ACM SIGUCCS 2025 Conference

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.