March 1, 2007

College of Arts and Sciences announces the 2006 - 2007 Classified Staff Excellence Awards

The vision for the College of Arts and Sciences is to transform the lives of our students and to improve the world they will inhabit by creating and sharing knowledge.  The classified staff of the College of Arts and Sciences are absolutely necessary to achieving this mission.  Our offices, laboratories and classrooms college could not function without the dedicated service of our staff.  There are 225 “A-funded” classified employees in the college:  This year 29 people or 12% of the classified staff in the college received a  pay for performance (PFP) increase through an ongoing systematic reexamination of the classified staff  positions and job duties.  And as many other organizations across Columbia across realize the quality of our staff, the College has make PFP offers to retain key personnel.   

In addition to the regular process, the College funds an annual Classified Staff Excellence Award.

Three individuals were chosen to receive this award. These individuals hav consistently performed at a level of excellence in our departments and programs.  But these individuals also represent the many other talented individuals on the staff.

Rodney Thompson, at USC since 1989, has been the grants coordinator since 1996.  Rodney’s expertise lies in the critical area of monitoring the department’s research grants as well as the management of their credit cards and start up expenditures for new faculty.  In a department that has roughly 100 active research grants at any given time and spends approximately 4 million dollars a year from these grants, Rodney’s expertise is invaluable resource.  As one referee said,  “when an employee like Rodney works in a high volume area and is able to maintain an open door policy to service faculty, staff and students, we must take the opportunity to tell these employees thank you.”  Called upon by faculty to advise on the literally hundreds of technical details on grant related activities, he works well not only with the faculty in the department but with all of the staff in the various USC offices.  The College commends Rodney for his continuous dedication to his department, the college and the university. 

Lisa Saxon is the budget manager and assistant to the chair in the English department.  She has been in the department since 1998.  Lisa manages both the chair as well as the budget, no easy task in any department and she does it efficiently and expediently.  It is said of her, “… Lisa is the embodiment of an indispensable staff person: independent, thorough, innovative, attentive to detail, and extremely personable.”  Lisa is well-organized and works side by side with the department chair.   With the chair, she oversees the department’s budget ensuring that the books are always balanced.  “Her expertise extends far beyond number crunching.  She’s always paying attention, always thinking ahead, always anticipating and solving problems.”  Her range of responsibilities alone speaks of her expertise as she also manages the department’s tenure and promotion files and the variety of aspects involved with faculty searches.  The College applauds Lisa for her efforts on behalf of the department, the college and the university. 

Dr. Roumen Vesselinov has been proven himself invaluable in the short time that he has been the statistics laboratory manager.  With the Department of Statistics since 2003,  Roumen provides statistical advice to faculty, staff, and graduate student researchers at the university. Indeed, he has about 130 clients per year.  In addition, Roumen is directly involved in generating funded research and projects to support the work of statistics graduate students to work in the lab.  One reviewer states that he is gratified to see the strong interpersonal communication skills that Roumen brings to his consulting.   Roumen continually demonstrates that the skills and technical expertise he brings to his job have allowed us to redefine what a stat lab manager can accomplish. The College commends him on his achievements and looks forward to the fruits of his continued efforts. 

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