On Wednesday, October 30, we had the honor of hosting, Sheryl Faye, for a moving performance of, “Anne Frank – A Life to Remember: A Story of Perseverance, Hope, and Love”, at our Westborough office. Sheryl Faye brought Anne Frank’s story to life in a powerful 45-minute portrayal that began in the secret Annex where Anne, her family, and four others hid for two years during the German occupation of the Netherlands. Attendees were immersed in the experiences of a young girl facing extraordinary circumstances with unbreakable resilience and hope. Through Sheryl’s…
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December 2024 DEIA Calendar, The DEIA Communications team keeps a calendar of upcoming diversity awareness months and days recognized either nationally or internationally due to their cultural, historical, or religious significance. , Date-Specific Events, Sunday, December 8: Bodhi Day Friday, December 13: National Guard Birthday Saturday, December 21: Winter Solstice Wednesday, December 25: Christmas Wednesday, December 25 – Thursday, January 2: Hanukkah Thursday, December 26 – Wednesday, January 1: Kwanzaa , Additional Communications this Month , The DEIA Communications team is sending out individual communications around the following awareness events this month: December Religious and Cultural Holidays National Guard Birthday
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Revolutionizing Payment Methods with Recipient Select Plus for Individual Suppliers: An Update , UPST and Treasury are happy to report that Recipient Select Plus, a new payment service tool, which successfully launched for new, individual suppliers, in June, is now being promoted and expanded to more of the University’s suppliers! Gone are the days of individual suppliers waiting for checks to arrive in the mail! In a span of four months, 356 individual suppliers were activated and verified through Recipient Select Plus and 433 payments were accepted totaling over $550,000. This development is part of an effort to reduce the University’s…, What are the benefits of recipient select plus within UMass?, Shorter payment term: UMass will pay you at NET30, unlike Check, which is NET45. Easy signup through UMass Supplier Portal. Eliminates the need for paper checks and dependency on USPS. Multiple payment options to choose from within Recipient Select Plus: U.S. domestic payment options: Zelle, PayPal or US ACH Cross-border payment options: PayPal For any questions regarding the Recipient…
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New Hires, Name Hire Date Title Department Nithya Nannuru November 4 Applications Specialist, Sr. Employee Services Team, Promotions, Name Promotion Date Title Department Michael Durkin December 2 Chief Procurement Officer UPST Brian Girard December 11 Deputy Chief Procurement Officer UPST, Departures, Name Departure Date Title Department Debra Martin November 30 Data Warehouse Spec, Sr. UITS David Cho December 10 Chief Procurement Officer UPST Diane Tkachuk December 14 Executive Assistant Government Relations
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The MA DFML (Department of Family Medical Leave) has released the new weekly benefit amount and employer and employee contributions rates for calendar year 2025. Please use the link below for more information. 2025 MA PFML Updates
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As of November 21, 2024, workers may use earned sick time to care for themselves or their spouse in the event of pregnancy loss or failed assisted reproduction, adoption, or surrogacy. Please see the link below for the Mass.gov website. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/earned-sick-time
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Human Resources is pleased to announce that our annual Employee Recognition event will be held in Westborough on Wednesday, January 15, 2025. This annual event recognizes those employees who have been awarded the Commonwealth Certificate of Achievement. The list of certificate winners was emailed to President’s Office staff on November 20. The Commonwealth’s program recognizes the outstanding…
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In November, the UPST team came together to celebrate five remarkable years of UPST at UMass—a milestone defined by innovation, collaboration, and excellence. In this special edition, we honor the achievements that have shaped UPST’s success and recognize the individuals and ideas that continue to propel its mission forward. From bidding farewell to a transformative leader to welcoming new voices…, Marking Five Years of UPST: A Special Anniversary Edition, This year, UPST proudly celebrates five years of innovation, teamwork, and service excellence. To mark this milestone, we’re working on a special edition of the UPST newsletter featuring reflections, success stories, and a look ahead at the next chapter for UPST. We’ve also put together a video we can share now: a heartfelt video montage capturing memorable moments and milestones from the past…, Celebrating David Cho’s Leadership and Legacy , As we bid farewell to David Cho, Chief Procurement Officer and a cornerstone of UPST’s success, we reflect on his transformative contributions over the past five years. To honor David’s leadership and the impact he’s had on the UMass community, we recently held a celebratory gathering, bringing together colleagues and friends to share memories and gratitude. David’s legacy of innovation,…, Supporting UPST’s Future: Highlighting Mike Durkin, Brian Girard and Amand Onwuka , As UPST looks to the next chapter, we are excited to congratulate Michael Durkin as the incoming Chief Procurement Officer. With support from new Deputy CPO Brian Girard and Amanda Onwuka, Director of Service and Quality, UPST is poised to build on its strong foundation. Together, this leadership team is committed to enhancing efficiency, strengthening campus partnerships, and driving innovation…
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In March 2024, we started a new Accessibility Tip of the Month section in the UMass President's Office Connection newsletter. As we wrap up the year, we wanted to reshare the tips we shared from March through November. , March 2024 - Add Alt Text to Images in Email, Word, and PowerPoint, Did you know you can add alt text to images in your emails ? Providing a text description of an image makes it accessible to anyone who uses a screen reader, and also provides a visible text description if an image doesn’t successfully load in an email. You can also add alt text to images in your Word Documents and PowerPoint Presentations . , April 2024 - Add Data Labels to Graphs and Charts, When creating graphs and charts, ensure you label each data point directly. Direct labeling reduces cognitive load for everyone and makes the content more accessible to the colorblind, low vision, and neurodivergent communities. Watch Ann K. Emery’s video “ Remove Legends and Directly Label (Dataviz Accessibility Quick Wins) ” for more on why direct labels improve the accessibility of data…, May 2024 - Creating Accessible Social Media Hashtags, When creating hashtags in social media posts, use camel or pascal case . A hashtag in Camel Case #looksLikeThis, with the first word in all lowercase and then the first letter of each subsequent word capitalized. A hashtag in Pascal Case #LooksLikeThis, with the first letter in each word of the hashtag capitalized. If you don’t capitalize the first letter of each word, a multi-word hashtag will…, June 2024 - Use Descriptive Links, When writing communications, use descriptive links so that everyone reading your communication understands exactly where the link will take them. Link names should be the same as the page name linked to. Be as explicit as you can. Too long is better than too short. Make the link meaningful. Don’t use “click here” or “read more.” Add a short description when needed to clarify the link. Learn more…, July 2024 - Enabling Auto-Captions in Zoom, All meeting hosts can enable auto-captions and a transcript by default in Zoom. This feature can improve the overall experience for hard of hearing and neurodivergent employees that have not disclosed their disability. In addition, always provide a way for meeting attendees to request additional effective communications. Some attendees may request a copy of the presentation ahead of time to help…, August 2024 - Font Accessibility, Use a familiar, simple, and easy to parse font for body content in digital documents, emails, and on digital signage. When selecting a font, ensure that characters are distinct from each other, such as a lowercase l and an uppercase I and the number 1. For example, Verdana has clearly distinct designs for characters. Note that there is no one optimal font, but selecting an easy to parse font will…, September 2024 - Create an Accessible Email Signature, When creating or updating an email signature, here are some recommended best practices to ensure your email signature is accessible: Do not put your email signature in a table to format it. Using tables for layout purposes creates a confusing and verbose experience for assistive technology users. Provide alt text for any images in your signature. For example, you can include the following alt…, October 2024 - Use the Microsoft Accessibility Checker, Did you know that Microsoft has a built-in accessibility checker? You can use the accessibility checker to identify common accessibility issues in your documents and emails, such as missing alt text or hard-to-read text contrast. The checker is available on Windows, Macs, and through Office 365 on the Web. You can find detailed steps of how to run the checker in Microsoft's Improve accessibility…, November 2024 - Add Alt Text to Images in Slack , When uploading images to Slack, you can add a description (or alt text) in Slack . Alt text provides a text-based explanation of a visual for the blind and low vision communities. Once you add the alt text to the image, an ALT button will appear on the bottom left corner of the image. As Slack makes the alt text feature available to anyone, it can also be used on smaller devices by anyone to get…
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Several religious and cultural observances occur during the month of December. We’ve included a summary of each holiday with a link to more details on the DEIA website, including some upcoming local event spotlights.
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