From the A-3 Assembly Past Chair's Report to Council
This is my last Council meeting, as it is for so many others of you.
I want to begin by thanking all those who gave me support and encouragement
throughout the past year. But to especially thank my Board members who've
worked so diligently beside me. It has been a whirlwind year for me. But
it has also been both an exciting and enlightening one, and I'm am so very
grateful for the opportunity to learn and to grow that this experience has
afforded me.
Of course, for the A-3 Assembly the most eventful triumph for this year,
without a doubt, has been the soon-to-be implementation of our new retirement
plan. I've been on and off the A-3 Board now for eight years with the retirement
plan always being the number 1 item on our agenda. So for the realization
of that goal to occur during my term gives me great pleasure. Thanks to
Dr. Rodin and her administration for making that happen.
During my term there was one other major item I wanted to accomplish
and that was to increase the interest in and the visibility of the A-3 Assembly
to the A-3 staff, themselves. By holding monthly general A-3 Assembly meetings,
and discussing issues that were of particular interest to the A-3 community,
I think we were able to accomplish this goal. This was evident by a couple
of things. For the first time in years, we were able to fill all of our
allotted representative slots on the Council Committees with very enthusiastic
and interested representatives whom we feel will serve both the A-3 Assembly
and the University well.
There was one thing that I did learn from my constituents however, and
that is that the University-wide apathy that I was discovering among A-3
staff members is due in large part to the fact that many members in the
A-3 community are not getting the kind of support from their supervisors
that would lend them to participating in committees by attending meeting
at times other than lunchtimes. This has caused tremendous lack of participation
among A-3 on committee in which we know that their input would be of significant
value to the University. I'd like to take this opportunity to alert the
President about this issue and to recommend that faculty members, director,
supervisors allow staff members to participate in committees on campus.
The A-3 Assembly has elected it's new Board for 2000-2001. This election
was scheduled for May, but a clause in our constitution stipulated that
if the "call for nominations" do not yield enough nominees to
fill the vacant slots available on the board, then the nominees would be
considered elected to the Board if they are otherwise qualified. This happened
with ("ironically") the call for nominees yielding the exact number
needed to fill the vacant slots, making an election, unnecessary.
I'd like to introduce the Executive Board members of our new 20-member
Board. This is the first time we've had a complete 20 member Board in a
number of years. Our new chairperson is Regina Cantave; she has worked
at Penn for 13 years. She too has served on various University committees
on campus and has been off and on the A-3 Board for many years. Karen Pinckney
is our Vice Chair, she has been at Penn a little over a year. Our Secretary
is Danielle Kradin who has been working for Penn a number of years, and
finally our Treasurer, Terri Brown who is also a relatively new, but enthusiastic
and excited employee. I hope you will welcome them as you have me this past
year.
--Debra Smiley Koita, Past Chair |
A-3 Assembly Board, 2000-2001
Officers of the Board:
- Chair: Regina Cantave (Office of the Vice Provost for Information
Systems and Computing)
- Vice Chair: Karen Pinckney (Med School, Architecture & Facilities
Management)
- Secretary: Danielle Kradin (Human Resources, Center for Professional
Dev.)
- Treasurer: Terri J.Brown (Cell & Molecular Biology Graduate
Group)
Board Members:
- Donna Arthur (Law School, Career Planning and Placement)
- Amy Bogdanoff (Veterinary School, Clinical Studies)
- Pamela Carr (Transportation and Parking Services)
- Christine Davies (Academic Support Programs)
- Connie Gordon (Vice Provost for University Life)
- Loretta Hauber (Office of Health Education)
- Andrea Helzer (Vice Provost for University Life)
- John Hogan (Biddle Law Library)
- Ali Khan (Medical Center, Development & Alumni Relations)
- Debra Smiley Koita (Career Services)
- Tracy Macklin (Medical School, Genetics Dept.)
- Margaret Cerie O'Toole (Vice President, Human Resources)
- Girard Rudasill (Classroom Technology Services-ISC)
- Jay Saddington (Facilities Services)
- Sugirtha Vivekanathan (Campus Dining Services)
- Michael Wisniewski (Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, Acquisitions)
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