Article by Mary Kovalcin, Library Systems Coordinator at the Weinberg Memorial Library

The Provost’s Office has the important task of managing the Rank and Tenure and Annual Evaluation of faculty processes at the University. This process includes multiple layers of review; faculty are evaluated in the areas of teaching, scholarship and service by department members, Deans and, in the case of Rank and Tenure, the Board of Rank and Tenure. This year, the office was faced with the challenge of transforming the mainly paper-based process into a paperless undertaking. Furthermore, the office was tasked with facilitating discussions, deliberations and votes in the most confidential and private manner as possible.

The first step in the process transformation was to create an area for faculty to share their dossiers and work products with departmental colleagues. Infrastructure and Security Services, IT, created an individual SharePoint folder for each full-time faculty. The folder was earmarked with permissions and privileges to allow fellow department members and Deans to review the work of the faculty and write an evaluation. These permissions/privileges were added and removed to each faculty member’s folder based on the timing of each step in the evaluation process.

After written assessments were complete, departmental meetings were held on Zoom. A secret vote was conducted in the areas of teaching, scholarship and service. Microsoft Form templates were created and distributed to allow the vote to occur. These templates assured that only the department chair would see the results of the vote. In the last step of the process, the department chair used the information from the assessments and vote in his/her final evaluation.

All told, there were 369 evaluations done by faculty, department chairs and deans. Over 400 Microsoft Form templates were used to collect over 500 votes. 200-300 files were uploaded, shared and managed in the process.
The success of the online, paperless process can be attributed to the innovations introduced by Sharepoint, Zoom and Forms. The use of these technologies in upcoming academic years will definitely continue to be explored.

Article by Richard Walsh, Assistant Provost of Operations and Data Analytics Officer

The timing of the Spring 2020 pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Office of the Registrar and Academic Services (ORAS). Registration, grading and commencement season were in full swing. The shift to remote work required some swift thinking and quick conversions from previously paper-based processes to immediate electronic solutions in order to keep to hard deadlines.

One time-sensitive, critical procedure that needed focused attention was the review and approval of graduate student audits for degree. The audits, which were typically printed and sent to Program Directors via inter-office at the end of March and due back at the end of April, could no longer be shared in that manner.

Never one to shy away from new ideas or hard work, Traci Vennie, Senior Records and Graduation Analyst, immediately conceived of a process to convert stacks of paperwork and signature forms to an online format. With the help of IT, Traci collaborated with the Dean’s Offices to shift all student records and approval forms to SharePoint. Each college and program had their own folder of student audit information as well as a summary tracking document in an Excel format. The review status, approval queue and student record were now transparent to all users at all times; in fact, the audit for degree process allowed approximately forty (40) users to actively make updates, issue approvals, and sign off on over 300 graduation clearances in real time.

The impact of this change has been significant across all areas. Adam Szydlowski, Advisor, KSOM reflects: “Keeping up with a paper trail always proved difficult when we had so many applications spread out across campus. SharePoint allows for the applications to be kept securely in one location which keeps the need for tracking to a minimum.” In addition to the efficacies, we have realized with the ease of tracking, communication has improved from the change. Many new ideas have come to the surface, and once an idea is shared, it is fast and simple to implement changes that benefit everyone involved. Dr. Victoria Castellanos, Associate Dean, PCPS sums it up for all: “I love the efficiencies we have gained by using SharePoint!”

While there may have been an initial learning curve, the new process has been an asset to all stakeholders. Users have saved an insurmountable amount of time and resources by utilizing the electronic SharePoint platform. Traci, Adam, Vicki and others hope to keep this degree audit system in place even after campus returns to fully in-person status, and they encourage other offices to think of creative ways to use SharePoint to accomplish shared work projects.

Article by Julie Ferguson, Registrar, Office of the Registrar and Academic Services

A Microsoft employee once (in)famously said that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a Windows 11 or 12, it just means that upgrading won’t be as much of an ordeal as the hop from Windows 7 to Windows 10 (or previous hops from Windows XP to Windows 7; Windows 95 to Windows XP). Well maybe, but not yet.

For the past eleven years or so your on-campus, pre-COVID computer received updates in two ways. Monthly Windows security updates installed in the background once a month and you could restart at your convenience to finish. There was also everyone’s favorite blue (then) and orange (now) KBOX of annoyance that would pop up for third-party application updates as soon as possible after they were released. You had the choice of ignoring it or interrupting your work and installing the updates.

Due to popular demand, KBOX updates were at first consolidated and only appeared once a month. They were then moved to the early morning hours (Security While You Sleep) for those computers that were compatible with the power management requirements and the interruptions went away.

There may not be a Windows 11 or 12 because Microsoft is releasing enhancements twice a year for Windows 10 as what it calls Feature Updates. Security updates, now known as Quality Updates, continue to be once a month. Addressing deficiencies and adding new features no longer depends on Service Packs and new versions of Windows released years apart.

But security as implemented in Windows has to be disruptive and for too many years we in IT looked the other way and indulged everyone in avoiding the pain. Now we are finding that third-party software vendors are requiring newer releases of Windows 10 as the baseline for their own updates. So we must move on.

Existing computers will be updated to a current stable version of Windows. We will lag one version (roughly six months) so others can find the problems with new releases. This will be an intensive effort working within each department and with special handling for each computer as we will be leaping ahead three to five years.

We will start building replacement computers with this stable version and then continue moving forward. But once we catch up, continuing with the Feature Updates and the inherent disruptions will have to be normal operating procedure and we will have to work out a process to keep moving forward while minimizing, but not eliminating, disruptions.