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| 2007 University Services Star Performers |
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Ouissem Ayari
University Dining Services
Recently, University Dining Services was preparing for a routine visit from the Java City field representative. Ouissem’s response to the visit was anything but routine. He viewed the visit as a challenge for perfection. Ouissem personally took responsibility for making his shop the best Java City on campus. He oversaw the lengthy to-do list, communicated the vision to student workers and motivated everyone in the shop to work toward the same goal.
The result was a score of 99 out of 100 – as close to perfection as you can get.
Before you think that Ouissem is a single-minded task master, consider some of the words used to describe Ouissem in his nomination form: words like dependable, trustworthy and considerate. Ouissem makes a point of getting to know his regular patrons and goes out of his way to make sure their specific needs are met every day. His personalized customer service skills brighten the day of the people in Moos Tower.
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Roberta Berg
University Bookstores
With more than 30 years of service with the University, Roberta’s extraordinary attention to detail is somewhat of a legend. She knows when an item is out of stock and makes sure more of whatever is needed is ordered. She knows if there is a pricing discrepancy and corrects it. She knows when to expect a store full of students and always makes sure there is enough staff coverage. In short, Roberta’s extraordinary attention to detail has been critical to the overall success of the General School Supply Department she supervises.
At the same time, Roberta understands that a personal touch is sometimes needed to deliver consistently outstanding services. The day before school started this year, a new student came to Roberta with a list of art supplies that she was told would be in a kit at the Bookstore for her class of 30 students. Roberta took the list and began assembling the kit from existing inventory so that the class would have their supplies when they came in later that week.
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Dennis Evenson
Auxiliary Services
We frequently refer to our Star Performer Award winners as people who go above and beyond the call of duty. Dennis has been a dedicated and loyal University employee since 1980 and in those 27 years, his outstanding service, high energy and initiative have consistently gone well past “above and beyond.”
Dennis is responsible for keeping the Printing Services, Addressing and Mailing, and University Bindery production areas clean and functional, and he also cleans two conference rooms, several offices, and the Fleet Services building.
Despite an obviously busy schedule, Dennis goes above and beyond doing the little things that are noticed and appreciated by customers and co-workers. He’ll give a conference room an extra special cleaning before a big meeting, stay late to ensure that an unlocked door is secured, and take notice of a small drip before it becomes a disastrous leak. He’ll water your plants if you forget, make coffee in the morning and go out of his way to put an extra bounce in everyone’s step.
As you can imagine, Dennis is enthusiastically valued by customers and co-workers alike. The appreciation is especially impressive as Dennis works the second shift and doesn’t have a lot of direct face time with colleagues. But you can be sure they are grateful that he goes above and beyond.
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Dan Farrar
University of Minnesota Police Department Student Monitor Program
The library staff at Wilson Library was very generous in their praise of Dan as they nominated him for this award. They specifically commended him for taking the time to learn about the library environment and services, developing positive connections with many members of the library staff, and forging a highly successful partnership that has resulted a safe and secure environment.
Last fall, there was a period when Wilson Library was dealing with significant problems and disruptive behavior. Because he knew the Library so well, Dan was able to suggest a variety of recommendations to improve safety and security. He actively worked with the library staff to understand their specific concerns and together they developed collaborative solutions to the problem.
The Librarians at Wilson wrote a wonderful endorsement for Dan’s Star Performer Award nomination. They wrote:
“We cannot imagine how Dan could improve his performance….He understands our needs and shares our dedication to ensuring the safest environment possible for those who use and work in the University Libraries.”
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Joe Jameson
Capital Planning and Project Management
With his impressive knowledge and experience, his diverse perspective on architectural and engineering issues and his notable problem solving skills, Joe is recognized across the University as a valuable resource. As both an architect and structural engineer, Joe approaches his work with the highest of ethical standards and he is also an active steward of University resources.
Joe is another Star Performer who consistently goes above and beyond. He’s diligent in his research of historical documents, he’s not shy about putting in the time necessary to deliver a project on time, and he also mentors student interns in CPPM.
Joe recently took on the task of providing structural plan review of the TCF Bank Stadium Bid Package #3 Pile and Pile Caps for the Building Code Division. He was brought into this complex project on short notice and provided a review that was thorough, timely and in compliance with Building Code requirements. And he did it while also maintaining his already busy schedule.
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Dick Rewey
Printing Services
As Information Tech, Dick provides technical support for Printing Services and has become an expert in merging complex data into forms, surveys, tickets, scholarship notices and many other applications. He works closely with many departments and goes out of his way to not only meet but consistently exceed customer expectations.
Recently, the Athletic Ticket office went through a major change of ticketing systems. When the transition didn’t go exactly as planned, the timely delivery of 15,000 season tickets was in jeopardy. That’s when Dick came to the rescue. He helped download and reconfigure print data for all athletic accounts and helped the ticket office work through a myriad of issues. He took it upon himself to make sure all of the files were perfect and his can-do attitude helped the ticket office make it through their rough transition.
Dick willingness to tackle any challenge is valued by co-workers as well as customers. Many times he’ll go home at the end of the day stumped by a particular project and by the next morning he’ll arrive and report that he’s figured it out.
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Aaron Strozinsky
Project Management Office
Aaron is of course no stranger to the Star Performer Awards. In past years she worked on the Awards as part of the Office of the Vice President. Now that she’s in the Project Management Office, it’s appropriate that we recognize her initiative, her ability to build and maintain strong working relationships, and her continuous pursuit of perfection.
Very simply, Aaron delivers results. Regardless of the task, whether it’s acting as Lead Quality Assurance analyst for the Security ID badge program or managing the PMO website, Aaron routinely completes tasks to her extremely high standards and gets them done on time.
She also enthusiastically takes the initiative when she sees areas for improvement and goes out of her way to develop and maintain strong working relationships with both customers and service providers.
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Senay Weldelassie
Facilities Management
Senay has been with Facilities Management only six months, and this may set the record for the shortest time on staff before receiving a Star Performer Award. But while Senay is just beginning his career of service with the University, his honesty, honor and integrity certainly deserve recognition.
Last summer, while working on the third shift in Willey Hall, Senay discovered $80 on the Wells Fargo ATM Machine. The money had either been left there by a previous customer or had been inadvertently dispensed by the machine. Whatever the reason, Senay promptly collected the money and turned it in to his supervisor, who in turn gave it back to Wells Fargo.
To put our University Services values in perspective, we ask the question: What is important to us? And the answer is those values of excellence, integrity, accountability and stewardship.
However we decide to define them officially, Senay has provided us with a perfect example of what it means to live the values of the University.
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Building Automation Technical Team
Dan Bellows
Mark Peterson
Brad Jacobson
Jeff Pickering
You probably haven’t heard of this team of Dan Bellows, Mark Peterson, Brad Jacobsen and Jiff Pickering because the Building Automation Technical Team work primarily behind the scenes. They keep the University’s building automation systems – which includes fire and critical alarms – on-line 24 hours a day, every day of the year and it is a big job.
The building automation systems on campus span 38 years of technology with five generations of controls in more than 200 buildings. There are very few systems in the world as complex as this.
Getting the most out of these systems requires them to communicate with each other. With that in mind, the Building Automation Technical Team took it upon themselves to move the system to a higher level of efficiency and reliability. To do this, they physically reconfigured the network and designed a system to allow the various products to communicate with each other. They also developed a software solution to deliver the data from the reconfigured systems to BSAC. Their work is truly done behind the scenes. All of this was successfully completed, and it's a safe bet that most of the University didn’t even know it was going on.
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Conferences and Event Services Implementation Team
University Services Department
Housing and Residential Life
Kim Araya
Mary Cottingham
Jill Froehlich
Kristi Lang
Keri Leroux
Jason Marchiafava
Melissa Pederson
Donna Pietsch
Sang Slagel
Connie Thompson |
Parking and Transportation Services
Jeff Bouley
Victoria Nelson
University Dining Services
Leslie Bowman
Derrell Demming
Karen Devet |
Prior to the development of the Conferences and Event Services Implementation Team, anyone interested in hosting a conference or event on campus had to make a number of phone calls to a variety of different offices, they had to sign multiple facility use contracts and received multiple invoices for their event. As you might imagine, this decentralized approach created extra work, it had a negative impact on customer satisfaction and in some cases, potential customers decided to take their conference or event elsewhere because they found the University to be too complicated and decentralized.
Under the direction of Kim Araya, the CES Implementation Team worked collaboratively with more than 20 departments and offices to develop and implement new policies, process and procedures. The result has been strong partnerships and collaborations between university departments, less administrative duplication and greatly increased efficiency, revenue, and overall customer satisfaction.
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