Topflight Team Awards

The Student Services Topflight Team Award is designed to recognize a department, office, or team within the Student Services Division whose activities or accomplishments merit attention and emulation. Two awards will be bestowed each year, one for each semester. The selected group will also receive $150 towards their team's celebration. The department, office, or team selected by the Student Services Awards Committee will have its name permanently inscribed on the traveling Topflight Team trophy and display the trophy for one semester. Each staff member in the department, office, or team will be recognized at the Student Services Annual Recognition Reception.

Topflight Team Award Winners

Spring 2009

WESTEC

WESTEC promotes excellence for Western Illinois University, has a positive impact on student well-being, recruitment, and retention, and has demonstrated a team effort with other areas in coordinating services to students, faculty, and staff. Few institutions are fortunate enough to have such an organization on campus, let alone an organization of WESTEC’s caliber. The National Association for Campus Activities has recognized the skill level and professionalism of WESTEC’s student crew members and repeatedly accepts applicants for the National Convention stage crew. During the month of April, WESTEC had more events than any other month this academic year. After they had already stated they could take on no additional events, they enthusiastically took on small projects. Congratulations to WESTEC – an amazing and unique organization!!

Fall 2008

Big Pink Volleyball Committee

This year, Big Pink V-ball had 1,032 participants in 131 teams and raised over $8,000 for Breast Cancer Research. The committee is a group that honestly cares about one another and about the cause that they are working for. Big Pink V-ball is an event that extends into many different functional areas of Student Services. This event brings together staff members and allows them to interact in a way that they don’t get to in a professional setting.

This year, Big Pink V-ball was recognized by the National Residence Hall Honorary as the National Service Project of the Month for September. This recognition brings positive publicity to WIU’s campus and shows that students are striving to make a difference in the world.

One of the four core values of Western Illinois University’s mission statement is social responsibility, and through Big Pink V-ball, students get a first hand experience of fulfilling that value. Big Pink Volleyball benefits individuals at a local and national level and truly gives students the opportunity to make a difference in the world. All of the proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and McDonough District Hospital’s Cancer Screening programs.

Big Pink V-ball has a positive impact on student recruitment and retention by creating an opportunity for a positive experience within students’ first few weeks of school. Being a member of a team or some sort of group is essentially one of the many things that keep students involved and interested in university. Big Pink provides that opportunity.

Spring 2008

University Counseling Center

The UCC office staff work hard to make their office a welcoming environment for students. The director's office is always open to help counselors with problems and consultation. This semester, the director has handled crises in the residence halls, student shootings at NIU, and the shooting threat at WIU which necessitated working many night, early morning, and weekend hours. In addition, he served on a statewide committee to study and prevent violence on college campuses. One person on staff specifically counsels students about their career choices and study skills. Graduate assistants accompany counselors to outreach programs and learn to develop their own programs. Outreach programs help familiarize students with a wide range of issues from stress, to communication, to healthy relationships, to identifying depression and anxiety. UCC graduate assistants are active in programs such as Take Back the Night, National Depression Screening Day and Eating Wellness Screening Day. UCC counselors are not expected to see more than 5 clients a day for 1-hour sessions, but many see 6 or 7 clients when the center is at its peak. Counselors are eager to respond to requests for outreach programs despite having full schedules. The team at UCC strives to provide the best possible services in personal, couple, and group counseling, study skills, career, testing, psychological assessment, consultation, and outreach programs.

Fall 2007

Undergraduate Admissions Office

The Admissions office has undergone many staffing changes and handled them with ease. Admissions personnel have held their own and pulled together to meet goals and standards. Various staff members have taken on additional responsibilities to ensure processing continues. The office recently initiated a Document Tracking System. This has enabled faculty and academic advisors to speak to prospective students confidently concerning the admissions status and any documents that may be missing. The staff stays motivated at all times.

Spring 2007

University Housing & Dining Services

UHDS is an excellent staff to be a part of day in and day out. Currently, the staff is embracing the FISH philosophy. This is a widely known philosophy developed at Pikes Market in Seattle which encourages having fun in your job. In addition to regular food days in the hallway, UHDS hosts an annual tail-gate party during Homecoming. During the holiday season, staff members coordinate a voluntary event where staff secretly exchanges small gifts and come together at the week's end to guess gift-givers. UHDS has had two members on the Environmental Sustainability Committee. Through this committee, UHDS has taken a leading role in Western's first ever participation in the nation recycling competition - Recyclemania. UHDS has participated in the campus Master Planning sessions, sent a large delegation to the GLACUHO conference in Springfield, put on Safe Trick-or-Treat, helped to put on Big Pink Volleyball, and contributed co-sponsorship to bring speakers to campus. The list of UHDS accomplishments over the past year is never ending.

Nominations

Submit a nomination for a Topflight Team Award online.