VPFA

As I announced at the end of July, the 2020 DFA Annual Meeting and Awards event has been delayed to fall term, rather than our typical date in early August. The event committee has begun planning for a fun and fully remote event. We will announce the new date and details when they are available.

Delaying the event means we can extend the nomination period for the 2020 DFA Annual Awards through August 31. Many DFA employees have gone above and beyond expectations in 2020, particularly as OSU transitioned to primarily remote operations in the spring and we continue to respond to the pandemic. I have heard some great stories from DFA managers, and I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to record those events and submit your colleagues’ names for recognition. We will celebrate all the nominees and the award winners during the 2020 Annual Meeting.

Supervisors across the university are experiencing new challenges as we adapt to a changing workplace environment. In partnership with leaders across OSU, University Human Resources now offers weekly Supervisor Support webinars on Thursdays at 1:00–1:50 pm via Zoom. Check OSU Today for details on how to access each week’s session. Each webinar focuses on one relevant and timely topic, with opportunity for discussion and Q&A. Recent topics include responding to concerns over face coverings and physical distancing, and adapting performance appraisals to reflect our unusual year. Participants are welcome to suggest future topics via a brief follow-up survey.

The DFA is in the final phase of implementing the Framework for Success, as we define our division-wide and unit-level metrics. At this point, the Framework is informing the division’s strategic direction. It works like this: The DFA’s priorities and projects are driven by Framework elements—our guiding principles, key performance indicators and key activities. Together, these elements determine the division's specific actions, projects and priorities, which, in turn, directly advance actions in OSU's Strategic Plan 4.0. For this reason, the division leadership team determined that the DFA does not require a stand-alone strategic plan. 

Our updated strategic framework website highlights five strategic priorities that all DFA units contribute to and the SP4.0 actions they advance:

• Fully implement the DFA Framework for Success
• Advance diversity and inclusion
• Support university-wide budget and workforce planning
• Create more efficient policies and processes
• Prepare for safety, hazards and business continuity

I encourage everyone in the division to consider how your team contributes to these priorities. You can reference the website to help see how your work connects to Strategic Plan 4.0 actions.

Led by Heather Riney and staffed by Mike Corbitt and Dan Hough, the new DFA Project Portfolio Management Office oversees DFA-wide and university-wide projects and provides project management services to the division. The office provides a consistent approach and helps to ensure that individual projects offer an appropriate return on the investment of OSU resources by tracking progress and outcomes, providing key expertise and resources to support projects through completion. Here is a brief update of the projects they are supporting:

DFA Framework for Success

• Unit Level Metrics—Starting in May and continuing through August, the framework team has conducted working sessions with DFA units, helping them create a method to develop a set of key activities and metrics that demonstrate how their unit can advance division-wide metrics in support of OSU’s mission. This phase is expected to be completed by the end of August and then teams will fill out the details of how the information for each metric will be obtained, who will be responsible, how often the data will be gathered and reported and any additional partners that need to engage with the metric.

Beaver Works

• Travel Redesign Project—The Travel Redesign Project has focused on collecting stakeholder input over the past quarter, with over 800 people involved to date. Feedback centered on topics like meal reimbursement options, travel booking options and other key areas. The project team is also conducting a Request For Proposal (RFP) for a new travel and expense software solution, to be selected before the end of September. This will be followed by an intensive nine month software implementation that will utilize the design, planning and stakeholder feedback currently underway.
• Business Analytics—OSU’s Impact Studio is leading the University Financial Management project to provide a framework and tools that will help academic leaders strategically optimize their budgets. This is especially important since OSU moved to a Shared Responsibility Budget model. The project working group is nearly ready to begin its prototype phase, in which they will conduct a pilot and submit a proposal to Provost Feser and me.
• Process Improvement Toolkit—Under development. The Beaver Works Core Project Team has been working with Dr. Calvo and his research team to develop a process improvement toolkit. It will provide multiple solutions and mechanisms for business process improvement projects within Beaver Works. We anticipate that more process improvement projects will arise from unit-level key activities from current DFA Framework for Success metric working sessions. More information and resources will be finalized and made available soon on the Beaver Works website.  

Benny Hire

• Phase III-Student Change Process temporarily on hold—This phase of the project was put on hold in June and will restart in September. Ilya Pinchuk, the primary developer for Benny Hire is currently focused on supporting a short-term, critical project within the Graduate School and will split his time between the two projects starting in the fall. For additional information on Benny Hire, including recorded training sessions and other resources, please visit the Benny Hire website.

Talent Management Initiative

• Six initial priorities established—The Talent Management Initiative is transformational and will involve significant change and intentional shifts in our culture. Members of the OSU community will be invited to participate and provide input at all stages. Specific timing and actions for these six priorities will be identified by project teams as they are developed.   

1. Provide a centralized portal for access and information to employee training opportunities. 
   • This portal will be available soon to employees through the new MyOregonState dashboard.    
2. Offer a training program teaches skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics.
   • Crucial Conversations is a 16-hour program that trains people to surface the best ideas, make the highest-quality decisions, and then act on your decisions with unity and commitment. The program is currently available at a discount to OSU employees. It can be delivered in a classroom setting, by Zoom remote learning, or a using a self-paced online format.
3. Recruit a director of Talent Acquisition responsible for attracting and hiring the best and most diverse talent to the university
   • A national search is currently underway.
4. Identify and implement a long-term Learning Management System (LMS).
5. Define the role of an OSU Manager and identify competencies within the context of OSU’s existing leadership and diversity competency framework.
6. Update OSU’s performance management process and system.
   • A project team is being formed to conduct a pilot program with OSU IT and Controller’s Office units within the broader context of the OSU Talent Management Initiative. The project team will develop, communicate, and implement a clear, consistent and customer-focused program using the best available tools and technologies. This will inform a roadmap for the broader Talent Management Initiative Performance Management Project for appointment types across the university. 

As the university’s Continuity Management Team made plans for resuming on-site operations, the safety of the OSU community was its primary concern. It became clear that everyone must play a role in cleaning for health to keep our spaces safe. Custodial services vendors are cleaning high-touch spaces more frequently and employees working on-site need to sanitize shared areas and equipment between uses.

In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, though, global demand for cleaning supplies and equipment is through the roof, making it challenging to source the products and expensive to purchase them. To assist OSU in addressing these issues, the DFA set up an operations taskforce—a decision guided by several of our shared principles:

• Community safety and respect for all its members embodies our core values and enables our mission.
• Active stewardship of resources ensures the long-term success of the university.
• Assessing and managing risk balances innovation and compliance

The solution the taskforce developed is a central resumption supply store for cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment, where all OSU departments can be assured to find the materials they need at affordable prices. Purchasing, Contracts and Materials Management employees Gary Boulton, Rae DeLay, Tamara Gash along with Dan Hough from Business Affairs found sources for everything required (including from OSU’s own Chemistry Stores), negotiated favorable prices and terms, set up a distribution center in the Property Services building, and are creating a streamlined ordering process within BennyBuy. The resumption supply store will also sell limited personal protective equipment like hand sanitizer and face shields. A similar central supply system is being set up at OSU-Cascades.

To help make the transition back to on-site work easier for everyone, the Division of Finance and Administration will supply more than 4,000 free resumption sanitation kits to all OSU departments (one kit for every five employees in each organization). Kits include disposable gloves for cleaning, surface cleaners, hand sanitizer, paper towels, 2 health posters from OSU’s Resumption Planning Toolkit and painter’s tape to hang them. Information for how departments can order initial kits and purchase refills will be shared soon.  

It is great to see this kind of innovative action happening within the DFA. I want to recognize the Materials Management team for their additional work to distribute face masks and other supplies to our essential on-site workers during the initial phase of OSU’s coronavirus response. I also greatly appreciate the leadership of Ben Wessel, Kelly Kozisek, Heidi Sann and Paul Odenthal, on this critical issue.

In June, as the fiscal year-end approached, university leaders had to react to the financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and make plans for the 2021 budget year without having full information or a way to predict the future. It was a moment that called for maximum flexibility and responsiveness. Acting under a very tight timeline, University Human Resources and Business Affairs staff diligently supported the effort, collecting data to inform leadership decisions and working many hours of overtime to implement them. 

The Employee and Labor Relations team led by Heather Horn worked with union representatives and a range of stakeholders to update contract language for all employee types. These changes allow department heads to reduce employees’ hours or salary in the upcoming year (with notice) if OSU’s budget requires such a reduction, to avoid significant layoffs or eliminating positions if possible. As part of this effort, OSU created the Work Share and Extended Benefits Program for SEIU employees, making it possible for people who do experience partial layoffs to access state and federal benefits while maintaining their employment with OSU.

The Payroll team, including Morgan Hatch, Sue Hall, and Jerie Thorson collaborated with Jennifer Short from UHR to prepare OSU’s information systems to handle the new employee and leave categories, and they processed salary changes for impacted employees. This group met numerous times to carefully complete calculations and process individual employee data as this project required. Payroll was able to do this efficiently on a very compressed timeline thanks to Patty DeLuca and Kristi Rietz, who have become certified EmpCenter programmers. Their work on the EmpCenter system saves OSU about $20,000 annually for vendor support services, and they provide a level of flexibility and care that would not otherwise be achieved.

Student Accounts and the Cashier’s Office worked closely with the Registrar’s Office and Financial Aid to make sure that students experiencing temporary financial distress would not be prevented from registering for fall term classes in May. They updated the trigger for financial holds and introduced a payment plan program for students continuing their studies in fall term. Greg Balck led the effort to develop payment plan options in the online portal to allow students to more easily manage their accounts. Since the program started, 333 students have opted in, enrolled for fall term, and are staying up to date with their payments.

I want to commend everyone involved with these implementations. It took an intense effort, which had to be managed at the same time as annual contract renewals for professional faculty and the university’s year-end financial close process.

Transportation Services was recognized by the Association for Commuter Transportation, winning its national award for Best Overall Marketing Campaign for the department's Transportation and Parking Board Game. The game was created as an outreach tool for the 2030 Sustainable Transportation Strategy, a transportation demand management plan for the Corvallis campus (under development). Transportation Services staff has played the game with OSU students, employees, Corvallis residents, city staff, and elected officials at several local events in 2020. Players experience the tradeoffs and challenges of transportation planning on a university campus with limited land and financial resources. They work as a team to accommodate a growing number of future trips to campus through both parking and sustainable transportation options, while also managing carbon emissions and community expectations. A copy of the game is available for check-out at the Valley Library.

In our current time of budget uncertainty for fiscal year 2021, Paul Odenthal and I are reviewing the 10-year Capital Forecast with university leaders. The forecast will be updated for the Board of Trustees in the coming months. At the same time, the Capital Planning and Development team continues to develop long-planned projects that renovate and restore OSU’s older classrooms and buildings, updating them to modern standards and increasing their flexibility for current and future uses. I am pleased to share these updates on a few recent projects:

Cascade Hall, Corvallis—The renovated space at Cascade Hall is complete. It provides a new home for the Navy ROTC program on the lower floor on the west side of the building. The upper floor of the west side of Cascade Hall gives the Department of Public Safety room to accommodate staff and program growth. The project scope included a full replacement of all building systems, seismic strengthening, and renovated space to accommodate the new tenants.

President’s Residence, Corvallis—Renovations were completed earlier this summer on the newly-purchased President’s Residence on SW Western Blvd near the Corvallis campus, which dates to the mid-1930s. President F. King Alexander and his family moved into the home in mid-June. Work included a remodel of the kitchen and restrooms, opening up the space and widening doorways to improve flow and exterior ADA improvements. In the future, landscape improvements and a remodel of the guesthouse are planned.

Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building, Newport—The Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building is expected to be complete by the beginning of fall term, with staff moving in starting in September 2020. The facility will support critical research, education, administrative and technical support, and outreach and engagement. The building features an innovative vertical evacuation site for tsunami safety that can accommodate up to 900 people.

Cordley Hall Move and NDUP Groundbreaking, Corvallis—Phase 2 of the Cordley Hall renovation has begun. Occupants of Cordley’s west side have started moving to the recently-renovated Research Way Lab Building to allow this project to begin. This project includes the construction of a new 5,816square-foot North District Utility Plant. The NDUP will house equipment used to produce emergency power and chilled water for HVAC systems for adjacent science buildings. Equipment for the plant will include six pumps, three chillers, six roof-mounted cooling towers, a fire riser room, an electrical room, a backup generator and two transformers. The modern energy-efficient chillers and cooling towers will bring substantial energy savings and reliability to the research occurring in nearby science buildings. The NDUP will serve Burt Hall, the Agricultural and Life Sciences Building, and Cordley and Nash Halls.

As OSU experiences financial pressure during the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to reduce costs where possible. This spring and summer, OSU building controls technicians have taken special care to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings by lowering heating and cooling inputs to a minimum. By allowing building temperatures to fluctuate more than usual in buildings that are unoccupied or minimally occupied, OSU has dramatically saved energy, money, carbon emissions and wear and tear on heating and cooling systems. 

Buildings hosting active research are controlled to meet the needs of the research activities and may not experience quite as much fluctuation. Ventilation in occupied buildings is being maintained for safety. Automated schedules are also being adjusted based on expected occupancy times to increase efficiency even more. During the resumption and beyond, at least some of these savings will persist because of the new approach to temperatures and schedules that building operators adopted during the pandemic. 

The Sustainability Office produced this short video, featuring the work of the Building Controls Shop in Facilities Services! You can also see the reductions happening on our real time energy dashboard.

The staff at the Auxiliaries and Activities Business Center, seeking ways to create more efficient policies and processes, have been working with OSU Catering to update long-standing business practices that resulted in extra work at year-end. They were inspired by the DFA guiding principles to assess the university’s risk under the existing method, develop more clearly defined and integrated policies, and create a consistent, yet flexible process.

In the past, OSU Catering invoices were immediately sent to department customers directly after the event. Because of system limitations, Catering was only able to follow up on past-due invoices at the end of the fiscal year, in late June or period 14. The AABC’s Kelli Whisenhunt and Courtney Seton collaborated with Catering and UHDS management to develop an improved process. OSU Catering now sends copies of invoices to the appropriate business center in May and June for follow-up and processing. As a result of this change, no invoices needed to be managed in FY20’s 14th period. The AABC team also partnered with Lissa Perrone, Director of Business Affairs, to change how they manage unpaid balances, substantially reducing the number of outstanding bills at year-end.

I am excited to see projects like this that make the university’s business processes more efficient and effective while making the workflows more manageable for our OSU partners.

Key Shop Relocation—Facilities Services’ Key Shop relocated its operations in early July to a new space on the west side of the Western Building (the former OSU Foundation Office located at SW 35^th Street and Western Blvd.). Key exchanges will still be managed at the Facilities Shops at 560 SW 15^th (near Kerr Administration Building) for the time being, from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Transportation Services Relocation—In June, Transportation Services relocated its operations from the Adams Building to its new space in the Western Building at 850 SW 35^th Street. Transportation Services office is open for in-person transactions Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. and is available by phone or email until 4:30 p.m.

Virtual Parking Permits 

• Parking permits for the OSU Corvallis campus are now virtual! Effective immediately, a car’s license plate is its parking permit. To learn more about virtual permits, visit Virtual Permits - Transportation Services. (attached – photos of the vehicle used to monitor virtual permits and the camera on top that scans license plates)

Recycling and Surplus continue on-site services 

• The OSUsed Store, run by Surplus Property, is now open to staff shopping for their departments weekdays 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. The store carries equipment for remote or onsite work such as computer equipment, furniture, office supplies, and more. They are also selling for personal use online on the Public Surplus website; if you see something that interests your department, please call for availability: 541-737-7347. The OSUsed Store remains closed to the general public until further notice in order to comply with the Governor’s order on social distancing.
• Recycling staff continue to serve campus needs while upholding campus safety guidelines. Effective July 6th, regular recycling collection resumed on an every-other-week basis at some OSU buildings and remains on-call (i.e. requires a pick-up request) at others. If you are working onsite and wish to identify when your next recycling pickup will be, visit the Pick-Up Schedule page and follow the directions at the top of the page in red.
• Would you like to learn all about waste reduction, reuse, and recycling to help spread change in our community? Secure your spot in the annual Master Recycler class, now on Zoom. Monday nights, Sept. 28 - Dec. 7 plus two Thursday Q & A sessions. Free to residents of Linn and Benton County who agree to “pay back” what they learned by completing 30 hours of volunteer service. More details are available on the Campus Recycling website.
• Despite the fact that typical Residence Hall Move-Out procedures were altered because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Campus Recycling and Surplus Property were still able to offer residents the opportunity to donate their belongings as an alternative to throwing them away. As a result, almost two tons of material was collected and given to nonprofits! More details are available on the Ecologue blog.

When you don’t know who to call, AskHR!

• AskHR (541-737-3103) is University Human Resources’ new primary point of contact. AskHR functions as a distribution point for most incoming inquiries and provides OSU employees with access to both expert advice and answers to more foundational questions like accessing pay stubs or updating your mailing address. AskHR also serves as the primary resource for employment verifications and related requests. AskHR is staffed by a small team of specialists trained as HR generalists, who also have a broad knowledge of the university and its operations and programs. When you don’t know who to call, call AskHR! They are listening and responding with compassion, empathy, and care.