Jane Harrison, of Galax, Va., administrative assistant in the School of the Arts in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, has received the university’s 2004 President’s Award for Excellence.

The award recognizes selected staff and administrative faculty for their outstanding contributions to Virginia Tech. Nominations are received from all areas of the university and recognize extraordinary contributions and sustained excellence in the performance of job duties and responsibilities. Recipients are selected by a committee of classified staff and administrative faculty appointed by the president.

Harrison responds to requests with professionalism and speed. She arranges to provide the Alumni Association with musical entertainment, ranging from jazz quintets to a cappella groups 25 to 30 times a year. She analyzes her clients’ needs, searches for student performers, and finalizes details for the most appropriate entertainment for alumni programs.

Harrison, in addition to performing all the tasks of an administrative assistant, has assumed the role of graduate teaching assistant for the Fine Arts class taught by School of the Arts Director Tony Distler. She maintains grades for 1,100 students in the class, schedules and makes up tests, and counsels students.

Harrison not only gets the job done, but does it with a positive, can-do attitude. She is described as a university employee who embodies the university slogan Ut Prosim (That I May Serve).

The College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences embraces the arts, humanities, social and human sciences, and education. The college nurtures intellect and spirit, enlightens decision-making, inspires positive change, and improves the quality of life for people of all ages. It is home to the departments of apparel, housing and resource management, communication, educational leadership and policy studies, English, foreign languages and literatures, history; human development, interdisciplinary studies, music, philosophy, political science, ROTC, science and technology in society, sociology, teaching and learning, and theatre arts.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.

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