November 1, 2023
Contact: Anisa Zvonkovic  | 706-542-4879  | More about Anisa

Dean’s message 

First, I want to thank you and celebrate the ways we have come together as a college in October! I enjoyed seeing so many of you at the college assembly. Big thanks to Catie Floyd for organizing the event and the agenda – we’ve sent the slides to everyone.  

Please note that we started the program with folks from HR talking about opportunities for mentorship among staff and that we continued to have speakers who talked about programs to enhance professional development and mentoring. The FACS Leadership Fellows provided descriptions of their programs of work for the 2-year period of the fellowships, and I encourage you all to reach out to them if you have particular interest in the projects they are leading as part of this project-based fellowship. Lastly, in terms of well-being, we are delighted to have our new outdoor area complete with seating and encourage you to use it! 

I also want to celebrate FACS coming together to win the Beat Week Challenge! We had the largest number of donations to FACS accounts of any unit on campus. While final figures are not yet available, we are thrilled to have FACS in the news with this very impressive showing. It was a great start to the new team in Development and Alumni Relations and great teamwork on the part of the entire External Relations team, as well as Zeus, the lovely bulldog belonging to facilities manager Casey Crane. 

FACS College Awards 

Nominations for the FACS Teaching, Outreach/Extension, Research, and Staff Awards are due January 30, 2024. Staff Academic Advisor of the Year and Faculty Outstanding Undergraduate Faculty Advisor Award nominations are due January 15, 2024. Self-nominations are welcome!  

Each unit should have an awards committee and chair who promote all awards and facilitate the entire process, from the initial nomination process to completion of the awards packet, along with obtaining letters of support and vitae/resume to the appropriate entity by the deadline.  Units are encouraged to retain copies of awards submissions to accumulate a bank of awards packets to aid others in successful awards submissions.  

Through a nomination process facilitated by the academic departments or units, including Extension districts, awards packets are reviewed by members of the Faculty Advisory Committee, Staff Council and additional stakeholders following the criteria listed for each award. Some awards, not all, are supported by an endowment. Those endowed funds allow for a cash award in addition to the award plaque. Non-endowed award recipients receive only the plaque. All awardees are recognized at the Spring College Assembly.  

  

There's a table with the awards, prize, eligibility, etc to help you decide here:  https://www.fcs.uga.edu/docs/Summary_of_Awards_2023_(1).pdf 

We are in the process of revising the Super-Includer Award. More information about the new criteria will be sent out in early December. 

Donor-Scholar reception 

We celebrated our students and the donors who support them at our annual Donor-Scholar Reception on Oct. 19. 

Visit our Flickr album for photos from the event: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugafacs/albums/72177720312059000/with/53271824226 

Open Enrollment Closes November 3 

This is a reminder that the 2024 USG Benefits Open Enrollment period began Monday, October 23, 2023 and ends on Friday, November 3, 2023. 

Open enrollment information benefits presentations and virtual office hours with benefits counselors can be found here:  https://hr.uga.edu/Current_Employees/Benefits/open_enrollment/2024/ 

Employee action is required to complete the certification of your tobacco use and working spouse (if applicable) during the benefits open enrollment period. PLEASE NOTE: If you take no action during Open Enrollment, you will default to the surcharge. If you take no action and are defaulted to the surcharges, USG will not refund any surcharge amounts assessed to the employee’s paycheck. 

Shared Sick Leave Pool 

The Benefits Open Enrollment period is also an opportunity to donate to (and therefore join) the shared sick leave pool! We have had several employees benefit this year from the shared leave pool and you can join by donating just 8 hours and up to 80 hours a year. This could make a difference for you or someone in our community. We have many folks who leave UGA or retire with loads of sick leave remaining and this is the only time to donate throughout the year. Only employees in the TRS retirement plan can use these hours towards retirement, so please consider if donating is right for you. Information about the Shared Sick Leave Pool can be found on the Open Enrollment 2024 website. 

University Health Center 

UGA Well-being Resources recently launched a centralized Well-being Program Request page. This streamlines the process for faculty, staff, and students to request well-being programming for their classes, organization meetings, or other opportunities. 

  

In the past, if a student or faculty member wanted well-being programming, they had to decide which of multiple places on campus to contact. Now, the campus community can simply access this singular program request portal at https://bewellprograms.uga.edu/#/home 

  

Representatives from the University Health Center, Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS), Fontaine Center, Student Care and Outreach, Disability Resource Center/University Testing Services and Rec Sports monitor this portal, and the most appropriate group will reach out to the requestor based on the program being sought. 

FACS events calendar 

Just a reminder to please add your upcoming events to the events calendar on the FACS website. Adding an event is easy and helps us bring more awareness to your event.  

 To see the events calendar, visit https://www.fcs.uga.edu/events. Please contact Jimmy Hansen if you have questions about utilizing this feature of our website. 

Upcoming events 

November 8 – FACS Trending Topics, Featuring outreach presentations from TMI, Dawson 216, 3-5 p.m. 

December 15 – FACS Fall Convocation – Mahler Hall  

February 15 – FACS Day at the Capitol 

Sincerely,   

Anisa M. Zvonkovic 

Dean and Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Family and Consumer Sciences 

Tags: dean's update