April Newsletter 2016
Housing & Residence Life
Highlights from the Director: Dee Dee Kanikkeberg 21 days and counting to the Wallace Remodel! Nick has been very busy reviewing all the submittals involved with the project. I appreciate you understanding the “all hands on deck” approach to closing out spring semester. Summer 2016 promises to be full of many facility improvements and a new era for Housing & Residence Life. As you may know, the Idaho legislature authorized a CEC (change in employee compensation) for state employees. The administration of the CEC will include a 2% raise for all staff who had a "meets" or "above" on their annual evaluation (and were employed as of January 6, 2016). The University also continues to address issues for employees related to years of service and identified benchmarks associated with specific years and the wage scale. Salary changes will be effective June 19 and will be reflected in your paycheck on July 15. Training and development for employees remains an important priority. I invite staff to
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submit ideas on professional development opportunities. Common opportunities are professional conferences, but I’m also very willing to bring someone to campus for in-services as well. We have a wealth of talented team members that spend a significant amount of their time working on team-building and trainings. I know they are happy to share their knowledge with others. In fact, both Jill and Corey have facilitated development activities at other campuses (LCSC & WSU) and for campus partners here at UI. As is typical in the field of residential housing, we will say goodbye to some of our Residence Life staff in May/June and welcome new members to the team over the next several months. We also continue to search for a Marketing Manager. Filling these positions is critical to contributing to the President’s goal of growing enrollment and also to improve retention here at UI.
Looking Forward Summer Conferences We have many exciting things to look forward to this summer, including Summer Conferences! We currently have 24 groups joining us, 19 youth groups, and 5 adult/undergraduate groups. We will be welcoming 2 brand new groups this year, welcoming back Olympic Development Program after a 4 year break, and seeing many familiar groups return to campus. Current estimates indicate that we will have approximately 2,605 guests visiting over the summer! Exciting changes include a new conference resource packet developed for groups to have a better understanding of policies, conference rates, timeline/deadlines, and additional fun and important campus Leadershop Event information. As always, Summer Conferences are a great recruitment tool forSkate Housing and the university. We look forward to showing our guests how amazing life at UI can be! Project Updates This summer marks many new beginnings for Housing facilities. Aside from the Wallace remodel contract, our team will be taking on a Student Success Center and computer lab remodel, and we will be seeing some exciting changes in the offices located in Wallace, including a new work space for Residence Life Student Staff! McConnell will be receiving new common area carpet and paint, LLC 4, 5, 6, and 8 suites will be freshly painted, all LLCs will be getting new mattresses, the Tower rooms will be having curtains and chairs replaced, and progress on the Wallace courtyard project will begin. The Wallace courtyard revamp will be a fresh update to the main entrance of Wallace Residence Center. The project is expected to take place July 1 through mid Oct. A classy Vandal I will be incorporated into the hardscape and new landscaping will brighten the building's front. We are pleased to continue improving our buildings to better serve our students.
Spring is in Full Bloom Spring is such a beautiful time on campus! We hope you are enjoying the beautiful springtime weather.
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Looking Back Staff Awards: Congratulations! A huge congrats to our two staff members who were nominated and won Outstanding Employee Awards for the University of Idaho. Awards are given to staff that have shown exemplary dedication and have gone above and beyond their normal job duties at the University of Idaho. Jill Powell was recognized for Non-Faculty Exempt Staff, and Cassandra Yardley was Anastacia Richards recognized for Secretarial and Clerical Staff. Housing & Residence Life is honored to have two incredible staff members be awarded at the luncheon. The Housing Recognition Committee would also like to honor the following staff members. Congrats to Dennis Nichols for winning the department's Courage Award for his tireless effort to improve the student experience. Alexia Lovelady and Robin Kok are being recognized with Caring Awards for always going the extra mile, and Nick Brannon is being awarded the Breakthrough Award for his exciting growth in Housing. Congratulations and thanks for all you do! New Decals and New Vehicles Housing continues to invest in our fleet and increase presence on campus by proudly displaying our new logo on new vehicles. Recently our newest Ford F-150 was updated with our Housing logo. As our fleet grows we will see more of our branding across campus.
Fun times at UIdaho Bound!
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Humans of Housing John Shuttleworth John Shuttleworth, Housing & Residence Life’s Cabinet & Furniture Specialist, is not only a skilled craftsman who’s been in the cabinetry business for 34 years. John is also an award winning BBQ competitor and judge. John started his competitive BBQ journey over 10 years ago. Always having an active interest in cooking and BBQing, he decided to take a class and become a certified BBQ Judge. After a few years of judging, John and his son-in-law, who also works at UI, decided it was time to show off their BBQ skills. From there the competitive team “Gator Done” was born. John and his son-in-law Colton’s BBQ has been recognized all over the northwest. Gator Done’s BBQ chicken won 1st place in the 2010 Northwest BBQ Championship in Bellevue, and their brisket came in 5th out of 40 teams at the 2010 Washington State BBQ Championship in downtown Seattle. John has taken class from renowned BBQ chef Paul Kirk, also known as Kansas City Baron of BBQ, and is always experimenting with new BBQ ideas, rubs, and recipes in his spare time.
Recruitment & Retention
Although John has recently hung up his competitive BBQ apron in lew of judging, he says he’s definitely not retired. This summer John will be judging a competition at the Northern Quest Casino where top prize will be $5,000. Who knew we had BBQ royalty among us? All in favor of a department BBQ say “Aye!”
The recruitment and retention season for the 2016-17 academic year is in its peak. We currently have 525 students who have renewed and 873 new students signed up to live with Housing, up 41 new students compared to this time last year! We look forward to seeing these numbers continue to rise. Thank you all for your efforts during UIdaho Bound 2016! Both events were widely successful. Housing will see more visitors on April 29 for Engineering Expo and high school sophomores & juniors on April 30 for Explore UIdaho. Two more great opportunities to showcase what we are all about!
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!