FSU employees honored with Davis Productivity Awards

From developing new technology for classrooms to creating better online monitoring systems, 18 Florida State University nominees—teams of employees or individuals—have been honored with Davis Productivity Awards for their innovative work in 2004 to save Florida taxpayers money and improve the delivery of state services.

"As they do each year, our employees again showed not only exceptional dedication and hard work but also creativity so the university could operate as efficiently as possible while raising the level of service to the public," said Lawrence G. Abele, FSU provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.

Funded primarily by Prudential Financial, and sponsored by Florida TaxWatch, the Florida Council of 100 and the State of Florida, the awards program publicly recognizes and rewards state employees and work units for making measurable improvements in the way they perform their duties and serve Florida citizens. This year’s winners were honored at a luncheon at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center.

A Distinguished Cash Award went to the Professional Development E-Media Team at the Center for Professional Development, which received $1,500 for upgrading and implementing an institutional effectiveness assessment and monitoring system.

Susann Rudasill, Robert Shawn Coughlin, John Jarrard and Charles Voiselle have saved the university more than $750,000, said Associate Vice President Robert Bradley, who nominated them.

"It’s wonderful to be recognized for doing the work we love to do," Rudasill said. "We consider our team’s accomplishment part of our ongoing effort to support the university’s mission and goals. We especially appreciate Dr. Bradley’s constant support and guidance in this effort."

Patrick Delin, information technology manager for the athletics department, received $250 as a Notable Cash winner. Delin designed a computer program, "SportMAT," specifically tailored for the unique needs of a sports medicine program, such as Florida State’s. His creation saved time and money in outside computer consultation and software fees.

"The SportMAT program is so effective it is being considered by a number of sports medicine programs at other schools around the country," said FSU Associate Athletic Director Greg Phillips, who nominated Delin.

"It’s been a great honor to both be nominated and consequently awarded a Davis Award, as well as to have the good fortune to work with the FSU department of athletics," Delin said. "Their continued efforts to excel and recognize excellence is rare and wonderful. Having great co-workers and a great working environment that encourages ‘giving back’ is truly the greatest award."

A special group of state employees were honored this year as "unsung heroes" for helping Floridians deal with a devastating hurricane season. Professor Nur Yazdani, a professor at the Florida A&M-FSU College of Engineering, designed a home hurricane shelter that can withstand winds up to 160 miles per hour and can be built with readily available materials from a hardware store for about $3,000. Yazdani won a $250 award for his efforts.

Six other FSU teams of employees received plaques today for their innovations: instituting a peer review program to improve productivity across campus, reducing data tape storage costs, reducing the cost of operating the "Course Lookup" application, reducing the cost of business operations, developing a student orientation Web application interface, and reducing the amount of spam e-mail at the university.

Ten additional teams received Certificates of Commendation for a wide range of improvements, from online parking permit distribution to development of a wireless campus.

For a complete list of Florida State University’s Davis Productivity Award winners, go to: http://www.floridataxwatch.org.