What began as a “bold idea” in the 2017 Bold Ideas Challenge has now come to fruition in Fresno State’s newest employee recognition program — High Five. Click here to read about how the program began.

High Fives are easy to give — simply go to the High Five website on the Organizational Excellence webpage, click “Give a High Five” and fill out the form to send kudos to anyone on campus. Your message will be delivered straight to their inbox, and recipients will be acknowledged weekly in Campus News.

Read below how your colleagues are going above and beyond to help the campus community.

(Note: Campus News edited comments only for misspellings and missing or incomplete words. They appear mostly as written for each employee.)

Above & Beyond

Jeanie Leanos, Traffic Operations
Jeannie responded within just a very few minutes, and stopped by our office on her way home to help us out.

Eileen Schlundt, Technology Services
During our first day of telecommuting, I was having trouble remotely accessing my computer from home. Not only did she provide me instructions for how to connect, but also helped trouble shoot real time what was going on and how to fix it. Not only that, she was continually testing the connections and reading through everything to ensure that it was working as it should. Her dedication to ensure that everything was working as it should was greatly appreciated!

Will Tubbs, Technology Services (Craig School of Business)
Will has been the shining light through all of uncertainty. He had to scramble to get needed equipment to all the staff so we can continue to do our jobs remotely. He is always calm and reassuring. We could not operate effectively without him. He is the best. The Craig School of Business salutes Will for a job well done!

Felicia Salcido, College of Arts and Humanities
Felicia went above and beyond to ensure our office's transition into using Zoom for our student population went as smooth as possible. She collaborated with other department colleagues to quickly learn and implement as much as possible so our team of academic counselors could best serve our students. Thank you, Felicia!

Marsha Baum, Faculty Affairs
Kudos to Marsha and everyone in Faculty Affairs for all of their efforts handling all of the extra work resulting from the stay-at-home orders from the governor. She and her office have helped make it possible for department PRC committees to do their work in a timely manner, and her emails have, in general, been exceedingly helpful.

Brian Beamer, Technology Services
During this difficult time of COVID-19 impacting our campus and work routines, our department was going through a huge change. But Brian was there helping transition us online and going virtual. Whether it was extra laptops needed or walking us through new programs to keep us working normal as much as possible. He is a superhero! Our Technology Services employees and teams do not get enough credit for their commitment and hard work. Thank you Brian for being an essential support to us and our departments here on campus.

Boon Mo, Technology Services
Boon, thank you so much for working effortlessly in getting us up and running to work remotely. I appreciate you and all that you have done not just during this time, but all other times as well.

Haile Fitzwater, ISDS
She has taken over as our department administrator after Kathryn accepted another role. She is doing a great job juggling her services between economics, ISDS, and the dean's office.

Jennie Johnson, Services for Students With Disabilities
Over the last week or so, Jennie has deserved many High Fives! She has been in meeting after meeting to help the SSD office ensure accessibility for students. Jennie has worked very closely with other departments and staff members to get additional resources for both staff and students. She has taken on extra tasks, as well as appropriately delegated other tasks to other staff so that it gets done fast and accurately. She has kept us in the loop each step of the way with meetings or email communications. She has done a tremendous job with this transition to virtual learning and SSD is lucky to have her. (Directors can tend to be overlooked as staff members who work "Above and Beyond," as other staff members may feel they are either "not doing enough" or are "doing what they should be doing." I think directors deserved to be recognized too!!)

Modeling Principles of Community

Lisa Gong, Lyles College of Engineering
Lisa is kind and respectful even in stressful times. She is professional, helpful, and she works hard to serve the needs of the college.

Saved My Bacon!

Will Tubbs, Technology Services (Craig School of Business)
Will saved our bacon plenty of times! He has gone above and beyond everyone's expectations to ensure a smooth transition from working on campus to working remotely. Thank you for everything you do to keep us sane!

Provides Excellent Customer Service

Mary Bennett, Center for Faculty Excellence
During our recent transition by Fresno State faculty to virtual meetings, on two recent occasions I have had the wonderful opportunity to be provided Canvas support by sessions with Mary Bennett. I am personally very indebted to Mary for her outstanding support and assistance at being able to quickly answer all my technical questions regarding both Zoom and Lockdown Browser information. Mary has been instrumental in allowing me to quickly respond to all of my student's technical questions related to Zoom and Lockdown Browser. Mary is very friendly and has a great skill at being able to help a non-technical person such as I to understand technical issues very quickly. I truly believe Mary is an outstanding employee and represents well the Center for Faculty Excellence. To summarize, Mary Bennett is simply outstanding, and is a real credit to our entire university! Thanks Mary!

Celia Gonzalez, Procurement and Support Services

Departments

Goes Above & Beyond

Student Health Center
To all our friends and colleagues (physicians, nurses, counselors, staff and management) in the Student Health Center who are working tirelessly to serve our students during this challenging time, HIGH FIVE! Thank you for your service and taking such good care of our students.

We know you are on the front line and are providing compassionate support to all who need you - we appreciate you! Janell, please share with your amazing team.

Public Safety
As the campus transitions to a virtual teaching and learning environment, most of our students, faculty and hundreds of staff members are learning, teaching and working remotely. There is a core team that serves our campus 24/7 - during normal times AND times of crisis. We simply cannot say thank you and we appreciate you enough.

On behalf of the 24,000 students and 3,000 employees, HIGH FIVE to our Public Safety team. Thank you to our officers, dispatchers, community service specialists, staff support, tech team and management! We know you are keeping us safe as you always do. We appreciate you so VERY much!!

Provides Excellent Customer Service

Center for Faculty Excellence
In these days of COVID-19, the entire CFE staff lead by Dr. Bryan Berrett has served the faculty beyond words. Kudos to the entire team! As a faculty, I can say that we are surviving only because of help from CFE.
A big HIGH FIVE!