Updates on Public Safety, CCI initiatives, and more at IT Leadership Team meeting

The Leadership Team met on June 24 to discuss the following projects and updates:

Public Safety Update from Assistant Chief of Police Anthony Campbell

Anthony Campbell, Yale’s Assistant Chief of Police, joined the Leadership Team meeting to share information on Yale’s Approach to Policing, including a few anticipated changes as a result of an independent assessment of the Yale Police department entitled An Assessment of the Yale Police Department by 21CP Solutions.

The Assessment captured interviews with members of the Police Department as well as Yale faculty, students, staff and provides four areas of focus, or pillars, including reimagining public safety at Yale, strengthening community trust and confidence, ensuring responsive police practices and operations, and strengthening YPD’s culture. Anthony shared that, while the level of services provided will remain the same, changes might include updates to uniforms, badges, and vehicles, among others.

He also shared that Yale Police has also been adapting its support model “as students returned home, individuals contracted COVID-19, and the community reacted (and continues to react) to George Floyd’s murder.” Recent efforts have included:

• Providing aid to the New Haven Police Department as protests have occurred in New Haven, including the protest on June 25 which included around 5,000 peaceful protesters
• Supporting Facilities with the effort of returning student property
• Helping first responders who were/are staying on Yale’s campus
• Supporting the vaccine trial facility at the Lanman Center and the COVID-19 testing location at the Sachem/Prospect Street Garage

COVID-19 has created opportunities for an increase in email scams, and other crimes (i.e. car jackings) and, in response, Yale buildings will remain “red lit” until the students return to support social distancing and public safety.

Around 25 Science Park, those who are authorized to work on campus will notice an increase in officers on bicycles, particularly on the bike path, as well as patrol cars with cruise lights on, to make themselves more visible as a deterrent to crime. Anthony encouraged Yale staff to be aware of their surroundings and submit any questions, comments, or concerns to Public Safety.

Newly Launched 2-Click Service Catalog

In an effort to improve the Yale community’s ability to locate IT services, Sandra Germenis set a Balanced Scorecard goal of publishing a “2-click service catalog” with central service descriptions, including service definitions, classifications, and standards.

Christina Lago, who spearheaded the improvements scheduled to launch tomorrow, shared that the primary focus of the project was to: reduce the number of clicks it takes to find IT Services, provide filters to help customers locate services that meet their needs, and facilitate browsing of services to help customers discover the breadth of IT Services available.

She shared that the focus of this year’s improvements, which are now live, were to enhance the landing page, while the coming year will address the Service Offering pages, which have been slightly modified in this round of updates to display Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

When visiting the Landing Page, users will now see a list of services by category, with options to filter alphabetically, by audience, or via keyword search.

The new structure preserves the behind-the-scenes structure of Service Offerings, while still allowing users to better locate services in a more intuitive way.

Updates from CCI

Samantha Brailsford shared a number of updates from the CCI Steering committee, including:

• CCI agrees with the SLT’s recommended list of Workplace Survey initiatives, and CCI is working on creating action teams for each of those initiatives.
• Based on very positive feedback received after the CCI Mental Health Check-In, CCI is planning to organize additional Check-in’s, to facilitate stronger “human connections” among IT colleagues. This goal will be incorporated into their action teams.
• CCI will continue their work on Ensuring Fairness of Opportunity, led by Ann Brainard-Dougan, and focused on: a Mentoring Program, 360 Review Program, and Focusing on the Value of training. For those interested in joining the team, contact its.cci@yale.edu.
• A Social Justice action team will be developed and led by Apriel Biggs-Coker. She will be focused on increasing communications within ITS around what is happening in the world, creating a statement to hold employees accountable for their actions, and other topics. For those interested in joining, or for managers who need additional support navigating conversations during this time, reach out to its.cci@yale.edu.
• CCI and IT Training and Staff Development will collaborate to host a book discussion for “35 Dumb Things Well-Intended People Say”, by Dr. Maura Cullen.
• There is discussion underway regarding hosting an event (Platform TBD) on running effective meetings.

Note: Paul Gruhn reported that 100% of ITS staff have completed Unconscious Bias. Paul expressed “Kudos to all ITS staff for the willingness to complete the training and grow!”

COVID-19 Panel Q&A

Mark Manton shared that he is a member of the Emergency Operations Team and has been attending regular Emergency Management meetings, which include daily reviews of Connecticut’s COVID-19 statistics. He mentioned that meetings will be reducing in frequency because the number of cases has been declining. He asked the SLT to submit any questions:

Does Yale plan to follow the State of Connecticut’s lead or will Yale have a different response plan in place?

Mark Manton: Yale will definitely follow Connecticut’s lead and may exceed them (with more rigid restrictions) in the context of an academic restart. The trigger levels haven’t been defined for a second wave.

John Barden: We are exceeding the state guidelines and providing an environment that helps us to moderate any impact of COVID-19 cases on campus, while also giving us several layers of provision to protect the community and preserve the activities we start.

Ask John Anything, John Barden

How many ITS staff are currently on campus? How has that changed since March 13th?

About 15% of ITS staff are campus—not every day, but a list of around 65-70 people are authorized to be on campus right now. This doesn’t mean that these individuals are always on campus—only as required. When Phase 2 begins, we will likely need to step up our support for campus.

As a team that has a fair number of people on campus, we really appreciate all of the effort that has gone into the training materials, provision of PPE, and other equipment to support us on campus.

John appreciated the acknowledgement and shared that this work will continue as more staff return to campus.

Are there any new guidelines related to limitations on travel over the summer?

While IT staffing will need to increase as individuals return to campus, we will continue to try and work from home as much as we can, to limit any risk to you and you families. To the degree that you can continue to work from home, I expect that you should continue to work from home.

As for travel, each state has their own guidelines (re: a degree of isolation when you arrive/leave), and I encourage you to follow those guidelines. Use your judgement and what works best for your teams.

The next leadership team meeting will be held on July 29.