The conference session on March 14 featured two presentations:

• Check This Out: Loaning Laptops and Other Technology with Ashley Koebel from University of Michigan
• Revamping a Neglected Technology Space for Success: A Team-Based Approach to Developing Training, Documentation, and Communication for a Virtual Reality Space with Doralyn Rossmann from Montana State University

Lightning Talks are short seven minute presentations. The presenter provides a concise summary of a single topic with useful information in a short time. This year, we had a nice grouping of lightning talks!

In October 2020, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article called “The Staff are not OK” (see article) highlighting the health and well-being of the staff members whose work has helped move campuses through the pandemic. This session took a step beyond that and focused on issues that plagued staff pre-pandemic. Over 100 people logged in for this dual panel presentation about two different issues facing staff in higher education IT.

This year it was a BYOD Poster Session – Bring Your Own Desserts. Going virtual did not stop us from mingling over posters and having mini-presentations, but we did miss the great assortment of desserts we usually have!

Our virtual poster session allowed attendees to visit breakout rooms on their own and meet with the various presenters.

This year we have two exhibitors – Okta (View Website) and Software2 (View Website) available to chat with to learn more about their products.

The fourth week of SIGUCCS 2021 began with perspectives from several universities. Over 50 participants delighted in the stories shared.

Endlessly Exhausting Possibilities: Pandemic Planning in Support Services

Rebecca Klein, Jerome Hilscher, Greg Christie and Clayton Mitchell from Drake University

This team showcased the challenges of pandemic planning at Drake University by highlighting the following:

• This was an ever-changing situation and the need for adaptability
• The need to rebuild from the ground up multiple times
• The need to Implement new resources for help desk support
• The trials of managing remote student workers
• The challenges of supporting faculty in a move to remote teaching – use of LMS, synchronous web delivery (Bb Collaborate) and video platform (Panopto)

Our third session of the 2021 annual conference highlighted the technical achievements of our colleagues. The presentations included:

• Centralizing Server and Workstation Provisioning, Configuration, and Management by Kyle Vonblohn
• Consolidation of Individual Email Services into a Cloud Service by Takao Shimayoshi, Yoshiaki Kasahara, and Naomi Fujimura
• Automatic and Flexible Operation of Campus Equipment Using Bot Computing by Takashi Yamanoue

Almost 100 people tuned in for the March 23 session on Leadership which consisted of three sessions

• Learning On and At the Edge: Enabling Remote Instructional Activities with Micro Controller and Microprocessor Devices with Owen McGrath
• Leading Diverse Teams during Transitions to Remote Work with Laurie Fox & Shawn Plummer
• Won’t You Be My Leader? With Tom Wilk

Over 120 people signed in for our session Lessons Learned from Massive Pivots to Physical Campus Closures which consisted of three sessions.

• Supporting the Rapid Adaptation to Remote Teaching Modality: Software and Hardware Edition with Dan Herrick
• Low-Cost, Scalable Technology for Hybrid Learning with Allan Chen
• I’ll See You Online with Miranda Carney-Morris

Over 100 people gathered on Zoom for the kickoff keynote session of SIGUCCS 2021. We were honored to have two distinguished guest speakers join us to share their work.