New role value for postdocs

In a matter of weeks, expect to see a new role value for postdocs:

• staff.postdoc will appear as a new <role> value in UHIMS Events
• staff will be used for these postdocs in LDAP/CAS eduPersonAffiliation and uhOrgAffiliation
• There will be a released grouping for postdocs (name to be determined). This means you will be able to check for postdocs in LDAP/CAS uhReleasedGrouping

This does not necessarily identify all postdocs at UH

This new role allows us to better identify postdocs who come to us, usually because they can't request a username due to our not having any records about them. Prior to this role, postdocs may have been input into UHIMS with a role of faculty, staff or other.  Eventually, every postdoc that's been manually input into UHIMS should have this new postdoc role.  We will encourage those who renew postdocs to do so using this new role.

Keep in mind that this role is only used for those postdocs that reach out to us.  Some postdocs may never have this new role because they are already in PeopleSoft as a faculty researcher or as a non-compensated employee.  There may also be postdocs from RCUH, and they only get the staff role.  This is why this new role doesn't necessarily identify all postdocs at UH.

Your application should account for this new postdoc role

We have previously stated this, but let us reiterate that your application should be written in such a way that new attribute values won't break it.   You code should simply look for the values it needs to handle and ignore any other values.