Project Status
The Faculty Activity Project reached a new milestone with the formation of the Advisory Committee that has commenced the pilot of the new Watermark application to step through the AFR process. The first pilot will last approximately two months as they review data, application navigation, and end-user functionality and provide feedback. We are excited about the next phase of this project.
What is the Faculty Activity Project?
Project Mission
The vision of the Faculty Activity Project is to develop a robust system for UMass Amherst faculty to efficiently track their research, teaching, and service efforts. Once entered in Watermark, this organized professional information can be deployed for multiple purposes, including generation of custom CVs, Bio sketches, and public-facing web pages, to better characterize research, teaching, and service activities, and facilitate the annual faculty review. The Faculty Activity Project Team will be working with and interviewing a broad array of faculty and staff to outline a process that addresses:
- Documentation of research, creative activities, teaching, and service
- Curriculum vitae management
- Research networking
- Annual Faculty Review
Guiding Principles
The Faculty Activity Team has established the following guiding principles for this project:
- A single point of entry represents an ideal state for the faculty user interface
- Facilitation of faculty research, networking, CV development, scholarly and artistic activity, as well as annual faculty review
- Faculty to retain control over their public profiles
- Ensure accurate and timely reporting
- Wherever possible, reduce the administrative burden (of both staff and faculty) via processes and systems interface
- Customization to be kept at a minimum to reduce impact on future IT support
- The implementation process and communication is broad, open, and inclusive
- Solutions should be agile and responsive to future business needs and requirement
Project Contacts
Katherine Bader, Business Architect
Keisha Pendleton, Senior Project Manager
Steering Committee
Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Provost, Sr. VC, Academic Affairs
Katherine Bader, Business Architect
Stephen Battisti, Enterprise Architect
Michelle Budig, Sr. VP, Faculty Affairs
Michael Eagen, Assoc Provost, Academic Personnel
Dave Hart, Director, Enterprise Systems
Michael Malone, VC, Research and Engagement
Nandita Mani, Dean, University Libraries
Anne Massey, Dean, Isenberg School of Management
Chris Misra, VC, Information Technology, CIO
Sheri Neshiem, VC, Human Resources
Jocelyn Tedisky, Asst Provost, Sr. Director
Laura Vandenburg, Assoc. VC and VP, Research & Engagement
Loren Walker, Director, Research Development