Q: Show yourself to those who do not know you.
Hello! My name is Patrick Franklin. I’m a first-generation and non-traditional graduate from LSA with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
What do you do with a B.A. in English? IT and data work! I joined LSA in January 2024 as the Application Programming Manager in LSA Technology Service’s Windows and Application Development Services team, under the direction of Pat Belden. I am a proponent of continuous improvement and automation and I am passionate about helping people collect data, store it, and use it to make better decisions. I love learning and sharing knowledge, and I’ve learned a lot from my team and colleagues about college operations in my brief time here. I’m looking forward to working for my alma mater!
Q: What’s your background and how does it influence your work here?
I grew up in mid-Michigan and I’ve been interested in computer technology since elementary school. I came to Ann Arbor from high school with a brand-new Pentium 2 computer with an ethernet card, and I’ve been high-speed ever since!
In college, I worked full-time for a mortgage banking company where I taught myself coding and data skills which allowed me to create the bank’s first productivity metrics, normalizing a dozen disparate types of work into a common unit to track employee productivity.
From the bank, I joined the University in 2008 where I worked in the Office of University Development on campaign reporting. In OUD, I also worked heavily on the system’s transition from the DAC main frame to the new DART alumni system. I built the reporting ecosystem for DART in Business Objects (their ‘Universe’), and then helped the University bring Tableau to campus to advance reporting in OUD. I joined ITS 2018 and continued my work advancing data for decision making by leading a project in partnership with the Provost office to create Michigan Metrics - a suite of dashboards for the President, Regents, Provost, and unit administration to help plan for the annual budget cycle.
These experiences largely influence my work in LSA as I work across the University and with our college applications to source, store, secure, and surface data.
Q: What does a typical day look like for you in your position?
I’m in a lot of meetings! I’m involved with a number of initiatives to modernize our technology stack, and we’re working on setting up and conducting routine meetings with key business areas to better understand what they need from our team’s support. When I’m not in meetings, I’m exploring technology in the .NET and higher ed industry to better understand what’s possible or learning more about the college from my team and colleagues.
Q: Are you working on any interesting projects right now?
Yes. My team is working on creating a standardized platform for our applications. I am also representing LSA on a university-wide marketing and communication platform project, and I’m co-championing a project in Undergrad Education to help create a replacement for the Advising File software.
Q: What do you like to do outside of the office?
Outside of work, I’m a foodie, sci-fi aficionado, explorer, part-time co-parent, reader, and avid gamer. I spend most of my time gaming and prefer action role-playing games (aRPGs) and massive online role-playing games (MMORPGs). I also play board and card games, I have started gardening recently, and my partner and I are exploring Michigan for interesting places and experiences. I read a lot of non-fiction, including technology, science, and space articles.
Q: Finally, share something that people might be surprised to learn about you.
I'm a super geek! I managed a competitive World of Warcraft raiding guild for almost a decade. We were top 1000 worldwide for a while and had over 100 active members (and about 400 total membership).
In that time I managed events, the website, recruited members, created incentive systems to keep members engaged, coached, and more. I learned a lot about working with a diverse team of people.
