Each year, the University of Lethbridge presents the President's Award for Service Excellence Award recognizing exceptional service to the U of L and members of the University community. This year, the award is given to one AUPE staff member, one APO/Exempt Support Staff member and one team.
AUPE Recipient - Barbara Hodgson
Described as the "best-kept secret at the University of Lethbridge," Barbara Hodgson has been the administrative support for the Department of Political Science and now fulfills that role for the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
In her administrative support roles, Hodgson makes sure all the parts of a university department work together smoothly, and innovates to make things work better. Taking a genuine pride in her work, she strives for perfection, and has done so at the U of L for over 30 years.
Hodgson takes initiative to learn new skills and improve the operation of the department. She has developed new ways to efficiently organize information and make it easily available to those who need it. For example, she learned basic HTML and web development software to maintain departmental web pages. To aid in the completion of Professional Activities Reports, Hodgson created a collection of records of the department's teaching activities, broken down by course, year and instructor, which was invaluable to faculty members for completing these reports. In all her work she demonstrates excellent know-how, experience and sheer hard work, combined with an ability to connect with people.
Supportive beyond the call of duty, Hodgson strives to treat all she works with as individuals. She often attends undergraduate thesis presentations, helping and reassuring first-time presenters. Always friendly and courteous, she admires, respects, and cares for people, and helps to make the university a better place for those who work and study here.
With skill, dedication, and care, Barbara Hodgson has given exemplary service to faculty and students.
APO Recipient - Barbara Williams
Described as a "wonderful colleague and supervisor," Barbara Williams works hard to provide exemplary service to all the students who come to Counselling Services, inspiring and encouraging her colleagues to do the same.
Williams is completely dedicated to meeting the needs of students. Her focus is always on ensuring that students have access to the supports they need to be successful. She is committed to ensuring that all Counselling Services programming is accessible and targeted to areas of need. Under her leadership and encouragement, Counselling Services goes beyond individual counselling sessions to offer services that address the total well-being of students.
In the Counselling Services office, Williams has been dedicated to building and nurturing a strong and committed team. She has worked hard to select and retain diversely skilled professionals and to facilitate the teamwork required to serve the student population. A compassionate supervisor, she offers her staff opportunities for growth and supports their initiatives. She is also known as an extremely positive person who brings out the best in others.
Before Counselling Services, Williams spent many years in Recruitment & Student Life, where she played a significant part in growing the student population. When prospective students inquired about the U of L, Williams would ensure that everyone was well prepared to show off the strengths of the University.
Among the initiatives she developed for recruitment was the Student for a Day program, which allows prospective students to come to the U of L campus for one day to tour the facilities and attend lectures in their areas of interest. This successful program is still running today.
The University of Lethbridge is proud to recognize Barbara Williams for her enthusiasm, dedication and passionate support of student success.
Team Recipient
The tireless efforts, commitment and expertise of the Printing Services team – Greg Martin, Tyler Hayward, Fiona Randle, Kim Selk, Judy Westcott, Murielle Guitard, Diane Layng and Jeanette Leusink – results in superb customer service and beautifully printed products.
The Printing Services team makes extra effort to help its customers meet their printing needs and deadlines. Whether by phone, e-mail, or in-person, the team guides its customers through the printing and copying process, helping resolve any issues or challenges. Even when faced with difficult, time-sensitive jobs, the team's response is "we'll take care of it, and call you when it's ready."
The group has never been late in delivering on a job, and is often done in advance of a deadline. The Printing Services team is tightly co-ordinated, working under intense deadlines with confidence and care.
The team consistently strives to offer an expanding array of products and services. In a world of changing technology, Printing Services does an outstanding job of keeping the U of L at the forefront. Its ongoing goal is to produce the best finished product at the most affordable cost.
On top of being an excellent service provider, the Printing Services team makes the effort to educate its customers in the field of printing. The team takes the time to discuss the file type, file quality, colour separations, paper type and weight, adding a "bleed" to a document, and so forth. They make the effort to advise on issues such as matching the needed paper quality and weight to the length of use of the publication. The team at Printing Services is always there to answer questions and guides its customers through the process.
Renowned for exceptional craft and friendly, high quality service, the staff of Printing Services excels in supporting the needs of campus.
This story first appeared in the May 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.