The final issue of the SCU

The System Campus Update (SCU) newsletter has run every other month for the last five years. It has helped us to share information across campuses and stay informed of projects and staff comings and goings.

However, things have changed. In a recent survey we sent to newsletter recipients, we found that the newsletter was no longer a critical component to cross-campus communication. Readers most valued project updates and system council news, but indicated that they get these kinds of information in other, more timely ways such as through project communications, meetings, and regular contact with their peers.

After careful consideration, we have decided to discontinue the System Campus Update newsletter. The SCU blog will remain available as an archive. We will also maintain the All Campus Google Group. Eleanor will continue to keep a pulse on system campus matters and has the ability to reach this audience on short notice. You may contact her directly with any needs.

We encourage you to continue sharing information in meaningful ways with those who need to hear it. This includes communicating with stakeholders in your projects, making sure to deliver critical information from system council meetings to your staff, and building relationships with colleagues across units. As always, system project statuses are available.

Eleanor's update (September 2018)

We’ve recently learned of an initiative that University Relations has been collaboratively working on to develop shared principles and values for a communication strategy and identity/style guide applicable across the University. The key component of this new guidance emphasizes a single University with 5 campuses.

This is a significant change, as over the past few years university language has focused on “system” and "systemwide".  And while this new shift in our terminology is moving forward  there are several ongoing systemwide initiatives and groups that will continue their work, so that systemwide language is still viable.  Given this recent shift in language I would like your ideas to rename this  “System Campus Update” newsletter.  Send them my way.

As the struggle and experimentation with language continues, I challenge all of us to be aware of the power our language has in our relationships, and keep in mind our goal of inclusiveness. At a recent meeting in Duluth, the SRC council spent some time talking about how language can influence and impact our working relationships. The SRC council settled on the usage of “we” in our discussions related to the university as a whole. It’s a work in progress, and as with all change, it will take some time for us to shift our language, but it's a start.

Eleanor's update (July 2018)

It's summer and the heat is on, figuratively and literally! What a busy time for everyone.

We’re wrapping up the past fiscal year, setting up tuition figures and preparing award packages, testing new applications, delivering diplomas, working to make sure fall enrollment goes well, and so much more. We have also closed the CS PS 9.2 Upgrade project and begun work to implement uAchieve (more details below). Before we know it, fall term will be here!

Eleanor’s update (May 2018)

Seems to be that time of year again, spring. Along with many annual updates like doing performance reviews, working on individual development plans, updating and signing the data privacy pledge, and taking the mandatory sexual misconduct training there is that whole other business of graduating students. As you can see from this month’s newsletter there is a lot going on and we often forget to celebrate our mutual successes. I hope that somewhere in your day you can find a moment to reflect on your contribution and celebrate a little bit of the success of those graduating students.

Eleanor’s update (March 2018)

Once again I am amazed at the amount and variety of projects and initiatives we are pursuing. We have some early indicators of good news for the University's budget request with the governor showing support. Of course it is still early in the process, but we have an invitation to Support the U Day. Wouldn’t it be great if we could avoid tuition increase next year?

Several of our campuses are experiencing changes, and welcoming new staff on board. And we continue to make progress on many of our IT priorities including the Custom Solutions PeopleSoft 9.2 Upgrade project.

Eleanor’s update

Happy New Year! We are off to a running start as all the system campuses have begun spring term. Overall, things are going pretty well.

As you take a moment to read this newsletter, notice how we continue to make improvements to better serve students. In student records, a new transfer evaluation system (TES) has gone live for Twin Cities, the tracking and processing of diplomas has significantly improved for all campuses, and creation of a new curriculum analysis dashboard—part of the Student Success Analytics (SSA) efforts—is ready at Duluth. Financial aid staff have made spring disbursements across the system, sent estimated awards for next year for Morris and Rochester, and the student finance area has already implemented two of its CS PS 9.2 Upgrade Phase II projects. Not a bad way to start the new year and the new term.

Eleanor's update

We are already nearing the end of the calendar year, can you believe it? It seems like October was the month for conferences—take a look at the variety of events staff from across the system have participated in this past month. Maybe you’ll see a conference that will inspire you to get involved. You’ll also see that many projects are moving along and closing in on solutions to improve our service for students.

Eleanor's update (September 2017)

Another fall term has started, and all our various groups are steaming full speed ahead. There are a multitude of projects in the works, not the least of which is the CS PS 9.2 Upgrade with the phase 1 technical upgrade going live this weekend. You can read more about this below.

We have begun our annual campus visits with our first visit to the Crookston campus two weeks ago, and the Duluth campus visit is scheduled for the end of next week. These visits are whirlwinds. The face-to-face conversations are always full of interesting information and never fail to energize me. Just like I hope the information in this newsletter energizes you for the new academic year ahead.

Eleanor's update

As summer arrived, we all patiently awaited the results of the June Board of Regents special meeting for the University’s budget information. The board did approve a budget and we did finally get the numbers. Now the Student Finance group has been working feverishly to get those numbers set up in PeopleSoft so we can build student cost of attendance budgets, award financial aid, and charge the appropriate tuition and fees.

Also of interest at the meeting, the Regents approved the system-wide strategic plan framework. Convened last fall, this group has worked over the past year with the overarching goal to better align our resources and leverage our strengths as a system. The plan has some familiar recommendations. It will be interesting to see the future of these recommendations. Details can be found at Strategic Vision for the University System.

Eleanor’s update

As we’re embarking on summer term and preparing for the next academic year we have many projects in the works. This System Campus Update issue highlights several OIT technology related projects that impact all of us, as well as an update on the Campus Solutions PeopleSoft 9.2 Upgrade project. When I read about all of this work in progress it makes me wonder whatever happened to the “lazy hazy days of summer?”

Eleanor's update

Spring has arrived and with it comes all the activity and preparation for graduating students.
As we keep our heads down and work with the many daily details to support students’ progress towards degrees we sometimes forget the bigger picture. But let’s not. Instead, let’s remember this is the time of year we can actually see the results of all those efforts: students leaving the University with degrees!

Student Records folks are making class search easier for students to find the right classes at the right time, and the Student Financial Aid group is providing Prior, Prior Year (PPY) guidance in this transition year. Student Finance folks are making sure students can continue to do business with the University electronically, and One Stop Student Services staff are continuing to promote financial wellness. Read on to learn more about all of these and other efforts contributing to student success at the University.

Eleanor’s update (Jaunary 2017)

The start of a new year and a new term is keeping us all busy. On the whole, things are going well with a few bumps in the road. Friday the13th did pay us a visit with an “oops” to the 13-credit exemption communications, but staff worked quickly to smooth out the issues.

As you can tell from this newsletter there is a lot happening for us on a systemwide level; I hope you will find the news interesting and helpful.

Eleanor's update

This fall we have been out visiting with Duluth, Crookston, and Morris campuses sharing information and seeking input on current initiatives. These visits allow us to exchange information face-to-face and listen to each other’s concerns. They also allow us to work together to support each other, and look for opportunities to tackle challenges.

Shortly after returning from Crookston I saw the information from President Kaler announcing the formation of a new committee: the System-wide Strategic Planning Committee. As I read through the information, it was almost like time traveling back to the ESUP project and the formation of the various student steering committees which we have continued as system councils.

Some of the articulated goals and the posed questions are items we adopted during ESUP and have continued to strive towards over the last several years. Take a look at the following and see if these items sound familiar.

Goals:

• While still being mindful of the distinctive missions and strengths of our five campuses, each campus plan will continue to locally guide decision-making and resource-allocation.
• The system-wide plan should articulate the common values, processes, and expectations across campuses, and how the unique strengths of each part of the system.
• Make planning efforts to better align our resources and leverage our strengths as a system.
• Recommend new opportunities to leverage a system-wide perspective to benefit all of our students and citizens across the state.

Questions:

• Who are we as a University system? What are our collective strengths and commitments? What are the unique strengths of individual campuses?
• How do we ensure that the unique areas of strength are complementary and connected within the system?

Each committee member is to work as a “University citizen,” not solely as a representative of a specific campus, unit, or constituency, so that the committee will think creatively and big about how we can make our University of Minnesota system more impactful and greater than the sum of its parts.

Eleanor’s update

We’ve had a smooth start to fall term across all our campuses, made possible by your collective dedication to supporting student success.

It’s a busy time, and it is also time for making our annual campus visits. Sue and I will be making visits to all the campuses this fall. We will begin this month at Duluth, followed by Crookston in October, and Morris in November. Rochester will be scheduled soon.

These annual visits provide opportunities to meet face-to-face and exchange information and updates, review achievements from the past year, and strategically focus on our future initiatives and projects.

Please read through this month's’ system campus update to get an idea of all the exciting work that has been underway.

Eleanor's Update (January 2016)

It’s a New Year and it’s spring—term that is, time for reflecting on the past year and preparing for what’s ahead: Student Financials will be producing the 1098-T for the first time in PS V9; Financial Aid just did an Aid Year Rollover; and Student Records is fine tuning business processes related to enrollment, class search, and the backbridge.

The spring term is off an running and things seem to be going smoothly systemwide. ASR-IT put in place additional support for the start of the term to address any potential system issues. We did not experience any major system-wide problems; it appears that we are finally settling into our business in the PS V9 world.

You may notice in this month’s newsletter that we have begun to provide a fuller definition of some of the acronyms we use. They are second nature to so many of us—but we often forget they can be daunting or confusing to those outside our fields. Hopefully this additional information will be helpful in building understanding across our areas of expertise. Let me know what you think.

Eleanor's update (November 2015)

The fall all campus in-person meeting has come and gone. It seems we never have enough time together to do all the things we’d like to do, and the meeting evaluation results support that sentiment. Thank you to those who responded to the evaluation. I’ll be looking at the interesting dynamic between wanting more team time and wanting more cross functional opportunities and seeking to create ways to meet both desires going forward.

Rankings

	Little	Some	Great	N/A
Value of whole meeting	0	14	18	0
Value of the general session	1	17	12	0
Value of the team session	0	6	22	0
Value of the reception	4	12	8	5

Some survey comments:

• It would be nice to have a "mixer" of sorts. We just sat with our own campus - not as valuable as mixing us up. We need help with being mixed up...
• I really appreciated the time we had for our small working groups. This was of utmost value!
• Suggest sharing across the various areas with the whole group, such as top 5 things each group is working on.
• The ability to meet in person with dedicated "chunks of time" is always helpful and meaningful.
• More times for open dialogue or meetings among the group. When sharing what each unit is doing, more time for questions and answers.

Eleanor's update - September 2015

Happy fall term—and what a start it’s been! Do you need something to look forward to?  Preparation for the fall All Campus in-person meeting is underway. The invitation and lodging information will be shared this week with a drafted agenda to follow.

As the agenda is coming together it’s clear to see we are in a period of adjustment as we fully exercise the PS V9 system. You’ll see many of the topics for the meeting are from our post go-live lists, but there are a few new items that we’ve encountered with the start of fall term; this includes several cross functional topics.

We have some work to do but if any group can pull together and figure it out, make a plan, and execute to a successful resolution for students, you are the group working together that has always gotten the job done.

Since not everyone can attend in-person, there will be remote access via WebEx for the All Campus meeting on Tuesday morning. Whenever possible, each team will be offering Google hangout for sessions; check the agenda to see which sessions will offer remote access.

There is a great deal of information to share, and teams will have lots to work on but don’t dismay, even with all the work there will be time for networking opportunities. I am looking forward to our gathering next month!

Eleanor's Update (July 2015)

Happy July! What a spectacular Minnesota summer we are having – I hope you all get a chance to take some time and enjoy it. Summer is flying by, and I keep wondering how it has gotten away from us. Sue and I have been looking at calendars to find workable dates to get some campus visits in before the snow flies. Looks like we’ll be traveling in late summer early fall to visit the campuses.

The All Campus membership list has been updated this month, so don’t be surprised when meeting placeholder notices begin appearing on your calendars for the year. We are also working on our fall in-person get together for sometime in mid to late October, held in the Twin Cities. If you have suggestions for a theme, topics, or agenda items for this meeting, please send them my way.

Even with the upgrade behind us, the pace of work has not slowed down. It’s encouraging to see the continuation of collaboration across offices, units, and campuses as we all move forward towards stabilizing our business. Teams have been ranking and prioritizing projects from the parking lot list so we won’t forget anything and will be prepared to meet deadlines. ASR is looking at a similar approach to make sure all student reporting needs are met. And we are all getting used to working with in new organizational units like the Portal group.

So many opportunities and so much change – do you wonder when the dust settles how things will be? Maybe that will be our focus when we get together in October. One thing for sure is the dedication to making a positive difference in students life will continue to guide our decisions.

Eleanor's Update - May 2015

Just when we think we’ve got some breathing room with the successful Upgrade implementation behind us—here comes a new day, full of tasks, and the projects we’ve had in the parking lot. Several new initiatives and new opportunities are already underway as each functional area begins review and prioritization of items for post go live action.

But let’s not forget to pause, take a breath, and celebrate our success. Let’s recognize the journey we’ve taken together. The understanding we’ve gained, the contacts we’ve made, and relationships we’ve developed with each other over the course of the project have strengthened us so we are now more than ready to tackle these new projects.

I hope to support you all in the sustainment of these new relationships. My temporary test coordinator assignment activities are wrapping up as the implementation is done and we are in the enhanced care phase of the project. I have begun transition back to my systems campus relations role, once again defining and refining my role to best serve and support you. I look forward to our continued partnerships.

Now take a look below to see just a sampling of what has been happening across the system.

ESUP Student and All Campus Meeting evaluation results

Thank you all for providing some great feedback on the June 16-17 meeting! The survey results supported our observations that the meeting was a success. And yes....the meeting rooms were cold!

Overall, confidence was expressed in the success of the ESUP project. The top three sessions that rated as highly effective were: Workstream Intersections with Sue Van Voorhis, Mike Volna, Lori Lamb; Module Intersections Panel on Student PS Experience; and Training Approaches and Updates with Heather Micek, Jennifer Love, Nancy Killian.

While the feedback showed the group was very focused toward the hard data sessions and the live demonstration, many were delighted that President Kaler and Robert McMaster were able to make time in their schedules to recognize the important work of the ESUP Student team.

The All Campus Module Team report-out information regarding the teams challenges has been gathered by the Communications and Change Management team (CCT). This information will be shared with Sue Van Voorhis and the Project Leadership team and work will continue as to alleviate these challenges whenever possible. The output from the Addressing Difficult Changes with Stakeholders session with Kate Sophia, John Vollum, Lea Bittner-Eddy, Scott Bernard, Patty Bales, Jen Mein, and Matt Tveter is being shared with the CCT group for use in future planning.

Many of you expressed the need for more module time. The survey revealed the face-to-face meeting format is irreplaceable and the module time was extremely effective in getting work done. We will work to incorporate more module time in future events.

Additionally, many of you provided feedback and suggestions regarding the social component of the meeting (did someone say scavenger hunt, or was that happy hour?). The majority liked the idea of a baseball outing (despite the weather not cooperating). The "kudos" was a little under the radar, so in the future we will work to better highlight this type of recognition.

The feedback on the facilities and food were positive. The buffets were a hit but the breaks were a bit short (and Starbucks did a nice bit of business on our coffee demands!).

Finally, thank you to those of you who took time to complete the survey. We will act on the feedback as we begin planning the next event for early November to be held in the Twin Cities.