After three years of research and planning, colleges and some non-academic units have begun the process of moving their web presence to our new Drupal content management system (CMS) as part of the .Ěý

A new interim homepage was unveiled last summer, giving the community a glimpse of the new digital experience. By June 2024, most colleges and units will debut on the new system. The end product will be a modern, dynamic, user-friendly web presence that upholds our commitment to current and future students, faculty and staff and the greater community.

The new web presence will consolidate over 400 websites into roughly 100 to prioritize the needs of UofL’s audiences. With the help of digital agency , UofL is implementing new website designs, content and structure based on months of student and competitor research, and extensive auditing of all sites. All of this will culminate in an audience-focused system that makes it easy for university departments to get their information in front of the right users.

Most importantly, the updates coming this June will help UofL better serve prospective and current students with the help of a centralized CMS. This is a major improvement over the siloed approach used over the past 10 years, said John Drees, vice president of communications & marketing.

“Students are the heart and soul of the institution, and we have a tremendous opportunity with this website project to connect with them in a more meaningful way, to communicate to them what makes UofL so special and to help them decide if we are the right fit for their future,” Drees said.

The backbone of this effort on the college and unit level are , designated by deans and VPs. Since September, content leads have been auditing their sites to weed out old information and identify the most relevant sections for their audiences. Technology leads identified the complexities their websites already used so that accommodations were made in Drupal.

Their work culminated in a library of reusable components, workflows, guidelines and other features that will make it easier to build pages that align with our brand standards and voice. Site URLs and structure were also based on extensive keyword research and user experience best practices to help each department perform better in search engine result pages (SERPS). The project team also reimagined admissions tasks to make it easier for students to discover and apply for programs, no matter which college site they’re navigating.

A small group of stakeholders tested these features in the first Drupal demos from Feb. 27-29. Over the course of several sessions, the Mighty Citizen, ITS and OCM teams guided them through a series of exercises, presentations and Q&A sessions to learn and improve the CMS. Stakeholders and their teams will continue to train on the new system throughout the spring.

Also attending were each unit’s success managers – marketing professionals in OCM who already work with each strategic area. Building on prior relationships, the success managers serve as the primary point of contact between the project team and content and technology leads, ensuring timely communication and project management.Ěý

As we move into the content integration phase, content and technology leads will begin to appoint content creators, subject matter experts, asset managers and digital analysts to form the .Ěý

In addition to clearly defining responsibilities, the new governance framework will formalize a system of improvements to the web through a Digital Experience Board, consisting of representatives from web responsibility committees and other institutional bodies, like and . Requests from users or administration will be considered based on alignment with university strategic goals, budgetary constraints and other board-identified requisite metrics for the collective benefit of all users.

“This project has been a long time in the making, but presented an opportunity to pull together the people on campus who have been working diligently for years to make things better,” said Amber Peter, director of web and digital strategy for OCM. “With these new tools, designs, processes and training, we hope to finally be able to not only better serve our audiences, but also support the staff and faculty who contribute to our web presence behind the scenes. That is something I hope will last well into the future.”

The new sites making their debut in summer of 2024 include Admissions, a new Student Services site, Financial Aid, Campus Safety and most schools and colleges. The sheer scale of this endeavor necessitated a phased approach, prioritizing student recruitment and services – the areas requiring the highest degree of customization and journey mapping. After the initial wave of student service and recruitment sites, the remaining departments at UofL will begin moving to Drupal following a similar, repeatable process.Ěý

Websites that don’t serve an external marketing purpose will move to an intranet, where students, faculty and staff can perform internal tasks, like purchase parking tickets and register for classes. Staff and faculty are currently invited to weigh in on the intranet by completing a .Ěý

For more information on the Web Improvement Project, visit the list.Ěý

This year’s Fiscal Year 2023 government funding bill contains significant resources to support important Kentucky institutions and programs. Utilizing his role as Senate Republican Leader and as a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. McConnell advocated on behalf of the University of Louisville in this year’s government funding process. That includes his support of the NSA’s cyber workforce training initiative, which has funded educational programming at the University of Louisville.

“It’s an honor to return to my alma mater and announce that NSA’s cyber workforce training initiative, which has made landmark investments in educational programming at UofL, will once again receive robust resources from this fiscal year’s government funding bill. UofL is at the center of the growing cybersecurity field, benefitting the Commonwealth’s economy and our country’s national security. I look forward to more students taking part in this program and entering the workforce with the skillset needed to succeed in the 21st century,” said Sen. McConnell.

UofL launched its Cybersecurity Workforce Certificate in 2020 thanks to $6.2 million in funding from the NSA as a pilot for a national program supported by Sen. McConnell to train a qualified cybersecurity workforce. The UofL program so far has enrolled more than 200 students, with an emphasis on training military veterans and first responders in health care cybersecurity and logistics.

“The need for highly skilled cybersecurity professionals to protect our information systems is increasing rapidly. The University of Louisville is leading the way to meet this need in developing our innovative cybersecurity workforce training program and assembling a coalition of universities to support and replicate this training on a national level,” said Lori Stewart Gonzalez, interim president of UofL. “We are grateful to Sen. McConnell for supporting this and other programs with additional funding, and for his advocacy on behalf of UofL and Kentucky.”

UofL’s cybersecurity certificate program includes online learning, hands-on applied learning labs at all levels and gamification components, along with online technology industry badging from Microsoft, IBM and Google. Students gain expertise in artificial intelligence, robotics process automation, blockchain, internet of things (IoT), machine learning and other areas to earn individual badges throughout the certificate’s 24 modules.

“With technology continuing to become more of an integral piece of our everyday lives, a strong cybersecurity industry and workforce are the most important protections we have to ensure secure businesses and critical infrastructure across the Commonwealth and nation,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation. “As a top research institution, UofL is proud to lead the charge on this important work through groundbreaking and unparalleled research, innovation and academic programs. We appreciate Sen. McConnell’s support for advancing cybersecurity technology and growing our cybersecurity workforce.”

UofL is partnering with corporations, including logistics companies, health care providers and others, as well as other colleges and universities to create a national cybersecurity training coalition. UofL’s university partners include Kentucky Community and Technical Colleges, University of North Florida, University of Arkansas – Little Rock, City University of Seattle, Kentucky State University, Simmons College, City University of New York, Kennesaw State University, Hood College and Northwest Missouri State University. The University of West Florida and Purdue University Northwest also are building university coalitions for cybersecurity workforce training.

“This new funding can allow UofL and the other lead universities to leverage resources and initiate cooperation for the good of the entire cybersecurity national community,” said Sharon Kerrick, associate professor and assistant vice president, UofL Digital Transformation Center.

Following the initial $6.2 million in funding to launch the UofL program in 2020, the university received an additional $2.3 million to expand it to include logistics and train-the-trainer components in which students are trained to instruct others in their organizations.

The UofL provides future-focused curricula and educational tools to help train the workforce in fast-growing technology areas by integrating the best features of industry and academic institution relationships.

Senators asked about how timesheets for bi-weekly/hourly employees should be managed prior to and during the holiday break. Shuter said, where possible, supervisors should go ahead and approve timesheets for Dec. 16, 2022 – Dec. 29, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2022, when no hours are worked. Supervisors who have employees working over winter break will need to approve hours worked. When Workday goes live, timesheets will be due Monday at noon. Employees are encouraged to check the for details.

Questions about the WorkdayHR transition should be directed to workdayhr@louisville.edu.

President Search

Staff Senate Chair John Smith provided a follow-up to the recent announcement of Kim Schatzel’s appointment as UofL’s new president. He said that Schatzel’s accomplishments in shared governance, student success and business acumen throughout her professional career made her the best choice as UofL’s next president. Smith recently contacted the Staff Senate chair at Towson University, where Schatzel has served as president since 2016, and was assured that Schatzel’s engagement in and support of Staff Senate issues and initiatives are exemplary.

Excellence Awards

Laura McDaniels from the UofL Employee Success Center shared information about UofL’s 2023 Presidential Excellence Awards. Nominations are being accepted until Feb. 15, 2023. Staff employees are eligible to receive the Outstanding Performance Award and the George J. Howe Distinguished Staff Award. Both staff and faculty are eligible for the Cardinal Principles Champion and Outstanding Supervisor awards. Winners of the Outstanding Performance, Outstanding Supervisor and Cardinal Principles Champion awards receive $1,000, and the George J. Howe Distinguished Staff Award winner receives $5,000. More information and nomination forms are available on the .

ITS Updates

Interim Chief Information Officer Brad Anderson gave an update on network outages which occurred across the university between September and December. While each instance was different, all resulted in disruption of network access and/or internet use. Anderson said that work is underway to provide additional means of communication to further minimize impact to end users including information on the ITS webpage that will provide updates on outage causes and resolutions. When outages prohibit or limit access to the internet, Anderson advises end users to access the ITS webpage using their cell phones. RAVE alerts about outages will deploy in extreme circumstances. Access the for more information.

AAPI

Andrew Zhao, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, was on hand to share the successes of the . The employee resource group was established in 2021 to build community, address the needs and lift up the unique perspectives and experiences of UofL’s AAPI community. The AAPI leadership team is growing and looking for leaders to take the employee resource group to the next level. They are looking for a variety of skills to round out their leadership team and are accepting until Jan. 17.

The next meeting of the University of Louisville Staff Senate will be held Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, via MS Teams. Committee reports, meeting minutes and other information from the Dec. 13, 2022, Staff Senate meeting are available on the .

Jim Begany, vice provost for Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success, provided updates on current student enrollment and graduation rates. The student graduation rate at UofL has reported steady growth over the past six years, increasing from 52.9% in 2015 to 61.6% in 2021.

“Our graduation rate is the real highlight of this presentation. Last year we eclipsed 60% for the first time in the history of the university, and now we have surpassed it and we’ll continue to improve that number,” Begany said.

Total enrollment for fall 2021 was 21,754 students, a decrease of 227 from last year’s fall semester; these figures reflect the national downward trend in undergraduate enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enrollment figures nationwide are projected to decline significantly over the next five to 10 years. This is due to falling birthrates and a decrease in the population of high school students known as the demographic cliff.

According to Begany, Kentucky’s estimated drop is around 15-16%, which, he said, will be a significant challenge in our regional markets.

Begany informed senators that the Office of the Provost is exploring possible solutions to address this future obstacle, including the formation of the Demographic 25 Committee. This committee will confront the challenge of the projected 2025 demographic cliff by focusing institutional efforts in six areas: academic quality, institutional aid strategies, retention and graduation, academic programs, recruitment and partnerships.

Senators were also joined by M. Rehan Khan, vice president of Information Technology Services and chief information officer, and Katherine Stevenson, executive director of Enterprise Technology Services. Stevenson informed senators that Information Technology Services will start using , a form of multifactor authentication for Microsoft O365 software. Authorization will be a combination user and device identity, location signaling and if necessary, two-factor user verification.

“When we turn this on, what we’re doing is checking the reputation of the IP address that you’re logging on from and your normal login behavior. If we rank that as a high-risk login, we’re simply not going to allow that login to continue. If you were a medium risk login, you would be prompted to do two-factor verification,” Stevenson said.

Conditional Access for Microsoft O365 systems will provide increased security for the university, as well as improving the security of employees’ data and personal information. Conditional Access will go into effect for all staff and faculty Jan. 10, 2022, and will apply to all applications that utilize the Microsoft Single Sign-On system, such as Outlook and SharePoint.

Committee reports and a of the virtual meeting can be found on the . The next Staff Senate meeting will be held on Dec. 13 via Microsoft Teams.

Bendapudi provided senators with updates and reminders about the COVID-19 vaccine. State government constraints limit the number of available vaccines, which restricts how quickly vaccines can be offered to the entire university community. Bendapudi further reminded senators that age will be the determining factor for when vaccines will be offered to employees. An email notification from UofL Health will alert those who are next in line to receive the vaccination. All staff, faculty and students were encouraged to take advantage of the vaccine when it is made available to them.

“If you have a chance to get a vaccine please do it, as all of the scientific evidence right now is that you’re better off taking the vaccine,” Bendapudi said.

Bendapudi presented key findings from the Counsel on Postsecondary łÉČËÖ±˛Ą, which oversees all Kentucky higher education institutions. The counsel assesses all colleges and universities on 29 different metrics of progress. Bendapudi reported that since the 2015/2016 academic year, the university has improved on 26 of the 29 measured metrics. Adult learners over the age of 22, diversity of tenure track staff and student performance in English were among those areas with room for growth. The CPE findings further highlighted fall 2020 enrollment rates for the university.

“In fall of 2020, we led all Kentucky public colleges and universities by actually growing our freshmen enrollment by about 2.5%, when nationally the trends were down. This is the direct result of staff contribution at every level,” Bendapudi said.

Senators were also joined by M. Rehan Khan, vice president of information technology services and chief information officer, and Katherine Stevenson, executive director of enterprise technology services. As part of the ongoing effort to keep the university secure, access to campus resources will be restricted for devices with unsupported operating systems.

Stevenson informed senators that now obsolete operating systems, including Windows 7 and early variations of macOS, are no longer receiving necessary patches. As a result, these operating systems are increasingly exposed to vulnerabilities and possible cybersecurity threats.  

“It’s important that people keep their operating systems up to date to receive these patches. If you don’t, your machine is very vulnerable to ransomware and other forms of malicious software,” Stevenson stated.

At the close of business on Feb. 26, these unsupported operating systems will no longer be able to access the campus VPN. At that time, devices running Windows 7 and the obsolete versions of macOS will not be able to access PeopleSoft HR. Employees were encouraged to take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10 through the university’s Microsoft contract. Updates to macOS are also available free of charge. Up to five personal devices can be updated to compatible operating systems by contacting the

Brian Buford, director of employee development and success, provided senators with information about the launch of the new Employee Success Center. The ESC was formed as part of the 2019-2022 to help make the university a great place to work. Leadership training, mentoring and coaching will be provided through the center to improve workplace culture and promote employee engagement.

To celebrate the launch of the Employee Success Center, President Bendapudi will host a virtual fireside chat with special guest, Simon Sinek, on Feb. 22 at 1 p.m. Sinek is a renowned speaker, author and presenter of the third most watched TED Talk of all time. Employees can register for the free virtual event

Committee reports and a full video recording of the virtual meeting can be found on the . The next Staff Senate meeting will be held on March 9 via Microsoft Teams.

Through the program, University of Louisville users with registered university email addresses now have free access to Creative Cloud programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Adobe XD and Spark.

Creative Cloud connects Adobe users with their assets through Creative Cloud Libraries, enabling them to work effortlessly across desktop and mobile devices for connected creative workflows.

The Adobe Creative Campus program enables University of Louisville students to become fully trained on one of the most-used creative platforms in the world while they are still in college. Adobe reports that more than 90% of creative professionals worldwide use Photoshop, and Creative Cloud mobile apps have been downloaded 379 million times.

“Adobe Creative Cloud greatly enhances our students’ digital training and education at no extra cost,” said Katherine Stevenson, executive director of enterprise technology services at UofL. “As an Adobe Creative Campus, we’re driving the future of digital literacy within the global higher education community. We recognize the value of teaching creative and persuasive digital communication skills to help our students succeed in the classroom and improve their attractiveness to employers when they graduate.”

“As technology continues to play a central role in everything we do – from our lives to our jobs – it’s imperative that students become digitally literate and fluent early on in their academic careers,” said Karen Steele, Head of North America łÉČËÖ±˛Ą Enterprise Sales, Adobe. “With frequent exposure and access to tools, such as Adobe Creative Cloud, students at the University of Louisville can build the critical digital and soft skills they will ultimately need to be successful in an ever-changing workforce.”

The Adobe Creative Campus program also allows users at University of Louisville to collaborate with other Adobe Creative Campuses to share ideas that expand digital literacy and help ensure student success. “We look forward to all the creative ways our students, faculty and staff will work with their peers throughout the world in developing innovations that broaden the scope of learning,” Stevenson said.

Creative Cloud is now available to University of Louisville users. To get started, see the and a with directions on how to access the system. Additional assistance for the program can be found through the university’s and Adobe’s other digital support sites: , and .