Digital Accessibility Web Presence — ITS Accessibility Website
The ITS Accessibility website was optimized as a centralized hub for guidance, tools, training, and self-service support. Strong engagement metrics demonstrate its value as an active resource center, empowering users to take independent action.
- Annual Traffic: 176,000 views and 48,592 active users over 12 months
- Engagement: 509,000 total interactions (clicks, downloads, video starts, form submissions)
- Momentum: The last 6 months alone generated 123,000 views and 350,000 interactions
Data Science Practice — Data Warehouse Modernization
The Data Science Practice concluded a multi-year proof of concept to launch the Data Warehouse Modernization project, migrating legacy infrastructure to a flexible, cloud-native platform. This upgrade empowers the university with advanced data modeling, seamless application integration, and robust enterprise reporting.
Turbo Research Storage Upgrade
Advanced Research Computing (ARC)
Improvements made to Turbo Research Storage in FY2026 have led to drastic performance improvements for researchers who need access to their data. The compute investments in Great Lakes 2 will cause an increase in demand for access to data stored in Turbo - the improvements made this year will allow Turbo to meet those demands.
“Many researchers use multiple ARC services that rely on each other in some way. When we plan for an increase in capacity for our high-performance computing systems, we know it has the potential to strain the other services, like storage. By making these improvements ahead of GL2 deployment, we can ensure that data stored in Turbo will be available to researchers for computational analysis on the new cluster, without delay.” - Brock Palen, Director of Advanced Research Computing
Data Den Research Archive
Advanced Research Computing (ARC)
Data Den research archive continues to fill the need for data retention at a low cost and energy impact. After doubling its storage capacity in FY2025, this past year saw an incredible increase in its use, from 22 petabytes to 30 petabytes, making it the single largest collection of university research data. At this increased capacity, Data Den’s Linear Tape-Open format storage system saves a sizable amount of energy - approximately 2,000 tons of CO2 each year compared to high performance storage of the same capacity.
Student Administration Enhancements
Enterprise Application Systems (EAS)
Recruiting and Admissions Data Retention Modernization: Replaced a 20-year-old custom Prospect Purge process with Oracle’s Archive Manager tool, enabling archive-before-purge capabilities and allowing records to be restored for up to one year. The first production run deleted 18.5M rows of data in approximately 60 minutes.
Access Validation Audit Report Modernization: Launched a new Tableau dashboard for the Access Validation Audit Report in collaboration with DSP, advancing the MReports Modernization initiative. The updated report gives ITS Unit Liaisons three enhanced reports to help ensure users maintain appropriate administrative access.
Department Transfer and Separation Reporting: Added reporting that identifies users who have transferred between departments or left the university, helping Unit Liaisons update access more accurately and efficiently.
Salesforce Center of Excellence
Enterprise Application Systems (EAS)
SEAS Salesforce Onboarding: Onboarded the School for Environment and Sustainability into the ITS Enterprise Salesforce Org. SEAS will use Salesforce, Form Assembly, Events Management, and Marketing Cloud for recruitment activities, becoming the fifth recruitment unit to join the service.
Student Success and Advising Technology Phase 1: Completed Phase 1 of the Student Success and Advising Technology initiative, which will modernize and replace the LSA Advising File system with a unified platform supporting students throughout their academic journey.
Enterprise Advising Platform Preparation: Prepared for Phase 2 of the Student Success and Advising Technology initiative, which will move 700 advisors and all U-M students from the LSA Advising File to the enterprise service.
DART and Constituent Data Improvements
Enterprise Application Systems (EAS)
M-Pathways to DART Name Integration: Implemented an automated M-Pathways to DART name-update integration, including preferred names, reducing manual effort and improving name consistency across EAS-supported systems and downstream services such as MCommunity and Google Mail.
Student-to-Alumni Transition Improvements: Improved the student-to-alumni transition experience by strengthening identity and name-data accuracy across systems.
Research Administration Advancements
Enterprise Application Systems (EAS)
eResearch eRAM and Enterprise Health System Integration: Delivered a long-planned two-way data integration between eResearch eRAM and the ITS Enterprise Health System, improving research and health system interoperability.
eRAM Customization Reduction: Removed a major custom eRAM component, simplifying long-term maintenance and supporting readiness for the Research Administration System replacement.
Workload Automation and Operational Support
Enterprise Application Systems (EAS)
Run My Job Maizey Administration: Assumed responsibility for Run My Job Maizey administration, expanding support for workload automation services.
Run My Job Alerting Integration: Integrated Run My Job Splunk alerts with Slack, improving operational visibility and team response workflows.
Run My Job Production Support: Supported approximately 190K Run My Job production jobs each month.
Simply Voting Support: Supported the distribution of 253K ballots through Simply Voting.
EAS and AI Innovation
Enterprise Application Systems (EAS)
EAS AI Champions Program: Continued the EAS AI Champions program, supporting AI adoption and helping teams explore practical uses of generative AI across EAS.
Chuck AI Assistant: Built “Chuck,” an EAS-specific AI assistant with Run My Job search, ITS org chart navigation, TeamDynamix auto-matching, and system integration lookup, improving internal productivity.
Local LLM Hosting Experiments: Spearheaded local LLM hosting experiments with MiDesktop to explore reduced token costs and prepare infrastructure for broader university AI demand.
Helping Units Meet Compliance and Reduce Risk
Information Assurance & Office of Privacy
The Information Assurance (IA) Responsive Information Security for Campus (RISC) team is committed to safeguarding information security and achieving regulatory compliance. RISC also serves as liaisons between various U-M departments assisting with security consulting, vendor/contract reviews, and risk remediation. In FY26, IA performed detailed risk assessments to help Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and other units to achieve an Authority to Operate (ATO) from relevant federal agencies. ICPSR hosts government information which requires compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).
The IA team also helps units identify appropriate mitigations if they don’t meet regulatory requirements. For example, they worked closely with various Dentistry teams post-audit to mitigate findings for multiple systems. IA provided Dentistry with their risk assessment findings, helped them understand what needed to be addressed, and connected them with relevant resources.
In addition to their ongoing work with various units to help form and draft CUI related programs and tasks, IA is spearheading AI compliance across the university through solutions being proposed by faculty, staff, and students to ensure university and student data is not misused or profited from.
Risk Management FY26 program metrics
- 45 Risk Assessments
- 20 completed
- 15 in progress
- 6 not started
- 4 under review by compliance partners (i.e., HIPAA-related reviews may require approval from Michigan Medicine Corporate Compliance)
- 313 risk registry items closed
- 127 additional risks identified and added
Maintaining a Credible, Implementable, Enforceable, and Sustainable IT Policy Environment
Information Assurance & Office of Privacy
Several university policies and IT standards in FY26 were released by the Office of Privacy and Information Assurance:
- Institutional Data Stewardship Policy (SPG 601.12): Revised in August 2025 to reflect changes to technology and the U-M Data Governance Framework.
- Information Security Incident Reporting (SPG 601.25): Updated in August 2025 to make it clearer and more concise.
- Information Assurance Awareness, Training, and Education (DS-16): Updated in October 2025 to clarify annual training requirements for faculty, staff, and workforce members.
- Endpoint Security Administration (DS-23): Updated in November 2025 to include a requirement for information security support.
- Personally Owned Devices that Access or Maintain Sensitive Institutional Data (SPG 601.33): Updated in early 2026 to adjust the definition of sensitive university data in alignment with Institutional Data Stewardship Policy (SPG 601.12) and the university data classification levels.
- DS-21 Data Standard: Updated to make vulnerability reporting and remediation more manageable by prioritizing the most critical issues.
TeamDynamix Growth
ITS processed more than 217,000 TeamDynamix tickets this year, and the Service Support team played a key role in supporting over 100 TDX applications, which have now surpassed 10 million tickets since the tool was adopted in May 2020.
Used by 90+ teams across U-M, TeamDynamix continues to serve as a shared service-management foundation for the institution. The platform helps work move seamlessly across units, campuses, and Michigan Medicine, allowing requests to be routed and resolved without requiring individuals to restart the process.
Leaders in Higher Education Academic Technology
Teaching & Learning continued to work to represent U-M as a national leader in the academic technology space this year, driving critical conversations around enterprise-level AI integration, learning analytics, and industry standards.
National Voice and Consortial Leadership
The team’s pioneering work in the GenAI space led to numerous invitations to showcase U-M’s strategies at major national venues, including InstructureCon, as well as prominent conferences within ITS, the broader university, and beyond. Mirroring this event visibility, Teaching & Learning spearheaded institutional efforts with premier higher education consortia—such as the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), 1EdTech, Unizin, and EDUCAUSE—to actively collaborate on and set industry standards for AI in education.
Resource Sharing and Local Impact
- Academic Technology at Michigan (AT@M) Website: Created in direct response to campus demand for centralized academic tech insights, the AT@M site reached an impressive 13,000 unique users this year, serving as a vital digital hub for resource sharing.
- Enriching Scholarship Conference: As a commitment to providing professional development opportunities for the U-M community, 7 members of the Teaching & Learning team dedicated their expertise in leading this landmark campus conference, directly engaging hundreds of U-M faculty and staff with emerging educational technologies.
- K-12 Cybersecurity and AI Outreach: To extend impact beyond just higher education, several T&L team members, alongside the Information Assurance team, participated in a forum, co-hosted by ITS and the Marsal School of Education, to share critical AI knowledge and best practices with Michigan K-12 superintendents, aiming to influence the state of Michigan’s broader educational landscape.
- Learning Analytics in Action 2026: The team hosted this second annual event to showcase how data from tools like Canvas, MiVideo, and Annoto can transform classrooms and enhance student success. Bringing together faculty, instructional designers, and advisors, the event featured innovative teaching approaches, practical use cases, and resources for leveraging analytics to identify student needs and improve educational outcomes–reflected in the rise in adoption of the MyLA tool to reach 29,289 students, up from 19,385 in 2025.