May 28, 2025

Minutes

New Discussions, Projects, or Initiatives

• Introduction of New Members
  • The group did a round of introductions as a welcome to two employees, Fred Denesowicz, and Maria Aybar.
  • Fred is the new Veterans Services Coordinator, and Maria is the new Program Manager for the Lawrence Campus and Community Relations department.

• Banner Cohort Field
  • Andrew revisited a prior discussion about the potential for moving the Banner Cohort field into ZogoTech. Currently, there is no process for maintaining that field in Banner, and it should not go into ZogoTech until it is cleaned up. It was proposed that an ad hoc group could be formed to develop an NECC-specific definition for what a cohort is and define how the Banner table will be used institutionally. The proposed group would also document business processes for how data will be entered and maintained. 
  • Stella informed the group that cohorts can also be managed in Navigate, and that data will soon be available in ZogoTech. She questioned whether that would solve the problem of being able to track and report on cohorts. It was argued that while this could be a possibility, it would not solve the problem of data quality and integrity issues related to the Banner field. Part of this group’s charge could be deciding if cohorts should only be tracked in Navigate going forward. 
  • Andrew will take the lead on forming the group. Members should include representatives from the Registrar’s office, Veterans Services, PACE, SOAR, Early College, Honors Program, International Students, and other areas that may have the need to track cohorts. 

• ISIR Data
  • Andrew shared that recruitment staff recently expressed an interest in surfacing ISIR data in ZogoTech at a recent training session. ISIR data is data that comes in on the FAFSA. 
  • As a result, Andrew wanted to start a conversation about whether to surface this data in ZogoTech, and if so, how to decide which roles/groups would have access to it.
  • Heather mentioned that much of the FAFSA data is restricted, so only limited access to very broad overview data would be okay.
  • Recruitment has also been asking MIS to create ARGOS reports that may contain information that overlaps with the ISIR data elements they were interested in.
  • A decision was made to table this for now. 

• DHE Data Council
  • Kirsten provided an update on the Performance Measurement Reporting System (PMRS) dashboards that were due to be released now but have been pushed out to the fall of this year.
  • The delay was the result of some questions about the methodology. The dashboards will illustrate student’s economic mobility and outcomes after graduation.
  • The goal is to help visualize whether students are getting a return on investment from their degree. 

• Data Governance Update
  • IE will not be moving forward with the SAS Assessment.
  • Kirsten would like to get the Data Governance team together this summer to develop a Data Governance Strategic Plan, with associated goals and metrics.
  • It was also announced that Kirsten, Danny, Shawna, and Eileen recently completed an EduCause Data Governance class that provided them with new frameworks and tools that may be useful.
• IR&E Survey
  • Stella informed the group that a brief survey from the IR&E team would be sent out that week. The goal is to assess the department’s work and identify what is working well and where there is room for improvement.
  • It will be sent to everyone that has worked with the department over the last quarter. Stella encouraged anyone who receives it is encouraged to provide feedback so that we can make improvements.

• Learning Management System (LMS) Update
  • Melba informed the group that the LMS review has concluded, and the college’s choice was Brightspace by Desire2Learn (D2L).
  • The contract still needs to be signed, and then the group can begin the migration and training on the new platform over the summer. There will be a small pilot group of faculty teaching 15 courses in the new LMS in the fall while everyone else continues to use BB through the fall. The plan is that all will use the new LMS fully in the spring of 2026.
  • It was mentioned that it would be really important to make sure there is documentation about which courses are running in Brightspace so that if students or faculty have questions, someone knows which system they are using.
  • Melba said that she will make this information available to the Registrar and student-facing groups that may need to reference it. Danny mentioned that IT is considering a BB shell for each of the Brightspace classes that would redirect students to the new LMS, should they accidentally look for it in BB. 
  • CIT will provide training and an orientation for the students in the 15 courses.

Standing Updates

• Cross Campus Data Forum (CCDF)
  • Mike let the group know that November 12, 2025, will be the new fall freeze date for the fall semester. The spring date has not yet been decided. The goal is to capture more enrolled students that take classes later in the term, while also capturing fewer “no-shows.”

• IT Update
  • Banner Users Group (BUG)
    • Danny let the group know that Gary Cooke will be taking the lead on reviving the BUG group. This group will include all the functional areas that use Banner.
    • The group will meet in a cadence similar to Data Governance. It will be a forum to discuss topics like broken processes, new features, and update requests.
  • Ring Central (Avaya) Texting
    • Avaya texting is still disabled, but Danny is working to get service restored. Avaya requires organizations to have a texting policy visible on their website.
    • MCC produced a policy that Danny will use and amend to be NECC specific. It will then have to go through governance and the Board of Trustees for approval, so will not likely be in place until the fall.
  • Ellucian Experience/MyNECC
    • The MyNECC platform is end of life, so the college is migrating to Ellucian Experience. IT is hoping to do a soft launch where both platforms are live in the fall.
  • IT Vacancies
    • IT has not been successful in filling their open vacancies. They have reworked some of the job descriptions and will be reposting. They are hopeful that this will help bring in new candidates.

• Lifelong Learning Extended Education (EE)/Noncredit Update
  • Linda informed the group that the noncredit team has hit several milestones over the last few months during their reintroduction and extensive training on EE (i.e., “reboot).
  • Eileen is currently being onboarded and trained in EE as the noncredit Registrar. Several process changes have already been made, with more to come.
  • Another exciting update is that noncredit incarcerated students will soon be recorded in EE for the first time.

Ad-Hoc Group Updates

• HR Data Cleanup
  • N/A

• Software Inventory Group
  • Lindsay and Michelle are working on this.

• Texting Platform Research
  • N/A

Tabled

• Pre-requisite Cleanup

• Secure Data Sharing and Transfer Practices/Policy

• Veteran Affairs Data Cleanup

Miscellaneous

• Meeting Cadence for Summer and upcoming AY
  • Kirsten will reach out to the group to try to determine the meeting cadence for the upcoming Academic Year. She will try to schedule one meeting over the summer as a check-in.
  • Danny shared some of the B&E related moves. CCCE is now in the Student Center, Finance is in the Maintenance building, and Early College and the Police and Sherriff Academies are in the C building, and Human Resources and MarCom are now in the Library.
  • The B building is already blocked out for the next year in 25Live. Danny mentioned that they have created some new computer lab/smart classrooms in the TC building and a new MacLab in C.