Applause for Rachelle Jensen

“Rachelle is very deserving of an applause award. She is very competent in her role within the Department. A prime example of this recently was when she helped coordinate the fall finals for the department. There was about 3,500 students who took exams and she worked with our student worker to copy/organize/distribute the finals and arrange/manage the room assignments. Rachelle even stepped up and helped arrange and proctor some of the alternate exams due to the windstorm that happened on the day of the final. This added some additional stress to her day but you couldn't tell it as she stayed calm and took it all in stride. She has been a good addition to our Department and that is why I feel she should be recognized with an applause!!!”

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“Rachelle very smoothly organized and scheduled all unit math finals last fall. She is very efficient and always tries to remedy any last minute issues.”

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“Rachelle is always a huge help in organizing the Math unit Final exams, in managing the room assignments, copying and distributing exams. Last week we has severe weather forcing us to change plans last minute and Rachelle went above and beyond to help organize last minute alternates for over 60 students who could not safely come to campus. Additionally she helped proctor these exams. Please recognize her going above and beyond with an Applause!”

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“Rachelle is one of the most selfless and patient staff members I have worked with. While I have known this since she began working in the department, never was it more obvious than this semester, especially as it came to a close.

I serve as the faculty convener for Math 203. At the beginning of the semester, the instructional team decided to administer exams online in order to mitigate illness and COVID concerns. For a variety of reasons, we decided to instead administer the remaining exams in person. Rather than scolding me for making such a last-minute request, Rachelle happily lined up classrooms for all 12 sections of Math 203. When I requested a small change, Rachelle again graciously made this accommodation. Additionally, throughout the semester there were several times when students were unable to take the in-person exams for illness, work or schedule-related reasons. Each time, Rachelle patiently worked with the students to set up a time for them to come to the office to make up the exam.

All of this pales in comparison, however, to the support Rachelle provided during finals week. As we began to hear about severe weather conditions headed our way on the night of our scheduled exam, we met and discussed how to accommodate the difficulties students may encounter taking an in-person exam on such a stormy night. Rachelle immediately worked with us and quickly scheduled rooms for alternate exam times that we could offer to students who were unable to meet at the regularly scheduled time. Even without such emergencies, finals week presents many challenges to the office staff, but without missing a bit (and without losing her smile), Rachelle stepped up to the plate and calmly did her part to make sure exam week went smoothly. It would have been a mess without her! ”

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“The math unit final, involving 3500 students, took place from 6pm to 8pm on December 15th. The storms in the afternoon and more importantly, the threat of storms all day, created all sorts of problems. Many students were unable to travel or did not feel safe doing so. Rachelle was the key staff person behind the department's response to this situation and went above and beyond to make things work smoothly. It is already a lot of work to just make the unit final run smoothly: setting up the room assignments, getting exams and copying them, preparing bundles of exams for instructors (or their substitutes) to pick up, tracking students who have accommodations, and working with instructors and conveners to organize all of this. The threat of bad weather really didn't help. But because she had organized the exam copying well in advance, she had time to make arrangements for alternates, booking the union auditorium for Thursday and Friday morning, collecting and copying alternate exams to be used (on short notice). These alternates made it possible for us to offer alternates to many students and, although many students decided that they didn't need them in the end, once the storm was past, I am sure that having the option reassured them. I would have struggled to deal with the weather problems without her fast and pro-active work. I'm sure she also worked closely with many other people in the department to make all of these things happen. She also helped proctor the alternate exams on Thursday and kept instructors informed as we sorted things out in the following few days. She did an outstanding job of managing this unexpected work, on short notice and in stressful circumstances. I cannot praise her too highly for it.”