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TERRIE PREUSSE
ME STAFF AWARD RECIPIENT, SPRING 2002:
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The Spring 2002 Departmental Staff Excellence Award was presented to Terrie Preusse. At the time of the
award, Terrie worked in the
ME Graduate Office, where she took care of a myriad of administrative and
student-related activities. (From July 2005 to October 2006 she worked in the
Undergraduate Office as the Undergraduate Coordinator for the Department.)
The Award is based upon three criteria: Productivity (which
includes quality and quantity of work, meeting deadlines, performance consistency, and
accomplishment), Advancing of Department Morale (including being a team player, being helpful,
having a positive attitude, cooperating for the benefit of both internal and external customers),
and Risk-taking/Innovating (such as taking on responsibility, showing initiative, and going
above and beyond specific job duties). Terrie managed to embody these outstanding qualities
in an extremely demanding and high-profile position.
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Dr. David Bogard, who works extensively with Terrie in his capacity as the ME
Graduate Advisor, nominated her for the award. One of the many hats Terrie wears
is that of coordinator for graduate student recruiting. "This position requires
processing of many hundreds of applications, close interaction with faculty who review
these applications, and quick response to a continual stream of phone calls and
e-mails from applicants."
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Terrie, Ruth, and Dr. Bogard -
The ME Graduate Office Team.
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Dr. Bogard continued, "Typically at this time of year the graduate student
recruiting would be submerged with paperwork from over one thousand applications.
Terrie has all applications files completely processed and ready for evaluation by
faculty. And she has done this despite a 30% increase in the number of
applications this year. I have never known Terrie to not be so on top of her
work that she was not able to take additional assignments from Ruth Schwab or
myself. In short, in terms of productivity, Terrie is off the scale."
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Ruth Schwab talks about Terrie.
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In addition to the many graduate recruitment duties Terrie has, she also takes care
of the many administrative tasks that a graduate program of our size has. She is
the first line of contact for incoming and prospective graduate students, she coordinates
activities with the graduate faculty, and she helps students resolve problems with
different UT, state, and federal agencies. One other large task she attends to is
the revision and maintenance of the ME Graduate Office website.
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Dr. David Morton, student recruiter for the Graduate Program in
Operations Research (OR) had
this to say about Terrie. "... I work closely with Terrie because she is in
charge of dealing with applications of prospecive graduate students for all of
the programs in ME (including OR and MDSE). I am in her office multiple times
during [January through May] and, even though she deals with applications from
all of the areas of Mechanical Engineering, she is always on top of the
applicants for OR and MDSE. ... Good timing and quick responses to prospective
students are key to successful graduate student recruiting, and Terrie's support
in this regard is invaluable."
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ME graduate students also supported Terrie's nomination in full force. "Between
working with [Dr. Bogard] and Dr. Ralls and doing what she needed to do, Terrie's
yeoman legwork made it happen in record time. My application to readmission
process took less than a week from start to finish. I am grateful for her efforts,
without which I probably wouldn't be a student at U.T. right now." - Ken Tarcza,
ME graduate student and Lt. Colonel, United States Army.
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Dr. Beaman gives the "big check".
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Many other students praised Terrie's attention to detail, her demeanor and sense
of humor, help navigating the registration and bureaucratic maze, and great
communications skills. Congratulations to Terrie Preusse, the 2002 ME Staff Excellence
Award winner!
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