OIT Annual Report 2020-2021

myPSU

We released a new myPSU site to all students this Fall, including a new elegant design, improved navigation and better integration with Banner and other school systems. With an average of 12 to 15 thousand visitors per school day, this newest version of myPSU joins applications like the new Campus Map, and myNextSteps to form a suite of modern, student-facing apps that are custom made by the Web Development Team in OIT.

Slate

We expanded Slate functionality to further improve and centralize recruitment and admissions by implementing the Non-Degree application, Graduate School of Business prospect management, Honors program evaluation, UG Enrollment Confirmation, Email service accounts, and additional system integrations. 

Digital GO-19 Solution

We worked in collaboration with the Graduate School to transition the GO-19 form and manual process that students use to request program changes to a digital OnBase form; reducing paper usage, preventing forms from being lost, and creating automated workflows in order to accurately route forms. These changes provide PSU students, faculty, and staff with a simplified user experience.

Upgraded Public Safety Indoor Radio System

We improved our Distributed Antenna System (DAS) coverage for public safety radios in the Smith Memorial Student Union building per request of CPSO and approved through the student fee committee, with additional improvements being sought for Cramer Hall and Lincoln Hall.

Jim Sells Childcare Subsidy application process in OnBase

We worked in collaboration with the Services for Students with Children (SSWC) to develop a new streamlined application form and evaluation process within OnBase that is more secure and efficient, enabling SSWC to offer support to more students.

Support for Employees

Connection, support, and resources were a primary focus for us over this past year. Not being around one another face to face for some time, and with the variety of challenges throughout the year, OIT managers focused their attention and time on remaining connected to one another and ensuring proper resources were provided to meet employee needs. 

We have a number of employees who have been working on campus throughout the pandemic, some who returned to prepare and support campus instructors and students for the return to in-class instruction this fall, and many still working remotely. To meet the dynamic needs of our employees, we continuously asked for feedback via surveys, manager meetings, and through one-on-ones with employees. In November, OIT held focus group discussions with ~51% of our employees, for us to learn how work was going for them, and how they felt about returning in-person.

These discussions, along with the surveys and individual meetings inform how we practically support our employees. There were some interesting themes to consider: When employees come into the office, they want to view their colleagues, facilitating hallway conversations, impromptu brainstorming, face to face connection, and cross-campus collaboration. Working from home offers invaluable benefits and has increased overall happiness for employees; flexibility and an environment that is less about clocking in and out were both desirable. The greatest loss in working remotely was in connection between employees. It’s important to our employees that we maintain avenues to connect with colleagues.

In response and preparation for many employees transitioning to more on-site work this fall term, we developed a set of resources to feel comfortable in OIT’s new space in the Fourth Avenue Building. A resource guide was established for employees to have helpful information all in one location, including PSU COVID requirements and resources, OIT COVID recommendations for our space, mail process, carpool sign-ups, trash and recycling schedule, Slack specific channel for returning to campus, and many other topics to help employees more seamlessly adjust to working on-site again

OIT Move to FAB

OIT has spent a good portion of this past year moving into a new space on campus, the Fourth Avenue Building (FAB) 2nd floor. This is the first time most of our staff is in one contiguous space, and our employees are enjoying chatting with fellow employees they rarely get to experience, even in the more limited return to campus. We now have an inviting lobby to relax in before a meeting, a dining area we named Ten Forward to appeal to the Trekkie in all of us, and six conference rooms we named after iconic spaceships so they are easy to remember. We have had a great time settling into our new space, finding room for all of our functions, collaborating, and joining teams more effectively. We look forward to welcoming the rest of campus to view our space once restrictions permit.

Leadership Development

With the COVID-19 restrictions still in place for travel, we supported our employees in a variety of online trainings. Our managers were able to develop new skills and experiences, affording them a more well-rounded management experience which directly translates to the health and well being of their employees. Additionally, we continued our Managers Retreats, focusing on the concepts in “Radical Candor” a book about, effective communication that supports varying work styles and communication approaches. In a separate development session with managers, a mental health expert came to discuss the specific challenges related to COVID and OIT employees, offered valuable discussion, and resources/tools to benefit our teams.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee 

OIT’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee provides a space for OIT employees to address inclusion-related projects and develop a framework to further an inclusive environment in OIT and the services we provide to PSU. This committee makes recommendations to OIT’s Leadership team. 

In the first official year of the JEDI committee, we convened 7 OIT employees to serve 2-year terms. This year’s committee developed a charter and established an effective structure and work-flow for the coming years to begin to tackle some critical priorities impacting diversity and equity within our department. 

The committee worked through a variety of processes to identify OIT’s priorities for this work in the coming year, including: 

1. Evaluation of and changes to non-inclusive language in OIT systems, contracts, etc. 
2. Build partnerships with campus and community DEI groups, and collaborate with PSU’s Global, Diversity, and Inclusion (GDI) office. 
3. Provide DEI programming for OIT employees.
4. Develop a strategy to evaluate equity in project intake and evaluation.
5. Establish an assessment tool to measure progress for DEI work in OIT.
6. Recommend OIT policy/guideline improvements, including the development of a guide for inclusive language. 

The committee supported a department-wide exercise, in partnership with GDI to gather input on how OIT employees can impact PSU DEI goals. Additionally, JEDI reviewed and provided recommendations for the DEI component added to Un/Un evaluations in OIT. 

We have many employees participating in the variety of trainings being offered by GDI and PSU, including the “Toward more inclusive hiring” workshops, “GDI Un/Un Performance Evaluation Training Series”, and Equity Summits. 
 

Attributes for Success

In addition to technical skills, we also prioritize Attributes for Success in our employees. We believe that emotional intelligence should be the foundation of everything we do, including how we understand and communicate our expectations and values in OIT. The concept of emotional intelligence is woven throughout each of the five attributes in our Attributes for Success initiative: Coaching, Communication, Innovation, Proactive, and Team Player.

We emphasize these attributes when hiring—in position descriptions, job advertisements, and interviews. We also include these attributes in performance evaluations for existing OIT employees, and in our internal employee acknowledgment program. 

Unified Field Technology Services

We have combined the AV/Desktop/Events teams to provide a more streamlined pathway for customers to receive the help they need. The joined teams have improved cross-management, cross-training, and scheduling, which allows for flexible resource allocation to provide services to the campus community.

CRM HR Data Integration

We partnered with HR to implement the use of CampusNexus. This tool provides HR with a program for centralized and targeted communications, the ability to know what was communicated to each employee, and display relevant data on the employee when communicating with them through the tool; greatly improving the efficiency and accuracy of email replies to our employees.

General Fund Budget Calculator

We supported President Percy’s goal of increased transparency around the university’s budget. OIT partnered with University Communications and the University Budget Office to create a tool that shows the impact of changes to the key figures that form the Fiscal Year 2021-22 General Fund Budget. The web-based tool was created in Tableau and is accessible through the PSU website, allowing anyone to model changes to major revenue and expense categories and analyze the potential budget impacts. 

WiFi Self Service Registration

We implemented the ability for students and employees to register WiFi devices via OAM, which is especially useful for residents in campus housing using gaming consoles and streaming media devices. This deprecates a previous ticket submission process with real-time registration. With the use of a shared key instead of permitting a MAC address, this method is also more secure.

pdx.edu PDF Remediation Initiative and Global Accessibility Awareness Day Event

We built a sustainable framework for an annual, four-week digital accessibility event, promoting the auditing and remediation of non-HTML resources on the public-facing pdx.edu site. Our inaugural event raised awareness around the inaccessibility of thousands of PDFs on the pdx.edu website and provided participants with information and resources to begin remediating these digital barriers for people with disabilities.

IT Risk and Accessibility Review

We have continued our partnership with departments and Contracts and Procurement Services to evaluate risk around software solutions being purchased by the university. This year, we have improved our assessment tools for vendors, enhancing our ability to assess technical and security risks within a product. This enables us to ensure that the solutions we are purchasing effectively and securely process the data with which we are entrusted.

Implement Banner 9 Self Service Proxy for RO, SFS and FA

We introduced a feature that will allow for parents and proxies (when given access by the student) to view and modify information in Banweb, reducing password sharing and deprecating a previous process that involved phone and ticket support.

Zoom Classrooms

We installed Zoom Classrooms in the general pool classrooms at PSU throughout various buildings so that instructors could teach both in-person and remote students at the same time. This upgrade, in collaboration with the AV Design and Engineering team, totaled 141 classrooms.

KMC Classroom Upgrade

We partnered with the School of Business (SBA) to upgrade classrooms within the Karl Miller Center (KMC), resulting in six classroom upgrades that provided enhanced capabilities such as: digital whiteboards, improved audio/visual quality, and general ease of use.
 

pdx.edu Platform Accessibility Audit

We contracted with a third-party accessibility consultancy to conduct an audit of the new pdx.edu platform design in advance of our recent site relaunch. Remediations are largely complete, with a few exceptions currently in progress. The fixes and improvements that have come out of this audit have allowed for a much more accessible and usable pdx.edu.

Data Backup Optimization

We continued our commitment to service optimization with a series of improvements to our data protection / backup environment.  Software licensing has been simplified and the cost reduced.  Aging hardware has been refreshed, legacy tape storage has been removed from the environment, and our Enterprise Storage footprint has been eliminated. The effects of ransomware attacks have been mitigated by extending data backup retention from 4 to 16 weeks. Configuration changes have been implemented to improve stability, reliability, and performance.

Fall Surge Support

Due to the  Zoom classroom technology that was added to all 140 general purpose classrooms, OIT was very concerned about our ability to meet the support needs during the first couple weeks of the term. To fill that need we created a new program, where over 28 employees (26% of full time staff) from across the Office of Information Technology (OIT) were trained on basic classroom technology support and dispatched around campus the first two weeks of term to ensure instructors received help with classroom technology during the critical first few class sessions.