Announcements
Published August 29, 2023
Announcing New Preferred First Name Policy and Data Governance Resource Page
Washington and Lee University recognizes that some of its community members prefer to identify themselves by a first name other than their legal first name. The University will use preferred first name whenever possible in the course of University business and education, except where the use of legal first name is required by law, for external entity reporting purposes, or otherwise.
A recently published page on the Data Governance website has been developed to assist members of the W&L community with questions related to this topic. To learn more about the new policy, how to update your preferred first name, whom to contact with questions, and more, please visit the Data Governance Preferred First Name resource page.
Published June 22, 2023
Announcing the new W&L Data Governance Website and Report/Data Request Form
Data governance is a collection of different policies, procedures, standards, roles and metrics that an organization uses to ensure the effective and efficient use of information in achieving its goals. It establishes what processes should be followed and who is responsible for ensuring the quality and security of any data used across an organization.
Over the past several months, members of the Data Governance Council and Data Governance Stewards have been hard at work developing those standards and business rules with a goal of ensuring positive impacts to university data governance security, compliance, and quality as well as enhancements to project-related needs. These include areas of focus involving preferred first name usage on-campus, pronoun usage, and gender identity information just to name a few.
To support visibility aligned with these efforts, a new web presence has been launched in the ITS Dashboard under the direction of the Council. Stakeholders among the W&L community can find reliable answers to questions associated with roles & responsibilities, membership, best practices and policies & procedures. This includes the current Data Governance Charter which is available for all to view by logging in with university network credentials.
In an effort to meet the influx of report and data requests made annually, the Data Governance Council has also taken steps to create efficiencies designed to streamline the process of servicing such requests for faculty and staff. Specifically, those with a need to request data extracts, new reports or enhancements to existing reports can now submit a detailed request using Web Help Desk. Instructions for filling out the request form along with a series of frequently asked questions and an information request type narrative can be found on the Data Governance homepage.
Should you have any questions about Data Governance practices at W&L, please contact the Chair of the Data Governance Council or one of the council members.