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Small Talk will return in December. In its place, check out the new "Kudos" section this month and cheer on your fellow colleagues in the administrative enterprise.
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Students and employees encouraged to receive a COVID-19 vaccination booster shot
Virginia Tech encourages all employees and students to receive a booster shot. To get a vaccine or booster:
Photo: Ray Meese for Virginia Tech.
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President Sands forms work group to examine Virginia Tech's sexual violence culture and climate
Virginia Tech President Tim Sands has established the Sexual Violence Culture and Climate Work Group to advance Virginia Tech’s commitment to end sexual violence and enhance the university’s preventative programming. The work group hosted its first meeting on Nov. 12 during which Sands emphasized the importance of establishing sexual violence prevention as a shared responsibility, one that is embraced by the entire university.
Photo: Sarah Myers for Virginia Tech
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Michael Mulhare recognized for service and leadership during Virginia Tech's COVID-19 response
Michael Mulhare, assistant vice president for emergency management, received special recognition for his leadership and service to the university during the COVID-19 pandemic. President Sands presented Mulhare with a Presidential Commendation for Exceptional Service during a meeting of the President’s Council on Nov. 10.
Photo: Christina Franusich for Virginia Tech
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Caregiving resources highlighted in new website
In Virginia Tech’s continuing effort to address the growing concerns among faculty, staff, and students regarding the availability of quality child care, early education, and adult care, a new Caregiving Resources website has been created. The website provides a one-stop resource for:
- Information about campus child care and eldercare resources;
- Contacts for community and state organizations that Virginia Tech is partnering with to address the need for more caregiving resources;
- The latest Virginia Tech news about caregiving efforts;
- And more.
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Celebrate Giving Tuesday by donating to the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign
Tuesday, Nov. 30, is Giving Tuesday. This year’s Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign (CVC) runs through Dec. 10. Since 2010, Virginia Tech employees have donated more than $3.5 million to charities in Blacksburg, the New River Valley, and across Virginia. A big kudos to all units who continue to get creative when it comes to CVC fundraising. Allocate your donations within the CVC portal.
Photo: Sarah Myers for Virginia Tech
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Across the enterprise, a host of administrative transformation projects are enhancing business processes, helping to deliver clearer paths for professional development and skills-building, providing frameworks for harnessing the power of data, and much more. Each month, transformation projects will be spotlighted here.
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Organizational Excellence Team within the Office of the SVP&CBO: Contracts Initiative
Goal: Examine contracting processes across the university and identify opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Latest updates:
- Ongoing efforts continue to examine facets of contracts at Virginia Tech, including the review process; technology systems; access to contract information and resources; existing policy framework; and much more.
- Over the next month, multiple working groups will be assembled and charged with making specific improvement recommendations.
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Division of IT: Data Management and Analytics Transformation
Goal: Enhance unviersitywide data analytics capabilities and operational reporting through the centralization of analytics management, frameworks, and visualization activities.
Latest updates:
- Ongoing 2021 MicroStrategy upgrade training sessions are helping Virginia Tech analysts deliver compelling dashboards at the executive level. Over 50 analysts across campus have attended at least one session.
- There are over 1,200 active unique MicroStrategy users per month - a 50 percent increase from 3 years ago. This highlights how efforts to engage divisions in the adoption of centralized analytics have made significant progress.
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Petie Martin, IT Specialist II, IT Experience and Engagement (ITEE), Faculty and Staff Technology Resources (FASTR), Division of Information Technology
Q: What year did you join Virginia Tech?
A: I joined as a student in 1996; as an employee from 2001-12, and then again as an employee from 2016 to the present.
Q: Can you describe your role?
A: I provide desktop support for a large portion of the Division of IT's portfolio. I am also an upper-tier troubleshooter for Helpdesk questions for all of the division's ServiceNow partner departments, as well as the 4Help team.
Q: Have you ever met anyone famous?
A: I met Jimmy Fallon on campus one time. I wanted his autograph but didn’t have an autograph book, but I did have my calculus book. I was going to be an engineer and never get rid of it, so he agreed to sign it. There were no “notes” pages for him to sign, so he said “what formulas do you know the best?” and I said, “geometry.” So he took his giant Sharpie and wrote “Petie, I hope you remember all of these - SNL 1998-1999 - Jimmy Fallon” all over the entire page of trig functions.
Q: What type of music do you enjoy? Do you have a favorite musician or band?
A: I’m all over the place. I play guitar and I like songs I can figure out on my own. But, I also play the saxophone and clarinet families, so I enjoy jazz and big band music. And I enjoy electronic music. Also, sometimes it's fun to listen to Secret Agent on SomaFM and pretend I’m James Bond.
Read the full interview.
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Dan Peets, assistant project manager, Capital Construction, Division of Campus Planning, Infrastructure, and Facilities
Q: When did you join Virginia Tech?
A: In 2021.
Q: Can you describe your role?
A: I provide coordination, communication, and oversight as a university representative on large-scale campus projects.
Q: Where are you originally from and what drew you to Virginia Tech and Blacksburg?
A: I was born and raised in Sacramento, California. I moved to southwest Virginia when I was 29 years old during a back-to-school journey that required a lower cost of living than what my home state provided. The lush landscapes, the pace of life, and amazing people of this region won me over instantly. Virginia Tech Engineering brought my family here, and the vibrant community and outdoor lifestyle made us decide to put down roots.
Q: What was your first job?
A: My dad was a self-employed painting and roofing contractor, so my brothers and I had the privilege of spending our summers working in the family business. My very first job was cleaning up loose paint chips that had been scraped off an old garage. I earned 50 cents an hour, a Big Gulp from the local gas station during lunch break and a nice burn from the California sun. I wouldn’t trade those memories or that work ethic for anything.
Q: What TV show(s) are you currently watching that others need to check out?
A: Endeavour (Amazon Prime) and the Crown (Netflix). For a podcast, I recommend Hardcore History with Dan Carlin.
Read the full interview.
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Division of HR Leave Team recognized for COVID-19 crisis response
Leave Program Manager Rebecca Hubble and the team of leave analysts – Amy Linkous, Jessica Thomes, and Morgan Wall – are all very familiar with the FFCRA, PHEL, and TRW acronyms. They are new paid leave programs that began during the COVID-19 crisis response.
Within 30 days of the announcement of the COVID-19 leave benefits, the leave team rallied to collaborate with other stakeholders to implement new codes and processes, provide university communication, and develop a new tracking process for usage during the April - August 2020 pay periods.
During the height of the pandemic, university leaders decided to identify solutions to mitigate negative impacts to employees. One initiative was to continue to pay employees who were unable to work remotely while Virginia Tech was under essential operations, meaning operations were at a minimum during the height of the pandemic. The leave team was integral in developing a solution for departments to classify employees in an “on-call” status. This resulted in the creation of Time Reported as Worked (TRW) as a mechanism to track time paid but technically not worked.
Public Health Emergency Leave (PHEL) is a state provision to allow additional leave benefits for eligible employees to use to cover absences resulting from defined COVID-19 related issues. PHEL was effective March 10, 2020-July 9, 2021 and reactivated Sept. 1, 2021.
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) provided Federal Emergency Sick Leave and expanded Federal Family and Medical Leave (FFML) benefits to employees. Each employee who utilized the benefit required individual tracking and monitoring each pay period.
All three of these new leave benefits resulted in the necessity to create and implement new leave codes, communicate to the university, train employees, and monitor for the period the benefit was effective. The Human Resources Leave Team lives by Virginia Tech's motto Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) and continues to do so each day as they help employees understand and properly utilize their leave benefits.
Thank you HR Leave Team!
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Register now for Hokie Wellness programs in December
From touring the Virginia Tech Athletic Complex, to gaining tips on managing holiday stress, and fostering connections in an evolving workplace, Hokie Wellness is offering a wide range of employee programming in December.
Photo: Meghan Marsh for Virginia Tech.
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Complimentary Virginia Tech basketball tickets for employees
Cheer on the Hokies and take advantage of free Virginia Tech basketball tickets for employees for select games in December and January. Refer to the Virginia Tech Athletics notice.
Photo: Alexa Briehl for Virginia Tech.
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VTx Stories and Notices of Note
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Refer to the VTx daily email each morning for the latest Virginia Tech news and notices:
Additional enterprise communications channels:
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- HR: University managers and supervisors, and HR representatives (email groups); HRConnect (Sharepoint site for HR employees)
- IT: ITell newsletter (emailed to all IT employees)
- Transportation Services: The Parking Spot (emailed to all permit holders; subscribe)
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Email the communications team with feedback around the content you would like to see in this e-News.
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