In today’s rapidly evolving Higher Education environment, IT professionals of all types face a unique set of challenges that require constant adaptation and innovation. Navigating these challenges alone is not only daunting but can limit both personal and institutional growth. This is where communities of practice, like SIGUCCS, become invaluable. These communities offer a supportive network where professionals can share experiences, solve problems collaboratively, and develop new skills. More than just a professional network, SIGUCCS is a space where IT professionals can thrive together by leveraging collective knowledge and shared resources. This session is designed to set the tone for the next three days of the conference by highlighting the critical role that communities of practice play in the professional development of Higher Ed IT professionals. Participants will be introduced to the concept of leveraging communities like SIGUCCS to not only address current challenges but also to foster long-term success and innovation in their institutions. Through real-world examples and personal anecdotes from SIGUCCS members, we will explore how these networks have contributed to problem-solving, professional growth, and the development of lasting relationships that transcend individual roles and campuses. The session will feature interactive activities, including group activities foster immediate connections and shared insights. These discussions will allow participants to reflect on how being part of a community has helped them overcome professional challenges and develop innovative solutions in their roles. By the end of this session, participants will have a clearer understanding of the value of communities like SIGUCCS in shaping their professional journeys. They will also be energized and ready to fully engage with the conference, making the most of the networking, learning, and sharing opportunities available. Whether you are a new member or a seasoned SIGUCCS participant, this session will help you tap into the collaborative spirit of the community and leave you poised to make the most of the next three days.
Higher education IT departments face a critical challenge: efficiently onboarding new student employees with limited time while ensuring accessibility and engagement. This presentation introduces a practical approach to training using Arcade Software, combining microlearning principles and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines. Arcade is an interactive demo platform that allows users to create engaging, personalized product demonstrations quickly and easily, requiring no coding skills. We'll showcase how this method tackles common issues such as time constraints, information overload, and the need for accessible, engaging content.
What does it take for women to thrive in higher ed IT leadership? Despite their contributions, women in IT remain underrepresented in decision-making roles, with a 2023 global survey reporting 14% of tech leadership positions held by women . In higher education IT, systemic barriers such as workplace biases, lack of sponsorship, and pipeline gaps continue to hinder progress . This panel examines these challenges while offering actionable strategies to foster equity and inclusion. Drawing on research and real-world experiences, the discussion will focus on: ● Mentorship and Sponsorship: Research shows that visibility and support are critical for women to advance. Panelists will explore how to champion women through mentorship and advocacy. ● Breaking Barriers: Success stories of women overcoming systemic challenges provide insights into strategies for creating inclusive environments and leadership opportunities. ● Institutional Change: The conversation will address how higher ed IT organizations can improve hiring practices, reimagine leadership pipelines, and embed inclusion into workplace culture. This session is designed for leaders, aspiring professionals, and allies who want to champion inclusion and work towards leadership development that ensures women have a seat at the table and are empowered to lead. Join us to learn how we can collectively build equitable pathways for women to thrive and shape the future of higher ed IT.
Learn how giving colleagues access to data through familiar tools like Excel can enable better decision-making and bring people together through shared and easily accessed information. If you have data from one or more systems that can be exported to csv and access to Excel, you have everything you need to build dashboards that will give both your techy and non-techy staff access to those systems data! Microsoft’s Power Query makes it simple to work with .csv files by letting you filter, sort, split, and clean your data through an easy-to-use interface. Once you’ve set it up, all you need to do is save a fresh .csv file and click “Refresh All,”. Excel will automatically apply the same steps and show the updated data in the familiar Excel interface. This allows even non-techy folks to navigate and access shared data. This session will showcase examples of existing Excel and Power BI dashboards used to elevate data driven decision-making, and then walk attendees through the steps to make their own in Excel using Power Query. You’ll leave with example dashboards and the steps you need to get started building your own Dashboards using Power Query in Excel or Power BI. Elevate your discussions to be more data driven by giving all your staff access to your data in the familiar Excel interface.
Our mission: Unify a university IT environment by consolidating over 600 IT staff utilizing more than eight work management systems onto a single platform. The goal was to harmonize these systems, standardize our metrics, and establish consistent processes to enhance the support we provide to over 40,000 customers.
IT Manager, Client Services, Oregon State University
Passionte about making a difference in the world. Some ways are through IT Service Management (ITSM), leadership, mentoring and sustainabilty.Hobbies - Craft beer and owner of a microbrewery, photography, SIGUCCS!
Communication, though an integral part of life, can be a weird phenomenon for many. Some find it easy to voice their concerns and opinions in such fluidity that it can only be described as second nature. Alternatively, others will find it difficult, often bottling up the things bothering them until they reach their breaking point. In the workplace, actions like this can lead to deeper issues, such as frustration, disengagement, and ultimately, the deciding factor for an employee to leave the company. In this presentation, I aim to explore communication styles in various aspects of the work environment through the lens of the beloved Australian kids’ show, Bluey. I will be delving into helpful communication tips with peers, managers, and other departmental/end-user interactions while referencing lessons taught throughout the show. The presentation aims to be fun and educational, all in the same beat. Together, we will explore the dynamic between characters of the show, how they communicate with each other to solve problems collaboratively, how active listening is portrayed throughout conversations, navigating specific topics, and bringing it back to how this mimics interactions in the workplace. There are many examples throughout the series in which talking things through has helped clear up situations, providing a better understanding so that both parties can move forward. For example, in the episode “Wagon Ride,” the kids, Bluey and Bingo, along with their dad, Bandit, are all heading to the park. On the way, Bandit runs into another dad, Rocko, and they stop to have a conversation, pausing their trip to the park. As the dads talk, this delay upsets Bluey, causing frustration, interruptions in Bandit’s conversation, and unexpected outbursts. Bandit addresses the frustration that both of their actions have caused one another and together they create an action plan to avoid frustration in the future. Effectively communicating allows open dialogue and aids in resolving interpersonal situations, as well as bringing opportunities for learning and collaboration. With Bluey as our guide, we are reminded of the value of open and honest communication and its application in the workplace - not only will everyone feel as if their voices are being heard, but they will feel as if, no matter what, there will always be a way forward.
Throughout the changing landscape of Higher Education, the models for student and classroom support have drastically changed over the past five years. One of those major changes is how we provide supports in the technical sphere, specifically with changed staffing models. One such model eliminated the specialized support technician as dedicated classroom support in lieu of a generalized support staff which not only covered IT and Media Services, but also testing, tutoring and library support. Due to this change, there was an influx of support staff serving as technicians in non-technical roles.
This presentation covers the process for training these non-technical staff into their technical roles to provide support equal to the specialized staff of years past. Topics covered would be how a training plan was developed utilizing staff knowledge-gap surveys, specific training plans, individualized training plans (from both internal and external sources) and industry certifications. Finally, it would cover the ongoing planning for assimilating new staff, as well as how to continuously check that skills remain up to date.
Methodologies used to deploy and configure Windows PCs have evolved significantly. This paper examines a 20-year timeframe at Lehigh University and chronicles changes in tools and techniques, as well as lessons learned. Microsoft 365, Microsoft Intune, Autopilot, and other elements of modern endpoint management are discussed in detail.
Hi, My name is Devin Jayetileke. I work as a library and computing consultant for Lehigh University. In my job i am involved in many projects including working with deployment of both Apple and Windows devices as well as working at our helpdesk providing IT/Library support to faculty... Read More →
The success of any IT team starts with hiring the right people who meet the team's needs, and who can work together to accomplish the team's goals. There is sometimes a focus on adding more human resources to accomplish more as a team, though the focus really should be on identifying, recruiting, and hiring the right people to build team synergy and improve team productivity. This presentation will talk about how to go through the staffing process to identify the right people in order to build a highly productive and successful team.
The SIGUCCS Academy Customer Service microcredential is designed to equip higher education IT support professionals with essential skills and strategies for providing excellent customer support aligned to institutional values.
In an environment of shrinking budgets and increasing demand for technology and automation, effective customer service skills are critical for IT support professionals to build trust and deliver reliable support. This Academy workshop comprises three targeted sessions designed to equip participants with practical tools and strategies to take the quality and efficiency of customer interactions in your service organization to the next level.
Session 1: Mastering the Art of Exceptional Customer Care Instructor – Heather Romanski
Session 2: Climbing the PEAK of Customer Service Instructor – Becky Klein
Session 3: Elevating Customer Support with GenAI Instructor – Miranda Carney-Morris
Assistant Director, Campus Relations, Drake University
I oversee the ITS Support Center, manage ~25 Student Techs, and administer our TeamDynamix system.My certifications and campus roles:NCBI facilitator and ally-in-trainingAdjunct ProfessorAdvisor, Pi chapter, Sigma Alpha Iota International Music FraternityCPR/AEDMHFAQPR
The SIGUCCS Academy Project Management microcredential track equips higher education. IT professionals with essential project management skills focused on user-centered outcomes. This series covers core strategies in planning, developing user stories to prioritize needs, and applying practical tools to execute projects efficiently. Each one-hour session builds skills that enable participants to lead projects with clarity, focus, and effectiveness. Participants who complete the series will leave with a comprehensive understanding of project management, from planning and stakeholder engagement to execution and refinement.
Session 1: Project Management 101 for IT Managers Instructor – Beth Rugg
Session 2: Gathering User Stories Instructor – Elizabeth Young
Session 3: Breaking Down and Managing Tasks Instructor – Mitchell Ochi
The 2025 SIGUCCS Academy Student Supervisors microcredential track is designed to develop the ability of IT student worker supervisors to manage, train, and empower IT student employees while fostering their post-graduation career readiness. Each session builds on the last, creating a comprehensive framework for success.
Session 1: Crafting Career-Ready Student Tech Gurus Instructors – Amy Kullgren and Tom Bohlke
Session 2: Leveraging LinkedIn Learning for Student Training Instructor – Karl Owens
Session 3: Fun and Frames: Play-Based Project Management for Student Employees Instructor – Reagan Chesnut
Assistant Director: Service and Process, Hope College
Reagan Chesnut (she/her) is the Assistant Director: Service and Process at Hope College in Holland, MI, where she equips users with skills and knowledge to self-sustain technology use, designs training and resources for community confidence and competence, and performs as part of... Read More →
Are you currently working in technical support, instructional technology, or other technical field, and interested in making a move into cybersecurity, or a technical field different than the one you’re in now? It's not always obvious how to translate your prior experience to different positions. Come learn about one Chief Information Security Officer's successful career transition from working in help desk and general IT roles to working full time in cybersecurity. Discover how to reframe your tech support or other experiences in ways that are relevant to roles in other areas, using actual resume and job description examples. Learn about the different cybersecurity-related roles and what they entail, and which certification or learning opportunities are most helpful for the roles you're targeting. Discuss methods and strategies for gaining experience in key areas that can help you advance.
In this presentation, two junior IT staff members will share their journey of learning and implementing advanced endpoint management systems, specifically JAMF Pro and Microsoft Intune, within a resource-constrained higher education environment. We will provide a look at our experiences, from initially being overwhelmed to growing competence, highlighting the unique challenges we faced and the strategies we developed to overcome them. We will delve into our process of self-directed learning and team knowledge transfer. We will highlight the mistakes we made and what we learned from them, along with the small victories that kept us motivated. We will continue with a discussion with attendees to create a supportive space for professionals at all levels to share experiences, brainstorm solutions, and develop strategies for success in endpoint management. Whether you are new to the field, facing similar resource constraints, or an experienced professional looking to mentor others, our discussions will focus on providing insights and practical takeaways for navigating endpoint management.
This paper is an overview of a study that examines the integration of Learning Management Systems (LMS) to enhance accessibility in higher education, utilizing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the Social Model of Disability frameworks. The primary objective is to assess the current state of LMS accessibility and its impact on equity in learning opportunities within U.S. higher education institutions. Preliminary findings show significant variability in accessibility practices, influenced by institutional resources, faculty training, and administrative support. Despite legal mandates, gaps in meeting accessibility standards persist, leading to unequal learning opportunities for students with disabilities. The complete results, presented at the SIGUCCS 2025 conference, offer recommendations for enhancing accessibility and inclusivity in higher education. This study aims to promote proactive and universally designed educational practices, contributing to more equitable academic environments.
Our panel will include students from various universities discussing what life is like seeking support for their IT needs on campus, in classrooms, and online.
Some students on our campus are not satisfied with the current campus map because it does not contain information that meets their needs. If the campus map can be easily edited and updated by users who are students, faculty, and staff, like a page of a wiki, it can become a map that contains information meeting their needs. We are trying to create a "living campus map" using an existing wiki, combining it with Wiki IoT/Bot Computing, which is an IoT system. The living campus map will be a map that contains information that represents users' needs and reflects the latest status of the campus.
This poster tells the story of the development of our community stop-motion animation stand and its use in anchoring the Animation-a-Thon, a recurring event that invites members of the Mount Holyoke College community to engage in an act of collaborative storytelling and storymaking that has both physical and digital components, and a digital output. This ongoing community-engaged digital humanities effort has opened up the ability to access and use a form of technology that was previously unavailable or restricted to art studio majors on our campus. We will also showcase examples of the animation stand’s use in various disciplines, with an emphasis on its applicability in an interdisciplinary First Year Seminar environment. Join us to explore how bringing in one new piece of technology can become a means of democratizing pedagogical and creative development across departments and communities. The audience of this poster will gain insight into the potentially outsized impact of a project with a small budget, while also cultivating an understanding of the creative potential that an analogue/digital hybrid animation stand can bring to a variety of courses.
The recent CrowdStrike incident was a challenge for many institutions and IT departments across the globe. While this certainly presented a difficulty for Lehigh University, the outage also exposed opportunities for improvement in our support infrastructure and communication strategies. This presentation will explore how the inability to push remote solutions led to an intensive, in-person resolution process, revealing both the challenges and opportunities inherent in managing client services during a crisis. By examining the complexities of this situation, we will illustrate our dual focus on enhancing client communication and refining security best practices. The incident not only highlighted the importance of maintaining transparent, proactive client interactions but also underscored the necessity of balancing robust security practices with operational efficiency. Through this lens, we will discuss the lessons learned, the improvements made, and how these insights have strengthened our overall approach to client support and data protection. One of the significant difficulties encountered was maintaining effective communication with clients throughout the crisis, which included faculty and staff but not students. During the rollout of our solutions our approach to each group was identical, but there does seem to be room for future optimization by catering the approach to each client group. Transparent and timely updates were crucial in managing client expectations and demonstrating our commitment to resolving the issue. We implemented a structured yet dynamic communication plan, providing regular progress reports and outlining the steps being taken to address and rectify the situation. This proactive engagement was vital in maintaining client trust and demonstrating our dedication to both service and security. Our goal was not only to provide updates but to explain why the outage, while inconvenient and disruptive, illustrated how these services were pivotal in protecting our clients. Furthermore, the incident underscored the importance of encryption as a critical security measure. While the encrypted hard drives contributed to the complexity of the repair process and precluded a remote solution, they successfully protected client data from unauthorized access, reinforcing the value of stringent security practices. In the immediate aftermath, this experience allowed us to illustrate to clients the inherent balance between robust security and responsive support while creating a touchstone experience for future communications. In summary, the CrowdStrike interruption serves as a case study in balancing necessary security measures with effective client service and communication. The experience has underscored the importance of integrating client support considerations more fully into our security strategies, ensuring that we not only protect data but also maintain seamless service delivery in times of crisis. This presentation will explore these dimensions in detail, offering insights into how our security framework can evolve to better support both our clients and our operational resilience.
This paper presents our ongoing research in identifying use cases, developing plans, and evaluating the effectiveness of measures taken to ensure our network meets the needs of Fukuoka University use cases, focusing on our work to transition to IPv6 next-generation networks and enhancements to network security. Against the backdrop of the rapidly evolving era of ultra-high- capacity communications, the number of devices connected to cam- pus networks is rapidly increasing in terms of the number of Wi-Fi device connections at Fukuoka University. As a result, the prob- lem of IPv4 address space exhaustion, here is an urgent need to review IPv4 operations and migrate IPv6, the next-generation In- ternet protocol. This smooth transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will be discussed in detail based on our case study in Part 1[1] and our plans for the future. In addition, university network security has become increasingly important in recent years as cyber attacks have become more sophisticated and diversified. Therefore, from the viewpoint of network security, we will analyze more deeply how the introduction of Web Content Filter Service and ProtectiveDNS contributes to improving security, following Part 1[1], and clarify its effective- ness and challenges. This presentation of our research will provide attendees with information and examples of real-world applications of cutting-edge technology, and IPv6 deployment and network security technologies, along with clear guidelines for what to consider when implementing similar strategies in complex networking environments.
Customer service is a key performance indicator (KPI) and a core value in our department; so how can we make it enjoyable? Join us to discover how we leverage Customer Service Week to transform customer service training into an experience that is fun and inclusive. In this session, we will present a low-cost, in-house solution that combines food and fun to enhance customer service training. By leveraging themed activities, games, and culinary treats, we create an environment where learning customer service skills becomes an enjoyable and memorable experience. Throughout the year we also use a satisfaction survey that was developed in-house. The results help us to give timely feedback to our staff and identify areas where we can improve. Participants will learn how to implement these strategies in their own departments, fostering a culture of excellence and enthusiasm. Our approach not only improves customer service skills but also boosts team morale and engagement, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Come and explore how you can make customer service training a delightful and effective part of your team’s development.
In the spring of 2023, Anne Arundel Community College implemented a new student and employee portal while transitioning from ADFS to Azure SSO for authentication. This change required users to log in using their full institutional email address instead of a username, which was a significant adjustment for faculty, staff, and students. Initially, AACC planned to retain its existing password policy, which required a minimum of 8 characters, and a combination of three out of four elements: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. The policy also enforced a 90-day password expiration cycle for employees, with reminder emails sent beginning 14 days before expiration. After several months of using Azure SSO, AACC’s IT division discovered that Azure was not enforcing Active Directory (AD) password expiration rules as ADFS had done. This issue allowed employees to continue accessing services with expired passwords through Azure, while access to services tied directly to AD, such as wired network connections, would prompt users to change their passwords. As a significant portion of employees worked remotely, many were unaware that their passwords had expired and continued to use them without interruption. To address this oversight, the IT security team collaborated with the service desk to develop a solution to restore the 90-day password reset cycle. However, after assessing the complexity of enforcing this change, which would require extensive support and cause disruptions, AACC opted for a different approach. The situation presented an opportunity to realign the college’s password policy with the latest National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines. According to NIST, frequent forced password changes are no longer recommended when strong password requirements and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are in place, as periodic changes can lead to poor password habits like reusing or slightly modifying old passwords, making them vulnerable to breaches.
In spring of 2023, the renovation of our IT department office at Hope College was completed. It was our first office renovation since the 80s. The renovation took almost 3 months to complete. During the renovation, most staff members either worked remotely at home or another location on campus. Our help desk support staff had two locations on campus for walk-in and drop-off help. We have a separate technician space for our A/V techs that was renovated separately so those staff persons were unaffected and our main help desk person worked from there. We emphasized the importance of keeping Google Calendar updated, extra diligent work ticket notes, being contactable via phone, and availability on messaging apps like Google Chat and Slack.
We converted our department from a maze of hallways and enclosed spaces to an open office with all desks in a communal area. There are 5 separate meeting rooms for phone calls, virtual/hybrid meetings, meeting with each other, and hosting external meetings. We have also tested the cultural impact of white noise machines around the office, as well as music in the customer service walk-in area. Most of our staff is able to work remotely 2 days per week, so the majority of our desks are hotel-like (meaning no permanent assigned desks; just a communal workspace with a USB-C monitor).
The meeting rooms have room reservation tablets on the door that are connected to our campus room reservation system. Each room can be reserved on the tablet itself or on our campus room reservation website. There is a 1-person private room, 2-person “project / work room”, two 5-person rooms, and an 8-person room. The three 5- and 8-person rooms have a large-screen TV. Our previous main entrance was not handicap accessible, so we completely changed on which side of the building our front entrance was located. This was also an opportunity to improve both the IT department office and dormitory by now having automatic door openers. Another improvement by moving the front entrance is greater visibility of our department from persons walking past outside.
I fix computers and do miscellaneous help desk functions. Hope uses Moodle and Google Apps for Education. I also deal with phishing scams and recovering files from bad hard drives. Outside of work I like paddleboarding and photography.
Osaka Kyoiku University provides a Wired and a Wireless LAN Network on all campuses called “GRAPES” to students, faculty, staff, and university guests. We completed a major upgrade of our wired and wireless networks by March 2024. This upgrading included a large-scale replacement of floor switches and Wireless LAN Access Points in user areas to improve the performance and reliability of the network. At this point, the latest multi-gigabit-capable switches and access points were deployed, resulting in significantly improved data transfer speeds and connection stability. In addition, this updating included the system to monitor and check the health status of the network equipment installed, as well as the network itself. This system has helped to reduce operational costs by providing a real-time understanding of the network's operational status, and has enabled a quick and efficient response for troubles that have occurred. When this system is deployed, it is necessary to shut down the network when equipment is to be replaced. However, there are only a limited time to perform the network shutdown. In order to replace efficiently, careful scheduling is necessary. During the replacement process under these circumstances, a variety of problems also occurred. For example, connection problems due to misconfiguration and lack of switch ports. By conducting these actions, we learned various knowledge in the step of completing the renewal work smoothly. In addition to the large-scale renewal, the network configuration of eduroam, which is the Wireless LAN Network for university guests, was also improved through September 2024 by making changes to the network configuration. In particular, bandwidth was increased by changing the configuration of the upstream network, and the network itself was strengthened and made more robust by replacing the equipment in use. This presentation will introduce the network configuration and the various issues that occurred during the network replacement, as well as the troubles that encountered when the network was replaced and when it became operational. The presentation will also provide information on the current status and challenges of campus network operation at our university. This will clarify the campus network of small and medium-sized universities in Japan, and share the configuration, operational status, and issues of the campus network not only with Japanese universities but also with universities in the SIGUCCS community. In addition, by exchanging information on campus networks with the community, we would like to discuss what the future of networking in universities looks like.
SIGUCCS Affinity Groups are virtual spaces where the SIGUCCS community can connect to explore topics of interest, share insights, and learn from one another throughout the year. Connect with colleagues interested in like-minded topics anytime in Slack and real-time in monthly online meetings. Started to stay connected between our in-person conferences, group meetings have covered everything from navigating management challenges to tackling user support challenges and leveraging new technologies such as Generative AI. Stop by our poster at the SIGUCCS conference to learn more about the Affinity Group program, share your ideas, and get involved! We are looking for input on topics you would like to see covered in the 2025-2026 series and invite you to volunteer as a session facilitator or join the planning committee. Your feedback will help us continue creating engaging, relevant programming that serves the needs of the SIGUCCS community. Whether you’re a first-time attendee or a long-time SIGUCCS member, the Affinity Groups offer opportunities to build connections, exchange ideas, and grow professionally year-round. Visit our poster to help guide the future of SIGUCCS Affinity Groups, share your expertise, and ensure this program continues to evolve with the ever-changing landscape of IT support.
Higher education IT departments face a critical challenge: efficiently onboarding new student employees with limited time while ensuring accessibility and engagement. This presentation introduces a practical approach to training using Arcade Software, combining microlearning principles and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines. Arcade is an interactive demo platform that allows users to create engaging, personalized product demonstrations quickly and easily, requiring no coding skills. We'll showcase how this method tackles common issues such as time constraints, information overload, and the need for accessible, engaging content.
Learn how you can participate in the SIGUCCS Academy. While SIGUCCS has a long and proud history of unique career development, networking, and personal growth, we recognize our community has an opportunity to provide practical, skills-based learning that will help nurture the next generation of technology service professionals.
We recognize that professional development is often connected to the development of practical skills. The Academy program is SIGUCCS effort to fill this need. We do that by providing a unique opportunity for experienced SIGUCCS professionals and leaders to use their knowledge and expertise to equip the next generation of technical support professionals.
The SIGUCCS Academy represents an exciting evolution in our approach to professional development in user support services. We invite you to come and discuss how you can participate in learning or as a trainer sharing your knowledge and expertise with your peers.
Over the last two years, I have created a central hiring portal for my department's four student employee teams using Asana, a project management software. This hiring portal includes an online application for students interested in working for one or any of our teams, and allows the candidates to attach their résumé, indicate their team of preference, and apply for any or all teams. Additionally, it has automated much of our correspondence with candidates and streamlined our application review and interview process.
Prior to this project, each of our four student teams received emails from interested students to their respective team inboxes. As a result, students often applied to multiple teams simultaneously, causing confusion among the hiring managers. Additionally, many potential student workers didn’t even realize our department had four different groups, leading some of our less student-facing teams to experience application and employee shortages.
Aside from the central application, I integrated Flowsana into this project to automate much of our initial communications with interested student candidates. Upon any application submission or notice that a team is not actively hiring, candidates receive an email notification with any updates or action items, all at the press of a button by the hiring manager. These automations are coded into the project by ensuring specific criteria are met with each candidate and sending the appropriate information based on the editable templates we made. As a result, this project has saved our hiring managers hundreds of emails each quarter and streamlined the hiring process.
In addition to increasing efficiency, this project has created a repository of all students who apply to work for our department and indicates teams of interest. For certain quarters where a team might experience a shortage of applicants, a hiring manager can review any previous applicants for other teams and easily review if the candidate may be interested in their team and is qualified based on their application and résumé. This has resulted in less student employee shortages across our four teams and allowed our teams to easily re-route a student candidate to a more appropriate team as needed.
Finally, this hiring portal has expanded into a management tracker of the status of each active student employee. Once a student is hired, they move into each team’s management project, where someone can see the status of an employee’s onboarding, reference their labor codes and HR paperwork, or determine what access and privileges specific employees have been granted. All of this information is easily editable for the hiring managers based on our templates and has provided a drastic increase in transparency with our department leadership on student employee data.
Student employees are vital to IT organizations in higher education. While some may devalue the contributions from student members of our work communities, the fact is that in the big picture, students are the reason we’re all employed. Part of our responsibility as fellow educators is to ensure they gain the skills required to succeed once they matriculate. Specific needs vary among institutions, but some basic practices can be widely applied. Our approach treats student employees with the same level of respect we’d give a full-time employee, including investment in their development through experiential learning. The acronym CARE (Collaboration, Appreciation, Respect, Empathy) forms the basis of tangible practices that elevate student employees as members of the team. Investing in our students leads to a fundamental change in the way our organizations function for the betterment and benefit of both our clients and the students themselves. For instance, a focus on collaboration leads to coaching and championing our student employees, appreciation leads to the practice of acknowledgement, respect leads to improved retention, and empathy leads to excellence. This panel will focus on how institutions of differing sizes and structures allow each of us to achieve success using this approach. We’ll discuss each of our varying approaches as well as the experiences and results we’ve seen by utilizing our own methods. The examples listed in the previous paragraph are just a teaser of the CARE approach - join us to get the full spectrum of our approach. The foundation of our approach is simple: happy people are productive people - we take care of the employee; they’ll take care of the work.
Assistant Director, Campus Relations, Drake University
I oversee the ITS Support Center, manage ~25 Student Techs, and administer our TeamDynamix system.My certifications and campus roles:NCBI facilitator and ally-in-trainingAdjunct ProfessorAdvisor, Pi chapter, Sigma Alpha Iota International Music FraternityCPR/AEDMHFAQPR
Assistant Director: Service and Process, Hope College
Reagan Chesnut (she/her) is the Assistant Director: Service and Process at Hope College in Holland, MI, where she equips users with skills and knowledge to self-sustain technology use, designs training and resources for community confidence and competence, and performs as part of... Read More →
In the ever-evolving IT landscape, organizations must innovate and adapt to stay relevant. This session explores how IT leaders can develop resilient organizations that embrace change. At UNC Charlotte, we recently overhauled our service desk infrastructure, implementing new call center software, a campus phone system, a ticketing solution, and a knowledge base—all within a year. We will discuss the technical and human components of this transformation, including culture, deployment, staffing, training, and communication strategies. Key topics include the general approach for adopting new systems, the importance of user feedback, and maintaining open communication with stakeholders. Our experience highlights the necessity of a holistic approach to change management, ensuring success for both the IT organization and the user community. Join us to gain practical insights and strategies for fostering resilience and adaptability in your IT operations.
This presentation aims to demonstrate that migrating from on-premise Windows device management to cloud-based management is possible and outlines the steps Universities should take to accomplish that. Any organization that has windows devices in their fleet likely uses some sort of domain binding to join their devices to a Microsoft Active Directory domain. The most basic level is Active Directory join where a device talks to an on-premise domain controller to receive authentication information, group policies, and resources. A more common way is hybrid join. This is for organizations utilizing Microsoft Entra ID, formerly known as Azure Active directory. This type of domain join sends information from on-premise servers up to the Microsoft cloud. It enables endpoint devices to authenticate with Azure and allows users to use things like Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and Office 365. However, Windows authentication is still handled primarily by an on-premise domain controller. This mode, despite its name, has become outdated with the rise of hybrid work scenarios. Users working off campus are required to use a VPN in order to access on-premise resources. While the effects of this are not immediate, it does present challenges for users that change their password remotely or rarely, if ever, visit campus especially to log on to their device for the first time. Enter Entra-Join. This mode joins the device solely to Microsoft Entra ID and requires no connection to on-premise domain controllers. Only an internet connection is required to perform Windows authentication, not a VPN. This empowers users to change their password off campus without worrying about syncing issues. It also empowers IT staff to ship devices to users where they can perform their first login from home. The road to Entra-join is not without its challenges, however. There are many primary and secondary systems that rely on on-premise resources and must be transitioned to the cloud or restructured entirely. Examples include: automatic certificate-based WiFi connections, application deployment, group policies, provisioning and more. Each hurdle requires a unique solution and big picture planning. In our presentation, we will discuss the reasons why organizations should switch to Entra- join, the barriers to doing so, and how to overcome them.
In early 2024, we were forced to move our existing Confluence instance from on-premise to Atlassian's cloud service. This was a prime opportunity to reassess our public knowledgebase and figure out a way to make it more appealing, more accessible, and create new processes and procedures for the maintenance and upkeep of the site. This presentation or poster, will discuss the steps we took to garner buy-in from the other directors and CIO, find volunteers to work on it, and the months worth of meetings and decision making it took to get to where we are today. This project is currently ongoing and we hope to have a finished product by the time the conference occurs.
This presentation will cover the University of Hawaii's IT Service Management (ITSM) journey, starting with the selection and implementation of an ITSM platform in 2019 to our current project to move towards a new ITSM platform. The presentation will discuss the initial project requirements and goals, how our goals slowly changed as we got more experience with ITSM, and the lessons we learned throughout this journey.
The ultralight backpacking community builds their practices on the idea that, when you venture into the wilderness, you “don’t pack your fears.” This concept keeps backpackers from being weighed down by unnecessary items that, at best, hinder their progress, and, at worst, put them in danger. In college and university IT support, there are many fears that weigh down effective solutions and interfere with collaboration. Whether it’s a fear of escalating problems, customer dissatisfaction, new and threatening technologies, or internal conflict, those anxieties lead to a “backpack” full of extraneous tools, procedures, and preparation. These result in overinflated, inefficient solutions that rely on protection, rather than aspiration. In this interactive presentation, we will explore how both IT-specific and universal fears manifest in our work environments, and how we can move forward with intentional solutions. Participants will be encouraged to share real fears accompanying challenges in their workplace, allowing the group to collaborate on identifying what are essential and what are extraneous tools to address them. Participants will leave with ideas of how to incorporate fear-free approaches that lead to specific solutions at their own organizations.
Assistant Director: Service and Process, Hope College
Reagan Chesnut (she/her) is the Assistant Director: Service and Process at Hope College in Holland, MI, where she equips users with skills and knowledge to self-sustain technology use, designs training and resources for community confidence and competence, and performs as part of... Read More →
Over the past decade, the expectation of access to technology to complete coursework has grown dramatically. It is now expected that students have 24/7 access to a personal computer, laptop, or tablet. While many students can meet this expectation without issue, for others, especially those from vulnerable or low-income backgrounds, reliance on technology in a course creates significant barriers to their success.
Equitable access to technology, or the digital divide, has been studied since the emergence of public internet access in the 1990s. These studies showed that socioeconomic status and household income was the strongest predictor of individual internet use. More recent studies examine the impact of household income on the type of device that an individual has access to use, for example, a laptop or smartphone, and the type of internet access available, ie. mobile only or home broadband. Despite increased access to technology in general, the digital divide still exists.
Supervising student workers in higher ed IT goes beyond ensuring tasks get completed —it is about fostering professional growth and building valuable skills. In this session, we will share onboarding, skill-building, and engagement approaches we have found effective across multiple teams at Lewis & Clark. Discover how we create meaningful roles that encourage development, recognize leadership potential, and offer expanded responsibilities. We are proud of the environment we have built and find our team most engaged when we can cultivate a growth-oriented culture. We will also discuss how cross-department collaboration and connection keeps students motivated and supported and helps us all provide better service to our community. Join us to share your experiences, and together, we will elevate our student worker programs to set our employees up for success well beyond graduation.
Our panel discussion will be on moving from on premise network share drives to Microsoft 365 SharePoint. The panel will include viewpoints from 3 different institutions at different stages in the migration process, as well as the benefits experienced by end users.
Project management skills are essential for IT professionals in higher education. Establishing standards for technology project management is crucial for departmental success. However, many institutions lack a dedicated project management office (PMO), leading to challenges in consistently identifying, tracking, prioritizing, and completing technology projects. This panel discussion will provide valuable insights and practical strategies for effectively managing IT projects in higher education, even without a formal PMO. Attendees will learn about diverse approaches to project request management, prioritization techniques, and software solutions employed by different institutions to organize, prioritize, and drive projects forward, as well as some lessons learned along the way about some potential obstacles to success. Join us for an engaging discussion and share your own experiences in managing IT projects within higher education.
She/her/hers. Jessica joined Swarthmore College in May 2016 and coordinates sessions on G Suite, Phishing and 2-Factor Authentication, Drupal, and more. Jessica is also involved in writing, updating, and improving ITS documentation.
Picture this, May 2020 and the semester is wrapping up - classes were 100% virtual, students had vacated their dorms in March and commencement has been postponed - for a year??
My institution, a small liberal arts college in New England, was trying to balance financial obligations with the want to continue to provide for its employees. With the campus on lockdown and hundreds of thousands of dollars returned for room and board, there needed to be a way to cut costs. I was approached by my leadership and told that I would need to furlough one full time employee.
With a small team of only 4 people, I knew the team would never recover if 1 single person had to bear that weight. I shared this concern and suggested that each position be cut 10 hours per week - equally sharing the weight of the furlough.
It was then up to me to develop a plan that still provided the coverage needed for our department. Often as leaders, we feel like we have to have all the answers. Why is that? Is it because leaders feel a strong sense of responsibility and accountability to their direct reports? Are they afraid of being vulnerable in front of their team? Are they supposed to have every answer and work in a vacuum? Is it all decisions or just these personnel decisions that we wrestle with having to have the right answer.
In this talk, hear a real world example of how empowering your team to devise a solution improved the overall outcome of a difficult situation.
This lightning talk explores the multifaceted nature of leadership in today's higher education landscape. I will share personal anecdotes and insights emphasizing that effective leadership requires more than technical expertise. It involves understanding human behavior, building relationships, and possessing a strong sense of self. I will highlight the importance of defining personal success and leveraging unique strengths while emphasizing the need for strategic thinking, decision-making, and emotional intelligence. The goal of this talk is to encourage aspiring leaders to trust their instincts, be bold, and embrace both the expected and unexpected opportunities that lie ahead.
This talk explores the indispensable role of community within communities of practice (CoPs) in shaping the growth and resilience of Higher Education IT professionals. Much like the relationship between a raiser and a Seeing Eye puppy, CoPs provide guidance, patience, and collective wisdom, fostering an environment where members can grow confidently into their roles. By nurturing this partnership of shared goals, mutual support, and continuous learning, CoPs empower IT staff to adapt to new challenges, drive innovation, and support the diverse needs of their institutions. Using the bond between a raiser and a service dog in training as a framework, this presentation illustrates how community involvement and shared responsibility cultivate expertise, adaptability, and a sense of purpose within Higher Ed IT, ultimately enhancing outcomes across the institution.
If we want our technical documentation and communication to have a wider audience reach, it's time to examine the elements that might cause issues with comprehension. These include using colloquial speech, sports jargons, pop culture references, and other expressions which do not translate well. Why is this important? Our audience is made of diverse backgrounds and life experiences. We are expecting our audience to heed our calls to action through our technical communication.. In this Lightning Talk, we will discuss how to write in a globally inclusive style. We will focus on what to include and what we can leave out.
Technical Writer, Oregon Health & Science University
He/Him/His. Straight outta Portland (Oregon), Mo is passionate about promoting an inclusive workplace culture, adopting frameworks that are centered around empathy, and sneakily inserting the Oxford Comma in business documents (despite his institution's Style Guide which discourages... Read More →
