CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Eight civil service staff employees will be honored with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award at a May 1 banquet. The award recognizes exceptional performance.
Each recipient receives $1,000 and a plaque. Recipients’ names also are engraved on a plaque displayed in the Illinois Human Resources Office. The names of past winners are online.
Permanent staff members with at least two years of service and retired employees in status appointments during the calendar year may be nominated for the award. A committee recommends finalists, who are then approved by Chancellor Robert Jones.
Chris Bonner Jr., a facilities manager in the School of Art and Design, provides effective daily management, operation and security to the School’s facilities. Melissa Pokorny, his nominator and the associate director of Art and Design, said the school’s laboratories, studios and classrooms are an important student recruitment tool. Bonner is involved in planning for improving and upgrading the classroom and shops, as well as the implementation of ongoing improvements.
He prepares proposals, periodic reports and budgets recommending improvements to facilities, requiring considerable research, solicitation of bids and work with contractors. Many of the Art and Design spaces are in buildings that have been adapted from other uses, and are in older buildings in need of updates; Bonner’s knowledge of the buildings and his adaptability help make the most of these challenging situations.
“His ability to troubleshoot and devise workable solutions highlight an ability to creatively resolve issues requiring flexibility with an adaptable skillset, considerable focus and tenacity, and nimble adaptive responses,” Pokorny said. Bonner also has initiated innovative approaches to reduce energy consumption throughout the Art and Design buildings.
Gary Cromwell is a facilities manager in the electrical and computer engineering department. Nominator Timothy Newman, the department’s director of facilities, said Cromwell manages the operations and maintenance needs for the research and instructional lab facility, as well as four field sites totaling 825-acres of research farmlands and outbuildings. He also oversees the department’s shipping and receiving operations, copy center, supply center, event management, building access control, building safety and management of over $3.7 million worth of capital equipment.
Newman said Cromwell’s character came to the forefront during the department's 2014 move from Everitt Laboratory to the new ECE building. “Gary's positive morale not only strengthens the facilities team, but also is contagious in promoting positivity throughout the ECE department.” When problems arise, “he maintains an even keel that ensures everyone remains calm and thinks through the problem for solutions.”
Newman also shared an example of a professor who needed to ship 30 boxes of books to a seminar in New Orleans. After considering the costs of shipping, Cromwell drove the load to New Orleans and assisted the professor with the seminar.
Keith Garrett, University Housing, is unit manager of Ikenberry Dining Hall, the largest university dining hall in the U.S. Nominator Michael Clark, a clerk in Housing, said Garrett oversees daily food service, schedules regular and emergency maintenance, plans and oversees special events, schedules all full-time staff, and handles employee-related matters such as reviewing payroll, approving leave requests and handling discipline.
“Keith manages lkenberry's multivenue-style dining with eight different stations, serving an average of 5,000 meals per day,” Clark wrote. “This includes over 60 full-time staff and more than 350 part-time student workers. There may be someone somewhere that works just as hard … but there is nobody anywhere that can exceed Keith Garrett’s work ethic.” His steadfast presence and ability to problem-solve keep the operation running smoothly.
Garrett also serves as a resource for other unit managers throughout campus dining, fielding questions ranging from payroll to scheduling to the discipline and mentorship program. When issues arise at Ikenberry, Garrett “always takes ownership” and he “works to improve his performance to avoid similar problems in the future.” He also accommodates special requests, such as events to demonstrate the dining hall’s sustainability efforts.
Spring Harrison, an administrative aide in the School of Architecture, serves as the director’s executive assistant and executes scores of administrative functions and daily operations for the school.
“Ms. Harrison is a highly responsible, reliable and knowledgeable asset to faculty, staff and students alike. The school’s leadership routinely seeks her guidance, and she has helped guide the transition of four directors. Even with the extreme demands of her position, she is always timely and efficient, displaying a professional, warm and welcoming presence,” wrote Kathryn Anthony, a professor of architecture and Harrison’s nominator.
As one of the School’s newest faculty hires said, “The relationship with the person arranging details of my visit is tone-setting. Spring was, by quite a margin, the most professional, most organized and most responsive (staff member) of any school I visited … it influenced my decision to return. How fortunate we are to have her.” Director Jeffery Poss agreed: “After my experience as director, I will go further and describe Spring as the rare person who transcends her employment role and becomes part of the heart and soul of an organization. We owe her a lot.”
Aneitre Johnson is a staff clerk in University Library’s Business and Human Resources Services Center. “She is able to quickly and effectively resolve problems to ensure that important HR functions, such as time card processing and appointments, run smoothly and on schedule,” said Greg Knott, the assistant dean of University Libraries and Johnson’s nominator. “Furthermore, Aneitre's calm demeanor and willingness to assume any extra duty has been a tremendous asset to her unit and the Library as a whole.”
In addition to coordinating all student and hourly hires – including online processing, meeting with new hires, working with the hiring units within the Library and answering questions on HR policies and procedures – Johnson recently expanded her role to encompass searches for faculty and academic professional hires.
Johnson developed and implemented an idea to increase the number of workstations available to new employees as they complete the new hire process. This resulted in a small computer lab that has greatly increased HR's capacity by allowing several new employees at one time to complete all the required paperwork and training.
Cheryl Kappes, an office manager in the School of Chemical Sciences, provides administrative support for the director of the School, serves as a consultant to the two departments, and helps faculty members and staff to interpret and apply policies, regulations and procedures. “She is one of the hardest workers I know and she almost always goes the extra mile to find an answer or to help someone out,” said her nominator, Patricia Simpson, the School’s director of academic advising and career services.
Simpson related an incident from the fall semester’s finals week, when a panicked student approached Simpson in the hallway with a request to help repair a rented textbook. “Cheryl, who was posting a flyer in the hallway, noticed our conversation and scurried back to her office and then down the hall to mine with rubber cement to help the student,” Simpson wrote. “She waited and the two of us talked with the student, who was clearly stressed not just about the book but also about finals and finishing the semester. When the student left a few minutes later, with the book repaired, she even had a smile on her face.”
DaShawnique Long, an office manager in the physics department, ensures the smooth and efficient operation of the 100- and 200-level physics courses and acts as the departmental staff representative to undergraduate students taking elementary physics courses. Her duties include managing end executing exam production, providing course-staff support, reviewing and archiving records, and advising students on issues such as course requirements, time and place of lab and discussion sections, and proficiency exams.
“DaShawnique exhibits fantastic creativity in improving the operating efficiency and effectiveness of our department,” said Brian DeMarco, a professor of physics and associate head for undergraduate programs, who nominated Long.
DeMarco referenced Long’s development of a student-focused pool of proctors to help administer exams in the introductory courses. She created a proctor pool staffed by physics majors, who serve as subject-matter experts and can answer questions during the exams. A second benefit of the proctor pool, DeMarco said, is its effect of increasing the physics majors’ engagement and investment in the department. In addition to conceptualizing, developing and implementing the proctor program, Long helped to develop scheduling tools and created documentation and training for the proctors.
Russell Reynolds, a steam and power plant operator, is responsible for supporting the continuous operations of Abbott Power Plant, including staff scheduling, equipment dispatch and maintenance planning, staff training and development, hiring, oversight and enforcement of the plant safety requirements, the development and implementation of standard operating procedures, and overall coordination of all activities at the power plant.
Nominator Mike Larson, the associate director of utilities production for Facilities and Services, said Reynolds has taken on additional roles including serving on F&S and campus committees; acting as a tour guide and ambassador for Abbott with staff, students and members of the community; and job coaching and mentoring as it relates to leadership and supervisory skills for more than 20 F&S employees.
“Russ has years of experience in the commercial energy industry, and he has committed to sharing with any and every one in our organization everything that he knows, with the overall goal of helping all of us to achieve excellence,” Larson said. “He is fully committed to his job, the betterment of himself and co-workers, and performing at his best at all times.”