Project Wakeday: End of Semester Update

Dear faculty and staff,

In October, I announced the launch of Project Wakeday, the University’s plan to replace Banner Ellucian, our Student Information System (SIS), with Workday Student. I highlighted several benefits of this transition, including better and stronger data for faculty and staff; improved access to personal and academic information for students; and the opportunity to have a unified system that will facilitate interdisciplinary and cross-school collaborations.

I’m pleased to share that over the last eight months, much progress has been made toward implementation and the project continues to stay on track.

• The Project Wakeday team has spent many hours in meetings, reviewing and understanding current University processes, in order to best move those over to Workday Student. In this first quarterly update you can read about those decisions and configurations. You can expect the next quarterly update at the end of July.
• The Project Wakeday team now partners with a variety of campus stakeholders who make up the Change Networks. The Staff Change Network launched in December 2022 and the Faculty Advisory Panel launched in March 2023. The team also engaged with student governance groups in April 2023 and will work to develop a formal Student Change Network in Fall 2023.
• On the Project Wakeday website, you’ll find a timeline of key milestones. It’s important to note that unlike our Workday HCM implementation, which launched all at once, Workday Student has multiple start dates. There’s also a glossary and an overview of the project’s Guiding Principles.
• In two new videos, you can learn (1) how Workday Student affects you, and (2), receive a quick overview (or refresher) on the basics of Workday navigation. Note: You may be required to log in to Kaltura using your Wake Forest credentials.
• A dedicated newsletter, The Word on Wakeday, launched in late April. All faculty and staff are encouraged to subscribe through this Google group. You can also find back issues on the project website. Plus, through the support of communications experts across campus, you may have seen Project Wakeday updates in your departmental newsletters. The Wakeday team will also partner with several groups across campus to be sure information is shared with students in a timely manner.

Over the summer, work and testing will continue. The Wakeday team will also spend time with the University’s academic coordinators over the next couple of months, getting them familiar with Workday functionality.

Then this fall, the Project Wakeday team will present roadshows where they’ll share information about Workday Student with campus at large to ensure everyone is aware of new features and how the tasks we do today will look in Workday. They’ll also announce formal training opportunities as the go-live dates for each launch gets closer. For this information, be sure to watch for messages from me, subscribe to The Word on Wakeday, and regularly check the website and your departmental publications.

Thank you to the Project Wakeday team and the faculty and staff who continue to offer their expertise and contributions to this significant project. And thank you to the entire University community for joining us on this journey. We’re excited to take this step forward with you.

Sincerely,

Michele Gillespie
Provost