Through their hard work and dedication, IT staff drive forward the university's mission of advancing student success and research excellence. This work is reflected in the pillars of student support, research support and process improvement.

On July 29, IT Services hosted its All Campus IT Community Meeting, where three employees were awarded for their exceptional performance in the IT Campus Pillars of student support, process improvement/efficiency and research support.

With 62 nominations for 41 employees, it was clear there was no shortage of deserving recipients for IT Campus Pillar awards this year.

Chris Bray, director of academic technologies services, was selected for the Student Support Service award.

"I've made a career out of academic technologies and student success, so it felt great to be recognized for that," said Bray, who has worked for the U of A for 35 years, 29 with IT Services.

Bray's team, in collaboration with the provost's office, Global Campus and TIPS, improved student success and faculty support by fully moving campus to Blackboard Ultra last year. Bray said his team is now focused on making the most of Workday and improving interactions within that system.

"Chris has a curiosity for ways to make systems better and the energy to implement improvements," one of the nominations for Bray stated.

Joel Cook, IT service management administrator, was selected for the Process Improvement/Efficiency Service award.

Cook was nominated for the work he did in helping to implement the new ticketing system at help.uark.edu, as well as for going above and beyond in developing a critical application that will ensure the continued operation of the Student Technology Center (STC). "It's encouraging to see the work we do making a difference on campus," Cook said.

The nomination for Cook stated, "Joel's work has been thoughtful, thorough and deeply impactful — he created a solution that not only streamlines the check-in/check-out process for equipment but also equips the STC team with robust tools to manage inventory and handle the unique, real-world edge cases they face every day."

Jason Crawley, system administrator for the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, received multiple nominations for the Research Support Service award.

"Jason deserves this award because of the endless support and passionate advancement of research technologies for the EECS department," one nomination read. The nomination stated that Crawley has a "masterful knowledge of the IT world that keeps research afloat in the department and college as a whole."

Crawley said his main goal for next year is to maintain the same level of service. "Our research groups are all doing such different and interesting things that keeping up with each project is fun and exciting," he said.

Bray, Cook and Crawley were each presented with a plaque recognizing their achievement during the July 29 meeting by Steve Krogull, associate vice chancellor of Information Technology Services; Selena Hriz, associate chief information officer for enterprise service management; and Dr. Kathryn Zawisza, associate chief information officer for campus partnerships.

"Student success and research excellence are top priorities at the U of A," Zawisza said. "We created the IT Pillar awards to celebrate the staff who lead significant work that is instrumental in keeping these priorities at the forefront. Our committee selected Chris, Joel and Jason out of the 41 nominees because of their service excellence in these key areas."