University announces August Employees of the Month

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has announced the August 2017 Employees of the Month:

Name: Le-Thu Erazmus Campbell

Title: Office manager, Department of Anthropology

What that means: Campbell serves as the office manager, the scheduling officer and the undergraduate officer for the anthropology department. In her role she is responsible for the daily operations of the department, including supervising student hourly employees, managing communications among faculty and with other units, and ensuring the smooth operation of committees and other department functions.

Notable: A previous supervisor of Campbell said, “In my 27 years at KU, I have yet to meet another employee with the loyalty and dedication of Le-Thu.” Despite evolving policies in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the demands of communication and coordination of complex activities within a large public institution, Campbell manages it all with patience, determination, competence, a bright outlook and an unfailing sense of humor. Campbell is adept at identifying and overcoming obstacles and, despite many potential distractions, never loses sight of her ultimate goals. She has a prodigious memory and extraordinary skills at organization, keeping track of dates, deadlines, names and responsibilities throughout the academic year as well as through the summer session. She is bright and is quick to recommend strategies and procedures that often prove to be excellent ways to proceed in accomplishing important tasks.

Campbell has handled difficult interactions with professionalism and grace. She consistently exhibits patience and resolve, seeking to find paths to good working relationships. She also is a source of informal advice, consolation and encouragement for other members of the department, whether staff, faculty or graduate students, drawing upon her own strengths in order to advise them, when they ask, for recommendations or moral support for handling challenging personal situations.

Cynthia Faircloth

Title: General manager, Courtside Café

What that means: Faircloth is responsible for scheduling, ordering, training, inventory and budget control. She has oversight of at least four supervisors, and her team feeds the majority of all the university athletes two meals per day. Her team also caters food for gameday events and numerous special events and parties.

Notable: Faircloth is very diligent, working six days per week most of the year. She is responsive to the needs of her customers from all areas of the operation. She is known by name to the majority of the student-athletes. She works with special diet and meal needs on a daily basis. She orders special products when needed to make sure the students’ nutritional needs are met.

The Courtside Café was previously housed in the Burge Union, but when that was torn down the Courtside Café and staff were to be moved to the DeBruce Center. Faircloth had a big part in facilitating the move and ensuring that staff had a home during the transition. Faircloth personally coached and worked with staff in the Union to help them with their application materials for positions at the DeBruce Center. The move was delayed three weeks with no place for the dining services to go, so Faircloth conceptualized how dining could be delivered and set up a tent during the transition to facilitate easy dining methods for students. During all of this she provided consistent communication to staff regarding the move and was the liaison with health department officials to make sure compliances were met.

Faircloth is liked and respected by her staff and the university colleagues she interacts with due to her commitment to working through problems and finding solutions quickly. Employees learn from her every single day. Faircloth takes the time to personally coach her staff and makes certain employees are on the right track so they can grow professionally. She knows the individual attributes of the staff that work for her and provides constructive feedback in a positive and meaningful way.