Workflow Wizardry

Kathryn Behling’s background is in foreign languages. Martin Rosales has a master’s degree in higher education administration and is working toward his doctorate. Matthew Priest was once a math teacher and previously worked at the U.S. Department of State as a consular officer. Tyler Morkin once taught English as a second language. None of these international student and scholar services (ISSS) specialists have a technology background. However, they—and many others—have leveraged commonly available tools to streamline the ways in which their offices work. The end result: improved relationships with students and other offices on campus.

Some international offices have worked with information technology (IT) departments to create sophisticated workflow solutions. At Yale University, for example, ISSS staff worked closely with IT to create a custom application for visa processing. But streamlining workflows doesn’t have to require the deep technical knowledge held by IT colleagues. What’s more important, those interviewed for this article agree, is to first think about existing processes and how they can be improved and then examine what resources are available to automate and streamline repetitive tasks.

“The heaviest lift is at the beginning, but once it’s set up, you can continue to refine and make improvements,” says Priest, an international student and scholar adviser at the University of Michigan.

From Paper to Process Automation

At a previous institution in the mid-2010s, Rosales was faced with the task of managing immigration records for all international students in a completely paper-based office. He quickly created a Google Form to