News briefs

10 July 2002 |

Nominations are open for Chancellor’s staff awards
The annual Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards program, honoring staff who have made exceptional contributions to the university or community, is now accepting nominations.

The award — one of the campus’s highest accolades for staff — recognizes individuals or teams of staff whose work is above and beyond normal expectations and has had a positive impact on such areas as student services, customer relations, operational effectiveness, mentoring, staff development or community service.

All members of the campus community who have completed at least one year of employment at the university are encouraged to submit nominations. Staff with academic or executive tier titles are not eligible.

The deadline for nominations is 5 p.m. on Sept. 13. For information, contact Kati Markowitz at 642-8915 or ksmarkow@uclink4, or visit csac.chance.berkeley.edu.

Whistleblower policy amended
New provisions have been added to the California Whistleblower Protection Act, which encourages UC employees to report improper activities and offers protection from retaliation for whistleblowing.

Improper activities are any actions taken by the university or a UC employee that violate state or federal law or regulation, such as corruption, malfeasance, bribery, theft or misuse of government property, fraud, coercion or conversion. Also citable are activities that waste money or involve gross misconduct, incompetence or inefficiency.

To report such abuses, employees should contact their supervisors or other appropriate administrators in their unit. Those who believe they have become the target of retaliation for whistleblowing may register a complaint with Human Resources, the Academic Personnel Office or their supervisors. Details are available at http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/hrpolicy.htm.

New call center launched
Physical Plant–Campus Services has established a new Call and Business Center to handle customer service needs. The center, which began operations on July 1, has expanded its customer service phone line — 642-1032 — to be available 24 hours, seven days a week.

Callers are given a menu of service options when they use the service line and are connected with a customer service representatives. Customer service covers everything from grounds, recycling, utilities operations and shutdown requests to building maintenance, custodial services and pest management.

Another Berkeley undergrad nominated to Board of Regents
Matthew Murray, a second-year student in architecture at Berkeley, has been nominated as the student member of the UC Board of Regents for 2003-04.

Murray’s nomination will be considered by the board at its Sept. 18-19 meeting. If approved, Murray will become the student regent-designate and will participate in all deliberations this coming year. He will not become a voting member, however, until July 2003, when his one-year term begins.

Describing himself as “passionate about public education,” Murray is co-founder and president of the Berkeley American Civil Liberties Union and serves on the Academic Freedom Committee of the Berkeley Academic Senate.

The current regent-designate, Dexter Ligot-Gordon, is also a Berkeley undergraduate; he began his one-year term as student regent July 1.

Master gardeners to air on UCTVM
Home gardeners will soon have answers to their most common and vexing questions, thanks to a new 16-part UCTV program, “The Master Gardener,” scheduled to begin airing the last week of July.

UCTV is available on Channel 9412, on the EchoStar DISH Network, and on cable channel 78 (AT&T Broadband) in Berkeley. In addition, those with high-speed Internet connections can watch the programs as a live video stream at www.uctv/streaming.