Shirley Freeman, 2004 President's Quality Service Award Winner

For almost 30 years, Shirley Freeman has been providing the kind of support to UC students that the university aspires to deliver every day.

As the program coordinator in the College of Engineering’s Office of Graduate Studies, Freeman is responsible for coordinating five large graduate programs.

That entails major responsibilities for more than 350 graduate students. "Shirley is inundated with e-mails and phone calls every day," says Miland Jog, associate professor and graduate studies director in Mechanical Engineering. "She handles all the requests in a prompt, courteous and professional manner. She is meticulous in making sure that program rules and requirements are followed by our graduate students. With five different graduate programs with differing requirements, this is certainly a challenging task. She has tremendous patience to work with students to get their problems resolved."

Adds Henry Spitz, professor of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, "Shirley is involved with each graduate student from ‘cradle to grave’ and her performance in her role as administrator is absolutely perfect and exemplary. She has the interests of both the students and the department as her objectives and serves them exceedingly well."

Recent graduate Haritha Ayyalasomayajula will always remember Freeman’s assistance when difficult circumstances arose as she started at UC. "What distinguishes her from others is this combination of providing a solution with personal attention, which she very naturally has towards students. As a program coordinator and as a person, she is deeply committed to serve students," she says.

Nicholas Flohre, a doctoral student in the college, says simply that Freeman’s level of service "has sought to shatter my administration stereotypes." Freeman, he says, puts students first.