The scariest season is upon us!
Last Halloween, I thought I’d test out my burgeoning data literacy and analytical skills and survey the OSPA staff on their favorite Halloween candy, costumes— all the Halloween basics. After getting to know my co-workers this past year, I thought I’d get more serious and ask them, what keeps you up at night? The OSPA edition.
The fall term brings census data, IPEDS reporting, USNWR, and the strategic plan annual report—all things that warrant stress and sleepless nights! I tried to keep the survey simple with two questions: the first to rank everyone’s top three work-related fears out of fifteen OSPA-and work-related challenges. And then the second question, an opportunity to write-in the actual scariest thing.
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As an office that deals with institutional data, it’s no surprise that the fear that received the most number one rankings would be an infrastructure breach. When the office of Strategy, Planning, and Analysis was formed, it was also given the responsibility of developing a Data Management Program, working with partners across the WSU System to establish a Data Management Program as a framework to guide how we solve data problems, manage data, and make data-informed decisions. An infrastructure breach would absolutely be back of mind, front of mind, an ever-present shadow lurking within all the steps and decisions from the system strategy and insight team and the data governance council.
There were two fears that received the most total votes. They were realizing you’re not on mute! a fear that is relatable to every member of the OSPA team and WSU workforce in their day-to-day work, and the fear of both Coleen and Becki retiring—who together have over fifty years of combined experience at WSU. We would prefer to not imagine the day when we can’t say, “I don’t know, let’s ask Coleen,” or “I’m sure Becki knows.”
There were two fears that didn’t make any top three fear rankings: public speaking, and realizing you’re on mute after you’ve already given a thorough response. We are not afraid of talking! Or repeating ourselves!
OSPA reporting and the correlation in sleep lost
Some of the OSPA fears are directly related to specific work that happens in the Office of Strategy, Planning, and Analysis. The data analysts in our office work hard to ensure that the data they work with is accurate and transparent. Student census data is the basis for so much of our state and federal reporting that an error in the census data would have a ripple effect in our ability to accurately report institutional information. Not only did our analysts lose sleep preparing the student census data, but even now, after finalizing that info, an error in the census data is enough to keep at least five analysts up at night!
The USNWR rankings are high profile rankings that prospective students and their families look at when considering higher education, but the methodologies that USNWR uses in developing their ranking systems aren’t finalized until after they’ve already received our institutional data. For our analysts who take their accuracy and transparency seriously, USNWR rankings are definitely cause for losing sleep because their results are so prominent while their methodologies remain clouded in propietary mystery.
A number of technical fears account for moments of high stress like when your computer crashes or the file you’re looking for right when you need it most seems to be missing. Planning ahead, saving often, creating a back-up plan to the back-up plan, and keeping things on task and organized may not stop disaster from striking, but will definitely help your co-workers sleep at night. It’s not a trick or a treat, it’s Ctrl+S! (or command S for Mac users).
Truly terrifying write-ins
Bringing your brain to work is a (unofficial) requirement of the job, and if you haven’t remembered your brain, maybe a jolt of caffiene can help get things moving, because when we talk about data and making data-informed decisions, we’re really talking about people.
We’re talking about our Washington State University students across our six campuses and our WSU faculty and staff who engage in groundbreaking research, provide support, training, and guidance in sharing their expertise and providing a practical education for all. The numbers are the people that make up our institution, that make our teams dependable and reliable, that make the work that we do worthwhile.
Remember to save your work often, thank a member of your team, bring your brain to work and in lieu of that, maybe caffeine. Happy Halloween!
About the Author
Eija Sumner is the Strategic Communication Coordinator in the Office of Strategy, Planning, and Analysis (OSPA) at Washington State University.