Spring 2023 Newsletter

Welcome from Pete

Hi everyone. I hope spring and the start of summer is going well. While we are all excited to spend time with family and friends over the summer months, we are extremely excited to get to see all of you in the fall at the in-person IMUC (International Millennium User Conference). So, please continue reading to learn more about how you can attend this long-overdue event.

We have heard from many of you that the last few turbulent years have come with a large amount of staff movement and turnover, creating a void in your institutional knowledge of FAST. To help with this, we have been hard at work creating a new series of back-to-basics videos to help you get new users up to speed. We have also been engaged with many of you to create custom training sessions for your staff. If this is of interest to you, continue reading to learn more.

Additionally, as always, our team has been turning out new releases with great new features and, of course, the never-ending improvement of existing functionality. Thank you all for taking the time to keep up with what is happening at Millennium and with FAST. We cannot thank each of you enough for your continued support.

 In-Person IMUC replaces Fall Webinars

As you may have heard, we are bringing back in-person IMUC this fall to Vancouver, BC. IMUC returns to replace the Fall Webinars we held during the pandemic. Registration is now open, and we are working hard at creating a dynamic agenda to help you get the most out of FAST!

Early bird registration is open now. Go to IMUC 2023 for information about conference dates, links to registration, and hotel. We will continue to add to this page as we get closer to IMUC!

Staff Turnover? We are here to help with your training needs.

As we slowly rise out of the pandemic, we are noticing an increase in colleges and universities requesting training assistance due to high staff turnover. Many in the HR field call it the ‘Great Resignation’ as people are reimagining their lives post-pandemic and searching for what meets their needs personally and professionally.

In a recent visit with a California Community College, we talked with a Vice President who has had a challenging time replacing staff due to a remote location and minimal housing due to wildfires.

What can Millennium do to help? We have the tools and staff to create a training plan using both repeatable video training, end-user training documentation, and the creation of Dashboards in FAST. Email us at customersupport@mcsl.com to request a training quote.

Releases

We have been adding some exciting features to FAST in the past year! Access the full list of release notes and schedule your upgrade!

Form Generator enhancements to help you communicate with your constituents.

Updates to administrative functions and advanced options to help you refine what you see and how you see in FAST.

Ability to specify more than two column level filters.

Admin (Master) roles can now be set up as Groups and be used when sharing Pinned Reports, Dashboards, and Form Generator Templates.

Student AR Institutional Definitions & Custom Categories allow you to consistently report on institutional totals that do not align with existing Banner AR Categories.

New Student reports including General Comments and Event Attendance Info.

Sports information has been added to the Financial Aid Term/Period report and Student AR reports.

Improved performance of WebReq data refresh.

Interview with Anna LaGreca

In each newsletter, we’re going to spotlight one of our employees to learn more about their job at Millennium and peek into their non-work life. Today I sat down with Anna LaGreca. Anna has been at Millennium for seven years as the Student and Financial Aid Application Lead. Prior to that, she worked at the Oregon Institute of Technology, and at Ellucian. Anna is originally from Nebraska but currently lives in the mountains of Colorado with her husband and son.

When you’re at work, how do you motivate yourself?

Everything I do at work is because a client needs something to make things work better for them in their job. I get to help make someone’s work life easier and better and that is very motivating. That’s the cool part about Millennium; everything we do is to truly help clients.

What exactly do you do at Millennium?

I work mostly in Student, Financial Aid, general development, and customer support cases. A big part of my job is to work with clients who have special project requests and bring their ideas into FAST. Lately, I’ve done a lot of development and working with clients on Faculty Load & Compensation, Enrollment Management, and Student Accounts Receivable.

What does a typical week look like for you?

We all wear a lot of different hats at Millennium because we're a smaller company. I would say about 25% of my week is in communication with clients; about 50% is working on support cases or special client projects; and then about 25% of my time is just general new development and training of new employees.

So far, what has been a project that you’re most proud of?

The thing I'm most proud of is still a work in progress. It is Enrollment Planning, Tuition Forecasting, Faculty Load and Compensation, and bringing those three things together into a useful client tool. Originally, they were all separate projects, but they all intertwined together as we developed them. Clients use these parts of FAST in completely different ways and have unique needs, so it is constantly evolving and growing. I think it is such a huge need for clients to be able to manage faculty, look at the revenues by course, and to be able to forecast enrollment, faculty numbers, and tuition revenue using that information. All of it links together with Finance, Budget, and even Human Resources. This is something that no software has been able to do very well; I feel like we're providing a valuable tool to universities, helping them function in this new world that we're all in right now. I love being able to solve problems. That's my personality, I like to figure out ways to do things and make it work. I’m so lucky that I get to do that every day.

What aspects of Millennium do you identify with?

Higher Education. I have always worked in higher education. I started in higher education at 23. And it's always been something that has been important in my family; we have always had this huge belief in education. My grandma went to college for a couple of years in the 40’s when few women went to college. I have a cousin who is a Dean at a university. My sister is a teacher. We’re all very much into education. And so just getting to work in education is something I think is very cool.

If you could sit down with anybody in history, who would it be and why?

I would love to hang out with Jon Stewart.  I also don’t like him, but I would love to talk to Elon Musk just because he is an evil mastermind.  And then I would like to throw Charles Barkley into the mix.  Can I have cocktails with the three of them?  That would be interesting.  

What is something unique about you? Some sort of fun fact that not very many people are aware of.

All four of my great-grandmothers were named Anna. Two of them were named Anna Koziol and they were not at all related.

What is the most recent book you've read or movie you've watched?

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. As a family we’re watching ‘The Mandalorian’ and my husband and I are excited for the next season of ‘Only Murders in the Building.’

What is one thing you cannot live without?

My family. And if I had to pick one food to eat every day for the rest of my life, it would be sushi.

Do you have any hidden talents or hobbies?

I like to make jewelry. I don't do it a lot right now, because I just don't have time or all the stuff I need, like a torch and a rock grinder. I also love painting, mostly in oils.

One thing that you would tell your 13-year-old self.

Chill out. It's all going to be OK. Be confident. Trust that the world will turn out as it is supposed to be. Everything will be fine.

Where is your favorite destination you've visited and why?

I'm giving two. One is just being on any river. White water rafting and rivers are a big part of my life. I would also go back to Hawaii. I went on a vacation with my family this past winter and we surfed, snorkeled, and just chilled on the beach looking at the beautiful ocean.

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