KU announces July employees of the month
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has announced the July 2015 employees of the month:
Name: Dean Noll
Title: Engineering technician, Design & Construction Management
What that means: Noll prepares final construction and design development drawings and handles projects that deal with remodeling, repair or upgrades of building facades and other building maintenance items. He designed and manages DCM’s large document filing system and also the department’s archives. He also undertakes a wide variety of additional duties as needed.
Notable: Noll was instrumental in the department’s move last summer from Carruth O’Leary Hall to St. Andrews Office Facility. He worked tirelessly with staff and the movers to make the move as smooth as possible. He answered numerous questions, packed boxes, provided supplies and was a key intermediary with the move staff on moving day. This move involved 36 tons of paper (700,000 to 800,000 documents). Noll not only coordinated the move of these documents, but he also filed them to make sure documents could be found if needed.
Noll also has a background with land surveyors and is diligent at checking legal descriptions for properties and easements, which is invaluable for the various projects along the campus boundaries and offsite properties. As the architects and engineers for KU’s non-medical campuses, DCM generates and stores thousands of plans. Even though DCM has been keeping digital records for years, they are required by law to keep agreements on paper. Noll has been the de facto manager of these drawings and is very helpful when one of these drawings needs to be located, much like a needle in a haystack.
Before Noll came to the department, there was hardly a filing system. Noll went through every document, replacing duplicates, scanning documents, creating an index of documents, and organizing them in a manner that allowed them to be found. The scanning alone saved the department thousands of dollars as Noll’s work prevented outsourcing the work.
Many architecture students have made their acquaintance with Noll as he is the go-to person that provides help to students by finding building plans and specifications for their class projects. He also makes sure birthday and other cards are circulated and signed. He is known for assembling furniture, hanging picture frames, retrieving boxes from archives, and he’s been known to remove deceased rodents from the building as well as chase out a live stray bird. When something needs to be done, the first question asked is, “Where’s Dean?”
Name: Jennifer Nigro
Title: Administrative associate, Audio Reader Program
What that means: Nigro has been with Kansas’ Audio Reader Program since June 2004, and in her role, she coordinates almost 400 diverse community volunteers who provide program support for the Kansas Audio Reader Network. Nigro schedules, auditions, trains and socializes with a large portion of these volunteers. She also edits and publishes a monthly volunteer newsletter called Closed Circuit that shares stories and information about and for volunteers. Nigro is the coordinator for Audio Reader’s involvement with Audio Description, which takes Audio Reader to live theater events in the Lawrence and the Greater Kansas City areas to describe plays to people who are blind. Nigro manages the tickets, schedules the describers and maintains contact with the various theaters.
Notable: Nigro supports and recognizes the volunteers who make Audio Reader possible. She coordinates the holiday party, the Volunteer Recognition Dinner and National Volunteer Week activities, and she assists with all fundraising events. On her own volition, Nigro has scheduled “lunch and learn” meetings on a variety of topics and conducts annual evaluations to help volunteers improve their reading and broadcasting skills. Volunteers appreciate the time and energy she puts into their development and finding educational opportunities. What the volunteers also appreciate is that Nigro always finds time to look at their pictures of grandchildren, pets, vacations and more. Nigro takes her job very seriously and treats all volunteers like they are members of her family.
Nigro can troubleshoot almost every technical problem in the studio. As impressive as her technical expertise is, just as impressive is that she never lets frustration with technology bleed over into her interaction with a volunteer. Audio Reader broadcasts 24 hours a day, and Nigro goes above and beyond to make sure Audio Reader stays on the air. Nigro can find substitute readers continually, makes calls to cover last-minute cancellations and comes in on snow days to make sure listeners are not disappointed. If volunteers fail to show up for their shift, Nigro steps in and takes it. If a volunteer can only audition on a Saturday morning, Nigro makes that work for her schedule. She does all that is possible to keep Audio Reader on the air every day.