Colleagues,

We are all saddened and angered by the latest act of police brutality against an African American, resulting in the murder of Tyre Nichols. Last Friday’s message from Chief Michael Carroll stresses the importance of community and trust, and shares helpful resources right here on campus, including the Black Leadership Opportunity Center and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We’re including his email (see below) to ensure everyone knows about these options for expressing their concerns and frustrations.

These kinds of horrific events affect all of us. Please take the moments you need to reflect inward or to offer kindness to a coworker. Our humanity and sense of community can help us through troubling times.

Sincerely,
The SJSU IT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

One of my favorite messages to send all year is this one, announcing the winners of the SJSU IT Sparta Awards. These awards are given to SJSU IT staff, who embody our collaborative spirit, commitment to innovation, and everyday leadership. Nominees are submitted through an open process, and I get feedback on each candidate from the SJSU IT Peer Consultation Group. This award is given by your coworkers and teammates. For 2022, we had more nominees than in the award‘s history, which truly shows our culture of mutual respect and pride. It’s truly my pleasure to share this year’s winners with you.

The 2022 SJSU IT Individual Sparta Award goes to Mona Hall. Last year, Mona spearheaded projects in OnBase, collaborating with other departments to streamline processes across the university. A prime example is her work on the “Forms Portal,” where she added a feature that auto-filled student data into Admissions and Records OnBase forms. Previously, students self-reported things like names, ID, and other academic information. This meant there were lots of errors and inaccuracies that needed to be identified and cleared up manually. Now forms are more detailed than ever, routed to the correct destination quicker, and with little or no corrections necessary. What’s more, this is an automation that can be built upon further in the future.

The 2022 SJSU IT Team Sparta Award goes to the PeopleSoft Upgrade Team: Ryan Campbell; Harish Chander; Steve Chang; Donovan D’Anna; Cuong Doan; Joseph Hotchkiss; Mitesh Kini; Rashmi Kumar; Janice Lew; Eric Matthews; An H Nguyen; Atul Pala; Peter Pham; Marco Scardina; Brenden Sparks; Ivelina Stoyanova; Jeffrey Tan; Jocelyn Tom; Andrew Trembley; Lam Vu; Jane Wang; and Andrew Weiglein.

Implementing an upgrade to PeopleSoft impacts almost every user on campus. So, when early planning began for a necessary update to MySJSU (including PeopleTools and Appsian), this team collaborated with dozens of campus units to ensure everything went smoothly on the Go Live weekend of September 23rd to 26th. The IT teams performed setup, troubleshooting, and coordinated testing for hundreds of pages, over 50 integrations, and a new interface and menu structure for MySJSU. These simultaneous projects (in addition to regular support and the AWS infrastructure changes) represent a significant accomplishment for the university and campus community.

Thank you to all the winners for your incredible effort. And of course, thank you to everyone who took the time to submit nominations and lend support to your colleagues. And thank you to the SJSU IT Peer Consultation Group for their insight on the candidates and continued support of the awards as a whole.

Please join me in congratulating this year’s winners!

Best regards,
Bob-

IT Colleagues,

The Lunar New Year is known in China as the Spring Festival or Chūnjié in Mandarin, while Koreans call it Seollal, and Vietnamese refer to it as Tết. Tied to the lunar calendar, the holiday began as a time for feasting and to honor household and heavenly deities, as well as ancestors.

Each culture celebrates the Lunar New Year differently with various foods and traditions that symbolize prosperity, abundance, and togetherness. If you’d like to explore the many traditions of this holiday, visit https://case.edu/international/programs-and-events/lunar-new-year. The Smithsonian has an excellent curated collection of Lunar New Year art at https://asia.si.edu/lunar-new-year-celebration/.

The SJSU DEI Committee would like to wish everyone a prosperous, happy Lunar New Year!

Learn more at https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/chinese-new-year.

Thank you,
The SJSU IT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

IT Colleagues,

Born on January 15, 1929, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister and leader in the civil rights movement, championing justice and equality from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968.

Americans are often encouraged to observe Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service not simply as a day off from work, but also as a way to create constructive action for others through civic engagement. It’s an opportunity to give to others in any way you can, whether it’s a community project or a little extra kindness to others in your community. You can visit https://www.MLKDay.gov to find Day of Service projects across the country that honor Dr King’s legacy of social justice and equality.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
–Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68)

You can learn more about the history of the holiday at https://www.dosomething.org/us/articles/martin-luther-king-jr-day.

Thank you,
The SJSU IT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

IT Colleagues,

It is common among many cultures to celebrate the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, with holidays, festivals, and religious observances in the surrounding days. Historically, these celebrations often involved feasts of the last of perishable supplies before the harsh months of winter, but there are many different reasons to celebrate. Holidays celebrated around the world at this time include Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Eve.

Christmas: Sunday, December 25, 2022
Hanukkah: Sunday, December 18, 2022 – Monday, December 26, 2022
Kwanzaa: Monday, December 26, 2022 – Monday, January 1, 2023

We hope that each of you have a safe and happy winter break spent with those close to you.

Thank you,
The SJSU IT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee