Student Services Personnel Honored for Achievements

Two new honors have joined the annual University of Wisconsin–Madison Student Personnel Association roster of awards in 2002.

The new awards were made possible by the support of the UW–Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. One of them furthers Plan 2008, a plan to foster diversity on campus.

The inaugural recipient of the 2008 Award of Excellence was last summer’s course, “Freedom Ride 2001: Sights and Sounds of the Civil Rights Movement.” Organized by Susan Dibbell of the UW–Madison Morgridge Center for Public Service; and Stephanie King, Katherine Loving and Danielle McGuire of University Health Services, the Freedom Ride retraced key places in the African-American struggle for voting and other rights.

The other debut is the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Student Affairs. Its first recipient is Lisa Munro, senior counselor, Division of Continuing Studies. Munro has distinguished herself for her accessibility to students and her mastery of institutional policy. Although she remains firmly entrenched in the frontlines of advising, Munro also has taken an active hand in raising funds for scholarships and grants.

Munro has served as a mentor to Chancellor’s Scholars, and to students and families in 4C countywide programs. She has been a strong voice for older learners and single parents, helping to establish scholarships for them, and serving as a role model for all who come into contact with her. She has been on campus for 30 years, the last 18 of them in her current office.

Winners of the traditional Student Personnel Association awards were honored for exceptional service to students. Honorees for 2002 were:

• Joni Brown, student status examiner, Department of Communicative Disorders, Frontline Award. Described as a “master communicator,” Brown’s brand of student service is credited with helping her department retain and build upon its ranking as one of the nation’s finest scholarly programs. She has proved so effective at maintaining academic files, processing grade reports, managing various schedules and processing applications to the department’s graduate courses that she recently helped support another department in the throes of administrative difficulties. She has organized an annual open house for prospective communicative disorders students, and has played a primary role in developing the department’s Web-based Query Library, which offers easy access to necessary information. She has been at UW–Madison for almost 14 years, the last two of them in her current position.
• Cathy Starkey, financial program manager, bursar’s office, Frontline Award. Helping students navigate the stacks of federal, state and university regulations involved in paying fees is a role for a consummate problem-solver. Starkey since 1988 has undertaken the enormous effort involved in collecting tuition from all UW–Madison students and distributing financial aid to the about 20,000 students. Along the way she has redesigned tuition, fee and financial aid policies and practices to use an application of the ISIS computer software to provide better service. She was involved in the design of the My UW–Madison portal, which provides self-service inquiry for UW–Madison clients and saves the university some $30,000 in postage. Starkey has been assistant bursar since 1988 and has worked in the bursar’s office since 1969.
• Lori Henn, relationship violence prevention coordinator, University Health Service, Campus Impact Award. “I have the courage, we have the power to stop sexual assault” formed the basis of the recent sexual assault awareness campaign, spearheaded by a public relations class working with Henn. In addition, Henn has been instrumental in developing a campuswide sexual assault survey and helped design violence prevention training for student athletes. As a result, all student athletes received violence prevention training last year. In addition, Henn advises on these issues to fraternities and sororities and the student-driven Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment (PAVE) and Men Opposed to Sexual Assault (MOSA). She has held her position since 1999.
• Ann Groves Lloyd, director, College of Letters and Science/School of Human Ecology Career Service, Campus Impact Award. In her three years in her current position, Lloyd has increased her staff from four to 10 and tailored duties to fit student needs. With staff help, she has added seven career fairs, providing some 17,000 students with employment opportunities and resource information. She has established key partnerships with other offices, such as the Wisconsin Alumni Association, the Multicultural Student Center, the Business Career Center, and others to sponsor events including the pilot Job Shadowing program and the Persons of Color Career Fair, among others. She has been a driving force in updating software, including a new “Ask an Advisor” e-mail that is checked daily.
• Patricia Fessenden, assistant dean, adult and student services, Division of Continuing Studies, Norman Bassett Award. Expanded educational outreach to under-represented Madison communities has been Fessenden’s academic calling card. Under her leadership, cooperative efforts with Centro Hispano, community libraries, public office buildings, Borders Book Shops, Harambee and the Even Start program have resulted in greater access to the university. New initiatives under her 23-year tenure on campus include the Single Parent Scholarships, the Academic Success Seminars, an e-mail list for returning adult students, a job search support group and more. She has served as a president of SPA and developed its Student Services Exchange Program. She continues to mentor up to four Chancellor’s Scholars every year.
• Tim Walsh, director, Cross-College Advising Service, Norman Bassett Award. A champion of the “undecided” major, Walsh has enhanced undergraduate advising on campus. He collaborated with others to develop and implement freshman pre-registration advising programs. He also supports placing advising projects in university residence halls and in settings such as the Multicultural Student Center, where they are particularly accessible to students. In addition to managing a large academic and career advising office and supervising 12 advisors, he collaborates with the nine UW–Madison colleges and schools that serve undergraduates. He has been at the helm of the CCAS since 2000; he has served the campus in various capacities for 18 years.
• Tom Johnson, executive associate registrar, Special Recognition Award. In a campus career spanning almost 45 years, Johnson has won a reputation as an advocate for students. He helped create the “special student” registration status and was instrumental in establishing the university’s “compassionate refund” policy. Considered a living archive of student records and policies, Johnson recently completed work on a 38-year index of Associate Administrative Council meetings, which allows Johnson’s colleagues to locate documents affecting students.

  During the national crisis precipitated by events of Sept. 11, Johnson’s timely review of military leave policy enabled students called up for military service to be ready to leave the university – and the country – within two days without financial or academic penalty. His award revives a tradition last seen in 1995.

• Walter Lane, assistant dean, School of Education, Chancellor’s Award. Lane’s total commitment to fostering diversity on campus through the university’s TRIO (which includes Upward Bound, McNair Scholars and Student Support Services) and PEOPLE programs, among others. As director of PEOPLE, he oversees an initiative serving some 600 pre-college students. In addition, he secures funding for and oversees TRIO, which mentors and supports minority and disadvantaged students across campus. Currently about 300 students take part in that program. He began his 30 years at UW–Madison as cross-cultural affairs advisor at the Wisconsin Union; from there he became coordinator of multicultural programs in the Dean of Students office. Lane has been recognized for grantwriting expertise by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.

Founded in 1956, the SPA promotes interaction between colleagues and professional development among those working with college students. Librarians, health care providers, housing staff, academic and personal advisers, instructional technology specialists and other student service professionals comprise its membership.

The SPA is open to any student service professional. For information, contact Greg Iaccarino, 265-9205.