Update from Stacey

I’ve sent a few emails to staff this week so I will keep this update short. First, I know this has been a difficult week for many in ASR. You might be experiencing grief if you worked with Marcia, remembering grief in your life from other losses, or wondering how to best support your colleagues with these issues. I encourage you to slow down and take the time you need. I also ask that you give each other as much grace and understanding as you can. Second, I hope that this holiday weekend is part of some rest and rejuvenation for you. Personally I am looking forward to some extra family time and spending as much time outside as possible. After reading the survey below, I also want to fit in a trip to Dairy Queen. Take care everyone, thank you!

One Stop website soft-launch

Starting tomorrow all ASR staff can participate in the One Stop website soft-launch!

On July 1, 2022, links to the unpublished sites will be available on the One Stop website upgrade project page. These soft-launch links will allow university staff and faculty access to explore the unpublished redesigned One Stop websites for each campus. The soft-launch links will be available until the redesigned sites are “live” and published in place of the existing One Stop website on July 18, 2022.

The primary purpose of the soft-launch is to allow for staff exploration and self-directed learning before the sites are made public to students. Self-directed exploration of the site allows for:

• Self-paced learning
• Individual depth of knowledge needs
• Varied use cases

All project and soft-launch details and restrictions can be found on the One Stop website upgrade project page.

ASR Staff Engagement June 30 Survey

This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey June 30, 2022 centers around summer activities and plans. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences.

The last survey included questions that measure various facets of employee engagement. When asked about expectations at work, 91.7% of respondents say that they know what is expected of them at work. Most respondents (62.5%) also indicated that they sometimes feel comfortable sharing their honest opinion at work (depending on who they are sharing with), followed by 37.5% who feel comfortable sharing their honest opinion most of the time.

When asked about the mission or purpose of the University related to your job, most feel that it makes their job feel important (75%). Finally, it was a very close result when asking about your favorite Dairy Queen Blizzard. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup tied for the most votes (16.7%,) followed by 12.5% who don’t like or have never had a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available on the N&N blog.

June 16, 2022 survey results

I know what is expected of me at work.

• Yes - (91.7%)
• No - (8.3%)

Do you feel comfortable sharing your honest opinion at work?

• Yes, most of the time - (37.5%)
• Sometimes, it depends on who I am sharing with - (62.5%)

The mission or purpose of the University makes my job feel important.

• True - (75%)
• False - (25%)

What is your favorite Blizzard at Dairy Queen?

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - (16.7%)
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup - (16.7%)
• I don’t like or have never had a Dairy Queen Blizzard - (12.5%)
• Butterfinger - (8.3%)

Update from Stacey

We are nearing the end of the fiscal year so I’ve been working on a few budgeting items for Fiscal Year 2023, which starts July 1, 2022. I am grateful that the importance and effectiveness of our work has been recognized and that our budget cut was modest. Budget cuts are never easy, but we are able to take our cut without laying off any staff by focusing on positions with attrition, and absorbing some of the cut with funds that would otherwise be used to improve classrooms.

On the salary side, the Board of Regents approved a merit pool of 3.85% as part of their June meetings. This means a pool of money is allocated to units based on a percentage of their total civil service and P&A staff salary expenses, i.e., raises are not awarded directly to staff. With a larger percentage than has been approved in prior years, units are required to award different percentages to staff earning different scores on their performance reviews. This is in accordance with the University’s merit pay requirements. We are still finalizing our salary plans and getting approvals, but I anticipate having a very small difference in percentages between those earning 2s and 3s respectively. I hope to send an email update soon with details.

As we go through this process each year, we never have enough—we have so many talented staff doing great work and I don’t think we are able to fully show our gratitude for your work via salary increases. We value the work you are doing, thank you.

ASR-IT alignment kick-off

On Monday, June 6, the ASR-IT alignment group kicked off. ASR Directors began this work in February 2021 to explore the following:

• Clarify business process ownership in a complex environment;
• Find opportunities to better align networks of subject matter experts in ASR to further collaboration, and;
• Identify areas for potential organizational changes.

Directors began these conversations reviewing ASR’s organizational structures and highlighting strengths, opportunities for improvement, and constraints. Groups convened and reviewed OTR/C&C/Central and ASR Operations and put forth recommendations for consideration.

The group has been asked to provide recommendations that will improve processes and create efficiencies within ASR IT, as well as align the unit to work best with other units in ASR. Questions the group will be exploring include:

• What challenges does ASR-IT face the the way they currently work as a unit and across all ASR units?
• What changes should ASR-IT make to work more effectively and efficiently across ASR?
• What opportunities are there for changes to reporting structure in ASR IT?

One individual from each ASR unit has been assigned to the group. These unit representatives will be checking in with their individual units and bringing back feedback and ideas for the group to consider. 

Members include:

• ASR IT - Carolee Cohen
• ASR Operations and Strategic Initiatives - Renae Faunce
• OCM - Sarah Kussow
• One Stop - Richard Campo
• OSF - Stephanie Kearley
• OTR - Emily Holt
• Sponsors - Carin Thoms and Jaime Wascalus

Staff recognition

A respondent to the OCM Classroom Spring Satisfaction Survey recently thanked Jamie Friedenreich for her accurate and timely information as well as her help clarifying some questions. Noah was also thanked for providing options and demoing workarounds. The respondent really appreciated their service and said it helped them have a stable teaching environment. Way to go!

We also wanted to give a big shout out to everyone who helped destroy the files in Fraser 20, specifically Jeremy Todd, Carin Anderson-Thoms, Phil Hunter, Jacqui Brink, and Tyler Franz. Two OCM student employees also assisted. They had to go through each box to remove binder clips, remove papers from binders, separate fiche from paper, and empty boxes into Shred Right bins. It's not an exaggeration to say hundreds of boxes were emptied! The picture below is only about 1/4 of the way into the project. We could not have done this without you!

Updates from OTR and CC Alignment work

Last summer, a cross-functional team met to look at opportunities for alignment across Continuity and Compliance and the Office of the Registrar (OTR). Several changes were made as a result of that team’s work, including a change in reporting structure for the DegreeCat team (to ASR-IT) and the Degree Audit, TES, and Athletic Eligibility teams (to OTR). The Office of the Registrar has continued to work with the team’s findings and additional changes building off of the alignment team’s work include:

• The creation of a Service Operations unit managed by a new position, Assistant Director of Service Operations (posted in early June).
• Alignment of diploma operations, Records CRR functions, imaging, shared data, and mailroom operations under the Service Operations unit (Matt Duggan, Josemy Morales, and Trung Mac will report to this unit when the new manager is hired).
• This new position will also begin to manage OTR’s student athlete eligibility functions; however this will be a longer transition and team members currently responsible for this work will not change reporting lines. Our goal is to transition work and not people as we are able, with some duties being carried out by the new manager position.
• Effective June 6, Karsyn Zetah, Barb Yungers, and Colleen Harms report to Amber Cellotti under an aligned undergraduate and graduate records management unit.
• Effective July 1, Matt Duggan will take over supervision of the Records CRR team.

A sincere thanks to the OTR and C&C alignment group for their work last year and also to the entire OTR team for their continued support of the University community while these changes took shape.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee: Juneteenth

The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863 and declared that all enslaved people in Confederate states that were in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” In Texas, slavery persisted for years after the Emancipation Proclamation due to the limited presence of Union troops. On June 19, 1865, following the end of the Civil War that spring, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce that the more than 250,000 enslaved people in the state were free. The 13th Amendment was then ratified on December 1, 1865 which abolished slavery across the United States, except as a punishment for being convicted of a crime.

Today, Juneteenth is a day of celebration for Black Americans and is marked by community events, family gatherings, and more. In 2021, Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday. This year, students at the University of Minnesota will not have classes on June 20, in recognition of Juneteenth. The University of Minnesota will also have their inaugural Juneteenth Celebration on June 18.

Additional information

• UMN Juneteenth 2022 Volunteer Sign-Up
• Celebrate Juneteenth in the Twin Cities
• Juneteenth: The History of a New Holiday
• What is Juneteenth?

ASR Staff Engagement June 16 Survey

This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey June 16, 2022 examines elements related to employee engagement. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences.

According to the last survey, most have enrolled in a non-degree seeking or professional development course at the University (73.7%). When asked about your preference between in-person and online courses, 47.4% of respondents indicated that it depends on the course itself, followed by 36.8% who prefer in-person courses.

When asked about choosing a professional development course, a strong majority prefer something new that may or may not be directly related to their position (68.4%) versus learning more about something that is directly related to their current position (31.6%). Finally, many interesting courses were mentioned when asked about your favorite classes you’ve ever taken. Business Writing, Career Counseling, Hindi language, Leadership Essentials, and Scandinavian Mythology were mentioned just to name a few. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated.

June 2, 2022 survey results

Have you ever enrolled in a non-degree seeking or professional development course at the University?

• Yes (73.7%)
• No (26.3%)

Do you have a preference between in-person and online courses?

• Yes, I prefer in-person courses (36.8%)
• Yes, I prefer online courses (10.5%)
• No, I don’t have a preference (5.3%)
• Depends on the course (47.4%)

If you had to choose a professional development course to take, it would be...

• Something I want to learn more about that is directly related to my current position
• Something new that may or may not be directly related to my current position

What was one of your favorite classes you’ve ever taken?

• International Economics
• Choir and Art
• User Interface Design (Coursera and UMN - CSE and CSOM professors)
• Writing Women - a Winter session class at my undergrad that focused on literary works by women authors (Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Wide Sargasso Sea, A Room of One’s Own, and a couple others). As part of the class we had to free write everyday a minimum of 1,000 words per day (4 pages typed double spaced in 12-pt font) for the entire term (including weekends). which meant we wrote minimally 28,000 words/112 pages by the end of class.
• Fencing held in the Great Hall of a castle in the UK while studying abroad

Unit updates: Office of Classroom Management

• Fall 2022 classroom assignments are being finalized, with about 30 classes that still need rooms. Making room for the final few classes is a strategic version of Jenga that takes much patience and time.
• Spring 2023 class scheduling is underway across all departments and we will be closing Collaborative Class Scheduling (CCS) to centrally schedule classrooms for Spring in the beginning of July.
• The final exam schedule for Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 has been posted, as has the CCS production calendar for Academic Year 2023-24.
• New forms are being created! The Astra Access Request Form (ARF) was migrated to a TeamDynamix (TDX) form and the team is working with ASR-IT on a new Final Exam Request Form using Jadu.
• Fraser classrooms went offline at the beginning of summer term. These rooms will remain offline until the Chemistry Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories project is funded.Summer classroom technology lifecycle renewals are in full swing. Many rooms this year will be upgraded with improved cameras and microphones to better facilitate learning. Visit our project page for more detail and updates.

Office of Admissions closed June 20

The Office of Admissions and their Welcome Centers (240 Williamson Hall and 200 Jones Hall) will be closed on Monday, June 20 in observance of Juneteenth. This closure will allow staff to participate in community events and development opportunities. Signage will be posted at the end of the day on Friday, June 17 and messaging will be posted on their website.

Update from Stacey

I hope that Memorial Day weekend offered a chance for you to rest and recharge a bit. I appreciated the summer weather and planted many flowers and some herbs and vegetables.

At work, we have a lot going on in ASR as usual—it will be impossible to cover it all. But, some key things I want to highlight are:

• The move: we are officially in Williamson Hall and unpacking!
• The One Stop website project is approaching its launch date; you can read more in the article below.
• The Department of Education announced that they are suspending verifications for 2022-23; you can see more details in the OSF update below.
• Later this month, the PeopleSoft Proof of Vaccination process will launch for students, and the existing Qualtrics process for students will be retired.
• ASR is working ahead to be ready for the next PI planning event with OIT, to be held in late July.

We are providing great service to the University and its students and I appreciate you all so much. Thank you!

One Stop website redesign demo event

All university staff and faculty are invited to join a virtual event about the upcoming launch of the redesigned One Stop website. Many of you have already seen an overview of the new One Stop site, but for our student support partners across the system, this will be a first look.

Please join us for a demo if you’d like to see the latest and greatest version of the site and learn how a focus on user experience influenced the site’s redesign. You can register for the event below.

We will also provide details on how you can participate in the upcoming soft-launch to familiarize yourselves with the new website before it’s made public to students. This event will be recorded and posted on the One Stop website upgrade project page so that anyone unable to attend will still have an opportunity to review all of the information.

Register now >

Staff recognition

We have a lot to celebrate this issue! First we want to give a major hooray and thank you to the staff from across ASR who worked on the changes to verification for 2022-2023. Members from the Office of Student Finance, ASR-IT, ASRUX, One Stop Student Services, and all University campuses worked quickly to implement system changes and send communications to students about these updates. A special thanks goes to Deb Edwards and Ali Facklam for their strong documentation from previous years that helped move this process forward! We couldn’t have done this without you!

We also want to send out kudos to everyone who worked on migrating the Astra ARF out of WorkFlowGen and into TeamDynamix. A special shout out goes to Jenn Selander for working with OIT on that transition. Way to go!

Lastly we wanted to share that Ali Bosco from UMR One Stop received the Outstanding Service Award for 2021-2022 for all of her great work over the last year. Congratulations Ali!

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month!

LGBTQIA+ Pride Month is celebrated each year in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. Spearheaded by trans people of color, Stonewall was a pivotal moment that served as a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. Pride was initially celebrated on the anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Uprising and it has since grown to be a month-long celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community.

As we celebrate LGBTQIA+ pride this month, it is also an opportunity for allies to support the community in ways that last beyond the end of June. Allyship extends beyond your proximity to the LGBTQIA+ community; in addition to supporting your queer friends and family, allyship requires an active role in fighting to end the harmful practices that target the community.

We encourage you to support and uplift the community this month and seek out ways to continue that support in the remaining months.

Resources:

• “It’s not enough to celebrate transgender women of color during Pride. It’s time to learn their history.” - The Lily
• “Nearly 240 anti-LGBTQ bills filed in 2022 so far, most of them targeting trans people” - NBC News
• Staff Course: Inclusive Practices for Names and Pronouns in Academic Contexts
• 50+ Resources For LGBTQIA Allies - Buffer
• TC Pride Events 2022

Food and drink in Northrop

The Surdyk’s cafe closed in Northrup and a new cafe will be opening in its former location in late summer 2022. The new cafe will provide a great option for coffee, hot or cold lunches, and snacks. Until it opens, you can find alternative food and drink options available at Coffman Memorial Union.

Office ergonomics

As we set up our new offices in Williamson Hall, it’s a good reminder to check out the office ergonomics resources offered by the University. Our work often involves heavy use of computers, including typing, mousing, and data entry. Such work can lead to disabling injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome and neck and back strain. For this reason, the University provides assistance in evaluating and modifying physical workstations to reduce the risk of injury. In-person evaluations are available, as well as self-assessments and distance evaluations. You can also visit the showroom in Boynton Health Service to try out different equipment.

ASR Staff Engagement June 2 survey

This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey June 2, 2022 takes a look at professional development courses. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences.

According to the last survey, most are using the new focus time feature on their Google calendar (48.3%). When asked whether you plan out your work days using Google calendar, most indicated that they do plan out their work days (58.6%) followed by 27.6% who sometimes plan out their day there.

Most report that they sometimes check someone’s calendar before instant messaging them depending on who they are messaging (55.2%) followed by 37.9% who usually check someone’s calendar. Finally, we asked about your favorite things about summer. Camping and grilling were the most frequent responses. Fresh air, long days of sunshine, and plants were also frequently mentioned. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated.


May 20th, 2022 survey results

Do you currently use the focus time feature on Google calendar?

· Yes (48.3%)

· No (37.9%)

· I’m not sure how to use it (13.8%)



Do you typically plan out your work day(s) using Google calendar?

· Yes (58.6%)

· No (13.8%)

· Sometimes (27.6%)



Do you check someone’s calendar before instant messaging them?

· Yes, I usually check (37.9%)

· No, I don’t usually check (6.9%)

· Sometimes, it depends on who I’m messaging (55.2%)


What’s one of your favorite things about Summer?

· Fresh air

· Everything!

· State Fair!

· Longer days

· Grilling out

· Paddleboarding· Being on the boat with my family, friends and my dogs

Unit updates: Office of Student Finance

•  Financial Aid disbursement for summer 2022 begins Monday, June 6 for all non-MED careers (the MED career is disbursed earlier).
• On Thursday, May 18, 2022, the Department of Education issued guidance once again suspending all FAFSA Verifications and requirements for the 2022-2023 academic year. Twin Cities OSF, FA-IT, and ASRUX staff worked all week to waive checklists, add PeopleSoft comments, and send communications to students for all campuses. Approximately 4,000 checklist items were waived for 1,500 students, creating a large bump in estimated financial aid packages. On average at this time there are less than 20 students packaged per day, but there were 422 in one day after waiving the checklist items! Thank you TEAM!!
• Satisfactory Academic Progress ran on May 22 for the summer.
• 2022-23 financial aid packaging timeline (dates are approximate):
• J​une 15:​ ​Last run of estimated packaging​ and FANs
• ​June 22: ​Canceling estimated​ aid​ packages​
• July 5: Budgets in production
• July 6-7 Packaging simulation/retrieves
• July 11: Actual packaging
• July 18: FANs are sent via email