Thursday, May 18, 2023
Update from Stacey
If you have been looking ahead on your calendars, you may have seen a calendar hold for an ASR event on Thursday, July 27. Like last year, we will be hosting an in-person staff assembly followed by an ASR picnic celebration. I’m looking forward to the event and hope to see you for both the assembly and the picnic. At the assembly, I will give an ASR update, and we will also discuss DEI topics. If there is something you think I should cover in my update, send me an email at tidball@umn.edu. Thanks!
Accepting gift cards
Occasionally, University employees are asked to complete surveys for a chance to win a gift card. For example, WEX, the University’s flexible spending account (FSA) partner, recently sent out an email asking employees to provide feedback on their experience with WEX, and they could then win a gift card for completing the survey.
Winning items like this would violate our conflicts of interest policy. If an employee won the gift card, they would need to return or donate it because it is a conflict of interest, or could have the appearance of being a conflict of interest. Minnesota statute also prohibits employees involved in purchasing, or who directly or indirectly influence a University purchasing decision or contract, from accepting gifts as well.
Winning items like this would violate our conflicts of interest policy. If an employee won the gift card, they would need to return or donate it because it is a conflict of interest, or could have the appearance of being a conflict of interest. Minnesota statute also prohibits employees involved in purchasing, or who directly or indirectly influence a University purchasing decision or contract, from accepting gifts as well.
ASR Staff Engagement May 18 Survey
This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey examines your role at the University. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences.
According to the last survey, the vast majority of respondents are planning to do ‘spring cleaning’ this year (90.5%). When asked about your favorite signs of spring, most say blooming flowers, green grass, and budding trees (42.9%), followed by no more snow (19%) and the return of robins and other migrating birds (19%).
Based on responses, most people are looking forward to spending time on the patio, going on bike rides and getting out on the water this spring and summer. Finally, a whopping 57.1% of respondents have watched all of the Star Wars movies, followed by 14.3% who have watched 7 or more, and 1-3 Star Wars movies respectively. Thanks for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
May 4, 2023 survey results
Are you planning to do any 'spring cleaning' this year?
According to the last survey, the vast majority of respondents are planning to do ‘spring cleaning’ this year (90.5%). When asked about your favorite signs of spring, most say blooming flowers, green grass, and budding trees (42.9%), followed by no more snow (19%) and the return of robins and other migrating birds (19%).
Based on responses, most people are looking forward to spending time on the patio, going on bike rides and getting out on the water this spring and summer. Finally, a whopping 57.1% of respondents have watched all of the Star Wars movies, followed by 14.3% who have watched 7 or more, and 1-3 Star Wars movies respectively. Thanks for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
May 4, 2023 survey results
Are you planning to do any 'spring cleaning' this year?
- Yes (90.5%)
- No (4.8%)
- Not sure (4.8%)
- Return of Robins and other migrating birds (19%)
- Blooming flowers, green grass, and budding trees (42.9%)
- No more snow and/or melting snow (19%)
- Return of bees, frogs, and other critters (4.8%)
- Thunderstorms (4.8%)
- Sitting outside on the patio
- Utilizing my 3 season porch and patio, bike rides, and outdoor dinner parties
- Going on bike rides
- Weekends at the cabin!
- Getting out to the parks and running
- Being outdoors and not freezing
- 0 (4.8%)
- 1-3 (14.3%)
- 3-6 (9.5%)
- 7 or more (14.3%)
- All of them (57.1%)
ASR-IT
- App Dev
- Cassie Simpson joined our team on April 27. Welcome, Cassie!
- So far this quarter we’ve delivered stories for the following:
- College Actionable
- Room search
- SDP
- TFMS
- We’ve replaced a manual process updating SSL Certificates, which expire every year, to a fully automated one to update forty certificates. Industry standards for this continually change. Next year certificate expiration will go from one year to 90 days. Having this automated will save the team lots of time.
- We’re also working with Sara Cokl and Kristen Clements on the Projects team to incorporate feedback from our product owner retrospective. We have a new intake form, and we’ve streamlined the process to make planning easier.
- Quarter three planning is also underway! Product Owners are submitting stories for the next planning meeting.
- Student Data
- After having a strong and robust search pool, we hired a new Business Intelligence Developer who will be starting in June!
- The Course Section and Student Modality dashboard is available on the EM Hub under the Curriculum and Courses tab.
- The newly updated Class Scheduling Distribution Summary will launch in early June 2023.
- This next quarter includes a range of fun and exciting projects:
- Admissions EDW/UM analytics building a new trackbook on the admissions funnel throughout the system
- Retention Priority modeling in preparation for Fall 2023
- Supporting the systemwide re-enrollment pilot effort that is situated with the Systemwide Enrollment Management Council
- Continuing support for building a Coursedog data mart
- Ongoing curricular analytics to support general chemistry
- Ongoing maintenance of existing subject areas and reports for tuition, GPAS and other student reporting
- Destiny One
- The DORS team fully tested the newest Version 2023.1 Destiny One core feature pack, which is now deployed to the Production instance.
- We are working with the vendor, Modern Campus, on several product enhancements (change requests).This work includes finalizing and approving requirements, testing delivered changes, and approval of changes for delivery to the Production instance.
- IAM leadership attended the April Destiny One governance meeting to provide information and answer questions related to the new identity tool and proposed changes to email and Google workspace offerings. Working sessions will be conducted with IAM and the Destiny One user community to reimagine Destiny One accounts, and how learners access the system when the new identity tool is ready for implementation.
- SF IT
- Preparations for tuition calc setup for new year (tasks that don’t require the Regents approval of the Annual Budget.)
- Tested the most recent security updates (CPU) from Oracle, which has been deferred to when the next updates are delivered in late July.
- Working with OIT, U Services, and EDMR on Common Data Layer deliverable to replace x.500 feeds.
- Email for life retirement analysis.
- Reviewing RFP responses for epayment services.
- SR IT
- Busy with end of of term processes, such as grading
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for Coursedog
- Email for life retirement analysis
- Continued security work
- 13 Credit Exemption retirement
- Reporting work for Tuition Attribution and Humphrey by the Numbers
- FA IT
- Summer ‘23 Disbursements are happening.
- AY24 tasks in full swing for all campuses.
- Oracle updates were put into production on May 21 to fix items that were part of Image 28, which went in last month.
- Tested the most recent security updates (CPU) from Oracle, which are deferred until the next updates are delivered in late July.
Fraser construction
Construction on Fraser has begun! They have removed all of the furniture out of the building. Check out the pictures below:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
May is Mental Health Month: Language matters
May is Mental Health Awareness Month! This national month of awareness and action has been recognized since 1949. Mental health is something everyone should care about because almost one in five Americans suffers from anxiety. Depression affects nearly 8% of the population.
People with mental illness are often marginalized and discriminated against in various ways, but understanding what that looks like and how to address and eradicate it can help. One way that we destigmatize mental illness is through the language we use. How often do we hear terms like, insane, crazy, or bonkers used in everyday interactions? The words we choose matters as it not only describes the world around us, but also assigns value and meaning which can impact the people in our lives. Try these alternatives instead:
People with mental illness are often marginalized and discriminated against in various ways, but understanding what that looks like and how to address and eradicate it can help. One way that we destigmatize mental illness is through the language we use. How often do we hear terms like, insane, crazy, or bonkers used in everyday interactions? The words we choose matters as it not only describes the world around us, but also assigns value and meaning which can impact the people in our lives. Try these alternatives instead:
- Crazy, insane or insanity, nuts, wacko/whacko - wild, confusing, unpredictable, impulsive, reckless, fearless, lives on the edge, thrill-seeker, risk-taker, or out of control
- Idiot(ic), stupid or moron(ic) - Uninformed, reckless, impulsive, ignorant, risk-taking, risky, or dangerous
- Dumb - dense, ignorant, lacks understanding, impulsive, risk-taker, uninformed, silly, or foolish
- Lame - boring, uninteresting, monotonous, lacks excitement, uncool, or out of fashion
Want to learn more? Check out these additional resources:
Mental health resources
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.
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.
Office Closure (5/23): One Stop, GSSP, UVS, SAA, and Third Party Billing
One Stop Student Services, University Veterans Services, Graduate Student Services & Progress, Student Account Assistance, and Third Party Billing will be closed from 12:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 23 for a staff event. This includes phone, email, and in-person services at all three One Stop Student Services locations, Student Account Assistance, and Third Party Billing.
Full service will resume at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 24 for all units. The details of this closure are being communicated to both staff and students across multiple platforms. Please share this information with others as needed.
Full service will resume at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 24 for all units. The details of this closure are being communicated to both staff and students across multiple platforms. Please share this information with others as needed.
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