Why Hire a Work Study Student

Does your department need an extra hand or two? Maybe some help with filing or scanning, or someone to staff a front desk?

The Federal Work Study program could be the solution you need.

Federal Work Study (FWS) jobs allow students to earn needed aid through employment. A wide variety of jobs are made available to students via the Handshake platform offered through the Career Center, but more opportunities are always needed.

Benefits of hiring a work study student:

• The federal government pays 70% of their salary on a work study award, which is part of their financial aid package. Your department only pays 30%!
• You and your colleagues have an opportunity to mentor a student and provide them with practical work skills in addition to their education.
• The connections and relationships students develop with administration and faculty help them to be more successful in their transition into college, and then into the world of work.
• Using federal work study awards for the intended purpose (supplying students with great work opportunities and mentorship) means that UVA continues receiving those awards in the future.
• Your staff gets development opportunities: they learn more about teaching and training, and possibly, through the removal of some administrative burden, they might have more time for project work they haven’t had time to do.

Still need some convincing? Donna Lewis-Wagner, coordinator of the America Reads program in the Curry School of Education, supervises over 100 FWS students each year. The students work as reading and math tutors in Albemarle County and Charlottesville City public schools. For the five years she has led the program, she has deployed the students, who provide a vital service to the teachers and children in area public schools.

“I’ve had a number of students decide to become teachers because of their experience as tutors,” she said, adding that students learn professional skills working in the program that will translate to any career they choose.

“It’s a win-win situation,” she says.

“The department that needs help, whether that’s with professors on a research project or other tasks within the department, obviously benefits, and the students benefit, too – they make money that’s been awarded to them as part of their financial aid packages, and they learn to be consistent, to show up, and be professional.”

To get started utilizing FWS in your area, view the training session in the Integrated System called “Introduction to Federal Work Study – SIS.”

Student Financial Studies also offers a yearly training on FWS for those across Grounds who hire students, but if your office would like more information, please reach out to SFS for answers to your questions and perhaps even a custom training session.

Read more about Federal Work Study

Why are these guys so happy? Visit the UBI Community to find out!

Josh Breeden and Matt Douglas 

The sun has set on GA, GL, and LD reporting in Discoverer, and lots of people were working behind the scenes to make the transitions smooth in their areas.  Read more about how July's UBI Featured User assisted with migration in his department.

Before you order promotional products. . .

Think about keeping it on Grounds: make your purchases through the UVA Bookstore to save time and money.

Here are the benefits of utilizing this strategic contract with the UVA Bookstore:

• The UVA Bookstore quotes every order for you – no more contacting multiple vendors and dealing with quotes. On average, this saves departments 19% per order! 
• Look out for new features coming to the Bookstore’s promotional products website (http://www.uvapromos.com), including a list of top-purchased items, a “quick ship” easy order list, and online apparel design.
• Procurement & Supplier Diversity collaborates with the UVA Bookstore to review contract performance and ensure cost savings. You can view the Bookstore’s contract information and vendor scorecard at http://www.procurement.virginia.edu/pagecontracts&cssid2=645. 

The bookstore will also hold the first annual Keep it On Grounds expo on September 12 from 10 am – 2 pm at the Newcomb Hall Ballroom. The expo is open to all faculty and staff and will showcase the products and services offered for University departments from internal service providers.

Mark your calendar and come check out the on-Grounds offerings!

You're Invited: ResearchUVA Training Session

Join the ResearchUVA team for a session on sponsored program proposals, from review to development to submission.  We’ll focus on getting clean and consistent data at each stage, and we’ll also share a demonstration of the electronic proposal routing form (ePRF).

Read more about the ePRF.

September 19

2 – 3:30 pm

Newcomb Hall, South Meeting Room

No registration required.  We look forward to seeing you on the 19^th!

Hurricane Harvey Relief

Give Money

Do you want to help the people in this storm-ravaged part of Texas? Disaster Relief Charities say the best thing you can do is send money. Here is how to give now and get credit for your agency’s 2017 CVC campaign:

Americares (CVC #160333) Part of Global Impact

Provides water, food, supplies to medical relief centers, and much more.

To Give: https://secure.americares.org/site/Donation Be sure to print the screen or your receipt.

After you have given online, go to: http://www.cvc.virginia.gov/directgiving.html to upload your receipt and record your donation so it will count toward your agency goal.


Salvation Army (CVC #160338)

Provides food, water, and many items needed by families who have suffered the loss of their home, all of their belongings, keepsakes.

To Give: https://give.salvationarmyusa.org Be sure to print the screen or your receipt.

After you have given online, go to: http://www.cvc.virginia.gov/directgiving.html to upload your receipt and record your donation so it will count toward your agency goal.


American Red Cross Relief (CVC # 008228)

Sets up and maintains shelters, mobilizes emergency relief vehicles (ERVs) that provide food, fresh drinking water, blankets and medical attention.

To Give: https://www.redcross.org/donate/disaster-relief  and click on the box for hurricane Harvey Relief Be sure to print the screen for your receipt.

After you have given online, go to: http://www.cvc.virginia.gov/directgiving.html to upload your receipt and record your donation so it will count toward your agency goal.

Please direct any questions to CVCStaff@dhrm.virginia.go

Give Supplies

Jessie McGann from Procurement Services has coordinated with Facilities Management and the Greene County Sheriff’s Office to organize a donation drive to benefit the storm victims in Texas. Below is a list of items that are needed. Items can be dropped off at Facilities Management’s warehouse at 575 Alderman Road. Facilities Management’s Safety/Occupational Programs has donated bags that can be filled; you are welcome to pick up a bag to fill at 575 Alderman Road. Bags are available in the coffee/break area and can returned to Mariah Kier through September 8. A note in the bag would be very meaningful to the recipient.

For any questions, please contact Jessie at jfm9n@virginia.edu or 434-243-5192. Thanks to Jessie for organizing this opportunity for us all to help out those in Texas. And thank you for your generosity!

Hurricane Harvey Relief Supply List

·        Shampoo

·        Disposable razors (male and female)

·        Toothbrushes

·        Children Toothbrushes

·        Clorox Wipes

·        Sanitary pads

·        Diapers

·        Diaper wipes

·        Body Wash

·        Diaper rash

·        Contact solution, holders

·        First aid kits

·        Laundry detergent

·        Flashlights

·        Batteries

·        Emergency candles

·        Ziploc bags

·        Aspirin

·        Tylenol

·        Tissues

·        Pet supplies

·        Medical supplies

·        Non-perishable food items, including baby food

Getting more from the data and helping students get access to UVA

Scott Miller’s priority is to make sure students who want to attend UVA get the most out of financial aid.

As Director of Financial Aid in Student Financial Services, Miller and his team work closely with new students, transfer students, and returning students all year round, walking them through the process of applying for financial aid, answering their questions, and providing needed information.

Miller knows that financial aid can be daunting for students and families, so he keeps very close track of where students are in the application process.

From Left:  Mike Holian, Wendy West, Scott Miller,
Johann Reinicke, and Xavier Wiltbank, showing
off the dashboard to their new tool.

“I track the status of financial aid applications so I can see how many we have waiting, and what we’re waiting on from them, so I know who we need to reach out to and how we can help,” Miller said.

Up until recently, this tracking was fairly arduous: done in excel spreadsheets, the process involved a lot of cutting and pasting and sorting and matching of data from different sources, some of which was updated only weekly. It was time and labor intensive, and not always current as could be desired, but something Miller and his team were willing to do in order to help students.


That was the process until Wendy West, Miller’s colleague in Student Financial Services, told Miller there were new ways of reporting at UVA that might make things faster and easier. Thus began a team effort involving Miller and internal SFS IT resources in tight coordination with Johann Reinicke, Distributed Reporting Lead within UBI.
Through his work with UBI, Reinicke had seen firsthand many schools and units “making do” with slower and outdated reporting methods prior to UBI implementation.

“People have always found ways to get the data they need to get processes to move along, but without the right tools, it’s not always easy to complete” he commented.

“We worked with SFS so they could use the enterprise platform within UBI as a tool to make their process more streamlined. We partnered with them to build on that platform and help them take it where they needed it to go,” he explained.

Miller, working with West, Xavier Wiltbank, Amy Nolasco, and Mike Holian of SFS, identified the data fields and functionality that would allow them to monitor their processes and workflow most efficiently.

Reinicke and his team were then able to work within the enterprise software that drives UBI to enable SFS to use the system to achieve their goals.

The resulting system, a pilot of sorts, allowed SFS to get a new and up to the minute perspective on where students of all kinds were within the process.

Miller says that now when the data reveals students having issues, he revisits the way SFS is communicating about that part of the process, or invites those students to an event where they can be individually helped. The system has also enhanced communication between SFS and Admissions as they work toward their shared goal of assisting students entering UVA.

“SFS took the first step in taking ownership of the process, and seeing how they could get more out of their data,” said Reinicke.

“These are state of the art tools we’re using – QlikView, QlikSense – we are behind the scenes making sure that the proper security measures are in place, as well as best practices for development, so that when SFS pulls up a data point, they can be sure it’s accurate, trustworthy data.”

For Miller and the SFS team, the insight they have allows for a greater opportunity to serve students.

“We can now see the hold ups for all student populations. We can slice and dice the data in a multitude of ways. All I have to do is go into the tool and hit ‘refresh,’ and I have the latest information on our students’ needs,” Miller said.


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Did you know?

UBI is more than a tool! Have a thorny data problem? Consulting services are available through Engage UBI.

Conference Room Etiquette

Our shared spaces give us an opportunity to meet and work together.  Unfortunately, they can also be a source of frustration, because there's often not enough available space to meet demand, and high usage can result in packed schedules and messy spaces.

UVAFinance has implemented ground rules for using our own conference rooms and meeting spaces, with the aim of avoiding some of those common problems.  

The short version is shared below; you can view the full document in Notes from the Mayor.

Here's to happier meetings!

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