News and Announcements

Concur Student Travel – Fiscal Officer Training Opportunity (From Travel)

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Dear Colleagues,

Starting October 1, Concur will become our system for managing student travel and expense reporting. As communicated on September 14, the fiscal officer role in reviewing and approving student travel will be fundamentally unchanged by the Concur implementation. As a fiscal officer you will determine the appropriateness and budgetary capacity for applicable student pre-travel requests and will be responsible for review and approval of post-travel expense reports.

Student travel involves tax considerations specific to the student, and may be taxable to the student in certain circumstances. When travel will be conducted by a nonresident alien student, a Concur approver must complete a “Business Expense Certification” field in the travel request. Concur will prompt the approver to complete this field when required.

Fiscal officers with responsibility for reviewing and approving student travel in Concur are encouraged to attend a training session conducted by the Tax & Compliance Office. This training session will discuss the tax considerations of student travel as well as the “Business Expense Certification” field in Concur.

Concur Student Travel – Tax considerations and Business Expense Certification field guidance

Regards,

The UConn Travel Team

upcoming Concur updates (From ITS)

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Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to share information about pending updates to the Concur Travel and Expense system.

On April 22, 2020, UConn implemented the Concur Travel and Expense Module, an industry leading platform that supports best practices in the authorization and processing of travel and non-travel out-of-pocket expenses. Subsequent to this, the project team has pursued capabilities and service changes that will enhance the customer experience:

  • Anthony Travel will become our new Travel Management Company (TMC).  In business for over 20 years, Anthony Travel is a leader in university domestic and international, group, and athletic travel.  As a part of this relationship, UConn will have a dedicated, onsite agent to assist our community with their travel plans.
  • Concur will become our system for managing student travel and expense reporting.  Starting October 1, all authorized travel and virtual conference participation as well as non-travel out-of-pocket expense reports will be processed through Concur.  For specific information on how to manage these activities, visit https://travel.uconn.edu/training-and-resources/.  We will communicate details about this update directly to students.
  • Concur will become the reconciliation tool for all university card products.  Starting with the November statement, Pro-card transactions will be fed directly into Concur instead of creating a procurement card document in KFS.

In the coming months, you will see more communication pertaining to Anthony Travel, guest travel, duty of care, and training opportunities. Additional support information is also available on Travel Services’ website: travel.uconn.edu.

Please do not hesitate to contact the project (https://concurproject.uconn.edu/contact-us/) if you have comments, questions, or concerns.

 

Regards,

Trish Casey
Associate Vice President for Financial Operations and Controller

Gregory Daniels
Interim Associate Vice President for University Business Services and Chief Procurement Officer

Michael Mundrane
Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer

Concur-Student Travel Go-Live (From Travel)

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Dear colleagues,

We are writing to announce the launch of the student travel phase of the Concur project and to clarify the role of university fiscal officers in the system.

SAP Concur is the official university travel management and expense reporting system that went live for faculty and staff on April 22, 2020.  Student travel, at that time, remained as supported by existing systems and processes.  The project continued working with student groups and other stakeholders over the intervening period to design an implementation that would best meet the unique needs of students while preserving key parts of existing processes.  Students will be able to take full advantage of the features of the new system.  This includes, but is not limited to, automated approval workflow, use of University cards that will import nightly, and Concur mobile app for receipt capture.  The fiscal officer role will be fundamentally unchanged.  You will determine the appropriateness and budgetary capacity for applicable student pre-travel requests and will be responsible for review and approval of post-travel expense reports.

The Concur implementation of the student travel and expense reporting is tentatively scheduled to go live on 10/1/2020 pending successful testing.  Additional information regarding the implementation is available at travel.uconn.edu.

Please do not hesitate to contact travel@uconn.edu with any questions or concerns.

Special Payroll Updates (From HR)

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Dear Colleagues,

We write with several updates about Special Payroll.

First, University Compliance has updated the Conflict of Interest form. The updated form is available on the HR website and within PageUp. Please clear your cache in your browser (Chrome recommended) to ensure that the new form appears within PageUp.

Second, as a reminder, departments should submit all special payroll requests 4-6 weeks prior to the appointment’s scheduled start date to ensure that the employee is approved to work and is able to be paid on time. For quicker processing, please check for flags on the applicant card and include, if applicable, Dual Employment and Conflict of Interest forms upon initial submission.

Third, Payroll updated the Graduate Calculator for AY 2020-2021. Please use this calculator for overload appointments and 2021 summer and intersession appointments.

Finally, effective September 1, 2020, the minimum wage in the state of Connecticut is $12.00 per hour.

Please direct questions to spar@uconn.edu.

 

Thank you,
Human Resources

Travel Webform Update

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Please be advised that the Travel Webform will be discontinued as of the end of September 30th, 2020. At that time the Travel Webform will no longer be available to submit reimbursements for guests or nonemployees. An alternate form will be created within Huskybuy in order to process guest and nonemployee reimbursements. Communication about when this form will be coming will appear from a Huskybuy communication coming soon. If you have any in process Travel Webforms please complete them by September 29th as soon as possible since you will no longer have access to them after this date.  Employee reimbursements will continue to go through Concur.

Thank you

UConn AP-Travel Services Department
3 Discovery Drive, Unit 6220
Storrs, CT 06269-6220

Scholarship Updates from the Office of Student Financial Aid Services

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Good afternoon,

I hope all is well! I am sending along the following instructions for anyone who processes Scholarship Disbursements. This new process was implemented back in March and I’m not sure if everyone received it or not, so I thought I should share. This new scholarship workflow process is smoother and cleaner, and displays the current status of scholarship disbursements you have processed for tracking purposes (e.g. if they have been awarded or if they are still in route).

You will need to follow the directions below to sign up for the ability to process disbursements going forward.

Please read the email and if you have any questions please feel free to contact Sara.Raffia@uconn.edu or me.

Thank you.

Have a good day,

Kathy

 

“Hello,

I apologize in advance for the lengthy email that follows!

New Scholarship Contact
I am happy to announce that the Office of Student Financial Aid Services has hired our Scholarship Programs Administrator, Sara Raffia! Sara joins our team from Goodwin College where she previously worked in financial aid and their alumni office. Sara will be your scholarship contact moving forward and can be reached at sara.raffia@uconn.edu or 860-486-6254. Because we are telecommuting the next three weeks until April 6, this number will not be available but we can be reached via email or Skype.

COVID-19 and Launch of New Scholarship Disbursement Process
As some of you may know, we have been working on an online scholarship disbursement form option for longer than we would like to admit! We are very excited to announce that we are rolling this out live, today, so that our essential functions can continue during this time. Ideally, we would have announced in the Daily Digest, set up in-person trainings, and notify all impacted parties prior to the rollout, but we do not have that luxury of time. Please find important information below (which will also be on our website before the end of today):

  1. If you typically submit scholarship disbursement forms on behalf of your office/Department, please request access to the online form here
    1. This access request will be sent to your supervisor, as listed in Core-CT. Once your supervisor approves, you should have immediate access to the online form.
  2. Once security is granted, you may access the online form here.
    1. While the form is built very similarly to the paper form, we’ve attached resources that you may find helpful.
    2. The access links and resources will also be available on our website by the end of today: https://financialaid.uconn.edu/faculty-and-staff/.
    3. The online form allows for bulk uploads of recipients by account number using a CSV file upload (sample is attached). Instructions and the template may be found in the Job Aids (attached) and the template may be found on our website.
  3. Workflow
    1. Once you submit your scholarship disbursement form online, it will then be automatically sent for approval to either the Fiscal Officer listed on the KFS account or the Primary AND Secondary Signature Authority listed on the Foundation Account. The form will NOT make its way to financial aid for processing until the person listed as the approver approves the request.
      1. If you are the Fiscal Officer listed on an account AND are typically the one to submit the forms, please notify Sara Raffia and we will update the online system to then ask the Account Supervisor listed in KFS to approve the scholarship.
      2. Friendly reminder for Foundation accounts: if the disbursement or combined disbursement is over $10,000, then the Primary Signature Authority needs to approve the disbursement request.
    2. Because we are rolling this out so quickly, we ask you for your help in notifying those who have to approve the requests that they will start to receive email requests! If they feel they are bombarded with access requests, we suggest they set up a separate email folder and rule that automatically moves these emails into the separate folder.
  4. Issues
    1. While we hope to not run into issues with the workflow, if you are unable to use it for some reason and need to process scholarship forms, please send your forms using the paper form via email to sara.raffia@uconn.edu. If you are unable to have the forms signed, we will accept unsigned forms during this time only due to the unprecedented nature of the situation. Once normal University operations resume, you will need to submit the completed and signed form to our office.

We thank you for your continued patience and flexibility these last few months as we experienced numerous vacancies in our office and now as we rollout a new process, all while telecommuting. Thank you and be safe!

Final Job Aids

csv.import

Carrie Fernandes
Associate Director – Compliance and Quality Assurance
Office of Student Financial Aid Services
233 Glenbrook Road, Unit 4116, Storrs, CT 06269
(P) 860-486-2558, (F) 860-486-6629
https://financialaid.uconn.edu/

Fall 2020 Student Employment Guidance (From Student Employee Listserv)

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Attachment: Sample Student Offer Letter August 2020

Dear Student Employee Supervisors,

The fall semester will bring a partial opening of the Storrs and regional campuses. As student supervisors we are encouraging you to follow the Human Resource Guidelines as it pertains to telecommuting and reporting to work.

Please note, these guidelines are applicable to Student Labor and Federal Work Study students.

We have compiled a list of FAQs for your reference:

  • Can I hire students for the in-person operations of my department? Am I required to obtain additional approval?  Yes, student employees can be hired for in-person operations, there is no additional approval required.

 

  • I would like to hire a student employee that will be telecommuting, do I need to seek additional approval or notify HR of the remote work environment?  Yes, students can be hired to work remote. There is no notification or approval required by Human Resources or the Student Employment Office.

 

  • Are student employees required to complete the mandatory Environmental Health & Safety Training (EH & S) upon re-entry to in-person employment?  Yes, students should complete the Environmental Health & Safety Training and alert supervisors upon completion.

 

  • What are the testing requirements for off-campus student employees who are online/distance learning only?  Student testing is being facilitated by Student Health and Wellness (SHaW). Please refer to their FAQ as it relates to testing requirements.

 

  • Who/what department will be facilitating/monitoring the testing for off-campus students (who are online/distance learning) but secure on-campus employment?  Testing is required for all students returning to campus for learning and/or employment. Please refer to SHaW for additional information on student testing.

 

  • Can a student employee work in an office without a full-time staff member present?  Student employees who have completed the required EH & S training and who can perform their duties independently, may work on campus without a full-time staff member present.

 

  • Will student employees be paid if they are COVID positive and are required to quarantine?  No, if the duties cannot be performed remotely, students will not be paid. However, if the student employee has earned sick time during their employment, they may use it to compensate their time off. Please refer to the student employment sick time policy for more information regarding accruals.

 

  • I would like to hire an out-of-state student to help with the reopening of campus/my  department. If they produce a negative COVID test result, can they begin work prior to the completion of the mandated, 14-day quarantine?  No, students traveling to CT from states listed on the Connecticut Travel Advisory are required to self-quarantine for 14 days. A negative COVID test result does not expedite this process.

 

  • Can I hire an international student to work remote while they are in their home country?  No, at this time the University cannot hire international students to work remotely.

 

We have attached a sample offer letter, please feel free to use this template and edit to meet the needs of your department

 

Kind regards from,

Student Employment

Minimum Wage Increase – September 1st

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In 2019, The Governor signed legislation that will gradually increase the minimum hourly wage in Connecticut to $15.00 over the next several years. The Student Labor/Work-Study Pay Scales have been adjusted to coincide with that change. The next increase is scheduled for September 1st. The hourly rate for any student whose active payroll authorization is not at the minimum of the new pay class will be systematically increased. We encourage employers to review the hourly rates of those student employees whose rates will not be automatically increased to identify any inequities and manually process increases to their pay rates using the Student Payroll Data/Pay Change template (UC_TBH_DC_STUD_DAT) in CORE-CT.

Kind regards from,

The Office of Student Financial Aid Services – Student Employment

Student Labor Work-Study Pay Scale

Skype retiring. Transition to Teams. (From ITS)

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Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to notify you of upcoming service changes to Skype for Business.

On Friday, August 7, the University is moving exclusively to Microsoft Teams and discontinuing Skype for Business. Starting that evening, you will be directed to use Teams if you launch Skype. All Skype meetings that you created will also be converted to Teams meetings.

We are making this change because Microsoft is retiring Skype for Business soon. Teams offers the same instant messaging and conferencing capabilities as Skype, but because it is integrated with Office 365, Teams provides more features and collaboration tools. While our community has been able to use both apps, there are compatibility issues between Skype and Teams.  With everyone on one app, we can communicate and collaborate more seamlessly.

Support and training information for Teams is available on the IT Knowledge Base: kb.uconn.edu. If you and others in your area would like a custom demonstration or have any questions about this transition, please do not hesitate to contact the Office 365 team at 365@uconn.edu.

 

Regards,
Meera Nair

 

From: Skype Users <SKYPEUSERS-L@LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU> On Behalf Of Nair, Meera
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2020 10:59 AM
To: SKYPEUSERS-L@LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU
Subject: Skype retiring. Transition to Teams.

Transition to Microsoft Teams (From Daily Digest)

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Transition to Microsoft Teams

At UConn, all faculty, staff, and students can instant message and meet with Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business. With Teams, you can do more. Because it is fully integrated into Office 365 (O365), you can access other apps and services, like your files in OneDrive and your calendar, while using Teams.

Microsoft is retiring Skype for Business. Before this happens, Information Technology Services (ITS) is moving our UConn community exclusively to Teams. With everyone on one app, we can communicate and collaborate seamlessly and avoid compatibility issues between Skype and Teams.

After August 7th, only Teams will be available. To support this transition, ITS is providing training opportunities.

  • On Monday, July 13 at 10:00 am, Microsoft will host a live event where they will cover how to use the Teams. You can attend the live event by clicking the following link at the scheduled time: Join Live Event. This event will be recorded and made available for later viewing.
  • If your department or area would like a session targeted to your specific needs, ITS can provide a custom demonstration. Send requests to 365@uconn.edu.

For details information about Teams, including how it compares to Skype and how to use its features, visit the IT Knowledge Base: kb.uconn.edu

For more information, contact: ITS at 365@uconn.edu