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University of Wisconsin-Madison
WINLESS WEEKEND ADDS INSULT TO INJURY
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dailycardinal.com
The Daily Cardinal
days
Minimum time university officials estimated to remove employee access under new system
72
hours
Maximum time it takes DoIT Security to completely remove IT access for departed employees after university officials submit a request
Danny Marchewka/the daily cardinal
Officials raise concerns over Madison IT security By Erin Banco The Daily Cardinal
This September a team of UW-Madison staff unveiled a new process to reduce the time it takes to eliminate former employees from accessing information technology systems, but the new process still takes longer than many others used throughout the University of Wisconsin System. Before Sep. 15, employees who left UW-Madison could access information technology systems for several hundred days after their departure, according to UW-Madison’s Administrative Process Redesign team, which designed the revamped, two-week process. UW-Madison employees could have access to various IT systems, including social security numbers, payroll information, transcripts and other personal information. Darin Harris, who led the APR team, said UW’s Office of Risk Management reported to APR that the time lag under the old system carried an estimated $50 million risk to the university.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
By Allison Geyer
days
Average time it took to remove a terminated employee from systems to which they had access under old system
14
A New Process APR was founded in 2006 by the UW-Madison Office of Administration to improve efficiency and communication throughout campus using teams of staff and adminstrators from different university departments. APR launched the team to reduce the amount of time old employees could access IT systems in 2007. According to APR Director Alice Gustafson, the new process will remove employees’ IT access in about two weeks, improving the old process by about 90 percent. “To some degree we do not know if the two-week lag is the right decision,” Gustafson said, noting that the team weighed several factors in their decision, such as making sure transferring employees and other specially classified employees wouldn’t have their access removed while still making “a pretty significant gain … in terms of notification.” Ed Meachen, associate vice president for learning and information technology in the UW System, said there is “no overarching UW
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Edgewater project gains support of community
BY THE NUMBERS
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System policy” governing how quickly old employees must have their IT access removed. However, Meachen said the twoweek time lag in employee removal is “very specific to UW-Madison.” “That is really a very, very serious problem. No question about it. I mean I think that is totally unacceptable,” he said. “Madison is large and complex and has a huge bureaucracy, [but] it is very unacceptable for [the removal process] to be more than a few days after an employee leaves.” Although UW-Madison’s departed employee removal is now estimated at two weeks, Meachen said campuses like Stevens Point, Green Bay and Eau Claire remove departed employees within hours of their departure.
Plans for the redevelopment of the Edgewater Hotel showed signs of moving forward at Monday night’s community listening session. Bob Dunn, Hammes Company president, lead the session with a presentation focused on responding to the questions and concerns brought up at last month’s Urban Planning Committee meeting. “We’ve really been focusing on harnessing these issues and understanding them,” Dunn said. “We’ve found some very effective ways to address every one of the issues.” The main concern voiced by many community members was the impact the new building would have on the historic Mansion Hill district. Objections to the structure’s height, possibility of increased traffic, and destruction of natural topography were among the biggest issues preventing public approval. “We negotiated with National Guardian to see if we could pull the building over 30 feet, and we just recently came to an agreement and repositioned,” Dunn said. “At its elevation, this building meshes with the capitol height limitation.”
The presentation also focused on potential benefits the proposed redevelopment could have for the city and the university. Dunn said between 500 and 1000 jobs would be created as a result of this expansion, and the project would bring in substantial TIF funds that would be used to improve the aging Langdon Street neighborhood. The plan would also bring the building up to ADA standards, offering full lakefront accessibility for wheelchairs. “Three top hotel analysts have looked at this proposal and studied the market, and all three came to the exact same conclusion working independently: this is an opportunity to develop a distinctive class of hotel in our district, and it is the perfect time to do it,” Dunn said. The responses from meeting attendees were much more positive compared to the last time Hammes Company addressed the public. Many members of the boating community and downtown residents expressed favorable views. “I like your project the way it is,” said one longtime Madison resident to resounding applause. “I feel like this is the right project at the right time.”
Here comes the sun
The Old Process The APR team calculated that, under the old process, it took 206 days on average to remove old employees from university IT systems, though HR representatives security page 3
SSFC approves WISPIRG’s budget after cuts The Student Services Finance Committee voted Monday to approve budgets for the UW-Madison student organizations Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group, Greater University Tutoring Services, and Badger Catholic. After extensive debate, the SSFC voted to cut $ 17,315.47 from WISPIRG’s requested budget of $145, 694.51. A large portion of this cut came out of membership fee funding. The decision elicited varied responses from both WISPRIG and SSFC committee members. SSFC proponents of the cut said
they felt uncomfortable allotting such a large portion of student funds to a national organization. SSFC representative Jake Burrow, however, said he fears that WISPIRG’s time will be spent fundraising, rather than providing direct services to students on campus, which he said is the point of funding WISPIRG in the first place. Evan Hurley, Vice Chair of WISPIRG, said the organization respects SSFC decisions, but hopes that as WISPIRG grows, it can receive a budget that grows as well. SSFC members also awarded
GUTS $159,236.69 of their requested $162,130.71 budget after striking funding for an organizing director and new fellow, and awarding a portion back to their state director position. Badger Catholic was awarded their request of $ 125,236.69 in full after several failed attempts by SSFC representatives to reduce funding for a web and graphic design position. F.H. King and ALPs also presented their budget requests at Monday’s meeting. Decisions on these requests will be made by the SSFC on Thursday. —Elise Larson
danny marchewka/the daily cardinal
The warmer weather draws students back outside to study. Above, Ronaldo Ribeiro, a literature Ph.D. student, reads on the Terrace.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”