ABA NEWS
Serving Our Students: University Union Undergoing Facelift
Earlier this year, crews broke ground near the University
Union to make way for a 42,000 square-foot expansion
and renovation project slated to conclude by August,
2018.
The expansion will allow more room for study lounges,
retail space, conference rooms, and additional indoor
and outdoor seating. Often described as the “living
room” of Sac State, these improvements are desperately
needed to accommodate a growing campus. "You would
see students sitting on the floor, lining hallways, sitting
in stairwells and trying to find any available space that
they can," said Bill Olmsted, associate executive director
for Union WELL Inc.
Administration & Business Affairs’ own Todd Mccomb, project manager within Facilities Management, echoed the
desperate need for a larger union. “The Union has been impacted by growing needs for recreation, food service, social
and student government organization activities, and informal study areas. The Union turns away student organizations
and clubs, as well as many other groups in and out of the University, due to lack of available space for meeting rooms.”
To accommodate these needs, demolition of a portion of the Union is nearing completion, with new construction planned to start in July. Facilities Management plays a critical role as they manage the project for the campus. As Todd explains, “Including budget and schedule management, communication/coordination with campus entities/neighbors to the project, construction inspection, and ensures compliance with all building codes including state fire marshal and accessibility requirements.”
Projects like these help remind us all that we serve the students of this campus, and better environments, both learning and recreational, provide the atmosphere needed for students to succeed. The University Union project is a great example of those values.
To learn more about the University Union renovation and construction project, check out some of the resources Below:
University Union Vision: https://expansion.unionwellinc.org/vision/
Live construction feed: https://expansion.unionwellinc.org/
Demolition time-lapse: https://expansion.unionwellinc.org/updates/
April is Alumni Month!
It’s a Sac State tradition to celebrate the University’s alums during the month of April. This year, over half of ABA’s staff alums came out show their support, participating in a group photo near Amador Hall.
In ABA, 63 staff members are Sac State grads, holding degrees that range from bachelors’ and masters’ to doctorates. More than 30 of them showed up for the celebratory photo.
These division alumni are lucky enough to put their degrees to work on behalf of the University. Each and every ABA alumni contributes to the goals of ABA and the University in his/her own unique way, but the commonality among them is a distinctive understanding of the student experience and a powerful dedication to make the University the best it can be.
These grads complement a workforce, over 300 strong, with degrees and professional accreditations from across the CSU as well as other institutes of higher learning.
Strategic Planning & Quality Improvement Restarts START
Ever wonder what opportunities there are to get involved in the ABA community? One long-standing opportunity is
being a member of the START Committee. START: Strategy Team: Achieving Results Together, was originally formed in
2011 with the intention to serve as a communicative bridge between the different ABA departments. It is no surprise
that ABA is a diverse workforce not only in profession but
also in location. Our staff work from one end of the campusto the other and range in content tremendously. For that
reason, the former director of Strategic Planning and Quality
Improvement, Sarah Whyte, formed the START Committee.
START members are representatives from ABA’s families, serving as staff leaders who promote two-way communication about division strategic planning, quality improvement and staff engagement and recognition programs. Members help ABA improve its programs by incorporating a staff perspective. Further, they help promote the understanding of ABA’s goals among staff colleagues, and encourage the involvement of staff in advancing those goals.
Responsibilities of START members range from communicating topics of discussion to their teams and departments,
recommending strategies to improve staff engagement, to facilitating START-initiated activities at division meetings and
events.
The Senior Director or Associate Vice President of each department determines membership and terms are set on a yearly basis. If a member would like to serve beyond a year-term, a determination can be made in concert with the member’s senior leadership. Participation in one monthly meeting along with some collaboration over email and document sharing between meetings is required.
Membership of the START Committee is a privilege and great opportunity to learn about internal aspects of ABA. Additionally, each member is their department’s advocate in terms of the engagement and recognition programs. Therefore, each member is the voice of their team and their opinions can shape and develop future initiatives. Speaking of initiatives, the START Committee, recently reformed in January, has accomplished a lot in four short months! START members have:
- Thoroughly reviewed the Staff Recognition Program and made modification recommendations including:
- Streamlining the website design
- Streamlining the nomination forms so to increase accessibility and ease of use
- Adding a much desired feature that allows nominators to indicate whether they would like their nomination be shared with the nominee
- Clarifying the title of the awards to Staff Peer to Peer Award, Team Award, Valued Staff Award and Management Peer to Peer Award
- Created a Manager and Supervisor Best Practices for Staff Recognition. The document, shared with managers soon, describes nearly 10 ways managers and supervisors can creatively recognize their staff.
- Revising the ABA Thank You Blog and developing an ABA quarterly raffle program that will work in tandem with the blog. In all, the START Committee is working diligently to support ABA staff and managers, with a special focus on employee engagement. Please feel free to contact your department’s START member with any suggestions.
In all, the START Committee is working diligently to support ABA staff and managers, with a special focus on employee engagement. Please feel free to contact your department’s START member with any suggestions.
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ABA's Central Receiving Lifts to New Heights!
The teams of Property Management and Central Receiving exemplified thinking outside the box when they teamed up with Professor Mike Newton and his students in the department of Engineering & Computer Science to rebuild the campus man lift.
Chris Marolla, property clerk II, knew it would be expensive to replace their man lift, over $2,000 to be exact. However, something had to be done and quickly; years of wear and tear the man lift had left it unsafe to use.
With productivity and safety at risk, Chris reached out to Professor
Newton and asked for some help. "Working in Santa Clara Hall, It took
Mike and his students about a week to rebuild our old man lift at a
quarter of the cost," said Chris.
The new and improved lift is a great resource and asset to many units
and people on campus, and now both Property Management and Central
Receiving can rest assured, knowing it is safe for use. Chris expressed
how much he appreciated the help from Professor Newton and his
students. "We are very grateful to Mike and his students for doing such a
great job and protecting our staff in their efforts to achieve the campus
mission."
Just another great example of ABA collaboration, furthering the campus mission, and contributing to student success.
Amador's Elevators: Going UP!
Deferred maintenance has become a phrase used commonly around Sac State and within ABA when discussing aging buildings and infrastructure on campus. Despite these concerns, Facilities Management does its best to allocate funds on important repair projects, and nothing is more important than the safety of our students.
Recently, the elevators in Amador Hall were modernized. These elevators were in dire need of attention, due to their obsolete controllers, worn out doors, and general condition issues. “The Amador elevators were at the top of our list,” explains, Director of Facility Operations, Daryn Ockey.
As seen in the pictures, the elevator has been modernized with a new interior, enhanced lighting, and standard operational buttons. “This program has proven to be positive as the elevators move passengers much more efficiently to each floor of the building,” said Zone Manager, Doug Power.
Daryn concluded why such a project is important to both ABA and the students we serve:
“It is nice to get the funds to work on these kinds of issues. Those elevators (as well as others we have done) promote a feeling of professionalism to our students, faculty, and staff – similar to the classroom upgrades. They demonstrate the pride we have in our University, and that tends to propagate.”
Water Fixtures Update
Note: all content for this article is available via previously published articles available to the public. All new inquiries should be forwarded to Steve Leland in Environmental Health and Safety at sleland@skymail.csus.edu.
During the winter intersession, Dr. Jeffery Foran, chair of the Department of Environmental Studies, along with Dr. Justin Miller- Schulze, Dr. Catherine Ishikawa, two graduate students, and nine undergraduate students made their first test 449 drinking sources on campus for lead.
Their findings found 27 samples had lead concentrations at or above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action level for lead in water. In response to the findings, the university shut down 85 water fixtures, including sinks and fountains across campus.
“The water was turned off as soon as we became aware of it,” said Director, Environmental Health and Safety Steve Leland. “They won’t be turned back on until we hire a third-party consultant to look at what we have.”
Thankfully, those goals are being met: The University has recently hired California Industrial Hygiene Services Inc.
(CIH) to do additional testing and lab analysis. Phase two testing will consist of 494 water fixtures, including many
already deemed safe. In order for the new tests to be accurate to real-world applications, water was only tested from
fixtures that had not been used for at least eight hours to get a “first draw” sample.
At the time of this article’s publication, the expected completion date for this next round of testing is slated to conclude by early may, and the results should be available within the next month. In the interim, those 85 fixtures will remain shut off.
May is Bike Month
Sac State is growing and fall 2017 construction plans may affect your parking situation. Beginning May 19, Lots 1 and 4 will be closed for construction to make room for Parking Structure V and new Science II building.
What better reason to think of alternative ways to commute to campus. UTAPS has a variety of options they support, but one great one is by biking to work. Not only will you help reduce your carbon footprint, but you will get some exercise and reduce your stress in finding a parking spot.
May is Bike Month and UTAPS is encouraging students, faculty and staff to bike to work. Here are some great resources to get you motivated to take the leap.
http://bikeleague.org/bikemonth
http://www.csus.edu/aba/utaps/choices/bicycling.html
ABA Looks Sharp at Green and Gold Gala
ABA staff contributes to student success once again! ABA hosted a table at the signature black-tie fundraising event, Sacramento State’s Green & Gold Gala on Friday, March 24.
The event fundraised over $350,000 for student scholarships and programs such as the Student Emergency Grant Fund and the Green & Gold Scholarship. ABA’s own, Gina Curry, Laura Lockett, Bena Arao, Elisa Chohan, Stacey Hayano and LaVerne Simmons-Barnett, personally contributed during the event.
For many of this year’s ABA attendees, it was their first time. Elisa Chohan noted, "It was so nice to hear student success stories and feel even more connected to the important work ABA does in contributing to student initiatives like Finish in Four. It was a lot of fun, especially seeing everyone all dolled up."
ABA Puts the π in Pi Day
3.14 isn’t just a decimal number you know, it is National Pi Day! Some of our staff in ABA celebrated by hosting a Pi Day Pie Contest.
ABA staff in Sac Hall (VP’s Office, Auditing and Consulting Services, Financial Services Administration, Budget Planning and Administration and Strategic Planning and Quality Improvement) had several entries, including the overall winning selection, Margaret Hwang’s blueberry pie and most creative category winners, Ademidun Adejobi and Priscilla Llamas-McKaughan with a pizza pie.
