Employee Engagement at Richland College

RECOGNITION APPROACHES
Birthday Card from the College President
President Steve Mittelstet sends each employee a specially designed electronic greeting on their birthday. The e-card is
interactive and delivered via e-mail.

Birthday Card from Information Services & College Relations Celebrating you
Each year the Information Services Office creates an employee birthday card that We also honor our earth
Finding harmony.
includes a small commemorative item. In the past, greetings such as “You’re a
star,” accompanied a specialty pen. Other items A Happy Birthday haiku for
included stress balls, custom door hangers and
Thunderduck Post-It™ notes. This year, in the spirit of Roy Bond
From all of us in Information Services.
sustainability, we’re offering a recycled cardboard pen that’s attached to a card
featuring a haiku poem as a birthday wish. This birthday pen is made from recycled card stock and sustainable wooden chips.

Longevity Awards
The Exalted Order of The Snowy White Fillet celebrates employee longevity
starting with 10 years of service with recognitions for every five subsequent
years. Inductees into Snowy White Fillet are honored at an annual luncheon.

Honored employees receive:

President Steve Mittelstet, left, honors Ron Clark for 40 • 25 years: Crystal box with Richland logo
years of service to Richland College and the Dallas
County Community College District.
• 10 years: Richland medallion and the 10-year pin
• 15 years: 15-year pin
• 20 years: Choice of a tree on campus with a commemorative plaque
installed at its base with the Latin inscription, “Notatu Dignum” (of worthy
note) and the employee’s name, and the 20-year pin
• 30 years: Framed photograph chosen from Multimedia Program and the 30-
year bronze plaque displayed in Crockett Breezeway
• 35 years: Engraved brick installed in Labyrinth Arbor walkway and an
engraved brick for personal presentation
• 40 years: Engraved marble bookends and a second engraved brick installed
in Labyrinth Arbor walkway.

EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION
Employee of the Month & Innovation of the Year Parades
A staple of our awards approach is the “employee parade” for recognitions, such as Employee of the Month and Innovation of
the Year. Employees parade across campus in ceremonial regalia, gathering additional employees and students along the way,
to the recipient’s location. The honoree is joyfully declared and receives gifts such as movie passes, a plant, a parking pass,
and a coveted Thunderduck mug. These recognitions are reported in the ThunderBridge newsletter to employees and friends.

The recipients of the 2007-08 Innovation of the The Thunderducks start the parade, complete with Thuy Anh Nguyen of the Multicultural Center was
Year Award – ThunderBbolt Training project. ceremonial regalia, from Alamito Hall. named the April 2008 Outstanding Employee.
EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION (cont.)
Excellence in Teaching
This award recognizes the contributions of instructors in these categories: Full-Time Faculty, Adjunct Faculty, Continuing
Education Faculty, and Others Who Teach. The Excellence in Teaching awards are presented at Richland’s annual
Convocation. To honor the nominees, the RLC Instructional Television crew makes a full video production featuring each
nominee. The video is shown at Convocation to honor and recognize our beloved colleagues. The Excellence in Teaching
Award winner is nominated for the DCCCD Miles Production Award for Full-Time Excellence in Teaching and the Minnie
Piper Stevens statewide award.

Professional Support Staff Employee of the Year

To recognize the work of Richland’s Professional Support Staff, the PSS Full-
Time Employee of the Year Award and PSS Part-Time Employee of the Year
Award are given annually. The winner of each college award is nominated for
the Districtwide PSS Employee of the Year Award. Nominees are selected on
the basis of outstanding job performance; interpersonal relationships; service
to the college and District; special awards, honors and community service;
and professional development.

Administrator of the Year

Outstanding administrators are nominated annually on the following basis: the
President Steve Mittelstet, left, celebrates with PSS Part- positive effect the nominee’s leadership has on his/her work group, the college,
Time Employee of the Year Victoria Glass and PSS Full- and/or the District; the nominee’s contributions to the development and success
Time Employee of the Year Phil Key. of students and staff; how the nominee is a role model/mentor for others at RLC
and/or in the community; the nominee’s contribution to RLC’s culture; and how
the nominee has exercised initiative and/or taken risks to continuously improve the college’s services. The Administrator of the
Year award is presented at Richland’s annual Convocation. Campus winners are nominated for the District level award.

Jean Sharon Griffith Student Development Leadership Award

The award for student service excellence, renamed the “Jean Sharon Griffith Student Development Leadership Award” after
the untimely death of Vice President for Student Development Sharon Griffith in 1987, recognizes a person who or a team
which exemplifies the personal characteristics, exhibits the leadership qualities, and makes the kinds of significant contri-
butions to the development of students and student success that Sharon did. The award, given at the campus level and
then to a Districtwide winner, recognizes those individuals or groups who will “tell the truth” in spite of the consequences
while remembering that we must also “warm the hearts” of our students and colleagues. The Jean Sharon Griffith award is
presented at Richland’s annual Convocation.

CROSS-CUTTING COUNCIL STRUCTURE

The Council for Community Building was formed in Fall 2002 and is designed along with the Council for Teaching and
Learning to enhance ongoing college-wide communication among all divisions and work groups in Richland’s large, com-
plex organization. Each of these councils sponsors a recognition program, as detailed below.

The Council for Community Building

This council functions as a forum to offer input and feedback on major issues and policies within the institution. Council membership is
comprised of representatives from various student groups and from all employee classifications and departments throughout the college.
The college president and vice presidents are invited to attend the council meetings and take an active role in the work of the Council.
Any member of the Council may be contacted for agenda items for future meetings.

The mission of the Council for Community Building (CCB) is to establish open lines of
communication among all those who have a stake in the success of Richland College
to develop ideas, strategies and measures to improve Richland’s learning environment.

Student Wall of Honor

The CCB recognizes and celebrates Richland’s former and current students that
have made unique contributions to Richland and our community. At a ceremony
held each semester, honored students receive a framed photo with their stories on
the Wall of Honor located in Crockett Hall.
President Steve Mittelstet, left, congratulates
Student Wall of Honor recipient Alhaji F. Saccoh.
 CROSS-CUTTING COUNCIL STRUCTURE (cont.)
Fifteen Minutes of Fun
The CCB provides fun breaks that last only 15 minutes, so that all staff and
faculty can find time to attend. They are scheduled on different days and
times just after classes end, so that all faculty, staff and students can partici-
pate at least once or twice per semester. The Council provides a sign to all
division heads for their doors to close the office and invite others to attend
(giving the time, date, place and description of the event). Fun break activities
have included kite flying, parachute activities, finger painting, bubble blowing,
hula hoop contests, paper airplane making and more.
Students and employees take a joy break with a para-
chute and a beach ball during Fifteen Minutes of Fun.

The Council for Teaching and Learning

The Mission of the Council for Teaching and Learning is to support and enrich the learning cultures, climates, and con-
texts throughout Richland College.

The Council for Teaching and Learning (CTL) functions as a forum to promote excellent teaching and learning practices. It
also recommends enhancements to the teaching and learning environments, and creates and nurtures links between all
those who support the teaching and learning process.

Members of the Richland College community are invited to attend the Council meetings and take an active role in the work
of the Council. Employees also may contact any member of the Council for Teaching and Learning for input or information.

Featured Teaching and Learning Practices

CTL sponsors a program that promotes Featured Teaching and Learning Practices at Richland College. This program recog-
nizes individual faculty members and shares their innovative and successful teaching practices with the Richland learning
community. Featured faculty members are invited to present their practices to their peers as part of Richland’s faculty and
staff development program.

OPEN-MEMBERSHIP COLLEGE COMMUNITIES

Richland’s Uncommittee
The Uncommittee is an interdisciplinary reading-discussion group(s) for Richland employees committed to the value of integrat-
ed learning as a “humanizing process.” There is no discussion leader; all participants are equally responsible for coming to the
sessions prepared to participate with questions, observations, comments. Although literary criticism and analysis are legitimate
activities in certain academic settings, these activities are not the purpose of the Uncommittee. Uncommittee discussions
focus more on synthesis, rather than analysis, and more on the impact of the readings on the readers as human beings.

The Uncommittee's reading list for 2007-08 was The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls; Generation Me: Why
Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean M.
Twenge; Three Tales by Gustave Flaubert; Faster: The Acceleration of Everything by James Gleick; The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Kidd; The Two Cultures by C. P. Snow and Stefan Collini; and Teaching the Trees by Joan Maloof.

GREENRichland
GREENRichland is a group of employees and students who believe in shared responsibility for the natural envi-
ronment and in the potential for a community college to make that responsibility real, accessible, and reward-
ing. GREENRichland partners with all Richlanders to develop and implement an action plan for moving
the college onto a path of environmental sustainability and for inviting others onto that path.

GREENRichland envisions a college community for which environmental sustainability is a way of

life for staff and students, a benchmark for decision makers, an emphasis for educational programs,
and a catalyst for collaborative global partnerships.

GREENRichland’s mission is to lead and learn with students, colleagues, and global partners in
developing practices, policies, programs and partnerships that promote a robust natural environ-
ment and an abundant quality of life for future generations.
OPEN-MEMBERSHIP COLLEGE COMMUNITIES (cont.)
Center for Renewal & Wholeness in Higher Education (CRWHE Headquarters)
CRWHE’s predecessor organization – the Center for Formation in the Community College, which later became the Center
for Formation in Higher Education (CFHE) – was launched by generous funding from the Fetzer Institute, sponsored by
the League for Innovation in the Community College, and headquartered at the District Office of the Dallas County
Community College District (DCCCD).

In spring 2008, a group of CFHE Distinguished National Advocates met in Taos, New Mexico, and
recommended that CFHE programs be continued in a broader organizational context to coincide
with a more comprehensive impact on the mission of higher education. The CFHE became the
Center for Renewal & Wholeness in Higher Education (CRWHE). Beginning in August 2008,
CRWHE is headquartered at Richland College and is supported by the DCCCD and the
League for Innovation in the Community College.

The vision of the CRWHE cultivates communities that serve, where the balance of

Center for Renewal &

being and doing is honored and the essence of healthy relationships to self, others,

Wholeness in Higher Education communities.

and the earth is sustained. The mission is the formation of whole people which is
prerequisite to the transformation of whole organizations that strive to form whole

FACILITIES SERVICES’ EMPLOYEE OF THE QUARTER

The most recent Employee Satisfaction Survey
showed that Facilities Services staff desired more Target Range > 3.15 - 3.50
recognition for their work. To respond to these Performance = 3.43
employee’s needs, a Facilities Services Employee % of max. target range = 98.00%
of the Quarter award was created. The award is
announced and celebrated in the Facilities
Services Newsletter and at the annual Fall
Convocation.

PAGE 2

NOTE OF THANKS CONGRATULATIONS!

I express my sincerest Thanks
for the sympathy card you sent
me, I was deeply touched.
What wonderful friends to
have, I am very blessed.
P.S there were some signatures
I could not read, so please tell
everyone there I said Thank you!!!
Rhonda

ON CAMPUS
All ballots are in and counted for our
Employee of the Quarter
Fourth Quarter (June - August 2008)
Congratulations to Austin Longacre, Irrigation
Technician II, as the Facilities Services Employee of the
Quarter. Thanks for a job well done!
District Human Resources has notified that the Ad
Hoc Job Evaluation for Austin Longacre was approved
effective 06/09/08. Mr. Longacre's new job title is
Irrigation Technician II.
Source: Campus Quality Survey, 98,00,02,05,07

Scott Congratulations on completing

Dunn and the 10-Hour OSHA Class!
Ricky Hoyle
fixing the
fountain and The text below, from the June 2008 Facilities Services Newsletter, is also in the image at left
Michael
Chamberlin in in the “Congratulations!” box:
the lake fixing
the fountain!

EMPLOYMENT
Employee of the Quarter
Fourth Quarter (June - August 2008)
PT Groundskeeper Seasonal Congratulations to Austin Longacre, Irrigation Technician II, as the Facilities Services
(1 position)
TOP LEFT: Mike Hau, Anson Ngo, Jone Tsou Employee of the Quarter. Thanks for a job well done! District Human Resources has notified
Richland College
Michael Brantley, Hong Tran and Terrick Tu.
FT/$1,338.00/Mo.
open until filled
BOTTOM LEFT: Roberto Manzanares and that the Ad Hoc Job Evaluation for Austin Longacre was approved effective 06/09/08. Mr.
Ron Woodson
Longacre's new job title is Irrigation Technician II.