Don't get yourself hooked by latest phishing scam

On January 23, 2015, the University of Minnesota issued an advisory for the latest phishing scam affecting the U Community, a scheme that includes an email titled "I've shared an item with you." However, the link in that email takes you to a fake Google that asks for your login credentials. Read more about this threat and other phishing scams targeting the UMN.

PCMC Book Club: "Scrum: a Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction"

The Project and Change Management Collaborators (PCMC) group is hosting a book club brown bag lunch on Thursday, February 26, 2015, from 12pm to 1pm in 101 Walter Library. “Scrum: a Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction” takes about 30 minutes to read cover to cover. Find out more about this book and where to find your copy.

We will be discussing Scrum: a Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction. This pocket-sized overview of roles, artifacts, and the sprint cycle is adapted from the bestseller The Elements of Scrum by Chris Sims & Hillary Louise Johnson. We will use the hour to put the components of scrum into practice through a series of short sprints. If you've wondered what all the hub-bub is about then join us. Please RSVP here.

The book can be purchased on Amazon. If you are a Kindle user, it’s only $0.99.

ASR's 2014 Penny War winner

Who dug deepest into their pant pockets and couch cushions? Drum roll, please. This year’s winner was Coffey Hall! But, the competition isn’t really about collecting the most change, it’s about creating change. And this year, ASR raised $481.07. The money was donated to the United Way who are working in increase early literacy.

Additional info:

• Coffey won based on average points per staff person
• ASR to average the fundraising collections by # of ASR staff in each
• building to determine the winning location...the highest average wins.
• Over $480 raised
• More than 37,000 pennies collected

Thank you letter:

Reminder: Complete REPA and Conflict of Interest course

By February 27, 2015, all P&A staff are required to complete the Report of External Professional Activities (every year) and Conflict of Interest course (once every four years). If necessary, expect completion of the Conflict of Interest course to take approximately 20-30 minutes.

• Access the Report of External Professional Activities
• Take the Conflict of Interest Course

Student Systems Upgrade Overview course

The Student Systems Upgrade Overview is an online training course that is required for all staff with access to student data in PeopleSoft. It may be completed at your own pace and on your own schedule between now and when the Upgrade goes live. Most people complete this course in 30 minutes or less.

Time and absence reporting

After the Upgrade, staff will submit absence requests electronically via the new MyU. To learn what the new process will look like, take a short online Submitting Absences course. It contains a 2-minute video as well as links to "Frequently Asked Questions," resources, and job aides. Please refer your student employees to this information as well.

Go Live date expected in first week of February

The Upgrade’s Executive Oversight Committee will make a Go Live decision the first week of February. This new decision deadline gives the committee additional time and flexibility to compile more detailed HR Payroll test data, develop a full go-no-go dashboard, follow standard review processes, and gain a more concrete status view. Find additional Upgrade updates and news »

Graduation-rate efforts celebrated

During the December Board of Regents meeting, Vice Provost Robert McMaster gave his annual update on undergraduate education. He highlighted the campus-wide effort to raise the four-year graduation rate, of which ASR has played an integral role, and noted that the Twin Cities campus exceeded the goal set by the Board of Regents in 2006. More than 60 percent of the students who began their college career here in 2010 graduated in 2014.

Provost Karen Hanson celebrated this accomplishment in a message sent to all Twin Cities faculty and staff. Thank you to all of the ASR staff that participated in and helped achieve this milestone.

New Upgrade go-live date expected in next few weeks

As many of you have heard, the PeopleSoft upgrade launch date has shifted. The launch is now expected to take place this spring. This morning ASR hosted an ESUP All-Student Meeting to discuss the challenges presented by a change and preparations for a spring go-live date. We expect a new go-live date to be decided in the next few weeks.

Additional information:

• Updates about timing will be posted to the Upgrade website
• With the re-design of the University homepage, University Relations has re-designed the website headers and footers. University Relations will implement its new headers/footers on umn.edu soon, but has adjusted the wider release to other University websites to coincide with a new go-live date.
• University student, staff, and faculty visitors to UMN homepage will notice that the One Stop button link is no longer available. The One Stop website is still available at onestop.umn.edu. Read the FAQ on the Our Brand website for more information about why the One Stop button was removed.

M133 Fraser Hall remodeling project complete

The Non-Credit Registration unit moved into their newly remodeled space in M133 Fraser Hall, the week of December 29. Fraser Hall was undergoing repairs for water damage that forced staff to temporarily relocate their work spaces.

Photos of Fraser Hall

Before (highlighting the extent of water damage throughout the space)

 After (highlighting the Non-Credit Registration unit's space)

Thank you to Debbie Henderson for providing and taking the photos.

Setting SMART goals

According to a University of Scranton study on New Year’s resolutions, only eight percent of people actually achieve their goals. So, what can we do to make sure that our goals are achievable? How can we set ourselves up for success? MindTools.com has revealed their Five Golden Rules for Setting Great New Year Career Goals. If you’re interested in finding out how people put this into practice, Kristy Davis, interim associate director in ASR IT, shared some of her own experience with setting SMART goals.

ASR personal perspective:
Kristy Davis, Interim Associate Director, ASR IT

“I set SMART goals all the time. One of my strengths, from a Strengths Finder assessment, was Achiever or a constant need to achieve something. So as an example, I can't go into my weekend without a plan. I set SMART goals for things I need to achieve while still enjoying some downtime. It might look something like this:

Specific: Get four things crossed off of my to do list, i.e. groceries, clean the bathrooms, walk the dog, go to gym, etc.

Measurable: Did I get food and supplies for the week? Did my bathroom get cleaned? Did I get the dogs out at least once when it wasn't snowing, freezing, or raining for exercise? Did I work out at least one day?

Attainable: I look at my commitments for the weekend and figure out the optimal time to achieve everything. Do I have too much on my plate that it won't get done?

For example, I get groceries first thing in the morning when the grocery store is least busy. Then I can come home and take the dogs for a walk because it has warmed up and/or before it gets too hot. If there is something that I know will take several hours I try to limit how many tasks I plan in my day so I don't feel guilty for not achieving all of my goals.

Relevant: These are all important things and if I don't do them over the weekend it adds stress to my already busy work week. So it is important I plan them accordingly.

Time-bound: I don't want to just go, go, go all weekend so I make sure there is time to relax and enjoy myself and allow for spontaneous things to occur.”

Service Now changes taking effect Thursday, January 15

The Office of Information Technology is rolling out functionality changes to ServiceNow. These changes are expected to take effect on Thursday, January 15, 2015. Find out more about the changes.

Additional resources:

• Replies to a resolved Incident will not reopen it, instead opening in a new contact. More info: Video | KB0018642
• Incident states are being redefined and color-coded. More info: Video | KB0018645
• All resolution timers will run regardless of incident state, and pending incident states will not pause the timer. More info: KB0018643

ASR participates in UMN biennial budget media briefing

On January 13, University of Minnesota leaders, faculty, staff and students – including Vice Provost Bob McMaster and One Stop Director Julie Selander – provided media with a look at two key aspects of the University’s 2015 biennial budget request:

• Student access and affordability: $65.2 million requested to freeze tuition
• Healthy Minnesota initiative: $34.5 million requested to improve healthcare for all Minnesotans

Presentations included:

• Bob McMaster, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education: Working toward timely graduation, examples of how the U uses advanced technology to support teaching and learning and academic counseling – part of the high quality student experience
• Julie Selander, Director, One Stop Student Services and Veterans Services: A walk-through of student resource examples and their benefits, STSS Building
• Ryan Olson, undergraduate student, College of Liberal Arts: A student perspective on Minnesotans having access to a world-class education in their home state
• The “Pushing for More: Graduation Rates Soar” video

For more information about the media briefing you can read the University of Minnesota’s press release.

The challenge of New Year's resolutions

For a lot of people the challenge isn’t making a New Year’s resolution, it’s keeping it. Stop smoking. Exercise more. Eat healthier. How long does it last? One week, maybe two? The University of Minnesota’s Recreation and Wellness group shared this American Psychological Association article with tips for making your New Year’s resolution stick.

IT@ Get Ready! event

ASR will be participating in the IT@ Get Ready! event on January 7, 2015. The event is dedicated to the Upgrade preparedness of UMN IT@ staff and personnel. ASR will discuss select aspects of the student work stream and help create awareness among the IT@ community about how the Upgrade affects faculty, staff and students.

User review sessions

In preparation for the Upgrade, the Registrar’s Advisory Committee (RAC) meetings for January and February will have a different format. For most of the scheduled RAC meeting time, members of the RAC group will be able to participate in hands-on sessions where they will have the opportunity to try out the new PeopleSoft system. Several computer labs have been reserved to accommodate users during each RAC meeting at locations across the UMNTC campus. We expect several other groups to be offered a similar opportunity in January and February, including the Faculty Go-To members.

1098-T season is here

The Office of Student Finance is busy working on preparing 1098-T forms to assist students when filing for the education tax benefits or tax credit deductions.

Folwell Hall upgrade and Tate Laboratory renovation

Winter break provides Office of Classroom Management (OCM) opportunities to access classrooms and complete projects while they aren’t consistently being used. Technology lifecycle upgrades are underway in Folwell Hall and will continue through the spring semester.

OCM has also started preparing for the Tate Laboratory of Physics renovation. Tate will go offline after spring finals. Physics and Astronomy course sections will move to the West Bank for the following two years, with other courses cascading across the Minneapolis campus.

Now you know: ASR IT's Custom Solutions group

There is a new unit in ASR IT called Custom Solutions. The group combines some of the old with the new in an effort to meet the changing needs of ASR’s staff and projects. The group is divided into the Project and Work Facilitation team, the Web team and the Destiny One Solutions team.

The Project and Work Facilitation (PWF) is the two-person team of Kristy Davis, project manager, and Christa Nicols, project coordinator, who work to support project execution in ASR. In addition to managing select projects, PWF provides guidance and support to ASR staff managing their own projects by providing a set of standard tools and templates for staff projects, and facilitating a voluntary community of practice through the Project Management Round Tables - a gathering place for staff members to coach one another and discuss best practices for managing projects in the University context. The PWF team is part of the Project and Change Management Collaborators (PCMC) Steering Committee, a group that supports University staff in applying a project and change management approach to their work while recognizing that the principles and tools have a significant benefit to those without "project or change management" in their job title. This committee delivers monthly programming on related topics.

The Web team provides application development for all ASR staff and projects, including extending existing systems with custom software, workflow applications, or reporting tools that are used to improve University functions and business processes. For example:

• The WorkflowGen team developed the paperless ASR Professional Development Request form, reducing completion time and improving processing efficiency.
• The Development team helped create the technology solution for One Stop’s queue system allowing students to check-in at kiosks decreasing wait time and giving counselors quick access to their information when it is their turn.

As ASR web-based tools evolve, so will the work required to implement them. The Web Team combines skills and experience in business analysis and consulting, software design and architecture, development, testing and deployment, and database and server administration. The team is comprised of Justin Pouliot, Shawn Isenhart, Eric Eklund, Debbie Gillespie,Ian Whitney, Davin Lagerroos, Nate Meath, Fritz Skinner, Sherief Elabbady and Adam Springer.

For assistance you can contact the Web Team at asrweb@umn.edu.

The Destiny One team’s primary objective is to deliver an enterprise level non-credit registration solution for the University. Currently, any college or unit with non-credit offerings has their own system. This results in repetitive business processes, a higher risk for the University related to PCI compliance, and an inability to effectively understand the number of non-credit offerings and corresponding activities by this population of learners. The team consists of Santiago Fernandez-Gimenez, Sandy Nelson, Brian Knutson, and Theresa Hillesheim. They’re responsible for partnering with the various college or department business analysts and program staff to evaluate the best way to support the implement a solution, Destiny One. The team works closely with the vendor team to determine various configuration elements that will support the needs of users across the University in a consistent and reliable way.