November 2, 2024

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

Andrea Meckley named January’s Excellent Eagle Employee!

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Congratulations to Andrea Meckley! Andrea is USC’s Excellent Eagle Employee for the month of January. Below is what James Pape, UMW Libraries’ access services and outreach librarian, had to say about Andrea:

“Andrea was instrumental in providing online resources to Faculty and Students during the Spring and Summer semesters of 2020. She was the direct contact for any issues dealing with accessibility of library resources in Canvas, and due to her dedication and continual physical presence on the UMW campus, users were able to access the resources they desperately needed through emailed scans, Canvas course pages, or physical copies of materials. To accomplish this is enough to warrant being given the Excellent Eagle; however, she has also transitioned to a new position within the library during July 2020 due to retirements, and has been able to skillfully navigate how to lend and borrow needed materials to and from other institutions from around the world during the pandemic. It takes a special person and co-worker to being able to not only take on new and more difficult role during a pandemic, but to do it with the professionalism and eagerness to improve is something special!”

Nominate your co-workers for the Excellent Eagle Employee award! It’s easy! Just complete the Excellent Eagle Employee Nomination Form on our website.

STAFF ADVISORY COUNCIL NEWS

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STAFF ADVISORY COUNCIL NEWS

EXCELLENT EAGLE EMPLOYEE
Congratulations to Kate Wheeler, SAC’s Excellent Eagle Employee for the month of July.  Kate was nominated by Mary Beth Conrad.  Here’s what Mary Beth had to say about Kate.

Kate is the Director of Advancement Services and in that role she is the key person responsible for all donations received by the University.  Kate is an amazing wealth of knowledge and is always willing to share that knowledge and experience with newer employees, such as myself.  Kate is the “go to “ person for anyone in University Advancement, Athletics, Theatre, etc. when it comes to assisting staff and donors with donations.

Donations is a very complicated job and requires skill, experience and knowledge to get it done.  Kate has it all!  She is a “cross your t’s and dot your “i’s” kind of person, and when it comes to donations that is an excellent skill to have.  It takes a team to get donations to the bank, starting with the mail all the way through entering the donations in the system.  Kate can do it all!

Don’t forget to nominate your co-workers, supervisor, or employees for the Excellent Eagle Employee award.  To recognize someone for excellent work simply send an email to eenominations@umw.edu with Excellent Eagle Employee in the subject line. Be sure to provide the person’s name, department, and work location with the most convenient parking lot, and the reason they should be recognized.

SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE
UMW’s SAC is coordinating with a local school again this year to provide needed school supplies.  Collection boxes will be available soon!  Get ready!


UMW DAY OF ACTION
The UMW Center for Honor, Leadership and Service is spearheading the effort to get together a UMW team for the Rappahannock United Way Day of Action, Friday, Sept. 23.

Sign up to be part of an amazing one-day volunteer event that will change our community! Hundreds of volunteers from local businesses will come together to take on projects around the Fredericksburg Region. Volunteers will be matched with nonprofit organizations throughout the community to help complete vital projects.

Don’t forget – you may be able to use part of your 16 hours of Community Service leave to participate in this event! For more information about the Day of Action, go to the Rappahannock United Way Day of Action website.

Click HERE to register to be part of the UMW team for the Day of Action. The deadline to register to be a Day of Action volunteer is Aug. 10. For more information, contact Christina Eggenberger at the Center for Honor, Leadership and Service.

 

FLSA CHANGES AND YOU
Look for information about the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) changes.  HR will be hosting open sessions to discuss the changes and answer your questions.

 

SAC MEETINGS
SAC’s next meeting is Thursday, July 21 at the Stafford campus.  Paul Messplay, Executive Director of Budget and Financial Analysis will present the 2016-17 operating budget, discuss new fiscal year project and changes, and field questions.  Meetings are open to any UMW faculty or staff member who’d like to attend.  For more information visit http://sac.umwblogs.org/

CONTACT THE SAC!
Click here to submit ideas, comments, questions, suggestions, or issues you’d like SAC to address.  If you wish to remain anonymous, please put “Anonymous” for the name and leave out the email address.

Rick Ware Named Excellent Eagle Employee for November

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Staff Advisory Council is pleased to recognize Rick Ware as the Excellent Eagle Employee for November. The award for this honor is a designated parking space for the month, but Rick doesn’t drive to work!

In nominating Rick, his champion Laura Needham wrote:

I believe Rick Ware is deserving of recognition as an Excellent Eagle. Rick has been with the Office of Financial Aid for five years, initially as the front line customer service representative and now for the past year as the student loan coordinator. He has the massive task of originating and disbursing thousands of students’ financial aid in conjunction with Student Accounts. With this incredible responsibility, Rick has learned vast amounts of information in a short amount of time, performs remarkably well under pressure and consistently gets the job done, all while providing excellent customer service. He is highly respectful and professional, but also maintains a sense of humor that we in Financial Aid truly couldn’t do without. Not many people across campus work with him, but HE is making the financial aid process happen, and we would like so much for him to receive recognition for his hard work.

Congratulate Rick when you see him, and remember to send nominations for Excellent Eagle Employee to Excellent Eagle Employee nominations

Tommy Pack Named Excellent Eagle Employee

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Tommy Pack will receive the benefit of a reserved parking space for May 2015 by virtue of winning the Excellent Eagle award.

In nominating Tommy for the award, Jerry Slezak wrote, “I would like to nominate Tommy Pack of IT Support Services as an Excellent Eagle Employee.  His work at the Help Desk to assist faculty, staff and students get ready for the MyTime launch was a key factor in the successful “go-live” of the new time tracking system in March.

For the past several months, Tommy updated hundreds of computers, often by working with individual users remotely and walking them through the process of Java updates and Flash installs necessary to run MyTime.  Tommy also worked with Banner users to be sure there was no loss of access as updates were made. He answered many questions from the community on how to use MyTime, and efficiently moved other questions to the MyTime training staff.  This important work lead to a smooth implementation of both phases of the roll-out.  Tommy was able to accomplish this while also performing the regular day-to-day work at the Help Desk.

Hats off to Tommy for work well done.”

Well Done, indeed. Congratulate Tommy when you see him, and remember to send nominations for Excellent Eagle Employee to EEEnom@umw.edu.

Patrick Taitt Named Excellent Eagle Employee

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Staff Advisory Council congratulates Patrick Taitt, IT Analyst / Developer with Enterprise Application Services, on his selection as the Excellent Eagle Employee for April.  In nominating Patrick, Rita Dunston said, “Patrick has been an asset to this department!  The Registrar’s Office contacts him often to assist with various tasks and he completes them in a timely manner. He is very knowledgeable of the data and takes the necessary time to ensure we understand the data. I appreciate his willingness to assist the Registrar’s Office. Job Well Done!”

Reminder: To nominate someone as an Excellent Eagle Employee, send an email to EEnominations@umw.edu with “Excellent Eagle Employee” in the Subject Line.  In your email, state the person’s name, department, work location (with the most convenient parking lot), and of course, the reason why you believe they should be recognized.  Be aware of the good work being done around you, and remind others, about this wonderful opportunity to recognize our co-workers.

Sallie Washington Braxton Named Excellent Eagle Employee

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Congratulations to Sallie Washington Braxton, Associate Dean of Advising Services for the College of Business, who has been selected as the Excellent Eagle Employee for the month of December. A parking spot of her choosing has been reserved for her through the end of the month.

Here is what a coworker said about her:

Sallie came to the Fredericksburg campus (for the second time) in the fall of 2012 to serve as the professional advisor for ALL business students.  She did an awesome job for two years and then, when Janet Cropp retired this summer and her position was frozen, we asked Sallie to take on advising the graduate students (and remaining BPS students) as well.  Janet’s position was eliminated about two months ago and Sallie continues to advise ALL business students.  Her workload is ridiculous, but as a team player, she has cheerfully and faithfully done a terrific job.

She is most deserving of being named an Excellent Eagle Employee.

To nominate someone who you believe is an Excellent Eagle Employee, send an email to Priscilla Sullivan (psulliva@umw.edu) with Excellent Eagle Employee in the subject line. In your email, be sure to list the person’s name, department, job title, work location (with the most convenient parking lot), and of course, the reason why you believe they should be recognized. Please spread the word to other employees about this wonderful opportunity to recognize a co-worker(s).

You may now also go to the Staff Advisory Council’s site and click on the Excellent Eagle tab to make a nomination: http://sac.umwblogs.org/excellent-eagle/.

Marta Smith Named Excellent Eagle Employee

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Congratulations to Marta Smith, Director of Accounting, who has been selected as the Excellent Eagle Employee for the month of November. A parking spot of her choosing has been reserved for her through the end of the month.

Here is what a coworker said about her:

“Marta Smith, Director of Accounting, is an Excellent Eagle Employee. Marta is a very knowledgeable, helpful, courteous, and hard-working employee. In addition to her MANY duties in Accounting and overseeing the Cashiers Office, Marta recently tackled numerous projects. She did so with a positive attitude, and a wonderful work ethic. She juggled her work load well!

Marta is a team player! She listens to the input of others, digs into the details, provides explanations, and provides and tests solutions. She is a fantastic member of the Finance team and the UMW family.” 

To nominate someone who you believe is an Excellent Eagle Employee, send an email to Priscilla Sullivan (psulliva@umw.edu) with Excellent Eagle Employee in the subject line. In your email, be sure to list the person’s name, department, job title, work location (with the most convenient parking lot), and of course, the reason why you believe they should be recognized. Please spread the word to other employees about this wonderful opportunity to recognize a co-worker(s).

You may now also go to the Staff Advisory Council’s site and click on the Excellent Eagle tab to make a nomination:  http://sac.umwblogs.org/excellent-eagle/.

Charles Tate Named Excellent Eagle Employee

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Charles Tate

Charles Tate

Congratulations to Charles Tate, Student Success Coordinator, who has been selected as the Excellent Eagle Employee for the month of October. A parking spot of his choosing has been reserved for him through the end of the month.

Here is what a coworker said about him:

“Charles is such a great advocate for our students, always putting their needs before anything else.  As Student Success Coordinator, Charles has openly stated that he believes that the university has a duty to support their students from pre-admission advising through graduation – and his actions reveal this philosophy so well.

The Office of Academic and Career Services is very fortunate to have Charles on their team!”

To nominate someone who you believe is an Excellent Eagle Employee, send an email to Priscilla Sullivan (psulliva@umw.edu) with Excellent Eagle Employee in the subject line. In your email, be sure to list the person’s name, department, job title, work location (with the most convenient parking lot), and of course, the reason why you believe they should be recognized. Please spread the word to other employees about this wonderful opportunity to recognize a co-worker(s).

You may now also go to the Staff Advisory Council’s site and click on the Excellent Eagle tab to make a nomination:  http://sac.umwblogs.org/excellent-eagle/.

Connie Dowell Named Excellent Eagle Employee

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Congratulations to Connie Dowell, coordinator for the Stafford Campus Writing Center, who has been selected as the Excellent Eagle Employee for the month of June. A parking spot of her choosing has been reserved for her through the end of the month.

Here is what a co-worker said about her:

“Connie Dowell is the coordinator for the Stafford Campus Writing Center. Although Connie is located out on Stafford away from the main campus, she takes her job as seriously as if she were seeing 300 students a day. Connie adores the students at Stafford and works to ensure their writing needs are met. Moreover, Connie works hard to build bridges and relationships with the other departments and services around the writing center in an effort to ensure that students receive the assistance, support, and encouragement they so deserve.

Connie coordinates workshops for students such as APA Bootcamp and works with the library to ensure students have opportunities to master APA citation style. Importantly, Connie listens. She is truly concerned about what students say they need from their experiences at UMW and works hard to provide them with the skills and support the wriitng center can offer. Any student to whom I have spoken who has worked with Connie always echoes the same sentiment in a variety of ways: She was patient, kind, and brilliant.

Those who know Connie would describe her as quiet, but we have all heard the cliché that still waters run deep. Connie is truly a content person absorbed in thought most days. It would be a mistake to construe her quiet as aloofness. Rather, the opposite is true. Connie illustrates what Mother Teresa described as practicing humility: ‘To speak as little as possible of one’s self.  To pass over the mistakes of others. To be kind and gentle even under provocation.’ Connie is truly a humble employee who works tirelessly to assist students; she endeavors to gain as much wisdom as possible. She even works in her spare time to publish a book on composition in universities as well as keeping up a blog for which she writes and illustrates.

Connie never ceases to amaze me. She has amazing hobbies. One day she simply brought everyone some hot peppers she had been growing at home. She and her husband hiked in Alaska for their honeymoon. She decorates cakes for people who want them. Connie knits. Who knows what else she does! As Silent Bob says in Chasing Amy, “What you don’t know about [Connie] could just about fill the Grand Canyon.”  Indeed she is a source of order, dependability, knowledge, friendship, and support..” 

To nominate someone who you believe is an Excellent Eagle Employee, send an email to Priscilla Sullivan (psulliva@umw.edu) with Excellent Eagle Employee in the subject line.  In your email, be sure to list the person’s name, department, job title, work location (with the most convenient parking lot), and of course, the reason why you believe they should be recognized. Please spread the word to other employees about this wonderful opportunity to recognize a co-worker(s).

You may now go to the Staff Advisory Council’s site and click on the Excellent Eagle tab to make a nomination:  http://sac.umwblogs.org/excellent-eagle/.

Amanda Rutstein Named Excellent Eagle Employee

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rutstein

Amanda Rutstein

Congratulations to Amanda Rutstein, coordinator at the Fredericksburg Writing Center  and adjunct English instructor, who has been selected as the Excellent Eagle Employee for the month of May. A parking spot of her choosing has been reserved for her through the end of the month.

Here is what a coworker said about her:

“Amanda has been working at UMW for almost three years now. She is a graduate of UMW and went on to UNC Greensboro for her MFA. She loved the university so much, she wanted to come back and contribute to the atmosphere of dedication and hard work UMW is known for.

Amanda now works as the Coordinator for the Writing Center on the Fredericksburg campus. Amanda manages all the tutors’ work schedules, time sheets, scheduling student appointments, records for the visits the Writing Center has, planning events, and so forth. This is merely her required activities. Amanda goes above and beyond her job description every day. She arrives early almost every day to ensure that everything is set up for the busy day ahead. She also volunteers to assist the tutors with their own writing, and many students come by just to have her read their poetry and provide feedback. Moreover, Amanda goes out of her way to be kind and accommodating to all she encounters during the day. For instance, she always remembers what is going on in peoples’ lives and asks them how a particular event went or how a paper turned out.

To beat it all, Amanda is a funny and genuine person. She is always making us laugh with her quick wit and humor. She always makes the day fly by. No matter how busy or frustrating a day may get, we all can count on Amanda to make us laugh hysterically. We are constantly afraid we will lose her to a job at some great, funny online website or blog such as Jezebel. With any luck, she will remain with us for many years to come as she makes certain the writing center is running well all the while making it look easy. She EVEN makes me look organized–a feet unto itself!

Amanda genuinely cares about the university and wants to see it maintain the spark that first captured her heart when she was in high school looking for her perfect university. Every day, she gives the university all she has to ensure students currently enrolled have the wonderful experience she had. Amanda truly exemplifies what it means to be a an excellent eagle employee.”

To nominate someone who you believe is an Excellent Eagle Employee, send an email to Priscilla Sullivan (psulliva@umw.edu) with Excellent Eagle Employee in the subject line.  In your email, be sure to list the person’s name, department, job title, work location (with the most convenient parking lot), and of course, the reason why you believe they should be recognized. Please spread the word to other employees about this wonderful opportunity to recognize a co-worker(s).

You may now go to the Staff Advisory Council’s site and click on the Excellent Eagle tab to make a nomination:  http://sac.umwblogs.org/excellent-eagle/.