Report to Data Governance Executive Sponsors from Data Governance Council
February 2008
This report includes details provided by data stewards on the formation of data user groups, and on updates and changes with the data management projects that are currently active or have been resolved this month.
Overall, there are 4 data management projects that are pending, 7 actively being researched, 2 being implemented, and 2 that were moved to resolved during the past month. One new item was introduced during January. Look on the website for detail about each of these at
http://unlvdata.nevada.edu/DGCouncil/HTMLIssues/allissues.html
Regarding data user groups, little has been done to forward the formation of data user groups. In general, members of the Data Governance Council feel that they need additional guidance from you before proceeding. How best to address this need will be discussed at your next meeting which is scheduled on March 13.
Status of Data User Groups
Here are individual situations as reported at the January meeting..
Elora Paik – Larry Hamilton is still considering HR’s data user groups and will bring it before Executive Sponsors.
Monty Young – They are in discussion with Dawn Neuman and faculty departments to determine the best steps for getting volunteers. He believes that a focus on “space planning” would generate the most interest.
Kivanc Oner – He has determined that the data user group for the Graduate College is primarily SIS users. For the Research component they need to determine “who” their users are. Most of the reports are used by the Higher Executive offices. Kivanc also mentioned that they will be launching, in a few months, a new system for faculty called Time and Effort Reporting.
Geetha Sendhil – At this time they haven’t moved any closer to establishing data user groups. She recognizes the need for input from Student Life. Also, Rebel Card data has users who need to have a forum.
David Ellison – He has determined that Student Accounts in primarily a SIS user group.
Norm Bedford - At this time they haven’t moved any closer to establishing data user groups. Both David and Norm participate in the Enrollment Management Team.
Christina Drum – IAP is unique because it is a data user.
Don Diener – OIT is similar to IAP because it creates limited data and is primarily a user of others’ data. OIT is also developing a directory project. As that evolves, a directory user group might be involved. Group all agreed that they need further guidance from Executive Sponsors to determine direction and policy level
Status/Changes in Data Management Projects
What follows are details provided by data stewards regarding the most current thinking about some of the data management projects, including 2 that have been moved to resolved this month. In all cases, progress has involved discussion and communication across departmental boundaries.
1. Issues Actively Being Researched
Graduating GPA – Questions about the definition of the data
The grade point average associated with a degree conferred to a student is being added to DataNet, and a description of this will be added to the data dictionary. Some questions about the data values that need clarification.
How does this work for folks graduating with multiple degrees. It looks from the data like the same GPA is listed for both degrees, which would make sense, but it should be clear in the documentation.
Response from Registrar’s Office: CONCLUSION The pcam and gcam are split out for the degrees gpa's; but in default we only show the pcam at the bottom of the transcript on the LAW ; MBA dual degrees. You could use the trick to replace the level code on TRN1 to see the G, but it's not the default. Here is one with dual degrees using the same gradaute gpa, which are the same gpa. CONCLUSION: The GCAM gpa calculation is the same for both.
Also, since the same GPA will list next to minors (if included in the report), we might want to make more explicit that this is the overall graduating GPA, and not, say, the GPA for courses taken within a minor (or a major).
Response from Registrar’s Office Another sample student received a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Care Administration, a Minor in Community Health Education and , a Gerontology certificate. The GPA is the same in all, no differentiation.
From the Law School -- Yes, this is an old issue that has been discussed for at least 2 years. The law school will add to the discussion. From Grad - Of course we would like to be part of this discussion. It looks like further discussion is warranted regarding GPA fields.
HRMS does not contain merit history
The Description of issue as seen in the database (below) is true. The description, however, is a mixed bag of items not really related to merit history.
HRMS does not contain merit history; Status - Pending October 11, 2007,; Desc of Issue: HRMS does not contain merit history; Description of this data issue: HRMS does not contain merit history. Merit rosters from HR are not sorted correctly for distribution. In some cases, requirements of the faculty senate are not met. This information is also needed for salary equity studies.
Additionally on subject: HRMS is not, and probably will never be, a robust historical database for most items including previous years of merit data. There are, however, historical spreadsheets from 2001 and forward of all merit transactions on our webpage called Annual Salary Rosters: http://sysapps.unlv.edu/positionlist/MeritListFiles/2008%20Salary%20Roster.xls
As far as Merit Rosters are concerned, last years merit rosters were sorted in the manner originally requested and agreed upon between our AVP and the planning committee associated with that process. During the roster cycle, it was determined that additional sorts would better serve the provosts' office, but those unfortunately could not be incorporated into the programming in the short time turnaround needed for process completion.
Extra compensation data in HR is incomplete
Description: Extra compensation – data in HR is incomplete; – once it moves to history, is no longer available.....TRUE, HRMS not robust for historical information
Some additional information from HR:
If what is meant by "Extra Compensation" is all those other categories of Pay Codes that make up a complete look at any individuals gross earnings: these Pay Codes and Pay Amounts are found in the two payroll history tables called PYHBASE and PYHEARN which are accessed through FOCUS reports.
At the beginning of every year, for the past two years,HR compiled a report for Senior Management of every professional and classified person's gross earnings and a breakout of each category of earning unrelated to base pay (e.g. Stipends, Overloads, Perqs, Leave...) This report should be available to the VPs at some point.
Looks like The data that 'goes missing' is the begin/end dates for the actual work NOT the PAY history for faculty conducting OVL that requires extra compensation. Those dates show on the most recent/current screen of the "PERI" screen? Then they 'go away' when in a query of the ACCT HISTORY line-by-line summary.
It seems that this is the MAIN reason for one 'shadow database' to keep track of when the actual work was done.
We may want to ALL get together and look at Deb's HRMS screen displays together. (THis may have some connection to Time/Work data capture needed for grants in Research too.)
HR is looking at the HRMS screens.
Recruitment data base does not report on employment history
- Recruitment data base does not report on employment history, which is need for public relations pieces regarding new employees. Data is also available late.. There is no way to track outstanding offers;
This DGCouncil issue is still pending. Elora has asked to bring George Dombroski, Director of Employment and Compensation, and Jen Martens, Manager of Employment into the community of interested and most knowledgeable members with respect to recruitment data. Which, incidentally, is possibly stored in an application called HRSearch.
Elora will call a meeting for the interested parties before our next data governance council meeting in March. This will allow the community of interested parties to analyze this issue in further detail and gain more understanding of needs.
Terminal Degree Designation
HR completed an Educational Data Cleanup project in the fall of 2007.
With the help of that employee data verification mailer returns and personnel file scrubs, HR was able to get the percentage of full-time, permanent faculty (AC,EX,AD) educational data up to approximately 89% from two years ago when we only responded with 74%.
IAP utilizes this data for surveys and reports each year. Of course still missing in any data that identifies terminal degree information.
The next step is to generate a report for the Provosts' Office to show them the Academics data and those 25 employees (as of a month ago) who have no Educational information in HRMS.
It is still up in the air as to who or how terminal degree information will get into HRMS.
Exemption and Deal Codes
A lot of information has been gathered and analysis done to get this project started. The next step to get the project back on track will happen within the next month. The first goal is to identify what deal and exemption codes are used, who creates these, the purpose of the codes, system limitations, and other issues that effect these codes. We should be able to identify what our objectives are and where we want to go with this.
2. Issues to be moved to resolved this month
How to identify who is a student -
Originally identified as an ID Management issue, as it was discussed at DGCouncil there may be other questions about it. ID Management is building a person registry. Need to work on uniquely identifying UNLV affiliates. How to identify who is a student?
The Registrar’s Office feels that this has been resolved according to the following from Karen Emptage.
I am writing to you today to verify that Data Management item has been resolved. I had the opportunity to work with Wendy Lin last year and discussed the notion that we consider students active when they have a STUD screen in SIS. The STUD screen allows them to register for courses. Without the STUD screen, the student cannot register for a course. I believe Wendy used this information to work on the portal.
Computer Inventory
Frank and Richard offered to give us a demonstration of their system with the possibility of using it in the future. OIT has decided not to pursue that option at this time. The prevailing view is that we do not have the personnel to devote to considering or implementing any changes at this time.