The English language defines stewardship as “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.” At WashU, we often think of stewardship when relating to the roles and responsibilities structure for who cares for WashU’s enterprise data.
At WashU, our Data Stewardship community is responsible for the implementation of data governance initiatives. These leaders are subject matter experts closely aligned with the Office of Data Governance (ODG), together achieving key initiatives across the University. Data Stewardship is closely related to Data Governance, in fact, neither can effectively exist alone.
At WashU, we rely on data every day to guide our operational and strategic decisions to fulfill our three-pronged mission of Teaching, Research and Patient Care. Whether to ensure an employee is paid, administering a grant, or assigning a student to the correct course, data is used.
Data Stewardship provides the foundation to ensure our data is accurate, complete and trustworthy. If you use data at the University, stewardship is important to you!
Simply put, proper and consistent care of our data is a profound responsibility of everyone at WashU….just like locking your home or turning lights off to save electricity.
In future editions, we will share more Data Stewardship highlights and how to become an active participant.