2023 Employee Recognition Ceremony and Service Awards
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Army Tuition Assistance Crisis Management Team

From March 2021 to early Spring 2023, during what became an externally induced crisis the goal of this team was to minimize potential negative impacts on the students they served so they could continue taking courses, graduate, and receive diplomas, provide students using Army tuition assistance (TA) with a single point of contact so they only had to reach out to one person/office with their questions, concerns, issues, keep affected students informed of protections the university has put in place, ensure KU remained in compliance with the Army's reporting requirements for TA, and track TA requests to ensure the university would be paid by the Army when they could begin paying invoices again. This was a massive undertaking, but the team’s dedication to finding creative solutions allowed for all of these transitions to go as smoothly as possible.

Autism Spectrum Disorder Team

This team set out to design a game-based learning experience integrated across multiple courses in KU’s Special Education/Autism Spectrum Disorder graduate program called Gaming Through ASD Identification and Service Delivery, in which graduate students would roleplay teachers, parents, administrators, therapists, and other members of a special education team involved in the education of a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder. By immersing students in an exploration of varied roles on a special education team, they can experience the human elements involved in educational decision-making for an individual with a disability and gain new insights into educational responsibilities and challenges that they can share with their school districts. This team worked tirelessly to improve their instructional practices and the overall KU student experience.

Center for Research to Transform Systems for Family Community & Social Justice

The team’s goals relate to Jayhawk Rising, closely aligning with the research goal of expanding the Impact of KU Research in Kansas and Beyond. They are a community engaged with the goal of transforming systems to realize positive and equitable outcomes for children and families by applying an anti-oppressive and anti-racist approach to their research and evaluation work. This team has accomplished enormous dissemination efforts in the last year.

Jayhawks Give a Flock Volunteer Team

The Jayhawks Give a Flock volunteer team is a team of 150 individuals from 20 different units across campus that came together with the shared goal of successfully facilitating one of the largest, evidence-based bystander trainings in higher education. To attain this goal, the team attended several “train the trainer” sessions throughout the year themselves, working tirelessly up to the dates of the official trainings to ensure success. On both 8/14/22 and 8/20/22, this dedicated team gave their time and energy to provide a total of 122 two-hour sessions to 3,813 first-year students.

Jayhawk Welcome Center Project Team

The goal of this team was to design a Welcome Center using the latest digital technology to create an experience emphasizing both storytelling and large spaces for collaboration and celebration, positively influence the campus visitation experience of prospective students and their families, and create an inviting space that could be customized to student interests in order to captivate future Jayhawks and alumni of all ages. This was a tall order, but not only did this team pull it off, they also surpassed all expectations.

KU Recreation Services Custodial Staff

The KU Recreation Services Custodial Staff is an incredibly committed group that maintained high standards of work despite a lack of staff throughout the year even though their supervisors had lowered the amount of work required. The pride this team had in their work and the Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center would not allow them to compromise. The facility is 150,000 sq feet and KU Recreation Services averages roughly 1,000+ people per day and it takes extraordinary effort to keep this building clean, aesthetically presentable, and safe for everyone that visits.

Transfer and Recruitment Team-Edwards Campus

This team is responsible for visiting local community colleges to make visible KU’s programs of study. They provide pamphlets and scholarship materials for students, advise about majors and minors, and emphasize that students can easily transfer from community colleges into KU’s bachelor programs. The team is also largely responsible for DEI efforts on the KUEC campus since many of the transfer students are first-generation and/or students of color. They are one of the most enthusiastic groups on the KUEC campus, bringing a high level of energy to their recruitment efforts in order to ensure potential students feel welcomed.

Volunteer Fire Officer Program Development Team

The mission of the Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute is to provide accessible, comprehensive training and credentialing for fire and emergency response personnel to promote health and safety in Kansas communities. There are currently severe recruitment and retention challenges in the nation's volunteer fire service, including Kansas, and research has indicated one of the factors for this challenge relates to poor training in the volunteer fire service environment. The Volunteer Fire Officer Program Development Team met at least once a week to address such an important issue and their dedication to understanding this project in relation to a larger system and in alignment with Jayhawk Rising strategic planning has been inspiring.