AVP and CTO Update March 30, 2020

I anticipate that you had a good weekend and managed to unplug a little bit (or a lot) from the various sources of information coming your way, whether work or world news. I managed to take at least one day to do very little and it felt good. I can see signs of spring popping out all around my yard right now, which is helpful and hopeful. The rain will surely advance that growth. So as we only have two days of March left, I can’t tell if we experienced a lamb or a lion at either end of the month. What do you think?

On Wednesday, I will be holding a Virtual Coffee Chat via Teams for the broader IT community and this morning I am also meeting with UTS via Zoom. I look forward to connecting with you all!

I am not sure how extensively all of you are using Teams, however I do know it has become a well utilized tool over the last few weeks. We will pull some stats to demonstrate the volume of use and share at our meeting on Wednesday. Teams along with WebEx, Zoom, Vidyo and others have changed the way we are working together while apart. I anticipate some of these new found work habits will stick around when we return to campus, too.

A reminder that we created a page outlining the various centrally delivered technologies for work from home, and also an extensive IT Security resource page to encourage secure practices while working from home, including a specific article that speaks about Zoom and ways to improve security while using it. Being informed and feeling in control can help to bring down stress.  Feel free to share these resources with your constituents. And also let us know if you have some great resources that we can link to from the CTO website as well.

One of my favourite topics at a time of stress or duress is Hope. Hope isn’t just a wish, it is about having a plan, believing that things can change and acting on that belief, and being alert to opportunities that may arise. Hope is optimism. I read a great article in one of my favourite regular newsletters that touches on the perspective of Hope and thought I would share it with you as a positive message at the start of this week.

By the way, I post all of my weekly (almost) blogs on the CTO website so you can always delete this email and go there to find the same information, as well as all of my posts going back all the way to 2017!!