Russell Labs Hub

Many of you have likely already met Sue.  She began working for Russell Labs in April 2021.  She was initially hired as a part-time Administrative Assistant to support the Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit in Forest and Wildlife Ecology.  Sue continues to work for both the Coop Unit and the Hub splitting her time between the two offices.  You can find Sue’s schedule (and all Hub staff schedules) on our website.

Prior to coming to Russell Labs, Sue worked for the School of Business as manager of the Digital Print Center, and then for DoIT with Printing and Publishing.  Sue was excited at the prospect of working for Russell Labs, and ready to learn more about the world of plants, insects, forestry, and wildlife. 

Outside of the office, Sue enjoys spending time with her husband and dog at home in Waunakee and traveling to visit her son and daughter.

Please join us in welcoming Sue, and feel free to stop by and introduce yourself to her in Russell Labs!

Brittney Greeno, a Pre-award Research Administrator with CALS Research Division, joined the Russell Labs Hub to provide additional pre-award grant support to faculty and researchers.

Brittney works directly with researchers in Forest & Wildlife Ecology while Laurie Luther continues to work directly with Entomology and Plant Pathology.

Soon it will be easier to book conference rooms in Russell Labs. 

UW-Madison faculty, staff, students will be able to book reservations right in Outlook 365 or Outlook.   

Booking Reservations in the New System 

To book the reservation, you invite the conference room, just like you would invite a person. 

The reservation will go through automatically, unless there is a double-booking for that time slot. 

• • Double-bookings:  If the room is already reserved for day/time(s) you are trying to book, the system will decline the meeting and email Sue Laufenberg.  Sue will then contact you to resolve the conflict. 
  • Private Bookings: You can mark the meeting as private so the title on the calendar shows “Private.” 

When:

The changes take effect Tuesday, January 25th 2022. 

Resources:  

• Conference rooms page – now includes photos, a comparison table, and links to the new calendars. 
• How-to instructions in the Russell IT KB: 
  • How to book a room with Outlook 365 or Outlook  
  • How to add a conference room calendar with Outlook 365 or Outlook 
• Zoom demo will be recorded and available for viewing in the future. 

Questions: 

• For questions on how to use Outlook or Outlook 365 to reserve conference rooms, please email help@russell.wisc.edu. 
• For questions about the conference rooms and reservation rules/procedures, please contact Sue Laufenberg 608-262-6838 susan.laufenberg@wisc.edu

We revamped the Russell KB, updated articles, reorganized content, and enhanced the search function.

There are now two external-facing KB’s:

• Main KB
• Computing KB

Looking for the Forest and Wildlife Ecology Articles?

The bulk of the articles were moved to the new F&WE Intranet site.

Articles related to grad student scholarships or funding were moved to the moved to the main F&WE website on the Scholarships and Travel Funds page.  

The Hub website remains your source for news items (homepage), lists of Hub staff, Hub area homepages, lists of who does what in the Hub, and a list of Hub projects.  The homepage also lists planned and unplanned outages (power and computing).

We have updated the colored building phone directory.

You can find it on this KB page:  https://kb.wisc.edu/russell/68028

NOTE:  Access to this document is restricted to Russell Labs faculty, staff and students.

Find the latest COVID guidelines here:

• CALS: https://ecals.cals.wisc.edu/tag/COVID19/
• Campus: https://covidresponse.wisc.edu/

Not sure who does what in the Hub?  We have a page for that.

This is a friendly reminder to supervisors that the deadline for Annual Reviews is March 31st. 

You can find more information about the performance review process here.

If you have further questions, please reach out to your departmental HR contact.

– FWE & Russell Hub – Sonia Beyer (sonia.beyer@wisc.edu) or Alyson Amenda (amenda@wisc.edu)

– Plant Pathology and Entomology – Candice Butler (cebutler5@wisc.edu)

• Employee Assistance Office: https://hr.wisc.edu/employee-assistance-office/
  • student employees may also use the Employee Assistance Program
• Student Services via UHS: https://www.uhs.wisc.edu/mental-health/

The Russell Labs Hub has transitioned to Campus Active Directory, and the Entomology Department is nearly complete. John Slaybaugh, David Sandra, and our CALS IT colleagues will soon be working with each Plant Pathology Lab and then reach out to each Forest and Wildlife Ecology Lab. 

Both rooms 594 and 216 have a Logitech Meetup installed on their respective televisions. The Logitech Meetup will work with MacBooks, Windows, and Chromebooks on Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet applications. You can use it to either broadcast or join meetings. Room 243 will have a Logitech Meetup installed in early January 2022. If you need a quick tutorial on how to use the Logitech Meetup, please reach out to David Sandra at david.sandra@wisc.edu 

Please refer to this list when requesting content updates to the department websites:

• Entomology – contact PJ Liesch
• Plant Pathology – complete form
• Forest and Wildlife Ecology – complete form
  • to submit news items, please complete this form

We have noticed a number of employees forwarding their wisc.edu emails to third-party email hosts such as Gmail.

Unfortunately, many of these third-party providers are not in compliance with Federal email security policies and emails will NOT be forwarded, and no notification will be given.

You could miss important emails about grants, HR, payroll, financial matters and building outages, and damage professional relationships.

You are strongly urged to use your wisc.edu email account for all campus-related work.

Microsoft put a keyboard shortcut in Outlook and Outlook 365 that can cause problems if you accidentally hit the letter e.

They tied pressing the letter e to moving the message to the Archive folder.

The result is that if you accidentally hit the e on your keyboard, it moves the message.  Many of us never check the Archive folder, so the message just silently disappears.

This can occur when:

• you create and are editing a new message
• when you are replying to a message
• when you don’t have a message open, but the highlight is on the message in the message list:
  

To get the message back to your inbox, located the Archive folder, select the message, then drag it and drop it back to your inbox.

If you notice it happen, you can also press Control+Z to reverse it.

Individuals should order their own PPE through ShopUW+ using their NetID and password.

Supplies are continuously changing, so be sure to check for specific ordering instructions on the home page of ShopUW+ after logging in.

Please direct questions about ShopUW+ ordering to your Financial Specialist:

• Amber Oberdeck (supports Ento and Plant Path)
• Christine Terrien (supports F&WE and the Hub)

Fall brings new students, and shortly thereafter, requests to fix broken lab equipment. Some students prefer to guess than read the operating instructions posted by the equipment. Not all equipment is alike, even lab to lab.  If the student overestimates their ability, you can wind up with work delays and costly repair bills. Follow these tips to help lower your repair bills and keep your equipment running:

• at a lab meeting, discuss the location of equipment instructions for shared equipment like autoclaves, cold rooms, and refrigerators
• have an existing lab member shadow the students until they are comfortable using the equipment

John Wipperfurth, the Russell Building Manager, now handles requests for keys.  John is located in 264B.

If you are having an event that contains a social component and want to pay for it with UW funds, you need to fill out this form in advance:

Official Functions and Expenses Pre-Approval Form

Please send the completed forms to Christine (FWE and Hub) and Amber (PP and Ento).

…………………….

Please make sure to review the policy below as well as the form that must be filled out ahead of time.  Please send them to Christine (FWE and Hub) and Amber (PP and Ento).

Policy: https://policy.wisc.edu/library/UW-3075

Applies to: this pertains only to events that have a social component, but still contribute to the University’s mission.  It does not apply to events with a business purpose solely.

Examples: 

• Faculty, Staff and student recruitment events.
• Functions for officially recognized student groups.  See https://win.wisc.edu/organizations for a complete list.
• Recognition functions to honor distinguished faculty, staff, and students for significant, meritorious achievements.
• Meal expenses associated with an Official Function up to $100.00 per person including alcohol expenses paid by the Wisconsin Foundation Alumni Association.
• Employee recognition and morale/team building events such as honoring an employee retiring or separating from the University with at least 5 years of service and annual holiday/general appreciation events.

Let us know if you have further questions.

Amber Hawkey and Christine Terrien

Questions on travel reimbursement, expense, procedures and approvals should go to Amber Hawkey (Plant Path, Ento) or Christine Terrien (F&WE, Hub).

Individuals should visit the sites below to reserve their own transportation and lodging:

• UW Travel Wise Portal
• Fleet Car Information
• Fleet Car Reservation System (UW and DOA Fleets are now combined in a single reservation system)

Please see our Travel Quick Reference doc for a more detailed list of travel resources.

On December 11, 2021, Campus Business Services implemented the Purchasing Card module of the Shared Financial System (SFS).

Cardholders are now responsible for uploading receipts/documentation and adjusting funding (if applicable) for their purchases online.  Hub staff no longer collect paper receipts, invoices, or card statements.  Please contact the Hub Financial staff with questions:

Please contact the Hub Financial staff with questions:

• Amber Oberdeck (supports Ento and Plant Path)
• Christine Terrien (supports F&WE and the Hub)

The info on grad student scholarships previously housed in the Russell KB has been moved to the F&WE department website on the Scholarships and Travel Funds page.