Why did you volunteer to be an advance team member?
I realized early on that I better pay a lot of attention to The Upgrade. In the College of Veterinary Medicine, all graduate students are handled out of our office, so I became very aware of how much the systems changes will impact our staff, students and faculty.
How are you preparing?
I read everything. I participate in meetings. I have taken all the training and watched all the sneak peek videos, which are great. They are short and informative. I really like that the information is all online so I can go back to it whenever I need.
What are some of the biggest challenges?
There are several. Faculty are always busy, so many of them don’t have time to fully prepare in advance. This is why it’s good that educational information is available just-in-time and online. That’s also why it’s good to have Advance Team members ready to provide live help.
Another challenge is that we don’t really know exactly what the upgraded systems will be like until they go live. There’s only so much planning we can do, so let’s just get The Upgrade implemented!
Finally, most people don’t really like change, so we will probably hear about that. For me, I just want to be knowledgeable, helpful and provide a sense of calm to people who have trouble adjusting to change. We will get through this by working together!
