ACM SIGUCCS 2025 Conference

New to attending a SIGUCCS conference? Join us for an overview of what to expect.

Conference opening event with SIGUCCS and Conference welcome and celebrating the annual SIGUCCS Awards.

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.

Despite significant advancements in technology, the gender gap in the IT industry remains a pressing issue. This panel aims to shed light on the challenges women face in tech, explore the underlying causes of gender disparity, and discuss actionable strategies to foster a more inclusive and equitable environment. Join us for an engaging discussion as we navigate the complexities of achieving gender equality in IT and share insights on how to create a supportive and diverse workplace.

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.

The success of any IT team is dependent on having the right people who meet the team's needs and who can work together to accomplish the team's goals. The unique challenges of IT work in a higher education environment, such as evolving workloads, diverse user needs, and budgetary constraints often require novel solutions when trying to find the right people and build an effective team. In this presentation, we will explore the strategies we use at the University of Hawaii to build a resilient and adaptable IT team. We'll discuss our recruitment and selection processes, including leveraging student employment to identify and cultivate emerging talent. Furthermore, we'll share some of our training and development approaches designed to equip employees with the tools they need to succeed.

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

For more details, visit the conference website

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.

Student IT workers bring a unique perspective—both as users of campus technology and as providers of tech support. Our IT student worker panelists will share firsthand experiences, challenges, and opportunities for improving IT services to better support student success.

Peruse poster presentations while enjoying light snacks!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Get a sneak peek into the upcoming SIGUCCS 2026 conference! This session will highlight the exciting opportunities that await you. Learn how attending and presenting at the conference can benefit you and your institution. Be inspired and motivated to submit your abstracts and be part of this transformative event!

Join Laurie and Lisa as we review the books read in 2024 and look ahead to some exciting titles in 2025.

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.