Director's Corner Better Together One thing I have thought about working in higher ed IT for years is that it’s never boring. The pace of change is ever increasing, and the list of upcoming projects continues to grow: Stellic, Transact, EMS, plannin…

February 2024

Director's Corner

Better Together

One thing I have thought about working in higher ed IT for years is that it’s never boring. The pace of change is ever increasing, and the list of upcoming projects continues to grow: Stellic, Transact, EMS, planning for HEUC ’24, disaster recovery, Team Dynamix, privileged access management, admissions application cycle, and FAFSA simplification are just some of the projects in flight or on deck - and I know that list it not complete. The pressures of the enrollment cliff and budget shortfalls add stress and remind us of the criticality of our work and keep us focused – there is much to be done! That is why we work hard to foster a great spirit of teamwork amongst our coworkers and the importance of partnership with you all because - let’s face it, we’re all in this together! We know that a positive attitude will go a long way toward making our road easier and our outcomes successful. Let’s help each other by showing grace, being kind, and having each other’s backs. I, myself, am confident we’ll do better together and look forward to getting it all done!

Andrea Childress

AVP IT & CIO

Through the years and all the many changes and challenges that have come along, the one thing that has allowed us to remain successful is the awesome people involved in ensuring this success. Come join us for two days of learning, growing and collaborating to continue our journey Together Towards Tomorrow! If there are sessions you would like to see or present, contact heucplanning@nebraska.edu .

More information will be coming soon on the conference website.

Meet Hasniuj Zahan

Greetings! I joined the NeSIS Team as a PeopleSoft Oracle System Administrator in February. I graduated from UNO in August with my master’s in computer science. Previously, I worked as a developer in Mediacom Communication for a brief period. Before that, I used to work as a research assistant in the Computer Science department at UNO.

FAFSA Simplification

To date, the FAFSA Simplification process has been simple! You want to know why? The financial aid offices haven’t received any files yet! Ha! The FA Office on your campus can only laugh at this point or tears will start to flow.

The FAFSA process for the 2024-2025 year is completely redesigned and all processes from the FAFSA have been delayed and changed. Here are some things you need to know:

Students and parents are able to submit a 2024-2025 FAFSA as of December 31, 2023.
Schools will not receive the files (results of the FAFSA submission) until the first half of March 2024.

Schools will be able to re-write reports and processes with the new information once the files are received.

Financial Aid Offers to students will be several weeks after the files are received by the campus.

As we look at these dates and information, incoming freshman are not going to make decisions on what college to attend, if they live on campus, if/when they come to orientation until WAAAY later in the process. This will cause ripples for all areas of the campus, not just financial aid.

I saw a quote by Joyce Meyer that I think fits our situation, “Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”

Shareen Thewke

Functional Coordinator, Financial Aid

NU Support Client Portal Home Page

Moving Toward a Dynamic Future

In an effort to improve service to their campus customers, NU ITS has been working towards replacing Footprints, their current ITSM (IT Service Management) system which is used for various processes such as managing incident tickets, service requests, change requests, etc. The system that was chosen as a replacement is Team Dynamix (TDX), which offers a cleaner, more modern interface and many more capabilities. One exciting new feature is a client portal that is available to view/request services, view Knowledge Base articles and view tickets that you have submitted.

An implementation team has been working for the past 6 months to get the system configured and ready all of the components for use. NU ITS is currently in a “soft launch” phase with a few select processes with plans to continue to move additional processes over and complete building the service catalog in the next month or two. The cutover process will be completed in May.

NeSIS currently uses Footprints for our customers to submit issues found in production or during testing of modifications and/or maintenance packages, and will be also moving to TDX in March. All current Footprints users will have access to the TDX system to submit and/or work on tickets they may be assigned to as well as being able to access the client portal. More information will be coming on the details of the move, along with opportunities to learn more about the new system.

January 2024 NeSIS Award Recipient

Lori Brown is the recipient of the January 2024 NeSIS (NeSIS Employee Shining Impactful Superstar) award for her work on the Team Dynamix Implementation Knowledge Base team.