The Power of Collaboration and Connection
Dear Northwestern IT Staff,
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Take 5, Northwestern IT’s new internal newsletter. As we all prepare for a well-deserved holiday break in the coming days, I want to reflect on the quarter to date and highlight the importance of engaging with the Northwestern community—one I am thankful you all are a part of.
This newsletter will spotlight our ongoing projects and share your stories and achievements, many of which happen behind the scenes to drive Northwestern’s excellent teaching, innovative research, and growth of students. In September alone, your work aided another successful fiscal year close and a new fiscal year set up. You patched and secured systems and enabled over 37,000 enrollment transactions, 171,658 unique wireless devices to connect (a record), and nearly 3,400 courses in Canvas. Your efforts also led to more than 56 million problematic emails being blocked and drove wait times down at the IT Service Desk to around 3.5 minutes. You can view some other key September metrics in this back-to-school infographic.
Another focus of this newsletter is to amplify the numerous opportunities for you to engage with both our IT organization and the Northwestern community. We are fortunate to have access to a wealth of opportunities on campus that promote intellectual, personal, and professional growth. These opportunities range from attending any number of lectures or talks featuring renowned experts to enjoying performances at the Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts or an afternoon at The Block Museum to participating in global and civic engagement efforts. If these aren’t for you, there are countless events in other categories like multicultural and diversity, athletics, environment and sustainability, and religious.
I hope you will continue exploring all that Northwestern can provide and find new ways to motivate yourselves and connect with the University.
As this note is being delivered during the week of Thanksgiving, I also want to wish everyone a wonderful and safe kick-off to the holiday season—one with many connections to the activities and people that this time of the year affords.
Sean