This week’s ‘Thumbs Up’ recipients
Joe Hunley (Building Services) and his custodial staff
Joe Hunley (Building Services) and his custodial staff: In May, I temporarily moved from the Veterinary Medical Library to the Aviation and Transportation Technology Library out in the airport terminal. As soon as I began working here, I noticed how kind everyone was. However, the one group that really stood out to me was Joe and his custodial staff, who do a spectacular job keeping the buildings out here clean. I have worked at Purdue for over 24 years, and I have never seen this level of clean in any other building I’ve been in. They go the extra mile with every job they do. I was shocked one day to find one of them washing not just the insides of the trash cans but the outsides as well. Another day, one of the ladies was on the floor washing the floor trim by hand. They regularly keep the space vacuumed, but if someone makes a mess, they are there to spot-vacuum it up. Their attention to detail is amazing. I just want to say thanks to all those who helped make my summer at the Aviation Technology Library a delight. — Tonya Mull (Libraries)
Administrative Operations furniture helpers
Administrative Operations furniture helpers: Operations and Maintenance and Building Services get a huge “Thumbs Up” for their assistance installing furniture at First Street Towers and Honors College. The residential zones student painting crew with Mark Fields (Operations and Maintenance) supervising spent several days helping out by putting furniture into student rooms. Cheryl Dotson, Dan Turner (both Building Services), Keith Coopman and Dave Burford (both Operations and Maintenance) all came in on the weekend of July 27-28 with a crew of more than 40 staff from Operations and Maintenance and Building Services to complete installation of furniture in over 100 student rooms. We appreciate your hard work and great team effort! — Trevor Blackwood (Residential Housing Operations)
Jack Gardel and Jacob Chappell
Jack Gardel and Jacob Chappell (both Electrical and Computer Engineering): Jack and Jacob are exemplary graduate assistants who put aside their evening to resolve a mini crisis with setting up accounts for their students in digital ECE courses. What could have taken days to resolve was fixed in a few hours. Great work! — Niraj Menon (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Brian McDonald
Brian McDonald (Environmental Health and Safety): I want to thank Brian McDonald for taking the time to get with a few groups from Building Services to go over the benefits and hazards of working with chemicals. The presentation was useful and very informative. — Wendy Fredrychowski (Building Services)
Carolyn Walsh
Carolyn Walsh (Student Systems): Carolyn was instrumental in our first business continuity planning exercise in coordination with Purdue University. Carolyn went above and beyond to organize our activities with Purdue, develop our scenario for our first exercise and work directly with our Purdue Global stakeholders to create our continuity plan playbook. This was Carolyn’s first business continuity planning work, and she organized it as if she had been working in this space for a long time. She was thoughtful, proactive and great at working with our business leaders to identify the appropriate actions for our playbook. We look forward to continuing our business planning under Carolyn’s direction and taking on additional complex scenarios to ensure the continuity of our operations. — Tim Werth (Purdue Global)
Kelly Spoth
Kelly Spoth (Purdue IT): Kelly was absolutely wonderful as I worked through several issues. My schedule keeps me away from my laptop, and Kelly had to use a VPN to help me resolve my problem. Not only did Kelly help with my issue, but he also helped me update my laptop, which I hadn’t done yet. It took a few hours to update my laptop, but with the assistance of Kelly letting me be prepared for the length of time, I was able to update everything, making my laptop run much faster. Thank you, Kelly! You had so much patience with me and were so pleasant to work with. I heard the smile in your voice. It’s very appreciated! — Debbie Mix (Expanded Food and Nutrition Program)
Meghan Sarault and Yvette Rosas
Meghan Sarault and Yvette Rosas (both Finance): Meghan and Yvette helped me order some last-minute supplies for our BGR welcome event. With the weather maybe being rainy, we needed some different supplies and they were able to get our items in record time! They saved the day! — Tyson McFall-Wankat (College of Engineering)
Samuel Chinn
Samuel Chinn (Operations and Maintenance): Thanks so much to Sam for fixing the broken RO water line in our lab. This was a huge help to us and something we really needed for our experiments. Sam did a great job explaining what the problem was, and he even fixed the leaky faucet while he was here. Thanks, from our whole lab! — Vikki Weake (Biochemistry)
Paul Targett and Mark Schneider
Paul Targett (IT End User Experience) and Mark Schneider (Infrastructure Telecom Services): I would like to recognize Paul Targett for his assistance with understanding the mechanism I needed to use with the Risque system to deliver data for an annual financial task due for my department. He demonstrated on his computer and provided a follow-up example through Microsoft Teams. I would also like to recognize Mark Schneider for his assistance with a Risque task at a time when an annual financial task was due for my department. While my issue was being addressed behind the scenes, Mark kindly provided assistance so that I could successfully complete the task for this fiscal year. Without the data his assistance provided, we would not have been able to achieve having all of the relevant data we needed. Many thanks, Paul and Mark. Your contributions saved significant time and effort in data collection. — Jessica Harvey (IT End User Experience)
Julie Litmer Schwaller
Julie Litmer Schwaller (IT Enterprise Solutions): I’d like to thank Julie for her assistance with Purdue Fort Wayne’s XML transcript import process. She has been extremely helpful with troubleshooting and sharing documentation. We would not be where we are at without her! — Angela Morren (Purdue University Fort Wayne Admissions)
DaZah Toler
DaZah Toler (Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging): I want to highlight DaZah Toler and all of her hard work pulling together several large-scale events for Undergraduate Scholars Programs in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. Her work meets and exceeds Purdue’s high standards of excellence, and she continues to make a very positive impact on our Boilermaker community. Coordinating all aspects of the Emerging Leaders Scholars Early Start summer program, hosting nearly 200 folks for the fall welcome banquet and picking up new responsibilities for other scholars programs, DaZah continues to center students and their holistic growth in her work. Thank you for all that you do, DaZah! — Scotty M. Secrist (Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging)
Kimberly Powers
Kimberly Powers (Sponsored Program Services): Thanks to Kim Powers for her help with our grant proposals. She did a great job pulling together our proposal and working through all the unique requirements on a deadline. — Sarah Hubbard (School of Aviation and Transportation Technology)