Has a UTC employee gone the extra mile to help you?
You can show your appreciation by nominating that person for the Blue Ribbon
Award. A committee appointed by the chancellor will select monthly an award
winner who exhibits outstanding service to others. Nominations should be specific
in identifying incidents or situations that show the nominee has served his/her
customers with special distinction.
If you have a nominee to be considered at an upcoming meeting, please e-mail
your nomination to Melanie Sadler (Melanie-Sadler@utc.edu), Human Resources Administrative Assistant, or mail to Dept. 3603.
All non-faculty staff (full or part-time) with at least one year's regular service
are eligible for the award. Any UTC faculty, staff, student, alumnus, or member
of the community are invited to submit nominations.
Blue Ribbon Winners, 2008
May
Chris Tanis, UTC Webmaster, was a “life-saver” as Women's Studies began the process of adding a major to the program, according to Dr. Marcia Noe, Professor of English and Director of Women's Studies. “One of our most formidable tasks has been creating, modifying, and updating the Women's Studies Website,” Noe said. Women’s Studies had previously used a website designed by an outside contractor who used a grid-like format, making the page difficult to update. “Chris took over, re-designed the site in a format that made it easy to update, included the new curriculum for the major, our newsletter, and our schedule of classes, added links to other women's studies programs in Tennessee, and developed a blog feature for the site,” Noe said. “She also removed the dated and generic student photos the previous designer used and substituted lovely photos of the UTC campus that personalize and individualize the site and identify it as uniquely UTC. The site is now attractive, up-to-date, complete, and easy to navigate. We would have had to pay thousands of dollars to an outside contractor to get the results that Chris got for us. She made the job look easy, although I'm sure it wasn't, and any recruitment success we achieve with the new women's studies major we owe in large part to her efforts.”
April
Cindy Williams in the office of the Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs was nominated by Julia Cronin, Student Employment Coordinator, as the April Blue Ribbon Award recipient. “A couple of weeks after Cindy moved to her new position in the AP-for Academic Affairs Office, it was time to turn in work hours for the students working in her previous department - Foreign Languages. I had not received their time sheets so I called Foreign Languages only to find out that no one who knew how to complete the time sheets was there,” Cronin said. “The faculty member who answered the phone was very concerned and said he would try to find someone who could help. An hour or so later, Cindy appeared in my office – completed time sheets in hand. She had left her new office, gone down to Foreign Languages, pulled the student’s sign-in sheets, completed their time sheets and hunted down someone within the department to sign them. Then she brought them back up the hill to me. I was very impressed and the students were grateful to receive their pay on time. It shows a dedication and sense of responsibility that goes beyond the expected.”
March
John Shulman, head coach of men’s basketball, made a night of basketball very special for a young man in the Chattanooga Big Brother-Big Sister Association. According to Reed Sanderlin, English Department and retired golf coach, he took his Little Brother Cameron to a UTC basketball game at the McKenzie Arena, and Shulman invited the pair to visit the locker room after the game. “When John came in the locker room the first thing he did was introduce Cameron before all the team, kidded him about being a student here at UTC, and given Cameron's small size, teasingly predicted Cameron would end up as a point guard,” Sanderlin said. “After Coach Shulman had addressed the team, he again turned to Cameron and told the team to introduce themselves and sign one of the programs for him that was lying on a table. When he had the team all gathered together in the middle of the room and held their hands up to touch hands, he had Cameron join in (needless to say, there was a lot of tiptoeing to do that). Afterwards, almost all the players came over and shook Cameron's hand, signed autographs, and chatted a minute or two. I've told many of my friends about Coach Shulman's kindness--he went way of his way to have this happen. I certainly personally appreciate what he did. I believe it reflects his own fine character, and I also believe it very powerfully reflects the positive outreach of so many here at the University.”
February
Leslie Harms works hard during and after work hours to support students with disabilities, according to Michelle Rigler, Director, Office for Students with Disabilities. Harms, Academic Support Specialist in the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), performs the work of two people in similar positions at other colleges, but Rigler says Harms never complains because she is truly there for the students. “She has recently worked out through the theatre department to interpret a production for each offering free of charge so students and other community members with hearing impairments or who are deaf feel welcome to attend,” Rigler said. “Leslie has also led the way in offering communication training across campus so faculty and staff have a strong understanding in how to communicate with this population. Finally, Leslie is an incredible advocate for students with disabilities and students as a whole. Students come in daily just to see her or sit in her office because that is where they feel safe. Leslie is truly a blessing within the Office for Students with Disabilities, but also for the University as a whole. “
January
Kelly Griffin, administrative support assistant in the Department of Communication, went far beyond the call of duty to ensure the success of the Department of Communication's second Documentary Shorts Film Festival, according to Dr. Elizabeth Gailey, Associate Professor. The film festival was designed to allow the public to screen the work of 16 students from Gailey’s Documentary Video Production course. “Kelly seemed to ‘know’ ahead of time that the evening would be a bigger deal than I had expected,” Gailey said. “In addition to making the food arrangements, she went out of her way to prepare special awards plaques for the students whose films were selected for top honors. She arrived with everything we would need (but didn't think to bring ourselves) to make the night a success, including the all-important pencils the audience would use to fill out their ballots for their favorite film. All night, despite the fact that she is in the third trimester of her pregnancy, she stood outside the door to assist people and to make sure everything went smoothly. She stayed until the bitter end (from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.), helping tabulate the audience ballots and afterwards making sure that we left the room in good order.” Gailey added that Griffin’s preparations and presence had an “incredibly positive impact on the success of the event,” which benefited both the Department of Communication and the University.
