Elevate the Customer Experience

HEUG Campus Impact Award: EAS ERP teams received the inaugural Higher Education User Group Campus Impact Award in March 2026, recognizing U-M’s broad participation, collaboration, and leadership across programs, events, and initiatives in the higher education technology community.

Pavilion Activation Readiness: Partnered closely with stakeholders on key development and operational readiness work, helping accelerate readiness for Pavilion activation and supporting a smoother launch through coordinated execution and leadership support.

Digital Experience and Web/Mobile Application Development

Model Context Protocol Standardization: Established Model Context Protocol as the team’s unifying standard for AI tool integration, sharing templates and server code across ITS to help accelerate AI adoption organization-wide.

Application Framework Upgrades: Completed major framework upgrades for VaxViewer, Transfer Credit, ServiceNow Archive Viewer, and the ARC Resource Management Portal, improving maintainability and long-term platform support.

Michigan App Releases: Delivered five Michigan App releases, continuing to improve the mobile experience for the U-M community.

Student Administration Enhancements

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

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

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.

Workload Automation and Operational Support

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

Information Assurance & Office of Privacy

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.

Expanding Privacy Awareness Programming

In FY26, the ITS Office of Privacy remained focused on education and outreach for the U-M community and the public. The 2026 Privacy@Michigan event series, co-sponsored with the School of Information, ran from January 28 through late March. The five speaker events featured academics, artists, activists and community organizers, litigators, authors, and leaders sharing their unique perspectives on pressing issues at the intersection of privacy, surveillance, technology, civil liberties and human rights.

Throughout the academic year, the office collaborated with students on new programming and exciting initiatives:

Engagement toolkit for resident advisors, which was piloted at North Quad in April and is set for broader adoption in the fall.
A concept for a privacy game app for pre-teen kids that is set to transition to development by summer interns.

We further expanded outreach to students by hosting an inaugural art contest: Unveil. The contest culminated with a celebration on March 27 of the winning artists and an exhibition of their works as they explored privacy, surveillance, civil liberties, and individual rights through literary and visual arts. Winners came from a wide variety of academic disciplines. Families, friends, and members of the U-M arts community attended the event (featured in the “Michigan Daily”). TheUnveil Winners Gallery on Safe Computing showcases the winning artworks.

Providing Effective and Engaging Training Courses

Information Assurance & Office of Privacy

In FY26, the ITS Office of Privacy team developed a new Information Assurance-driven cybersecurity and data protection training course for university faculty and staff. The training course, DCE 101: Cybersecurity and Data Protection at U-M, is designed to help every member of our campus community recognize evolving threats and strengthen their daily security habits. Today’s cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated, and incidents have the potential to disrupt teaching, research, university operations, and even personal privacy. The training underscores U-M’s commitment to safeguarding sensitive information and supporting uninterrupted academic and operational excellence.

“This is one of the best-designed information security courses I have ever been required to complete.”
“This was well designed and to-the-point, thanks for creating such a short and straightforward overview of data security for staff!”

DCE 101 empowers U-M employees to recognize risks early, respond effectively, and uphold the university's reputation as a leader in research, teaching, and stewardship of data.

The Office of Privacy also launched new courses for those with specific data protection responsibilities at the university:

For Security Unit Liaisons - a new series of four self-directed, modular short training courses that provide key information and guidance about performing the SUL Role and Responsibilities at U-M.
For Data Stewards and Custodians - a new “Introduction to Data Stewardship at U-M” course covering U-M’s data governance program, the data stewardship framework, and the roles and responsibilities of Data Stewards and Custodians.
For faculty and staff who work with Protected Health Information (PHI) - a new, streamlined “HIPAA and Protected Health Information” course.

The team also refreshed the quiz-style Safe Computing challenge for students with updated, real-world scenarios featuring pithy tips and fun graphics to promote engagement. The students had positive feedback on the new experience:

“I think the scenarios were very relevant (especially the football tickets and job offers) and I liked the animal puns :)”
“I thought that it did a really good job of explaining all of the ways to prevent being hacked or being scammed. I am now much more informed about device security and will use all of these tips in the future.”
“I really liked how the information and tips provided are relevant to common scam and issues students run into, especially when new to the university.”

Expanding security visibility into cloud, containers, and web

Information Assurance & Office of Privacy

In FY26, IA paired Tenable web application scanning with an internally developed tool called Web Store. Web Store helps identify web servers across U-M campuses and cloud environments by using DNS data, scanning common web ports, and collecting HTTP responses. The process allows IA to:

Identify where web servers are running across millions of IP addresses.
Narrow the scope quickly to a much smaller number of active web servers.
Determine which technologies are likely running based on HTTP headers and response content.
Identify where a vulnerable technology may be present.
Use web application scanning to verify whether systems have been fixed.

Without this system, identifying affected systems during a zero-day event could take days. With Web Store and scanning, IA can often reduce that work to roughly an hour.

Tenable also empowers units to conduct and manage their own scans, streamlining the process and reducing wait times for results. Web application scans help units meet their responsibilities for secure coding and vulnerability management. Web application scans are part of a larger toolkit of scanning capabilities that IA provides that include network vulnerability scans and penetration tests.

The on-premise Splunk environment, including the existing data, was migrated to Splunk Cloud in FY26. This allowed IA to increase their ability to analyze and consume security logs from 1 terabyte per day to 1.5 terabytes per day. Moving to Splunk Cloud also reduced the physical footprint of campus machines by more than 50%.

Strengthening of the Network

The network infrastructure was substantially strengthened through a firewall and VPN modernization and the continued evolution of a high-capacity 100 Gbps campus backbone supporting advanced research. Strategic consolidation efforts reduced legacy complexity and generated over $300K in cost savings, while large-scale management of more than 17,300 wireless access points ensured seamless, ubiquitous connectivity across campus.

Additional Highlights

Maintained 100% uptime of the core U-M Net Wi-Fi network.
Total Access Points (APs): 16,788
Relocated fiber hub & decommissioned Wolverine Tower infrastructure.
Upgraded Central Firewalls
Upgraded Data Center Firewalls
Installed new Site-to-Site VPN hardware (cutover completed).
Installed new Remote Access VPN hardware.

Infrastructure Upgrades Strengthen Network Resilience

Major modernization programs accelerated the replacement of end-of-service network equipment, with hundreds of access layer and distribution layer switches completed and additional upgrades on track. Parallel efforts in fiber infrastructure expanded capacity, improved route diversity, and enhanced resilience across medical, campus, and transportation networks.

Additional Highlights

Installed 368 new Access Layer (AL) switches.
Removed 104 Cisco and 241 Juniper switches.
Deployed 1,869 new Cisco switches since last RFP.
1,882 legacy switches remain.
Significantly expanded remote site support.
Developed and piloted Assistance Kiosk network design.

Building a Safer, Smarter Campus

Significant progress was made in public safety and infrastructure improvements. Over 1,000 security cameras were deployed, new emergency systems were planned, and extensive cabling and fiber projects supported both academic and safety needs. These upgrades directly contributed to safer, smarter campus operations.

Additional Highlights

Emergency kiosk Wi-Fi/AP design.
Designed and integrated A/V intercom calling paths for Emergency Kiosks, including DPSS MiServer consultation.
Housing access control engineering support.
Participation in MCard Advisory Board.

Proven Reliability Under Record-Setting Demand

ITS Infrastructure played a critical role in supporting high-profile, large-scale events at Michigan Stadium, including enabling connectivity for the largest ticketed concert in U.S. history, demonstrating the network’s scalability and reliability under extreme demand. U-M Net Cellular expanded coverage for both Verizon and T-Mobile as well.

Modernizing Communication Services for Greater Reliability and Innovation

Communication services continued a transformative modernization focused on resilience, scalability, and improved user experience. U-M Net Phone Services maintained continuity as work continued to migrate all remaining legacy telephone lines on the UM-Ann Arbor campus and decommission legacy switch sites. Contact center services were also modernized with cloud-based platforms, AI-driven innovation, and new service models.

Additional Highlights

U-M Net Phone Services

Migrated 15,132 numbers to Zoom Phone (2,379 remaining).
Decommissioned 3 legacy switch sites.
Launched Zoom for Government.
Upgraded SBC infrastructure in both lab & production environments.
Hosted Zoom Phone User Group.
Testing and compliance work for ZPLS, eFax, Cisco Call Manager, Unity, and IP fax services.
Disaster recovery plans completed for all services.

U-M Net Contact Centers

Retired ITS-Automated Call Distribution (ACD) contact centers (2025).
Operate 8 Amazon Connect contact centers.
Introduced tiered pricing models, including self-service.
Migrated Parking Services, Puerto Rico, Financial Aid.
Presented at AWS Higher Education Summit (Apr 2026).
Launched AI-driven contact center project (Center for Academic Innovation).

Expanding Connectivity Through Wireless Innovation

Wireless and connectivity initiatives expanded access and reduced costs through multi-carrier 5G deployments, fixed wireless modernization, and innovative hotspot solutions reaching previously unserved locations. Residential networking also advanced with high-speed, cost-effective designs and AI-driven enhancements to improve student experience.

Additional Highlights

U-M Net Cellular

First tri-carrier indoor 5G deployments in the Leinweber CS Building and the Kahn Pavilion
AT&T 5G rollout at Michigan Medicine (launch 2026).
AT&T upgrades at Munger, Ruthven/CCCB.
Verizon outdoor 5G C-band deployment.
Multiple carrier small cell deployments across campus.

U-M Net Hotspot & Mobile Connectivity

Deployed 30 DPSS mobile hotspot devices (public safety).
First deployment at Radrick Adventure Center.
Temporary 5G at 1580 Ellsworth Rd.
Flint Community RV mobile Wi-Fi 7 + 2.5 Gbps.
Solar-powered UMCI camera optimization (efficiency + reporting).

U-M Net Fixed Wireless

Emergency connectivity for Telefund (hotspot + Bridgewave).
Modernized point-to-point links (1/10 previous cost).
Launched Ubiquiti platform (UISP) for planning, monitoring, configuration.
New link: 555 S Forest ↔ 1220 S Forest Ave.

Enhancing Campus Connectivity, Media, and Integrated Services

ITS Infrastructure continued to enhance campus-wide services including AV, streaming, television, and systems integration—supporting everything from live events and instruction to security and access control—while strengthening monitoring, reliability, and cross-system collaboration.

Additional Highlights

U-M Net Video Streaming

Supported 97 live events (Regents, speakers, presidential).
Construction camera streaming (secure).
Michigan Marching Band pre-game streaming.

U-M Net AV Solutions

Updated Zoom Room standards for campus.
Campus-wide AV upgrades.
AudioFetch deployment (Rec Sports).
AV education and training programs.
AVIXA CTS certification completed.
Custom installs in Angell Hall, Hatcher Library, Michigan House, and 1000 Victor’s Way.

U-M Net Television Services

HD TV delivered to 2,700+ endpoints.
Northwoods DOCSIS upgrade design (1 Gbps symmetrical).

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.

MiWorkspace: Future-Proofing Computing Infrastructure

MiWorkspace Core was conceived, built, and fully operationalized in just four months, from September through December 2024. The service extends Mac, Windows, and MPrint platform services to remaining campus units outside the full MiWorkspace service.

With onboarding underway, 9 of 11 academic units are complete and 2 are in progress. The MiWorkspace family of services will soon manage 34,000+ campus endpoints, making it one of the largest centrally managed endpoint programs in U-M’s history.

This expansion strengthens endpoint security, standardizes support, improves lifecycle management, and provides campus units with access to scalable platform services.

Exceptional Customer Service Through the ITS Service Center

The ITS Service Center continued to serve as a critical front door for technology support across the university. In the past six months, the team assisted 55,000 community members across 116,000 inquiries, helping users resolve issues, understand services, and connect with the right support teams.

Customer satisfaction remained exceptionally strong, with more than 99% of survey respondents reporting they were satisfied or very satisfied with their experience. These results reflect the Service Center’s continued focus on responsiveness, accuracy, empathy, and reliable support at scale.

Tech Shop: Supporting Secure Access with Okta

Okta continued to serve as the secure front door to U-M systems, with more than 175,000 users signing in each week. The platform enforces security policies and manages access decisions across thousands of applications for faculty, staff, students, researchers, and affiliates.

As U-M transitioned from Duo to Okta for two-factor authentication, Tech Shop played a key operational role by distributing 4,358 Okta security tokens to faculty and staff across the Ann Arbor campus. The team coordinated procurement, inventory management, custom U-M branding, and customer support to meet increased demand and help ensure uninterrupted access to critical systems supporting teaching, research, healthcare, and administrative operations.

Tokens were distributed through multiple service channels: 1,057 to walk-in customers, 643 through curbside and counter service, 347 shipped directly to customers, and 2,311 hand-delivered through the Campus Delivery Program. This coordinated effort helped the university meet adoption timelines and maintain business continuity throughout the transition.

Generative AI in Teaching & Learning

Instructor Tools

Teaching & Learning has partnered closely with the Emerging Technology team over the past year to co-develop, deploy, and support innovative tools that directly impact the academic landscape. Central to this effort was the creation of Custom GPTs, ‘Instructor Tools,’ integrated within Canvas to provide personalized, 24/7 course-specific support. These tools aid instructors by streamlining course creation, administrative tasks, and assessment management. Key highlights from this suite include:

AI Prompt Coach: Helps users craft precise prompts to maximize the effectiveness of any AI tool.
Course Design & Learning Objectives Assistants: Enables instructors to quickly build engaging courses and create measurable learning objectives rooted in instructional best practices and learning science.
Multiple Choice Questions Assistant: Develops scenario-based assessment questions with rich feedback to support deep student understanding.
Letter of Recommendation Assistant: Saves valuable administrative time by generating personalized, high-quality draft letters that showcase an applicant’s unique strengths.

GenAI Workshops

Building on the success from previous GenAI workshop series, Teaching & Learning delivered over 60 AI-themed workshops to more than 1,200 participants over the last year. Attendees represented a wide variety of roles and units across U-M, with ⅓ of participants being faculty and the remaining ⅔ being staff. This snapshot of participants underscores the broad, institutional reach and impact of Teaching & Learning’s services as they work to provide critical support for AI integration within course design and more. The team also introduced a new, tiered micro-credentialing program through Canvas Credentials, offering basic, intermediate, and advanced badging opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to showcase their GenAI proficiencies on platforms like LinkedIn.

Alongside the synchronous workshop series, the team also expanded its asynchronous offerings to support student-led learning. This year marked the successful launch of the self-paced course, “Learning with GenAI,” which achieved a major milestone of over 600 student enrollments shortly after its release.

Testimonials

Attendee feedback from Introduction to GenAI: Unpacking Key Concepts. “This was a great overview! The exercise using different models was helpful also.”
— Raymond Muscat, Lecturer I in Industrial and Operations Engineering, College of Engineering

“The Maizey workshop covered information that I could easily apply.”
— Edith Mei, Programmer Lead, Medical Affairs

“I appreciated the support documentation provided and learning that consultations are available.”
— Cindi Plummer, Business Administrator Assoc, Office of VP for Research

Online Learning Expansion

Teaching & Learning continued to expand its online learning support to campus units, both in revenue-generating and pro bono educational experiences. Central to this growth is Canvas Catalog, which saw its active customer base increase by an impressive 35% while retention of the existing base remained exceptionally stable at 91%. The total number of licensed partners has now increased to 16, allowing units to lower administrative costs, tap into new revenue streams, and expand their overall reach to internal and external audiences. Interest continues to grow in the service, and the Teaching & Learning team has delivered numerous administrator training sessions across campus to onboard new users.

Other expansion efforts include Parchment Credentials integration into Canvas Catalog, a comprehensive platform that allows users to seamlessly request, verify, and receive transcripts, diplomas, and alternative credentials. Looking forward, the team is also collaborating with the Registrar’s Office and the Provost’s Office to plan and support official Co-curricular transcripts, creating a standardized way to validate student achievements outside the traditional classroom.

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.

Operational Excellence at Scale