees. "The best part of my job," Marit said, "is knowing that you helped someone, and that person didn't have to go to five different places to find the answer."

HR staff:
Marit Gladem, HR Specialist
Olga Kavun-Wozniak, HR/Payroll Cluster Lead
Melissa DeWees, Principal Office & Administrative Specialist

The new ASR intranet is live!

Thank you for your feedback regarding the re-vamped ASR intranet. The site is now live and ready for your use. If you lose track of this link, you'll find the site shared with you under the "Sites" link (next to Calendar) as part of your delivered Google suite of apps. Work to redesign the ASR website into a tool primarily for external audiences will begin in the coming months. Questions about the intranet can be directed to Ingrid Nuttall.

Your help needed at the ASR staff event

The Development Team is looking for volunteers to help facilitate a strategic thinking exercise at the ASR staff event on December 12. Don't worry, it doesn't involve speaking in front of everyone. Each table will be engaging in a hands-on activity related to the future of higher education and the team needs some volunteers to help make that activity a success. Volunteers will be invited to a brief information session in advance of the event so they know what is expected of them. If you are willing to help, please contact Ingrid Nuttall by November 21.

University turns on all Google higher ed apps

Google recently released Google Higher Ed apps, and the University has now turned them on for use. If you haven't noticed their availability yet, take a peek. Click on the "More" button on top of your Google email account. If you have any questions, OIT's 1-Help is available to help.

Here are three apps we discovered that may make life just a bit easier:

Bookmarks
Unlike web page favorites that are stored on your computer, Google Bookmarks are stored in the cloud like the rest of your Google Account and can be accessed from any internet accessible computer.

Reader
Google Reader allows you to subscribe to your favorite websites, and new content comes to your Google Reader when it's posted, so you don't need to visit individual sites.

Photos
This is a handy way to upload photos for an assignment or project you're working on. You can choose whether the photos are public or only available to select people.

Check out these apps when you have a chance, and if you find one that's particularly helpful, email us, and we'll publish your tip in a future issue of News & Notes.

People in your neighborhood: Collin Haas

Originally from Anoka, Minnesota, Collin Haas has three siblings: one older brother and sister and one younger brother. His two older siblings are from his dad's first marriage, and they all live in the Twin Cities area.

Right now, Collin lives in Minneapolis. Collin and his boyfriend recently adopted a Shiba Inu puppy named Dallas. You may even know Collin's boyfriend, Jason Matheson. He is the co-anchor of the FOX 9 weekday morning show, "The Morning Buzz" and host of the "Jason & Alexis" show on the radio station MyTalk 107.1.

"I go along with him on public appearances a lot," Collin said. "It can be a little exhausting, because most weekends are busy."

When Collin listens to the radio show, he will occasionally hear his own name. "He does talk about me on air sometimes," Collin said. "It's interesting. I don't mind it, though."

One year ago, Collin joined ASR as a One Stop counselor. "I help students with any issues or questions they have related to financial aid, billing, and registration," Collin said. "It's nice when you help a student realize what types of aid are available to them that they didn't know about."

Collin also serves on the Strategic Operation Plan committee for One Stop. The committee, consisting of various One Stop staff, meets every other week and each member also serves on a subcommittee with other counselors. Then, the Strategic Operation Plan committee shares what the smaller subcommittees have been working on. "We address issues like employee morale/satisfaction, training/hiring, organizational effectiveness/efficiency, scheduling, and clearly defining policy/procedures and designing a protocol for unique situations," Collin said. "We then work as a group to implement ideas to improve these areas within One Stop."

When Collin first started last November, he worked in the STSS location. But, this July when the new One Stop location opened up, Collin moved over to 160 Williamson along with Jenny Scherber. Since then, Collin has been helping more Graduate Students and now works with Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) staff pretty closely. "I'm a junior GSSP staff member," Collin joked.

Before beginning to work at the U, Collin worked at US Bank as a teller: a job that often sparked some awkward moments. "People tell you more than you need to know about themselves," Collin said.

Growing up, Collin wanted to be a pilot. "I love to fly," he said. "If I could have one superpower it would be to fly."

When Collin isn't working, he enjoys "lazy weekend days where I just watch a lot of 80's movies," he said.

He also loves music. Collin's everyday music of choice are artists like Michael Buble, Jack Johnson, and Ingrid Michaelson. But he also holds a soft spot for artists such as Lady Gaga and Adele. "Any diva will do it for me, really," he said.

Collin even went to Lady Gaga's concert last year and sat in the front row. "It was so amazing," he said. "It was the craziest show I've ever been to."

Collin's Clues:
1. Collin knows every line from the movie Titanic.
2. He loves spicy food, especially Mexican.
3. His first concert was Green Day.
4. If he could be any movie character for a day, he'd be Spiderman.
5. New York City is Collin's favorite vacation spot. "It's my home away from home," he said. "It's only as big as you make it."
6. Collin used to do theater.
7. The "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling and the "Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown are two of his favorite books.
8. He wants to be a publicist.
9. Collin is afraid of wide, dark, open spaces and snakes.
10. One Halloween, Collin dressed up as Dr. Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Student Veterans Appreciation Day 2012

Join fellow University of Minnesota students and staff at the 6th annual Student Veterans Appreciation Day on November 15, 2012 at McNamara Alumni Center. The event recognizes the important contributions of University student veterans, military members, and their families.

This year's event will include a short program, including speakers and an introduction of the Tillman Military Scholars. A chili luncheon will be provided for guests, and the best part? It's free!

For more information, including program details, visit the One Stop website.

Don't forget to submit your team picture!

Many of you might remember the video from last December's staff event featuring ASR's many teams. The time has come to give this video a face lift. Please submit your team's picture, team name, the names of all individuals featured in the picture, and the names of anyone who is on the team but not featured in the picture to asrcomm@umn.edu. We've extended the entry period to December 7, but please move quickly! It takes some time to put the video together. Questions can be directed to Ingrid Nuttall.

Please complete an evaluation of the customer service event

There is still time to complete your evaluation of last month's internal customer service kick-off event. We have received useful feedback and several good ideas for future resource development. If you haven't already completed the event evaluation, it remains available for your feedback.

Thank you,
The Customer Service Team
Gary Andersen
Olga Kavun-Wozniak
Carrie Otto
Toni Pangborn
Didi Nguyen
Paula Seeger
Jackee Wernersbach

Politics in the workplace

A friendly reminder to keep any political conversations respectful of other people's differences. ASR embraces a diversity of opinions and the directors believe that a healthy debate about ideas is important. However, it is also important to respectfully disagree without dismissing or minimizing the beliefs of others.

Please review the test site for the new Intranet

It's been almost five years since the launch of the ASR website, and a lot has changed in terms of the technology we have to support our web presence. As a precursor to giving the ASR website a face lift, communications and web staff have separated the content that is truly internal into a separate intranet. (This step is essential before we can revamp our website because the software that currently supports it is no longer feasible to maintain.) They are asking for you to review the test site and see what you think.

Note the custom search bar at the top that allows you to search both the intranet and the current ASR website for content. This means once the Intranet goes live, you should still be able to use it as your first choice to find resources related to your work in ASR.

Please send any feedback on the site to Ingrid Nuttall by Wednesday, October 31.

Once the intranet goes live, the content that is duplicated on the ASR website will be removed, and work will begin in earnest to update asr.umn.edu. Questions about this next phase can also be directed to Ingrid.

President Kaler to speak at ASR Staff Event on December 12

The Development Team is hard at work on planning the agenda for the ASR staff event on December 12. The team is pleased to announce that University president Eric Kaler will speak to us about the future of higher education and what it means for all of us. Vice Provost and Dean Bob McMaster will also join us, and Sue Van Voorhis will provide an update. The event is tentatively scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in Coffman Memorial Union (check-in begins at 8 a.m.). More details will be shared in the coming weeks. The event has been added to your calendar; please RSVP to assist the team in their planning.

Get to know Graduate Student Services & Progress

In July, the Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) staff joined ASR's Office of the Registrar, and they've been as busy as ever. A team of three, their main responsibility is upholding the integrity of graduate and professional students' records. This is done by processing forms that mark student degree progress, such as filing masters theses and keeping track of doctoral oral and written exams.

Unlike undergraduate studies, graduate programs are not completely coursework-based, but rather self-designed with the guidance of an advisor to meet individual research needs. In addition to verifying that graduate students have completed the necessary steps for their degree, the GSSP staff also collaborates with the graduate education transition team to ensure a smoother flow of policies and processes, as responsibilities once housed in the Graduate School continue to shift to the colleges and ASR.

The team currently serves 10,000 students and over 150 graduate programs. Each year, they process 3,000 graduate degree plans. Stacia Madsen, coordinator of doctoral degree services, reviews roughly 700 doctoral dissertations for formatting consistency per year; Amber Cellotti, coordinator of master's and certificate degree services, handles the paperwork for 1,700 master's degree students that graduate each year; and Renae Faunce, coordinator, Graduate Student Services, reviews Graduate Degree Plans, manages committee workflows, and answers graduate education policy and procedure questions.

Recently, the team worked with members of the graduation education transition team to complete the committee and adviser assignment workflows. These new workflows replaced processes for initiating and updating graduate and professional students' committee information and graduate students' adviser assignments. In addition to creating new workflows, the GSSP team also worked on the redesign of the Graduate School website.

Right now, the GSSP staff is meeting with different colleges on campus to review graduate education policies to clarify roles and responsibilities as they relate to policy and procedure. Based on feedback they receive, the team will determine how to best support colleges and programs as they transition into their new roles now and in the future.

In addition to their day-to-day responsibilities, settling into their new space in Williamson Hall has sometimes been a challenge. "We're getting used to the new office environment and how we allocate tasks," Amber said.

But they've taken the changes in stride. To accomplish so much, the team supports each other and is very collaborative, adopting an integrative approach to different tasks.

Having a passion for what they do also makes the job easier and more rewarding. "We're supporting students who are going to make a major impact on the world," Renae said. "They're doing groundbreaking work, and we make it easier for them to focus on that and not have to worry about administrative stuff."

GSSP staff:
Amber Cellotti, coordinator, Master's and Certificate Degree Services
Stacia Madsen, coordinator, Doctoral Degree Services
Renae Faunce, coordinator, Graduate Student Services

The people in your neighborhood: Pat Rickard

Pat Rickard has been a University employee since 1986, working at one point in the College of Education Student Affairs Office and in the Institute of Technology Dean's Office. In 2006, she moved to ASR in Imaging and Files.

She currently works on the student records side of Imaging, processing student name changes and resolving duplicate student records. She also images and indexes College in the Schools registrations and student-athlete information, and audits the work of the Imaging student workers.

Imaging is the process of scanning documents to eliminate paper and store the documents digitally. All student records (past and present) are scanned and either manually indexed or linked to the student information through PeopleSoft. These records are stored in the system called ImageNow.

Pat was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, but moved to Minneapolis when she was a baby and hasn't left since. Before she began working at the U, Pat remembers one very unique job that she had working third shift as a pizza maker at the Totino's pizza factory. Her mother didn't want her to work nights alone, so she tagged along. Pat was responsible for a number of tasks, including putting on pieces of pepperoni or laying out the pizza dough.

"Needless to say, it was a very messy job and one we didn't last long at before we decided enough was enough," Pat said. "We would laugh about it every night on our way home from work. We felt like Lucy and Ethel when they worked in the chocolate factory."

Most of her jobs before the U were in the medical area, including at a blood bank and a nursing home. Pat has always been interested in the medical field and considered being a nurse or a doctor once, but her passion really lies in forensics. "If I could do my life over again, I would go into some kind of forensics field," Pat said.

Pat's interest in the forensics field has grown from her love of crime books, shows, and movies. Her favorite book is the ...in Death series by J.D. Robb. In fact, if she could be any character, it would be Eve Dallas from the series. "She's so interesting and looks at everything from a different perspective because of how she was raised," Pat said. "She's her own person and sticks to what she believes in."

Pat also loves to travel. She has owned her own timeshare in Lake Buena Vista, Florida for more than 20 years. "It was the best quick decision I've ever made," Pat said. She has been to most states in the U.S., including Hawaii and has traveled to Canada and Mexico. One of her favorite places to visit is Cape Cod.

When Pat isn't at work, she loves watching her three grandchildren grow up. "My grandkids are 11, 14, and 17," Pat said. "I love to watch them play sports like soccer, hockey, football, and baseball."

Precisely Pat:
1. When Pat was 14, she was voted Snow Queen at a neighborhood park board sponsored dance.
2. If she could have any superpower, she would want to twitch her nose, like Samantha in Bewitched, and go anywhere she wants.
3. Pat loves to crochet. Her biggest project was a 3-foot doll that she calls the "faceless wonder," because she could never get the face to look just right.
4. Her first concert was Brenda Lee at the Minnesota State Fair.
5. Pat grew up with five sisters and one brother.
6. Pat's favorite kind of music is 50's and 60's music.
7. She loves scary movies that make her jump out of her seat.
8. She had been in a bowling league for 18 years.
9. She was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years.
10. Pat can tap dance. She took lessons for about five years.

Customer service kick-off event

The internal customer service kick-off event is coming up October 24 from 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in the St. Paul Student Center North Star Ballroom. Please indicate on your calendar if you will attend the event. This is a mandatory event for all staff present this day. Here is the agenda for the morning.

• Check-in 8:00-8:30 a.m.
• Welcome and topic introduction
• Scenarios and director sharing
• Speaker on conflict and team dynamics
• Toolkit introduction
• Wrap-up and self-reflection
• 12:30 p.m. Box lunch provided

There is a short activity that we ask you to complete prior to the event. The activity, called the "Hot Button Profile," will be a topic of focus and discussion for the speaker. It will take you approximately 5 minutes to complete. You are not required to share your results with anyone. Please complete the assessment, print out your results, and bring them with you on the day of the event.

Parking: If you have a parking contract, you have reciprocal parking in the Gortner Ave. ramp. Use of the Campus Connector or carpooling is encouraged. If you would otherwise have to pay for parking, you can ask for a parking coupon at the registration table when you arrive.

There will be no food or beverages provided prior to lunch. You are welcome to bring your own.

If you have any questions about the event or the assessment activity, please contact any member of the event planning committee:

Toni Pangborn
Carrie Otto
Olga Kavun-Wozniak
Gary Andersen
Jackee Wernersbach
Didi Nguyen
Paula Seeger

Move of HR staff to WBOB

You may have heard that some Office of Human Resources (OHR) staff currently located in Donhowe moved to WBOB at the end of September. However, this does not mean that ASR staff will be occupying Donhowe any time soon; some OHR staff currently located in Morrill Hall will be moving into the vacant space in Donhowe, so there's still no room for us. An email was sent about this change at the end of September to all University staff, and you can still read it online.

The people in your neighborhood: Cosmin Tarau

Originally from Cluj, Transylvania, Romania, Cosmin Tarau loves to travel. He's been to Europe, Asia, and several states in the U.S. He even owns a vacation home in Oahu, Hawaii and a cabin in Wisconsin.

While in high school, Cosmin took one of the most important trips of his life. He moved to Orange County, California to be with his parents, who had moved there six years prior. "I didn't know any English, and I didn't like being there," Cosmin said. "But things fell into place, and I'm really glad that my parents had us come to the U.S., even though we were separated for six years."

Now, Cosmin's parents still live in Orange County, while he moved to St. Paul seven years ago. Cosmin and his wife have been married seven years and have an 11-month-old son named Sam.

This past December, Cosmin got his bachelor's in business management from Metro State University. He is considering getting his master's of business administration from Carlson School of Management.

This past May, Cosmin started working in ASR as a principal collections representative supervisor for Student Account Assistance (SAA).

"This is my first time working at a University and dealing with student debt," Cosmin said. "I work with students to make sure they have money to pay back their loans." Before ASR and his tour in Iraq, Cosmin worked in collections dealing mostly with credit card debt and repossession services.

In his spare time, Cosmin loves to travel, swim, ski, and snowboard. "Now that I have a kid, I spend most of my time taking care of my son," Cosmin said. "But I love doing anything in the water. I grew up in the water." In fact, he has been certified in SCUBA diving since 2007.

Cosmin is also a veteran. He was in the military for six years and did a tour in Iraq for a year as a motor vehicle transportation operator. "When I was deployed overseas, I was in a supervisory role in the military," Cosmin said. "I drove the lead vehicle in a convoy of over 50 trucks."

After being deployed overseas for a year, Cosmin remembers feeling happy to see his family again and incredibly proud of himself. "That first day back in Minnesota was amazing," Cosmin said. "Everyone was greeting us and thanking us for our service. It was a moment that made me proud to be American."

Crux of Cosmin
1. Cosmin's first concert was Coachella.
2. Cosmin swam competitively for more than 12 years.
3. If Cosmin could be any superhero with any superpower, he would be Aquaman, so he could swim fast enough to beat Michael Phelps.
4. His favorite food is Sarma.
5. His dream house is one of the homes off East River Road.
6. His wife attended the U of M and is now a chemical engineer at 3M.
7. His hometown of Cluj is known for having one of the biggest medical schools in Europe.
8. His favorite show is the Simpsons, and he has seen every episode.
9. Cosmin doesn't read unless he has to, but the last book he read was Legends of Olympus, and his favorite book is an insurance law textbook.
10. He dressed as Count Dracula for Halloween one year. "Given my background, it seemed appropriate," he joked.

U of MN selected as a military friendly school

The University was named by G.I. Jobs magazine as a Military Friendly School for 2013. This means the U ranks in the top 15 percent of all colleges, universities, and trade schools nationwide. Way to go, us!

Representing ASR at the University Senate

The 2012-13 academic year marks a century of shared governance at the University of Minnesota. ASR is represented on the University Senate by Travis Trautman (Academic Professional Senator), Carolyn Davidson and Paula Seeger (Civil Service Senators). Several events are planned to highlight the centennial achievement and you are invited to participate. There are also several Senate committees and subcommittees that are still actively seeking members. Find more information online or contact one of your representatives for more information about how you can participate.

Changes to U of M sign-in pages

On Friday, September 28, 2012, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) updated the University of Minnesota sign-in page. Due to feedback from the University community, the guest account creation and student account initiation links now send users to a new page that provides more detail about how to choose the proper account.

Enterprise System Upgrade Project kick-off on October 16

Save the date for the the Enterprise System Upgrade Project (ESUP) Kickoff Event on Tuesday, October 16, at 1 p.m.

The event will begin with an opening session that provides an overview of the project for ESUP team members, as well as managers, University leadership, and other key stakeholders. This will be followed by more detailed sessions specifically for ESUP team members, discussing methodology, roles and responsibilities, and more.

Kickoff planning is underway, and more details about the location and agenda will be shared as they are finalized. For now, staff who will be working on the project full-time should plan to attend from 1 to 4 p.m. University leaders and others not formally on the project team can plan to leave after the opening session or follow the discussions online via streaming video.

PeopleSoft, related applications unavailable on October 13 & 14

Beginning Saturday, October 13, the Office of Information Technology will upgrade the critical software (PeopleTools) that supports PeopleSoft Campus Solutions and Financials. To accommodate this upgrade, all PeopleSoft systems (e.g., Financials, HR, and Student Administration) and related applications (including One Stop self service), will be unavailable from 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 13 until 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 14. Batch jobs will not run during the upgrade. Full functionality will be restored by 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 14.

This upgrade will allow the University to continue to receive technical support from Oracle, and is a critical building block for the Enterprise System Upgrade Project. More information is available on the PeopleTools Upgrade page.

Schedule Builder launched on October 1

A new scheduling tool called Schedule Builder launched October 1, 2012. Students and advisers can use this tool to create class schedules based on selected courses. Students using Graduation Planner will be able to include the courses they've placed in their graduation plans as well. It also allows students to email possible schedules to their inbox and then print for reference during registration.

Meeting with the Chancellors

Last week, Sue Van Voorhis met and spoke with the Chancellors of the coordinate campuses. The purpose of her talk was to further educate them as to ASR's role within the University system as a critical support unit. There has been significant turnover in roles at the highest levels of the coordinate campuses; thus, Sue's visit was, in part, an orientation to how ASR works to make a positive difference in students' lives on all campuses.

Web cameras now available in Williamson 162, 164, and 160J

If you've had a meeting in one of the Williamson Hall conference rooms recently, you may have noticed the new cameras that automatically hook-up to the computers. This is to facilitate the participation of off-site meeting attendees via Google hangouts. If you've never done a hangout before, take a look at this quick guide.

"This Week @Minnesota" features financial literacy

The "Live Like a Student" campaign was featured in "This Week @Minnesota," a weekly video feature from University Relations that provides a weekly snapshot of life at the University of Minnesota. If you haven't seen it already, check it out.

People in your neighborhood: Jody Stadler

Jody Stadler considers herself a nerd. She loves Star Wars, comic books, and everything science fiction. One of Jody's favorite comic book characters is Batman and she's even dressed up as Batman for Halloween.



She also remembers one year when she tried to dress up as a ghost from the Peanuts Halloween Special, but had a minor wardrobe malfunction. "I cut the holes in the wrong place and they were on top of my head. Tufts of hair were sticking out of the top," Jody said.

Jody also enjoys "geeking out by listening to podcasts and tinkering around with computers," Jody said. "I'm my parent's IT person."

Though Jody loves comic books and Star Wars, if Hollywood made a movie about her life, she would choose Anne Hathaway in her Princess Diary days as the actress to play her. "I always picture her looking the mirror saying, 'This is as good as it's going to get,'" Jody said.

Originally from Shoreview, Jody graduated from the U with a degree in English in 2005. Immediately after, Jody began working as a Student Personnel Coordinator in the Loan Unit of the Office of Student Finance (OSF).

"I sort of tripped and fell into my current job," Jody said. "I started out as a student worker in OSF in 2002 and I've just never left. I haven't found anything that else that is as interesting."

Jody helps students who have Direct Loans, mostly through email, who want to request an adjustment to an award package. "I also coordinate with One Stop on troubleshooting loan questions and help out our Business Analyst, Marietta (Upsher)."

When One Stop was still located in Fraser Hall, Jody would interact with students face-to-face, but it's now all through email. But she has one memory that stands out.

"I had a random moment with a student who gave me documentation to have a checklist item cleared," Jody said. "I did the work and then she asked to see me at the counter. She gave me a big bear hug and thanked me for helping her out. It was really awesome and surprising."

Before ASR, Jody vividly remembers her previous job. She worked as a janitor in Sanford Hall. "I cleaned the bathrooms and the University Dining Services. Nothing grosses me out anymore," Jody said. "It was an interesting job though. I saw a whole other side of the U. It was like the underbelly of the U."

Last year, Jody bought a townhouse in Maplewood. She enjoys gardening in her new home and is learning to play the guitar.

Just Jody
1, Her favorite movie is Stars Wars (the original trilogy) or Moulin Rouge
2. She wishes she could imitate Chewbacca or Yoda.
3. She grew up wanting to be an author like Stephen King.
4. Jody still does creative writing, mostly short stories and fanfiction.
5. Jody is an only child.
6. Her first concert was DC Talk.
7. If she could have any superpower, Jody would love to fly because she is an impatient traveler.
8. Her favorite food is Indian or Italian.
9. Her favorite book is The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.
10. The last book she read was a short story called Don't Eat Cat by Jess Walter.

Bracketed commas, and what they can do for you

The comma is a pesky little piece of punctuation that tends to trip up many an innocent bystander. One such time is in the use of bracketed commas.

You can use commas to mark both ends of a clause that causes an interruption in a sentence or provides additional information. This is called bracketing commas. The commas mark an area where a reader could easily pull out that clause and still have it be grammatically correct, though potentially less interesting. For example, take the sentence, "John Keats, who never did any harm to anyone, is often invoked by grammarians." Removing the clause "who never did any harm to anyone" does not make the sentence grammatically incorrect, just less interesting.

Sometimes bracketed commas may seem necessary when they really aren't. If the clause is integral to the meaning of the sentence, you don't need to present it with a pair of commas. For example, take the sentence, "Belinda opened the trapdoor and, after listening for a minute, closed it again." Removing "after listening for a minute" still provides a grammatically correct sentence, but one that is not as informative. That clause is integral to understanding the meaning of the sentence.

State grant work (submitted by Deb Wilkin)

Some may be interested to know that the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (MOHE) is exploring the possibility of changing the limit on State Grant eligibility from 4 years of full-time post-secondary attendance (as tracked by College state grant staff manually reviewing academic transcripts--go Michelle Boland!) to four full-time academic years of State Grant payments ( tracked by MOHE and electronically stored on their shared data base ).

MOHE recently asked for the University's help in identifying students and potential state grant award information for those students losing out on state grant eligibility due to 4 years of attendance rather than 4 years of payments. Identification of these students and the subsequent calculation of award information was no easy task, but thanks to Deb Edwards and Diane Ashby, the Office of Student Finance was able to provide the much needed information for MOHE's preliminary cost projection work.Nice going!

In 2011-2012 the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities disbursed $22,971,115 to over 6,400 undergraduate students.

A busy start to the term

The first day of class was a busy one for our systems. On September 4, 24,945 reports were run in UM Reports, making it one of the top 10 days of usage of all time. The busiest hour for UM Reports was 3-4 p.m. (2,514 reports were run). There were 33,559 registration-related transactions, and 97 percent of those were processed in 5 seconds or less.

Sue's monthly wrap-up

Here is the August wrap-up sent by Sue Van Voorhis to ASR staff on August 31, 2012:

Dear ASR staff:

The summer is winding down, which means everything is ramping up in ASR. Here are a few of the things that I (and many of you) have been working on, in addition to all of the preparation for the start of the term:

Working with advisers and student service staff
August always starts off with the expanded Registrar's Advisory Committee (RAC) meeting. This whirlwind meeting is an opportunity for us to inform a broader advising and student services audience about issues our office is working on that relate to their working with students. As we inch closer to starting the 9.0 PeopleSoft upgrade project, we provided some high-level information on the upgrade and their anticipated involvement. The undergraduate advisers in attendance were provided with a financial aid update to help support our efforts to graduate students in four years.

Working with the coordinate campuses
This summer, I have spent much time engaging our coordinate campus colleagues as we prepare for the upgrade. With new staff in several key positions at two of our campuses, it has been a good time to strategically examine our policy and procedure differences and identify areas where we all can 'bend' and make our students' lives better; outline strategies for collecting input for decision-making; underscore our shared values and commitment to each other; and come to consensus on future directions. Some of these conversations have been difficult and will require sustained attention over the coming months, but I know we are all committed to the same goal of supporting our students.

Supervisors meeting
The ASR supervisors met in early August to get a preview of the upcoming ASR Customer Service Training event on October 24. The Customer Service Training Program Committee emphasized that we aren't doing customer service wrong in ASR, but we want to continue to develop our skills to continue to provide the best service we can to each other and the University community. Additionally, supervisors spent some time reflecting on giving and receiving performance feedback. As I mentioned in the July wrap-up, feedback is indispensable to creating a good work team and even more important to developing leadership and management skills. I know it is hard and sometimes uncomfortable giving your boss (or even your boss' boss) feedback: however, I encourage you to do so. We are committed to establishing concrete ways to do this more often and readily. If you have any suggestions, please send them to me.

KSAs
The ASR directors and I have used several of our August directors meetings to examine our career families and their associated knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). It has been about three years since we have taken a comprehensive look at these. Overall, the families appear to be in good health, still represent the work that we do in ASR, and reflect the values inherent in our office. As would be expected, some emerging skills and abilities need to be added and some dated language needs to be changed. Additionally, we will be examining each position in ASR to determine if it is still mapped to the appropriate job family as we know jobs and job duties change over time.

Budget
August is also the time of the year when I review the previous fiscal year and see how closely our actuals matched our budgeted amounts. In most instances, we were remarkably close, and this is good. We are entering the new fiscal year with a carry forward (meaning, we spent less than we budgeted); this is good because we are never fully funded for our salary and fringe and depend on carry forward to cover the difference. I anticipate sometime in mid-September I will be asked to prepare our budget request for the next fiscal year. This is always a tough task because we have so little of the current fiscal year under our belt upon which to estimate. After we have submitted our budget, I will hold budget brown bags as I have the previous two years to share what we asked for and provide an overview of the process.

One Stop center, Third Party Billing, and Graduate Student Services and Progress
The The One Stop Student Service center, Third Party Billing (TPB), and Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) opened their doors in the new Williamson Hall location on August 13. I am pleased to report we have seen fairly steady traffic for One Stop and GSSP, as well as the expected amount of traffic for TPB. I expect numbers will continue to rise. If you haven't yet visited the Williamson location or met the staff, please make the time to do so. I know it was a bit awkward for some of you to either use the side doors to enter or to meet your guests for meetings, but I do appreciate your patience while we all adjust to new processes.

If you've made it to the end of this message, I hope you feel that you have a sense of some of the things that went on during the month of August. I know I've said it before, but I work with the best people on campus. Thank you all for everything that you do, and I wish you a wonderful start to the term.

Sue

What makes work worth doing?

Everyone has days when this question can be tough to answer. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review suggests that work matters to employees when they see a connection between what they do to a value or goal that has meaning for them. This may not be a big surprise, but take a moment to read the article and see how different employees made critical connections of their work to something important. Take a moment to ask yourself: What makes your work matter?

Get to know Third Party Billing

The Third Party Billing unit of ASR has the important and weighty responsibility of billing and collecting millions in tuition and fees each year. In 2011, the team's three members managed $45 million on behalf of roughly 12,000 students. Their work is aptly described by the unit's name: they bill and collect student tuition that is paid by a third party. A third party at the University is considered an organization (not owned by the student or a family member) that makes a commitment to pay the student's educational expenses and requires direct billing. A single individual is rarely a third party sponsor. The unit also processes tuition payments for departments on campus that would like to charge one of their accounts.

The largest third party sponsor for the University is Target. Each term, the company pays up to $2 million in tuition for its employees. Most are students in the Carlson School of Management pursuing advanced business degrees. Other big sponsors are the Evans Scholars Foundation in Evanston, Illinois, and the Embassy of Malaysia.

One of the most difficult tasks the team handles is billing several locations of the Armed Forces. Students that are part of ROTC, active duty, the reserves, or the National Guard often have part or all of their tuition paid for, but it's not always easy for Third Party Billing. "It is very difficult to comply with University, Armed Forces, and Department of Defense policies," Accounts Supervisor Sheila Rhody said. "Billing is entered into several systems, and payment is always delinquent." In addition to slow payments, the Armed Forces prefers to pay with a credit card, which the University does not accept due to the additional fees assessed by the credit card companies.

To help document retention and organization, the team plans to join the University's imaging system soon. Right now, it's a huge task to keep track of everything. With so many sponsors and money at stake, the unit is anxious for a more efficient and easier way of managing their work.

The team has a wide range of experience. Sheila has been working for the Third Party Billing unit for 13 years; Doreen Knuston, Office Support Assistant, for 20 years; and Dawn Demaske, Principal Accounts Specialist, for three years. Sheila considers the variety a positive for the team. "It has given us fresh perspective on how to improve processes and assess how we're doing, in addition to experience," she said. They handle the workflow as it comes, working closely as a team and addressing each situation as it occurs. They also meet monthly with Associate director Tom Schmidt to discuss agenda items and any unit concerns.

It can be a demanding job, but the staff keeps it all in perspective. "The best part is helping a student obtain his or her third party funding and knowing you made it easier for them." Sheila said.

Third Party Billing staff:

Sheila Rhody, Accounts Supervisor
Doreen Knutson, Office Support Assistant
Dawn Demaske, Principal Accounts Specialist

The people in your neighborhood: Amber Cellotti

Wisconsin native Amber Cellotti grew up in Little Chute, a town famous for the Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival. Amber and her two brothers, one five years older and one five years younger, grew up living and breathing this festival every summer.



"Since the festival takes place in the park right behind my parents' house, I spent many summers gorging on cheese and riding carnival rides - thankfully, none with a disastrous outcome!" Amber said.

She came to the U as an undergraduate student in 1999 and never left. As an undergrad, she worked in University Dining Services, in a biochemistry lab, and in the CLA Undergraduate Advising offices as a peer adviser. She received her bachelor's in communication studies in 2003 and then, shortly after, began working full-time as a Degree Program Adviser for GSSP in the Graduate School.

In July, the GSSP office moved from the Graduate School to ASR. For the past seven years, her position has been coordinator for the master's and certificate degree services.

Amber works with master's and certificate students as they progress toward degree completion by assisting them with paperwork, filing a thesis, and reviewing files for degree completion. "I also work with graduate programs and faculty to assist with students' time to degree," Amber said. "I interpret graduate education policies and manage student records to determine when a student is ready to graduate," Amber said.

Amber also just started the strategic communication master's program this fall. "I'm excited to go back to school and nervous at the same time," Amber said.

Amber's most interesting job was a summer one she had after her senior year of high school and first year of college building fire trucks. "For those who know me, this would not seem like an obvious summer job -- working retail? Yes. Building fire trucks? No," Amber said. "I was always the youngest person on my shift and sometimes the only female. Oh, I also learned to drive a forklift, which comes in super handy. Not really."

Two years ago in September, Amber got married at Summit Manor in St. Paul. Amber and her husband, Todd, currently have no kids or pets, but hope to add a puppy to the family next summer. Now, Amber lives in Roseville. "I enjoy the proximity to both downtowns and love living within walking distance to Central Park," Amber said.

In her spare time, Amber enjoys gardening, reading, dancing, and traveling. One of her favorite vacation spots is Door County, Wisconsin. "It offers opportunities to relax, enjoy the outdoors, and experience great vineyards all within a six-hour drive of the Twin Cities--do I sound like a commercial yet?" Amber said.

Amber and her husband have also traveled to St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands). "We stayed at Bolongo Bay, which is a family-owned resort," Amber said. "It has a fantastic beach and a really relaxed atmosphere. I can't recall a time when I've been more relaxed or had more fun."

Amber Axioms
1. Her favorite movie is the Dead Poet's Society because it has all the elements--romance, drama, and humor in one movie.
2. She also loves comedies like Dumb and Dumber and The Big Lebowski.
3. Her first concert was New Kids on the Block.
4. When she has time, she enjoys salsa and ballroom dancing.
5. Amber and her husband own a rental property near campus that they frequently make renovations to.
6. She loves big band and jazz music.
7. She has a container garden on her deck, growing bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, basil (thai and sweet), rosemary, and chives. Her cilantro, unfortunately, had an "untimely death."
8. She got engaged on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
9. If she could have anyone's job, it would be Great Hotels host Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel.
10. She grew up wanting to be a doctor and actually started out at the U as a biology major in the pre-med track.

Submit your team picture for the updated A Team video

If you haven't yet, take a moment to watch this video featuring ASR's many teams. The time has come to give this video a face lift. Please submit your team's picture, team name, the names of all individuals featured in the picture, and the names of anyone who is on the team but not featured in the picture to asrcomm@umn.edu. The deadline is Wednesday, October 31 so you have some time. The video should be available in November; you'll hear about it in an issue of News & Notes. Questions can be directed to Ingrid Nuttall.

Internal customer service kick-off event: October 24

The ASR Customer Service Committee is excited to announce that the Internal Customer Service Kick-off event will be held on Wednesday, October 24. This all staff event will include an introduction to a common ASR customer service philosophy and attributes of great internal service. The half-day kick-off event will take place in the Northstar Ballroom at the St. Paul Student Center (a meeting will be added to your calendar). More information regarding the event's details will be shared in the upcoming weeks.

The people in your neighborhood: Robert Bode

Robert joined ASR a year and a half ago as a Business Process Analyst for the Graduate Education Transition team. When Robert isn't hard at work, he says he lives in "controlled chaos" with his wife and 11 children in Northeast Minneapolis.



He has three biological and eight adopted kids who range in age from 2 to 16 years old. Several of his children have hidden disabilities from pre-birth exposure to alcohol or drugs. "The kids love having that many siblings, and the age groups tend to team up," Robert said.

And, when Robert isn't juggling 11 children at home, he provides valuable insight for the Graduate Education Transition team. He analyzes and streamlines student administrative processes in conjunction with the Graduate Student Services and Progress team. "Either the process stays within the Graduate School, or it is moved out and becomes an ASR process," Robert said. "If it become an ASR process, we work to improve it, if possible."

He is conducting much of the groundwork for the graduate progress to degree process. He has also worked on the adviser workflow and the documentation of processes for graduate student fellowships. He is currently working on implementing checklists in Campus Solutions so a graduate student can track his or her own degree progress in one place.

"We want to provide a student with a continual view of their degree progress," Robert said. "Checklists will be much more dynamic and will allow a student to see the progress of their degree as it is updated in Campus Solutions. We want to help students see their pathways to graduation."

Before joining ASR, Robert worked at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and at Metropolitan State University (St. Paul) as director of Financial Aid.

When asked what he does in his spare time, Robert joked, "What spare time?" His free moments often involve taking a few of his children out at a time to play golf or go fishing. Earlier this year, his family took a road trip to Seattle and visited Yellowstone National Park. He would love to take another trip with his kids and drive across the country.

He also enjoys watching movies with his children. "Being a father has made me a connoisseur of children's movies," Robert said. One of his kids' favorite movies is The Incredibles, which sometimes inspires fantastical thoughts. "If I were a superhero, my super power would be to control the weather," Robert said. "But 'no capes!'"

Fun facts about Robert:
1. His favorite movie is Casablanca.
2. His favorite book is Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
3. He enjoys jazz music.
4. He loves to vacation in the Boundary Waters.
5. His favorite food is the salmon at Ivar's Salmon House in Seattle.
6. Robert's first concert was Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" tour.
7. He wanted to grow up to be a Blue Angels Navy Pilot.
8. f he could be any movie character for a day, he would be Sean Thornton in The Quiet Man.
9. His most memorable Halloween costume is when he dressed up as Indiana Jones.
10. He has a bachelor's degree in English and American literature from Brandeis University and a master of business administration from the University of St. Thomas.

Getting feedback on your performance

Getting feedback on how you're doing at work isn't always easy. Sometimes you never hear anything until there's something wrong, and perhaps you could have prevented the incident with early feedback. Amy Gallo, a contributing editor for Harvard Business Review offers some very helpful tips on getting feedback. Her article is aimed at getting feedback when you're "the boss." However, the principles she outlines are pretty universal. You might want to check out her article and see if you can use her tips to either solicit feedback or reverse-engineer her ideas to give feedback to others.

Logging into a loaner laptop for the first time?

You're at a meeting, your loaner laptop securely in hand. You try to log-in using your x.500 and username, just as you do with your own computer every day.

Nothing happens . . . except the message you receive telling you that a server can't be found. You panic. Or, you just get really frustrated.

If you're checking out a laptop, you'll need to download your credentials via an ethernet cable (usually that blue thing) in order to log-in. The laptop should come with one of these cables in its bag, but you can contact CITSU if you can't find one. Make sure you do this in advance of when you need the laptop so that you know it works before showtime.

The Gold Room

The 160B meeting room in Williamson Hall now features two installations in memory of staff whose dedication to ASR, students, and the University surpass expectations.

Exterior sign. The text says, "Dedicated to our staff whose value and contributions cannot be measured."

Nancy Peterson and Vickie Roberts were ASR employees for many years. Nancy served as the scheduling unit manager and Vickie was the director of academic records. Both Nancy and Vickie passed away in 2011.

New conference rooms in Williamson

The work to create two rooms out of the 160L room in Williamson is complete, and you can now schedule them in GCal. The room names are WmsonH-162 ASR and WmsonH-164 ASR. Any meetings that were scheduled in 160L that haven't been updated to a different location will be located in WmsonH-162 ASR.

Lock up your stuff!

Now is the time of year when valuables might decide to take a long walk, never to return. Make sure you lock up your phones, purses, galoshes, and anything else that might find its way into another person's possession. If you have a laptop in an open cube, you should lock that away in the evenings, if possible. Keep your stuff safe!

The people in your neighborhood: Phil Hunter

Ever wonder what your co-worker does for fun or what they were doing before they came to ASR? Get the scoop on your ASR colleagues with our new individual profiles--The People in your Neighborhood. We present you Philip Hunter from the Office of Classroom Management (OCM).

Eleven years ago, Phil Hunter began working in OCM. He started out by "inspecting rooms and putting out fires," but he soon advanced to Operations Coordinator.

Phil supervises classroom activity and proactively resolves issues in classrooms, such as replacing and repairing furniture. "One of the big issues we've found is markers," Phil said. "If the custodians haven't placed markers in rooms, we hear about it. We try to get our service providers to look at our classrooms as a system. If one part fails the others are affected."



Phil also hires, trains, and supervises the OCM student staff and manages the room features database. Since joining OCM, Phil has served on the Development Team and as the lead on the Recognition Team.

Phil grew up in the Black Hills of Rapid City, South Dakota. "It's a tourist city, so basically everyone works in the tourism industry in one way or another," Phil said. He was no exception and has held a string of interesting jobs.

Growing up, his dad owned a motel called the "Lazy U" where Phil worked as a stripper. "I was the first one to go in the rooms and get them ready for the maid to clean," Phil explained. "I stripped the sheets and prepped the room." He even added his own touch to the tourism industry by developing a tourist map that listed all of the area's hotspots based on how many days people were in town.

He also once worked at a toy store. "It was an interesting job; I liked helping the customers, but a lot of people that worked there were really bitter," Phil said. "You'd think people in a toy store would be happy."

After a string of odd jobs, Phil received his bachelor's in speech communication and theatre from South Dakota State University. Seeking creative outlets, Phil did musical theatre, once playing Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees. Eventually, he got bored with scripts and began doing improv and interactive theatre.

Phil's creativity is also seen in his work. Phil helped develop the student monitoring program that OCM uses to monitor the daily activity in each classroom. And, though he loves working in OCM, his dream job would be doing voice overs, which he currently records, along with music, in his in-home recording studio that he calls Nochy Mozg, which loosely translates to "reptile brain."

Phil is also working on writing a young adult novel, that he describes as "a fantasy/Spanish folklore adventure story that deals with the role of fate in our lives and the grey area between good and evil."

Currently, Phil lives in West St. Paul with his wife of 16 years, Jody, and his two kids, Adaline and Philip John (P.J.). He has a 16-year-old cat named Stein (originally paired with Frank before he passed away) and two new kittens named Snickers and Meep.

Fun Phil Facts:

If he could be any character for a day, Phil would be Groucho Marx and/or Darth Vader.
His favorite vacation spot is Yellowstone National Park during the off season.
He would love to visit Peru to see the Incan ruins.
His first concert was the Styx in 9th grade.
He likes the type of music played on The Current radio station.
His favorite author is Haruki Murakami.
His favorite movie is Spirited Away.
He likes to garden.
Harry Nilsson is one of his favorite singer/songwriters.
He did theatre, most often playing an older person or the funny sidekick.

Gearing up for the start of fall

The Office of Student Finance (OSF) worked with ASR-IT and others to send communications to all financial aid recipients informing them to accept their financial aid awards online. OSF has seen an increase in verification and loan documents as students get ready for the new year.

Student Account Assistance staff are busy working on appeals for registration cancellations, the exit interview project, and the move of Third Party Billing to Williamson Hall.

Now that eFAANs have gone out to students, One Stop's phone and email customer traffic has doubled and will continue to increase through September. Last week, counselors answered 2,159 calls and 1,870 emails. Walk-in traffic will significantly increase later in August. One Stop staff are also hard at work finishing up orientation and Welcome Week preparations.

What's happening in the Office of Classroom Management

Here's a brief snapshot of some of the happenings in the Office of Classroom Management (OCM):

• OCM and ASR-IT are negotiating the scope and timeline of a new project to implement a new, web-based scheduling system for all campuses.

• Classroom Technical Services is busy updating classroom equipment before the start of fall semester. Approximately 50 rooms are being updated (a project that began in March).

• Room B50 in Skok Hall is under construction to be a new study space available in fall 2012.

Better know the Web Team

The Academic Support Resources (ASR) Web Team juggles many different tasks and projects, but they do it so seamlessly that you would never guess the amount of work they actually do. They are responsible for supporting a wide variety of business processes across ASR, from helping students search for scholarships and approving graduate committees, to consulting with One Stop on how to expand their queue management.

From left to right: Erik Eklund, Joe Goggins, Chris Dinger, Santiago Fernandez-Gimenez (now part of the Project Management & Coordination unit), Kim Doberstein. Matt Nuttall is the creepy guy on the monitor.

The Web Team focuses on tasks that are unique to ASR or that cannot be addressed as an enterprise solution by the Office of Information Technology (OIT). They look for ways to provide programming solutions that will help support access to important information. They've been working to decrease the time it takes to gather fresh data (e.g., student APAS information), which makes it easier and faster to share critical information with other departments such as Student Records, Classroom Management, and Student Finance.

To keep up with so many projects, the team started scheduling daily check-ins. Every morning around 9:00 a.m., the staff meets in the hallway to go over the day's agenda. Web Team Manager, Matt Nuttall, said they address the following three questions: "What have you accomplished since yesterday? What will you accomplish by this time tomorrow? And what barriers stand in your way?" These morning meetings help the team to assess where they're at among their different tasks and to prioritize the day ahead.

ASR has hundreds of processes, and the Web Team constantly searches for ways to help simplify and automate them. For example, right now the team is finishing their work on the Tuition and Fee Management System. As they work with the Office of Student Finance (OSF), they will re-engineer how the University proposes and approves class fees and tuition; by the time their work is complete, they will have made it easier and more efficient to manage the allocation and collection of hundreds of millions of dollars.

As web developers, it's easy to assume that coding is a major part of the their work. But, in fact, it's really a last resort. Since code is very expensive to re-write if security issues arise, the team only codes when absolutely necessary. "We focus on using resources that are already available," Matt said.

Though the workload can be demanding, the team is dedicated to providing the best service they can. "We're all passionate about what we do and the mission of ASR," Web Developer Chris Dinger said. Co-worker Joe Goggins agrees, saying that this is the first place he has worked at where he truly understands and stands behind the organization's mission.

At the end of the day, it's all about making the lives of students and staff easier. "There's nothing more satisfying," Joe said, "than someone saying, 'You changed how I do what I do.'"

One Stop mentioned in live chat with President Kaler

In late July, the Star Tribune held a live chat with President Eric Kaler. Someone asked the president: "My son is attending The U this fall. My two other children and I are Purdue grads. My son won the Navy ROTC Scholarship to The U. Any suggestions for freshman parents? We love the campus!"

Another live chatter responded to the question: "As a former parent, your student should utilize the One Stop. It was clearly one of the better perks at the U for students to enable them to 'figure questions out' on their own (but with guidance)."

"Live Like a Student" wins Apex Award

The "Live Like a Student" (LLAS) financial literacy campaign received the Apex Award for Publication Excellence in the presentation category. The award was in recognition of LLAS's Welcome Week presentation, which featured a "game show" aimed at helping students make smart money choices and a PowerPoint highlighting free or cheap deals.

This just in: "Live Like a Student" is an award winner

Hot off the Internets! The "Live Like a Student" financial literacy campaign was just awarded the MARGO award from the Communicators Forum. This award is presented to the "most elegant solution within the means available." That means we did a great job communicating our messages with the least amount of money. Hooray!

Good questions for check-ins

Paula Seeger in OCM passed along some useful information regarding staff and supervisor check-ins from The Management Center. Here are the three top questions they recommend to "get beneath the surface" during check-ins:

1. What makes you say that?

This is a good follow-up to all kind of statements -- from "things are going fine" to "The venue seems like they're not going to budge on the price." The idea is that you don't just want the surface statement -- you want what lies behind the surface statement, and this question gets at that.

2. What do you think?

If a staff member isn't sure how to handle a problem or move forward on a project, before you suggest a path to try, ask this question first. You might learn that your staff member suggests that solution herself -- or a better one.

3. What are you most worried about?

This question can open the door to all kinds of information and concerns that you might never hear about otherwise. You might think that staff members will tell you their worries without being asked -- but many won't.

Again, thanks to Paula (and to The Management Center) for these helpful tips.