UAIR Takes the Stage at the 2025 HEDW Conference
UAIR had a strong presence at the 2025 Higher Education Data World (HEDW) Conference held in Atlanta. Despite the torrential rain (and tornado warnings), representatives from the Administrative Data Team and the Customer Experience & Support Team spent three days meeting with colleagues from across the US and Canada to learn what’s new and what’s important in the field.
A wide variety of institutions were represented. Whether small private colleges, large state universities like ours, community colleges, or even a culinary school, more and more institutions are expanding their capabilities in data warehousing, institutional reporting, and data literacy.
Abraham Silva, Program Manager, presented to a packed room about how the Administrative Team innovatively filled reporting gaps over the past year. Even with the robust administrative data reports in UAccess Analytics, departments such Financial Services, Food Services, and Campus Safety had unique needs that weren’t captured by UAIR’s existing pipeline. With the decommissioning of certain tools and the need for custom reporting mechanisms, the Administrative Team got creative—developing bespoke data loading solutions to ensure this important information was available to campus. What made these new reports possible was the already existing reporting available to campus. Attendees from other institutions were especially interested in how UAIR and its campus partners had cultivated these relationships as data is oftentimes siloed at other institutions.
HEDW recently changed the “W” in their name from “Warehousing” to “World”. The intention to broaden the scope of presentations was evident with the increase in presentations focused on Data Literacy and Data Governance. Christopher Cherry, IT Training & Support Specialist, hosted a talk about how UAIR has helped a strong data culture at the University of Arizona. Through initiatives like the UAccess Analytics Certification, the Institutional Data Summit, ongoing campus engagement, and thoughtful dashboard design, UAIR has broken down barriers and empowered the campus community to explore the wealth of institutional data available to them.
Cherry finished his presentation with a case study looking at the recently refreshed Financials dashboards. All aspects of UAIR’s approach to building a data culture were on display to support this release: data literacy through dashboard walkthroughs, targeted communication alongside newsletter announcement, clean design, and continual engagement with an installment of the Data Exploration Series and the Institutional Data Summit. This holistic approach turned heads at HEDW, opening the door to ongoing conversations with our peers about data literacy and beyond.
I never realized how different every school was compared to us when it comes to analytics and institutional reporting. We’re really lucky to have such a centrally located analytics platform and the trust of so many partners throughout campus, let alone the sheer volume of interest in institutional data – Christopher Cherry, IT Training & Support Specialist
UAIR and the University of Arizona continue to lead the way with the breadth and quality of data available to campus along with a focus on the customer experience. Attending events such as HEDW helps the team stay informed and inspires us to keep finding new ways to deliver the data campus needs. Through strong campus partnerships and a collaborative, forward-thinking mindset, UAIR continues to discover new ways to deliver the data and insights that campus relies on, empowering a University of Arizona culture of data-driven decision-making.