Georgia College recently secured a $120,454 rebate check from Georgia Power and will see $65,000 in annual energy savings for its demand-flow sustainability initiative—the largest ever on campus to date.
Eighteen Georgia College biology and environmental science students are traveling to a former mining area in Zambia—dubbed by media as “the world’s most toxic town.” There, they’ll finish work begun two years ago on a cement-and-brick wall to reduce contaminated dust in a schoolyard where children play.
CAMPUS ANNOUNCEMENTS
M.O.V.E. (Multicultural Organization that Values Empowerment) will meet Wednesday, June 5 at 12 p.m. in Parks Hall 108 Conference Room. We will discuss plans for our Fall Meet-n-Greet Social for faculty and staff. You can bring your lunch.
Jennifer Birch
Education Outreach and Training Coordinator
4784454233
We would like to remind you that in preparation for the upcoming OneUSG Connect PeopleSoft data conversion for Cohort 5 USG institution, Georgia College will be impacted by two blackout periods. During the following blackout periods, we cannot enter any data (e.g. new hires, terminations, transfers, salary changes, etc.).
- Friday, June 7 – Tuesday, June 11
- Friday, June 21 – Monday, June 24
In order to ensure timely processing of employment actions prior to these blackout periods, we have made revisions to the staff (bi-weekly) and student matrices. All documents related to hiring and processing other employment transactions must be received by the Office of Human Resources in accordance with the dates listed on the corresponding hiring matrix. These blackout periods do not impact the monthly hiring matrix. For your convenience, we have attached a copy of the staff (bi-weekly), staff (monthly) and student matrices for June, July, & August 2019.
Based on modified payroll processing timelines and our inability to access OneUSG during the dates listed above, June 16th will not be an option for a bi-weekly start date. We had to make the same modification during December 2018 based on the Blackout periods that occurred during that month. We realize this inconvenience, but we wanted to let you know as soon as possible, which is why we initially announced this in March, so that you can plan accordingly. June start date options for bi-weekly paid students and staff will only be June 2nd and June 30th.
Bi-weekly time must be entered and approved by the following dates during June:
- Friday, May 31 for payment on June 7
- Friday, June 14 for payment June 21
- Thursday, June 27 for payment July 5
Bi-weekly Payroll will process on June 3 and 4, June 17 and 18, and June 28 and July 1.
Monthly time must be entered and approved by the following dates during June:
- Monday, June 17 (Exception time only) for payment on June 28
Monthly Payroll will process on June 19-21.
Please make sure that your staff is aware of time entry dates and paystub verification dates, as the windows will be very short to accomplish these tasks during June. Please share this information with all of your employees—staff, faculty, and student workers.
During these timeframes, please contact the Office of Human Resources at 478-445-5596 or Payroll Services at payroll@gcsu.edu if you have any questions. You may also email questions to oneusgconnect@gcsu.edu.
Thank you,
OneUSG Connect Transition Team
Amber Collins
Assistant Director for Employment Services
(478) 445-4236
The Student Rating of Instruction Survey (SRIS), or end of course survey, results are now available. The SRIS results are located under the "GCSU Reports" tab found in PAWS. The attached file consists of step-by-step instructions on how to access your results. The access instructions are also located in the Faculty Resources tab within GeorgiaVIEW.
Jaclyn Queen
Instructional Designer
4784451269
Due to increased electric prices at $.042 per kWh or $.036 above the normal operating price for Georgia College, and effective for Friday, May 24, 2019:
The campus community is urged to be aware of electricity usage in offices, labs, residence halls and other spaces, especially during the peak hours of 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
In your respective areas of work or residence, turn off and/or unplug any item that will not be needed for immediate use. If you have access to windows, consider using the natural light. If you need light, please turn lights off when you leave your office or residence. Lighting, in particular, produces a double savings of electricity when it is turned off. If you have a thermostat in your area, set the temperature to 68 degrees F. Additionally, turn off/unplug computers, monitors, printers, copier machines, lab instruments and other equipment as you leave for the day. All of these activities will help tremendously.
The Office of Facilities Operations staff will conduct walkthroughs of key buildings on campus to turn off classroom and other unoccupied space lighting and individual AC units where possible and in unused spaces. Key buildings include Arts and Sciences, Centennial Center, Health Sciences, Kilpatrick, Parks Memorial, Peabody Auditorium, Russell Auditorium, Student Activities Center and the Wellness and Recreation Center. If Facilities Operations staff attempts to turn off lighting or heating equipment in areas where it is needed, please inform them of the need and they will gladly accommodate.
The Office of Sustainability and the Department of Facilities Operations thank everyone for your cooperation and understanding in this matter. When we work together to take basic steps to reduce energy consumption, we enable the university to save money that can be directed to more pressing needs which serve the academic, research and outreach mission.
We urge you to assist with communications by passing this information along to the campus community. If you have comments or questions, please do not hesitate to call/email the following contacts:
Mark Duclos, Director of Facilities Operations, 478-445-6546, mark.duclos@gcsu.edu
Lori Strawder, Chief Sustainability Officer, 478-445-7016, lori.strawder@gcsu.edu
Lori Strawder
Chief Sustainability Officer
4784457016
Open Lab on Tuesday, May 28th in Library Room 241.
9 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Get assistance setting up your Well-being Account (Earn $100) and setting up LiveHealth Online (See the Doctor on your Mobile Device).
Bring two (2) can/dry goods and get a $25 credit for participating in a community food drive.
Julia Williams
Assistant Director for Compensation & Benefits
4784455596
The honors keep rolling in for Georgia College Tennis standout Robin Möller (Hamburg, Germany) was chosen as a Google Cloud/College Sports Information Directors (CoSIDA) Academic All-District Team selection.
Möller makes his first career appearance on the District 3 team, which includes student-athletes from the Peach Belt Conference (PBC), South Atlantic Conference (SAC) and Conference Carolinas (CC). The At-Large designation covers collegiate sports that don't have sport-specific Academic All-America Teams through the organization. This year's District 3 Men's team includes 11 student-athletes competing in the sports of tennis, volleyball, swimming and golf. Other Districts include student-athletes from lacrosse, fencing, ice hockey, rifle, gymnastics, wrestling and water polo.
He owns a 3.94 GPA in Exercise Science. The nation's No. 18 singles player, Möller went 15-2 this season, including victories over four nationally-ranked players. In doubles action, he teamed with junior Matt Rogel (Sautron, France) for a 16-3 record, taking the No. 3 slot in the country.
He will advance to the Academic All-America ballot, with an announcement due Thursday, June 20.
Möller joins Jerome Leborgne (2012) as the only two CoSIDA Academic All-District selections in GC Men's Tennis history.
Al Weston
Assistant Athletic Director, Communications
478-445-1779
The U.S. Department of Education has released a list of schools, districts and universities it named as 2019 Green Ribbon Schools for sustainability.
Georgia College was the only postsecondary school in the state—and one of only four nationally—to receive this prestigious award. Plaques, made of sustainable materials, will be presented during a ceremony in Washington D.C. in September.
“This honor represents the hard-work and dedication that so many over the years have contributed to making Georgia College better and an example to others,” said Chief Sustainability Officer Lori Strawder.
“The efforts toward making the campus more sustainable is not a one-person show. It takes everyone,” she said. “It’s a pleasure to be part of the sustainability efforts on campus and to work with so many people on different levels that are trying to accomplish the same goals.”
The selection was based upon Georgia College’s high achievement in three pillar areas: reducing environmental impact and costs; improving health and wellness of students and staff; and providing effective environmental and sustainability education through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), civic skills and green career pathways.
Georgia College's many notable sustainability initiatives include education outreach and opportunities to students for internships. The Office of Sustainability has provided more than 30 internships to students, who worked 10,000 hours of service. This gives students chances for experiential learning and leadership development, while impacting the community in positive ways.
Undergraduate and graduate students helped earn this award by addressing waste reduction, assuring responsible use of resources, educating the campus community, focusing on behavior change and providing research data.
Last year, students instituted the Campus Kitchen of Georgia College to minimize dining hall waste and provide food to the disadvantaged. Physics students installed solar panels on selected golf carts. And efforts are also routinely made to help the environment by members of the Sustainability Council, Sustainable Fee Program, Garden Club and Environmental Science Club.
Forty-two projects on campus resulted in more than $200,000 in rebate awards through the Georgia Power Energy Efficiency Incentive Rebate Program—saving 3 million kilowatts per hour (kWh). These include LED conversions, reflective roof installations, heating and air optimization and occupancy sensor connections. LED conversions alone contributed to a savings of more than 2 million kWh in the last seven years. The plan is to equip the entire campus with LEDs by 2020.
The university is involved in recycling and composting, as well. Students are shuttled to off-campus locations, like the Green Farmer’s Market. Wellness efforts include bike stations, puppies on Front Campus to relieve exam-time stress and a state-of-the-art Wellness Center for exercise. The university is also a leader in community-based initiatives, like ArtHealthy and Live Healthy Baldwin to reduce childhood obesity.
In her congratulatory letter to campus, Andrea Suarez Falken, directory of the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbons Schools, wrote: “This award acknowledges your college or university’s leadership in taking a comprehensive approach to sustainability ... You are representative of promising practices to improve achievement and equity, not only for aspiring green campuses but for all postsecondary institutions.”
Cindy O'Donnell
Media Relations Specialist
4784458668
Another strong season for Georgia College Baseball's Cal Gentry (Perry) has been recognized, as the second baseman took a spot on the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) All-Southeast Region Second Team Wednesday.
Gentry won the Peach Belt Conference (PBC) batting title in the regular season and finished the year at .413, adding 30 RBIs and 42 runs with three home runs. He's a two-time All-Region selection after being chosen at third base in 2017. He joins Matthew Miller as the only two-time NCBWA All-Region selections for the Bobcats all time.
Since the organization's inception in 2009, Georgia College has now had 23 student-athletes named to the NCBWA All-Region list, including eight in Head Coach Jason Eller's three seasons.
Al Weston
Assistant Athletic Director, Communications
478-445-1779
Fiscal year-end is coming. Georgia College is responsible for insuring that financials for the institution are accurately accounted for before closing-out the fiscal year on June 30, 2019. This includes making sure that any funding that can possibly lapse (go back to the State) is expended and accounted for properly. Being a state entity, we have to follow certain purchasing policies and procedures which include deadlines for purchases on varying dollar amounts. To ensure that expenditures are reported properly during the transition of fiscal years, we have included deadlines on receiving transactional items. The following deadlines are necessary to ensure that transactions are properly executed and that our financials are appropriately reported.
Critical deadline/dates:
Purchase order cutoff dates:
June 4, 2019 - State contract purchases and non-contract purchases below $25,000
Notes for Purchasing and E-Pro: On June 5, 2019 at 7 a.m., the e-Pro module of PeopleSoft will be shut down completely and users will be unable to enter requisitions. Requisitions must be entered prior to close of business on June 4, 2019.
P-Card purchase cutoff dates:
May 27, 2019 - No P-Card purchases after this date for FY2019 budget. All transactions for dates up to 5/27/2019 should be allocated and signed off by cardholders and approvers in Works. This cutoff will help to ensure that all transactions posted on or before this date are posted to your FY 2019 budgets. However, there may be circumstances where a transaction may be delayed and does not post until after the above date, in which case the charge will be expensed to your FY 2020 budget. You may use the P-Card after this date with the understanding that those charges will post against your FY 2020 budget.
June 17, 2019 – Signed P-Card account statements with receipts and approvals are due to the Purchasing Department by 5 p.m.
Accounting Services cutoff dates:
Travel and Travel Encumbrance deadlines have been sent out to Front Page and certain list serves in separate announcements, and reminders will be sent. For questions on year-end travel, please call Omega at 478-445-1178 or email her at omega.hedgepeth@gcsu.edu.
June 13, 2019 – All petty cash requests for reimbursements are due to the Comptroller’s Office by 5 p.m.
June 13, 2019 – Last day to submit online check requests (i.e., registrations, memberships, direct billings for hotel/car rental, hotel prepayments, refunds, food items [Sodexo invoices, etc.] that are needed before July 16, 2019).
June 17, 2019 – Purchases to be made from the Innovation Station or the bookstore that need to be charged to this year’s budget (2019) should be completed before the close of business on this date.
June 21, 2019 – Paper travel expense statements, when accepted, due by 5:00 p.m. These will only be appropriate for non-employee, encumbered or International travel.
Payroll deadlines have been sent out to Front Page and certain list serves in separate announcements, and reminders will be sent. For questions on payroll deadlines, please call Allison or Cindy at 478-445-4087 or email them at payroll@gcsu.edu.
Please feel free to contact any of the following offices for additional information or clarification:
Purchasing (Purchase Orders and P-Cards) – (478) 445-4458
Petty Cash – (478) 445-5651
Online Check Request – (478) 445-6093
Travel Reimbursements, Travel Advances and Year-End Travel – (478) 445-1178
Candace M. Kobbe
Comptroller/Chief Accounting Officer
478-445-5651
Hello all,
As we enter the summer months, I wanted to share the summer 2019 newsletter for MALE Connection, Georgia College's African-American Male Initiative (AAMI). Thank you for your continued support of our AAMI students. I'm really proud of them and I'm sure you will share my sentiments after reading about what they've been doing. Feel free to share with others in your respective areas. Here's the direct link: https://www.smore.com/51je3.
Thank you,
EL
Dr. Emmanuel Little
Director of Call Me MISTER & Minority Retention
4784458594
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