Inside IS&T
Inside IS&T is an internal newsletter connecting IS&T staff to organizational news and events.
October 30, 2009
On this page:
News
All About Staff
Events
FYI
Around MIT/Town
News
Organizational
Spotlight: All-Hands Material Available Online
The presentation material for the October 27 All Hands is now available online. Thank you to those who
participated in the IS&T food drive!
Congratulations Infinite Mile Award Recipients 2009
On September 30, IS&T held its annual Infinite Mile Award celebration. Our theme this year was “Going the Infinite Mile and Beyond” and both of the award winners showed themselves to be true role models.
This year’s recipients, Joanne Larrabee and Mary Ziegler, work closely with the community.
Joanne Larrabee
Joanne is a Senior IT Help Services Analyst with the IS&T Service Desk within Client Support Services. She has been with MIT since 1985 and over the years has developed a model program for training students to staff the Help Desk. She now recruits and mentors 15 to 20 students each year – contributing to their educational experience and development of real-life job skills, while providing IS&T with a well-trained group of excellent front-line customer service staff. Due to the success of her student orientation and training efforts, Joanne also plays a key role in the orientation of all new Help Desk staff. Those whom Joanne has mentored speak highly of her:
"Since I started working...midway through my freshman year, Joanne has been a wonderful resource for developing my skills not only as a consultant, but as a professional employee in general.”
“She takes a personal interest in the students she works with, always trying to find out how she can assist through her available resources, even outside the area of IS&T. “
“She has challenged myself and other student consultants to exercise our presentation skills, our creativity, and our problem solving abilities – all things that I have been able to apply successfully to my work here at IS&T, in my classes, and with student groups that I am a part of.”
Mary Ziegler
Mary is the Team Leader of the Adaptive Technology Information Center (ATIC) within Client Support Services. She has been with MIT since 1989. Her natural interest in helping people, coupled with her well- developed sense of humor and a knack for organization, enables her to work tirelessly as a hands-on manager. She can be found scanning documents for visually impaired students or giving one-on-one demonstrations of voice activated software, ergonomic keyboards, and mice for ATIC clients. Her expertise in technologies to prevent or cope with Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) has been invaluable to MIT students, staff and faculty. Mary’s role is far-reaching as she assists departments such as Facilities, Academic Media Production Services (AMPS), OpenCourseWare (OCW), Human Resources, Student Life, MIT Medical, Environmental Health and Safety, and Procurement in using adaptive technologies to make information more accessible across campus.
Here are some representative comments from members of the community about Mary’s supportive role:
“She was exceptionally helpful when I was working on my doctoral thesis. I suffered from RSI and she spent many hours teaching me how to use voice-activated software as well as ergonomic keyboards and mice. She also gave me the necessary moral support that I needed to get through this difficult time. Knowing that she would be in the ATIC Lab inspired me to continue working until I finished my thesis. I am very grateful for her expertise as well as her fantastic sense of humor!”
“Mary continues to represent, in my mind, the difference an individual can make to my experience of MIT as not just an educational institution, but a community which remains valuable to me even long after my graduation.”
“Her attention to those of us who use and need the Lab is remarkable and very much appreciated. Since she arrived at MIT, I have found her to be a splendid colleague and superb resource in maximizing my reliance on, and use, of information technology. Without her exceptional efforts, accessible technology at MIT would not be used as capably and flexibly as it has been with her help.”
See the All About Staff section below for an interview with Joanne Larrabee and look for Mary’s spotlight in the November issue of Inside IS&T.
Check out the photos from the Infinite Mile Award Ceremony!
IS&T Leadership Working Group
With the recent changes in leadership in IS&T, the Senior Staff has taken the opportunity to look at the monthly IS&T Leadership Team meetings within the context of other cross-organizational meetings. After reviewing the purpose and membership of these sessions, a decision has been made to replace the 80+ person Leadership Team with a new IS&T Leadership Working Group of about 45 people. The purpose of the IS&T Leadership Working Group meeting is to provide a collaborative environment for building relationships and a culture of leadership across IS&T for the next level of managers through working together to build, change and evolve IT services at MIT. The meetings also enable an opportunity to focus on themes throughout the year and work together on specific work/issues (eg. build, accomplish and monitor IS&T’s business plan).
This group will be made up of all IS&T Sr. Staff and direct reports (manager level) as specified by each Director. Guests may be invited for particular topics throughout the year. To facilitate discussions a new email list has been created: ist-lwg@mit.edu. The first meeting of the LWG is TBD and will align with the strategic planning and core services work.
Products, Service Updates, Technology
The redesigned IS&T Web Site uses the Drupal Content Management System, enabling access to content owners who wish to author their own pages. There are three key roles in Drupal for the IS&T web site:
- The Editor Role – These are the authors for our site. Editors can create new pages, edit existing pages (usually in limited areas of the site), and clone pages. Editors do not have the authority to publish pages.
- The Publisher Role – This role, held by the Web Production Team of Kris Nyzio and Samantha Barney, has all the same rights as Editors and also publishes pages for the site. In addition, Publishers can grant access rights by setting up new users and/or giving reviewer permissions.
- The Reviewer Role – Reviewers can access online draft pages related to their area of expertise to provide feedback before publishing. Editors submit their requests for Reviewer permissions to the Web Production Team.
Currently, IS&T has over twenty Editors set up, trained, and using Drupal. To facilitate the use of Drupal for the IS&T web site, the Communications Team in collaboration with the Publishing Team has created a set of user documentation and a style guide.
This documentation, which can be found at https://ist.mit.edu/userdocs, includes an authoring overview, a description of roles in Drupal, a style guide, page examples, and instructions on how to create or clone a basic page.
These guidelines will be used by the Publishers when reviewing pages for publication. The Publishers will note in their email confirmation to respective Editors any revisions made to a page prior to publishing. The user documents are intended to evolve over time based on user input. To provide feedback on these guidelines or to inquire about authoring pages, please contact the Web Production Team.
All About Staff
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- Job Listings: View IS&T Positions posted
Contact the IST-HR Team for more information or to refer someone for a position.
IS&T continues to hire to fill positions for core needs. Following the new policy, all hiring in administrative units is being submitted to the Executive Vice President, Terry Stone, for approval. This includes all positions, both new and replacements, currently posted jobs and any labor-force-related contract worker or consulting hires, as well as MITemps.
Events
Reminder
- Seasonal and H1N1 Flu Briefing: Monday, November 2, 1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m., W92-106 (Back Bay A&B)
- Dr. David Diamond, Associate Medical Director for MIT Medical will speak on the existence of the seasonal and H1N1 flu on campus and what is currently being done to manage it. In addition, Bob Muti, HR Officer, will join us to talk about MIT’s policy in the event of an emergency closing (in some or all campus locations) or early release. Other topics covered will be communication and alternative work arrangements during a possible pandemic. Supervisors are strongly encouraged to attend this briefing in order to learn more about MIT Leave of Absence payment and policy guidelines.
If you have questions or wish to speak with a member of the IS&T HR Team, please call 617.715.5162 or send email to ist-hr@mit.edu.
- Dr. David Diamond, Associate Medical Director for MIT Medical will speak on the existence of the seasonal and H1N1 flu on campus and what is currently being done to manage it. In addition, Bob Muti, HR Officer, will join us to talk about MIT’s policy in the event of an emergency closing (in some or all campus locations) or early release. Other topics covered will be communication and alternative work arrangements during a possible pandemic. Supervisors are strongly encouraged to attend this briefing in order to learn more about MIT Leave of Absence payment and policy guidelines.
FYI
- Artists Behind IS&T’s Desks
IS&T is very fortunate to have the artistic talent represented in our staff. Below are two events involving our talented colleagues.
o Friday, November 14 at 8 p.m. at The Nave Gallery
(Admission: $6)
Metal and Glass Ensemble, CD release concert featuring Randy Winchester playing bowed metal.
Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, 155 Powderhouse Boulevard, Somerville
o Thursday, November 19 from 12:05 – 12:35 at the MIT Chapel
(Free Admission)
Organ Recitals featuring Lee Ridgway playing music of Distler, Bach, and Pinkham
If you are an IS&T staff member with an artistic talent and would like to highlight it in the newsletter, send email to ist-comm@mit.edu. If you want to learn more about what MIT’s artists are doing or to bring your talent to campus, check out MIT’s Artist Beyond the Desk program.
Around MIT / Town
- Used Book Fair to Benefit Community Giving
o Monday, November 2 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Lobby 10 and the Bush Room (10-105).
Book sales will benefit the MIT Community Service Fund and United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley.
Send content and comments to the IS&T Communications Team.
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