Summer Greetings Service Professionals!

While this portion of the calendar often means a slowdown in workload for other classifications around campus, most Service Professionals see it as a valuable couple of months to either catch up on projects that have been delayed during the semester or to tackle a few new ones that could make a great impact when the upcoming Fall term rolls around.  However you decide to spend the time I am certain it will be in a manner that continues to point the University in the direction that maintains us as an industry leader.  To that point I want to thank everyone for what has been a productive year for the Service Professional Advisory Council – a year in which we heard from a host of valuable guest speakers at our monthly meetings, were able to provide informative employee development opportunities with our Brown Bag lunch sessions, and also made an impact to our community through our various service projects.

The upcoming months will truly be historic as we experience the passing of the Presidential torch.  While NAU will forever be indebted to President Haeger for his myriad accomplishments, we should also look forward to the next phase in our existence and the direction in which our new leadership may take us.  We are undoubtedly living in exciting times.

In closing, the Council will be in touch later this summer as we send out our SPAC Survey so please keep an eye out.  Until then I just wanted to mention that it has truly been an honor to serve as your SPAC Chair and to thank you all for another great year.

Respectfully,

Justin B. Hagin
Chair, Service Professional Advisory Council
Ask-SPAC@nau.edu
nau.edu/SPAC

The Service Professional Advisory Council is still accepting nominations for new SPAC members, for terms beginning in July 2014. SPAC is a wonderful way to learn about the University, to represent your colleagues in policy and human resources matters, to serve your peers and community, and to network with a diverse and talented group of people from across many departments. Applications are available at the SPAC website: nau.edu/spac.

Greetings Fellow Service Professionals. I’m honored for this opportunity to introduce myself virtually and extend to each of you an open door if you ever have any questions or suggestions. As the Director of Parking and Shuttle Services for the past five years, I have learned that the most important thing I can provide to our campus and to my colleagues is an open line of communication. Many have a misunderstanding of the department or inaccurate information that often leads to challenging situations. I am here to provide information, options and a willingness to listen. Our department is responsible to build, maintain and protect parking on our campus and to provide reliable shuttle service. As an auxiliary we receive no university funding. Therefore, in order to provide these services we assess a fee. All revenue collected is invested back into providing parking and shuttle services.

Coming from a background in student housing for more than 20 years, I was shocked at the cost of asphalt. We invest minimally $500,000 in maintaining parking. Since 2012, we re-stripe every lot each summer. We recently started a student maintenance team to ensure parking garages, bus shelters, gates and parking kiosks are cleaned and well maintained. We have invested significantly in technology to provide better services such as permit kiosks, meters, GPS tracking on the shuttles and online day permits. We invest in the ecoPASS each year to provide campus employees access to all Flagstaff city bus service through Mountain Line.

I am proud to have a member of SPAC on the Parking and Shuttle Advisory Committee to serve as your voice. My thanks to Nena and past representatives.

I wish you all a peaceful summer,

Erin

Q and A with Erin Stam

SPAC: Are there other lots besides those marked “AE” (such as commuter lots) in which employees with AE permits are allowed to park?
ES: During the summer, winter break and Spring break, AE permits are permitted in resident parking lots.

SPAC: Please explain why  parking garage permit holders are required to park in the garage specified.
ES: If we allowed PG permits to park in other lots, it would significantly reduce the available parking for other permits holders (such as AE). It would also leave empty spaces in the garage and since we don’t oversell the garage, no one else could use these spaces. In essence, they would be taking two parking spaces which is not an efficient use of space on campus, especially during the school year when space is more limited. However, in the summer, winter break and spring break, PG permit holders may park in any employee, resident or commuter lot.

SPAC: What are parking permit revenues used for?
ES: Parking and Shuttle Services is an auxiliary and receives no funding from the university. Therefore, the permit revenue is used to support the entire department. The main expenses include debt service, personnel, parking lot repair and maintenance, administrative overhead, data processing and fuel. We invest, minimally, $500,000 every summer in parking lot repair.

SPAC: Are there any plans to make up for the lost indoor bike storage at Extended Campuses, such as additional bike lockers?
ES: This location has not suggested before. We’d be happy to consider it. (If there is an interested staff person willing to work with me, please have them contact me directly)

SPAC: Are there any plans to have additional metered and handicapped parking close to more buildings?
ES: Parking Services places parking in the lots closest to the building. We don’t have control over the removal of parking lots.

SPAC: Are there any plans to run a shuttle service for students and employees to/from places that are not served by Mountain Line, like Kachina Village?
ES: We currently do not have the resources to offer services off campus. NAIPTA/ Mountain Line is looking to provide a van service to outlying areas such as Kachina Village and Doney Park in the future.

During the Service Professional Advisory Council’s Annual Meeting and Mixer held April 17 at 1899 Bar & Grill, John Doherty was honored with the 2014 SPAC Leadership Award.

An Instructional Designer with the e-Learning Center since 2007 (and a Cline Library librarian before that), John has taken on an ever-increasing number of projects and responsibilities as Northern Arizona University continues to find ways to improve teaching and learning. He not only cheerfully accepts new endeavors and volunteers for additional assignments -- he does so with good humor and with an energy level that serves as an excellent example for his colleagues and for service professionals throughout the University.

Along with his many regular duties, John is a master course reviewer and an institutional representative for NAU in the national Quality Matters program. He teaches workshops in how to use the QM rubric, which is increasingly being used by faculty who want to improve the design and effectiveness of their courses. John is also actively involved in the Arizona Statewide Consortium for Quality Matters, serving as a certified peer reviewer and content expert for courses at NAU and other Arizona colleges and universities.

On a rotating schedule, John teaches in the NAU Honors Program and the First-Year Seminar, and has also taught an upper-division course. He uses his courses as proving grounds for innovative course design and teaching practices, and then shares his results with other faculty who (along with their students) benefit from John's insights and experiences.
John is also an Associate in University College, and works with other University College faculty to develop templates and practices that foster student engagement and improve student learning outcomes. He is actively involved in discussions and the development of practices related to academic integrity, and he instigated development of an online academic integrity tutorial for students.

John has collaborated with Faculty Professional Development to co-facilitate and participate in faculty learning communities on blended learning and inclusive design. Along with Wally Nolan, ELC's other instructional designer, John leads a learning community on student engagement, facilitating discussions and activities geared toward increasing student motivation and engagement in a variety of courses. For a number of years he has participated in Faculty Professional Development's Productive Beginnings even, which orients new faculty to NAU. He also participates in their annual Faculty Teaching Seminar.
A few other activities that help fill John's "free time:"

• He serves as a member of a grad student's thesis committee.
• He regularly presents at conferences, including ELC's Southwest Institute for Learning with Technology, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, the Teaching Professor Technology Conference, Higher Education Teaching and Learning, and most recently at the National Association for Bilingual Education.
• He has provided training and presentations on Open Journal Systems to help academics improve access to research.
• He has authored or co-authored several academic book chapters, most recently one on effective use of technology in Honors courses.

Even while wearing so many hats, John is always good for a joke, an interesting piece of trivia, or a bit o' Irish wisdom.

A dedicated family man, John is going on his 16th year serving Northern Arizona University. He is truly deserving of the Service Professional Advisory Council Leadership Award.