Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

The Safe Campus Update newsletter recently shared the following information from the Aurora Center about Sexual Assault Awareness Month:

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This year’s theme is “Drawing Connections: Prevention Demands Equity.” The theme draws attention to systems of oppression, including racism, sexism, and heterosexism, that contribute to higher sexual assault, harassment, and abuse rates. Join the Aurora Center in showing your support by:

• Checking out Sexual Assault Awareness Month programming on Instagram.
• Dressing up for Denim Day on Wednesday, April 26.
• Requesting a prevention workshop for your student group or staff department.
• Becoming a volunteer advocate.
• Learning more about the “It Ends Here” campaign and how the University is working to prevent sexual misconduct.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual misconduct, know you are not alone, and help is available.

Do you know of other sexual assault awareness or prevention resources? Share them with the ASR DEI Community of Practice Group (ASR DEI CoP). Not a member? See below.

Provide your feedback on May 9 at the DEI Coffee Hour!

As noted in previous issues of News and Notes, the DEI committee has been working on our purpose, structure, and goals for the group, so we can continue to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in ASR. Please join us for an optional (virtual) coffee hour on Tuesday, May 9 from 8:15 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. to hear what we’ve been up to, and provide your feedback regarding where we should focus our efforts.

For your convenience, this event has been added to your calendar. Please RSVP if you plan to attend, we hope to see you there!

Join our DEI Community of Practice
Subscribe to our DEI Google Group to discuss the latest news, connect with the committee, and keep up with DEI initiatives. More information about the group and DEI committee can be found on the ASR Intranet.

Safety forum

A third safety forum will be held on Thursday, March 2, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Cowles Auditorium and streamed online. University and City of Minneapolis officials will share updates on their efforts to address safety on and around campus and take questions from the community. More information is available at Safety Initiatives at the University.

PI Planning & SAFe

By now, many of you have probably heard about Program Increment Planning (PI Planning), which refers to the quarterly planning meeting that is at the heart of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) methodology. OIT is undergoing a transformation to implement SAFe across its portfolio, which involves meeting every three months to better understand the business priorities across the university. ASR is also planning in three-month increments so our OIT partners can understand ASR priorities and coordinate work across Agile teams for the next quarter. This work is being led by the ASR Operations Group with Kristy Davis and ASR’s leadership team. Currently, we are wrapping up ASR’s quarterly priorities in preparation for OIT’s upcoming PI Planning events the week of January 10.

We recently had managers and leads from ASR IT and OTR attend Leading SAFe training. While we are not in the process of fully transforming into the SAFe methodology, there are pieces, like PI Planning, that we will focus on adopting in 2022. Planning out our work for a quarter will allow our teams to understand the work done across ASR, see the capacity for new initiatives, and communicate impacts when new initiatives are presented to us. There will be more training opportunities in 2022 and collaboration across our teams to implement the most impactful facets of the SAFe methodology. Please contact Jaime Wascalus (wascalus@umn.edu) if you have any questions. We will continue to share updates in N&N.