Episode 17: Help for New Higher Ed Risk Managers

Higher education is facing unprecedented challenges in 2020, and risk managers on campus are at the forefront of helping to make critical decisions. This edition of URMIA Matters highlights advice for new higher education risk managers from experienced URMIA members and National Office staff on how to leverage URMIA resources to get the most value from their membership in these tough times.

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Transcript

Jenny: Welcome to URMIAmatters. This is a special edition that we are putting together to hopefully lighten everyone’s spirits during these trying times. We have now launched 16 URMIAmatters podcasts with over 1700 listens. This episode is especially for our new risk managers in the field. So, if you’ve been wondering where to start, we’ve asked some of our senior members what advice do they have to share. You’ll hear again from most of our guests from the first six and a half months of URMIAmatters and they share some valuable information and resources. As you listen, you won’t need to take notes, as we put all the links to these resources in the show notes. Enjoy!

Jenny: First up we have Sue Liden from Pacific Lutheran University. Sue is a current board secretary, actually the best board secretary we’ve ever had. Sue, take it away.

Sue: The URMIA discussion group is key. You have to use that, even if you don’t post a question, follow the questions. It tells you what’s happening in Higher Ed Risk. The resource I use the most is probably the insurance requirements for contracts.

Jenny: Yeah, that’s our third-party contract. We try to update that every few years, and I’m glad to hear that that is one of our most highly downloaded resources that we have, so thanks for highlighting that one. Next, I spoke to Steve  Stoeger-Moore. He is also on our Board of Directors. He serves as our parliamentarian. He is with Districts Mutual Insurance in Risk Management. Here is Steve: 

Steve: My advice would be to utilize the URMIA 20k. There’s a very very significant opportunity that you miss if you don’t go to the URMIA website and look at the materials that are there. There’s very few problems that exist that someone hasn’t already experienced and perhaps found a wonderful solution for; it’s on the website. So, if you don’t know how to use the website, the URMIA staff will tutor you and coach you so you can have a high familiarity with that. Sometimes there’s almost too much available. So, yeah, you have to be a good manager of your time, but if you have an issue an URMIA resource will be able to give you direction or guidance. 

Jenny: That’s terrific. Have you ever used the Ask Lou button?

Steve: Several, several times.

Jenny: Terrific. 

Steve: Yes, Ask Lou is a great resource because Lou is a real person who has a significant and lengthy background in Higher Education Risk Management, and Lou will get you a resource and he is extraordinarily timely in his reply. 

Jenny: Coming up next is Ronna Papesh. Ronna is URMIAs own Website and Database Administrator. 

Ronna: One of the resources that I use is on the URMIA network that I couldn’t function without is the URMIA Library’s “my favorite resources” list. It’s where I can bookmark the library entries that I access most often and then I can get to them quickly. 

Jenny: The man behind the famous “Ask Lou” button, Lou Drapeau, is next. He is URMIAs resource manager and a retired member of URMIA from University of Kentucky.

Lou: I think probably one of the things that they would want to look at would certainly be the risk inventory as a tool that they could use just to become familiarized with a lot of the risks that they may not have been aware of, especially if somebody came from a different industry or a different area just starting out in risk management. The other thing would be to look at the library- there’s just all kinds of useful information on all kinds of different topics in the library. It’s all relatively easy to find, it’s all searchable, and I would recommend them very highly in the library. 

Jenny: We couldn’t leave out our incoming president, Courtney Davis-Curtis. She is currently with the University of Chicago. Courtney shares her thoughts on how to get involved. 

Courtney: My recommendation is to get engaged in any way that you can. I recommend, and my favorite resource, is really the discussion board. It makes me proud as a member of the organization that I’m able to tell the institution, you know I don’t have the answer to that, but I can go back and rely on thousands of other people who probably have seen this before, have dealt with this or have some type of recommendation or guidance, and in terms of that being a powerful resource, it’s only as useful as we all get involved and respond to it, whether that’s privately or picking up the phone or just responding to the broad group as well. It’s been really useful.

Jenny: Have you ever used the Ask Lou button?

Courtney: I have used the Ask Lou Button as well, in terms of something really specific that you need some additional guidance for that you may not feel is appropriate for the larger group, in terms of being like a quarterback and bringing those resources to you, he’s great in that regard. 

Jenny: Next up we have our immediate past president, Luke Figora from Northwestern University.

Luke: So, I won’t pretend that I look at it everyday, but I am really proud of the core competency model. We spent a lot of time developing that, and weren’t sure where it can end up at the end of the day, but the final product is very strong, and especially for new members, I think it’s worth spending some time reading through it because if you’re really trying to build a career in higher education or in risk management, it’ll help guide you through that process and some things you should be thinking about kind of day one all the way through what should I be focused on 10 years from now. That was really a goal, to have that document really speak to what are the competencies you would be expected to have at every stage of your career, all the way from kind of a novice to an expert, and so I would recommend that any new member take a look at that and really use that as a way to guide kind of their initial entry into the world. 

Jenny: Probably our most recognized spokesperson is our current president, Chauncey Fagler from the Florida College System Risk Management Consortium.

Chauncey: Well, my advice for new members is don’t be afraid. I mean just go ahead and ask your questions. There will absolutely be someone out there that’s willing to answer them. One of the things that I’ve always appreciated about URMIA is the fact that you’ve got new entries for risk management folks all the way up to some very senior members, and they’re all very willing to help answer the questions and I have actually used the Ask Lou button. It was about some salary guidelines for this year, and you know what percentages we’re landing, but I also like the discussion board quite a bit. I think that it’s a very good resource for everyone and, again, it’s where you can post your questions and you’ll get your answers. 

Jenny: Next up we have presidential task force appointee, Colorado Robertson. He is with LSU, and Colorado always has tips. 

Colorado: Well, I would say that the biggest thing recently is listening to the URMIA podcast on my commute in. It’s been a really great, very short, very simple, and a really easy way to highlight all the different resources that the members have access to. So, I would definitely say for now, as a new member, I would start listening to the podcast and you can jump around and you know go through those. It’s something that’s easy to do and it references a lot of the resources that are out there and that’s available. We do use the core competency, we also use the benchmarking surveys that come out and the survey tools that are in URMIA to benchmark anytime we’re implementing a new policy or procedure on campus. 

Jenny: Marje Lemmon is up next. Marje is with Yale, and she is a past president of URMIA, and a volunteer extraordinaire. 

Marje: The people, honestly. Just asking the questions, meeting the people, talking to the people. The network absolutely is an amazing resource to get answers fairly quickly. The educational sessions at the conference are fabulous, but just the relationships that you make by volunteering and giving, and the relationships you make by meeting your friends that way, and the ability to now call them up and ask them questions and get quick answers or send them an email and get quick answers- invaluable. 

Jenny: Sandy Mitchell joined us next. She is with MIT, a current board member, and the immediate past conference chair from the incredible conference in Boston. 

Sandy: URMIA network. I love the sharing there. I always try and respond when I can, even when I don’t have a full answer, also to just provide something that may put people on the right path. I like the White Papers that I find on there because they are very informative and very well-written. But I also look at it from the perspective of for a newcomer, what would I tell them about the conference, and what would I … two things, Try and meet at least one new person. Go out of your box and make sure you meet one new person that you can keep in contact with, and I’ll do a plug for the buddy program. Any new members should really take advantage of that buddy program to be paired with a seasoned URMIA member to sort of help show you the ropes, even if it’s just email or a phone call that you make I’ve met some wonderful people that way, and I hope they got something out of it as well. 

Jenny: Next up I spoke to staff member Joelle Marcum. Joelle is the voice of URMIA, and she will tell you important tips about navigating the URMIA network.

Joelle: The URMIA network is one of our biggest benefits, and I highly encourage, if you are new, just introduce yourself to the network and you’ll hear from plenty of people, as well as I always encourage people to kind of peruse our library if you want to see, if you're interested in a conference and kind of want to see what happened in the past. We normally have everything posted in the library and then our annual conference and our regionals.

Jenny: Next up, we have Mike Gansor. He is a retired member now, but he was our parliamentarian for many a year, and Mike always has some sage words of advice.

Mike: Well, just the website in general. I think people will figure that out very quickly once they’re given access to it, their eyes should get wide and they’ll say “oh my goodness, look at everything here”. And if you just go across the toolbar and look at the various drop down menus and what’s there and the information, it touches on all spectrums of the things that we deal with everyday. Probably if I had to pick one, it would probably be the resource library and all the different categorized topics there. Pretty much if you’re dealing with it now, chances are unless it’s a brand new issue, hot off the presses if you will, somebody else has already dealt with it, and it’s been addressed in some fashion in that library. So, if you drill down you can find somebody else and what they’ve experienced and how they’ve handled it and if you’re not able to do that yourself, you can ask Lou, and Lou will help you do that, too. So, the coupling of his willingness to assist members goes along closely with that. 

Jenny: And our next guest is URMIAs own education manager Gary Langsdale. He is a recently retired member from Penn State, and he is a past president, and, again, a very involved member of URMIA over the years. 

Gary: I would say that my advice to new risk managers would be to ask. Ask the members through the listserv, ask Lou. If you’re shy about asking a general question, Lou is happy to post questions anonymously. If you’re concerned about being identified with an issue or you’re just plain shy, but there are so many members who have shared experiences and are willing to work with you on a particular item, no matter what the forum is, whether its asking the library, looking through some of the materials, there’s a huge breadth of material available, or looking at the community’s prior postings, or asking a new question. My advice is don’t be shy, just ask. 

Jenny: I also wanted to take a moment to share my favorite resources. First, I urge you to not underestimate our homepage. All the graphics and framework look the same. We’ve been updating the links from this page to take you to very valuable content. The announcements in the red box under the books image change all the time and share important updates about events and new resources. The blue box under the red box will take you to our career center, which is connected to other higher ed association jobs. If you have an open position in your risk management department, this is a great place to advertise it. There is a small fee, but know that that revenue helps URMIAs overall budget. Under there you will find the events calendar. This is a very important place to visit. We’ve been adding an incredible amount of events since COVID hit, and  I’d suggest bookmarking URMIA events calendar under your browser and checking it often, because we add events all the time. Our featured resources area is in the blue and grey boxes that are just under that. Right now they highlight our affiliate member benefits, the link to URMIA insights, it’s our E newsletter, a link to the compliance alliance, which is a site that our friends at NACUA maintain, that we and many higher ed associations contribute to. It has a wealth of information about compliance, and the last resource is a link to the risk management study group that is free to URMIA members and will help you get the ARM designation from the institutes. Last, I will echo what several others just shared- that the URMIA network is a gold mine. Whether you call it a listserv or a community, it doesn’t matter. It’s URMIAs most valuable member benefit. You can put a question out there in a short time and you will have responses. That is what URMIA is all about: a community finding solutions together. We hope you found these tips useful. You can find resources mentioned  in today’s resources by using your member login at www.urmia.org. If you are not a member, and interested in learning more, click on the join button at the top of the screen next to the search bar. Thanks for being part of URMIA and listening to URMIA matters, see you next time.