Division of Business Affairs

On Monday November 18, as a part of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, the Office of Sustainability facilitated Weigh the Waste at Liberty Fresh Food Company. As part of the event, members of Sustainability weighed food waste every 15 minutes during lunch (11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) and dinner (6:00 to 8:00 p.m.).

During lunch, 168.5 pounds of waste was collected (.212 pounds per person). During dinner, 135 pounds of waste was collected. The event was created to raise awareness about the amount of food that is wasted on average during peak times. Despite most of the food at Liberty Fresh Food Company being compostable, every effort to decrease waste makes an impact.

Students, faculty, and staff members who returned empty plates to the tray dumping station were given stickers and were congratulated as members of the ‘Clean Plate Club.’

Linda McClenaghan, Human Resources

Briefly describe your role.

My role is to support the faculty and staff with professional development opportunities, which include supervisory practices, supervisory critical skills, and Microsoft Office workshops.  Currently I am conducting a “What’s My Style” series. I also organize community-building events such as summer and holiday craft, community, and learning workshops, wellness workshops, and financial information workshops. One of my favorite community events is the Every-Other-Year Lightsey Picnic.

What is the function of your department?

Human Resources is a customer service department dedicated to serving not only our faculty and staff, but the customers who apply for positions at the College. Our goal is to make the employment experience at The College as positive as possible…from application to retirement.

How long have you been working at the College?

Eleven years on August 19.

What brought you to the College?

My husband and I bought our house the year before Hugo and finally fulfilled our dream of moving to Charleston in 2001. We took a year off and then in July 2002, I started looking for a job. I picked up the newspaper and said “here’s my job” and there was never a question that this is where I belonged.

What do you like most about your job?

I love learning and creating.

What are some of your favorite memories from the College?

As corny as it sounds, I was quite touched last year as I walked across the stage to receive my 10 year pin.

What are your hobbies and interests?

Theatre, computers, walking, gardening, and my dog, Annie.

What is something that your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you?

Many of you know that I have had the opportunity to take advantage of staff training and have taken about 9 theatre classes. You may not know that several years ago, I was honored to be selected by the Regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival to participate in the National Conference Critics Institute at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week will take place from Sunday, November 17 to Saturday, November 23.

As a part of this year’s activities on campus, the Office of Sustainability will facilitate two events. The first event, a Weigh the Waste with Dining Services, will be held on Monday, November 18. Members of the Office of Sustainability and Dining Services will weigh all of the post-consumer waste created by students in Fresh Food Company during lunch and dinner (11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.).

The second event is a panel discussion on Wednesday, November 20, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. The discussion will be centered around homelessness in the Lowcountry. During the discussion, only SNAP (food stamp) eligible food will be available.

For a list of all events being held on campus, click here.

When the MyCougarCampus initiative kicked off in 2011, the College began implementation of FAMIS, owned by Accruent, Inc. FAMIS was an enterprise facility management software program that was identified during the early stages of the BATTERY Project. The  program would allow the College to integrate its planning, financial and reporting activities for capital projects, maintenance and operations, real estate, inventory control, and space management. The College bought FAMIS in December 2009 but delayed implementation until 2011.

As most of you are aware, the College decided to suspend implementation in February 2012 and cancelled the contract in March 2012. Between then and now, the College has been able to identify current and emerging issues related to higher education facilities and space management; needs that would not have been solved with FAMIS. In August, an RFP was issued to find a new vendor and program for the project. The College is now in the process of evaluating vendors and hopes to make an award by the Holiday break.

The project is estimated to launch at the beginning of 2014. At that time, planning activities will begin. The project should be completely live within 18 months of launching.

MyCougarCampus is one of the larger implementations of the BATTERY Project. It is also the final full product implementation. Ultimately, MyCougarCampus will affect every member of the campus community. Updates about MyCougarCampus will be communicated in the upcoming months.

Sonya Allen, Parking Services

Briefly describe your role.

I manage all parking-related business at the College of Charleston.

What is the function of your department?

We provide parking permits for employees and students and enforce the College’s parking regulations.

How long have you been working at the College?

Seven years as of September 2013.

What brought you to the College?

I wanted to work for the State, and I jumped at the opportunity to work at my alma mater.

What do you like most about your job?

I love the fact that my job is never boring. Each day brings new opportunities and challenges.

What are some of your favorite memories from the College?

I’ve been here long enough to really appreciate the different things on campus that mark the seasons: the beautiful azaleas blooming in the Spring, the ECDC costume parade in the Fall, etc.

What are your hobbies and interests?

I am a diehard fan of the Carolina Panthers and the Cleveland Indians, and I don’t ever miss any of either team’s games.

What is something that your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you?

I am an adjunct instructor in the Business Department at Trident Technical College. I really enjoy teaching.

As the Deputy Treasurer at the College, Emanoela Harness is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Treasurer’s Office. She helps support the business side of the office operations, including customer service, compliance, and maintaining student accounts processes. Emanoela also serves as a back-up to the Treasurer, David Katz, and assists with student and non-student billing and refund processing. Her role allows for better separation of duties, increased customer service and therefore enhances the expertise and ability of the Treasurer’s Office to assist students.

Before joining the College in November 2012, Emanoela worked for a bank. Coming from a different employment background has been a challenge. She sometimes catches herself perceiving situations from a bank point of view. Lucky for Emanoela, David has served as a great mentor and has helped her transition smoothly into her position.

The history and the organizational culture of the College is what drew her to the Deputy Treasurer position. It was the ideal opportunity for her to continue her career path. The role is an extension of what she used to do while learning many new professional skills. While serving as the Deputy Treasurer, Emanoela is exciting about taking over student billing and gaining a complete understanding of the College’s system processes and structure.

Emanoela was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria and is fluent in Bulgarian. She and her husband moved to Charleston in 2011 from Heidelberg, Germany.

Written by Stephanie Alexander Rehmann:

Charleston’s beaches and friendly people may be world famous, but above and beyond its natural beauty, Charleston is heralded for its rich contributions to our nation’s history. The South Carolina Historical Society (SCHS), the state’s oldest and largest private repository of books, letters, maps, journals, drawings and photographs about South Carolina history, has called Charleston home since its founding in 1855. Letters from U.S. Presidents, rare 19^th century images of South Carolinians, and the papers of Charleston renaissance trailblazers Dubose Heyward, Josephine Pinckney, and Laura Bragg represent a cross section of the Society’s many treasures. National Book Award-winner Edward Ball, who spoke to the Friends of the Library in February 2013, informed much of his bestselling book Slaves in the Family from the SCHS’s collection of this own family’s records, the Ball Family Papers.

The Historical Society is a collaborating organization in the Lowcountry Digital Library initiative, and when the Society began exploring new options for housing its collection, they turned to their friends in the College’s Libraries. Out of these discussions came an exciting new partnership: The College of Charleston’s Special Collections will soon house the majority of the SCHS’s collection. The South Carolina Historical Society currently resides in the historic Robert Mills Fireproof Building located at 100 Meeting Street. Native South Carolinian Robert Mills, the first professionally trained architect born in America and federal architect under President Andrew Jackson, designed many important buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Washington Monument. The Fireproof Building, built in 1822 as a state office building with secure storage for local public records, was the first fireproof structure in the nation built specifically to protect documents. The Fireproof Building was named a National Historic Landmark in 1973. Major renovations to the interior and exterior of the Palladian style structure were completed in 2002. The Fireproof Building, however historically significant in itself, isn’t positioned, either in space or technology, to house the Society’s ever-expanding collection. The Addlestone Library’s Special Collections, on the other hand, is a 21st century archives, with dedicated, modern facilities to repair, restore, and protect the treasures under the Society’scare. In housing the collection in the state-of-the-art Addlestone Library, the Society will ensure the safety of the thousands of fragile maps, letters, photographs and books in its possession, and will guarantee the space for continued collection growth. With the addition of the Society’s materials to the College’s already extensive holdings, the Addlestone Library will rank with the top research centers in the nation in Southern Studies.

“This partnership will enable the College to make the South Carolina Historical Society’s repository of historic resources more accessible to a much larger audience,” says College of Charleston President P. George Benson. “As a hub for research and intellectual discovery, the College’s Addlestone Library is the ideal place to house such an important collection.” Dr. Faye Jensen, Executive Director of the South Carolina Historical Society, is equally pleased by the partnership. “The holdings of the South Carolina Historical Society have long been acknowledged by scholars and students as an irreplaceable and inexhaustible resource of state, regional, and national culture,” she said. “We are pleased that these resources will be in close proximity to the College’s own invaluable collections.”

Partnership Leads to Major Improvements at Addlestone

The sudden influx of so much fragile and valuable material will require a major renovation to the Addlestone Library. Shelving in Special Collections will increase by 260%, to 45,000 square feet, with additional research space for students and scholars. The renovation serves a dual purpose: it addresses unexpected discrepancies between today’s realities and the usage numbers predicted when the Addlestone opened in 2005. The library operates 334 days per year, to serve 1.2 million people. Even with 1400 seats, the building can accommodate only 13% of the students at one time. At peak times during the semester, demand exceeds supply. Students require spaces for quiet study and collaborative work, as well as access to the expansive range of research materials – both print and electronic. The renovation will add 206 seats for students, including 140 general seats, eighteen seats in three small group study rooms, and fifty seats in new modular classroom learning space. While the Addlestone will safeguard the SCHS’s collection and ensure easy public access, the Society will retain ownership of its materials. Its staff will be intricately involved in the collection’s future maintenance, and have access to the College’s innovative digitization initiatives and best practices in traditional archiving. The collaboration, a true partnership between like-minded organizations, will be a boon to all: the College, the Historical Society, and countless researchers.

Brenda Burbage, Physical Plant

Briefly describe your role.

I am the Finance Manager and Contract Administrator. This has me doing everything from assisting in multi-million dollar building projects to assisting in the purchase of paper towels. I track and reconcile a budget of approximately $12M while working with our team to identify cost saving initiatives.

What is the function of your department?

Physical Plant is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of our campus facilities.  This includes utilities, custodial, electrical, painting, engineering, etc.

How long have you been working at the College?

22 years

What brought you to the College?

I grew up in Charleston and around the College. Because my grandmother and mother worked here, it seemed like a natural fit.

What do you like most about your job?

Every day is different. Actually, every minute is different. You never know what the emergency of the day is going to be. There is never a dull moment!

What are some of your favorite memories from the College?

My graduation of course but being here before and after Hurricane Hugo really stands out. I was a student worker in the SSC at the time, and had to help prepare the building. Then I was back on campus pretty quickly, watching the removal of the trees that had fallen in the Cistern Yard. It was very surreal.

What are your hobbies and interests?

I volunteer quite a bit, mostly with Pet Helpers and Unchain Charleston. I’ve also done work with the Charleston Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, Coastal Conservation League, and SC Sea Grant Consortium on beach sweeps/river sweeps. I try to be very active in my community with environmental and animal issues.

What is something that your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you?

I’m a huge NASCAR fan. I’ve been to several races at different tracks and rarely miss a televised race. My favorite driver is Jeff Gordon!

In order to bring more awareness to sustainability at the College, the Office of Sustainability is preparing to launch the Caught Green-Handed campaign. The program will recognize people when they engage in sustainability practices.

Stickers, which include the saying ‘I was caught green-handed,’ will given to faculty, staff members, and students for their green acts.

The campaign is expected to launch in October and will be heavily promoted through social media platforms.

The day before the College’s big Parking Services permit sale, Sonya Allen, Manager of Parking Services, planned on coming into the office early and needed the flexibility to stay as late as necessary to prepare for the crowd the next day. Knowing that her Chihuahua, Lil Bit, would not be able to go for that long without a restroom break, she decided to bring him with her. He hung out in his kennel in her office while she worked. That afternoon, a student came into the office very upset about her parking situation. Sonya explained her options to her and her father, but she wasn’t happy with any of those options. It became clear that she was frustrated about more than her parking situation when she burst into tears and started to vent about the stress she was under – moving to Charleston, getting a new job, etc.

As Sonya watched her cry, Lil Bit decided that his owner had been gone too long and he came out of the office and started to jump on Sonya’s leg, asking her to pick him up. His demanding behavior just added to the stress that Sonya was feeling by this time, so she reached down and scooped him up. She saw the student’s reaction to seeing Lil Bit, so Sonya asked her, “Do you need this?” The student just nodded her head. Sonya plopped the dog onto the counter and let him work his magic. His tail was wiggling with delight at the prospect of meeting someone new, and somehow he knew to focus on the upset student. He licked her tears and loved on her until she smiled. The student’s father looked at Sonya gratefully, and she explained to him, “Lil Bit is a therapy dog and this is what he does best.” The student finally placed the dog back onto the counter, pulled herself together, and apologized for being so emotional. Parking Services was able to help her make a decision about her parking space, and she and her father left the office.

Sonya has seen Lil Bit diffuse situations before, but never like this. He was her secret weapon that day!

Lil Bit literally wandered into Sonya’s yard in August 2012 when she and her husband, Chris, were outside throwing a Frisbee to their Australian Shepard. The two dogs hit it off immediately and started chasing each other around the front yard. Her husband assumed that this was a neighbor’s dog that had gotten loose somehow. Pretty soon it started to thunder and Chris decided to take their dog into the house. When no one came around looking for the Chihuahua, Chris figured that he better take him into the house too, so that he wouldn’t have to be outside in the storm.

When Sonya got home that evening, she called the phone number on the dog’s collar several times, but it always went straight to voicemail. Her and her husband had never been ‘little dog people,’ but they recognized that this dog was special and they were committed to keeping him until they could reach his owner. Several days later, they finally reached someone at the number on the dog’s collar. The woman on the phone told them that this wasn’t her dog and that he must have been wearing an old tag. This was odd, seeing as though the staff at the Charleston Animal Society estimated his age to be only 6-8 months. Once they had eliminated the possibility of reuniting this dog with his owner, they decided to make him a permanent addition to their home. So many people have told Sonya and Chris that Lil Bit is the friendliest Chihuahua they have ever met. Sonya agrees. She had him evaluated to be a registered therapy dog and he passed with flying colors. There is definitely something special about the little guy.