• Data from CLSS is actively being imported into BMS and units are actively cleaning up their data. We appreciate your hard work.  As you catch items or need assistance, please reach out to your financial assistant within the Business Center, so we can make the data a clean as possible prior to the annual meetings.
  • Please note that there have been various updates posted in the CLAS Administrative Staff Teams Group under CourseLeaf.

• Adjunct Faculty
  • SmartHR Deadlines:
    • Business Center Deadline: Friday, Dec. 19.
    • University Deadline: Tuesday, Dec. 26. Please plan accordingly with upcoming holidays.

• Please be sure to update grad names and other assignments in CLSS as applicable to prepare for 10^th day Spring 2024.
• To avoid technical difficulties, please enter all information in a timely fashion.

• Travel’s new job aid, Ways to Make Concur Work for You, has been added to the Travel Department's Training and Resources page.
• Ways to Make Concur Work for You provides information on the Concur Mobile App, TripIt Pro, importing your itinerary, on-screen help in Concur, and helpful email methods to quickly enter your receipts into Concur.

• Procurement Services has issued a new form to provide the University community with guidance and a method of managing requests pertaining to hotel and event services that are being paid via Travel Card and require a document to be signed. It is located in HuskyBuy on the home shopping page under Internal Request Forms. This will prompt the submitter to provide all pertinent information that is needed for Procurement and Contracting to execute the agreement required by the venue or supplier.
• Please note that the supplier does not need to be an existing supplier in HuskyBuy.
• Click on the Hotel and Events Services Form to learn how to complete your request.
• For more information, please contact terri.lessard@uconn.edu or Kristin.allen@uconn.edu.

• Business Meals that are allowable using University Funds include:
  • Events consisting of all faculty, staff, and students with a business purpose.
  • Meetings over an extended period of time (over two hours) with a business purpose.
  • Light refreshments for special events focused on students.
    • Please submit the CLAS pre-approval form prior to the event.
• Business Meals that are not acceptable using University funds include:
  • Social events such as holiday parties/outings/celebrations.
  • Any Alcoholic beverages. If purchasing alcohol for consumption on campus, you must use University Catering and pay with Foundation funds directly.
    • Please submit the CLAS pre-approval form prior to the event.
  • Local meals with no external attendees that do not have a formal meeting purpose/agenda.
• For more information, please contact bsc@uconn.edu.

Please double check your department's charges from Elite Limousine. There have been a few misunderstandings recently about allowable fees, and we have had some invoices with charges that are not allowed under our contract. It is violating our contract to charge for fees such as STC, Admin Fee, and Fuel Surcharge. If the invoice contains these fees, please reach out to the vendor for an updated invoice.

• The following fields have been added to Regular Payroll search requests:
  • Previous incumbent’s name, salary, and date of separation for replacement positions.
  • Funding justification.
  • Position justification.

• The Spirit Awards are a way for the UConn community to acknowledge employee contributions to the mission, advancement, and values of the University.
• You can find information about the awards and the nomination process on the Spirit Awards website.
• Nominations for the Spirit Awards are open through Jan. 9.

• University Compliance has released an issue on “The Gift Rules.”
  • A gift is anything of value, that is directly and personally received by a UConn employee.
    • These can take the form of discounts, gratuities, tickets to an event, meals, giveaways from vendors, and even reimbursement/payment for attendance at an event.
• Click here to read the latest issue of Compliance Chatter.

• UConn has partnered with Academic Impressions to offer professional development resources for higher education professionals. Resources include hundreds of hours of trainings in topics such as academic leadership, advancement, diversity, equity, and inclusion, faculty success, leadership development, compliance, and more.
• The Office of Human Resources has partnered with The Lexington Group, Inc as the new Employee Assistance Program (EAP). The Lexington Group will provide confidential face-to-face counseling, or in certain circumstances video counseling, to assist employees in identifying and resolving personal problems no matter how unique and diverse they appear.  Examples include family and marital conflicts, stress, substance abuse, depression, and other emotional issues. The Lexington Group also assists with referrals for eldercare support, child care, as well as legal and financial guidance through our Life Care program
  • Employees may call The Lexington Group for immediate and confidential assistance at 1-800-676-HELP (4357) or access their website. The Lexington Group is available seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day
• Please see the attached Fall 2023 schedule for the Graduate School’s Timely Topics Series.
  • Topics for live upcoming sessions include:
    • Setting Up For Success: Recruitment, Offer Letters, and Hiring of GAs
      • Thursday, Jan. 25 at 11:00 a.m.
    • Effective Teachers and Productive Professionals: Giving TAs and Future Faculty What They Need to Succeed
      • Thursday, Feb. 1 at 1:00 p.m.
    • Register for a session.

• Beyond Bias in Workplace Training will be available until Dec. 31, 2023 on WebEx. This prerecorded training session aims to raise awareness about biases and equip participants with strategies to go beyond biases in the workplace. Through interactive discussions, real-life examples, and self-reflection exercises, participants will gain insights and tools to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment
  • • Access this training.
    • Password: 706514Rec082342
• PageUp Regular Payroll: Sign up for the training.
  • Jan. 9, 2024 from 9 a.m.-noon
• PageUp Special Payroll: Sign up for the training.
  • Jan. 10, 2024 from 9 a.m.-11 a.m.

• VPR will be processing FY23 Indirect Direct Costs (IDC) returns to faculty and department by the end of December. Faculty members will be provided an email communication from VPR on the amount of their returns based on each grant account FY23 expenditures. If any faculty, department admin and/or department heads have any questions about the amount distributed to each entity, please contact Allison and/or Tyler.
• October Grant Activity:
  • 50 submissions, totaling $50,466,412.
  • 12 new awards, totaling $1,149,917.
• Please welcome Courtney Gunter (Grants and Contracts Associate) to CLAS! Courtney joins CLAS-GMS from Jackson Laboratory where she was the program manager for the JAX ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center (CRC) and collaborative studies with Connecticut Children’s Medical Center on COVID-19 and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. Courtney is an alum of UConn and CLAS, having earned a professional science master’s degree in microbial systems analysis.

• Reporting Spam and Phishing Messages
  • We have historically asked our community to share suspicious messages with ITS by forwarding them to reportphishing@uconn.edu.  Microsoft has introduced a "report phishing" option in Outlook that enables you to send the data directly to them. The security team monitors this within the Microsoft 365 environment and can take additional action as needed. 
  • The reportphishing@uconn.edu will continue to function but using the new feature is a more streamlined solution for managing phishing and junk messages and is the recommended approach.
  • Please see the Knowledge Base for more information.

• Paige Breton, Educational Program Assistant 1, ECON
• Travis Krynick, Apple/Computer Support Technician, CLAS IT
• Joseph Ferraro, Computer Support Technician, CLAS IT