Message from the Vice President 

 

Aug. 18, 2021

DFA colleagues,

I hope this message finds you well and that you are finding time with family and friends to enjoy this beautiful, yet perhaps too-warm summer.  A year ago, I would not have guessed that we would still be dealing with so many challenges.  When I step back to think about what we have faced—and continue to face—in planning for and responding to wildfire season and smoke impacts, drought conditions and evolving public health guidelines as the COVID pandemic continues, I cannot be anything but thankful.  I’m thankful that we have a community of caring and dedicated people like you, working hard to address these multiple and compounding challenges. Thankful that you have met these challenges head-on and served with distinction. Thankful that you are as resilient as you are compassionate. I am so proud of the ongoing fortitude and can-do attitude with which you continue to face our challenges! Thank you!

We met as a division last month via Zoom for the DFA Annual Awards and Meeting to celebrate the outstanding work of everyone who works in the Division of Finance and Administration. If you weren’t able to join us, you can use your ONID password to access the video here. At the annual meeting, I talked about the importance of educating ourselves regarding matters of social justice, structural and systemic racism, and how each of us can play a part in dismantling them. For your convenience, the DFA Extended Leadership Team shared a list of useful books, articles and trainings concerning diversity, equity and inclusion matters. I encourage you to check out the resources page, do some reading, and spend time discussing what you learn with your colleagues. Soon we will launch an effort to develop a division-wide action plan focused on these issues, and you will be invited to participate.

Fall term is approaching quickly and I’m excited about the plans DFA units have been making to resume full in-person service as of Sept. 7. Be assured that university leaders are paying close attention to the public health situation and how OSU will operate in alignment with federal, state, and local guidance.

DFA employees need to remain flexible in our plans and stay ready to support the OSU community.

The next time you come to the Corvallis campus, you’ll see some big changes as we prepare a site for the future Arts and Education Complex. The old facilities shops at 15th and Washington were demolished earlier this month, in an impressively quick and neat job. I recently had a chance to tour the Western Complex, the new home of the University Facilities, Infrastructure & Operations team. It was really great to see everyone settling into new spaces—they have a lot more elbow room now!

We’re doing so much great work in the Division of Finance and Administration, to prepare to host students on campus in fall, to advance our unit and division-wide goals, and to support the success of the entire OSU community. As we move forward, I am interested in hearing your ideas, your concerns and your suggestions. My office is in the process of scheduling small group meetings with employees across the division in fall term, and my door—and email—are always open if you want to reach out directly.

Read on for more news direct from DFA units. 

Summer 2021 News from DFA Units

Join the Department of Public Safety for an upcoming Coffee with a Cop event from 9 to 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. The event will be held at Dutch Bros. Coffee, located at 661 S.W. 26th St., on OSU’s Corvallis campus. Coffee with a Cop provides an opportunity for members of the university and Corvallis community to meet with OSU’s public safety and police officers in a casual setting and to ask questions and share ideas. Free fresh brewed coffee will be available on a first come, first served basis. 

In other news, the department has hired a new police sergeant and two new public safety officers, who are now in training. DPS continues to recruit police officers.

A new Public Safety Incident Log website lists significant public safety events on the OSU Corvallis campus for a specific week and includes the date they occurred. The incident log is part of the DPS team’s commitment to share timely and transparent safety information with the community.

People across DFA units and our vendor partners are working hard to prepare and maintain a healthy environment for students, faculty and staff as classes resume in fall term. The UFIO team highlights a couple of their stories this month:


Cleaning and disinfecting OSU’s spaces

ABM, one of the custodial contractors at OSU since 2008, is no stranger to keeping the campus's classrooms, labs and offices clean. When OSU was responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, ABM has been on campus the entire time, working to keep the environment safer and healthier for the OSU community by increasing cleaning frequency and thoroughness. ABM, along with Facilities Services, has adopted a deep cleaning process that focuses on disinfecting over surface cleaning, designed to help prevent the spread of the COVID pathogen on surfaces.

Now, ABM has moved towards getting the campus ready for higher-density occupation, as faculty and staff who have been working remotely prepare to return to campus for fall term. Starting the third week of July, ABM started a summer deep cleaning program, designed to get spaces ready for returning staff and faculty and primarily in-person teaching. Click here to read the full article.

 

EH&S helps as people prepare to return to campus

As many staff, faculty and students get ready to return to campus from remote working, and as teams across the Corvallis campus prepare for fall term, Environmental Health and Safety reminds the campus community that they’re here to help maintain a safer and healthier university environment for everyone. In fact, they’ve been here all along.

EH&S is working diligently along with other campus departments, as well as off-campus units, to help maintain safer lab and workplace environments for all. EH&S helps with laboratory, shop and workplace assessments for research safety, removal of hazardous waste, equipment safety checks, laboratory moves and cleanouts, and more. Click here to read the full article.

For those of us who are returning back to the office after a long time away, the EH&S team reminds us to use safe lifting techniques and to set up our office workspaces with attention to ergonomics to prevent injury.

 

New Employee Benefit to help with Student Loan Debt

Through TIAA’s partnership with the Oregon Public Universities, all university employees and immediate family members now have access to a student loan debt solution. The new program, called Savi, helps people find the best federal repayment and forgiveness programs for their financial situation. Click here for a PDF Quick Start Guide and for more details about the program.

Attend a 30-minute webinar that will demonstrate how easy it is to use Savi. Register here for sessions on August 25, 2021 or August 31, 2021 at noon, to find out about eligibility, hear about the costs to participate, understand how it works to reduce your monthly payment, and learn how to get started. If you have questions about the details of accessing this new benefit, contact Savi directly at partners@bysavi.com. 

 

September Beyond Benefits Webinars

OSU’s employee assistance program, Beyond Benefits, is a confidential, no-cost life event resource that helps you and your household members access legal, financial, work-life, and mental health and wellness services and resources. You can register for upcoming webinars on a range of useful topics and access recorded webinars here.

These webinars are coming up in September 2021:

  • Counseling and Therapy Demystified
  • Managing Worry and Anxiety
  • Strengthening your Ability to Empathize

 

OSU Flu Shot Clinics scheduled for October

The HR Benefits team is preparing to host flu shot clinics across OSU locations again this year. This is an important part of the public health effort to minimize the strain on hospitals and medical resources. More details will be coming soon about these events:

  • October 1 and 19 at OSU Corvallis MU Ballroom
  • October 15 at Newport Hatfield Marine Science Center
  • During the month of October at OSU Cascades with the Deschutes County Health Department – Dates pending

 

Find more useful resources at the Culture of Care Website

University Human Resources created a Culture of Care Website with resources for employees and supervisors. OSU’s Culture of Care is created by fostering connections, generating awareness, showing respect and promoting empathy. Learn more here: https://hr.oregonstate.edu/work-life/culture-care

The Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building, completed in January 2020, was selected by the American Council of Engineering Companies to receive a 2021 Grand Award for its innovative design.

A variety of innovative structural engineering methods were used to design a teaching, research and outreach facility that can safely withstand a a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and corresponding tsunami and also provides vertical evacuation in the event of a tsunami for more than 900 people. 

OSU Libraries and Press has been awarded a $75,000 grant for the installation of solar panels at the Valley Library. This will be a key step toward the long-term vision of eliminating carbon emissions at Oregon State, and the library will be one of the first OSU buildings to have solar panels. This grant from EBSCO, a library services company, will provide some of the funding needed to install an approximately 200-kilowatt, grid-tied, photovoltaic solar array on the library’s roof. The solar installation will follow a reroofing of the Valley Library.

“When we pair a reroofing project with solar, it’s ideal!” says Brandon Trelstad, sustainability officer in Oregon State’s Sustainability Office. “Having grant funding from EBSCO for this project also helps tremendously. Solar electrical systems have become much more affordable in the last 10 years, and I expect to see Oregon State expand our solar resources substantially in the next few years. The solar electric system at the Valley Library, targeting about 200,000 watts of power, will help move OSU toward our goal of carbon neutrality.”

The installation of a solar array expands the library’s existing sustainability practices and will provide multiple benefits including cost savings, education and more. The full article by Library Space Manager Rachel Burgess is featured on page 6 in the Summer 2021 edition of “The Messenger,” an Oregon State University Libraries and Press publication. A digital version of the publication is available to download online.


OSUsed Store reopens after 18 months

The OSUsed Store opened their doors to in-person shopping for the general public on July 13, 2021, the first time in 18 months. Approximately 300 people came to this first sale, and the sales revenue generated was the highest ever received at a single OSUsed Store public sale.

 

 


Great Move Out collects over 8,500 pounds of goods for donation

Materials Management partnered with UHDS, ASOSU, Community Engagement & Leadership, and local Master Recyclers to host move out donation drives for students living both on- and off-campus. The collection event for off-campus students was a new approach this year, which required extra problem-solving and planning to comply with public health guidelines. Teams collected an estimated 5,936 pounds from residence halls and 2,711 pounds plus 150 pieces of furniture at the off-campus student event, which went to local nonprofits, as well as the OSUsed Store to help keep the program cost-neutral.

 


Valley Library and Campus Recycling partner on book disposal

Campus Recycling worked with the Valley Library on a book deselection process over the past year, which wrapped up this past quarter. The book disposal need came at the same time OSU’s recycling vendor stopped accepted books for recycling. DFA staff member John Deuel got to work seeking out other possible processors in the region to keep the material out of our landfill, which resulted in finding a new vendor and recycling nearly one million pounds of books in FY21.

 

Campus Recycling helps bring reusable to-go containers back to campus in fall

Campus Recycling partnered with UHDS on a work group chartered to evaluate the Eco2Go reusable to-go container program, how to improve its efficiency upon its resumption, and bring forward a proposal to Dining leadership to resume the program in fall 2021. DFA staff member Andrea Norris consulted on how to utilize community-based social marketing strategies to improve compliance by residents in the cleanliness and timeliness of their container returns. The group was successful in gaining approval to resume the program partway through next fall term.

Even though Oregon’s public universities are not required to follow Gov. Kate Brown's July 7 Executive Order that directs state agencies to curtail nonessential water usage, that didn't stop Facilities Services and the Landscape Shop from taking measures to reduce water usage on the Corvallis campus.

Some of the water conservation measures include letting certain lawn areas go dormant and reducing the percentage of water by percentage to more drought-tolerant trees and shrubs in landscapes. Our Landscape Shop manages over 500 acres of the Corvallis campus, and always appreciate eyes on the ground. Problems, issues and questions can be directed to the Work Coordination Center at 541-737-2969 or facilities@oregonstate.edu.

In addition to the water conservation work from the Landscape Shop, Facilities Services has installed low flow faucets and low flow toilets in many of our campus buildings and has partnered with the city of Corvallis to be notified when any meter is exceeding its expected flow for any given month, which often indicates a leak.

Joe Majeski, OSU’s Director of Facilities Services, explains more in these local news reports:  

The OSU ID Center is part of the Department of Public Safety, as of Aug. 1, 2021. The ID Center provides services in support of students, staff and faculty by creating and distributing OSU ID cards and providing system support for the Orange Cash program, as well as facility door access, event attendance and identification badges. This transition aligns with the department’s goals of fostering relationships with students and employees while collaborating with university colleagues to advance public safety throughout OSU as part of the university’s Community Wellness, Education & Safety Network. Public Safety and Controller’s Units, both part of the Division of Finance and Administration are collaborating to ensure a smooth transition. The ID Center will continue to be located in Room 103 of the Memorial Union. 

OSU-Corvallis implemented a new budget model with the fiscal year 2018 Education & General budget. The Corvallis Shared Responsibility Budget Model (SRBM) is a modified responsibility-centered management approach to allocating education and general (E&G) funds to academic and administrative units. Now in its third year of use, the Office of Budget and Fiscal Planning is in the process of conducting a periodic review to identify potential improvements and adjustments. Charged by the Provost and Executive Vice President and Vice President for Finance and Administration, this will be the first such review since the initial implementation. Some important points about the review process:

  • The university remains committed to the principles in the SRBM. The review is not intended to revisit the basic strategy in budgeting.
  • The review will identify principles in the current model that are working, missing, creating unintended behaviors, or that are not necessary.
  • The review will look for technical improvements in data, communication, and simplicity to improve the utility of the model for planning and forecasting.
  • The review process will engage a cross-section of the university community and will continue to emphasize that all of the education and general budget is interconnected. Changes in any piece have consequences somewhere else and must be balanced.
  • The proposed changes to the model from the review process will be applied in the fiscal year 2023 budget. If there are straightforward technical improvements, those may be applied in the fiscal year 2022 budget.

The review process is structured around five workgroups, each charged to consider the budget model through a particular focus: university mission, college mission, research mission, administrative and support mission, and technical and process improvements. The Budget Office also hosted a number of campus-wide forums during spring term to collect input from faculty and staff.

More information on the Budget Model Review can be found on the Budget Office website.

As shared in the DFA Annual Report for FY2020,  many units throughout the Division of Finance and Administration worked together to support the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS) on their road to recovery following the fire in Burt Hall on November 30, 2018. In fall/winter 2020, Burt Hall reconstruction was completed, and sensitive research equipment was moved back in. Insurance and Risk Management Services, along with CEOAS leadership and faculty, continued work with the insurance adjusters to resolve issues around major equipment, some of which was tested and repaired, but the majority required replacement.

One significant element of the claim was the business interruption losses sustained via lost and/or impacted grants, as well as losses related to designated operations, incremental payroll and student tuition and salaries. The Business Centers were instrumental with coding requisitions, purchase orders and invoices, so they could be captured appropriately for reimbursement. All claims were settled at the end of fiscal year 2021. It took an incredible amount of effort to ensure that the costs across multiple indices were accounted for. Redistributions of the settlement monies are underway and are expected to be completed by the end of August 2021. Although the claim presented a number of challenges, there were also a lot of lessons learned and relationships built that will help us in future, in hopefully much smaller claims.

During COVID-19, the delivery of many services looked different as organizations pivoted and adjusted to the impacts of the pandemic. This was true in Student Health Services, where they expanded healthcare services to include telemedicine appointments, delivered in a virtual setting. OSU’s liability policy with United Educators only provided coverage for medical services when delivered in a traditional in-person clinic setting. However, during the pandemic when universities were delivering courses remotely, United Educators expanded the liability coverage to include telemedicine service for a limited period of time.

Student Health Services wanted to continue delivering telemedicine services for the long-term, but it was important to make sure the university carried liability insurance coverage for this service. The Insurance and Risk Management Services team worked hard to understanding the goals and business needs of Student Health Services. Then they worked with OSU’s insurance broker and other member institutions of the Public Universities Risk Management and Insurance Trust (PURMIT) to advocate for continued liability coverage related to telemedicine services. As of July 1, 2021, the liability insurance policy. This outcome was made possible by the partnership between Student Health Services and the insurance team to review insurance impacts and proactively plan for the desired coverage. 

Insurance and Risk Management Services is available to help when units have questions or concerns about insurance coverage for their business activities.

The division’s Project Management Portfolio Office (PPMO) is starting to support university wide projects, like the Enterprise Service Management Program.

OSU is focused on creating a modern student and employee experience through a new Enterprise Service Management (ESM) platform. This will enable OSU to simplify access to information, resources, and training that faculty, students, and employees need from IT and from the university; using personalization and automation to create seamless, intuitive online experiences. By aligning services to unlock efficiencies and eliminating duplicative work and systems to realize cost savings, ESM improves performance while providing a seamless customer experience. A diverse project team has started the process of obtaining and implementing an ESM platform over the coming months. Here are a few of the recent accomplishments and ongoing efforts:

  • The Request for Proposal closed on Aug. 12. Phase 2 evaluations and vendor demonstrations are being planned for the end of August.
  • Implementation Roadmap is being developed.
  • The project team is identifying wide-audience/high-impact processes to begin journey-mapping and business process redesign efforts. Where appropriate, these processes will be included in phase one of implementation.
  • Sub-groups are being formed to being efforts with process redesigns, implementation planning, governance, and change management.

Read on for updates about other project portfolios the PPMO is managing.

The DFA Framework for Success, built on the foundation of OSU’s core values, is a comprehensive approach to supporting informed and transparent decision-making across the division. We are in the process of fully implementing the Framework, with the goal of having completed implementation by the end of fiscal year 2022. Here’s an update on our progress:

Unit Level Metrics. We continue the phased implementation process with DFA units for the Framework for Success.  The following teams are at varying stages of the implementation approach:    

  • Environmental Health and Safety
  • Emergency Management
  • Controller’s group-Grants
  • University Human Resources
  • Controller’s group-Treasury

The project team has been working with unit workgroups that are in the process of detailing metrics in preparation for implementation. As we continue in this phased approach, more DFA teams will be introduced to the process. Implementation meetings are tailored to meet the needs of each team and assist in refining unit key activities and metrics, developing tracking tools and working through visualization of the metrics for the teams and leadership.

Mike Green and Paul Odenthal will be meeting with senior leaders across the university to share the objectives and work of the DFA Framework for Success. The purpose of these conversations includes an opportunity to ask senior leaders questions like:

  • Do you see any significant gaps in our principles, key activities and metrics?
  • Are they directionally correct from your perspective?
  • Do the metrics capture what you feel signifies good service from DFA units?
  • Do the metrics address things that are important to your college/department?

Online learning library pilot

In March 2021, OSU partnered with LinkedIn Learning to provide online training resources to OSU faculty, staff, graduate assistants, and students. LinkedIn Learning is an important element of the Training and Development component of the overall Talent Management Framework and provides additional resources in building the skills and mindsets for faculty, staff and students to deliver on S.P.4.0. LinkedIn Learning contains over 16,000 courses, offering a wide portfolio of trainings to a diverse constituency. Since roll-out, 2,572 users have activated their accounts and 40,341 videos have been viewed (that’s 7,324 courses)!

This summer, the Learning and Development team in UHR has taken LinkedIn Learning “on the road,” by providing demonstrations to various groups across the university, with the goal of initiating dialogue of how to incorporate this learning tool into curricula as well as the various projects, programs, and initiatives on campus. Content can be shared with colleagues and students via hyperlink, or bundled into a collection (such as our COVID-19 Resources Collections).  Set up your LinkedIn Learning account today! To discuss your ideas, request a demonstration for your group, or learn how to create collections for your team, please reach out to hr.training@oregonstate.edu!

OSU Managerial Competencies Framework

A working group developed an OSU Managerial Competency Framework that promotes managerial excellence through learning and development. The draft framework was shared with Deans and Vice Provosts to gather their feedback into an updated version. The team is now engaging with the University Relations and Marketing team to design a graphic that represents the essential components of the framework, including the competency areas of focus with diversity, equity and inclusion interwoven throughout. 

A working group of representatives and experts across the university that was assembled to map training and development opportunities wrapped up their work in July. These collections are being built out to a learning library within LinkedIn Learning that will be available as the managerial competency pilot project begins in fall 2021. Teams from the College of Agricultural Sciences and University Housing and Dining are the first groups to pilot this framework; implementation will be designed to meet their unique needs and priorities.

Performance Management Pilot Project

The Performance Management Pilot project team continues to move forward with the goal of redesigning the performance management process and system for the OSU IT and Controller’s Units, within the broader context of the OSU Talent Management initiative. Here are a few of the recent accomplishments and ongoing efforts:

  • Implementation and configuration of SAP Success Factors is underway. Pilot go-live scheduled for end of September.
  • Professional Faculty will start using the new system for their next review cycle beginning in Fall of 2021.
  • Classified Staff will migrate to the new system upon completion of their current Evals performance review cycle.
  • The project team is partnering with the UHR Learning & Development team to curate and develop resources to support supervisors and employees in the pilot.
  • Look for upcoming communications and workshops for supervisors and employees.

Travel Redesign Project

As of Aug. 2 all colleges and divisions across campus have gone live with the new Concur Travel & Expense system. There is already a great deal of interest, with nearly 1,000 credit card requests, over 1,400 expense reports, and close to 700 travel pre-trip requests submitted to date.  Our new travel agency, Corporate Travel Planners (CTP) is up and running and providing travel services to the campus community.  Users are encouraged to visit the new travel and expense program website for more details.  First time users are encouraged to drop in to one of the Zoom sessions held daily from 3-4pm, where you can meet with our Travel Office Staff one on one.

Even though initial results have been good, the new Travel & Expense Office has many areas of focus over the next quarter, such as continuing to build out the training library, overhaul the processes for non-employee travel, and partnering with stakeholders on International Travel Risk Manager services.

Business Analytics

Impact Studio is managing University Financial Management (UFM), which was identified to help Oregon State University academic units prioritize and balance both costs and revenues in a strategic, optimized manner. The University Financial Management (UFM) Working Group is currently selecting and improving the top 10 to 15 CORE reports in the topics of Position Management, Budget Reports and Enrollment Management.

This set of information represents the essential data needed for forecasting, and to manage budgets for operations, hiring and enrollment. The selected reports are being envisioned as Tableau dashboards for ease of use, including self-serve training resources. Initially being referred to as the University Financial Management Suite, the set of reports will provide a reliable, consistent set of data for university-wide and college level reporting while also supporting analysis of underlying detail for improved decision-making.

At this point, the Position Management Reports are being reviewed for selection; the Budget Reports improvements are being prototyped; and the Tableau dashboards and training materials development will follow. The Enrollment Management Report is now being developed as a Tableau dashboard; training materials development will follow.

The Beaver Works Core Project Team continues to meet regularly to discuss functional areas and project progress that has been made within each of them. Lead by DFA PPMO staff, an effort is underway to understand outstanding needs that remain within each of the functional areas. The team is determining the following for identified projects:

  1. Scoping
  2. Sizing
  3. Preliminary risk assessments
  4. Strategic alignments with SP 4.0, the Baker Tilly review, and Framework for Success
  5. Prioritization

This effort will help inform DFA leadership as the next functional area projects are determined going forward.  More information about Beaver Works projects can be found at its website for updates.  

Thank you for all you do to help our students and faculty excel.

Sincerely,

Mike

Michael J. Green

Vice President for Finance & Administration / Chief Financial Officer

 

Questions or suggestions?

Contact the VPFA Office for information, assistance, requests for signature on documents and to make an appointment with Mike.

Division of Finance & Administration—Ensuring success every day!