Vice president and chief information officer Kristen Constant and agricultural and biosystems engineering chair Steve Mickelson -- in a new role -- will lead Iowa State's implementation of Workday Student and Workday Receivables.
Constant, who has served as CIO since 2017, will continue to provide leadership for information technology across the university while co-leading the project. She also led the successful implementation of the Workday finance and human resources modules, which went live in 2019.
Kaleita to serve as interim ABE chair
Leadership in the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering, consistently the university's top-ranked academic program, will remain in good hands. Amy Kaleita, professor and associate chair for teaching, has agreed to serve in an interim role while the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Engineering initiate a search later this year.
Mickelson, Charles R. and Jane F. Olsen Professor and chair of agricultural and biosystems engineering, received a four-year appointment as special advisor for student information systems in the office of the senior vice president and provost, effective March 1. He will report to associate provost for academic programs Ann Marie VanDerZanden.
An 'exceptional university citizen' takes on a new challenge
In his new role, Mickelson will work with partners across campus to rethink and redesign many aspects of learning, teaching, advising and administrative processes. He brings a wealth of experience to the position. He has served as an ISU faculty member since 1982 and department chair since 2011. He also is a former director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.
"Steve is an exceptional university citizen, and I very much appreciate his willingness to step up and take on this critical role," said senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert. "His extensive knowledge of teaching and academic administration, as well as his ability to collaborate across campus, will help create the best outcome for the deployment of these new systems."
Planning for WorkCyte's second phase to begin in March
The Workday Student and Receivables project is the second phase of WorkCyte, the university's comprehensive effort to modernize its administrative systems. Phase 2 includes systems that support all stages of the student life cycle, including recruiting, admissions, registration, advising, records, financial aid, fee assessment, student receivables, grading, transcripts and graduation. Receivables billing and payment processing for external (non-student) customers also is included.
According to Constant, while preparation has been ongoing for several months, project planning will begin in earnest in March. Underway is an effort to identify project leaders across the functions that will be impacted by Workday Student and Workday Receivables and to determine how best to balance the workload of staff whose work will be essential to the success of the four-year project.
More information on Workday Student and Workday Receivables will be shared in the coming weeks.
