Personnel honored for exemplary student service
 Student Personnel Association individual award winners, left to right: Susan A. Morschhauser (Norman Bassett Award), Judy L. Anderson (Frontline Award), Anne E. Morris (Norman Bassett Award), Yvonne Bowen (Chancellor’s Award), Scott Seyforth (Impact Award), Susan K. Gisler (Frontline Award) and Carren Martin (Impact Award). Photo: Aaron Peterson
Details: The Student Personnel Association is open to any student service professional. Becky Ryan, 265-5460; rjryan@facstaff.wisc.edu. |
Extraordinary service to university students has earned seven staff members and a three-office team awards from the university’s Student Personnel Association. Winners were honored at a luncheon April 26:
Judy L. Anderson, program assistant, Scandinavian Studies, Frontline Award
After graduate student Matthew Nelson’s plans to study in London fell through, Anderson rescued him several times.
“She assisted me with my application to our department, personally seeing that it went through to the chair and the dean. … Many of the pressures of my first year of graduate school were eased because of Judy’s help. The remarkable thing is, she would do, and has done, as much for anyone else in the department,” he says.
A 23-year veteran of that department, Anderson also has come to the rescue of an extensive family of “unadoptable” animals.
Yvonne Bowen, assistant dean, Letters and Science Advising Center, Chancellor’s Award
For the past decade Bowen has been responsible for much of the center’s administration, working with the center’s faculty director and about 20 part-time advisers. At the same time she herself maintains an active advising role, particularly to pre-law and pre-med students. She regularly conducts workshops across campus on a variety of student issues.
Susan K. Gisler, student status examiner, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Frontline Award
By keeping students up to date on the requirements of their desired degree and their status toward it, Gisler is in the business of helping them meet their objectives and realize their dreams. Her sound grasp of the CALS requirements also makes herinvaluable as a spotter of potential problems with rule changes under consideration. Her expertise also has saved many students (and parents) money, time and aggravation, her colleagues report.
Carren Martin, student services coordinator, Dean of Students Office, Impact Award
As the adviser for the Students Orienting Students program, Martin has proved herself committed to providing programming which will ease new students’ transition to the university. She has become a decided asset to the Summer Orientation and Advising for Registration program, Wisconsin Welcome and others. Leading complex committees, organizing large events and collaborating with a host of diverse groups, Martin has helped develop meaningful experiences for countless freshmen and transfer students.
Ann E. Morris, student services program manager, College of Engineering, Norman Bassett Award
Specializing in assisting students transferring to the college from other institutions in or out of the UW System, Morris also helps recruit the very best to the university. In fact, about a third of all undergraduate engineering students enter as transfers. She helps these newcomers get off to the best possible start here by making sure they are placed in the proper mathematics courses – studies show correct assessment of students’ math skills plays a major role in their success with the engineering curricula.
Suzan A. Morschhauser, administrative program manager, Department of Medicine, Norman Bassett Award
Since arriving in the department 20 years ago, Morschhauser has amassed a large and eclectic collection of duties, which by all reports she usually manages to exceed. In providing overall coordination of the department’s medical student programs, she advises third- and fourth-year students on career issues, elective choices and clerkship opportunities. She also works with hospitals and clinics to make clerkships available, and recruits faculty mentors for the students in the program. Other responsibilities range from helping to prepare the Doctor of Medicine examinations to organizing and presenting clerkship orientation programs.
Scott Seyforth, senior residence hall manager, University Housing, Impact Award
Seyforth was one of the brightest lights in the creation of the Chadbourne Residential College, and he continues to take a most active role in its evolution into a center of residential learning. Under his leadership and with his encouragement, more than 150 faculty and staff now participate in CRC activities every year.
Whether establishing the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Housing Liaison Program; connecting students and faculty who share interests or mentoring, officially or un-, one of the 700 students who live in the CRC, Seyforth has become known as a builder of bridges between people.
The combined staffs of the Department of Bacteriology, Microbiology Doctoral Program and Biotechnology Training Program, Team Award
Three separate entities frequently working in tandem, each member displays superb organization, attention to detail, a positive attitude and hard work. Members have insured a smooth transition when the medical microbiology and bacteriology Ph.D. programs merged four years ago. Then and now, staff from one team frequently pitch in for overwhelmed colleagues as they work together to serve a large, diverse and often cross-college population.