Since March 2020, ITS has provided critical support to Syracuse University’s COVID-19 response. Since day one, these efforts have included supporting online teaching and learning, providing remote access solutions, delivering customer support and more.
When the University prepared to resume in-person instruction in August 2020, a new challenge emerged: What processes and procedures would be necessary to bring students back to campus safely? With expertise in project management, process improvement and work planning, the ITS Enterprise Process Support (EPS) team is uniquely qualified to address such a challenge. We spoke with EPS project manager Mandy Patti about her continuing support of the University response to COVID-19.
How did you get involved with the University’s COVID-19 response?
When your boss calls and asks if you can help, especially with something as critical as a pandemic project, you say “absolutely.”
What have your responsibilities included? How have they evolved?
Initially, I was tasked with helping to define and document a process for Fall 2020 Welcome Week as it related to students coming to campus without a negative COVID test on file. I spent much of that week assisting with moving these students to temporary locations until a result was received.
After that, we needed to have a COVID project management office team responsible for the logistic side of moving students in and out of isolation and quarantine. I helped to fill that role.
Since then, I have been primarily responsible for doing just that—assignment of location/rooms, communication and collaboration with key stakeholders, documentation updates, etc. As a team, we also had to fill in where and when it was needed—data entry at our on-campus testing sites, assisting Onondaga County’s efforts in testing school districts in the community, etc.
What skills that you use in your work as an ITS project manager have proven helpful? How?
Problem-solving, collaboration and communication have been key. As everyone on the team has referenced a time or two, we were flying the plane as we were building it. We had to be quick to react and determine resolution to any issues that arose. In order to be successful in our response, we had to work collaboratively and effectively communicate with various units on campus. This included working with staff and providers from the Barnes Center, Auxiliary and Facility Services, the Dean of Students Office, the First-Year Experience, ITS and many other groups. It really does “take a village” in this effort.
What types of technology have proven helpful/essential?
Microsoft Teams was pretty critical in our efforts. To have that central collaboration place where multiple people could view and update documents and easily get a quick message out to an entire group was key in our response. We also utilized our Orange Alert system, which was critical in providing information to multiple units on campus in a timely manner.
What has it meant to you to contribute to these efforts?
It has meant a lot of hours, not just for me but the entire team of people who work on this project. However, it has all been worth it and I have no regrets on saying “absolutely” on the day the boss called! I think being a part of the “boots on the ground” team and our response to COVID has most importantly contributed to maintaining the overall health and safety of the University and the Syracuse community.
On a personal level, I have learned about and built relationships with various units, teams within those units, and systems within the University, some of which I didn’t even know existed before. This project has helped to build my experience and knowledge to be a better project manager for ITS!
I am happy to be able to help and continue to contribute to this effort in Spring 2021.