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Higher Ed IT: Sharing Our Stories, Supporting Each Other

  • March 11, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 23 views

EmFroese
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Hello Higher Education community,

In today's challenging budget environment, IT teams and educators are being asked to do more with less. But here's what I've learned: we don't have to figure it out alone.

Whether you're managing devices across multiple campuses, supporting remote learning initiatives, or navigating the unique challenges of academic IT, your experiences matter and they can help someone else who's facing similar hurdles.

 

Let's Build Our Community 💪

I'm inviting you to share your real-world stories, creative solutions, and honest challenges. No solution is too small, no question too basic. We're stronger when we learn from each other.

Here's what I'd love to hear about:

⏰ Time-Saving Solutions That Actually Work

  • How are you maximizing efficiency with your existing Jamf setup?
  • What workflows or automations have given you hours back in your week?
  • Share your "game-changer moments" that streamlined your processes.

📚 Academic-Specific Use Cases

  • How do you handle the unique rhythms of academic calendars?
  • Managing devices across dorms, labs, faculty, admin spaces, etc.
  • Supporting both BYOD and institution-owned devices.

🤝 Collaboration Wins

  • How do you work with academic departments who have different needs?
  • Building bridges between IT and faculty/staff.
  • Student worker programs that actually work.

⚡ Quick Wins That Made a Big Impact

  • Small changes that improved your workflow significantly.
  • Policies or configurations that solved persistent headaches.
  • Automation that eliminated repetitive tasks.

Your Turn to Share 🗣️

Drop a comment below with:

  • Your role and institution size (feel free to keep it general)
  • One challenge you're currently tackling
  • One time-saving win (big or small) you're proud of
  • A question you'd love the community's input on

Remember: Every challenge you've overcome is a roadmap for someone else. Your "obvious" solution might be exactly what another IT professional needs to hear.

Let's prove that even when resources are stretched thin, our community support is limitless. 

Who's ready to share and support? 👇 Join Us.

*Please don’t feel you have to answer every question on this list, answer what speaks to you and as the community grows share as you are comfortable. Also if you are simply here to read and learn - you welcome in this space. 

1 reply

thebrucecarter
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Dr. Emily!  Long time no chat.  The quick answer to your questions:

Me and We:  I am a Senior Systems Engineer at the University of Notre Dame, specializing on Apple operating systems and devices, and one of two Jamf Pro engineers.  We have approximately 5000 full time staff and 10000 students.  We have about 4000 devices in Jamf Pro.

Challenges:  Cruft and detritus from previous iterations of engineers on this effort.  Getting SSO going.  Over-complication of our environment.

Wins:  Migration to cloud.  Deprecating use of Sites.

A Question.  Since before your sun burned hot, I have awaited a question:  How do you keep departmental/field staff from implementing non-optimal workflows?  As part of the migration to Cloud, departmental/field staff were moved to read only status in Jamf.  This puts a lot of additional work on core staff, but reduces the whole system bogging situations.  We’re trying to figure out ways to give them ways to do common things (through a ServiceNow integration) without giving them administrator access.