Shared Services Updates: September 2021

Each month, you’ll get updates from Student Affairs Shared Services groups with reminders, deadlines and other news.

SA Business Services

No outside internet airfare bookings

A quick reminder that external internet airfare purchases are still not allowable during the coronavirus health crisis. All travel must be booked through the university’s travel management program: either online in the Concur Travel & Expenses System or through a travel agent with Christopherson Business Travel (CBT). Learn more about travel updates related to the coronavirus from the Procurement Service Center (PSC).

CU tax exempt status reminder

The University of Colorado, as a public institution of higher education of the State of Colorado, is exempt by law from all federal excise taxes and from all Colorado State and local government sales and use taxes when purchasing goods or services in the conduct of official university business. 

Procurement cardholders (PCard) are required to inform each merchant of the university's status as a tax-exempt organization at the time of purchase. University of Colorado purchasing cards include the name of the cardholder and the university’s tax-exempt number for the State of Colorado. The PSC may issue violations for repeated instances of including sales tax. Let us know if you have any questions or if you need any assistance in communicating this to your vendors. Learn more about tax exemption.

SA Communication & Marketing 

We offer multiple ways for students to learn more about Student Affairs events and ways to connect on campus. Both the CU Boulder Life app and the Student events website feature event details and are promoted heavily through a variety of channels including the CU Boulder Today, social media as well as digital signs and bulletin boards.

CU Boulder Life app

Encourage your students to download the CU Boulder Life app! Events will be added to the app all semester and this is an easy way for students to see all the events happening in the division. From July 1-Sept. 15, the Fall Events guide has had 6,732 downloads and has been accessed by users 121,414 times!

Student events website

The Student Events website is a great resource for students to see events that are happening throughout the division each semester. Currently it features Fall Welcome, Residence Hall specific events and all upcoming events within the division. From August 15 - September 15 it had 3,622 unique views. In the coming months it will also feature Halloween and finals events. 

October content themes

We work to align content with what students may be experiencing during the semester. Content themes for next month include:

• Getting involved: October will feature Family Weekend, Homecoming, the Health and Wellness Summit, National Transfer Student Week, career fairs and the CU Housing Fair. We will also share involvement opportunities around health and wellness, friendly competition and politics and government as a part of an ongoing series to help students get involved around interests and hobbies.
• Preparing for the future: Students will get tips for internship and job searching, saving money and being sustainable this winter and preparing for next year’s housing search.
• Halloween: Throughout the month, we will promote events and alternative programming leading up to Halloween. Additionally, we will share safety reminders and harm reduction content.
• Health and wellness: October will bring Illness prevention tips and what to do if you’re sick, signs of depression and information and resources for mental health. 

SA Financial Planning & Reporting 

Initial fall 2021 student billing is complete. Changes to Room & Board as well as meal plan changes will continue to be processed as students settle into their first few weeks of classes. 

SA HR

Student hiring

We are currently in our peak hiring season. Please expect response times to be longer than usual due to increased influx in work. Thank you for your patience! 

Learn more about student employment and the hiring process.

Performance management: Classified and university staff coaching

Please have all coaching tasks (and planning tasks if they are outstanding) completed by Friday, Oct. 8, 2021.

Resources available:

• Step by step assistance you can refer to the Cornerstone User Guide.
• Campus HR’s performance website.
• Student Affairs performance website.

SA IT

New Zoom features and security best practices

The Zoom service has received a number of updates that will aid in remote teaching and learning on the CU Boulder campus this fall. 

• New inclusivity feature: This summer Zoom was updated to include gender pronoun sharing, allowing users to list their preferred pronouns directly on their Zoom profile. 
• New support options:
  • Zoom now offers 24/7 live chat support to all CU Boulder affiliates 
  • Zoom video tutorials 
  • Watch recorded training sessions 
  • Register for free online training webinars 
• Security best practices: Please keep in mind security best practices when scheduling Zoom meetings for your course or other events. 
• Cloud recordings retention policy: Zoom recordings will be retained for 120 days from the date of recording. OIT strongly recommends routine review and archiving of Zoom recordings to make sure you keep what you need. Learn how to run a report to view your recordings over a period of time. Please note that once content has been removed it can not be recovered.

Is your password strong enough? 

The Office of Information Security recently created a new article about password strength that provides some good tips and resources. Of course once you create those strong passwords, they shouldn't be shared with anybody. Remember that the university will never send emails asking for private data and to always be suspicious of messages that ask for private information is a good idea as well.

SA Policy and Compliance

License and certifications fees

CU Administrative Policy Statement #4011 sets forth the requirements for using university funds to pay for license fees, certification fees, memberships or dues. As a reminder, license fees or certification fees are only allowable when all three of the following conditions are met:

1. The license or certification is required for university employment. “Required for university employment” means that the license or certification is indicated as a mandatory criterion for employment, not as a preferred criterion or an absent one.
2. There must be an equitable provision of the licenses or certifications throughout the department.
3. There is a reasonable expectation that the license or certification will be used solely for the purpose of providing services to the university, and not for providing services to others for a fee or other compensation. Organizational units should inform employees that if a license or certification paid for by university funds is used for anything other than university business, then the additional compensation generated by the license or the certification, or the value of the license or certification fee (whichever is less), must be reimbursed to the university.

University funds may not be used for a license or certification that does not benefit the university and is solely for the professional development or advancement of an employee. Benefit to the university is measured through the receipt of support or information, as a result of having the license or certification, which is necessary to accomplish or foster the educational, research or public service mission of the university.