On March 6th, the President’s Office proudly hosted an empowering event in honor of International Women's Day, featuring UMass Lowell’s Chancellor Julie Chen as the distinguished guest speaker. The event aimed to celebrate the achievements of women, foster discussions on gender equality, and inspire meaningful action within our organization. Throughout the event, Chancellor Chen delivered an…
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On March 13th, in anticipation of the upcoming Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024, the UMPO hosted a special in person "Tell Your Story” event featuring Peter Hughes from UITS. Peter took us on a journey through the history and types of eclipses, unraveling the mysteries behind these celestial phenomena. Peter shared his personal adventure during the 2017 Eclipse, including the epic family road trip…
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On March 27 th , Attorney Peter Noone along with Attorney Julie Grady from the law offices of Avery, Dooley and Noone LLP conducted a thorough training focused on Addressing Allegations of Harassment and Hostile Work Environment; The lifecycle of the University’s Reaction and Response to Harassment in the Workplace. The training brought together employees from all five campuses which included…
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On Wednesday, March 27, 2024 the UMass President’s Office hosted three rising seniors from Sutton High School for a day to shadow some of our employees. Amanda Gordon, Kristina England, and Deb Fisher showed Sydney, Alanah, and Allison the ins and outs of their jobs in their respective departments. Sydney started the day off with Deb Fisher & Deb Hight by learning the various functions of the…
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Treasury and UPST are excited to announce that Recipient Select Plus, a new payment solution powered by Bank of America, will be available to the University’s individual suppliers in the next few weeks! Recipient Select Plus is a secure online portal that will allow our individual suppliers (recipients) to decide how they want to receive their payment from the University. The University will…
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Throughout September, members of UPST proudly represented UMass at various prestigious conferences, symposiums, and expos. Catch a glimpse of their experiences below, and be sure to follow UPST on LinkedIn for even more updates!, Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC) Expo, On September 19th, a diverse team of category managers, strategic sourcing specialists, and business associates attended MHEC’s highly anticipated annual expo at the DCU Center in Worcester. With this year's "Back to the Future" theme, the event dazzled with exciting installations and provided a fantastic opportunity for the team to connect with both current and potential suppliers. It was an…, HubSpot INBOUND ‘24, Ashley Hunter represented UMass at one of the most buzzworthy events of the year—HubSpot’s INBOUND conference, held in Boston’s vibrant Seaport district. This three-day extravaganza was packed with workshops on cutting-edge topics like AI, content marketing, and evolving office cultures. With star-studded appearances by Serena Williams and Ryan Reynolds, INBOUND ‘24 wasn’t just informative—it was…, NEU 3rd Annual Supplier Diversity in Higher Education Symposium, UMass takes pride in ensuring our procurement reflects the communities we serve. On September 24th, category managers and strategic sourcing specialists attended Northeastern University’s 3rd Annual Supplier Diversity in Higher Education Symposium. The team actively engaged with diverse suppliers, sharing the benefits of working with a state institution and discussing upcoming opportunities. A…
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September marked a significant milestone for the UMPO: one year at 50 Washington Street! We embraced our new office with enthusiasm, and it’s incredible to see how far we’ve come together. Over the past year, we’ve celebrated numerous achievements, including successful project launches, individual milestones, engaging all-staff events, training, and guest speakers. Each moment has contributed to…
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The DEIA team hosted its inaugural volunteer day on September 11th in honor of the National Day of Service and Remembrance. Volunteers represented almost all departments across the UMass President’s Office. David Asante, Denise Lindberg, Kristina England, Jacqueline Quinlan, Lisa Connor, Megan Momtaheni, Denise Barton, Jake Hewins, Jacob Sturtz, and Sara MacKenzie graciously volunteered to spend…
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The per diem rates for federal travelers and those traveling on government-contracted business will be raised in 2025 by the GSA (General Services Administration) . The new fiscal year begins October 1st and includes a $68 standard meal/incidental allowance (up $9). Standard rates apply to all destinations in the US except for 292 areas labeled as non-standard, which have higher per diems.
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In April 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a rule requiring public entities to make their digital content accessible by April 24, 2026. This rule applies to all public web content, mobile apps, and course materials. The following reflects UITS project team efforts so far:, Completed Activities, All departments have received an overview of the new legal requirements and were asked to complete a questionnaire to help the project team understand the overall state of Digital Accessibility in each department. The Digital Experience team has completed the development of three self-paced digital accessibility training courses. The first course on social media accessibility was rolled out to…, In Progress Activities, Kicking off the Digital Accessibility Liaison Program with recurring meetings, where the objective is to train liaisons on how to be the accessibility ambassador for their department, share best practices, and provide updates on their department’s digital accessibility activities. The General Counsel is working on converting all their legal advice PDFs into accessible web content. , What to Expect Next, We will work with each department to determine a timeframe for rolling out self-paced training courses. A third-party product testing strategy will be shared with leadership and then employees in the next two months. We will work with departments to define web content remediation strategies for meeting minutes, videos, articles, and other digital assets. These efforts are critical to ensuring…
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