LehighNow Volume 03, Issue 09

              LEHIGHNOW
February 12,2003
Volume 3, Issue 9
New programs recognize employee excellence
LEHIGH IN THE NEWS
Good
Morning
Lehigh
Karen Evans Stout,
associate professor of
educational leadership in
the College of Education,
offered expert advice for
an American Family
feature on ABC's Good
Morning America. Since
Appleton Central High
School in Wisconsin
introduced a new food
program of only healthful
foods, such as juice,
water, energy drinks,
fresh fruits, whole grain
breads, and foods free of
preservatives, behavior
problems have decreased.
"Atmosphere in the
lunchroom carries into the
afternoon atmosphere in
classrooms," Stout said.
"So that when it's chaotic
and fast and hurried,
kids come back to class
wound up, not relaxed
and ready to do meaningful academic work."
Lehigh's longstanding
tradition of honoring
employee contributions,
which dates back to at least
1949, has been enhanced
with the creation of two
new employee recognition
programs.
The university recently
unveiled the Lehigh
Tradition of Excellence
Award and a Spot Bonus
Program to go along with
the current year-end awards
and annual merit increases.
The Lehigh Tradition of
Excellence Award recognizes individuals or teams
for exceptional contributions either within their
department or throughout
the university. Recipients
can be nominated by staff,
faculty, students, alumni,
parents, visitors, or
vendors. The deadline for
the first round of awards,
originally announced as
Feb. 28, has been extended
to March 14. The first
awards will be presented in
April. However, nominations will be accepted on a
continuing basis, with
awards given out twice a
year, in April and November.
Nomination forms are
available on the Human
Resources Web site at
www.lehigh.edu/~irihro/
recre w / LTE A html
Recipients will receive an
additional $100 net in their
paycheck; a special
Tradition of Excellence
medallion; a certificate
signed by Lehigh President
Gregory Farrington; and a
letter from Farrington.
The Spot Bonus Program
allows supervisors to
nominate salaried staff who
have made an extraordinary
achievement tied to one of
the seven goals from Lehigh
University's Agenda for
Academic Leadership. (The
goals can be found on the
Web at www.lehigh.edu /
-inhro/forms/
SevenGoals.html)
Those selected by the
award committee will
receive a one-time cash
bonus of $300 to $3,000,
depending on their accomplishments. The award
committee consists of
Bonnie Devlin, vice
president for advancement,
Joe Sterrett, executive
director of athletics, and
Ron Yoshida, provost.
"An outstanding and
committed staff is the
hallmark of a strong
organization and Lehigh
University is no exception,"
Farrington says. "Lehigh's
staff should be recognized
for their outstanding quality,
dedication, and leadership.
Expanding our formal
recognition programs with
the addition of the Tradition
of Excellence Award and the
Spot Bonus Program
provides us with more ways
to celebrate imagination and
creativity and a commitment
to excellence in all of our
activities."
Jacqueline Matthews,
associate vice president for
human resources, says the
new programs will
strengthen Lehigh's commitment to excellence in all
areas.
"When I arrived at Lehigh
six months ago, I was
pleased to discover that
staff contributions are
recognized and celebrated,"
Matthews says. "The seven
Lehigh University Awards
presented at the May staff
recognition dinner are
excellent examples. Adding
two more award programs—
the Lehigh Tradition of
Excellence Award and the
Spot Bonus Program—further
promotes the important
value of staff recognition.
"To the employee, recognition signifies that someone
notices and someone cares.
To the rest of the organization, recognition creates role
models, communicates the
standards for outstanding
contribution, and reinforces
an environment of apprecia-
Please See PROGRAM, Page 3
$2.6 million
grant funds
new ATLSS
earthquake lab
Lehigh's ATLSS Engineering
Research Center, the nation's
leading laboratory for the
large-scale testing of bridges,
buildings and other structures, is building a state-of-
the-art lab to study how large
structures perform under
earthquakes of the largest
magnitude.
ATLSS—Advanced   '
Technology for Large
Structural Systems—has
received a $2.6 million grant
from the George E. Brown Jr.
Network for Earthquake
Engineering Simulation
(NEES). ATLSS also will
receive $344,000 from the
Pennsylvania Infrastructure
Technology Alliance and
$228,000 from Lehigh.
"The NEES grant is one of
the biggest equipment grants
ATLSS has received in its 16-
year history," ATLSS director
Richard Sause says. "It
enables us to retain our
competitive edge in earthquake engineering research
and to interact with the other
Please See QUAKE, Page 2