view . spring 2012
17
Consistently offering friendly, helpful service
strengthens the University of Windsor’s reputation
as a welcoming campus, says President Alan Wildeman.
A new initiative launched in January by the
Department of Human Resources will promote responsive,
reliable and courteous service to students, faculty, staff
and visitors.
“When a commitment to service excellence is
extended to the entire campus, we not only strengthen
one of our fundamental values but we more easily enable
our community to benefit from the value we create,”
Dr. Wildeman says.
The Service Excellence initiative encompasses
educational materials, training opportunities, and a new
recognition program for employees who provide an
exceptional experience.
The education campaign centres on a series of
standards developed in consultation with staff and clients,
says Marcela Ciampa, manager of employee engagement
and development. She has produced posters and desktop
calendars listing the standards as well as a guidebook to
putting them into practice.
“The standards provide a good framework and from
there we can build the exceptional experience,” says
Ciampa. “When we follow them, we provide the best
possible service to our students, faculty, staff and other
service users.”
Find more information, including the full list
of standards, the Service Excellence Guide and
feedback forms to share positive experiences or
offer suggestions to improve, on the program’s
website
.
SERVICE EXCELLENCE
Volleyball players like Paige McDowell have a little
more spring in their step out on the court these days,
thanks to the award-winning research of undergraduate
Renee Meloche.
“It was great to do a study that was really practical that
could help the girls to perform better,” said Meloche, a
fourth-year kinesiology major who
received one of two outstanding
undergraduate student awards
February 6 at the Celebration
of Excellence in Research,
Scholarship and Creative Activity.
Under the supervision of
assistant professor Sarah Woodruff,
Meloche conducted a week-long
study last year with the Lancer
women’s volleyball team. Using
the department’s Bod-Pod, she
measured each player’s body
composition. Then, for the entire
week, players wore a device that constantly records skin
surface temperature — directly related to caloric energy
output — and kept a log of everything they ate and drank.
At the end of the week, their body composition was
recorded again.
According to her results, the players weren’t consuming
nearly enough calories for the amount of energy they were
expending. “Overall the girls were expending significantly
more calories than they were taking in, so they had a negative
energy balance,” said Meloche, who noted that on game days
they were burning an average of 4,000 calories. “They lost
fat-free mass such as muscle and they gained fat mass.”
After the study was complete, the players received
an individualized record of their data and nutrition
counselling. A fourth-year criminology student and senior
on the team, McDowell said she eats more food now —
especially grains and vegetables
— and has lost fat, gained muscle
and seen her performance get
better.
“My vertical actually
improved,” she said. “I feel a lot
healthier in my everyday life and I
feel a lot better on the court.”
The other outstanding
undergrad award went to Matt
Battiston, a third-year Biological
Sciences student who has
been working in professor Dan
Mennill’s lab on a project studying
the vocal behaviour of the long-tailed manakin, a small bird
found mostly in Central America.
Dr. Mennill said Battiston — who won an NSERC
Summer Undergraduate Research Award last year — took
on a challenging research project under a graduate student
in his lab and that his results were instrumental in another
project designed to evaluate the way pairs of animals
interact with one another. He participated in two other
projects last summer and his results contributed to two
important journal publications, Mennill said.
OUTSTANDING UNDERGRADS AMONG RESEARCH HONOUREES
Renee Meloche straps an armband on to senior
volleyball player Paige McDowell.
