Category Archives: Staff Life

So, any reports from this afternoon’s panel discussion about the Echo’s KKK cartoon?

Posted on October 7, 2010 by | 3 Comments

I didn’t make it to today’s panel discussion mainly because I have a “day job” and a lot of grading and meeting with students associated with said job this week.  Can’t just take an afternoon off to attend a panel discussion kind of at the drop of a hat.

But I heard that it was surprisingly well attended, went far past the hour that was scheduled for it, was quite lively, etc.  I am quite certain that some EMUTalk.org regulars were there, so inquiring minds what to know:  how was it?  Anyone want to share a report or reaction, either as a comment or as something else?  I’m happy to post something from an “informed source” anonymously too.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Faculty Life, In the media..., Staff Life, Student Life

“Flashmob for diversity”

Posted on October 6, 2010 by | Leave a comment

I came across this via Inside Higher Ed this morning:  it’s a “flashmob” for diversity awareness week at Oregon State University, though it doesn’t seem like it’s really a surprise to the audience (which I see as one of the definitions of “flashmob”).  But it’s still pretty cool.

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Posted in College Fun, In the media..., Staff Life, Student Life

P/Ts reach a tentative contract agreement

Posted on October 3, 2010 by | 5 Comments

This was actually announced the other day, but I’m just getting around to posting it now: “Eastern Michigan University, Professional/Technical Union reach tentative agreement on a three-year contract.” I haven’t been following this all that closely, though this part of the agreement struck me as particularly odd:

The new agreement includes a two percent salary increase for this fiscal year, contingent on a formula based on a combination of increased student credit hours and the level of Eastern’s annual state appropriation (see explanation on page two). Because this year’s credit hours and level of state funding meet the formula’s threshold, the contingent increase will take effect retroactive to July 1, 2010.

Someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this what the administration was trying to force on the faculty union?  And why on earth would the P/Ts agree to this?  It seems pretty ill-advised to me, especially since the P/Ts have even less to do with things like student retention and state appropriations than the faculty do.

And I realize I’m no math major, but that formula for calculating the salary increase doesn’t make a dang bit of sense to me.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Staff Life

I suspect the IT Labor Day picnic has been disrupted

Posted on September 5, 2010 by | 2 Comments

September 6 Update: The latest sent around by Walter Kraft on this:

As we reported yesterday, an investigation is underway into a breach of security in an EMU server that controls my.emich passwords and Banner Self-Service PIN codes for students and employees.  The area that was compromised did not contain social security numbers or birth dates, or personal banking information.  It does contain login information, though, that could allow access to employees self-service information, including direct deposit information.  We consider this unlikely given the complexity of the area breached and the manual process required to access this data, however we are issuing this advisory as a precaution given the possibility.  Employees with direct deposit are advised to monitor their accounts for unusual activity.  If unusual activity is discovered, please contact your bank immediately, as well as IT staff.

As of this morning, there are no reports of unexpected user issues.  IT is continuing to investigate the situation.  EMU DPS also has been notified and has opened an investigation in the event that criminal activity is uncovered.  The IT Help Desk staff and IT system administrators will continue to monitor system access logs and report any unusual activity to the IT security team.  If you have any questions or suspect unusual activity, please contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@emich.edu or at 734-487-2120.  IT has brought in several additional staff today in order to respond to phone calls and questions.  Phone calls will be taken from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. today, with staff continuing to monitor email inquiries through the evening.  The IT staff will continue to work through the holiday weekend on this issue, and will provide further updates as necessary.

I’ve noticed nothing odd yet….

A little ominous:

First, I (along with everyone else at EMU, I presume) received this email from VP for communications Walter Kraft:

An investigation is underway into a breach of security in an EMU server that controls my.emich passwords and Banner Self-Service PIN codes for students and employees.  The breach occurred Friday at about 11:30 p.m.  System irregularities were initially discovered yesterday by IT staff.  Further investigation today revealed a security breach.  The area that was compromised did not contain social security numbers or birth dates.  It is possible that banking information for employees with direct deposit could be accessed in the area involved.  We consider this unlikely given the complexity of the area breached, however we are issuing this advisory given the possibility.  We understand and appreciate that this is a serious matter.  IT is continuing to investigate the situation and has enlisted an external data breach consultant to assist with the diagnosis and remediation of the security issue.  EMU DPS also has been notified and is opening an investigation in the event that criminal activity is uncovered.  The IT Help Desk staff and IT system administrators will continue to monitor system access logs and report any unusual activity to the IT security team.  At this point, there are no reports of unexpected user issues.  If you have any questions or suspect unusual activity, please contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@emich.edu.  The IT staff will continue to work through the holiday weekend on this issue.

Shortly after I received that message (6:06 PM on September 5), EMU’s Emu Eaglemail went dead.  Hmmmm…..

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Posted in Administrator Life, EMU Technology, Faculty Life, Staff Life, Student Life

my.emich: Does it work for you? And which browser?

Posted on July 22, 2010 by | Leave a comment

In the spirit of doing a little usability trouble-shooting for DoIT! today:  how is my.emich working for you?

This morning, I commented that my.emich was still not working for me, which is something that I chalked up to the system update still not being completed.  Then I got an email from one of the IT folks asking me to call for assistance, which suggested that they think it’s back up.

As I often do with web sites that don’t work the way I think they should, I decided to try a different browser.  I’m a Mac person, but my default browser is Firefox, which– and this is probably the problem– I just updated to version 3.6.7.  Anyway, instead of Firefox, I tried Safari, and my.emich popped right up.  And then, just for the heck of it, I tried Chrome, and that worked too.

Mind you, I haven’t had time to poke around my.emich yet, so there may be some glitches still with either Safari and/or Chrome.  But at least for me, the problem is probably not DoIT! but rather my updated browser.  Which is kind of a problem for DoIT! and SunGard because you wouldn’t think a Firefox update would completely disable my.emich

Anyway, has anyone else out there experienced similar problems?  Tried a different browser yet?

Update:

I did get a helpful email from the IT folks on this yesterday (Thursday, July 22).  It said in part:

There is a known issue with cookie handling between Luminis 4 and Firefox which results in that “session expired” loop in some cases.  Sungard has opened a defect in response to our reporting of the issue.  The temporary workaround is to enable private browsing, available from the tools menu in Firefox.  The IT Help Desk has been made aware of the issue and the workaround.

FWIW.  The easier workaround for me was to just open my.emich in a different browser– Safari or Chrome in my case.

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Posted in EMU Technology, Staff Life

Is “Social Media’s Compelling Pull!!!” an opportunity or spam?

Posted on July 14, 2010 by | 1 Comment

The other day, I received an email (along with pretty much every other staff and faculty member) that frankly looked a lot like spam, but which is apparently a real thing.  The subject line was “Fwd: “Hello! A new exciting program you don’t want to miss!” which in my mind suggests a message from one of those frequent emails from Nigeria offering me a “unique opportunity.”  But since it was sent from EMU Staff Human Resources, I read on.

“Social Media’s Compelling Pull!!!” is a workshop/training session of some sort sponsored by the EMU College of Business and something called The Professional Education Center. At least that’s my guess– I’m not entirely sure. The email includes a list of five different people who work locally as marketing and public relations, along with a journalist from annarbor.com (Nathan Bomey), all of whom will be speaking at this event.  And according to the email, the event itself will include a panel discussion, “Q&A,case study, and take-home tips,” and  it promises to be “jam-packed.”

The regular cost for attending this is $179, but for you, EMU staff and faculty, it is $159!  That’s over a 10% discount!!!

Now, I don’t know if this is worth it or not for potential participants, though I have to say that I’m a little dubious.  I mean, it all seems a little vague to me, and the spam-like subject line of this email does little to establish the credibility for this group’s experiences and abilities to teach about how to communicate and market with “social media” (which includes stuff like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, etc.).  And from my “writing teacher” perspective, multiple exclamation points never looks good.

But what I am wondering about for now is the appropriateness for sending this email around at all. I guess my objection is the charge of $159 and what I presume is this group’s desire to make money. I’m assuming that the powers that be at EMU would not be happy with me if I mass emailed faculty and staff to drum up interest in some sort of “side business” or to offer my editing services or to sell my house.  I’m also assuming that if I asked someone in HR to forward a message like this to everyone on campus, the powers that be in HR would say no.

So, I’m wondering: why is it okay for this email to be sent around from EMU’s Human Resources office?

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Posted in Faculty Life, In the media..., Staff Life

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Posted on July 7, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Just how hot is it?  Well, I just received this email via Walter Kraft and from the Provost:

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory that remains in effect through 11 p.m. tonight. Faculty and staff working in buildings on campus that are not air conditioned (Hoyt and King, for example) should arrange through their department head, or other supervisor to work at an alternate location on campus or from home. Classes are to continue as usual. Limited space is available at the Student Center Building for faculty and staff to work during the advisory. Department heads and supervisors have been given information as to temporary alternate locations on campus.

I’m actually in Hoyt right now (office hours, etc.), and while it’s certainly warm, it doesn’t feel as bad to me as it did yesterday.  Still early I suppose.  And while I am sure many folks appreciate Provost Kay’s advice, working in an alternate location is easy for some of us (e.g., faculty) and not so much for others (e.g., staff).

Stay cool and plenty of fluids, people.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Buildings and Grounds, Faculty Life, Staff Life

Pray-Harrold in Exile: Maybe not so bad…

Posted on May 5, 2010 by | 1 Comment

A couple weeks ago, I posted about my (and many others’) anxieties in moving out of Pray-Harrold and into the unknown that is Hoyt Hall, which is part of a dorm complex built around the same time as Pray-Harrold itself. Well, I and many of my colleagues have moved in, and the verdict so far is that it’s not bad.  It’s even kind of good, a not insignificant improvement over where we were.

It’s not all good, but let me start with the positive:

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Posted in Faculty Life, Staff Life

Tagged

“One down, two to go” (about AFT bargaining in Michigan)

Posted on April 23, 2010 by | 4 Comments

I stumbled across this the other day:  from AFT FACE (which is the web site for the organizing body that represents the lecturers at EMU), a story called “One Down, Two to Go:  Great Lakes Bargaining Update.” Here are the opening paragraphs:

Last week we updated you on all of the ongoing contingent faculty organizing activity in Michigan.  This week, we focus in on the ongoing negotiations at three other Michigan institutions:  Western Michigan University, Michigan State University, and University of Michigan.

Let’s start with the big news.  Today, the Professional Instructors Organization (PIO) at Western Michigan University is announcing that “[b]argaining teams for the PIO and the administration of Western Michigan University reached tentative agreement on the union’s first contract on Monday.  The agreement is contingent upon ratification by PIO members and The WMU Board of Trustees.”

“We are pleased with the improvements to our working conditions that will occur as a result of this first contract” stated PIO president Karl Schrock.  “At a time when other state employees have experienced wage reductions, reduced security and take-backs, we have been able to secure modest gains on all fronts.”

Details of the agreement will be released after ratification.

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of deal the WMU folks got.  Everything I’ve heard suggests that faculty negotiations are off to a start, albeit a somewhat rocky one.  A suited/administrative-type said to me yesterday they thought there would be a strike, but I personally think it’s way too early to know one way or the other about that.

By the way, what does AFT stand for, anyway?

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Posted in Administrator Life, Blogosphere, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life, Staff Life

Adjunct lecturers organizing committee rally, Tuesday 1 pm at the Student Center

Posted on March 15, 2010 by | Leave a comment

This was passed along by EMU-AAUP president Susan Moeller and I thought I’d give the group some publicity here too:

The EMU-AAUP supports the organizing of the adjunct lecturers and I am sending you the following information about their organizing efforts and a rally they will have this Tuesday, March 16th starting at 1 p.m at the Student Center.

More details after the “continued” part, but it looks like this is kind of an all-day sort of event– that is, if you can’t make it at 1, stop by later.  I’ll be on the road, so if anyone goes and has anything interesting to say about the event, let me know.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Dickinson Murder, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life, Staff Life, Student Life