[Rankism] Rankism Discussion

Mon May 19 10:02:15 EDT 2008

Hi Kerri,

 I agree with a lot of what you said. I think this system was tested and many communications went out that a lot of people didn't fully attend to - and they ended up neglecting to get their information into Banner and now they know they need to participate.

I think the concern rightfully is with people who don't see Spiderbytes regularly, don't really know what Banner is, and don't know who to ask. Those folks probably have managers who don't realize how removed they are from the communication flow and need to do better to personally get those folks included. 

After attending the Communications committee last week, I will say it is clear that many in the University know what needs to be done to be more inclusive of all our staff when emergencies arise, but there is still a tendency to think that a Spiderbyte or putting something on a website will assist everyone. I think our committee can serve as a force when it comes to reminding administration that not everyone works at a computer, carries a cell phone or laptop, has an office to lock down in, or is even employed by the University even though they may work here (Ricoh and consultants, etc.). We all have a role in those types of meetings of reminding people to think about people whose jobs are really different from our own and to help us all think more inclusively about our workplace.

Lisa

Lisa Miles

Coordinator of COMMON GROUND 

the University of Richmond's diversity initiative

Visit our Online Discussion Forum at

http://urcommonground.typepad.com

804-484-1655  |  Fax: 804-484-1605  |  lmiles at richmond.edu  |  http://commonground.richmond.edu/ 

The University of Richmond is committed to developing a diverse workforce and student body, and to modeling an inclusive campus community which values the expression of differences in ways that promote excellence in teaching, learning, personal development, and institutional success.

________________________________

From: rankism-bounces at richmond.edu [mailto:rankism-bounces at richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Chapman, Kerri
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 9:53 AM
To: rankism at richmond.edu
Subject: RE: [Rankism] Rankism Discussion

All,

I'm going out on a limb here with my response...  so, here it goes.

I've been fairly close (although not as close as some) to the issue.  I can assure you that those who were not registered for UR Alert are now being strongly encouraged to do so.  On Thursday HR, IS, and Facilities are holding a joint session in Jepson G23 to assist folks with registering through BannerWeb.  It is very unfortunate that groups were left out.  At the same time, we did take measures to test the system ahead of time and did a reasonable job of testing with very little feedback.  Is there such a thing as a "textbook" emergency response?  Probably not...  Anyway, sometimes, I feel like we do quite a bit to communicate, and if people are aware of how the communication is going to happen at some level there's some personal responsibility there to ensure you do what needs to be done in order to be "in the loop".  I mean, if my boss told me every day that I needed to check a bulletin board for important announcements, I'd make sure I did it, regardless of how inconvenient it was to get to that bulletin board.  

On the other hand, I think we make many assumptions that word will be spread down the line from managers to employees that this type of thing is important and needs to be handled. That's where rankism comes into play, I guess.  On the third hand (:-)), there are times I feel like if I don't personally speak face-to-face with everyone affected by something, the word won't get out and I'll get chided for not doing my part.  I don't think it should have to be that way.

I'll shut up now...

Kerri

KERRI CHAPMAN

Banner Trainer/Business Process Analyst

University of Richmond

Information Services

(804) 287-6866

fax (804) 289-8890

http://is.richmond.edu/techtraining/BanTraining.htm <http://is.richmond.edu/techtraining/BanTraining.htm> 

The Mid-Atlantic Banner Users' Group (MABUG):  http://mabug.richmond.edu <http://mabug.richmond.edu> 

________________________________

From: rankism-bounces at richmond.edu [mailto:rankism-bounces at richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Forsyth, Don
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 8:42 PM
To: rankism at richmond.edu
Subject: RE: [Rankism] Rankism Discussion

All,

I strongly agree with Nancy's post about the alert system.  We can be thankful that the intruder on campus did not harm anyone, but the incident highlighted a key flaw in the system: people who are away from technology had no way to learn of the alert and the lockdown.  In hindsight, it is difficult to understand how this flaw in the system was overlooked by its designers, but now that the problem has surfaced we should make sure that steps are taken to correct it.  

Don

Don Forysyth, Jepson Hall 

________________________________

From: rankism-bounces at richmond.edu [mailto:rankism-bounces at richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Colon, Nancy
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 9:47 AM
To: rankism at richmond.edu
Subject: [Rankism] Rankism Discussion

All:

First, Glyn, I'd like to compliment you on your article in RichmondNow.  It was very interesting, and definitely a general conversation we need to continue on campus.

Secondly, I wanted to bring up something related to the discussion we had in our last meeting about the population on campus that does not work with computers daily and the incident we had on campus earlier this week.  I asked the cleaning staff member in our building and also the cashier's at Tyler's Grill about how they received notification of the incident and the lockdown of the campus.  Fortunately, they were all off-duty by the time the incident was made known to the campus.  However, none of them would have been aware of it unless a manager or someone else in the building had notified them personally.  None of them knew about the emergency notification system or how to sign up for it in Banner.  In fact, our cleaning staff person had never heard of Banner Web and did not have an account to log on to until I helped her with it this morning.  (As an aside, she was also pleased to learn that she could add to her Spider Card account online, too.)  What was surprising was that once she got into Banner Web and pulled up her emergency contact information, nothing was entered in under her name.  

This leads me to wonder if there might be a place for our committee to act on this issue.  Can we talk with the cleaning staff in our buildings to make sure they are set-up in Banner Web with the correct emergency contact information?  Can we encourage facilities managers and HR to make this an important issue in the next couple of months?  Hopefully, in the future we won't have a need for the emergency system to activate, but if it does we should make sure that all staff are notified as best as possible.

~ Nancy

Nancy Colón

Office of International Taxation

G-13 Maryland Hall

University of Richmond

University of Richmond, VA  23173

(tel)   804-287-6007

(fax)  804-287-6080

(website)  http://controller.richmond.edu/tax/ <http://controller.richmond.edu/tax/> 

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