Business Operations Project

• Melora Park, Pre-award support – College of Forestry
• Liz Etherington, Pre-award support – College of Agricultural Sciences
• Nick Fleury, Financial Support Director – Graduate School
• Sue Hall/Emily Ferrin – Payroll
• Greg Balck/Benjamin Garcia – Student Accounts
• Heidi Hammond, Grant and Contract Administrator – OSRAA
• Gretchen Dursch, Research Program Coordinator, College of Public Health and Human Sciences
• Yanli Zhang, Finance and Accounting Manager – AMBC
• Dana Ainsworth, Finance Coordinator – BEBC
• Perry Hystad, Faculty Member - College of Public Health and Human Sciences
• Kerry McPhail, Faculty Member/Graduate Program Coordinator - College of Pharmacy
• Cory Vieira, Employee & Labor Relations Officer – Office of Human Resources
• Sarah Haluzak, Administrative Manager – Food Science and Technology
• Lisa Silbernagel, Finance and Accounting Manager - HSBC

• Representation from all units which currently have a part in the process and/or which are impacted when issues arise
  • OSRAA
  • Graduate School
  • Human Resources
  • Appointing Units
  • Payroll
  • Student Accounts
  • College pre-award staff
  • Business Centers
  • College Fellowship/Graduate Program Coordinators
  • Faculty Members
• 3 Business Centers represented (AMBC, BEBC, HSBC)
• 4 central offices represented (Payroll/student accounts, OSRAA, OHR, Grad School)
• 4 Colleges represented (Forestry, Public Health and Human Sciences, Pharmacy, and Agricultural Sciences)
• Intentional in task force composition – two fold purpose:
  • Very well rounded – significant experience (though often singly focused experience)
  • Eye to the future – hoping to retain for implementation phase

• The task force met bi-weekly over the months of June – October 2020
• Started with foundational concepts – establish common understandings on:
  • What is a fellowship?
  • How is a fellowship different from a GA and how and by whom is that determined?
  • How is the student/faculty mentor/appointing unit potentially impacted differently?
• Case studies from actual OSU examples of particularly problematic situations – specific, consistent set of analysis questions used on each:
  • How did it happen? What were the root causes?
  • What was the impact to the student/mentor/appointing unit – and why?
  • How could it have been prevented?
  • What recommendations can we make to address this in the future?
• Recommendations to Heidi Sann – October 2020

Designate a central communications point and process/policy “owner”

• Address the current lack of coordination/ownership/communication
• Previously, no single person/office held overall lead role – often causing confusion, conflicting understandings/directions, and students/unit staff being passed from office to office to get answers
• Central point of contact and policy/process owner should be established as a Graduate School role
• While there should still be collaboration with other units, the Graduate School will serve as policy owner, primary point of contact for communications, central resource for FAQs, process instruction, etc.

This recommendation is currently being implemented after consultation with Graduate School leadership – GS role being expanded to include greater input and visibility at the pre-award stage

System/organizational improvements in campus education, training, resource accessibility, and process efficiencies

• Education/training to be developed and offered by subject matter experts
• Tools/resources to be developed and made available to campus community - decision trees, flow chart (completed), more extensive and better linked policy/procedure information, quick reference tutorial (completed),
• Clearer, more broadly communicated roles and responsibilities related to policy and process
• Shared “fellowships@oregonstate.edu” email address (completed) and establishment of an advisory committee
• Revisions to current graduate fellowship appointment form – with instructions and change to a DocuSign template (pre-determined routing) (in process)

• Presentations to solicit feedback:
  • Grant Administrators’ Meeting - 12/3/20
  • CARE Team (pre-award support in colleges/BCs) – 1/12/21
  • OSRAA (weekly update for staff) - 1/12/21
  • Business Process Review Workgroup - 1/26/21
  • Controller’s Office/OSRAA/Graduate School leadership – 2/19/21
  • Beaver Works – 3/11/21
  • OSRAA Outreach meeting – 3/18/21

• Feedback received thus far reinforced the need for:
  • Communication and Training
  • Consistent and easily accessible resources
  • Process transparency and designated ownership

• Feedback from this group
• Announce expanded Graduate School role – starting with OSRAA outreach meeting on 3/18/21
• Continue with tool/resource development and dissemination
  • Complete and upload instructions and revisions to graduate fellowship appointment form
  • Decision trees * FAQs – consistent and linked from multiple relevant sources
  • Develop training resources and establish mechanisms for dissemination
  • Establish advisory committee
• Engage with stakeholders for website content development for all of the above – as well as resources already developed
• Continue communication to campus as resources/recommendations are developed and implemented