As a unit engaged in such varying efforts, it is especially important that we come together to strengthen our employees, our campus, and our community. Opportunities like the Auburn University Young Professionals and the 2019 Leadercast broadcast were excellent for members of our staff, and those across campus. Presentations and trainings from various vendors put us in a position to better serve the campus. And service opportunities such as blood drives, the AU Faculty/Staff Campaign, and a chance to assemble care packges for US Troops allowed us to come together and serve the community.
Every year, OIT works to make several training and personal growth options available to employees. This year, in conjunction with the Department of Campus Safety and Security, we had the opportunity to bring training to the OIT building for both Emergency Preparedness, including AED training and other safety procedures, and Active Shooter Response Training.
OIT's Project Management Office facilitated other opportunities for training and growth through Leadercast and AU Young Professionals (AUYP). Leadercast is an annual broadcast of topics designed to help build leadership skills, and this was open to IT professionals across campus. AUYP is a project in conjunction with the Office of Professional and Continuing Education, and it's open to employees all across campus.
As a service organization, it's crucial that we continue to grow technical knowledge as IT providers and pass training along to end users as well. Many members of our staff attended conferences and trainings across the country, but we're also pleased with the trainings that took place right here on campus in 2019.
Several vendors came to Auburn to train IT professionals and provide them with insights to improve how we utilize technology on campus. Some of those vendors include Ellucian, the company that provides the software behind AU Access; Connection, the company we purchase most computer hardware from; and Microsoft.
In addition to those vendor-led sessions, our OIT Staff had the opportunity to provide trainings as well. Our Banner Application Development team put together an excellent training on the Qlik software, and the Web Support team held several valuable trainings on using the ServiceNow ticketing system.
Many OIT Staff members were honored to participate in several community outreach efforts. In 2019, 86% of our staff participated in some way in the faculty/staff campaign, which is an annual giving effort sponsored by Auburn University.
We had the opportunity to host 2 blood drives at the OIT building in 2019, one in February and one in August. Between the two, we had 49 donors participate and provide life-saving blood for our community.
A new opportunity to serve presented itself in 2019, and our employees rallied together behind the idea of creating holiday care packages to send to deployed US Service Members. We had over 7500 individual items donated across about 40 different types of items, and we were able to assemble and wrap 100 care packages that were delivered with assistance from the Office of Veteran Affairs.
| 100 IT employees able to attend the Leadercast broadcast |
| 49 total donations from 2 OIT blood drives |
| 86% participation in the faculty/staff campaign from the OIT staff |
| 7500+ individual items donated to fill boxes for US Troops |
| 100 wrapped and filled holiday boxes delivered to deployed US Service Members |
Last Updated: February 14, 2020
