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Teamwork Award winner Katrina Undergraduate Students Team
with Provost Peter Lange and President Richard Brodhead |
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Team Katrina Honored for Quick Action
Teamwork and Diversity Awards recognizes employees for exceptional leadership
By Geoffrey Mock
Friday, November 11, 2005
The Saturday morning before Labor Day, Elaine Madison was at
home waiting for some e-mails. As the director of Duke's Community
Service Center, Madison was listed as the contact for people
needing assistance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Early in the morning, a bell rang on her computer, indicating
she had an e-mail. Then the computer sounded again. And again. Each
message, it seemed, contained gut-wrenching stories.
The same day, Paula
Gilbert needed to be in two places at one time. Two days
earlier, Gilbert, the director of Duke's Office of Continuing
Studies, had received a call from Trinity College Dean Robert
Thompson saying that she was in charge of admitting GulfCoast
students wanting to transfer to Duke for the semester.
The applications started coming in on Friday morning. On
Saturday, as more applications were rushing in, Gilbert raced
between the office, to ensure that the phones and computers were
staffed the entire day, and an afternoon wedding at which she was
serving as an assisting minister.
There are dozens of similar stories regarding Duke employees'
quick efforts following Katrina. Their efforts were honored
Thursday with the university's Teamwork Award, which recognizes
employees who design broad-based solutions to important issues or
problems and require departments to work together in creative
ways.
The Katrina Undergraduate Students team was responsible for
admitting 47 undergraduates from New Orleans-area universities and
easing their transition to Duke. It was a wide-ranging effort,
involving everything from finding housing and parking for the
students to getting them registered for classes and set up with
computer accounts. The 46 team members work in the bursar's office;
the Center for Instructional Technology; Continuing Education; Duke
Stores; DukeCard; the registrar's office; the Office of Information
Technology; parking; postal services; the Pratt School of
Engineering; Trinity College; residence life; Student Information
Services and Systems; Student Affairs and Undergraduate
Admissions.
Three days after the Aug. 29 hurricane, Duke officials decided
to offer admission to up to 75 Gulf Coast-based undergraduates. "It
was now the responsibility of staff in a number of offices around
campus to ensure that the process worked smoothly," according to a
nominating statement signed by Thompson and others. "The decision
would only be as sound as the commitment of the people charged with
implementing it."
The nominators noted that the usual processes for admitting
students and getting them settled on campus had to be sped up
tremendously or thrown out entirely.
"Everything had to be expedited, and procedures had to be worked
around in order to accept visiting students — something we do not
normally do. What was required was an extraordinary effort of
teamwork. The nominated group rose to the occasion."
Gilbert recalls the night she heard from Thompson about Duke's
decision to admit visiting students.
"I had supper and went to bed on time, but I got up at 3 a.m.
and started writing down all kinds of questions about what Duke was
trying to do. I was also thinking about how to organize the office
and come up with an information sheet that could be used by folks
answering the phone to help determine whether someone fit Duke's
criteria for acceptance.
"The announcement stated we would start accepting phone calls at
9 a.m. the next morning. We had an office meeting at 8 a.m., and by
the time we concluded at 9, our office already had received phone
calls, and there was a live parent in the office who had driven in
to see about getting her child into Duke."
The applications continued through the weekend. Gilbert's small
office didn't have enough staff to work the phones and computers,
but volunteers from across the campus offered to come in that
Saturday and Sunday.
"A few of us will get recognition with this award, but the fact
is many more people than those mentioned on the award made great
contributions. My entire staff was involved. Even if they weren't
directly involved in Katrina work, they took on additional duties
to let myself and others do Katrina work.
"And then others from across campus helped. There was a great
camaraderie. When we needed people to come in and answer phones on
Saturday, Bill Burig of the registrar's office and Christoph
Guttentag of undergraduate admissions drove over to help out."
Madison's job involved Duke's outreach efforts. She was a point
person for coordinating the many groups at Duke that wanted to help
with volunteer services, fund raising or in assisting displaced
Katrina students once they arrived at Duke. The requests for help
were sometimes overwhelming. The offers of help that she received
from Duke community members, however, were inspiring.
"The one upside to this was I got to meet so many smart and
dedicated people across the university. So many people dropped
everything to take action," Madison said.
The efforts were appreciated by the students' families. Gilbert
said one parent brought in cookies one afternoon. Other parents
wrote to express their appreciation.
"The warmth of the reception from the housing staff, the ID
office through academic counselors was remarkable," wrote Allan
Singer of Charlotte, whose son moved from Tulane to Duke for the
semester. "Ten days ago, Alex left home for his senior year at
Tulane with all of his plans in places. He arrived back home with a
laptop and two changes of clothes and uncertain of his future as
the enormity of the tragedy unfolded.
"In less than a week, due to your university's thoughtfulness,
he is a student at Duke continuing toward his Tulane degree. I know
that Alex is grateful for the opportunity you have given him and
his fellow students."
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