PAGE CONTENT

• A Message from UMS Data Governance
• COVID-19 Testing and Vaccination Verification
• Emergency Broadband Benefit
• Information and Communications Technology Accessibility – Responsibility and Resources
• USDA Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant 2020
• Zoom Cloud Recording 14-Day Auto-Delete Process Starts 5/10/2021

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A Message from UMS Data Governance

IT’s A TEAM EFFORT…

and UMS Data Governance doesn’t work without you!

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our IT colleagues for all of the work that you do.  We would like to acknowledge some teams and individuals who have made significant contributions to our Data Governance projects in the past few months.

Recently, the UMS implemented new course instruction mode codes and definitions to create consistency across campuses, align with new technologies, and decrease ambiguity. These improvements are another step toward Unified Accreditation.

• Tom O’Donnell’s Web Technologies group ensured that the online search works properly for students & advisors
• Ursula Shufelt’s Software Development team added resources links to MaineStreet for students and staff
• Todd Berry’s Data Systems & Integration Team ensured that the new codes were input to enable accurate reporting

In our Student Location workgroup, member Christina Stephens created an activity guide in MaineStreet, prompting students to update their contact information, including their local address and emergency contacts, each semester. A  new Address Type, LOCL (Local), was also created to accurately identify where students are during the semester, ensuring compliance with federal regulations.

Kim Hikel and Mark White, as members of the Duplicate IDs workgroup, streamlined the process for identification and removal of current duplicate EMPLIDs in MaineStreet, while other workgroup members created end-user training to help prevent duplicates from being created in the first place. Work is ongoing to address the thousands of existing duplicates which cause headaches for students and staff alike.

Each one of these, and many more resolved issues, has been meticulously documented. There now exists over 1,000 pages of data documentation in Confluence, which is being used daily by individuals within IT as well as across the UMS. As we continue to work on the integrity of our institutional data, we will continue to rely on the participation of our UMS IT team.

Thanks to all of you for your support in improving the validity and reliability of our data for the benefit of our students and staff!

The UMS Data Governance Team

Rachel Groenhout
Director of Institutional Data Management

Corina Larsen
Data Documentation & Training Coordinator

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COVID-19 Testing and Vaccination Verification

This past year, the entire UMS community was introduced to new ways to teach, learn and work.  To promote a safe environment on our campuses, widespread asymptomatic surveillance testing was conducted.

Fall Term
Tests were made available to targeted subpopulations using a variety of statistical methods to ensure the validity of the testing methodology.  US:IT partnered with the campus testing leads and our selected testing partners (Vault for mail-in saliva testing; ConvenientMD/Jackson Labs for on-campus nasal-pharyngeal swab testing) to establish a reporting datamart to ingest and combine test results from all sources into a singular repository accessible to each campus Incident Command team.  For the Fall, UMS collected over 40,000 COVID-19 tests.  Aggregate test results are available through the public UMS COVID-19 Dashboard.

Additionally, in partnership with the State of Maine CDC, US:IT launched the Sara Alert system to coordinate contact tracing activities across all campuses.  Key elements of the Sara Alert system include automated daily check-in/screening for individuals asked to quarantine in cases of suspected close contact with a known positive case, real-time communication, and system reporting capabilities.

Spring Term
For the Spring Term, the UMS altered its COVID-19 testing strategy to require tests for all individuals expected to maintain a presence on any campus during the Spring term.  For this, a new saliva-based testing partner (ShieldT3) was identified and a new testing lab was established on the Orono campus.  Using ShieldT3, the UMS community benefited from rapid turnaround (24 hours in most cases) of test results to support mandatory weekly testing.  Test results were again added to the UMS COVID-19 datamart for rapid access to campus Incident Command teams.  Furthermore, test scheduling and results distribution was handled through new 3rd party tools.  Initially, UMS used the Rokmetro mobile application to handle this functionality but quickly pivoted to a more reliable web-based front end (PointNClick) in early March.  For the Spring term, UMS collected over 127,000 tests.

With the PointNClick system in place, US:IT was able to leverage additional functionality within the platform to enable the UMS community to verify their vaccination status by uploading a copy of their vaccination card.  This was in response to the Chancellor’s ‘This is Our Shot’ campaign.  For verified fully vaccinated individuals, regular weekly asymptomatic testing is no longer required. For these same individuals, recent CDC guidelines will allow exemption from quarantine, when asymptomatic, in cases of exposure to a known positive case. These changes will be implemented over the Summer and remain in place for the Fall term.

(content for this article was provided by David Demers, Ph.D., Chief Information Officer)

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Emergency Broadband Benefit

The Federal Communications Commission has launched a temporary program to help families and households struggling to afford Internet service during the COVID-19 pandemic.  As of May 12, 2021, eligible households will be able to enroll in the program to receive a monthly discount on the cost of broadband service from an approved provider. The Emergency Broadband Benefit provides a discount of up to $50 per month toward broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers.

Eligible households can enroll through a participating broadband provider or directly with the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) using an online or mail-in application. A household is eligible if any member:

• Received a Pell Grant in the current award year
• Is approved to receive benefits under the free and reduced school lunch program or school breakfast program in the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 school year.
• Experienced a substantial loss of income, due to job loss or furlough since 2/29/20 and the household had a total income in 2020 below $99,000 (single filers) or $198,000 (joint filers); or
• Meets the eligibility of a participating providers’ COVID-19 or low-income program.

You can learn more about the benefit, including eligibility and enrollment information, by visiting  www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit, or by calling 833-511-0311

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Information and Communications Technology Accessibility – Responsibility and Resources

As a community we share the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. When it comes to employing or acquiring information and communication technology (apps, software, services, digital materials, etc.) for a university activity, inclusion requires us to ensure that the technology is accessible to persons with disabilities, and if not, then planning for how to provide an equally effective and accessible alternative. Besides being the right thing to do, the UMS Board of Trustees Information and Communications Technology Accessibility Policy, and its related Administrative Practice Letter, make it everyone’s responsibility to ensure equal opportunity when employing information and communication technology in university programs, courses and activities.

How do you fulfill these responsibilities when choosing technology? Your system ADA office, Campus Disability Services offices and US:IT can help you. Just make a request for a Digital Technology Accessibility Review (preferably BEFORE employing information and communications technology in a university program, course or activity). More information is available at the Digital Technology Accessibility Review site, including When Is Digital Technology Accessibility Review Required? (including exceptions).

Please direct questions about information and communication technology accessibility to DigitalAccessibility@maine.edu.

(content for this article was provided by Michael Cyr, Director of Architecture and Service Management)

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USDA Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant 2020

For a second year, the University of Maine System (UMS) has been awarded a grant under the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program administered by the USDA Rural Utilities Service. The grant proposal, 21st Century Connections: Meeting Higher Education, Healthcare and Workforce Challenges in Rural Maine, outlined the critical need for additional web conferencing infrastructure to provide access to educational and workforce development opportunities and healthcare services across the state.  This grant program helps rural communities acquire the technology and training necessary to connect educational and healthcare professionals with the teachers and healthcare providers who serve rural residents at the local level. The Classroom Technology team along with the project partners from UMPI, the School of Nursing at UM, and Maine Center Ventures are in the planning stage of the project. The project includes 42 distance education and telemedicine locations across the State of Maine, including all UMS campuses. They will be purchasing and installing a few of the systems this summer and will complete the project in summer 2022.  The total award for this year’s grant is $1,000,000 bringing the total awarded to $1,500,000 from the USDA.

(content for this article was provided by Angela Cook, Director of Classroom Technology)