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Projects Updates for key objective: No name

  1. Monarchs Need Milkweed Oct Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase Pollinator-Friendly Areas

    Below is an update from Brent Lewis on Oct 17th about the Monarchs need Milkweed recommendation:

     

    FYI, I’m close to getting a $2.5k bag of milkweed seeds delivered to me.  😊  We are getting this in the portal and ordered so Grounds can get this spread out this fall. 

     

    I’m hoping we can still get pots in the ground this fall too.  I see plenty of plants available at Midwest Groundcovers nursery in St. Charles, IL.  Deb is working on that.

     

    Additionally updates from the Land & Water Clerk which were provided at the Campus Sustainability Celebration:

     

    Milkweed Seeds for Monarch Butterflies

    •Received a grant for planting milkweed across campus to support monarch butterfly populations which are important pollinators

    •Seeds and plants will be planted around campus in late fall in low and no mow areas

    •Working to clarify no mow and low mow  zones on campus to support the growth of native plants, also making it easier for the planting of milkweed

     

     

     

  2. Google Analytics changes impact the user counts for the Portal

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    This is likely due to the change in Google Analytics’ reporting system. They moved from “Universal Analytics” (UA) to “Google Analytics 4” (GA4) which included a significant change in the way they count things like pageviews. It’s not exactly that the numbers we had before were inaccurate, nor that the new numbers are inaccurate, it’s that they’re being counted in a different way. Here are 2 major differences:

    1. UA tracked each device as a user; GA4 tries to track the same person across multiple devices (e.g. phone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer)
    2. UA would count the same person visiting on different days as different users; GA4 will track the same person visiting multiple times as a single user in a given report. So if you ran a report for 2 days, the same person visiting twice would count as 2 users in UA, but only 1 user in GA4. Now expand this out to an annual report, and you can imagine how the numbers can become much lower if you have a fair number of repeat visitors.
    3. GA4 may be doing a better job of honoring browsers’ Do Not Track requests, plus over time more people may be using extensions that block 3rd-party cookies and traffic, like Google Analytics.

     

    To demonstrate how point #2 above can lower our numbers, here are some tables comparing longer-term reporting periods with sums of shorter-term reporting periods:

     

    Monthly vs. Annual

    Month

    Users

    Jul-23

    1532

    Aug-23

    2765

    Sep-23

    2711

    Oct-23

    2579

    Nov-23

    2099

    Dec-23

    1702

    Jan-24

    1902

    Feb-24

    2180

    Mar-24

    1974

    Apr-24

    2565

    May-24

    2001

    Jun-24

    1728

    TOTAL

    25,738

     

    Comparison:

    • Total users in single report from Jul 1, 2023 to Jun 30, 2024: 24,548
    • Difference between reporting methods: 1,190
    • % more users when broken down by month: 5%

     

    Daily vs. Monthly

    Day

    Users

    1-Oct-23

    87

    2-Oct-23

    115

    3-Oct-23

    116

    4-Oct-23

    156

    5-Oct-23

    125

    6-Oct-23

    86

    7-Oct-23

    68

    8-Oct-23

    63

    9-Oct-23

    129

    10-Oct-23

    125

    11-Oct-23

    109

    12-Oct-23

    113

    13-Oct-23

    80

    14-Oct-23

    49

    15-Oct-23

    54

    16-Oct-23

    141

    17-Oct-23

    122

    18-Oct-23

    116

    19-Oct-23

    90

    20-Oct-23

    70

    21-Oct-23

    42

    22-Oct-23

    69

    23-Oct-23

    109

    24-Oct-23

    108

    25-Oct-23

    132

    26-Oct-23

    186

    27-Oct-23

    124

    28-Oct-23

    60

    29-Oct-23

    80

    30-Oct-23

    126

    31-Oct-23

    109

    TOTAL

    3159

     

    Comparison:

    • Total users in single report from Oct 1, 2023 to Oct 31, 2023: 2,579
    • Difference between reporting methods: 580
    • % more users in October 2023 when broken down by day: 22.5%

     

     

    For anyone who’s interested, here’s a bit more information about the differences between UA and GA4:

     

    I hope that helps explain some of the difference. I am surprised the number dropped in half – that is a pretty substantial change. If you’d like, I can spend some time delving into that in more detail to see if there’s something going on, but my hunch is that it’s mostly attributable to the change in the way Google Analytics records and reports its data. I’m not an expert at Google Analytics; if you know anyone who’s good at analyzing Google Analytics reports, we could invite them to take a look and see what they notice.

     

    </Michael>

     

    Michael McKelvey

    Office for Mathematics, Science, & Technology Education

  4. Education iCAP Team October 2024 Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Education iCAP Team
    Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement
    Sustainability in Study Abroad
    Sustainability at Career Fairs

    The iCAP Education team met on Teams from 4-5 PM on Monday October 21st. First we identified the next 5 steps to take towards implementing a sustainability Gen Ed requirement. Then we discussed the integration of sustainability in study abroad programs through different colleges and how to get further student input on the Green Career Forum. The meeting minutes are attached. 

    Attached Files: 

  5. Discussion about Metrics - October 16, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Michael McKelvey and Sarthak Prasad met to continue discussing how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics in the iCAP Portal.

    Discussion/Decisions

    • Option #1: continue showing metrics in accordion on project page
      • Pros:
        • No new effort needed
      • Cons:
        • Lots of metrics on a single page - kind of overwhelming
        • Page load could get slow
    • Option #2: parent project for all pedestrian & bicycle counts with a sub-project for each counter, similar to how Solar Power on Campus is set up
      • Pros:
        • Only 1 metric per page
        • Simple solution
        • Easy to find each counter in hierarchy
      • Cons:
        • 30+ new projects - hierarchy bloat?
        • Don't see all the metrics together; have to visit each project to see its metric
    • Option #3: show all metrics on a single graph
      • Pros:
        • See everything in one place
        • No new projects needed
      • Cons:
        • New feature requires additional work to implement
        • Graphing dozens of items makes it hard to differentiate them - too much data
    • Things to consider:
      • What information do we want people to get from the data? Comparison of pedestrian vs bicycle? Comparison of various locations?
      • Discuss graphing long-term metrics

    TODOs:

    • Bring options to larger group
    • Sarthak will investigate whether Eco Counters website could allow embedding of their visualizations

  6. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - November 1, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • [Michael] Quick updates:
      • Project Updates now default to being promoted to front page
      • Metrics link on homepage links to Metrics w/Details listing
      • Homepage video updated to iCAP 2025 Kickoff video
      • Featured Projects on Projects page: now showing last 2 updated/edited Featured Projects (previously we showed the latest 2 by creation date, so editing a Featured Project didn't bump it back to the top). This will match the sorting on the Featured Projects listing page.
      • Bugfix: Metric annotations now allow line breaks (previously line breaks in metrics would stop all graphs on the page from loading)
      • Bugfix: Project descriptions - big images were causing "View Full Description" to look weird. Sarthak, you'd reported this bug - could you test this out and see if you can still break it?
      • Started showing all images on SSC Projects and moved the images below the map. Most projects seem to have only 1-3 images anyway. If this becomes an issue for projects with lots of images, I can look into other options.
    • [Michael, Miriam] Intro to new Recommendations process
    • [Sarthak, Michael] Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics (see notes from Sarthak & Michael's discussion)

    Discussion

    • New Google Analytics user numbers dropped in half last year, largely due to changes in the way Google Analytics tracks users (see Google Analytics changes impact the user counts for the Portal project update)
      • Start a new metric?
      • Continue using current metric with an Annotation?
        • This was the preferred approach.
    • Homepage video: the explanatory text about climate change is in the way - can we remove it?
    • Intro to new Recommendations process
      • Recommendations will start being added next week
      • Do we have the process for adding Recommendations documented?
        • No documentation yet, just verbally described
        • Old Recommendations process is detailed in 2 private Word documents on the Sustainability iCAP Portal project page.
      • Decided to continue discussion at next meeting
    • Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics [DEFERRED TO FUTURE MEETING]

    TODOs

    • ✅ Featured Projects:
      • ✅ Stop wrapping text below image
      • ✅ Strip formatting from text
    • ✅ Recommendations
      • ✅ Add iWG Team
    • ✅ Project page
      • ✅ Show list of associated iCAP Teams only to logged in users
    • ✅ Recommendations search page
      • ✅ Only show links for Recommendations; make the rest plain text
      • ✅ Add column for latest Recommendation Update status

  9. iCAP Energy Meeting October 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy iCAP Team
    LED Campus
    Energy Dashboard Project
    Rooftop Solar Potential
    Solar Power on Campus

    The Energy Team had their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 8th, from 3:30 - 4:30 PM. We discussed solar rooftop project progress, reviewed funding opportunities for sustainability projects, and explored improvements to campus energy dashboards. Other topics included state-mandated LED transitions and occupant comfort strategies in campus buildings. The meeting minutes are attached!

    Our next meeting is November 12th, 3:30 - 4:30 PM.

    Attached Files: 

  10. Transportation iCAP Team October Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of University-owned pavement
    2024 Campus Bike Plan
    Commuter Program: Bus, Bike, and Hike

    The Transportation iCAP Team had their first meeting for the fall semester! Exciting to review projects where they were left off and pick them back up. The minutes are attached. We introduced the projects for the year and discussed what next steps look like for them.

    Attached Files: 

  13. Engagement iCAP Team Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Sustainability Engagement and Outreach
    Sustainability in New Student Orientation
    Certified Green Event Program

    Introduced new clerk and team members. The team brainstormed updates for the ‘24-’25 mission statement, with members assigned to bring suggestions to the next meeting. The second half covered team objectives for the year, including creating a green training program for employees, improving outreach to incoming students, running green-certified events, and increasing student participation in sustainability.

    Attached Files: 

  14. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - October 4, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • [Michael] New draft Admin Dashboard
    • [Sarthak] Promoting project updates to front page
    • [Quinn] Giving student RSOs and groups ability to update their respective pages
    • [Quinn] Linking SSC Projects with iCAP Projects that are directly or indirectly related to the funding project
    • [Miriam] Paring down the list of metrics

    Discussion

    • Promoting project updates to front page
      • Check the "Promoted to front page" checkbox when adding Project Updates
        • Anything from iCAP Teams, including minutes
        • Just about everything should be promoted to front page to keep homepage looking fresh
        • Change default to promoted to front page
    • Giving student RSOs and groups ability to update their respective pages
      • What access and permissions to give?
      • Yearly temporary status for users to keep using the portal?
    • Linking SSC Projects with iCAP Projects that are directly or indirectly related to the funding project
      • Feature exists! 🎉 Use Associated iCAP Portal Project(s) association in SSC Projects
    • Paring down the list of metrics
      • Miriam: consider cleaning these up before moving on to archiving projects.
      • A lot of these have not been updated or aren’t really relevant, and currently we are linking directly to this page from the iSEE website.
      • Link to Objectives Dashboard instead
      • Group metrics in some way (e.g. Transportation-related)

    TODOs

    • ✅ Make latest Featured Projects show on Projects page
    • ✅ Change Project Update to default to promoted to front page
    • ✅ Change metrics link on homepage to Metrics w/Details listing
    • ✅ Update homepage video with video Miriam sent in Teams chat
    • ✅ Fix metric annotations to allow line breaks
    • Next meeting:
      • Intro to new Recommendations process

  15. iCAP Energy Meeting September 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy iCAP Team
    Rooftop Solar Potential
    Solar Power on Campus

    The Energy Team had their first meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 10th, from 3:30 - 4:30 PM. We introduced team objectives for the semester, reviewed ongoing rooftop solar feasibility studies, and discussed occupant engagement programs to promote sustainable energy practices. The meeting minutes are attached!

     

    Attached Files: 

  16. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - September 6, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Bike Fee funding
      • Morgan, Sarthak, Michael, and Stacey DeLorenzo discussed
      • Decided to proceed with the plan to share funding details via Excel documents rather than funding tracking feature in iCAP Portal
    • Archiving projects (see last month's discussion)
      • Feature ready to use on live site
      • Simply set a Project's Record Status to Archived
      • Archiving currently only available for Projects; could add feature to other content types in the future
    • SSC Projects
      • Several years worth added
      • Updates/Questions from the SSC Clerks?

    Discussion

    • Project archiving
      • How do we get to archived projects?
        • Michael will add a link to the Administration page
      • Have we discussed when/why we would archive projects? Is there specific criteria?
        • Quinn has some spreadsheets from a project review
        • Mostly old projects that don't seem publicly relevant any more
        • For now, done on a case-by-case basis
    • iCAP Portal embedding in other websites
    • Project review is needed
      • Research programs are out of date; Miriam and Morgan will talk with iSEE management about it (probably)
      • Some families need to be condensed/culled - combination of deleting (w/o losing historical info) and archiving.
      • Examples:
        • Student RSOs
        • Duplicate projects/info
        • Empty projects
        • Excessive nesting
    • SSC Projects
      • Discussed progress adding SSC Projects - no issues at this time!
      • Quinn will propose linkages between iCAP Projects and SSC Projects
      • Next meeting: start with SSC Projects discussion
        • iCAP Portal homepage: where does SSC link go?
        • Add map to SSC Projects page

    TODOs

    • Michael:
      • Finish SSC Project embed
      • ✅ Allow more than 3 photos to be seen on SSC Projects - e.g. link to separate image gallery page like iCAP Portal Projects?
      • ✅ Project descriptions - big images cause "View Full Description" to look weird. See, e.g. Test project with TAC [ARCHIVED]

  19. Update from 8/19/2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Fleet Replacement Plans

    Morgan, Pete, Shawn, Neil, Sarthak, Stacey, and Quinn met on 8/19/2024 to discuss the current status and next steps for the Fleet Replacement Plan. F&S Transportation & Building Services (TBS) team is working on a fleet audit tool, which is expected to roll out (pilot) by the end of fall 2024 semester. Sarthak, Shawn, and Neil will reach out to Prairie Research Institute (PRI) for another discussion about the Fleet Replacement Plan for their fleet. Following the audit tool's roll out, we will begin reaching out to other units on campus.

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