Education Commons^™

Working Post-Pandemic: What Campus Employees Need (Now), Marcia Dority Baker, Teri Abbo

Information Technology Services: Publications

Now is the time for institutional leaders to ask employees what they need to successfully transition back to working on campus. It is also a good time for employees to ask their managers what remote work options will be available in the long term.

In late April, EDUCAUSE conducted a QuickPoll survey asking the higher education technology workforce how they are doing. The results of the poll provide great (and timely) insight on how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the work, location, and workload of technology employees. The results also show how the pandemic has impacted these employees as individuals. …

The First Climate Action Plans Are In ..., Mark Askren, Wendell Brase

Information Technology Services: Publications

September 15, 2009, was the deadline for submitting climate action plans for the charter signatories of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. The reports on the site provide a reality check on sustainability efforts within higher education. The proposed climate-neutral dates confirm that this endeavor may be more challenging than some institutions initially realized. In many cases, the reports show that IT is not a major partner in campus sustainability planning; however, some notable exceptions do stand out.

Maybe we in the higher education IT community should roll up our sleeves and invite ourselves to the table, becoming …

Does The Fiscal Crisis Mean Postponing Green It Improvements?, Mark Askren, Wendell Brase

Information Technology Services: Publications

Colleges and universities are dealing with revenue shortfalls, massive budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs, underwater endowments, underfunded pension plans, enrollment sags, and credit access problems. Some administrators are saying, “We need to put sustainability projects on hold until we work our way through more basic survival problems.” Is this a valid perspective, or an excuse for inaction? Actually, energy-saving retrofit projects are still fundable, even in today’s credit market, if projected costs and benefits are based on an “investment grade” analysis.

Where Does Your Institution Stand?, Wendell Brase, Mark Askren

Information Technology Services: Publications

Media coverage of sustainability and "green" issues is hard to ignore these days. But less clear is a specific understanding of what this agenda means within higher ed IT organizations. For starters, it's useful to self-assess whether your campus is a leading innovator on all things "green" or satisfied to remain inconspicuous in the middle of the pack. If your institution is trailing but wants to assert a leadership role in environmental stewardship, you need to get engaged to understand what it will take to catch up and how IT can be a leader, not just a contributor, to such …

Security Access Management At Uc Irvine: Adding Decentralization And Ending Paper, Mark Askren, Valerie Jones, Gena Rosas

Information Technology Services: Publications

The number one request from the University of California Irvine's administrative computing client community was to dramatically speed up and simplify the process for requesting access to applications. The resulting process review resulted in the development and implementation of SAMS, the Security Access Maintenance System.

Security Access Management At Uc Irvine: Slaying The Paper Forms Dragon, Mark Askren, Valerie Jones, Jennifer Lane

Information Technology Services: Publications

The number one request from the University of California Irvine's administrative computing client community was to dramatically speed up and simplify the process for requesting access to applications. The resulting process review resulted in the development and implementation of SAMS, the Security Access Maintenance System.

Combating Stovepipes: Implementing Workflow In Uportal, Mark Askren, Marina Arseniev

Information Technology Services: Publications

Simplifying business processes and avoiding stovepipes prompted the inclusion of a workflow channel within the uPortal implementation at UC Irvine.

With a new wave of campus IT solutions comes a familiar challenge: How do you encourage and help build distributed applications without being overrun by stovepipe solutions? Anticipating significant enrollment growth (5 percent per year) for the next several years, double- digit annual growth in funded research, and little chance that resources will be available to address increased workload, the University of California Irvine continues to streamline and simplify business processes as part of administrative technology planning at the university.