Meet and Greet with Michael Kubit
Penn State IT staff members gathered at The Penn Stater on January 11 to listen to Michael Kubit, vice president for Information Technology and chief information officer, introduce himself and discuss his values and principles as a leader. He also had the chance to answer questions from attendees. Check out the video below if you missed his talk or would like to see it again!
Watch the video.
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Watch the video of Michael’s presentation
Smoke-Free Task Force
John Ilie, facilities coordinator for OVPIT and chair of the Staff Advisory Council, was recently appointed to serve on the Smoke-Free/Tobacco-Free University Task Force. The task force was created by Penn State President Eric Barron to better explore options for making the University a smoke- and tobacco-free campus. As a part of the team, Ilie will help examine the issues related to Penn State converting to a smoke- and tobacco-free campus. For more information, read the article on Penn State News.
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New team will explore smoke-free options
Service Management Office
The Service Management Office (SMO) congratulates Craig Haynal, who has been hired as the SMO operations manager, and Kurt Baker, who is now the process owner for incident management and knowledge management. Baker will soon begin planning the next major update to improve processes. As a reminder, the SMO will deploy change management version two to the ServiceNow production instance on January 31. The release includes several improvements and will enable the use of standard changes.
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Program updates
HR Updates
Please join us in welcoming the following new hire to OVPIT:
William Wrbican, programmer/analyst in Enterprise Infrastructure and Operations
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Recent hires
Upcoming Employee Training and Workshops
Happy New Year! No matter what your resolutions are, lynda.com has tutorials that will help you get motivated, maintain focus, and achieve your goals. Learn about whether you should focus on your strengths or weaknesses, how to set team and employee goals, or how to manage your time. There’s even something for those who want to learn the banjo.
Check back often because new tutorials on a wide range of skills are constantly being added. To learn more about training opportunities and resources, visit the IT Professionals Opportunities page. Don’t hesitate to contact Training Services with any questions.
“Civility: Professionalism in the Workplace” workshops
Two “Civility: Professionalism in the Workplace” workshops presented by OVPIT Climate and Diversity will take place on February 8 and 22. Participants will learn what civil behavior is, why it’s important, and how to to create an environment of mutual respect in the workplace.
For more information and to register, visit the registration page.
“Stand for State” workshop
An upcoming “Stand for State” workshop will give faculty and staff the opportunity to sharpen their bystander intervention skills on January 26 from 9:00 a.m. to noon. The initiative is designed to promote a safer campus by helping students, faculty, and staff members recognize and act on their role in keeping people safe.
For more information and to register, visit the registration page.
Note: A reporter from the Associated Press will be present at this workshop to contribute towards a piece he is writing about campus bystander intervention programming efforts nationally as one method of reducing violence on campuses.
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Training opportunities on lynda.com
OVPIT You Rock! Award
OVPIT is filled with people who work hard every day to make OVPIT and Penn State a better place to work. If you know of a special colleague or team that deserves recognition for a job well done, nominate them for a You Rock! Award—a new way to let someone know their hard work has been noticed and appreciated. Submissions are always being accepted via the You Rock! Award nomination form and will be announced monthly on the OVPIT Awards page.
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Recognize a coworker for a job well done
Collab
Registration is now open to attend the March 16 Collab meeting as a guest. Sessions begin with networking from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m., followed by updates, discussions, and small-group activities from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Meetings take place in TSB room 22 unless otherwise noted on the registration form.
Register to be a Collab guest.
Collab is a group of OVPIT staff members that meet monthly to help identify areas of opportunity, recommend action items, and move OVPIT and Penn State IT toward trust, cooperation, and collaboration.
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Attend a Collab meeting
Connect with Us!
There are several ways you can stay up to date with what’s going on in OVPIT!
Follow the Penn State IT Twitter account for the latest news and information about IT-related research, events, and services.
Visit the Plan-Build-Run website for the latest information about the transition to the Plan-Build-Run concept of IT operations.
Join the OVPIT Yammer group for announcements, updates, training opportunities, and more.
Visit the OVPIT staff site for information about upcoming events, staff awards, and the archives of this newsletter.
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Keep up with what’s happening in OVPIT