The challenge gives participants an opportunity to set up teams for their workplace, encourage each other to ride, and win prizes for participation and mileage. Last year, a Georgia Tech team won the citywide challenge. 

It’s also a chance to learn about or get reacquainted with on-campus cycling resources. That includes a virtual Ride Smart class and monthly in-person group rides. Learn more. 

Georgia Tech has long been a great place to ride, and last year, it earned renewed recognition as a gold-level Bicycle Friendly University. Campus bicycle infrastructure took a major step forward this fall with the opening of the Ferst Drive cycle track, which provides a bidirectional path separated from vehicular traffic. And, with the recent opening of a bike shop in the Campus Recreation Center, riders can get help with repairs, parts, and maintenance right on campus.  

To learn more about campus bicycling resources, including maps and other information, visit the Parking and Transportation Services website. And get on your bikes and ride!

Last spring, a special committee of the GTFWC, led by Lynne Wepfer, was formed to reevaluate the existing definition of membership, and to make recommendations for possible changes. As part of this process, the committee researched best practices at similar universities around the country. Their final recommendation was to amend the by-laws of the GTFWC to more closely align with Georgia Tech’s culture of inclusivity, and with the current practices of other major universities and institutes of higher learning. In short, the committee recommended that anyone who supports the mission and vision of Georgia Tech, and who embraces the GTFWC’s core mission of friendship, service, and scholarship, can become a member.

The board of directors of the GTFWC unanimously approved the proposed changes. Following this, the general membership of the GTFWC voted, and also resoundingly approved.

What this means for the Tech community is simply this: Anyone with an interest in joining the GTFWC is now able to. Members can participate in annual events, such as the Fall Open House, Holiday Party, and Spring Luncheon, as well as participate in a host of Special Interest Groups, which include day and night book clubs, French and Spanish conversation groups, lunch groups, and a host of others.

The club has been active since its first iteration in the 1920s and offers activities that draw community members together for friendship and shared passions and interests. The club exists to promote the values of friendship, service, and scholarship. Community service activities are ongoing, and every year, scholarships are awarded to Georgia Tech students with a parent who is employed at Georgia Tech.

Annual membership is $50. To join, download an application form at www.gtfwc.org. Any questions can be directed to gtfwc1921@gmail.com.

The opening event for the 2018-19 year will be an Open House at Barcelona Wine Bar – Westside Ironworks on Sept. 26 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. RSVP to gtfwc1921@gmail.com by Sept. 20 to attend.

As fall semester approaches, construction and renovation projects continue to improve the campus experience for students, faculty, and staff. While the pandemic — and the associated reduced population on campus — has enabled some projects to move ahead of the original timeline, global supply chain disruptions in the construction industry are having some effect on campus projects.  

The award was issued to Carol Gibson, Institute Controller, earlier this month. This is the Institute’s seventh time receiving this award since its inception in 2014. Congratulations to Carol and her team for striving for excellence!

New this year, the training will take place in the fall to coincide with Ethics Awareness Week. Faculty, staff (including Tech Temps), and student employees hired prior to Oct. 1, 2020, are required to complete this year’s four training modules:

1. USG Ethics Training.
2. Information Security/Cybersecurity Training.
3. Georgia Tech Foreign Influence, Research Integrity, and Conflict of Interest Training.
4. Conflict of Interest Attestation.

You must complete all four of the compliance training modules between Oct. 26 and Nov. 16. Employees who do not fully complete the requirements by midnight on Nov. 16 may receive a formal disciplinary notice from the Institute, and their access to Georgia Tech’s network may also be revoked.

The Annual Compliance Training can be completed on a desktop or laptop. It should take approximately 45 minutes, and it does not have to be completed at one time.

For more information on the 2020 Annual Compliance Training, including helpful resources, visit hr.gatech.edu/integrity-and-compliance.

This year’s dynamic group of keynote speakers, leader panelists, and facilitators will offer fresh points of view and share inspiring stories around the 2020 theme, “Strategy and Culture.”

Topics will focus on:

• Improving processes through organizational alignment.
• Innovating with technology to adapt to changes in the workplace.
• Inspiring people to build and thrive in their communities.

Gary L. Brantley II, chief information officer for the City of Atlanta, will serve as the opening keynote speaker. As an innovative leader, tech strategist, and author, Brantley will offer valuable perspectives and expertise on leadership development and culture building.

A diverse leader panel, representing Georgia Tech; Community Foundations for Greater Atlanta; and tech startup, Flatfile Inc., will discuss lessons about ways to improve processes, innovate with technology, and inspire people to thrive in the workplace.  

A lineup of interactive breakout sessions tailored for leaders at the individual, team, and enterprise levels will be led by a mix of higher education and industry leaders. Facilitators hail from organizations such as Georgia Tech, the University System of Georgia, Gallup, Agile Thought Leaders, the BB&T Center for Ethical Leadership, and The Coca Cola Company.

And new this year — the 2020 conference will feature its first “Power Hour” featuring renowned entertainer and magician Ben Seidman.

To register and get more information, including highlights from the 2019 Organizational Effectiveness Conference, visit oe.gatech.edu.

Public officials and employees are required to disclose all business transactions occurring during the previous calendar year. Reports for 2019 transactions are due Jan. 31.

This requirement applies to transactions by the employee or any business in which the employee, spouse, or dependent has more than a 25 percent interest. There is an exception for transactions less than $250 where the total of all transactions does not exceed $9,000 in the calendar year. If an employee has no business transactions to report, it is not necessary for that employee to file the State Business Transaction Disclosure Report.

The report is required to be filed electronically (E-File) with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission at ethics.ga.gov. Further information and additional explanation of the filing requirements can be found here.

Wherever you are on your professional path, if you bring the experience or interest, Human Resources will provide the platform — MentorTech Professional Partnerships is back by popular demand, returning for a third cohort beginning in February.

Launched two years ago, MentorTech is an employee mentoring program that strategically pairs mentees and mentors into a one-on-one experience focused on professional partnerships.

Interested participants register for either a mentee or mentor role after completing a brief interest form. If a strategic match is available, the employee will be notified they have been paired.

Registration is open now until Jan. 20 at hr.gatech.edu/mentortech.

The program is designed to accommodate a participant’s diverse needs and match those needs based on interest in one of the following categories: General Career Guidance, Work/Life Transitions, Career Sponsorship, and Technical Competency.

Throughout the six-month partnership, mentors and mentees will have access to a wealth of resources to support and enrich the professional partnership, including development opportunities and career guidance.

MentorTech has accepted and paired more than 250 mentors and mentees who have invested more than 2,000 hours.

“My mentoring experience was equally beneficial and fulfilling, and it allowed me to reflect on my personal experiences and consider my own lessons learned to help advance, to encourage, and to motivate my mentee,” said Will Jimerson, a 2019 MentorTech participant. 

All faculty and staff are encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and into a customized experience designed to elevate horizons and strengthen leadership skills.

Learn about the perks and requirements at hr.gatech.edu/mentortech, and read about experiences from the 2019 cohort at hr.gatech.edu/mentortech-2019.

Looking for other ways to enter 2020 with a professional plan? View additional learning opportunities at hr.gatech.edu/learning-development.

We asked several avid readers for recommendations. The books range from a story of the reflections and adventures of a failed novelist to a how-to on bullet journaling.

Less

By Andrew Sean Greer, Little, Brown and Company (2017)

“This national bestseller and winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is the story of Arthur Less, a failed novelist about to turn 50, who responds to an ex-lover's wedding invitation by embarking on a trip around the world for a series of literary events. Regrets and reminiscences of past loves are interspersed with new adventures both endearingly awkward and deeply graceful. This was the perfect novel to read in my 49th summer. I recommend it for anyone who has ever been in love, or who wonders what a year of saying yes could be.”

—Marlee Givens, librarian for Modern Languages and Psychology

Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century

By Charles King, Doubleday Publishers (2019)

“An inspiring group biography told within the context of the social, cultural, and political events of the 20^th century. Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ruth Benedict developed revolutionary methods and theories that challenged eugenics, the prevailing scientific theory at that time. The scientific community considered them a group of misfits but later they were recognized as the founders of cultural anthropology. Their courageous explorations of disparate cultures debunked absolutist ideas that there is a superior people. Interwoven in the chronicle of their professional lives, the author also shares personal tales of romance, friendships, and rivalries within the group of anthropologists.”

—Cathy Carpenter, head of Campus Engagement and Scholarly Outreach, Georgia Tech Library

Against the Grain: A Coach’s Wisdom on Character, Faith, Family, and Love

By Bill Courtney, Weinstein Books (2014)

“The author is the high school football coach featured in the Oscar-winning documentary Undefeated as well as Esquire magazine’s 2012 Coach of the Year. Bill Courtney coached the downtrodden Manassas High School football team in North Memphis to success after everyone else had given up on them. Not only were his coaching skills imperative to the team’s success, but they also made a deep impact on the individual lives of his players, including overcoming drug addiction, earning college acceptances at places such as West Point, and lifting up their communities. His core values of service, civility, leadership, character, commitment, and forgiveness are an example for all of us.”

—Jamison Keller, Assistant Dean of Students and director of Fraternity and Sorority Life

Engineering and Chemistry Librarian Isabel Altamirano recommended two books:

The Bullet Journal Method

By Ryder Carroll, Fourth Estate Publishers (2018)

“I was looking for a new method to keep track of my work and personal activities and decided to do it by the 21st-century learning method, YouTube. I found videos on bullet journaling, but they were too complicated — too many decorations and drawings.

Then I found the original source. Carroll's book shows that you just need a blank journal, a writing instrument, and a ruler. 

His method involves yearly, monthly, and daily planning with simple setups for repetitive tasks (like exercising or eating fruit), and a reflection section. By keeping up with the index, you can plan and execute different activities with just one journal.”

Journal Fodder 365: Daily Doses of Inspiration for the Art Addict 

By Eric M. Scott and David R. Modler, North Light Books (2012)

“Start 2020 by doing creative work that does not require extensive training. This paperback book shows how to be artistic with collage, simple stencils, watercolors, and markers.

Each activity has a writing prompt, recommended page layouts, and step-by-step instruction on how to achieve a cohesive look. And you don't need to start on New Year’s Day; the work can happen at any time.

It’s also perfect to have this book on hand if the electricity goes out during an ice storm. If children complain that they’re bored you can entertain them with the techniques found in this book.”

Some of these books are available by searching the Library’s online catalog. Visit library.gatech.edu. You can also search other libraries, using Tech’s interlibrary loan system. Visit library.gatech.edu/borrow-other-libraries. Or visit your local book store.

Happy reading!

This year, a slew of Tech employees did just that. Overall, Georgia Tech placed first out of 67 organizations with 500+ staff, and first overall out of nearly 300 organizations that participated in the Challenge.

In total, Tech employees biked 22,300 miles, with more than 9,300 of them serving as part of a commute. The collective efforts prevented more than 7,400 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

“Encouraging others to ride cannot be limited to the Challenge, as increasing the number of people who ride not only reduces congestion on our campus roads and improves the quality of air we breathe, but also helps to make the roads safer for all of us,” said Becky James, instructor at the Campus Recreation Center who helped captain the challenge for Georgia Tech.

A group from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) took home first place among teams from Georgia Tech. The members of team “GTRI’s Thighs” biked 5,166 of Georgia Tech’s total miles.

Jett Marks, a research scientist in GTRI’s CIPHER lab, was among the leaders on that team. When Marks joined GTRI in 2015, he was elated to find others who shared his love for biking — for fun, for a commute, or both. He had participated in the Atlanta Bike Challenge in the past and became a catalyst in getting others within GTRI to participate.

The Challenge “game-ifies” cycling by awarding points for daily riding, number of miles, and encouraging others to join. For Marks, encouraging others to take up cycling comes naturally.
“Outside of riding a bicycle, I’ve not found any other single act that brings so much positivity in so many ways,” he said. “Riding a bike obviously trains our physical muscles, and it also trains our smile muscles.”

Joshua Forester, who also works in the CIPHER lab, was the top rider overall for Georgia Tech, and a member of GTRI’s Thighs. Forester bikes for commuting and fun, and recently completed a bike race in Fiji. He blogged about the experience of this year’s Challenge and some of the activities that took place that month, including a trip from Georgia to Alabama along the Silver Comet Trail. Forester had a goal of being a top 10 rider during the challenge, and he biked nearly 900 miles in 10 days to meet that goal.

“I had to work through knee pain, some mild tennis elbow, a family emergency, rain and lightning storms, extreme fatigue from the exercise and sleeplessness, sickness, and vertebrae bruising from storing my headlight battery pack (which is itself padded) in my center jersey pocket and not realizing what was causing it until the final day,” he wrote. “Some much-needed rest was in order.”

Though the Challenge is over, Georgia Tech offers many resources for cyclists year-round. Some of those available from Parking and Transportation Services include a SmartPark permit (for occasional vehicular parking), helmet sales, and bike/scooter safety classes (in conjunction with the Georgia Tech Police Department and Bike GT). Georgia Commute Options offers ridematching, commuter rewards, and guaranteed ride home programs. Many buildings are equipped with showers, and the new Dalney Parking Deck has Tech’s first bike storage room outside of campus housing. See locations at map.gatech.edu, and learn more at bike.hwb.gatech.edu.

Under the University System of Georgia’s Shared Sick Leave Program, Tech employees who are experiencing any condition under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) may tap into a pool of donated sick leave. They can also tap into it to cover an absence necessitated by the illness or injury of an immediate family member (such as a spouse, parent, or child). This includes those who will be welcoming a child through birth or adoption.

Where does the donated sick leave come from? From fellow Georgia Tech employees. And it can make all the difference to someone facing a debilitating illness, injury, or other long-term health issue.

All faculty and staff members who are eligible to accrue and use paid sick leave, and who have been continuously employed as a benefits-eligible employee at Georgia Tech and have met their provisional period of six months, are eligible for this program. 

If you’re interested in enrolling in the program and donating sick leave, there are a few things to know.

You must donate to gain membership. Any employee who wishes to benefit from the donated sick leave pool must donate at least eight hours of their own time. Employees must also have a balance of at least 40 hours of sick leave after their donation (meaning, in order to opt in, you must have at least 48 hours of sick leave at the time of your donation — which can only be made during Open Enrollment).

Once you are a member of the pool, all requests must be submitted via an application process. Employees must go through a confidential application process to request sick leave hours when a situation occurs.

The maximum withdrawal amount is 480 hours (12 weeks) per year. When an employee withdraws the maximum number of hours, membership in the pool will be terminated for the rest of the calendar year. The employee must donate again during benefits open enrollment in order to become a member again.

Donated sick leave cannot be used in conjunction with disability coverage, or any other short- or long-term income protection benefits.

You must exhaust all sick and annual leave first, or provide credible evidence that you will exhaust all sick and annual leave before the medical condition is resolved.

Read the full policy at c.gatech.edu/usgsickleave.

For more information about Open Enrollment, visit hr.gatech.edu/open-enrollment.

More information about these events is available at specialevents.gatech.edu.

Annual Events

New Student Convocation
Sunday, Aug. 18
5 to 6 p.m.
McCamish Pavilion

Graduate Student Convocation
Friday, Aug. 23
4 to 5 p.m.        
Ferst Center for the Arts

Institute Address
Thursday, Sept. 5
11 a.m.
Ferst Center for the Arts

Retirement Dinner
Tuesday, Oct. 1
6 to 9 p.m.
Historic Academy of Medicine

Georgia Tech Advisory Board
Nov. 15–16
Multiple locations and times

Fall Commencement

Ph.D. Ceremony
Friday, Dec. 13
9 to 10:30 a.m.
McCamish Pavilion

President’s Graduation Celebration
Friday, Dec. 13
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Student Center Ballroom

Master’s Ceremony
Friday, Dec. 13
3 to 5:30 p.m.
McCamish Pavilion

Bachelor’s Ceremony
Saturday, Dec. 14
9 to 11:30 a.m.
McCamish Pavilion

You must log into the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) system before navigating to the open session below. Log in at https://training.osp.gatech.edu.

• Open Lab- Any Topic: Includes all process areas including financial accounting and supplier accounts
• Open Lab- Expenses
• Open Lab- Procurement
• Open Lab- Grants
• Open Lab- Expenses & Procurement

Registration is required for open labs, but the users may come and go any time during the 2 hour block.

Open Labs are just one of many support resources available to campus users for the Workday Launch. Learn more on the Transformation website.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the team at erp.readiness@gatech.edu.

“It’s all about customer service. If I don’t know something, I can find out for you,” she said. 

Part of her job is keeping the calendar for LMC Chair Richard Utz.

“He’s pretty self-sufficient,” Thomas said. “So, the main thing I do is work with him on promotion and tenure for the department, and the hiring of approximately 16 Brittain Fellows. I also coordinate the catering for school events.”

Thomas has been at Tech 28 years. When her oldest daughter became a toddler she decided it was time to return to the workforce.

“I came in as a temporary employee. I worked in the School of Psychology for two years with (the late) Professor Timothy Salthouse,” she said.

After that temp assignment ended, Thomas worked in what was then the College of Management, now the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business. She also worked in the College of Computing, in Institute Partnerships, and GT SMART before joining the staff of LMC where she has been for 15 years.

Thomas has seen the campus grow considerably in the past 28 years. From her office in the Skiles Building she points at the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons and at the open expanse of Tech Green next to it, recalling when that space was occupied by the Hightower Textile Engineering Building and parking spaces.

“A lot of things have changed. Parking was $25 a year for a permit,” she said.

Thomas accepts that change is inevitable, and she actively seeks ways to stay current.

“I take a lot of classes here at Tech, like Fierce Conversations, to help me figure out how to work through difficult situations.”

It’s working. In 2017, she received Institute Diversity’s Diversity Champion Award, and in 2012 and 2019 she received the Ivan Allen College Distinguished Administrative Service Award.

She attributes her success, in part, to her personal motto.

“Just treat people the way you would want to be treated,” she said, adding that if she gets upset with someone, she’s quick to apologize.

“I’ll go to that person and say, ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.’ So, we make amends and move on. That’s what you’re supposed to do. You can’t stay mad. We have to work together,” she said.

The most challenging part of Thomas’ job is meeting the deadlines for hiring.

“If you don’t get the paperwork in on time, there will be a problem,” she said with a smile. “Everything else is pretty even-keeled.”

Away from Work

Thomas and her husband Vincent recently celebrated their 33rd anniversary with a cruise to the Bahamas.

“It was a nice getaway. We danced, went to the beach, and had a good time,” she said.

Back home in Atlanta, Thomas has settled into her normal activities. 

“I like to be in my Christian ministry, and I help high school athletes get scholarships in track and field.”

Thomas was a sprinter in track and field, and her husband played basketball. When their three children demonstrated athletic abilities in several areas, they decided to put all three into track and field events to minimize the amount of shuttling back and forth between sports venues. The plan worked; the children excelled in sports and in academics. Thomas and her husband then shepherded the children through the college recruitment process.

Their daughter Chelsey, 29, was a heptathlete at Auburn University and now works in manufacturing at General Mills. Jordan, their 25-year-old son, was a decathlete at Georgia Tech. A 2017 industrial design graduate, he co-designed the shoes Miss Georgia Tech wore in the Miss America pageant. He now works for good2grow and designs the character tops for their juice line. And, their daughter Kelli, 23, was a thrower (hammer and weight) for the University of Connecticut, graduating in 2018. She now works for the University of Kentucky as a CATS academic and support assistant.

Now Thomas and her husband use their experience to help young athletes navigate the recruitment process, always mindful of NCAA recruitment rules. This fall, a student-athlete that they helped mentor, Freddie Allen, will be on Tech’s track and field team.

“Georgia Tech has provided me with the tools to be a successful administrator,” Thomas said. “I can now take the tools learned into phase two of my life. As one of Jehovah's Witnesses I look forward to volunteering my time to help interested ones learn about the future and what it has to hold. I will also enjoy, along with my husband, being a part of young athletes’ journeys as they plan their future.”

Since 2012 Thomas and her husband have helped mentor eight student-athletes to graduation, including Bahamian Olympian Tadashi Pinder. They have four student-athletes graduating in 2020 including world record holder Devin Dixon. And, two more are on track to graduate in 2021.

“I find that there is no greater joy than helping others,” Thomas said.

There are many support and training resources available to campus in order to help with the transition to Workday. These resources are designed to meet the needs of campus users from simple navigation questions, to advanced service requests. Take the time to review these resources.

Workday Peers: A community of users who are trained in one or two particular business process areas, including expenses, grants, procurement, PCard, or financial accounting. Workday Peers can provide peer support to end users through approximately six months beyond go live. Workday Peers are embedded all across campus and can assist with basic process and navigation questions. Beginning July 1, Workday Peer contact details will be available on transformation.gatech.edu/financials-launch-resources.

Open Labs: Open labs provide space where end users can come in person to get support when completing transactions or working through new tasks in the system. Some labs will focus on particular business processes, while others will be generally focused. Registration is required and will be available on transformation.gatech.edu/financials-launch-resources.

ServiceNow Financials Service Desk: A central hub where end users can access step-by-step instructions (job aids) for specific processes in Workday, review frequently asked questions, call to speak to program representatives who can assist with support, or submit a service ticket for help.

The Financials Services page on ServiceNow can be accessed through services.gatech.edu, or call 404-385-5555 directly.

Rapid Response Alerts: The program team will utilize emails, memos, and other alerts that will be sent to all campus users when needed.

Get Prepared with Workday Training

Workday Financials training is available to all financial users – including faculty and researchers. Training will be available for the life of Workday Financials, providing all future new hires as well as current employees the opportunity to review training content at any time. Materials will be continuously improved to reflect twice-per-year Workday releases as well as any Georgia Tech configuration changes.

 There are multiple types of training available, including:

• Web-Based Training (WBT): On demand, independent learning hosted online
• Seminars: The SAME content as the WBT, presented in-person with Q&A time
• Job-Aids/ Quick Reference Guides: On demand, process walkthroughs
• Instructor-led Training (ILT): Classroom training for central office users and financial managers

Campus is encouraged to consult the Training Get Started Guide for an overview of what training methods are available, how to determine what training is needed for their role, and helpful tips for registering. All training registration as well as the Get Started Guide can be accessed through the Financials Course Catalog.

Please reach out to your unit’s financial team if you have any questions about your Workday roles.

Have Questions?

If you have any questions about go live or any of the resources referenced, please contact the program team at erp.ask@gatech.edu.

“In the five years Staff Council has been operating, a common theme we hear from the community is the value and importance of employee recognition,” said Byron Fitch, chair of the Staff Council Employee Engagement Committee. “Recognized employees are happy employees, and how long a staff member has been at Georgia Tech is a reason to celebrate and say ‘thank you’ to them for all they do.”

In collaboration with Georgia Tech Human Resources and led by the Staff Council Employee Engagement Committee, the five-year recognition program has been developed to show appreciation. Staff achieving their five-year mark will receive a congratulatory email from Staff Council with details on how to pick up their gift during the first two weeks of every month at Staff Council’s office in the Campus Recreation Center. The five-year gift bundle will include a Georgia Tech-branded retro lunchbox, a coupon for $5 off any dining location in the Student Center, and other tokens of appreciation.

The Staff Council has been able to recognize more than 900 staff members since the inception of the one-year recognition program.

“As staff members continue on their career journey at Georgia Tech, we hope to show our appreciation by fueling them through a collection of symbolic recognition gifts to mark their milestones along the way,” said Joscelyn Cooper, member of the Employee Engagement Committee. Those employees with a five-year anniversary as of Jan. 1, 2019, and later will be contacted by Staff Council over the next six months to receive their gift.

The Staff Council exists to understand perspectives that represent the broad population of staff about matters of institutional importance, and to communicate those perspectives — along with advice and suggestions — to the Institute president and executive officers at regular intervals.

The Council meets the third Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. Meeting location varies but can be found on the calendar at staffcouncil.gatech.edu, and meetings are open to all of campus.

Important deadlines include:

• Thursday, June 27 – Last day employees with an Accountant Role can take the required instructor-led training.  As a reminder, a passing score on the FDM web-based training is a required prerequisite. 

• Friday June 28 – Last day (through 5 pm ET) employees can take the required PCard web-based training to ensure access to Workday on July 1.

For more information on Workday training sessions, visit transformation.gatech.edu/training/workday-financials-course-catalog.

“There are a lot of learning opportunities on campus that people either don’t know about or don’t take advantage of,” said Bryan Harber, training generalist with Workplace Learning and Professional Development in Human Resources.

Last year, as part of Employee Learning Week in December, Harber created the online Campus Learning Directory, a curation of learning and development opportunities available across campus for faculty and staff. Sponsored by the Association for Talent Development, a national organization, Employee Learning Week is an awareness campaign highlighting the important connection between learning and achieving organizational results. The Workplace Learning and Professional Development team hosts events for faculty and staff every year in support of this effort.

Harber said that he and his counterparts around the globe often hear employees lament that, “My team/department/company doesn’t offer learning opportunities.” So, the Campus Learning Directory started as a brainstorming session to identify all of the things that happen on campus.

“We started with Health Initiatives, and the Be Well series that Human Resources does, and other health-related programming such as CRC swimming classes or intramurals,” Harber said. “Obviously, we included our team — Workplace Learning and Professional Development — on the list because we offer manager and employee development classes, programs, and other resources. And, we started thinking about other groups on campus that do similar activities.”

Harber and his colleagues created a laundry list of learning opportunities that just kept growing. To make the directory easy to use, they grouped the offerings and campus departments into six categories: Professional Development; Health and Well-being; Academic/Research; Creative; Service to Others; and Team Development. There are a few offices or units that show up more than once — for example, the Library does because it loans books and also offers classes.

Learning opportunities run the gamut from swimming lessons at the Campus Recreation Center, to pottery-making, to writing courses.

But Harber said, “It’s not always about sitting in a classroom and having someone talk to me. Sometimes it’s, ‘What can I do on my own?’ That’s how places like Paper and Clay or the Museum of Papermaking appeared on the list. You can go and learn how to knit, or how to throw and paint a pot, or how to make paper. You can go to the Invention Studio and do 3-D printing as an employee. You can do laser etching. There are really interesting and cool things available.”

Many of the classes are free or have a nominal fee. Employees can attend a class as an individual, or a whole team can take a class together.

“Granted, if your department has the budget, you can go off campus to a workshop or a conference. But if that’s not possible, look at all of the things you have available to you. And you don’t have to leave campus to do it,” Harber said.

Workplace Learning and Professional Development has a multitude of offerings designed for manager and leadership development, and general competencies for professional success. Programs such as MentorTech and Professional Development Circles, both launched this year, have been met with high demand. The team also produces a podcast series called Interruptions that explores various issues faced by managers and employees.

Regularly scheduled classes facilitated by members of the Workplace Learning and Professional Development team are held on a host of topics. One of the most popular classes is POWER of Writing, created by Training Generalist Rachel Watts.

“And, The Four Ethical Corners: How to Make and Defend Ethical Decisions in the Workplace is very popular because of the annual compliance campaign,” Harber said. The daylong class is requested by various offices across campus and taught by Instructional Technologist Travis Waugh.

To view the Campus Learning Directory, visit hr.gatech.edu/campus-learning-directory. To request team support, email training@ohr.gatech.edu.

The Basics of College Admission will provide tips for approaching the process pragmatically as a family, no matter where a student plans to apply. Clark said anyone in the Tech community with a high schooler who is thinking about going to college should attend.

“We want the program to be a benefit for faculty and staff,” he said. “It won’t be about how to get into Georgia Tech, but we’ll talk about good ways to visit schools, how to put together a balanced college list, and how admission decisions are made. There will be something relevant for anyone with a student going into ninth through 12th grade.”

Employees are welcome to bring their high school students but do not have to. Even for those who have already had a student go through the process, Clark says there are things to be learned.

“We hear from parents who say, ‘I’m gonna do this differently next time,’” he said.
Clark and his staff write a weekly blog about college admission and the holistic process, which offers thoughts on getting ready to apply to and go to college for high schoolers, their parents, and their family members. He also recently co-authored The Truth about College Admission, which will be released in September from Johns Hopkins University Press.

The event will take place Thursday, June 13, from 1:15 to 3:45 p.m. in the Clary Theatre of the Bill Moore Student Success Center. Attendees can register online. Those who can’t attend can view a similar presentation Clark gave to Georgia Tech alumni in 2018.

“This effort will address opportunities for improvement identified through the Comprehensive Administrative Review and support Georgia Tech Human Resources in the implementation of OneUSG Connect,” said Mark Demyanek, interim senior vice president for Administration.

For the next six to nine months, the team, which will be assisted by Georgia Tech Strategic Consulting, will work with both the centralized unit ­– Georgia Tech Human Resources – and decentralized human resource personnel to perform a strategic assessment of the organizational structure, administrative operations, key business processes, and future state readiness. This will require engaging the campus community to understand employee and business needs.

The team will also help the deputy director for Human Resources enhance and support core human resource operations as the associate vice president for Human Resources devotes increasing time to implementing the OneUSG Human Capital Management (HCM) initiative by the end of 2019.    

“The transformation of Georgia Tech’s administrative systems continues as we transition to OneUSG Connect,” said Kim D. Harrington, associate vice president and chief human resources officer at Georgia Tech. “This change will align Tech’s human resources processes with best industry practices and the University System of Georgia. We welcome the support that Huron brings to the Institute during this time.”

Georgia Tech also anticipates the consultant team collaborating with leadership in Human Resources to focus on optimizing operations that impact the entire campus community. These include the following:

• Talent recruitment strategies and processes
• Position reclassifications and reorganizations
• Human resources support model for the Institute

For more information on the Comprehensive Administrative Review (CAR), visit president.gatech.edu/car-report. Click here for more information on the implementation of the OneUSG Connect and what it means for you.

President G.P. “Bud” Peterson began the process of identifying the core values by asking the Institute’s four representative bodies — the Faculty Executive Board, the Staff Council, and the graduate and undergraduate Student Government Associations — to suggest values. Once those values were compiled along with values recommended by the Institute’s leadership, a working group was formed to discuss and determine the final recommended values.

The committee was comprised of: Joe Hughes, Faculty Executive Board; David Brown, Staff Council; Evan Gillon, Undergraduate SGA; Andrew Cox, Graduate SGA; Ling-Ling Nie and Aisha Oliver-Staley, Ethics and Compliance; Kim Harrington, Human Resources;  Andrew Billing, Office of Strategic Consulting; and Lynn Durham, Office of the President.

“More than 30 values were suggested by the representative bodies and the Institute’s senior leaders,” said Durham, associate vice president and chief of staff for the Office of the President. “The working group discussed each suggested value in the context of how it applies to Georgia Tech’s culture and the ethical values and behaviors that should be demonstrated by us all. Ultimately, five values were selected and many other suggested values were incorporated in the final description and expected behaviors.”

The five core values with definitions of each are posted to Georgia Tech’s ethics website, with a section for employees to provide comments.

“If anyone would like to provide feedback on the values, the working group would be very receptive and appreciative,” said Durham.

In May, the Executive Leadership Team will finalize the values and work with Institute Communications and the vice president for Ethics and Compliance to make the core values an integral part of the campus conversation.

Ling-Ling Nie, general counsel and vice president for Ethics and Compliance, said, “This summer our office will work with campus leaders to outline ways to increase awareness of the core values among all faculty, staff, and students.”

Tech leadership will work with Human Resources and the Office of Faculty Affairs to include the demonstration of the core values in the annual performance evaluation for all employees. 

Once completed, The Kendeda Building is expected to be one of the most sustainable buildings of its kind in the Southeast. As a building pursuing Living Building Challenge 3.1 status, the main purpose is to go beyond doing less harm and give back to the environment, as well as users and occupants of the building including The Kendeda Building Director, Office of Campus Sustainability, Global Change Program, and the anticipated thousands of yearly students and visitors. From the very beginning, the human element of this unique high-performance building has helped drive the planning and design decisions.         

“The human component — and how we interact and actually benefit from the building’s environment — has fortunately become a significant variable in designing buildings,” said Gary Jelin, associate director of Design Services in Facilities Management.

Given that it is estimated that Americans spend approximately 87 percent of their time indoors, how buildings are constructed and the materials used to build and maintain them can have a profound impact on the health and well-being of the occupants.

Living Building Challenge 3.1 certification requires adherence to seven Petals: The Materials Petal has provided one of the greatest challenges for designers and builders. Among other requirements of the Materials Petal such as Net Positive Waste, designers and builders must abide by the Red List, which details a number of materials and chemicals (777 individual chemicals) that should be avoided in the construction of a Living Building Challenge-certified facility. Examples of banned materials include obvious items such as asbestos and arsenic (used for jobs like insulation and pressure treatment of lumber). Other materials like polyvinyl chloride (PVC), used today for plumbing and electrical pipes, are not as obvious. While exceptions are granted based upon market availability, the intent is to promote healthy buildings and surroundings by restricting the use of chemicals and materials that have the potential to be harmful to the environment and to humans.

With The Kendeda Building, planners, designers, and builders have given much care and consideration to following – and, at times, exceeding – the material regulations lordaecksargent.com/blog/a-living-building-project-journey-part-15.

Another intent of the Material Petal is to select materials that are not just “less harmful” to the environment but are regenerative and have the ability to give back to the environment and the occupants. An example of this is using materials, like wood, that have a reduced carbon footprint and are aesthetically appealing to the building’s occupants.

“It’s a completely integrated and healthy approach to designing and constructing high-performance buildings,” said Jelin. “We are learning that you don’t have to sacrifice human well-being for high performance. Actually, the two are quite complementary.”

Access to natural elements, like sunlight and clean air, matters too when it comes to improving the human experience. Since the 1990s, researchers have been drawing correlations between access to natural light and increased test scores in the academic setting. Improving air quality (via natural and mechanical ventilation) is also associated with increases in occupant productivity — not to mention a decrease in sick building syndrome or the range of nonspecific acute illnesses and/or discomfort linked to time spent in a building.

Jelin added that designing for both building and human performance just makes common sense and is a principle that is practiced in many of Georgia Tech’s renovation and new construction projects, not just The Kendeda Building.

For instance, the new facility for the Georgia Tech Police Department, which is expected to open later this spring, is also being constructed to positively impact human health and well-being. During the design phase, the project team incorporated features such as air, water, light, fitness, comfort, and mental well-being into the design of the building. Designers also took the time to ensure the building’s interior design and construction were conducive to creating a healthy and inviting space. For example, the lobby area will be filled with natural light and will include an area to feature community art. To help meet very high indoor air quality standards, the furniture finishes will meet low- and no-VOC (volatile organic compounds) requirements more stringent than previous Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification requirements. The end result? A building that fully functions as a state-of-the-art campus safety facility, and, like The Kendeda Building, gives back to the environment and those who occupy the building.

For more information on The Kendeda Building, visit livingbuilding.gatech.edu and    livingbuilding.kendedafund.org. Updates on Georgia Tech’s transformation of campus can be found at news.gatech.edu/2019/02/04/construction-projects-watch-spring.

Beginning Monday, April 15, traffic along Ferst Drive between Regents Drive and the Campus Recreation Center (CRC) will be reduced to one lane to allow utility infrastructure installation that will connect to the new exhibition hall and pavilions. Through access will be maintained utilizing flaggers during working hours (8 a.m. – 4 p.m.), but those who drive on campus are advised to plan for increased travel time along Ferst Drive. This portion of the work is expected to conclude by the end of April.

Work will also begin that Monday on the southwest and southeast corners of the W02 parking deck in preparation for a new entrance and exit to the deck. The pedestrian path, bicycle lane, and on-street parking on the north side of Ferst Drive in the vicinity of this project site will be closed; pedestrians will need to cross to Tech Parkway or around the north side of W02 to pass through this area. The current entry and exit for the W02 deck will be maintained throughout this work. The new entrance will be open for use in May, when changes to deck traffic flow will occur inside the deck.

There will also be intermittent work in the Area 3 (visitor parking) and W03 parking lots to inspect utility lines during this period. Those who park in these lots should be that some spaces will be blocked off intermittently to enable this work.

Knowing that final exams and class presentations often begin before final exam week, the design-build team has been mindful of the noise and traffic impacts of this work and will aim to minimize disruption as much as possible. These enabling projects will last through part of finals week, but are expected to conclude by Wednesday, May 1, to allow Commencement and the Project Launch Event to take place unimpeded.

More information about the Campus Center project can be found at reinnovation.studentcenter.gatech.edu.

Georgia Tech seeks to construct and operate The Kendeda Building to the Living Building Challenge certification standard, the world’s most rigorous sustainable design and performance standard for buildings. As such, The Kendeda Building will abide by strict construction guidelines as well as operating procedures. This includes harvesting more energy than it uses on site through renewable sources, as well as collecting, treating, and reusing more water than it needs on an annual basis.

“We are excited to showcase The Kendeda Building to the campus community,” said Shan Arora, director of The Kendeda Building. “By design, it will necessitate that we think differently about how to occupy and use a building. It’s an educational process for us all.”

At this time, The Kendeda Building is available for reservations from October 28 to December 19, 2019. Rooms available for booking include a 170-person auditorium, conference room, three classrooms, and four class labrooms. Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff will receive priority in making reservations until April 26, when space in The Kendeda Building will be opened to the broader community.

Click here for additional details and to request a reservation. Contact Shan Arora for more information.

You can learn about this project at livingbuilding.gatech.edu.

Every workday is different, he said, but each begins at 7 a.m. with a walk through the Cherry Emerson Building to ensure everything is in place from the previous night and ready for the new day.

“Building Coordinator 1 is a very diverse job,” Lichev said. “I handle small things like issuing keys to lab members and putting fuel into the vehicles, to bigger projects like taking inventory of equipment and handling the disposal of old equipment.”

He said he likes helping professors fill their day-to-day needs in the lab, and it’s a rewarding feeling to know that he made someone’s day brighter. He also likes interacting with new people as he does his work.

“The School of Biological Sciences is a big school, so I meet new faces every day,” said Lichev, who is also an industrial and systems engineering Tech student. “It makes an interesting conversation when I meet classmates outside the classroom while working.”

Lichev grew up in Bulgaria and earned a bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering from the Technical University of Sofia in 2008. He moved to the United States 10 years ago at age 22, leaving his entire family in Bulgaria. Only three of his classes from Bulgaria were transferable to the U.S., so he effectively had to start college again. In 2017, he earned an associate’s degree in engineering from Georgia State University – Perimeter College. He’s currently a part-time Tech student in his third year.

“The industrial engineering degree I’m pursuing at Tech is a natural follow-up to the manufacturing degree I earned in Bulgaria,” he said. “To me, the industrial engineering degree here shows how a business runs and how we can make it run better. It is very versatile and is the right one for me. I want to see it through.”

Lichev said that after graduating he would like to keep working at Georgia Tech, perhaps as an in-house consultant who examines a unit and identifies ways to help it work more efficiently.

“I know I’m a few years from graduation, and things change,” he said, “but I can see myself retiring from the Institute.”

Lichev said he enjoys being an employee and a student, and he encourages others to do the same through the Tuition Assistance Program.

“I would like to see more of my colleagues take classes,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be at Georgia Tech. As long as the school is in the University System of Georgia, they can access the benefits.”

Away from Work

Lichev’s job, classes, and homework leave him with little time for hobbies.

“When I’m not working or doing schoolwork, the thing I enjoy best is sleep. I know a lot of Tech students can relate to that,” he said. “After graduation, I will develop some hobbies. For now, sleep is my best friend.”

He keeps in touch with his family in Bulgaria through weekly video chats. He said that because of the seven-hour time difference, finding a good time for everyone to talk can be tricky.

His most recent trip to Bulgaria was Christmas 2018. Before then, he hadn’t been there since 2014 when he made a surprise visit on his father’s 50th birthday. 

“I’m not going to wait another four years before I go back,” he said. “If I can, I’ll go back this year.”

Ethically challenging decisions can arise at any point in our career. As a result, it is important to remind ourselves what conduct is encouraged, what conduct is clearly prohibited at Georgia Tech, and where to turn for help and support when we’re unsure.

The 2019 Integrity and Compliance Campaign will continue the momentum from Ethics Awareness Week by focusing on the commitments that define an engaged, ethical campus culture: transparency, community, and integrity.

Faculty, staff (including Tech Temps), and student employees are expected to review and comply with the Institute’s Code of Ethics and the University System of Georgia’s Ethics Policy, as well as policies regarding cybersecurity, alcohol and illegal drugs, and conflict of interest. The Integrity and Compliance Campaign for 2019 begins March 13 and ends April 3.

This year’s campaign also features a new tutorial: What it Means to be a Yellow Jacket. During this 15-minute spotlight feature, employees from across campus will share stories, processes, and resources they use to cultivate character and preserve the public trust.

The Integrity and Compliance Campaign can be completed on a desktop or laptop. It should take approximately 30 minutes, and it does not have to be completed at one time. Beginning March 13, employees should visit training.hr.gatech.edu to get started.

Employees who do not fully complete the requirements by April 3 may receive a formal disciplinary notice from the Institute, and their access to Georgia Tech’s network may also be revoked.

You can learn more about this year's campaign and review associated information, including New Hire Learning and Compliance, at hr.gatech.edu/integrity-and-compliance.

More information related to ethics at Georgia Tech, including policies and other resources, may be found at ecla.gatech.edu/ethics-georgia-tech.

“It is during periods of substantial change that we have the greatest opportunity to define what comes next,” said Mark Hoeting, vice president for Information Technology and chief information officer. “Given the pervasiveness of technology in every aspect of the Institute, the success of the plan is entirely dependent on the depth of partnership in its development and implementation.”

An Eye Toward the Future includes a partnership between Georgia Tech Information Technology and college IT organizations. A steering committee, comprised of delegates of the executive leadership team, members of the Georgia Tech Information Technology senior leadership team, and academic IT directors, has been established to guide and oversee the progress of the initiative.

The engagement includes environmental scanning and strategy formulation through a process called crowdsourcing. This process allows students, faculty, researchers, and staff to share ideas and weigh in on critical discussions, such as current and future opportunities, in IT on a shared platform called POPin. POPin can be accessed online or through a mobile app and allows discussion participants to respond to campaign questions and vote up or down on other’s responses. The platform provides a dashboard with real-time information on popular responses and themes.

The technology plan will be developed in accordance with policies set forth within the University System of Georgia’s IT Handbook, Section 1.4. Technology best practices and standards among research institutions of higher education are also highly regarded throughout this engagement.

“Over the next 12 months, the Institute will bring to a close several major initiatives that will establish strategic direction for the next several years,” Hoeting said. “As an institution, we are positioned now to plan carefully and thoroughly regarding how information technology will enable the Institute to best-leverage our path forward.”

Visit it.gatech.edu/techplan to learn more about An Eye Toward the Future.

It’s called QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training. The acronym stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer, and Georgia Tech is one of hundreds of institutions that have incorporated the training program into their comprehensive mental health services and outreach.

Created in the mid-1990s by a clinical psychologist, QPR is a unique approach to emergency mental health interventions. It’s based on the same principle as its pseudo-namesake, CPR, in which non-medical experts learn the skills to stabilize people who aren’t breathing — keeping them alive until they can receive proper medical care.

QPR training seeks the same outcome in a different context. In this case, we are learning how to identify a person in crisis, interrupt the crisis, and connect the individual to the mental health resources and services that can help them.

“Becoming a QPR Gatekeeper, learning warning signs for suicide and how to ask someone if they are thinking about suicide, and how to refer for additional support, is one way that we can assist others in times of need,” said Julia Rizzo, staff therapist and suicide prevention coordinator at Georgia Tech.  

“Faculty and staff have unique positions in students’ lives, and being well-equipped to discuss mental health and make referrals can save lives,” she added. “Unfortunately, we are aware of how deeply suicide deaths can affect our community. Suicide is preventable, and we can all play a part in enhancing well-being at Georgia Tech.”

During the next two hours, the training is a combination of PowerPoint presentations, fact sheet handouts, role-playing exercises, and group discussions that are both informative and, at times, deeply emotional and frank. Participants are engaged. They share stories of a family member or friend lost to suicide, or a loved one caught in the tangle of depression. It is not an easy conversation.

And that is the ultimate point of QPR training, to overcome the ingrained fear of talking about suicide and, in particular, asking someone if they are considering suicide. It is the first step, and it is crucial to a potentially lifesaving intervention.

“Every one of you can talk to someone who is struggling,” instructor Holly Shikano tells us. She works as the coordinator for staff and community development in Residence Life, which is part of Tech’s Department of Housing, and this is her third year leading QPR training.

She and the co-instructor for this session, Kathryn Folk, talk to us about identifying direct and indirect verbal cues, and behavioral and situational cues in people who may be in crisis. They also provide tips for asking “the suicide question.” We practice in small groups.

“Life is precious,” says Folk, a 1999 Tech industrial engineering graduate who serves as campus chaplain for the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. This is her first time leading a QPR training. “I see so much value in being able to ask these questions and save a life.”

Then follows a group conversation about ways of helping in the moment of intervention. Whether it be through referral to a service provider or offering direct help (for example, walking someone to the Counseling Center or making a phone call to a hotline or elsewhere on their behalf), we learn the importance of persistence, empathy, and positivity — we learn phrases like, “I want you to live. I’m on your side. We will get through this.”

Next, we do another role-playing exercise where we practice what we have talked about. Collectively, we discuss the approaches each group took and analyze what we might have done differently.

Finally, we learn about resources on campus and in the larger Atlanta community, as well as national hotlines, for those in crisis. It is, after all, the third component of QPR — refer — that makes gatekeeping work. In this step, you become the conduit to lifesaving help.

“You are connecting people to resources that they might not know about or choose to seek out on their own,” Shikano reminds us.

QPR training is relevant for staff members who don’t work in close proximity to students, too, because everyone should be equipped to intervene in a crisis. To date, more than 2,600 members of the Georgia Tech community have completed the training.

“We would love for as many people as possible at Tech to become QPR Gatekeeper-trained,” Rizzo said. “Information is powerful, and QPR is a critical piece of the Tech Ends Suicide Together initiative.”

It is also one of many campus efforts we can join to strengthen our community and the bonds we share.

There are three QPR training sessions remaining this semester:

• March 29: 10 a.m. to noon
• April 4: Noon to 2 p.m.
• April 18: 3 to 5 p.m.

Individuals can register for a General Campus QPR training session at endsuicide.gatech.edu. Alternatively, groups can request their own training by emailing endsuicide@gatech.edu.

Apart from helping the financial community prepare for the transition this summer, these testing activities are helping the training team develop future training materials and other supporting documentation that will be needed as planned system updates are implemented. Being a cloud-based solution, financial system updates are anticipated throughout the year, making proactive training and learning vital to the success of the financial community.

“Administration and Finance is excited to embrace this move to the cloud,” said Jim Fortner, interim executive vice president for Administration and Finance. “Georgia Tech financials will always be on the most up-to-date version of the system. This financial transformation will help us improve efficiencies and overcome workarounds that come with using overly customized and legacy software.“

Campuswide Workday training is set to launch in May, and the learning approach will utilize multiple learning styles, which involve structured learning, social learning, and experiential learning.

• Structured learning follows a more traditional approach, providing financial users with web-based and instructor-led trainings.
• Social learning consists of open lab sessions and utilizing a network of system experts to create a culture of peer-to-peer support.
• Experiential learning is focused on self-help and on-demand learning. Users will be able to access interactive tutorials, job aids, and videos as needed for their tasks. This training model encourages financial users to be self-sufficient and learn to access the resources available to them.

Training content has been organized by the process areas in scope for Georgia Tech’s Workday implementation. The full course catalog can be viewed at transformation.gatech.edu/training. Web-based training will be available on demand to the entire financial community, while seminars and classroom (instructor-led) training will be targeted toward specific security roles in Workday. Registration details will be communicated later this spring.

In the meantime, information sessions have been taking place on campus to give financial users a preview of the Workday process areas and to lay the foundation for training. Over the past year, sessions have included Workday Overview and the FDM, Expenses in Workday, and Grants Management in Workday. All sessions have been recorded and can be accessed from the Transformation website’s resources page.

Beginning in March, financial users can attend a Workday Procurement information session. During the Workday Procurement sessions, attendees will learn about procurement terminology changes, get an overview of Workday Procurement, and see live demonstrations on creating requisitions and using a PCard with Workday. Learn more about the sessions and register at bit.ly/workday-procurement today.

If you have any questions about the Financials Transformation, you can reach out to the team at erp.ask@gatech.edu.

The performance management process is underway in Human Resources. Self-assessments were officially due in January — but can still be submitted to managers — and provide a chance for managers to consider employee feedback before a review conversation takes place. Supervisors should conduct all employee reviews on or before Friday, Feb. 22.
All signed evaluation paperwork is due to your department’s human resources representative or HR business partner by March 11.

The annual performance review is an important opportunity to set mutual expectations, discuss opportunities, celebrate achievements, and get inspired to make the most of the coming year. Whether it’s your assessment or you’re delivering the assessment, the goal should be to have a conversation that’s as productive and beneficial as possible.

Goal Setting

In addition to wrapping up 2018, a focus for the first quarter of 2019 should be setting measurable goals for the coming year. The assessment conversation can and should also include some discussion regarding the coming year’s goals and expectations.

The Goal Setting form is not required but can be helpful for setting up goals for the manager and employee in a clear and concise manner. Visit hr.gatech.edu/forms to view and download forms for goal setting, annual evaluation, and performance improvement.

Employees and supervisors are encouraged to reach out to their HR business partner or representative if they have questions about these resources or the evaluation and goal-setting process.

Workplace Learning and Professional Development Classes

The following upcoming classes relate to work performance and management, and could be useful for employees and supervisors alike.

Seizing Your Career the Georgia Tech Way
Monday, Feb. 11, 1 to 4 p.m.
Room 149, Global Learning Center

Progressive Discipline for Improved Performance
Tuesday, March 5, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Room 149, Global Learning Center

Giving and Receiving Feedback
Friday, March 8, 1 to 3:30 p.m.
Room 149, Global Learning Center

Registration is required. Register to attend at trains.gatech.edu.

“If you have questions about the operations of the department, the type of training the officers receive, the day-to-day function of the department, or if you just want to have a better understanding of law enforcement — this academy is for you,” said Georgia Tech Police Officer Jessica Howard, Academy coordinator.  

The training, which begins March 7, includes classes on: investigations, Clery Act, K-9, law enforcement technology, firearms, emergency preparedness, and crime prevention. All classes are held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The program is free, but participants must commit to attend all sessions.

Class size is limited to 12, and there are only a few slots remaining. Applicants must submit an online application by Feb. 28 and undergo a limited background investigation.

Strengthening Campus Connections

Howard said the Academy helps to develop and foster positive relations between the community and GTPD through education.

“I believe giving people the opportunity to gain insight into how and why a law enforcement agency operates the way it does — from administrative positions to the officers in the field — brings better understanding, and, ultimately, long-lasting positive relationships,” said Howard.

Brenda Morris can attest to the development of relationships.

Morris, corporate relations manager for the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, completed the Citizens Police Academy in Spring 2018. She registered because she thought it would be an interesting way to learn about policing at Georgia Tech.

“The officers that interacted with us really gave us access to what they do,” Morris said. “They were very up-front, open, and happy to engage with us. They gave us a behind-the-scenes look at what they do and why certain things are the way they are.”

Morris, who has worked at Tech for more than 20 years, said a highlight of the experience was meeting fellow Tech employees that she never would have interacted with otherwise.

“I made a group of new colleagues and friends across campus that I can reach out to with questions,” she said. “It expanded my Georgia Tech network. That wasn’t the reason I went into it, but it was one of the best things I got out of it.”

Morris said being in the Academy was a good way for her to get to know the officers and to cultivate a deeper appreciation for what they do.

“It was good for me to see beyond the badge and to get to know the officers as people,” she said. “I would like to see more people go through the Academy.”

To learn more and register for the Citizens Police Academy, visit police.gatech.edu/academy.

Youth programs are activities for non-student minors organized and run by Georgia Tech individuals or units, outside of regular academic programs. These programs include but are not limited to working with minors in labs, internships, student organization youth events, camps on campus, and mentoring/tutoring in local schools. Campus/lab tours and school field trips to the Georgia Tech campus are generally not considered youth programs.

“The breadth and depth of youth programs at Georgia Tech are extensive,” said Kelly Cross, youth programs compliance specialist at Georgia Tech. “Through conversations with program organizers, internship supervisors, building managers, and human resources representatives, it is clear to me that there is a passion for excellence in youth programming and outreach at Georgia Tech.”

According to Cross, the exciting work occurring in Georgia Tech Youth Programs also presents unique risks to manage. To help mitigate these risks, Youth Programs has been actively implementing the Youth Programs Policy, which mandates program registration, program operating processes that can include background checks, minors in labs approval, record retention, and more to assist all involved in working with minors, regardless of individual areas of expertise.

Programs are required to register every calendar year, 30 days in advance of the program start date. Failure to do so may result in the cancellation of programming. By registering, programs that work with minors will proactively receive information on the resources and policies developed for the protection of the minors and the program staff.

In addition to overseeing the registration of programs, Georgia Tech’s Youth Programs has been working with the campus community to develop resources to further assist youth program organizers who work with minors – on and off campus – to better understand their roles and responsibilities.

This spring, online information sessions (see schedule in sidebar) will be conducted to clarify policies, process requirements, and how to register a program. Trainings will focus on key areas of responsibility for organizers of youth programs broadly, and specific sessions will also focus on requirements when minors want to intern or participate in research activities at Tech.

Visit Youth Programs to learn more and register your program. Questions may be sent directly to Kelly Cross at kelly.cross@gatech.edu.

“This step represents continued progress toward creating more open and welcoming campus facilities that are useful for every member of our community,” said Jennifer Hubert, interim associate vice president, Institute Planning and Resource Management.

Since late 2017, teams from Capital Planning and Facilities Management have been working to inventory existing single-stall bathrooms and other space opportunities on campus to convert select facilities into gender-inclusive, single-occupant restrooms, complete with user-friendly signage. The signage also helps designate which single-occupant restrooms are ADA-accessible and/or house diaper-changing tables.

In addition to the restroom conversions and new signage installations, Georgia Tech is also updating the online campus map to reflect the location of these gender-inclusive, single-occupant restrooms. Moving forward, Georgia Tech will review campus needs for additional gender-inclusive restrooms, as buildings are renovated or constructed.

There, a few long-term projects are starting to show signs of their final state. In a few years, this area will be transformed by both new facilities and the continued completion of Tech’s long-term Eco-Commons project, which will bring greenspace and environmentally conscious landscaping, hardscaping, and stormwater management to the area.

Here’s an update on a few high-profile projects in the northwest sector and beyond.

Dalney Building

Framing of the parking structure is nearly complete, and the building façade is taking shape. The parking deck will provide around 800 vehicle spaces, and the building portion will house research administrative officers. The project is expected to be complete this summer.

Campus Safety Facility

The exterior is nearly complete, with windows and most exterior fixtures in place. The facility is on schedule to be complete and in use this semester.

Kappa Alpha Theta House

Framing is underway for the 14,400-square-foot house for Tech’s newest sorority, which formed a campus chapter in 2016. The house is situated on Fifth Street just before the bridge to Tech Square and is scheduled to be finished this summer.

Greenfield Street

On Greenfield Street, from 10th Street to the Dalney Building site, a new water line is being installed. Work is expected to wrap up this month.

ACC Production Facility

This 6,350-square-foot facility is being constructed in anticipation of the launch of the ACC Network this fall.

Kendeda Building

A showpiece of the building was put in place in December with the installation of the steel frame for the building’s central staircase. The stairs will be formed from heart pine joists that were salvaged from the recent renovation of Tech Tower. Read more about the building’s construction process and see interior photos.

Price Gilbert

The Library renewal project continues, with Crosland Tower now functioning as Tech’s Library home. Price Gilbert is scheduled to be complete in 2020. Learn more at librarynext.gatech.edu.

Faculty governance at Georgia Tech is made up of several committees that serve as its backbone. Many initiatives and new programs originate from these groups, and nominations for Spring 2019 elections are now open.

Vacancies are available on the following committees:

For All Faculty

• Faculty Honors
• Faculty Status and Grievance
• Faculty Statutes
• Faculty Services
• Welfare and Security
• Services and Central Admin^*
• Faculty Executive Board^**

For Academic Faculty

• Student Academic and Financial Affairs
• Student Activities
• Student Regulations
• Student Grievance and Appeal
• Student Honor
• Student Computer Ownership
• Academic Integrity
• Undergraduate Curriculum^†
• Graduate Curriculum^††

Nominations will be accepted through Sunday, Feb. 10, via email at nominations2019@lists.gatech.edu. Self-nominations are welcome.

The Georgia Tech Faculty Nominating Committee seeks to honor all requests for particular committees; nominators are asked to keep in mind that some elections are constrained by requirements associated with particular seats and the necessity to balance campus representation.

Those selected by the Faculty Nominations Committee for the final ballot will be notified approximately one week before the election commences. Elected faculty will serve a three-year term, from August 2019 through August 2022.

For a description of the work for each committee, visit the Faculty Handbook: Section 2.6 Standing Committees of the Faculty. For questions about the nomination or election process, contact:

• Erick Maxwell, chair, nominations committee and GTRI representative
• Michael Hoffmann, co-chair, nominations committee
• Jeanne Balsam, secretary of the faculty

For Georgia Tech’s Office of Government and Community Relations, it’s business as usual to promote Tech’s legislative priorities. After securing the final round of construction funding last year for the Price Gilbert Library and Crosland Tower renewal project, this year Tech will request $4.3 million for planning and design funds for Tech Square Phase III, a two-tower complex in Tech Square to enhance innovation and academic programming.

Georgia Tech will also seek to strengthen partnerships for Georgia Smart Communities programming, an initiative out of Georgia Tech that serves both metro and rural communities throughout the state to enhance infrastructure through technology-based solutions.

Together with the University System of Georgia (USG), the Georgia Tech team will also work to promote important System-wide priorities. This includes $82.6 million in new Formula Funds for enrollment growth, shared among all USG institutions to support critical day-to-day operations and academic quality, and $75 million in Major Repair and Rehabilitation Funds to repair aging facilities across the USG, including more than $100 million for Tech in deferred maintenance needs.

On Tuesday, Feb. 12, Georgia Tech will join the USG’s other research institutions under the Gold Dome for the annual Student Day at the Capitol. This event allows students to share their appreciation for the ongoing support from state lawmakers and learn more about Georgia’s legislative and budgetary processes.

During the 2019 legislative session, Georgia Tech will have 13 students serving full-time as interns to legislators, committees, and staffers through the Georgia Legislative Internship Program, offered in collaboration with the Georgia General Assembly and colleges and universities throughout Georgia.

The second cohort of staff, students, and faculty — Troy Batugal, Natashia Boland, Rachel Chen, Sheila Cranman, Rishabh Datta, Claudio Di Leo, Heather Dicks, Jennifer Glass, Skyler Henckell, Lacy Hodges, Avanti Joshi, Angela Keys, Preksha Kukreja, Minda Monteagudo, Rhea Perkins, Raneem Rizvi, Rockie Marie Rodríguez, Sahana Srivatsan, Maloreigh Todd, Emily Weigel, and Conan Zhao — have spent the past year developing, planning, and executing their proposals, each designed to accelerate cultural transformation on campus.

For the program’s sponsors, the goal is to create an environment where all people feel safe, comfortable, and empowered to discuss diversity and inclusion.

“Diverse collaboration often sparks great innovation,” said Magnus Egerstedt, professor and Steve W. Chaddick School Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and co-director of the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program. “When we conceived of this program, the hope was to change the culture on campus by seeding a number of different projects. And it is really exciting to see this actually happening. I particularly appreciate the energy and passion that the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows bring to this program.”

With support from Institute Diversity, the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program was created in 2017 to bring together faculty, staff, and students who individually and collectively advance their action, research, or teaching objectives while improving inclusivity on campus.

2018 Diversity Fellows’ topics included conflict resolution skills training for graduate students in science, mentoring and support for African-American female students matriculating through Tech, a summit-style event to discuss issues related to the inclusion of people with disabilities at Tech, and a workshop specifically geared toward undergraduate-run makerspaces that expose students to best practices in developing a diverse and inclusive atmosphere.

“It is very exciting to witness the creative ways that our fellows are using their own experience and expertise to foster diversity and inclusivity at Georgia Tech,” said Beril Toktay, ADVANCE Professor in the Scheller College of Business, Brady Family Chair and faculty director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, and co-director of the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program. “It is particularly gratifying to see how interest in the program has grown, the wealth of ideas and projects that are being proposed, and the effectiveness of the execution.”

Angela Keys, an administrative manager in the Center for Career Discovery and Development whose project, Black Women Gather, provides mentoring and support for African-American women at Tech, reflected on her time as a fellow.

“I consider myself fairly dialed-in to being inclusive but seeing and hearing my fellow fellows' projects made me realize how much work there is still to do, how much there is I don't know and still want to learn,” she said.

She also noted how this project has further deepened her connection to Tech. “I feel more invested in this Institute and I want to be a part of its legacy of Progress and Service.”

The third cohort of faculty, staff, and students was recently selected for the 2019 Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program.

To learn more about the program, visit diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgram.

“The Institute is transforming its financial systems to increase efficiencies and streamline financial processes across all units on campus,” said Jim Fortner, interim executive vice president for Administration and Finance. “The configured workflows and improved reporting capabilities will allow for checks and balances throughout a transaction’s lifecycle and will help align our administrative processes with Georgia Tech’s priorities.”

During this comprehensive testing phase, a variety of business transactions and integrations will be tested for functionality, compatibility, and reporting capabilities using the new cloud-based system. In parallel, user acceptance testing (UAT) will validate that integrations have been built to the business requirements while identifying underlying issues and/or required adjustments. UAT will also give Georgia Tech financial users the knowledge and experience needed to own and maintain each integration after the new system is live.

Of the many improvements the Financials Transformation project aims to provide, a critical component is enhanced transparency across all of Tech’s financial transactions. Once the new system is in place, campus financial users will be able to easily see workflows and determine where a task is within a process. Moving to a single platform and reducing systems will allow units to work more collaboratively and will improve transparency between decentralized and centralized units on campus. And since Workday is a cloud-based solution, Georgia Tech will always be on the latest version with access to new features.

Get Informed, Get Involved

To help ensure a two-way dialogue with the campus community, the Financials Transformation team is conducting a variety of information sessions to help build awareness and an understanding of the new system as well as to collect feedback and input from faculty, researchers, and staff.

In the past five months, the team has covered topics including the Financial Data Model (FDM), which is replacing the PeopleSoft Chart of Accounts, and expenses using Workday. More than 800 campus members attended these sessions. Recordings of these sessions are available on the Enterprise  Transformation website.

The next series of info sessions begin in January and will cover grants management in Workday. These sessions are especially relevant for campus financial users who oversee, manage, and support grants and awards. Click here, to register for this event.

Community members are also encouraged to subscribe to The Workday Buzz, a bimonthly publication that provides an overview of the financial transformation progress and a digest of upcoming events. Complete the signup box at the bottom of the Transformation website homepage, or via this link.

Lastly, keep an eye out for communication from your unit’s change agent. There are more than 100 change agents representing more than 140 units on campus that can help answer questions about Workday and point you to helpful resources.

For more informaiton, visit transformation.gatech.edu.

President G.P. “Bud” Peterson recently approved amendments to Georgia Tech’s Staff Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program (STRAP) Policy. Changes are in response to staff feedback regarding the types of continuing education programs that are eligible under the program. In particular, the amended policy notes that an employee may pursue education or training in a field not directly connected to their current position, as long as it falls into a job category at Tech.

“Georgia Tech supports educational advancement for all its employees,” said Lynn Durham, associate vice president and executive liaison to the Staff Council. “We want to thank members of the Staff Council for their advocacy in bringing this to the attention of our leadership.”

According to newly updated policy Administrative Policy 13.9, to qualify for tuition reimbursement, coursework must be taken for academic credit toward completion of a certificate, diploma, or degree, and related to a career field at Georgia Tech. All full-time, classified employees who have worked at Tech for 12 months are eligible to apply.

The issue has been a pet project of David Brown, an electrician and 2019 chair of the Georgia Tech Staff Council who brought the initial proposal forward as chair of the Council’s subcommittee on benefits and compensation. He believes news of the change will be a morale boost for staff.

“Programs like STRAP show Georgia Tech is willing to invest in its people and support those who want to grow in their current job, or cross over to a new line of work,” he said. “When your organization invests in your career, it gives you a stronger sense that you belong here.”

Learn more at hr.gatech.edu/education-assistance.

We asked several Georgia Tech librarians for recommendations. The books range from a Christmas-themed murder mystery to one offering an inside look at the buying and selling of personal data.  

Things Are What You Make of Them: Life Advice For Creatives

By Adam J. Kurtz, TarcherPerigee (2017)

“This small but colorful book offers advice that is applicable to everyone today, especially those who work with technology and interact less with other people. Each chapter is a few pages long with advice. The pages can be torn out to post in your office or to carry in your wallet.

The author’s ideas can be used to keep you motivated while involved in a very long project; encourage you to accept change in your work, technology, or personal life; and remind you of what makes a great collaboration.”

—Isabel Altamirano, Engineering and Chemistry Librarian

The Twelve Clues of Christmas: A Royal Spyness Mystery

By Rhys Bowen, Mass Market Paperback (2013)

“This time of year, I like to read a Christmas-themed mystery. One of my favorites is The Twelve Clues of Christmas. The story centers around Lady Georgiana Rannoch, 35th in line to the throne. To stave off spending the holidays with her brother and his family in their drafty Scottish castle, she accepts a position for ‘a lady of high breeding’ to help host a party in Tiddleton-under-Lovey, which, it just so happens, is where her mother, an actress divorced from her father years ago, will be. The murder mystery is set around the Christmas party and is very reminiscent of Agatha Christie. The characters range from an American couple and their two teenaged children to a colonel and his wife just recently from India. They also include a cast of characters from the town — even what amounts to a village idiot (though he managed to have jobs) — a trio of spinster sisters, and the vicar. I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a classic murder mystery set during Christmas.”

—Alexis Linoski, Licensed Content Coordinator

What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data

By Adam Tanner, Public Affairs (2014)

“A fascinating inside look at the data industry, with a focus on Vegas. Caesars CEO (formerly a Harvard Business School professor) set up the first casino loyalty program — the company knows how much you typically wager in a day and what food you like to eat. While customers receive benefits by sharing data in these programs, other companies obtain and resell data about you — with minimal restrictions. Summing it up: thought-provoking.”

—Patricia Kenly, Business Reference Librarian and Government Documents Coordinator

Public Engagement Librarian Charlie Bennett recommended two books:

The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time

By Brooke Gladstone, Workman Publishing Co. (2017)

“Brooke Gladstone is the co-host of On the Media, a WNYC radio show about journalism, technology, and First Amendment issues. The book is a short, straight-to-the-point reminder that we create narratives out of our perceptions, and those narratives are in shockingly polarized disagreement in America right now.”

My Twentieth Century Evening and Other Small Breakthroughs: The Nobel Lecture

By Kazuo Ishiguro, Faber & Faber (2017)

“Ishiguro, author of Never Let Me Go, The Remains of the Day, and other wonderful novels, won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and this is the text of his acceptance ‘speech’ — really a long talk on his life and how he creates.”

“The push to be happy during the holidays is a microcosm of the impact that media has on us all of the time,” said Andy Smith, interim associate director for Clinical Services in the Georgia Tech Counseling Center. “We get a really concentrated dose of it during the holiday season. We are inundated with messages that it’s holiday time, and it should be great, and we should all be happy and enjoying ourselves.”

Smith said that people often enter this time of year with very high expectations that are also unrealistic.

“We start with a big setup right from the beginning, expecting that this will be the best time of the year,” he said. “Often, it doesn’t live up to that expectation. The reality is these are not happy and joyful times for everyone.”

The holidays can be filled with a lot of important memories going back to childhood. It’s a time when many people remember loved ones who have died or people who are ill and are no longer able to participate in the holidays the way they used to.

“It’s perfectly normal to feel a range of emotions during this time, particularly if you have difficult memories,” Smith said. “Maybe a spouse, parent, sibling, grandparent or close friend is no longer here. We usually associate the holidays with those relationships and memories. The season can bring painful memories and suffering to the forefront.”

Smith said people should allow themselves room to accommodate those memories and feelings. He said it’s important to be strategic when approaching the holidays because, in addition to bringing up sad memories, the holidays can shake up our daily routine.

“As humans, we are creatures of habit, and our routines usually serve us well,” he said. “The holidays are a recipe for breaking those routines: We are off work for days at a time. We are going to multiple holiday parties, family gatherings, and other social events. We’re eating a lot more carbohydrates, sugar, and fat.”

Because alcohol consumption often accompanies social gatherings, Smith said he reminds his clients that alcohol is a depressant and can affect a person’s mood. He also notes that sleep patterns and exercise routines are often disrupted during the holidays.

“The first step in being strategic is to acknowledge the likelihood that changes in your routine will occur during the holidays,” he said. The second step is to plan ahead.

“Maintain habits that are important — diet, exercise, and sleep — as much as we can. Anticipate disruptions to those habits.”

Smith’s third suggestion is to be realistic about what we can accomplish during the holidays.

“Some people will get invited to multiple holiday gatherings. It’s OK to say no. We don’t have to go to every single thing we’re invited to,” he said. “If you go to five parties in one night, are you really fully present at any of them? As soon as you get there, you start planning your exit strategy for the next one. That’s a recipe for stress and not enjoying any of them,” he said.

On the other hand, what if you did not get invited to any parties? Or, what if your family lives in another state or country and you cannot visit them for the holidays?

“We have a lot international students on campus. Their families and primary social networks may be halfway around the world and are not with them during the holidays,” Smith said. “For others, they may be estranged from their family or, for whatever reason, they may be isolated and alone.”

Smith’s advice for anyone who is alone during the holidays is to look for other ways to connect.

“For people who are affiliated with a church or religious community, the holidays can be a great time to seek connections through those venues,” he said. “It’s also a good time to volunteer or engage in service. It’s a good way to give if you don’t have a lot of financial resources.”

And no matter what your situation, Smith also suggests creating a schedule for yourself including exercising, reading, or other activities to fill the days. For those who may have existing mental health concerns, such as depression or anxiety, Smith says the holidays can be a good time to reach out to your therapist or seek professional support because this time can be especially stressful.

For the Georgia Tech community, the Counseling Center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday until Dec. 21. The center will be closed for the holiday break, and the after-hours counselor can be reached by calling 404-894-2575.

Employees can access up to eight free counseling sessions through the Employee Assistance Program. For more information on either resource, visit counseling.gatech.edu or hwb.gatech.edu/eap.

Price Gilbert, the portion of the Library that has welcomed campus since 1953, will close for renovation on Friday, Dec. 14. Its sister building next door, Crosland Tower, will reopen after three years of closure and will be the new Library home for campus starting Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, at 8 a.m.

The Library, currently located in Price Gilbert, will be open 24/7 during final exams. From Dec. 14 to Jan. 6, 2019, Library employees will work out of the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, with employees available at the second floor Core Desk from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Users will be able to request gadgets and return materials at this desk.

Requests for library materials will continue to be made through the Library’s website, and delivery will continue from the Library Service Center through the transition. Users might experience delays or service interruptions due to a software upgrade scheduled to take place Dec. 14–17.

The switch from Price Gilbert to Crosland marks the last phase of the Library Next project, a five-year transition that has seen the renovation of one building, opening of the Library Service Center with Emory University, and reimagination of how the Library uses its space and serves its users.

The project is scheduled to be complete in 2020, with the reopening of Price Gilbert and new connectivity between the two buildings. Learn more about the project at librarynext.gatech.edu.

The relationships include the immediate neighborhoods surrounding campus, the state of Georgia, and the public school system.

“We have a unique role in our office because we are outward facing,” Burke said. “Our full-time focus is external. When you engage externally, you get to hold up a mirror and really see what the outside world thinks of you. Whether you think you’re doing well or not, the outside world will let you know.”

Burke and his Community Relations staff regularly receive feedback from hundreds of visiting students, parents, and teachers. The department works with schools and centers across campus to bring students from metro Atlanta and beyond to campus to see engineering and computing demos to get excited about STEM. One impactful event the office holds twice a year, Middle Grades Discover Georgia Tech, brings 200-240 students to campus. They divide the students into groups of about 25 students per rotation to keep them actively engaged.

“There is universal excitement among the students about the visits,” Burke said. “We approach the visits with the overall goal of exposure. It’s about helping to pique the students’ curiosity. The more they can be exposed to what engineering or computer science is, the more they can get engaged in their own education and what they want to pursue. For a lot of kids, they won’t necessarily know what engineering is until they have the opportunity to touch, feel, or see something.”

Burke said that Community Relations takes pride in not turning away any group or individual who wants to visit campus. He said that, depending on the community, people may be skeptical of the Institute’s intentions. But, he said most groups welcome the idea of the Institute doing something to enrich the lives of their children.

For Burke, being able to engage with young minds is the most rewarding part of his job.
“I see the joy on their faces, whether they’re middle school students coming here for a one-day experience or high school students who I get to spend a little more time with,” he said.

In addition to working in Community Relations, Burke co-teaches an Honors Program special topics course, Near Peer Mentoring: An Urban Education Experience (HTS 2813), with Carol Subino Sullivan, senior academic professional with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

Burke said the course spawned from an observation about seven years ago that, at the time, there were only about 40 Tech students who came from the Atlanta Public Schools system.
Burke worked with CTL to apply for the Near Peer Mentoring Challenge Grant. They received the grant, and Burke and Sullivan designed the course to look at the obstacles preventing Atlanta Public Schools students from attending Tech.

“It’s challenging because the data that you’re combing through paints a very grim story about what happens in urban education circles,” he said. “There is such a wide gap in terms of the rigor that students in predominately low-income communities get to experience. There’s also a lack of belief in themselves and what they think they can do. It goes back to the exposure issue.”

In the course, Tech students spend one day in class and one day at Atlanta Public Schools’ BEST Academy doing one-on-one mentoring with middle school students. The goal is for the high school students to apply to and attend a four-year university.

“It’s very impactful for the high school students, but the immediate impact is on our Tech students,” Burke said. “There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t hear from a Tech alumnus regarding something in their professional life that reminds them of the work we did in the class or draws them back to want to do more.”

Burke said his work always reminds him of the responsibility that comes from Georgia Tech being a public university.

“We create a lot of jobs and contribute patented technologies to the world. But I’m cognizant of the fact that many of the children in the communities we talk to are not going to attend Tech,” he said. “Their parents work in jobs where what we do at Tech has little to no impact on their lives. So, what more can we do to honor ourselves as a public entity to those who have less? I think about that all of the time.”

He said that one answer largely lies with working with children, and he recently wrote a paper in an economic development journal outlining details.

“A key contribution universities can make for economic development is through opportunities to deeply engage primary and secondary grade students in activities that could lead them to pursue a STEM career, Burke said.

“We can’t be everything to everybody,” he said, “but we can be mindful and try to meet people where they are.”

Music, Music, Music

When he isn’t working, Burke is a frequent concert-goer, an avid music lover, and a musician. In his suburban Chicago high school, he was a governor’s music scholar who played five instruments. He was supposed to study music, but he gave it up to defy his father, who was a jazz pianist.

“He always said, ‘You’re gonna regret giving up music.’ But, I never really gave it up; I just stopped playing the instruments,” Burke said.

He recently started playing music again, learning a new instrument — a Fender jazz bass guitar. He listens to UK soul music, such as Incognito. He also listens to a lot of jazz artists.

“I try to find artists who are taking the genre in a new direction — any direction,” he said.
“Whether it’s Kamasi Washington, Tom Misch, Radiohead, or Thom Yorke as a solo artist, they take the genre in a new direction. They are doing something outside the realm of traditional music. That’s what attracts me to an artist, more than the genre.”

Burke is married, has four children, and lives in Duluth, Georgia. He has a daughter who works at Tech’s library and a daughter who is a first-year student at Tech.

Melissa Hall, associate director for Internal Auditing, helps answer some of the most common questions related to EthicsPoint and offers a few pointers on navigating the reporting system. 

How many complaints are generally filed through the EthicsPoint reporting portal each year?

Historically, about 40 percent of all complaints have been reported through EthicsPoint. However, we expect that to rise significantly. Since July 1, we have received 201 [as of Nov. 11] complaints — about a 90 percent increase compared to complaints filed through EthicsPoint for all of fiscal year 2018.  

To what do you attribute this rise?

We have been encouraging the campus community to report through EthicsPoint for many years, including during the annual Integrity and Compliance Campaign. However, recent events at Georgia Tech have increased focus on employee ethical responsibilities and brought even greater visibility to EthicsPoint. Employees recognize that EthicsPoint is an option for elevating ethical issues, which have been reported at a unit level but not appropriately addressed; or where an employee has a reasonable belief that reporting at the unit level could negatively affect their current employment.

Can you walk us through how to use EthicsPoint?

Employees can either report online at ethicspoint.com or through the telephone hotline 866-294-5565. Either way, the complaint goes into the EthicsPoint reporting system.
If using the online portal, you should first enter “Georgia Tech” as the organization’s name. Then you will need to select a category and topic that most closely align to your area of concern — it doesn’t need to be an exact match. Then, you enter your “location” on campus.

After that, it asks you for your information, including if you wish to remain anonymous. It is important to remember to click “yes” or “no” in this section. If you give personal information like your name, you cannot remain anonymous even if that was your intent.

Then it asks you to complete information related to your complaint. You can even upload supporting files.

After you complete the report, including all the required fields, you hit submit. The system will generate a number that is referred to as a Report Key. You will need the Report Key to check on the status of your complaint.  Please don’t lose the Report Key because it is generated one time and only to you, so if lost, we cannot retrieve it.

What happens next to the information you submit?

The complaint is assessed and triaged in terms of its nature. At that point, it is assigned to a member of the appropriate investigative team who then requests documents, conducts the interviews, and determines if further information is needed to complete the investigation.

While this is the general process, I want to stress that each case is different, so the process and time involved can vary. Some of our more complex cases may take several months.

Who can see the information submitted?

There are several departments that have oversight of the information including Ethics, Compliance and Legal Affairs, Office of the President, University System of Georgia, and, of course, Internal Auditing. As with all documents generated as a state agency, this information is also subject to the Georgia Open Records Act.

How can you check on the status of a complaint?

The person filing the complaint is responsible for going back to the EthicsPoint portal to check on the status of their case. This is why you must save your Report Key. People assume they will get a direct notification from the review team, but for varying reasons that is not always possible. For example, if the complaint was filed anonymously, we do not have any way to make contact except through EthicsPoint. Accordingly, the team will post notes to the EthicsPoint site regarding the status of the report including if more information is needed. If the complaint has been resolved, the appropriate information will be posted on the site.

Given your experience with managing cases in EthicsPoint, what are the top reminders for the campus community?

First, if you are filing a complaint, provide as much detail as possible about the complaint. This is immensely helpful as we review the information and assess possible paths to resolution.

Second, users are skeptical about remaining anonymous and think their IP (Internet Protocol) address will be traced. I can assure you it will not. Since the EthicsPoint portal is hosted by a third party, Georgia Tech doesn’t have the ability to trace IP addresses. 

Third, although this third-party hosting facilitates the anonymity of the person filing the complaint, in order to remain anonymous, users should be careful to remove their personal information from any files before they upload them to the system.

Fourth, if people listed in the “engaged behavior” or “manager” sections happen to be on the review team, he/she cannot access the report. They are blocked, and it will be handled by another investigator.

And finally, you must keep the Report Key that is generated when you submit your information. You will need this to check the status of your case on the EthicsPoint site.

For more information on ethics at Georgia Tech, including the EthicsPoint reporting portal, visit larm.gatech.edu/ ethics-georgia-tech.

Georgia Tech employees can save money on a variety of goods and services – many of which they are already buying at full price. Cost-conscious employees can tap into any of three discount programs with savings in a variety of categories such as legal and financial services, transportation and travel services, and health and wellness, among others. 

The discount programs available to Tech employees are Georgia Tech Perks and Programs, Team Georgia (for state of Georgia employees), and University System of Georgia Perks at Work. Candice Bovian, work-life specialist in Human Resources, highlighted some of the perks.

“Everyone should be getting a discount on your cell phone bill because all three programs offer discounts on cell phone service,” said Bovian, who pointed out that the amount of the discounts may vary from one program to the next. When researching the discounts, she even discovered that one of the programs offered a better deal than she was getting on her service. 

In addition to most of the major cell phone providers offering discounts, there are also discounts on other items that most people purchase, such as computers and various Microsoft Office software packages. Discounts are even available on OtterBox cell phone cases and Beats by Dre headphones. 

Some examples of savings through Georgia Tech Perks and Programs include discounts on parking for those that carpool, free will preparation via the university’s Employee Assistance Program provider, and gym memberships, which includes outdoor equipment rental at competitive prices. 

For employees looking to save on outdoor adventures, Outdoor Recreation Georgia Tech (ORGT) is the way to go, according to David Knobbe, assistant director, Campus Recreation Center. ORGT has high-quality outdoor recreation equipment available for rent.

“If you want to structure your own outdoor adventure, and you need a boat, a tent, or a backpack, come see us and we can outfit you for a great opportunity,” Knobbe said. 

ORGT runs about 155 day and overnight adventure programs. Although most of the programs are targeted to students, there are lots of opportunities for Tech employees to engage with ORGT.

On the State of Georgia site, there are discounts on tickets to the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Braves, the Georgia Aquarium, and more. 

USG’s Perks at Work site includes a little bit of everything. One of its greatest benefits is WOWPoints, which accumulate with each purchase. For every dollar spent, 100 WOWPoints are earned. These WOWPoints can be used as cash for shopping. 

Looking across the three programs, there are discounts available for almost anything an employee would consider purchasing. 

“I would suggest that employees comparison shop,” Bovian said, “because you never know.” 

This year’s campaign is shorter than in the past — donations are already underway and will continue through Wednesday, Oct. 31. Until then, employees have the opportunity to set recurring donations through payroll deductions, or make one-time gifts, to organizations of their choice.

“Even small donations can make a difference to the one child that receives a book, or the one person in need who receives a meal,” said Bill Todd, professor of the practice in the Scheller College of Business and this year’s campaign chair.

Employees can give to one or multiple organizations, from which there are more than 1,000 to choose. This year, Georgia Tech has set a goal of 1,500 participants and $390,000.

Giving options are outlined below.

To give via TechWorks:

1. Log on at techworks.gatech.edu.

2. Select “Charitable Campaign.”

3. Review your pledges from last year, update your contributions, and/or add new pledges.

4. Choose one of these ways to donate:

• Payroll deduction (which begins in January 2019).
• Credit/debit card (American Express, Discover, Visa, MasterCard are accepted; make a one-time donation by selecting the “Electronic Pledge Payment” option).
• WebCheck (make a one-time donation by selecting the “Electronic Pledge Payment” option).

5. Confirm your pledge by clicking “Submit Pledge.”

Employees can also submit a paper pledge form, downloadable at charitable.gatech.edu. Submit the completed form, along with a check, money order, or cash, to your unit ambassador or to Bill Todd (campus mail code 0520, Scheller College of Business). Cash donations should not be sent through the mail.

For additional information and resources, visit charitable.gatech.edu or email charitable@gatech.edu.

Two years ago, the Library conducted a survey asking what resources it should offer, and data visualization services was among the top requests. Mi is Georgia Tech’s first data visualization librarian.

She helps students and faculty working on assignments or research create visuals to support their projects. 

“Data visualization uses charts, graphs, texts, maps, and all kinds of visual components,” Mi said. “I let the components interact with each other to tell a story. First, I try to find out the story hiding behind the data, then share that story with the audience.”

In June 2017, Mi came to Tech from Georgia State University, where she worked in a similar position. One of Mi’s first projects was a collaboration with faculty in the School of Modern Languages for the Climate Data Visualization Symposium in fall 2017.

“They wanted a time-lapse visual to show what has happened [regarding climate change] and what may be happening in the future,” Mi said. She put together a workshop that showed how to use satellite images from 1984 to today to show how the icecaps and shorelines have changed.

Last spring, Mi worked with Brittain Fellows who were looking at multiple volumes of journals from the 19th century in search of an interesting topic. For one project, she used the keyword “beauty” to see what visuals were associated with it — as opposed to what is associated with the word today.

“We had a small data set, but it showed that ‘beauty’ was associated more often with feminine and passive words and less often with active or intelligent words in our data set,” said Mi.

Mi is currently working on Data Visualization’s site service that allows students to do simulations with virtual reality. An Industrial and Systems Engineering class used the service to test how different vehicles perform on the road. And a psychology research team used virtual reality to see if people will get the same level of relaxation by meditating in a virtual environment as compared to a real environment. 

“I really enjoy research because every research project is a new problem to be solved or understood,” said Mi. “Every project is different. My job allows to me help other people, but it also helps me to understand all of these topics across different disciplines. I feel like a sponge. I have absorbed so much information and knowledge from my coworkers.”  
Mi said she appreciates the Georgia Tech community because it is filled with intelligence and curiosity.

“I keep telling my friends that I don’t have a dull moment. Every day is fresh and full of learning experiences,” she said.

Mi has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. After graduating, she worked for Thompson Reuters before returning to school to earn two master’s degrees. The first is in education policy curriculum and leadership from Arizona State University. Her second master’s degree is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in library science. 

Away from work, Mi likes to stay active. If she feels stressed, she goes for a long run.
“I like to be outside,” she said. “Atlanta is very beautiful and green, and I like to be in nature whenever I have time.”

She also likes to shop at small stores that sell things that aren’t usually found elsewhere. She likes thrift stores, and she recently visited a glass store because she’s interested in making pottery.

Because she thought she might adopt a cat, Mi visited a cat café to interact with cats to see how it felt. To her surprise, she found out she is allergic to cats.

“That was the saddest thing that could happen!” she said.

Health Initiatives’ five-dimension model of well-being includes the aspects of: professional, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual.

“We’re looking to create a community of health and well-being on campus, and make sure students and employees are flourishing in all of their dimensions of well-being.” 

Health Initiatives is well known for nutrition appointments, contraception availability, VOICE (sexual violence prevention), and free HIV testing offered twice a semester.

One of Health Initiatives’ signature programs involves Well-Being Activators, where student or employee representatives from various departments and organizations help others make healthy choices.

This fall, Morales and a colleague, JaPeera Edmonds, are focusing on the Healthy Jackets Peer Education Program. They are recruiting students this fall, then, in the spring, they will extensively train the first cohort of students to plan and implement health programs for their peers.

“I like working at Georgia Tech because every day is different — sometimes I’m in the office; sometimes I’m out exploring campus,” Morales said. “I get to meet so many interesting people from different departments. Being able to talk about health and well-being with such a diverse group of people is really exciting. Hearing about their viewpoints and how they infuse health and well-being into the classroom or things they think we should be working on here — it’s just exciting to be a part of that.”

The Road to Georgia Tech

Morales has a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and a master’s degree in public health from Emory University with a concentration in behavioral science and health education. She also is a certified health education specialist.

Before coming to Tech in 2017, she was in an AmeriCorps program called City Year where she worked in an eighth-grade science classroom. Then she worked in elementary special education for two years.

“I really enjoyed that, but I was missing the health aspect,” she said. “That’s when I decided to get my degree in public health.”

While at Emory University, she interned at the CDC and Georgia Tech. After graduating, she worked for the city of San Antonio, Texas, in its Healthy Start program, supporting pregnant women and mothers in low-income communities.

“My favorite part of being a health educator is speaking with students and helping them facilitate the behavior change that they want to see in their lives.”

Away from the office, Morales and her husband, Gilbert, like to explore hiking trails, try new restaurants, and browse local bookstores.

Morales also takes time to pursue her lifelong tennis passion. She grew up playing in junior tournaments, and she was on her high school and college teams. She also was a ball girl for the Family Circle Cup — and got to be on the court with players such as Venus and Serena Williams. Now, she plays on two Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association (ALTA) tennis leagues: women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

Morales and her tennis partner, Sutton Boling, came in second place in the city finals last spring.

“Tennis has always been a big part of my life,” she said. “Coming to Atlanta was exciting because there’s such a big tennis scene here with opportunities to get involved.”

Atlanta has seen its share of emergency events, including flooded and iced-over interstates. Emergencies can happen at any time of year, and Georgia Tech’s Office of Emergency Preparedness is dedicated to preventing and managing emergency situations on campus.

To keep up with potential threats, follow the office on Facebook and Twitter, or visit prepare.gatech.edu to learn more about their work. A list of emergency preparedness training opportunities is also available at the Emergency Preparedness site or at trains.gatech.edu.

National Preparedness Month is an initiative of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which also offers resources to help with preparation. This September, focus is on planning, with a theme of “Disasters Happen. Prepare Now. Learn How.” To view a toolkit to start preparations and to follow the month’s activities, visit ready.gov/september.

The Georgia Tech Staff Council invites all employees to a carnival-themed meet-and-greet on the lawn of the Campus Recreation Center (CRC) on Thursday, Sept. 20, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Employees can enjoy games, snacks, prizes, and meeting Staff Council members, who will be on hand to answer questions about the Staff Council and hear staff-related concerns. Bring a BuzzCard to attend. In the event of rain, the carnival will move inside the CRC.

The Staff Council exists to understand perspectives that are representative of the broad population of staff about matters of institutional importance, and to communicate those perspectives along with advice and suggestions to the Georgia Tech senior leadership. The council meets the third Tuesday of each month at 9 a.m. Location information can be found on the Staff Council calendar at staffcouncil.gatech.edu.

This year, the Staff Council will continue its Inform Georgia Tech series, where it hosts speakers from different campus departments to explain how various aspects of the Institute work. This year’s first event in the series will cover perks and programs available through Georgia Tech Human Resources and the University System of Georgia. The event will take place Tuesday, Oct. 2, from noon to 1 p.m. in Press Room B, Bill Moore Student Success Center.

Nominations for membership to the Staff Council and for committee participation are now also underway. The Staff Council has openings in the areas of Administrative and Professional, Skilled Trades, and Information Technology for seven members, each of whom serve a three-year term, beginning in January 2019. Full requirements are available  at staffcouncil.gatech.edu/staff-council-elections. Nominations are due Friday, Sept. 28, and self-nominations are welcome. Voting will be open Oct. 15–26.

Committee participation is a one-year commitment, and participants can choose from one of five committees: Campus Physical Environment, Communication, Compensation and Benefits, Employee Engagement, and Employee Health and Well-Being. Applications are also due Friday, Sept. 28.

To learn more about the Staff Council, visit staffcouncil.gatech.edu.

Upcoming Events: Georgia Tech Night at Six Flags

Georgia Tech Night at Six Flags is one of several events put on by the Student Center and Student Center Programs Council that are open to faculty, staff, and their families. For employees who are Six Flags fans, there is no better time to visit the park than the annual Georgia Tech Night.

Six Flags over Georgia will be open exclusively to Georgia Tech students, faculty, staff, and guests on Friday, September 14, from 6 p.m. – 12 a.m.

Faculty, staff, alumni may purchase tickets for $30 per ticket here: http://tickets.studentcenter.gatech.edu/

Forward questions to atlantalife@scpc.gatech.edu.

Stay tuned for information on Georgia Tech Night at The Aquarium, Flicks @ Tech, and more.

On-campus Fun

Georgia Tech employees may also find lifestyle balance during the day, at nights, and on weekends – all at the Student Center.

Tech Rec

Employees who like to bowl, play billiards, enjoy ping-pong, and have gaming skills should check out Tech Rec, especially on Mondays when all games are free. Free Play Mondays run between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., so take an early or late lunch and enjoy all Tech Rec has to offer. Be sure to bring your BuzzCard.

Under the Couch

If music is more your scene, go to Under the Couch. Reserve the space for your own music or drop by to enjoy other people’s musical interludes. Under the Couch is open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Paper & Clay

Got an artistic streak? Make art and meet people at Paper & Clay, Georgia Tech's on-campus creative studio.

Each semester a variety of classes are offered, including introductory and intermediate pottery, painting, knitting and sewing classes. Classes are open to the public and all fees are discounted for the Georgia Tech community (students, faculty, and staff, alumni). Classes are announced as scheduled on the Paper & Clay website.

Reserving Space for Your Event

All three spaces – Tech Rec, Under the Couch and Paper & Clay – may be rented for departmental gatherings, staff trainings, and stress relief programs.

Check out rentals at:

• Tech Rec:  https://studentcenter.gatech.edu/tech-rec
• Paper & Clay:  https://studentcenter.gatech.edu/paper-clay
• Under the Couch:  https://studentcenter.gatech.edu/under-the-couch

If you are looking to make your departmental event even more exciting, consider including a display of balloons to add an element of spirit to your gathering. Balloon services are provided by the team at the Information Desk on the 2^nd floor of the Student Center; find more information at https://studentcenter.gatech.edu/balloons.

Need more space for your event? The Event Services & Operations team can help. Meeting and event spaces in the Student Center, West Village, and the Historic Academy of Medicine are available to reserve for a variety of events and offer audio visual equipment and configurable room setups to support your event needs. Plus, the Georgia Tech staff’s high standard of customer service helps ensure your event runs smoothly.

Find more information about our Event Services at https://studentcenter.gatech.edu/event-services.

Looking Forward: The Re(in)novated Campus Center

The design-build team for the new Campus Center project will finalize plans for the Student Center’s expansion and renovation during this academic year with plans to break ground in summer 2019. Details regarding the campus amenities will be announced later this year. Find more information at https://studentcenter.gatech.edu/reinnovation.

Beginning Aug. 9, S&K Pictures of New Line Productions, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., will be on campus filming for an upcoming movie production. Georgia Tech’s Office of Capital Planning and Space Management and other units have worked closely with S&K Pictures to minimize disruption on campus.

Shooting locations will be contained to the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons and the Klaus Advanced Computing Building, so campus community members should anticipate limited access in these areas.

From Aug. 9 – 18, access to the second the third floors will be limited in Clough Commons. In addition, from Aug. 14 – 17, access to the second and third floors will be limited in the Klaus Advanced Computing Building. Access to the Noonan Courtyard will also be limited during this time.

In addition to building access, parking and traffic will also be affected during the filming of this movie, which coincides with FASET. From Aug. 9 – 18, the Visitors Parking Area 2 lot will be closed, and disability parking spots will be relocated nearby on Ferst Drive.

From Aug. 13 – 17, parking will be restricted in the W02 Parking Deck (rooftop only) and along Ferst Drive in the W01 zone (Student Center side only). Expect congestion in the Visitors Parking Area 3 lot during this time. The Georgia Tech Police Department will be directing traffic in this area during peak traffic times.

Parking and Transportation Services will be sending notification directly to permit holders in these areas. For additional parking information, contact info.parking@parking.gatech.edu or 404-385-PARK.

Review full parking information from Parking and Transportation Services.

Early move-in for first-year students attending the last two FASET orientation sessions will be Aug. 11 for FASET 6 and Aug. 13 for FASET 7. Early move-in for new and returning students begins Aug. 13.

Regular move-in for first-year students will take place Thursday and Friday, Aug. 16–17, which is when traffic will be at its peak. Returning students will do their regular move-in that weekend, Aug. 18–19.

Those on campus should expect heavier traffic and congested paths and roadways, as well as restrictions on parking in East Campus areas.

Beginning at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 16, vehicular traffic on Techwood Drive between Fourth Street and North Avenue will be restricted only to those who are moving into campus housing. Those traveling southbound on Techwood will be routed down Fourth Street toward Peters Parking Deck if they are not involved in move-in. Vehicles coming from North Avenue will be sent further west to access campus from Cherry Street or Tech Parkway. Regular access to Techwood will resume at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to leave extra time to get to campus and travel within the campus corridors, whether in a car, on foot, on a bike, or other mode of transport.

Remember to keep an eye out for new Yellow Jackets and their families who may look lost and need a little direction. For more information, visit housing.gatech.edu.

Using eduroam allows Georgia Tech researchers and faculty to use Tech’s Wi-Fi service whether visiting an eduroam member institute locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally. In addition, the service enables members from other schools to log in to their own eduroam service, instead of configuring their device to Tech’s networking service. Click here for a listing of eduroam participating institutions.

The most significant change when configuring eduroam is that the username entered needs to be in the format of "gtaccount@gatech.edu." For example, a user with the Georgia Tech account "gpburdell8," should enter "gpburdell8@gatech.edu" as the username along with the account password.

When making the switch to eduroam, it is important that only one Georgia Tech network be configured on a device at any one time to avoid connection instability. Users must delete their GTwifi account and ensure that each of their devices is configured to connect to eduroam only. Frequently asked questions (FAQs) are available at faq.oit.gatech.edu/content/how-do-i-connect-eduroam-network.

Among the buildings now being renovated or newly constructed in the Summerhill neighborhood is the site of what may well become the first new business to open here in years — Halfway Crooks Beer. Inside this particular midcentury brick building, the gravel crunches beneath our feet as Shawn Bainbridge, one of the brewery’s co-founders, shows us around. It is humid and stuffy inside. There are mosquitos. But he doesn’t seem to mind. He is focused on what this space will look like in a matter of months.

It might seem an unlikely path for the young man from Warner Robins, Georgia, who graduated as a Georgia Tech Promise scholar with a degree in electrical engineering. Bainbridge would disagree.

He started homebrewing as a hobby when he was an undergraduate, with a friend who now works at Creature Comforts Brewing in Athens. He saw it as an outlet for his creativity and a way to blow off steam at what he calls “a tough school.” But Bainbridge also credits Tech for giving him “a strong foundation for solving engineering problems. And beer is an engineering problem — one that’s fun to solve. My Tech background is part of what made me gravitate to it in the first place.”

After graduating in 2011, Bainbridge became a hardware electrical design engineer for a technology services company in Alpharetta. Since 2014, he has worked as a research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), where he specializes in the design and analysis of FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array) — devices that allow people to create and configure digital circuits for a wide range of applications.

Through it all, his passion for beer stayed with him. Bainbridge and a friend and former roommate, Joran Van Ginderachter, who had professional brewing experience in his native Belgium and in Decatur, regularly kicked around the idea of starting their own brewery.

But it wasn’t until last year, when Georgia’s brewery laws changed, that they got serious. Signed into law in March and taking effect Sept. 1, 2017, the Beer Jobs Bill allows breweries to sell 3,000 barrels of beer per year to visiting consumers, who can buy beer by the glass onsite and purchase up to 288 ounces (or one case) of beer to go.

Previously, breweries and distilleries were required to distribute their products through wholesalers and were prohibited from direct sales.

“At that point, it became real for us,” recalls Bainbridge. “We knew we could create a viable business model to do what we want to do: an on-premise location where we can control the product all the way to the consumer and tell the story of our beer the way we want it to be told.”

That story, at its heart, is one of community. Inspired by the Belgian bars of Van Ginderachter’s home country, they want to create “an old-world, warm, cozy feeling, where you really want to stay here and drink beer. We want this to be a community-centered space.”

Bainbridge says they were very intentional about the location. “Summerhill used to be a great neighborhood, before the interstate came through. Coming to Braves games when Turner Field was here, this area was just a sea of parking lots with very little economic development. There have been a lot of empty promises to develop this area.” They hope to be a part of breaking that cycle.

And they are pleased with the redevelopment plan that honors the neighborhood’s past by not razing buildings. “We are happy that this renovation incorporates the history of the area and preserves it. We love this space.” They plan to keep most of the original architectural features of the building, including chimneys, interior columns, plaster, and bricks.

Others will be joining Halfway Crooks this year as the Georgia Avenue corridor takes shape. Little Tart Bakeshop will be located next door. Across the street and down a couple of buildings, Atlanta restaurateur Todd Ginsberg will open Wood’s Chapel BBQ. Georgia State University has plans to build student housing nearby. They are the first steps in the redevelopment of an area that has been passed by for decades.

As the brewery renovations continue, Bainbridge anticipates a late fall opening. “Everyone will be welcome here,” he says.

Above all, he looks forward to being able to do what he loves while also serving others — in this case, a tasty pilsner or two.

In Williamson’s 21 years of working at Georgia Tech, she has served as the director of Internal Consulting and, for the last eight years, as the assistant vice president and chief of staff for Administration and Finance. During that time, she has worked closely with all units in Campus Services to drive process improvements, develop tools to measure customer satisfaction, develop leadership, and implement major institutional initiatives.

Looking forward, the search process for the vice president position is expected to launch in fall 2018.

The Georgia Tech Police Department (GTPD) contributes to the success of the Institute by keeping community safety and well-being top of mind. The development of a new 30,000-square-foot Campus Safety Building will give GTPD a new home to enhance its work in maintaining a safe campus environment.

The location of the new Campus Safety Building, at the corner of 10th Street and Hemphill Avenue, is key to supporting campus safety.

“One of our top priorities is access to campus to make sure we can respond quickly,” said Rob Connolly, chief of GTPD. “The north campus location allows for easy accessibility to all parts of the campus, as well as Home Park, which is crucially important to the department.”

During the design phase of this project, members of GTPD emphasized a desire that the building provide a warm, welcoming environment.

“The building should represent how we operate as a department and should never give an intimidating presence,” said Will Smith, director of Emergency Preparedness. With this focus, the building was designed to meet WELL Building standards, the first on campus to do so.

WELL is a performance-based system, established by the International WELL Building Institute, for measuring and certifying features of the built environment that impact human health and well-being. These features include air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind. The project team incorporated these ideals into the design to offer an airy, light-filled entrance and lobby that will invite people into the building.

Designers also took the time to ensure the building’s interior design and construction were conducive to creating a healthy and inviting space. For example, the lobby area will be filled with natural daylight and will include an area to feature community art. Snack machines will offer healthy vending options. To help meet indoor air quality standards, the furniture finishes will meet low- and no-volatile organic compound (VOC) requirements more stringent than previous LEED certification requirements.

Overall, the new building, which is expected to be occupied in Spring 2019, will offer a more cohesive, usable space. Currently, GTPD has limited space for security briefings, large-scale meetings, and events. The Campus Safety Building will include a patrol suite with room for approximately 75 people.

Other additions include an operations center with capacity to expand, a multipurpose center, an emergency center, and three additional conference rooms for meetings and internal training. With more available space, the department can host more outreach events for the entire campus community. New space will also be designated for student interns who are responsible for GTPD’s social media accounts and for students involved in capstone projects related to updating the department’s technology.

Although the new building will enhance numerous aspects of the police department, the most important thing is how it supports the community.

“It’s not just about our building; it’s about how we are evolving to meet the needs of our campus,” Connolly said. “As our campus and surrounding areas continue to change, GTPD will change with them in order to provide a safe environment and protect the well-being of our community.”

This year, they’ll return to some of the places they visited that first year, as well as several others around the state.

The 2018 tour begins Monday, June 18, continuing through June 21 with stops in Hawkinsville, Fort Valley, Macon, Milledgeville, Sandersville, Augusta, Elberton, Athens, Carnesville, Toccoa, and Gainesville.

Since 2009, the summer tours have covered nearly 7,500 miles and almost all of Georgia’s 159 counties, with around 250 events and meetings in more than 100 cities. The map above shows where the president and first lady have been the past 10 years.

This year’s tour traverses nearly 650 miles and 27 counties, with 30 total events. See details for the tour's public events.

The Petit Institute’s Lab Cleanup and Swap-O-Rama started in 2014 as a way to encourage labs to report their annual chemical inventory and clean out supplies. That annual deadline has since changed, but the summer swap continues as a way for researchers to clean out unwanted supplies, get new ones they need, and even pick up other hidden gems that have been tucked away.

“Labs don’t ever slow down, but summer still has been a good time for us to do it,” said Mitchell, events manager in the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. “You see all kinds of things show up there, and it’s really fun.”

Though only labs in the Petit Institute can donate to the swap, anyone on campus is welcome to stop by and take from the donations.

“It’s gratifying to see people find something they really need among all these boxes of tubes and pipettes,” Mitchell said.

The swap doesn’t just offer up items for research needs, though. Donations include other supplies and items that might otherwise be discarded. Some past donations have even been repurposed into art by new owners.

All items that are not taken at the end of the swap are recycled, if possible, or go through the process of being surplused for use elsewhere on campus.

This year’s Swap-O-Rama will take place June 18–22 in the Petit Institute Biotechnology Building atrium.

Another unit making use of each other’s unwanted items is the College of Engineering. This summer, the College is hosting its first book swap. The event is being organized by COE Cares, an initiative for faculty and staff to encourage engagement, wellness, volunteerism, and new connections within the College community.

COE Cares is collecting all genres of books that are not textbooks, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. Fiction, non-fiction, general interest, cooking, self-help, and even children’s books are being collected in each school to be shared at the swap on June 21. Books left at the end of the swap will be donated to a local charitable organization.

“We’ve had successful drives for the Atlanta Mission and Buzzin’ Back to School in the past, but this is our first swap,” said Ben Wright, communications officer in the College of Engineering who serves as a co-chair for COE Cares.

While the event lets people free up space in their libraries, it’s also designed to encourage reading for pleasure and getting to know new colleagues. 

“We hope to get more staff members reading for pleasure, and to build a sense of community by coming together to pick out books,” Wright said. The COE Cares team consists of a representative from each school and two co-chairs.

Campus swaps also take place each year at the annual Earth Day festival, where clothes and office supplies are collected for exchange among departments and students.

For those thinking of holding this kind of event in their department, Mitchell said it just takes a few dedicated people to make it happen. She encouraged organizers to work with their building and facilities managers since those staff members help with cleanup following the event.

“It works great to have a common place to host it like our atrium,” Mitchell said. “Have fun with it. Make some signs, tell people it’s coming, and make it a regular thing. It doesn’t take much effort and even becomes a community-building activity. It gets people out of their offices and labs, and into the atrium together and chatting.”

The European Union General Data Protection Regulations (EU GDPR) become enforceable Friday, May 25. The chief focus of these regulations is to protect the collection, use, and transmission of personal data of people while they are physically within the EU.

The EU GDPR compliance requirements are stricter than comparable regulations for handling personal information in the U.S., such as HIPAA and FERPA. The focus is on providing proper notice to those having personal data collected — to inform them of what data is being collected, how it will be used, who it will be shared with, and how long it will be retained. In addition, there are written consent requirements for sensitive personal data as defined by the regulations, and data subjects have specific rights they may exercise to inquire about their data. 

“We have a significant global community at Georgia Tech, so these new regulations affect Tech in a number of ways,” said Katie Crawford, senior director of Enterprise Data Management. “For instance, this applies to students studying abroad in the EU — including Georgia Tech-Lorraine — as well as student applications for admission, applications for employment that are sent from the EU, online and distance learning taking place in the EU, research and development, as well as use by our cooperative organizations.”

Those who manage websites and communications, receive data from international sources, or simply plan to contact people in the EU within the scope of their work, should:

• Review the Georgia Tech EU General Data Protection Regulation Compliance Policy located at the main Policy Library.
• Determine whether a unit/department privacy notice is needed.
• Receive and document written consent for sensitive data (as defined in the policy).
• Be aware of the individual rights of the data subject and how to address a request for revocation of consent.

Georgia Tech’s Legal Affairs, Risk Management, Enterprise Data Management, and Cyber Security teams have worked together to review the EU GDPR regulations and provide some EU GDPR guidelines for compliance.

If you are unsure if your work or data use qualifies, review these additional resources:

• EU GDPR at Georgia Tech FAQs
• EU General Data Protection Regulation Compliance Policy

For more information, contact Enterprise Data Management at eugdpr@edm.gatech.edu.

“It was time to make the switch because the vendor of the prior clicker — PRS — discontinued the product,” said Clay Fenlason, director of educational technology. “We also learned that the PRS clicker wouldn’t work with more recent versions of Microsoft Office, so an alternative needed to be found in fairly short order.”

Clickers are devices that allow faculty members to gauge student knowledge and engagement during class. For example, a professor might ask a question, students would respond by pressing a button on their device and the professor could measure response.  

At Tech, clickers are used primarily in chemistry, physics, biology, math, computing and management courses, with around 3,000 students using them each semester, Fenlason said.

A faculty-led task force was organized to review four products based on features, support, pricing, technical reliability and T-Square integration. In the end, the unanimous choice was the TurningPoint system.

Benefits of the new system include the following:

• Instructors aren’t limited to using PowerPoint to design clicker polls.
• The device is smaller, simpler, more responsive and less prone to interference than its predecessor.
• Student rosters can be imported from T-Square and grades can be easily uploaded back to T-Square.
• Laptop and mobile devices can be used as virtual clickers.

“A couple of classes are piloting the new clickers this summer to help pave the way and identify last-minute issues,” Fenlason said. “The bookstore should begin to stock the new clickers later this summer, and they should be the sole, supported clicker beginning in the fall.”

Faculty will receive a free instructor kit, which includes a receiver and a clicker, and the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) will offer training on the devices for faculty and teaching assistants at the beginning of each semester. Online tutorials are also available here.

The price that students will pay has yet to be determined by Barnes & Noble @ Georgia Tech, which will sell the devices.

Contact Chaohua Ou in CETL at  to obtain your system and to learn more about training opportunities.

Campus departments will host events in conjunction with National Bike Month, as will the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.

Upcoming events include:

• Relay Bike Share Ride: Thursday, May 17, Noon to 1 p.m.
  Relay Bike Share representatives will give a how-to of how to use the Relay app and bikes, followed by a slow pace ride to the Midtown MARTA station and back.
• Atlanta Cycling Festival: May 19–25
  The festival will include rides, instructional events, meetups, a bike sale, and more. See a full list of events.
• Community Bike Ride: Friday, June 1, 5 p.m.
  The Georgia Tech Police Department will host a ride beginning at the R. Kirk Landon Learning Center at 1015 Tumlin Street and lead riders through the Home Park neighborhood. 

Related campus resources:

• BuzzBike Rentals: The summer rental application period is now open. Students can rent a bike from Parking and Transportation Services for $50 per semester.
  pts.gatech.edu
• Discounted helmets: Helmets are available for $12 from Parking and Transportation Services.
  pts.gatech.edu
• Bike registration: Register your bike with GTPD to assist with its recovery in the event of theft.
  police.gatech.edu
• Starter Bikes: This campus bicycle co-op offers bike repair assistance, bike sales, bike locks, and events.
  bike.gatech.edu
• Relay Bike Share: Georgia Tech is home to five Relay Bike Share stations, and students with a .edu email address can get a subscription at a discounted rate.
  relaybikeshare.com

Etress, facilities manager for the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, discovered the reading list about two years ago while listening to a podcast on organizational effectiveness.

“It intrigued me because I had no idea that the Marine Corps has an intentional structure in place for promoting reading at every level of the organization, from the highest-ranking officer to the newest Marine,” Etress said. “I’ve always had a deep respect for our armed services, and I was looking to put some structure around what I was reading, so I started working through the list.”

He said the reading list changes slightly every year, with most of the books remaining the same.

“I’m not normally interested in sci-fi or really even fiction for that matter,” Etress said, “but I really enjoyed Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. It offers some great lessons on leadership and team dynamics.”

Voracious reader Margaret Tate also chooses what to read from a list — an American literature reading list from her daughter’s AP English class when she was a high school junior in 1998.

“The list was compiled by her teacher,” said Tate, a senior writer and editor in Institute Communications. “It’s not a definitive list of great American literature, although most of the books could be found on any such definitive list.”

Tate said the teacher sent the reading list to parents so they could indicate which books they would not want their child to read,

“I had already read 36 of the 152 books on the list, but I saw there were a lot of great books I’d missed,” said Tate. “So, my quest began.”

Now, 20 years later, she has read all but five and a half of the 152 books. She said doesn’t read from any other lists, but if she picks up an interesting book at a yard sale, she will dive in.

“Right now, I’m reading David McCullough’s John Adams, and it’s really good,” Tate said. “I’m also reading William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! from the list, and it’s pure torture.”

One of the things Tate has liked best about the list is the diversity of authors it led her to read, from Faulkner to James Baldwin. “It has opened up so many different historical and cultural doors to me as a reader.”

Another passionate reader, Scott Sergent, gets reading lists from his favorite website: thriftbooks.com.

“The site sells used books at great prices, and it supplies me with lists according to the books I have purchased,” said Sergent, video producer and director at Georgia Tech Cable Network. “I am into history, biographies, and sports, so the lists I get are filled with those types of books.”

Sergent has been using reading lists from Thriftbooks for five years. He likes them because they shed light on books that he otherwise may have missed. He also likes how sometimes a storyline in a book makes him curious about a related subject, and he ventures in that direction.

“An example would be the book I am reading now, Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America [by Donald L. Miller],” he said. “The book is about New York City in the 1920s and how America was shaped from the things that went on there, such as the creation of speakeasies, jazz music, politics, the construction of skyscrapers, and the way business was conducted.”

Book lover Sravanthi Meka usually reads one or two books a month, mostly historical nonfiction and biographies.

“I have read a couple from the book clubs of Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, but most of those tend to be fiction, and I lean more towards nonfiction,” said Meka, marketing manager in Housing and Conference Services. So, she takes a different approach to finding books, including attending author lectures.

“I am a member of the Atlanta History Center, and they host author lectures several times a month,” Meka said. “I usually go to one every other month, depending on the topics, books, and authors. The first one I attended featured Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, who co-authored America’s First Daughter, a fictional work about Thomas Jefferson’s daughter, Patsy. Most recently I went to see Janet Dewart Bell, who wrote Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement.”

Meka, who wanted to be a librarian until about age 16, also cites museums as a good source for books.

“I go to at least two or three museums in every city I visit, and the gift shops often have great selections of books,” she said. “I don’t always buy the books at the museum, but I’ll make a note and try to find it in the Georgia Tech Library.”

Each year, the Diversity Champion Awards recognize those who demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Georgia Tech community. They will be honored at the 10^th Annual Diversity Symposium Awards Luncheon on September 5, 2018.

“This year’s Diversity Symposium theme is ‘Building Inclusive Communities: The Path Forward,’ and the awards will be given to campus community members who demonstrate leadership in building an inclusive community and advancing a culture of inclusive excellence,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity.

Award recipients will have demonstrated one or more of the following within the last 10 years:

• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Leadership in building an inclusive campus community and advancing a culture of inclusive excellence.
• Organized, conducted, and/or supported programs, events, and activities that promote cross-cultural understanding, respect, and inclusion of diverse individuals and groups.

Nominations will be accepted until June 1, 2018. For more information and the online nomination form, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/diversitychampionawards. 

Emergency travel assistance through Redpoint is available to all benefits-eligible Georgia Tech employees and their dependents. It’s a backup plan that has been available since 2014, but you may not have known you already have it. The service, provided through the University System of Georgia (USG)’s group life insurance plan with Minnesota Life, does not require any additional premium or enrollment to ensure coverage.

“Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent unexpected events from occurring while traveling; therefore, having this extra layer of protection at no cost is a benefit in itself,” said Adrian Williams, benefits specialist in Human Resources.

Redpoint’s role is one important factor in a well-planned trip that should include: reviewing your medical insurance coverage, updating your emergency contacts and beneficiaries with Georgia Tech, reading Centers for Disease Control and Prevention health alerts, and enrolling in the U.S. Department of State’s SMART traveler programs for international travel.

“Like most insurance, you hope to never use it but want it to be ready when needed,” Williams said.

No activation is required. All USG benefits-eligible employees traveling for less than 90 days (on either business or personal travel) automatically have basic medical evacuation, repatriation, and security evacuation at no cost.

Coverage includes:

• 24/7/365 emergency assistance and transportation services when traveling 100 or more miles from home.
• Business and personal travel coverage for domestic or international trips of up to 90 consecutive days per trip.
• Spouse and dependent coverage even in instances where the Georgia Tech employee is not traveling with the spouse or dependents.
• Pre-travel online resources including passport and visa information, security and crime alerts, and political stability alerts.

Emergency assistance and medical evacuation services include:

• Medical professional locator services.
• Assistance replacing lost or stolen luggage.
• Identity theft assistance when traveling.
• Telephonic interpretation services.
• Transportation to home (if appropriate) or to the nearest medical facility.
• Security evacuation with transportation to the nearest safe area.
• Repatriation of mortal remains.

For additional insurance options when traveling for business, refer to the Georgia Tech travel insurance website.  

If you have questions, email Adrian Williams: adrian.williams@ohr.gatech.edu.

Georgia Tech Chapter Sigma Xi Awards

Best Faculty Paper Awards

Glaucio H. Paulino
Professor and Raymond Allen Jones Chair, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Jerry H. Qi
Professor, Mechanical Engineering 

Gleb Yushin
Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Young Faculty Awards

Devi Parikh
Assistant Professor, Interactive Computing

William C. Ratcliff
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Sustained Research Award

Jeffrey Skolnick
Professor, Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair, and GRA Eminent Scholar, Biological Sciences

Institute Research Awards

Outstanding Achievement in Research Enterprise Enhancement Award

Troy W. Hilley
Academic and Research IT Support Engineer Lead, Biological Sciences

Outstanding Achievement in Early Career Research Award

James J. Wray
Associate Professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Outstanding Achievement in Research Innovation Award

Farrokh Ayazi
Ken Byers Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Advisor Award

Atalay Atasu
Associate Professor and Dunn Family Professor, Scheller College of Business

L. Beril Toktay
ADVANCE Professor and Brady Family Chair, Scheller College of Business

Outstanding Faculty Research Author Award

Laura Cadonati
Professor, Physics

Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development Award

Rhamnousia

Manos Antonakakis
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

David S. Dagon
Research Engineer II, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Michael Farrell
Chief Strategist, CIPHER Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute

ANAK Award

Jenna Jordan
Assistant Professor, International Affairs

Staff Institute Awards

Creating the Next Award

Ericka A. Thomas
Facilities Contracting Officer, Facilities  

Leadership in Action Award

Angela L. Hicks
Assistant Director, Financial Operations, Mechanical Engineering

Partnership Award

Jeremy R. Gray
Associate Registrar, Registrar’s Office

Process Improvement Excellence Award

Application Review: Re-Imagined, Office of Undergraduate Admission

Rick A. Clark
Director

Ashley N. Brookshire
Senior Admission Counselor

Mikala Bush
Admission Advisor I

Laila D. Flores Cervantes
Admission Advisor II

Kathryn B. Faussemagne
Senior Assistant Director

Katy Beth Lockwood
Assistant Director, Campus Visits

Eduardo Mares-Rios
Senior Admission Counselor

Katie R. Mattli
Senior Admission Counselor

Merideth E. Ray
Associate Director, Guest Experience

Sara Riggs
Assistant Director

Coye A. Roseberry
Admission Advisor II

Sammy L. Rose-Sinclair
Admission Advisor II

Laura B. Simmons
Academic Program Manager

Jade A. Sims
Senior Admission Advisor

Larry O. Stokes
Admission Information Systems Coordinator III

Katie S. Taylor
Admission Advisor III

KatieRuth L. Tucker
Admission Advisor I

Kathleen M. Voss
Senior Admission Counselor

Mary Tipton H. Woolley
Senior Associate Director

Rising Wreck Award

Bethany G. Schuster
Communications Officer I, Georgia Tech Human Resources

Service to the Community Award

Maria Lourdes Suarez
Administrative Professional Senior, International Affairs

Spirit of Georgia Tech Awards

Leslie A. Hall
Human Resources Data and Systems Analyst Lead, Georgia Tech Human Resources

Atira H. Rochester
Corporate Relations Manager, Institute Diversity

Pamela S. Ruffin
Director, Human Resources, College of Computing

Kerry A. Wallaert
Assistant Director, Office of Special Scholarships, Enrollment Services

Laci L. Weeden
Director, Parent and Family Programs, Student Life

Excellence Award

Aby L. Parsons
Director, LGBTQIA Resource Center, Student Life

CTL Awards

Curriculum Innovation Award

David A. Joyner
Senior Research Associate, College of Computing

Undergraduate Educator Awards

S. Balakrishna Pai
Academic Professional, Biomedical Engineering

Christopher M. Stanzione
Lecturer, Psychology

Geoffrey G. Eichholz Faculty Teaching Awards

Dong Qin
Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Teresa K. Snow
Senior Academic Professional, Biological Sciences

CTL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards

Morris B. Cohen
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Joshua P. Kacher
Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Gabriel A. Kwong
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Joseph D. Rabinoff
Assistant Professor, Mathematics

Matthew P. Torres
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Education Partnership Award

Frank James Stewart
Associate Professor, Biological Sciences

D. Joshua Parris
Graduate Research Assistant, Biological Sciences

Jennifer Jones
Chemistry Teacher, Rockdale County High School

Innovation and Excellence in Laboratory Instruction Award

Victor Breedveld
Associate Chair, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Innovation in Co-Curricular Education Award

Kim M. Cobb
ADVANCE Professor and Georgia Power Chair, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

L. Beril Toktay
ADVANCE Professor and Brady Family Chair, Scheller College of Business

Faculty Award for Academic Outreach

Flavio H. Fenton
Associate Professor, Physics

Raquel L. Lieberman
Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Serve-Learn-Sustain Award

Serve-Learn-Sustain Award for Excellence in Community-Engaged Sustainability Teaching

Todd Michney
Assistant Professor, History and Sociology

Academic Advisor Awards

Outstanding Graduate Academic Advising Award

Jacqueline D. Trappier
Academic Advising Manager, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Staff Advisor Award

Leslie R. Ross
Academic Program Manager, Public Policy

Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Faculty Advisor Award

Kimberly D. Schurmeier
Senior Academic Professional, Chemistry and Biochemistry

International Initiatives Award

Steven A. Denning Faculty Award for Global Engagement

Han Zhang
Steven A. Denning Professor, Scheller College of Business

Faculty Honors Committee Awards

Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Awards

Patricio A. Vela
Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Adegboyega K. Oyelere
Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Outstanding Professional Education Award

Pinar Keskinocak
ADVANCE Professor and William W. George Chair and Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Class of 1934 Outstanding Service Award

Joseph L.A. Hughes
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Class of 1934 Outstanding Interdisciplinary Activities Award

Valerie M. Thomas
Anderson Interface Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering and Public Policy

Class of 1940 W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teacher Award

Shana C. Kerr
Academic Professional, Biological Sciences

Class of 1940 W. Howard Ector Outstanding Teacher Award

Aaron D. Lanterman
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award

Seth R. Marder
Regents Professor and Georgia Power Chair, Chemistry and Biochemistry

“I don’t really know where she got ‘Doc,’ but it could have been from Bugs Bunny — ‘What’s up, Doc?’ We watched that a lot,” Hill said.

For 20 years, Hill has been a fixture in Georgia Tech Athletics. After working at GTRI’s Cobb County facility for 14 years, he came to the Tech campus in 1997 to help manage and maintain facilities for volleyball, basketball, and football. Today, he manages a five-person team that takes care of Bobby Dodd Stadium — making sure everything is working and ready for game day.

“The job includes preventative maintenance — from refrigerators and air conditioning in the suites, to making sure all of the lights are working and touching up any scratches on the walls or furniture,” Hill said. “After season, we catch up with the maintenance inside the buildings. If I can repair it, I will.”

Right now, the football locker room is being renovated, so Hill is assisting the crew that is doing the work.

Each day, he arrives at work at 5:30 a.m., and he reviews the list of upcoming jobs.

“The day never goes as you plan it,” he said. “It can be frustrating, so you need to prioritize. It’s never dull; there’s always something going on. I’m willing to take on whatever challenge there is,” he said. “Big stuff doesn’t bother me, like flooded buildings or remediation.”

Hill has always worked in some area of construction: roofing, framing, installing lighting, hanging doors, or building sheetrock walls. He didn’t have a formal apprenticeship for carpentry, but he learned as he went along.

“If you work with somebody that has been doing the job for a while, you’ll learn a lot from them just by watching. You don’t have to be hands-on. You can watch how they use miter saws, coping saws, and different tools to form angles on the wood,” he said.

Commitment and Respect

Since working at the stadium, Hill has met a few famous people including rapper-actor Ludacris and singer Elton John. He didn’t meet the Rolling Stones when they performed at Bobby Dodd, but his department helped the crew store their stage equipment. And, last year Bobby Dodd hosted nine Atlanta United soccer games before football season started.

“Atlanta United soccer was definitely a different crowd,” he said. “If you could get football fans like that — win, lose, or draw, they stand up the whole time, cheering.”

Hill is as committed as those soccer fans in his support of Tech’s student-athletes. In the past 20 years, he has missed only two football games.

Hill’s commitment has not gone unnoticed. For example, when Tech alumnus Jarrett Jack of the New York Knicks was inducted into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2016, he thanked Hill during his speech:

“To my guy, Doc ... There were many late nights when I would go to the gym and shoot in the dark. I didn’t know how to turn the lights on. I guess Doc heard the ball bouncing, and he would just flick the lights on. I don’t know if he had a mattress set up in the gym or whatever, but Doc was always there. It was those late nights — those nights when I didn’t have to be in there — when I think I separated myself and allowed my game to grow. Doc, I will forever appreciate you for that,” Jack said.

Time Away from Work

Hill was born in Tampa, Florida, into an Air Force family. The family relocated to Gainesville, Florida, and he finished high school there. The family later moved to Marietta, Georgia, and Hill’s dad got a job at Tech working in microelectronics.

He met his wife, Carol, in Marietta when he carpooled to work with her brother.

“She would have curlers in her hair every morning,” Hill said. He joked with her and said he was going to ask her out so that he could see what she looked like without the curlers.
“I knew she was the one: level-headed, great with finances, and great with kids.”

Carol works in Payroll for Automated Data Processing. She and Doc have two sons: Wesley, 30, and Ryan, 28.

When he isn’t working, Hill enjoys being outdoors — fishing at West Point, Georgia, or hunting deer and turkey in Butts County. He also plays golf with his father-in-law, but not often.

“I’m not that good. If you don’t play, you lose your edge,” he said.

Hill is 61, but he isn’t ready to retire.

“I can’t retire and just sit. If there was work to do, I would work seven days a week,” he said. “I get kind of miserable when I don’t have anything to do!”

The modification will relieve a pinch point for vehicular traffic near the Campus Recreation Center. Curbs in two places will be moved approximately two feet into the median from Means Street to the small parking area just north of the Campus Recreation Center. The project is scheduled to take place April 9–20, and some lane closures will take place during construction.

Information about other campus construction projects is available at facilities.gatech.edu.

The Counseling Center’s Peer Coaching Program fills that need: Well-trained peers with whom students can talk about what they’re going through and get direction on helpful  campus resources.

The program began in 2015 as a way for students to get more involved in campus mental health initiatives. Now, the Counseling Center is looking for students to apply as coaches for Fall 2018. Recommendations from faculty and staff members are welcome.

“Students who serve as peer coaches are trained to assist others in identifying and accomplishing specific academic, social, or personal goals related to concerns commonly faced by college students,” said Irene Daboin, postdoctoral fellow with the Counseling Center and manager of the program. Some topics may include adjusting to college or campus culture, academic difficulties, stress, relationship concerns, uncertainty about a major or career path, or dealing with grief or loss.

Candidates should have strong leadership skills, social skills, communication skills, the ability to work well on a team, the ability to accept feedback, maturity, assertiveness, sound judgment, and commitment.

Daboin hopes they can recruit more graduate students to take part in the program.

“We know that graduate students face different issues than undergraduates, so we would love to have more representation from that group,” she said.

Students who become peer coaches are asked to commit about five hours per week to their responsibilities, which include meeting with their consultees, meeting with Daboin, and other related tasks.

“Our Counseling Center does so much, so being a student liaison of sorts is a privilege,” said Grace Kehoe, an industrial and systems engineering major and peer coach. “Whether it’s meeting with a consultee or having a simple day-to-day conversation, it’s invaluable knowing how to effectively communicate so your peers can reap all the benefits of your training, even unknowingly.”

Daboin echoed that the training, which covers interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, decision-making, being assertive, and connecting with your emotions, can be applied to daily life for students — not just to coaching responsibilities.

Applications for this fall are due Friday, April 6. To learn more or to refer a student to apply, visit c.gatech.edu/peercoach or email irene.daboin@studentlife.gatech.edu.

The launch follows a year of deliberations by an executive committee of campus stakeholders brought together under a joint charge from the Office of the Provost and Office of the Executive Vice President for Research. The 22-member committee was led by President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough and represented all six colleges.

“The work of the committee highlighted the many ongoing and exciting efforts in the global change space happening in schools, units, and centers across the Institute,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “Bringing these groups together in a coordinated, collaborative, and multidisciplinary way will amplify Georgia Tech’s thought leadership and expertise, expand academic programs, and strengthen key partnerships with industry and peer institutions.”

The program will be directed by Kim Cobb, ADVANCE professor and Georgia Power Chair in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Early program activities include curriculum design for undergraduates, including creation of an “Energy and Climate” minor and a climate solutions lab. The program will also host speakers and roundtable events to showcase Georgia Tech’s contributions to global change-related subjects including energy, food and water supply, air quality, ocean health, public policy, and economics. Objectives include possible expansion of academic programs to graduate students, and growth of new partnerships both within Georgia Tech and with public and private partners.

“The initial thrust of the Global Change Program will focus on undergraduate education and the creation of critical connections among our research and academic faculty,” said Cobb. “Our students want exposure and real-world, hands-on experience with these topics as they enter the workforce. Growth of current programs like the Carbon Reduction Challenge and development of new programs will allow future generations of learners to understand issues of global change from the vantage point of their own discipline.”

The Global Change Program is initially supported by seed funds from the Office of the Provost and the Executive Vice President for Research, and through a $500,000 gift from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. The gift builds upon the successful expansion of Cobb’s Carbon Reduction Challenge to co-op and internship students who partner with their employer to design and implement a carbon reduction project that delivers cost savings.

The co-curricular initiative is a partnership between Cobb and Beril Toktay, professor in the Scheller College of Business and faculty director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business.

“We believe this is a critical time to support an initiative as exciting as the Global Change Program,” said John A. Lanier, executive director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. “With its focus on solutions to our pressing global challenges, in particular the challenge of climate change, the program will make Georgia Tech a leader in creating positive change. We are grateful to President Peterson, Dr. Cobb, President Emeritus Clough, and the entire administration for their commitment to this important work.”

Two councils will be established in support of the program. A faculty advisory council has been established to help shape program activities and ongoing strategic objectives. Chaired by Clough, the council is an extension of the initial executive committee. An external advisory board will also be established.

“The implications of global change are economic, environmental, and cultural,” said Clough. “The work is happening all over campus, and Georgia Tech has a tremendous opportunity to influence the scholarship and policy solutions that address issues of global change and ready students for the careers of the future.”

During a recent Caring for Aging Parents session in the Benefits and Wellness Education Series, representatives from Tech’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) outlined some logistics and resources to assist with caregiving. 

Angel Brutus, a counselor with Synergistic Solutions, said it is important for primary caregivers to break free of the belief that they have to do it alone.

“Just because you are a relative, it doesn’t mean you have to be the only caregiver,” Brutus said. “If there is someone who has been a part of your parents’ life, maybe a church member or a colleague, it’s OK to ask them for respite.”

Finding a caregiver that your parents can trust is important, so having someone that they already know will make the transition easier. It’s also essential to be specific when stating what you need. Brutus says giving the person a timeframe to commit to is helpful, for example: “I need someone to sit with my mom for four hours today.”

Brutus also advises that in families with several siblings you should “figure out what each sibling does best and tap into that. If you have multiple siblings, speak to that one particular area where each one can give you a reprieve.”

As our loved ones grow older and their health deteriorates, it is sometimes hard to continue seeing them as the strong and capable person they once were. However, Brutus suggests that they continue to be included in the conversation regardless of their cognitive status: “Figure out the things of importance in the words that they are using and continue a dialogue.”

The EAP can help answer questions regarding Medicare, Medicaid, and housing options.

These areas sometimes experience changes regarding eligibility requirements, so it’s important to speak with a counselor who keeps abreast of the changes. The EAP also provides complimentary attorney services for advance directives. This includes creating living wills, power of attorney, durable power of attorney for health care, and regular wills.

To contact the EAP for no-cost counseling, referrals, or other services, call 844-428-3241 or request services online at espyr.com. To log in, the password is well-being.

A Father-Daughter Dance of Caregiving

Birgit Smith Burton’s father, Charles Smith, was a take-charge kind of man. He retired as a lieutenant colonel after having joined the U.S. Air Force upon graduating from Tuskegee University with an engineering degree. He later worked as a civil engineer for the state of New York before retiring and moving with his wife from Buffalo, New York, to the small town of Covert, Michigan. He became his wife’s caregiver after she suffered a few strokes.

But within a year of her mother’s death, Burton noticed signs that her father’s health was also declining.

“He wasn’t making the best decisions, but he didn’t want to be questioned about it,” said Burton, Georgia Tech’s executive director of Foundation Relations. So, she treaded lightly and interjected only when necessary.

Her father, who lived alone in southwest Michigan, then had a mild stroke that went unnoticed for several days. After he was treated for the stroke, Burton brought him to her home in Atlanta for two months to recuperate. He was able to talk and walk, but Burton could see that he was slower.

Each day when she went to work she left him alone at her home, with ready-to-eat meals and snacks. But, as she prepared to take him back to his home in Michigan, she wondered if he could live on his own.

“That was my first time thinking that maybe he needs someone to come in every day,” she said. “He didn’t need a full-time person to watch him all of the time and be there overnight – just someone to check on him.”

Burton said she didn’t know what to do, so she started making calls on her father’s behalf.
“I didn’t have power of attorney, so I couldn’t call about Medicare because they wouldn’t talk to me,” she said. “And he was telling me that he didn’t need anybody, and he just wanted to go home.”

Burton decided to reach out to friends and colleagues for advice.

“The best thing that I did was to call people. Every step of the way I got help because people would connect me with someone who had been through this and could advise me,” she said.

One example was when she wanted to celebrate her father’s military career and could not decipher the medal codes on his discharge papers. She contacted the Veterans Resource Center at Tech, and David Ross helped her translate the codes. She also reached out to Robert Knotts in Tech’s Office of Government and Community Relations to get counsel on how to access benefits her father was due from Veterans Affairs. 

She called a friend in her dad’s hometown as she searched for in-home care. After just a few calls, she was connected with a caregiver who was available and affordable. 

“My second recommendation is to trust your instincts,” Burton said. “You are going to pay closer attention to your parents than anyone else will, even the doctor. I let the doctor know that I’m watching my dad every step of the way.”

Burton kept an eye on her dad’s medication, too.

“Seniors notoriously take their medication wrong – they forget to take it or they take too much,” she said. “I asked a friend who’s a registered nurse to review my dad’s medication and to help chart when each medication should be taken.”

She said that creating a precise schedule for taking his medicine made a big difference in her father’s quality of life.

Burton’s father, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, did not want to move to Atlanta. He insisted on staying in Michigan, in his home surrounded by personal items and a lifetime of memories.

“At the end of his life, I went to Michigan for one week every month, and Georgia Tech worked with me,” Burton said. “I had an office set up in his house. During that week, I could participate in important meetings via conference calls, Skype, FaceTime, or whatever. There was a period where people I worked with didn’t even know this was going on because I never missed a beat.”

With support from her manager and colleagues in the Office of Development, Burton maintained her hectic schedule for the last seven years of her father’s life.
Burton said that as the end of her dad’s life drew closer, she relied on her instincts to make the right decisions. Whenever a doctor recommended a particular course of treatment for her dad, she would ask the doctor: “What would you do if this was your dad?” She said that every time she posed that question, she got a straight answer that helped to inform her decision.

“I had to know in my heart that I was doing the right thing,” she said.

Burton’s father died in November 2016 of complications caused by Parkinson’s disease.

All Georgia Tech employees (faculty, staff, Tech Temps, and student workers) hired before Feb. 1, 2018, are required to visit https://training.hr.gatech.edu/d2l/home/6747 and perform the following Integrity and Compliance Campaign steps before April 6:

1. Complete The Science of Standing Up tutorial.
2. Review and confirm understanding of the Institute’s and University System of Georgia’s Code of Ethics, as well as policies regarding cybersecurity, alcohol and illegal drugs, and conflict of interest.
3. Proactively disclose any possible conflicts of interest related to external activities and financial relationships.

The Integrity and Compliance Campaign can be completed on a desktop or laptop. It should take no more than 30 minutes to complete, and it does not have to be finished at one time. Employees should click here to get started.

Employees who do not comply by April 6 may receive a formal disciplinary notice from the Institute, and their access to Georgia Tech’s network may also be revoked.

You can email questions to: ethics.ask@ohr.gatech.edu.

While Georgia Tech has always worked to protect employees from retaliation, it has clarified its stance with a new standalone Institute Non-Retaliation Policy that recently took effect. The policy acknowledges Georgia Tech’s responsibility to protect its employees from unlawful retaliation and provides definitions that will help employees feel more confident about reporting.

Retaliation is defined as any materially adverse action taken or threatened against an employee because the employee has done any of the following:

• Filed a complaint or grievance in good faith.
• Sought the aid of Human Resources.
• Testified or participated in investigations, compliance reviews, proceedings, or hearings.
• Opposed actual or perceived violations of policy or unlawful acts.

A report filed in good faith means the employee held a reasonable and sincere belief that the information they provided was true.

Georgia Tech’s policy also outlines a response to reports filed in bad faith, where the employee knowingly or recklessly provided false information. Such behavior can result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

Ethical behavior is among Georgia Tech’s core expectations for its employees, and the Institute is working to make training and tools more relatable, accessible, and timely. Earlier this year, Georgia Tech Human Resources announced its New Hire Learning and Compliance program, a new onboarding training initiative that covers ethical decision-making, workplace conduct, Institute policies, and more to ensure new employees are better equipped from the start of their employment at Georgia Tech.

In addition, the annual Integrity and Compliance Campaign has been revamped to focus on real-life opportunities for meaningful employee learning and behavior change. This year’s program features The Science of Standing Up, a new module that explores the science of individual decision-making including acting with integrity in difficult situations. The campaign began on March 7 and ends April 6.

To learn more about the Non-Retaliation Policy, visit the Policy Library or review the FAQs. 

To keep us mindful of the Institute’s and University System of Georgia’s Code of Ethics — as well as to review policies regarding cybersecurity, alcohol and illegal drugs, and conflict of interest — Georgia Tech requires its faculty, staff (including Tech Temps), and student workers to complete the annual Integrity and Compliance Campaign.

The campaign opens March 7, and employees will have until April 6 to complete it.

This year’s campaign also features a new tutorial, The Science of Standing Up, which explores the science of individual decision-making including acting with integrity in difficult situations. It will also review the EthicsPoint reporting tool and the Institute’s Non-Retaliation Policy.

“The Institute is redefining its approach to ensuring compliance and promoting ethical behavior,” said Pat McKenna, vice president of Legal Affairs and Risk Management. “We are working to provide employees with the resources needed to learn how to apply these ethical principles and take individual responsibility for what they see and do.”

McKenna adds that this approach provides a win-win for the Institute: It enables Georgia Tech to adhere to federal and state laws while providing an environment where employees can feel empowered to act with integrity and truly thrive.

The Integrity and Compliance Campaign can be completed on a desktop or laptop. It should take no more than 30 minutes to complete, and it does not have to be finished at one time. Beginning March 7, employees should visit training.hr.gatech.edu to get started.

Employees who do not comply by April 6 may receive a formal disciplinary notice from the Institute, and their access to Georgia Tech’s network may also be revoked.

For additional information or questions, email ethics.ask@ohr.gatech.edu.

This month, work will begin on the Campus Safety Building, the new home for the Georgia Tech Police Department that will take shape at the corner of Hemphill Avenue and 10th Street. 

Work is also set to begin on The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design. In the coming weeks, site work will begin for the project that is set to rise from a surface parking lot at the corner of State Street and Ferst Drive.

Within the next six months, work will also begin at the Dalney deck and office building on Dalney Street, near the intersection with Greenfield Street.

The campus community can expect some near-term construction impacts. Both the Campus Safety Building and Kendeda projects will be active within the next two weeks. Fencing will be erected at the Kendeda site, beginning Feb. 6. Site fencing will include sections of surface lots within the project boundary.  

On Dalney Street, through traffic to Ferst Drive will be closed where it passes through the Kendeda project site. Major work on the Dalney project is not expected to begin until May.

Facilities Management will share more detailed site plans and logistics in the coming weeks.

The Faculty Senate is looking for new members for several of its committees, where participants will help make decisions that affect many aspects of campus life for faculty and students.

“These committees are the crux of faculty governance, and many initiatives and new programs originate in these committees,” said Doug Nation, chair of the Faculty Governance Nominating Committee.

Vacancies are available on the committees listed on page 2. The nominating committee will attempt to honor all requests for particular committees, though some have restrictions on member requirements.

Nominations are due Wednesday, Feb. 28, and self-nominations are welcome.  Submit all nominations via email to nominations2018@lists.gatech.edu. 

Those who are selected by the Faculty Nominating Committee for the final ballot will be notified. Those eventually elected by the faculty will serve from August 2018 through August 2021. (Note that some committees do not require election this year.)

The faculty committees have 30 total openings on the following committees:

Faculty Standing Committees

• Faculty Benefits
• Faculty Honors (no election needed)
• Faculty Status and Grievance (no election needed)
• Statutes
• Faculty Services
• Welfare and Security

Academic Faculty Standing Committees

• Undergraduate Curriculum (Scheller, Design, and Engineering representatives needed)
• Graduate Curriculum (Scheller, Computing, and Engineering representatives needed)
• Student Regulations
• Student Academic and Financial Affairs
• Student Activities
• Student Grievance and Appeal
• Student Honor
• Student Computer Ownership
• Academic Integrity

For a description of the work of each committee, visit c.gatech.edu/fac-comms. 

For questions, contact Doug Nation; Steven Girardot; or Jeanne Balsam.

Many of these resources can be accessed with a Georgia Tech login from the comfort of your desk or dorm, whether you are reading for pleasure, catching up on current events, or testing new technology.

Here are just a few things you have access to — all of which are free:

Magazines: The Library’s subscription to Flipster lets users read current issues of Wired, Inc., Popular Science, and more.

E-books: Overdrive offers access to e-book checkouts in various formats, including Kindle.

Research Guides: The Library’s knowledgeable staff puts together guides on special topics. Two recent ones that may be of interest are the 2017 solar eclipse and the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Films on Demand: Supplement your Netflix subscription with documentaries from acclaimed sources including PBS, HBO, Ken Burns, and NOVA.  

ProQuest: Read full-text articles from an array of news sources, including many that would normally require a paid subscription, such as The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, or The Washington Post. Note that the reading experience may not always be as user-friendly as the publication’s full website or print edition.

Gadgets: Students, faculty, and staff can check out Kindles, iPads, Go Pros, DSLR cameras, and more through the Gadgets program. 

Archives: If it’s Georgia Tech you want to learn more about, the online archives are a trove of historic photos and documents — as is SMARTech. 

Learn more about the Library and its resources at library.gatech.edu, or follow the Library on Twitter (GTLibrary), Facebook (GeorgiaTechLibrary), or Instagram (GTLibrary).

OIE is looking for faculty members its Emerging Faculty Leaders in Study Abroad Program. Participants will create faculty-led study abroad programs that will be academically relevant and of interest to Georgia Tech students. 

OIE’s mission is to foster and provide international opportunities to all Georgia Tech students. To that end, OIE hopes to identify key areas for potential growth by fostering support for a cohort of faculty members who will develop new programs or replace senior faculty as they advance to new projects or retire. 

Rather than compete with existing study abroad options, this program seeks to create new opportunities for groups currently underserved, such as: 

• African-American, Hispanic, and other underrepresented student populations. 
• Graduate students (outside of the Scheller College of Business).
• Scheller College of Business undergraduate students.
• Student-athletes.
• Programs in developing countries and emerging economic markets.
• Locations not currently served by existing faculty-led study abroad programs.

Members of the program cohort will receive funding to be used toward conference participation and program planning. Faculty participants will also receive mentorship from a current faculty-led study abroad program director. Those selected for the program cohort will need approval from their academic unit, should anticipate dedicating five to 10 hours of work per month, and commit to submitting a faculty-led study abroad program proposal for the 2018-19 academic year.

Applications for the program are now open and will be accepted through Wednesday, Feb. 28. To review criteria and submit an application, visit c.gatech.edu/oiefac. Learn more about international education at oie.gatech.edu.