- ASR had a great response rate (93%).
- We continue to do well in several areas such as professional development, respect and recognition, and supporting wellbeing.
- A few areas for improvement include increasing cross-departmental communication and developing/communicating a clear department-wide strategy for the future.
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Update from Stacey
This week, supervisors received reports from the most recent Employee Engagement Survey, sometimes called E2. I’ve taken a preliminary look at the results for ASR and had the following takeaways:
New chartstrings for professional development
The costs associated with attending conferences and other professional development opportunities are being separated from our regular operating budgets onto new professional development chartstrings, so we can better manage the requests. The Reimbursement EFS/Account Code Info spreadsheet, which is part of the ASR Administrative Support Resource Guide, has been updated with the specific chartstring details for each unit, as well as information regarding what should be charged to the new chartstrings. Please check this reference document before your next expense submission. If you have any questions, please contact ASRCentral@umn.edu.
2022-23 ASR Annual Report now available
The ASR annual report covering the period of September 2022 to August 2023 is complete and available on the ASR website homepage. This document highlights key metrics and accomplishments from each unit. It may be especially useful for new staff or for those we partner with outside of ASR as it provides a comprehensive overview of all we do for the University. Feel free to share with anybody you think would be interested!
Project prioritization for next quarter
The OSI Projects team prioritized 12 projects for the Quarterly Planning Period 3 (P3) of 2024, which starts in February. This is in addition to the 9 projects that are currently in the analysis or implementation phase. You can view these projects below. A more comprehensive view, which includes the “Project Backlog,” is also available on the ASR Project Plan Preview.
Projects prioritized for implementation for the next period:
Projects prioritized for implementation for the next period:
- OCM website (classroom.umn.edu) redesign
- Tuition Tracking/Forecasting Dashboards
- DORS Server
- University catalog PDF Generation
- Redesign Student Records (SR) batch schedule
- ASR Website Update
- Upgrade to Salesforce Lightning
- Chatbot Phase 2: Live Agent Implementation
- 08GRD Transition to Collegiate Units
- EDP Data Governance & PS Table-level review
- System-wide Degree Progress MyU Tab (Student Degree Progress for System Campuses)
- Electronic Payments for 529 Plans
New year, new you - DEI professional development opportunities
It’s a fresh calendar year, and we’ve all recently completed writing our performance appraisals. This means that, for a number of reasons, you might have goal setting, resolutions, and personal or professional growth on your mind. As higher-education professionals, the work of learning and sharpening our skills is never done, and that includes our work in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space.
DEI professional development opportunities at the University and in the broader higher-education community can be simultaneously overwhelming in number and difficult to find. To help, the DEI Committee compiled a short list of upcoming conferences, workshops, and webinars that center on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We hope that the list of opportunities below can be a starting point as you discuss goals and professional development with your supervisor.
This list is by no means complete! If you know of other opportunities, please share them with the DEI Committee by emailing us at asrdei@umn.edu or share directly with ASR DEI Community of Practice Google group.
Conferences and Workshops
DEI professional development opportunities at the University and in the broader higher-education community can be simultaneously overwhelming in number and difficult to find. To help, the DEI Committee compiled a short list of upcoming conferences, workshops, and webinars that center on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We hope that the list of opportunities below can be a starting point as you discuss goals and professional development with your supervisor.
This list is by no means complete! If you know of other opportunities, please share them with the DEI Committee by emailing us at asrdei@umn.edu or share directly with ASR DEI Community of Practice Google group.
Conferences and Workshops
- 2024 Phyllis L. Mable Emerging Leaders Institution, The American College Personnel Association (ACPA)–College Student Educators International (registration fee required)
- Conference on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success, The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) (registration fee required)
- Equity Certificate Hosted Online (ECHO), Office of Equity and Diversity
- Women’s Leadership Institute, Office of Equity and Diversity: The Women’s Center (2024-25 cohort application date is TBD, registration fee required)
- Online Module: The Confidence Gap, Office of Equity and Diversity: The Women’s Center
- Diversity Data Deep Dive, Office of Equity and Diversity: Diversity Community of Practice (2024 date TBD)
- Understanding Black First-gen Men, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education—National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA)
- Insight Into Diversity webinars (past webinar recordings available)
- National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) webinars (past webinar recordings available)
ASR Staff Engagement January 25 Survey
This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey examines communication and collaboration. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences!
According to the last survey, most respondents made it to midnight on New Year’s Eve this year (73.1%). When asked about what you are looking forward to in 2024, the new FAFSA simplification or planned travel for this year were mentioned most frequently.
Coca-Cola/Diet Coke was voted your favorite soda/sparkling water (24%) followed by Dr. Pepper (12%). Finally, when asked about your favorite local pizza places, Pizza Luce and Pizzeria Lola were mentioned most frequently by a large margin. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
January 11 survey results
Did you make it to midnight on New Year's Eve?
According to the last survey, most respondents made it to midnight on New Year’s Eve this year (73.1%). When asked about what you are looking forward to in 2024, the new FAFSA simplification or planned travel for this year were mentioned most frequently.
Coca-Cola/Diet Coke was voted your favorite soda/sparkling water (24%) followed by Dr. Pepper (12%). Finally, when asked about your favorite local pizza places, Pizza Luce and Pizzeria Lola were mentioned most frequently by a large margin. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
January 11 survey results
Did you make it to midnight on New Year's Eve?
- Yes (73.1%)
- No (26.9%)
- FAFSA Simplification successful completion!
- Traveling to Dublin to visit my son
- The Olympics
- Finishing up some house projects
- Seeing Madonna in concert!
- Coca-Cola/Diet Coke (24%)
- Dr. Pepper (12%)
- Sprite (8%)
- LaCroix (8%)
- Bubly (8%)
- Specialty pizza: pizzeria Lola, pizza Luce
- Donatelli's in White Bear Lake
- Pizza Luce reigns supreme!
- El Mar's pizza or Jet's pizza
- Pizza Man in Columbia Heights!
Tony's tech terms: Git & Github
To review changes to our application code, we use a tool called “git” that helps us keep track of changes to all of our source code in a “repository,” or “repo” for short. We have one repo per application.
A companion to git is GitHub. There’s a free, public version of GitHub at github.com, but the University also maintains an enterprise version at github.umn.edu that we primarily use.
Whenever we make changes to our code, it’s stored as a git “commit.” We write a message for each commit. In that message, we try to provide the context for why we’re making a code change. This is very helpful when we want to trace the history of code changes. We can see messages we left for ourselves about why a change was made, and when. That history is extremely important, so we tend to write longish commit messages. They’re letters from our past.
Once we’re confident that our code changes are ready, we submit a “pull request” in GitHub that notifies the team. We can then see the changed code and review it. This is the time to ask questions and give suggestions. We’ve built up a healthy culture of supporting each other in pull request reviews.
Once a developer approves a pull request, we “merge” it. That just means it gets included with our deployable code. Some of our longer-lived applications have thousands of commits and pull requests. This gives us a rich history that’s especially helpful when working on fixing bugs.
A companion to git is GitHub. There’s a free, public version of GitHub at github.com, but the University also maintains an enterprise version at github.umn.edu that we primarily use.
Whenever we make changes to our code, it’s stored as a git “commit.” We write a message for each commit. In that message, we try to provide the context for why we’re making a code change. This is very helpful when we want to trace the history of code changes. We can see messages we left for ourselves about why a change was made, and when. That history is extremely important, so we tend to write longish commit messages. They’re letters from our past.
Once we’re confident that our code changes are ready, we submit a “pull request” in GitHub that notifies the team. We can then see the changed code and review it. This is the time to ask questions and give suggestions. We’ve built up a healthy culture of supporting each other in pull request reviews.
Once a developer approves a pull request, we “merge” it. That just means it gets included with our deployable code. Some of our longer-lived applications have thousands of commits and pull requests. This gives us a rich history that’s especially helpful when working on fixing bugs.
Thursday, January 11, 2024
Update from Stacey
The holidays provided some time to spend with family and friends and catch up on some reading as well. One book I just finished is Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward. It’s a tale of a woman born into slavery, her quest for a better life, and her connections to her ancestors. It was a powerful read, and I’d recommend it. Please share any good recommendations for books. I’m always searching for more books to add to my reading list. I’ll be checking out some of the ideas from the DEI Committee article below for sure.
I’m not much for making resolutions this time of year, but I still do some reflecting. One of my reflections is how thankful I am for my relationships through work. Thank you to the “secret Santa” that dropped a gift by my door. Thank you to those of you who have written me in response to something I’ve shared here, and most recently, shared some excellent podcast recommendations. Thank you for all of the work that happened over the holidays when much of the University is very quiet. Thank you for sharing your time and energy with ASR in so many ways. I really appreciate you!
I’m not much for making resolutions this time of year, but I still do some reflecting. One of my reflections is how thankful I am for my relationships through work. Thank you to the “secret Santa” that dropped a gift by my door. Thank you to those of you who have written me in response to something I’ve shared here, and most recently, shared some excellent podcast recommendations. Thank you for all of the work that happened over the holidays when much of the University is very quiet. Thank you for sharing your time and energy with ASR in so many ways. I really appreciate you!
Paradigm contract signed
The Office of the Registrar recently concluded an RFP for a diploma processing and fulfillment vendor, and the ASR project team (OTR, AppDev, UX) is kicking off implementation activities now with Paradigm. We will be moving away from “in house” fulfillment and mailing of diplomas and will definitely be looking forward to our vendor solution as we package and mail over 2,500 diplomas this week and next! Paradigm will also be replacing Parchment as our digital credential provider. Parchment will, however, continue to provide transcripts. We are anticipating that the implementation work will conclude in early March 2024.
Performance appraisal reminder
As a reminder, supervisors must complete their performance appraisal sections, reviewing and rating their employees’ appraisals, and submit them to directors in Jadu by January 26, 2024. The rest of the timeline is available on the N&N blog. We recommend copying the performance appraisal questions into a Google Doc, and pasting your answers into the form.
Start of 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).
Snack locations:
Snack locations:
- Bruininks: break room in 225
- 130 Williamson: break room closest to the vault
- 160 Williamson: break room
Reading marginalized voices
For those of us who grew up in the United States, you've probably had to read books like The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, and Lord of the Flies in school. These books are regularly assigned because they’re a part of the literary canon, a set of texts that are considered high-literature with significant cultural, social, and intellectual value. But if you go through the list of books in the canon, you’ll notice an all-too-familiar trend. They are largely the stories of Western, white, and male authors, which raises the question: Whose voices are worth preserving and studying? Whose voices are excluded? Whose voices are co-opted and whose are given credit instead? What do we lose when we only consider a narrow group of art as “important?”
When marginalized authors are excluded from the canon, their values, beliefs, and social and cultural impacts are silenced and erased from history. While authors like Shakespeare and Hemingway are taught in classrooms, lesser known Black authors, for example, like Harriet Jacobs (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl), James Baldwin (Notes of a Native Son), or even entire movements, such as the “Harlem Renaissance,” become footnotes at best, despite their cultural influence on important moments in history, like the Civil Rights Movement. Unsurprisingly, books by or about people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, or persons with disabilities are also the most targeted by book bans.
Reading fiction helps us understand the diverse human experience, exposes ourselves to new perspectives, and breaks down barriers of inequality, stereotypes, and bias. Our examples highlighted Black authors as we near Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but there’s an abundance of books written by other marginalized identities that deserve your attention too. So if you’re an avid reader gearing up for a 2024 reading challenge or just looking for something new to read, we encourage you to check out the recommendations below!
Reading recommendations
When marginalized authors are excluded from the canon, their values, beliefs, and social and cultural impacts are silenced and erased from history. While authors like Shakespeare and Hemingway are taught in classrooms, lesser known Black authors, for example, like Harriet Jacobs (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl), James Baldwin (Notes of a Native Son), or even entire movements, such as the “Harlem Renaissance,” become footnotes at best, despite their cultural influence on important moments in history, like the Civil Rights Movement. Unsurprisingly, books by or about people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, or persons with disabilities are also the most targeted by book bans.
Reading fiction helps us understand the diverse human experience, exposes ourselves to new perspectives, and breaks down barriers of inequality, stereotypes, and bias. Our examples highlighted Black authors as we near Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but there’s an abundance of books written by other marginalized identities that deserve your attention too. So if you’re an avid reader gearing up for a 2024 reading challenge or just looking for something new to read, we encourage you to check out the recommendations below!
Reading recommendations
Fleet Services
If you need to drive to one of our system campuses, you can rent a vehicle through Fleet Services. This is not a rental car system when you travel for a conference. This is used when you need to drive somewhere within Minnesota, and it’s easier to drive instead of fly, such as traveling to the Duluth campus.
To reserve a Fleet Services rental vehicle, coordinate with ASR Central (asrcentral@umn.edu). Be sure to provide the following information:
To reserve a Fleet Services rental vehicle, coordinate with ASR Central (asrcentral@umn.edu). Be sure to provide the following information:
- List of people in the vehicle (and if they will be potential drivers)
- Departure date and time
- Return date and time
- Location you are traveling to and why (i.e., traveling to the Duluth campus for an all-day training on new software)
ASR Staff Engagement January 11 Survey
Happy New Year! This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey is centered around what you are looking forward to in the new year. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences.
According to the last survey, perhaps unsurprisingly, most respondents said that their favorite food to eat when it’s cold is soup. French onion, tomato, and wild rice soup were mentioned among others. When asked about favorite movies to watch during the winter months, Elf and Home Alone were mentioned most frequently. In addition, most say they look forward to spending more time with family and friends each winter.
Finally, just over half of respondents say they do not enjoy eggnog (52.2%), while 21.7% say they love it. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
December 13 survey results
What’s your favorite food to eat when it’s cold?
According to the last survey, perhaps unsurprisingly, most respondents said that their favorite food to eat when it’s cold is soup. French onion, tomato, and wild rice soup were mentioned among others. When asked about favorite movies to watch during the winter months, Elf and Home Alone were mentioned most frequently. In addition, most say they look forward to spending more time with family and friends each winter.
Finally, just over half of respondents say they do not enjoy eggnog (52.2%), while 21.7% say they love it. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
December 13 survey results
What’s your favorite food to eat when it’s cold?
- Potato anything!
- L&B wild rice chicken soup
- Matzoh Ball soup or mac and cheese
- Soup/Chili
- Holiday Inn or White Christmas
- The Shining
- I wouldn't say it's a favorite, but I recently rewatched a Muppet Christmas Carol and forgot how delightful it was
- It's a Wonderful Life or A Sound of Music
- Hockey season
- Spending time with family and friends
- Cozy clothes
- The time to read and do house projects
- Yes, I love it! (21.7%)
- I like it from time to time (26.1%)
- No, I don’t enjoy it (52.2%)
Tony's tech terms: Test Driven Development
What does Test Driven Development (TDD) mean? In short, it means that we write an automated test before we write new code. That test will fail, of course, because the code we want doesn’t exist yet. Then, we begin writing the code to make the test pass. The test defines the behavior and functionality we want. When the test passes, we know that our code is doing what it’s supposed to do.
The Application Development Team works on complex systems. Adding or changing code can have unexpected consequences. Having good test coverage protects us from that. Our test suites are our safety net for adding new behavior, fixing bugs, and doing upgrades. If new or changed code results in an unexpected change in the system, it’s likely that a previously-written test will pick that up and alert us by failing. This helps ensure a high level of stability in our applications, although it doesn't entirely eliminate the possibility of introducing new bugs—as many of you can attest.
Take the Tuition and Fee Management System (TFMS), for example. It is over ten years old, has over 1,200 tests, and has code written by developers who are long gone. However, when we add new features or do an upgrade, our tests will tell us whether or not all of that code is still working as expected. It’s vital to the stability of the application because there’s no way we can all know the complete context of changes over the last ten years. Tests provide safety. That’s why we spend time writing them.
The Application Development Team works on complex systems. Adding or changing code can have unexpected consequences. Having good test coverage protects us from that. Our test suites are our safety net for adding new behavior, fixing bugs, and doing upgrades. If new or changed code results in an unexpected change in the system, it’s likely that a previously-written test will pick that up and alert us by failing. This helps ensure a high level of stability in our applications, although it doesn't entirely eliminate the possibility of introducing new bugs—as many of you can attest.
Take the Tuition and Fee Management System (TFMS), for example. It is over ten years old, has over 1,200 tests, and has code written by developers who are long gone. However, when we add new features or do an upgrade, our tests will tell us whether or not all of that code is still working as expected. It’s vital to the stability of the application because there’s no way we can all know the complete context of changes over the last ten years. Tests provide safety. That’s why we spend time writing them.
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