The online Faculty Activity Report system, created through the Watermark corporation, replaces the discontinued "paper" system and the University's homegrown online reporting option. The order of the sections, however, remains essentially the same.
Click on any "General Operational" topic below for additional information, or scroll down in your browser to read the entire FAQ
For information specific to a particular activity area, please click any of the links below
Teaching and Other Activities
Scholarship, Research and Grants
Publicly Engaged Work/ Activities
Honors, Awards, Certificates, etc.
Logging on
Although the dropdown menu suggests you can generate reports for another individual or a whole department, college or school, individual users effectively only have one option, as even if you choose "Department" or "School/College" an individual faculty member only has access to information concerning him or herself. The department chair could select her or his department (but no other department) or could select one or more, or all individual faculty, but only from his/her department. Similarly, the dean of a school or college could select the entire school or college or have the results organized by department or by faculty in that school or college (all of them or selected individuals, which brings us to Step 5.)
Step 5: "Select whom to include" Same as with Custom Reports, the person can select whole departments, one or several individuals, or an entire school or college. Whatever choices are made, the user naturally will receive report information only for those individuals and units for which he or she is authorized.
Step 6: "Select the file format"
The dropdown menu lets you choose from the following:
- Microsoft Word
- Adobe PDF
- HTML
- Raw Data, Comma Delimited (= CSV, Comma-separated variables)
- XML
Step 7: "Select the orientation and page size"
The dropdown choices are: Portrait, Letter; Landscape, Letter; Portrait, Legal; Landscape, Legal; Portrait, A4; and Landscape, A4. "A4" sized paper fits into 9X12.75 inches C4 envelopes (but of course so do 8.5X11 inch pages). For Steps 6 and 7, most users will probably choose Microsoft Word and Landscape, Letter.
"CONTINUE"
When finished with Steps 1-7, clicking "CONTINUE" brings you to a screen showing the print choices you made (and allowing you to change them).
If the date range, items to be included, etc., all look correct, click "BUILD REPORT" to have the report generated.
"BUILD REPORT"
The first thing you will see after clicking "BUILD REPORT" is a Watermark screen with a note "Please wait." The wait is only a few seconds even for a large report, and then the following "File Download" box will appear on your screen.
Choosing "Save" gives you the opportunity to change the folder or directory to which the file will be saved and also a chance to change the file name. The computer-generated file name only reflects the year, month, day, hour [military time], minute and second--in Central Daylight Savings Time--that the report was produced and may be a source of confusion if you plan to save several reports.
Contact Our Help Desk
Your name and email address appear on the screen and will be sent to the recipient of your feedback unless you choose instead "I want to remain anonymous." While the latter choice might be appropriate in some instances, choosing "anonymous" means we cannot respond to you specifically (though we of course shall read your note and attempt to address any issues raised).
The "Feedback" box to enter your comments, complaints and suggestions appears to be only seven lines long but when you reach the bottom of the box more space opens up.
Watermark will forward your request to Larry Levine. If you contact the UAlbany Helpdesk outside of the Watermark system, they will either directly address your problem/issue or forward your information on to Larry Levine.
After that, just click "Send" and, if you didn't send the message anonymously, we shall do our best to get back to you within one working day.