Human Resource Services
2001 Prudential Financial Davis Productivity Award Winners
Cash Award Winners
Dale Bivins, $1000
Was instrumental in getting three old unreliable feeder cables replaced under emergency conditions. When two of the three cables faulted, he worked after hours and weekends to install new cables in time for classes to start. This prevented a possible third feeder fault that could have shut down part of the main campus.
Gertrude Nichols, $1000
Increased timeliness of invoicing clients for services rendered and securing deposits from owners of horses shipped to facility, increasing daily deposits by 15% each year. Accounts receivable have decreased by $178,000 or 33%.
Grade-A-Gator Development and Implementation Team, $600
Brought grade processing procedures into the 21st century, eliminating the need for hand-scored bubble forms, redundant checking and antiquated machinery.
William Munden, $300
Maximized efficiency of compressed air and vacuum systems in main buildings. His achievement saved energy and maintenance costs.
Lara Beserock, $300
Created a searchable database that tracks all departmental computer equipment and provides essential network information. The database may be accessed and updated by authorized users from any location. Staff may also create reports tailored to specific needs or link to detailed floor maps.
Dawn Stewart, $300
Reorganized entire administrative structure of the Division of Nephrology, including pre-existing errors in purchases and overdue bills. Improved the accuracy of account reporting, particularly on NIH grants, and ensured all purchases are appropriate for NIH regulations. Streamlined travel reimbursements and paperwork for travel.
Brian Graham and Charles Williams
Developed a web-based work order system that allows individuals to input and track their own work order request. Eliminated the need for an employee to manually input and track work-order completion. Supervisors now have data to oversee workers, monitor departments making requests, and eliminate delays.
Maureen Kelly
Wrote four PERL automation programs. By creating PERL scripts to handle labor-intensive components intrinsic to the successful creation, archiving, and indexing of digital resources, major time-cost savings have been realized.
Suzanne Leahy
Discovered the University was being billed for unused communication circuits used for the campus connection to various long distance service carriers. Had the unused circuits disconnected and negotiated a credit from BellSouth. UF received a credit from BellSouth of over $32,000.
PreviewPrep Task Force
Created an on-line exercise all new first-year students must take before arriving for orientation. A variety of essential tasks new students must complete before arriving so participation is more efficient and effective.
Tonia Lambert and Carlos Camejo
Designed a calculator available via the web (Research Activities, Calculation Tool) to be used for salary budget proposals.
Milford Willis
Made a complete copy of the 1998 Alachua County Property tax parcels for the Map and Imagery Library. Mr. Willis's goal was to save money for the Library, University of Florida and the state of Florida. The only cost was the price of the blueprint paper required to make the copies.
Certificates of Commendation
Dr. Greg Erdos, Karen Kelly
Developed a novel lab prep for viewing embryos that helped the University of Florida and the scientific community visualize and photograph their research.
Cheri Brodeur, Tyann Nelson, Judy Rogers
Developed an online registration system for in-service training for IFAS extension faculty located in all 67 counties. This instantaneous, automated system replaced a manual paper system.
Kimberly Cruce, Tina Butts
Developed a process that allowed for more timely reconciliation and payment of the IFAS Voyager fuel bill. This included the payment from one general account and reimbursing it from the various department accounts.
Workers' Compensation Office/Physical Plant
Developed a comprehensive approach for handling workplace injuries. The Physical Plant Division significantly reduced the number of Lost Work Days and Restricted Duty Days for its injured employees when compared to previous years. This reduction resulted in a substantial financial savings for the Division while improving supervisor and employee morale.
Karen Deal
Developed and implemented a CD-ROM version of the College of Medicine/Department of Medicine's residency training recruitment brochure. This CD-ROM version has replaced the costly printed brochure, which has been produced annually for many years. Not only is the CD-ROM version less costly to mail out to prospective recruits, but an approximate cost avoidance of $14,000 has been realized in the first year and is expected to continue to provide a cost avoidance of approximately $16,000 annually to the department of Medicine.
Shamus McConney
The department has had some difficulty in the past providing adequate musical theatre sound reinforcement. Normally state funds have been utilized to hire private contractors to provide this service. Mr. McConney specified, wired, and installed a system to provide "Broadway quality" audio for departmental productions. This is not part of his job description and would have cost us thousands to contract in. The service will save the state thousands of dollars each year.
Christine Manley
Volunteered to construct and publish a website and monthly listserv newsletter on annual strawberry production. Christine has created an outstanding website and monthly newsletter that significantly enhances and extends the timely delivery of important information from Florida strawberry research and extension programs to statewide, national and international clientele.
Mary Kramer
Has dramatically increased the effectiveness of service to the students and faculty of the school, both her own, and that of the staff she supervises. In a period that saw a reduction of level of staff appointments in the school, Mary Kramer spent time out of office hours convenient for students and faculty; she took on duties in addition to her job description, including the budgetary and managerial oversight for three off-campus programs; she created the most congenial and supportive atmosphere for the students and faculty that has existed in the last ten years.
Dori Faust
Was called upon to be the program assistant in charge of coordinating a search for two new faculty members. This task was considered unusually heavy since it involved two positions, instead of the customary one, and it was superimposed upon the normal requirements of the job.
Student Government Finance & Technical Support
Produced an interactive CD-ROM to educate and better train all SG-funded student organizations. The CD-ROM ensures that all funded student organizations understand SG, UF, and State fiscal policies and procedures relating to their organization.
John G. Bennett
A back flow preventer is a critical set of check valves designed to keep contaminated water from affecting the suppliers systems. Undertook a program to see that all units on campus met the requirements that GRU required of the water department.
Patricia Ruwell, Paige Harper, Jody Hewitt
Produced, maintained, and administered an interactive government information and depository library administration web site. The website brings together links to state and local government information and streamlines some requirements for administering a documents depository library in Florida.
David Durand
Made it possible to convert the Undergraduate Catalog from print to web in less than half the time it used to take. Previously took two people working full time two months to complete the process. Now it only takes one person working part time one month.
Marie Wolfe
Because the program assistant was on extended leave for 42 weeks, Marie Wolfe performed the major workload of her supervisor. They worked so closely that Marie was familiar with the duties. Marie's performance was outstanding during this period, working with student payroll, monthly reports, leave and travel records, and keeping the director's office operating.
Melissa Ware, Janet Williams
The nominees undertook a special project of unpacking more than 5,000 books from dusty boxes that had been in storage for nearly ten years, entering records into the online catalog of their removal from the collection, and repacking them. Janet and Melissa accomplished all of this work while continuing to complete their assigned duties which also increased with an increased book budget.
Honorable Mentions
Gifts & Exchange Unit
At the request of the Resource Services Department and the directors of the University of Florida Smathers Libraries, in August 1999 the Gifts & Exchange Unit opened an ongoing used bookstore to replace the library's annual book sales as a means to more effectively sell duplicate gift materials.
Joseph Carusone Jr., Matthew Glover
Provided network hardware, administrative, and computing technical support for more than 400 users throughout three buildings and one remote site.
Bruce Engstrom
During this nomination period, Mr. Engstrom developed and put into place a procedure to recycle obsolete, broken and replaced telecommunications equipment. This procedure includes sending the obsolete equipment to a vendor who then furnishes the University credit for the equipment. This credit is then used to purchase refurbished telecommunications hardware for the repair and upgrade of the campus telephone systems as needed.
Joella Seay, Ginger Bracewell, Todd Morrone
Collaborated to create a Safety Committee to address the broad challenges that the Division of Housing faced with respect to workplace safety, and the culture of its large and diverse staff.
Alexandra Lewis
Provided faculty and staff with an efficient research administration tool for submitting grants and contracts to outside funding agencies. In addition to benefiting our college, the site is praised by faculty from other units. The site increases college productivity by easy policy access for faculty and staff.
Sylvia Scudder
Provided evidence of past landscape changes and the human impact on the environment. This is beginning to be an integral and important aspect of archaeological research. She has two recent publications: Scudder, S. J. 2001 Soil resources and anthropogenic changes at Tibes, Ponce Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science 37(1-2): 30-40. And Scudder, S. J. in press. Evidence of sea level rise at the early Ostionan Coralie Site (GT-3) ca. AD 700 Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands. Journal of Archaeological Science.