CTS Organizational plans

Dave Crane has been appointed as the interim director of Classroom Technical Services (CTS), effective January 23, 2023, reporting to Jeremy Todd for an expected 6 months to one year. As part of this role, Dave will be the direct supervisor of Brien Hassler and Katie MacDonald, as well as existing CTS Business Office reports.

This organizational change allows for a greater separation of duties between CTS and OCM. This will better support ongoing ASR alignment work, similar to other changes we’ve made over the past two years. As interim director, Dave Crane will manage the leadership and direction of CTS. He will be responsible for the following:

• Review alignment work that has already been done
• Identify staff development needs
• Review and make recommendations on process improvements and work efficiency
• Identify benchmarks and performance standards
• Review ISO rules to ensure compliance
• Submit a proposal to Stacey and Jeremy for an overall CTS organization structure that serves the University and the organization
• Take action and implement any quick wins that are identified as part of the alignment review or process review

Update from Stacey

Thanks to the many staff that joined for today’s All Staff Assembly. I appreciate seeing such great participation. If you missed it, a recording will be available (please allow up to 24 hours after meeting conclusion for the recording to be uploaded) or on the intranet.

The first two weeks of term have been incredibly busy, and I am grateful for the work you all are doing. For my part, I’ve been fielding the usual beginning of term questions plus helping the University prepare for a new DEI Climate survey that we expect to be released in February. I have also been in multiple meetings about the upcoming retirement of “email for life,” along with many other staff in ASR. On the home front, I’ve been getting back into cross-country skiing and it’s my youngest child’s 15th birthday today. I am appreciating seeing some sunlight as I write this, even if it comes with colder temperatures. Thank you, and be well everyone!

2023 MnDOT Name a Snowplow Contest

It’s that time of year again! Voting is now open for the MN Department of Transportation’s Name a Snowplow Contest! Past iconic Snowplows include “Plowasaurus Rex,” “Edward Blizzardhands,” and “The Truck Formerly Known As Plow.” 

After more than 10,000 name ideas were submitted for 2023, 60 finalists were selected, and now it’s time to pick your favorites! You can choose up to 8 of your favorite names to vote for. All votes must be submitted by Friday, February 3. MnDot will announce the winners and their future homes around Minnesota in February!

Upcoming Equity & Diversity events

You are invited to attend the following events sponsored by the Office for Equity & Diversity:

• The Power of a Woman of Color’s Voice: A Presentation and Discussion by Dr. Menah Pratt
• The Office for Equity & Diversity presents the Power of a Woman of Color’s Voice, a presentation and discussion by Dr. Menah Pratt, founder of Faculty Women of Color in the Academy Conference on January 27. This free, in-person event will take place in Memorial Hall at McNamara Alumni Center from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Lunch will be served. Learn more and register for the event.
• National Day of Racial Healing: Art as Healing
• The President’s Office, with support from the Office for Equity & Diversity, presents the U of M National Day of Racial Healing: Art as Healing, a virtual event on January 31 at 10:00 a.m. It features a panel of artists reflecting on art as a tool for racial healing in observance of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s annual National Day of Racial Healing. It’s free and open to the public. Learn more and register for the event.

Staff recognition

In fall 2023, the ASR Application Development team started a new process for prioritizing work across all of the products they support. This involves working individually with product owners to identify work that needs to be done and then gathering all the product owners together to collaboratively order the work into one prioritized list. A retrospective of the first quarter using this process was held last week. The response of participants was generally very positive!

Product owners worked together to prioritize work with limited resources and built a backlog for the Application Development team. With the context of the work being requested, product owners discussed priorities with each other and occasionally even advocated for another product owner’s work request! In the end, 21 work requests were prioritized!

This is a great example of the strength of ASR’s collaborative approach! Members from the Application Development team, the UX and Content Strategy team, and product owners representing the work in all ASR units are involved in the success of this work.

One Stop Student Services

• The Financial Wellness committee is preparing to support graduating seniors at GradFest on March 22 and 23. This is an opportunity for students to discuss student loan repayment and personal finances prior to graduating.
• UMR One Stop is hiring a One Stop Counselor 3! If you know anyone in the Rochester area that would be interested and a good fit, please encourage them to apply! 
• The GSSP team is in the process of reviewing and updating their strategic plan, first created in 2018/2019. The team’s short, mid, and long-term goals are being updated to reflect the current climate and changes in the grad and professional student experience. 
• One Stop is looking forward to launching the Chatbot project in February. The project will utilize the Agile project management framework. OIT and Ivy, the chatbot vendor, will be supporting ASR in this project.
• Student Account Assistance is experiencing the jump in payments before Sunday’s due date, and is working hard to get the mail bag of payments applied. This increase is across all methods of payments and will continue past the due date.
• Third Party Billing has gotten all internal & external billing authorizations loaded into PeopleSoft, which means student account balances reflect the credits and show the correct amount due. Spring term is always a challenge as they start receiving them in December, but cannot start entering them until January (it’s a 1098-T thing).

ASR Staff Engagement January 26 Survey

This week’s ASR Staff Engagement asks for your feedback on the ASR Intranet. We are hoping to gather as much feedback as possible. So if you could share this with your colleagues in ASR, that would be great! Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences.

According to the last survey, there was a wide array of feelings as we approached the spring semester. Some felt stressed (36.1%). Some felt good (33.3%), and some felt okay or didn’t know how to feel (30.6%). When asked about your tenure at the University, most respondents have been here for 10+ years (41.7%), followed by those that have been here for 5 to 10 years (36.1%).

In addition, a strong majority of respondents did not make New Year’s resolutions this year (80.6%) and have taken down their holiday decorations (66.7%). Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.

January 12, 2023 survey results

How are you feeling as spring semester approaches?

• I’m feeling good! (33.3%)
• I’m feeling okay (25%)
• I’m feeling stressed! (36.1%)
• I’m not sure how I feel (5.6%)

How long have you been working at the University?

• 2 years or less (8.3%)
• 2-5 years (13.9%)
• 5-10 years (36.1%)
• 10+ years (41.7%)

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions for 2023?

• Yes (19.4%)
• No (80.6%)

Do you still have your holiday decorations up?

• Yes (33.3%)
• No (66.7%)

Update from Stacey

Happy New Year and happy start of the spring 2023 term! I am glad we are able to celebrate your start of the term work with snacks in our Bruininks and Williamson Hall locations (see below). While it doesn’t feel like spring, there are signs that it’s on the way. Did you know that pitchers and catchers report for spring training in only 32 days? These are the things I keep track of when winter is seeming extra long.

Another sign of spring is that we are planning for performance appraisal season. Expect messaging soon about the appraisal timeline and deadlines, and how to best prepare for them. Meanwhile, remember to pause and celebrate everything we do for students as they return to classes next week!

Start of the term snacks

We will have snacks available in Bruininks Hall and 130 and 160 Williamson Hall to celebrate the start of the term next week! So make sure to stop by and grab a snack (or two, or three, or four). 

Snack locations:

• Bruininks: break room in 225
• 130 Williamson: break room closest to the vault
• 160 Williamson: break room

Office of The Registrar

It has been a busy end of term for the Office of the Registrar! Students have been cleared, degrees have been posted, and diplomas are making their way out the door. We fielded 214 contacts following the grade submission deadline and continue to refine our communications to instructors about the importance of on-time grades.

Several OTR team members are also hard at work supporting the Coursedog project, a system that will ultimately replace our course and curriculum approval systems (ECAS and PCAS).

Below are a few other highlights from the team:

• We are hiring! We are currently reviewing applicants for a Student Services Professional 1 position, and soon we’ll be posting for a new Student Services Professional 2, a position that will primarily support student athlete eligibility on our Service Operations Team.
• The team continues to work with Parchment on a timeline to upgrade our transcript ordering platform to a new version (we anticipate this will be done early spring).
• The TES team will likely hit 15,000 courses reviewed since 2018 this month. 
• We continue to see a record number of courses being submitted each month to be reviewed for direct equivalency. So much volume has allowed us to expand the team recently by adjusting two OTR staff members roles to include TES work.
• Degree audits are being updated with last minute spring 2023 and upcoming fall 2023 curriculum changes. UMD GPAS implementation is in its final leg of the marathon with a go live hopefully in late spring.

Staff Recognition

Shoutout to One Stop Student Services! They received the following comment from one of our U of M parents whose student just graduated this past fall:

"I just have to say you all have been so wonderful these past four years. We have felt so lucky to have access to One Stop. You all must have the best training and hire the best people. Everyone is so kind, and I always get all my questions answered."

ASR Staff Engagement January 12 Survey

Happy New Year! This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey checks in on how we’re doing as the spring semester approaches. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences.

According to the last survey, most respondents put up lights around the holidays (70%), but most do not own a holiday “ugly sweater” (60%). When asked about a gift you really wanted when you were younger, but never got, the most frequent response was horse/pony, followed closely by mentions of a dog/puppy and a Barbie Dream House.

When asked about favorite outdoor winter activities, the ones that were mentioned most frequently were sledding, skiing, and ice skating. “Going back inside to get warm” was another frequent response. Thank you all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.

December 15, 2022 survey results

Do you put up lights for the holidays?

• Yes (70%)
• No (20%)
• Sometimes (10%)

Do you own a holiday “ugly sweater”?

• Yes (40%)
• No (60%)

What’s one gift you really wanted when you were younger that you never got?

• Lots of money
• Barbie Dream House
• Moon shoes
• A pony
• A horse. In our backyard in the 'burbs. I wonder why I never got it!
• To get rid of my little brother 😂

What’s your favorite outdoor winter activity?

• Down hill skiing
• Ice Skating
• Getting under a blanket with some hot cocoa, to watch a good movie
• Going back inside to warm up 😂
• Bonfire
• Looking at all the lights and decorations on people's houses