The Legacy of MLK

Original Date: January 17, 2024

It's a cold and snowy January...hope you are all managing well in these last few weeks of winter break.

This week's wisdom celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and his legacy. I hope that all of us have had some time this week to be part of some activity commemorating this wonderful American hero. 

His efforts and the Civil Rights movement (where he was both participant and leader) focused attention on racial, gender, economic, and social inequalities in America.

His legacy calls us to keep working for equity through non-violent actions. His emphasis on working in a "beloved community" resonates with me and for me, SUNY is one of the communities I belong to and support.

Our WIT is one way that we can join together to work towards diversity, equity, and inclusion.

I also want to highlight an interesting effort to increase representation for women in the science/tech fields through boosting their online profiles and biographical information. Creating visibility for the achievements of women is an action that can lead to more equity. Did you know that women are still underrepresented in biographical research sources? I recently came across this statistic from a 2022 Washington Post article:  

"Just 19 percent of English Wikipedia biographies are of women, according to WikiProject Women in Red, a group dedicated to addressing Wikipedia’s gender gap." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red

The article highlights Dr. Jess Wade who has dedicated time to changing that! And she is not alone according to the article,   "Emily Temple-Wood, 28, has also become known for writing Wikipedia pages about female scientists." And then they sparked even more action..."Farah Qaiser is a member of 500 Women Scientists and a participant in what the organization calls the “Wiki Wolfpack.” She got involved after reading an op-ed by Wade and fellow scientist Maryam Zaringhalam."

Read more online at https://wapo.st/3O2YrAa

Perhaps joining this effort, and focusing on SUNY Women biographies could be a future WIT activity? The idea had been suggested a while ago by Plattsburgh Biology Faculty member Dr. Nancy Elwess in a local Plattsburgh conversation...maybe it's time has come? 

Meanwhile, stay cozy!

All the best,

Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A  message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing. 

Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross @ hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu

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The Ecosystem of Networking

Original Post: January 10, 2024 

Hello all,

This week's wisdom is about the power of networking. 

Specifically about the importance of intentionally growing your networks along different paths, making sure your networks are diverse, and making sure they flow across and through your organizational and professional hierarchies.

Why? ...it's an ecosystem thing! 

Species diversity creates ecosystem resilience, and your professional network diversity creates professional resilience! And not just for you...but for everyone in the network.  It does take effort, and here are a few tips to get you started. https://www.linkedin.com/advice/1/how-do-you-make-your-professional-network

Think of it this way, we already know that our resources need diversity, backups, and alternatives to the everyday paths and tools. In libraries, we have multiple copies of critically needed resources, robust borrowing and loaning networks, backup copies of rare archives (if at all possible), more than one copier or scanner (whenever possible) and multiple access points to the same content. IT teams try to avoid single points of failure, plan for data recovery, maintain equipment spares and programming documentation, and invest a great deal of effort into planning and scoping projects with rollback plans to keep critical operations functioning. Well, our thinking, collaborating, and problemsolving networks need to be as carefully constructed with resilience in mind. 

None of us in SUNY have all the resources we would like to have in order to carry out our mission..but we can achieve more when we are tightly networked together. And our professional organizations do a great job of helping us connect across SUNY.

So...if you are not yet connected to one or more of these great groups...get connected!

SUNY Groups:

TOA

COA

SUNYLA

EDTOA

NYS Groups:

https://www.senylrc.org/community/ny_organizations/

https://www.nyscate.org/

National Groups:

https://www.educause.edu/

https://www.ala.org/acrl/

I'd love to hear from all of you about any groups you'd recommend!

All the best,

Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A  message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing. 

Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross @ hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu

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NYSERNet launches Women in IT CoP

Original Post: December 20, 2023 

I'm thrilled to announce a new development in the growing movement to support inclusivity in technology.  

Our partners at NYSERNet have been gathering information and assessing their role in the NY technology landscape and have decided to launch a new community focused on women. And we are all invited to participate!

Jennifer Oxenford, Chief membership Officer/Director, NYC Dark Fiber Program at  NYSERNet, attended the SUNY WIT session (offered by Maria Garrity, Lucy Walker and me) at the SUNY Technology Conference last year and connected with a few SUNY folks (Krista Lynch, Lisa Stephens, several folks at SUNY Suffolk, and me) after that session. NYSERNet then organized 2 followup events, a session at their October TNCon23 conference "Advancing the Diverse Workforce: Supporting Women in IT, and a November web meeting of a NYSERNet Women in IT Working Group. Jennifer has been leading this effort along with the very supportive leadership team (specifically Jeanne Casares, Christy Rohmer, and Larry Gallery) at NYSERNET. She recently sent this announcement to the NYSERNet community and approved my sharing to this list: 

"Based on feedback we heard during the meeting, NYSERNet will be launching a new Women in IT community of practice which will meet monthly but will rotate through formats from open discussions to more focused Learn@Lunches and featured guest speakers/topics. The first meeting of the new year will be a Learn@Lunch format to be held on Wed. Jan. 31^st at 12pm ET (topic TBA, zoom link included below).

 

We’d like to solicit your input on potential topics and speakers for the year so have created a form which we would appreciate you sharing any suggestions with us if you have a few minutes to complete. 

NYSERNet Women in IT Mtg.
Wed. Jan. 31, 2024 12pm ET

Finally, please note some rapidly approaching deadlines of potential interest, including:

• NYSERNet/SAIL CIO Leadership  Academy
• Deadline: December 31, 2023
• Next Leaders Fellowship (NLF) (geared for BIPOC, not exclusively for women in IT) but could be a valuable professional development opportunity for women in Higher Ed IT seeking to advance and develop leadership skills
• Deadline: Dec. 31, 2023 
• WINS Women In IT Networking at SC 2024 Call for Participation
• Deadline: Jan. 26, 2024

 

This is great news for all of us. It broadens our network considerably, as the NYSERNet membership includes multiple sectors in the education space (P-12, public higher ed, and private higher ed), and it brings fresh expertise and resources to the effort. So mark your calendars now!

Wishing you all a restorative college winter break, a wonderful holiday season, and peace on earth.

All the best,

Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A  message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing. 

Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross @ hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu

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Psychological Safety

Original Post Date: December 13, 2023 

Hello all,

This week's wisdom is about psychological safety and how to build that into our organizations. 

There will always be challenging moments for us in the workplace. Those moments can be much easier when you can expect that concerns will be received with an open mind, that your supervisors will listen and help when you need it, that mistakes will be seen more as learning opportunities and less as blaming opportunities. I had exactly that experience last week, when explaining to my supervisor that I'd made a mistake that required them to help by transferring funds quickly into a temp student payroll account! None of us were happy about that, but I wasn't blamed or shamed. And I wasn't expecting to be...although before SUNY Plattsburgh I worked in organizations where that would have happened. 

So...how do we create that sense of safety and build that trust? 

I think it will be specific to each organization and each team. So much depends on what has already happened in your workplace and what specific challenges you are now facing. Nonetheless, there are experts out there ready to help. I've collected a few resources that might help you plan that work. 

From Michelle McQuade's free newsletter, which I highly recommend: (she holds a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania with Professor Martin Seligman and a Ph.D. in creating positive change under the supervision of Professor David Cooperrider). 
"Every job involves some psychosocial (emotional and social) hazards that can increase the risk of work-related stress, harm our mental and physical health, and if prolonged, lead to burnout. So, how can we practically minimize this risk for ourselves and others as we work together? " 
https://www.michellemcquaid.com/three-ways-to-improve-psychological-safety/

From the Harvard Business Review:

"Summary. What exactly is psychological safety? It’s a term that’s used a lot but is often misunderstood. In this piece, the author answers the following questions with input from Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, who coined the phrase “team psychological safety”: 1) What is psychological safety? 2) Why is psychological safety important? 3) How has the idea evolved? 4) How do you know if your team has it? 5) How do you create psychological safety? 6) What are common misconceptions?"

https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety

In the Hybrid Workplace:

"The problem is, as the boundary between work and life becomes increasingly blurry, managers must make staffing, scheduling, and coordination decisions that take into account employees’ personal circumstances — a categorically different domain. Obviously, simply saying “just trust me” won’t work. Instead, the authors suggest a series of five steps to create a culture of psychological safety that extends beyond the work content to include broader aspects of employees’ experiences."

https://hbr.org/2021/04/what-psychological-safety-looks-like-in-a-hybrid-workplace

With Inclusion in Mind:

"Uncovering culture: A call to action for leaders. Uncovering culture explores the ways and extent to which US workers “cover”—that is, downplay known disfavored identities to fit into mainstream corporate cultures. This research questions orthodoxies of authenticity and power, including perceptions of psychological safety, to meaningfully move towards equity and belonging in the workforce."

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/uncovering-culture.html

I hope these might get you started, and I'd love to hear from folks on the list if you have other resources to share.

All the best,

Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A  message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing. 
Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross @ hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu

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Celebrating Pride Month

June is PRIDE month and universities, organizations, and technology companies and leaders are celebrating. Learning more and then celebrating the history of the struggle for full human rights and the achievements of the LGBTQIA+ community is one way all of us can take steps towards becoming more inclusive.

WIT list members might find these resources helpful, starting with a small sampling from SUNY and some from technology:

• SUNY Pride
• Pride Month 2023
• Upcoming Programs at Brockport
• FIT and SUNY Celebrate Pride Month
• How Tech Companies Are Celebrating Pride Month 2023
• 24 Fun Pride Month Ideas for the Office in 2023
• LGBTQ Organizations

Please feel free to share your favorite resources or PRIDE activities with this group!

All the best,

Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing. If you have suggestions for future WIT Weekly Wisdom messages, feel free to contact SUNY WIT Program Administrator Holly Heller-Ross at hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu.

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