Staff Senate

Congratulations to Amanda Burgess, Assistant Director of New Student Financial Aid and Mary Jastremski, Admissions Operations Coordinator for receiving the October Auggie Pride Award. Their hard work and positive attitudes through tough transitions in their departments have made a huge impact to the people around them and campus as a whole. Staff Senate admires the work they do everyday and are honored to award them both with this month’s Auggie Pride Award.

Amanda Burgess

Nomination: Amanda was the interim director of financial aid while the department searched for a replacement. She stepped up and held the office together.  As I’m new to the office, I can see the kind of leadership Amanda exuded and I would like to recognize for this and all her years of service with Augsburg College and within the student financial services department.

Andrea Dvorak

Nomination: Andrea over the past year has been instrumental in implementing 2 major projects for CGEE. 1) CGEE-wide use of online application and risk management system. She has gone above and beyond to work with staff from all 6 (Minneapolis, Mexico, Nicaragua, Namibia, Guatemala, El Salvador) of our locations world-wide to make this system work for our complex organization which serves not only Augsburg College, but also colleges and universities across the country. and 2) Assessment. Andrea is CGEE’s newly appointed Assessment Lead. She serves on the College’s co-curricular and academic assessment committees. Again, she is working with staff from all 6 of our locations to develop assessment processes that incorporate not only for Augsburg stakeholders but also other colleges and universities.

The work on both of these projects is extremely complex and requires someone with excellent project management skills and the ability to work with diverse stakeholders. Andrea is doing an excellent job.

Mary Jastremski

Nomination: Admissions recently purchased a new software (Slate) and made a push to get it installed as soon as they could. Mary has been working tirelessly over the past months to get all the data from their old software (Hobsons Connect) into this new software, to set up data imports from the external agencies that feed data into Slate (ACT, Common App), and to get new data flows and updates happening in this new software. I’ve been working with Mary over the past month to get data from Slate into our main SIS software (Agresso) and to get data back into Slate and Mary is always cheerful and never ignores my requests. She always remains calm and composed. Mary has been working nights and weekends on this project and highly deserves this recognition.

To nominate an Augsburg staff for this monthly award, email the name of the staff person and reason for your nomination to staffsenate@augsburg.edu.

Staff Senate 2016-17

Theresa Gade, Human Resources
Jie Hie, International Student and Scholar Services
Jennifer Jacobs, Athletics
Denielle Johnson, Marketing and Communication
Seth Lienard, Event and Conference Planning
Bryan Massich, Facilities Management
Jim Matthias, Information Technology
Pa Dao Yang, Office of Undergraduate Admissions

The Augsburg College Staff Senate shall serve Augsburg College and its staff by providing a forum to foster and promote a positive and meaningful dialogue among staff, faculty, students and administration by advising in decision making processes, by serving as an advocate for Augsburg College staff, by promoting professional development opportunities and by recognition of Augsburg College staff’s contributions to furthering and upholding the mission and values of Augsburg College.

Sharing Staff Concerns

If you would like to contact Staff Senate you can use the online form (anonymous option) or email concerns, issues, or observations to staffsenate@augsburg.edu.

The feedback form is designed to allow Augsburg College employees an opportunity to provide input to the Staff Senate, positive or negative. The form may be submitted anonymously. Please provide your contact information if you would like a member of Staff Senate to follow up with you. Your feedback will be discussed at our next available meeting time. If you would like to provide in-person feedback, we invite you to attend our open forums as well.

Be engaged in the Augsburg community by serving on Staff Senate. If you’d like to become a senator or nominate a colleague, send your candidate(s) names to staffsenate@augsburg.edu by Tuesday, May 17. Online elections will take place May 19-26. Staff Senate is filling two elected Staff Senate positions this spring.

All nominees will be verified before being placed on the election ballot. An email will be sent to all Augsburg staff with a link to the online election survey on May 19. Staff will have until May 26 to take the survey. Successful candidates will be notified by May 27.

Staff Senate Membership

Augsburg College Staff Senate (ACSS) is composed of six members who are nominated and elected by their peers for a two-year term and two at-large members to be chosen, in every instance, by ACSS. All ACSS members have the option to serve a third year.

Election Procedures

Nomination and Voting Rights: Nominations are collected through e-mail and ballots are gathered from all staff through an online survey (staff eligible to vote are all regular full- and part-time staff, not including union, temporary staff, MMeep, MCC, or other agency groups). ACSS members are eligible to vote. Composition of ACSS: It is recommended that members be at least .75 FTE, regardless of exempt or non-exempt status.

Please join the Augsburg community in celebrating the work of its staff during the past academic year. Food and drink will be provided. Door prizes will once again be given away.

Spring Social 
Thursday, May 12
3-5 p.m.
The Quad
(In case of rain, the event will move inside Christensen Center)

Email staffsenate@augsburg.edu with any questions.

Jennifer Simon, director of American Indian Student Services, received the Auggie Pride Award for her work on the 2016 Powwow on campus. The Auggie Pride Award is presented to Augsburg staff as a token of appreciation for their dedication and work that goes above and beyond what is expected.

Nomination: “ Jennifer provided leadership for the 8th annual Powwow. She organized all the arrangements and worked with on- and off-campus groups and individuals. This event has helped to improve and solidify relationships with our neighbors as well as showing to our Native students how Augsburg values their culture and history. She made sure to include admissions staff at the event. This year she added an alumni event – more than 20 alumni showed up with their families. She made sure that Alumni and Constituent Relations were present for the event.”

To nominate an Augsburg staff for this monthly award, email the name of the staff person and reason for your nomination to staffsenate@augsburg.edu.

And the winners of the 2016 Outstanding Staff awards are:

Avis Benson, Information Technology
Jill Davenport, Purchasing and Central Services
Sonja Hagander, Campus Ministry
Melissa Lee, Athletics
Leah Spinosa de Vega, Center for Global Education and Experience
Laura Swanson, Marketing and Communication

Staff Senate thanks all of the nominators for their work in gathering nominees and recommendation letters. We also thank those who were nominated and recognize the great work that all 18 staff have exhibited to be nominated by their peers.

All Augsburg staff are invited to the Staff Appreciation Event at 2:30-4 p.m. on Thursday, March 3, in the Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center. Staff Senate will honor staff who celebrated their 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, and 35th anniversaries in 2015 as well as the nominees and winners of the Outstanding Staff Award.