A Disclaimer: The fact that we have a very large organization means I am highly likely to miss some of the things we are proud of… I have chosen a few for the sake of brevity.

Response to the Glycol Spill: As I wrote in my last blog post “A leak, a move & a redo”, we had a pretty nasty leak. The way our staff came to the rescue is something we can all be very proud of. It was amazing to hear how well everyone responded, minimizing the damage.

Wide use of data analytics: I am extremely proud of the collaboration between the Provost’s Office, the office of Institutional Research and LTS on the data analytics/business intelligence project. It has taken us a bit longer than we would have liked, but every faculty member who has been introduced to the Blackboard Analytics based dashboards and reports are thrilled to be able to have access to data this way. Everyone who worked hard to get us here should be very proud of the road we took and for hanging in there patiently.

A new course browser: As I wrote earlier, we will be opening the new course browser for feedback from users. The current browser seems to be used so heavily in so many different ways that we were not aware of. The reason why we should be proud about this project is because the project requesting complete redo came from our users, primarily the faculty. And within a few weeks, we were able to deliver through fantastic collaboration between Public Affairs and LTS. We are fully aware that a product rollout as big as this will receive both praises and complaints. We are here to hear everything and make sure that the product benefits the entire community!

Dealing with Staff departures: Staff retention in Higher Ed is a well known problem, primarily driven by salaries and to some extent the lack of mobility within the organization. In addition, being in the Boston area adds another level of complexity. We try to do our best to retain the best, but, unfortunately, there is only so much we can do. I am extremely happy that my direct reports have been very good at examining the positions as they become vacant to make new hires strategically. In a few cases, we have reorganized and not fill a position. Also, slowly but steadily, we are introducing the knowledge redundancy as a major goal, so we can avoid catastrophes when someone leaves and no one else knows about a few things that person was doing. I hope that we provide an environment that is nurturing and supports creativity and development which has helped those who have found better and greater things to do. I am always sad to see some of our most talented staff leave. However, I need to practice what I preach ” If you don’t control something, don’t worry about it. Move on!”

On that note… Have a great weekend.