The awards recognize employees whose extraordinary service and special contributions to the campus foster collegiality, cooperation, creativity and innovation. Honorees demonstrate the "spirit" of the campus through their attitudes, acts of loyalty, teamwork and contribution to the campus mission, goals and strategic initiatives. All four will be honored at the Chancellor’s Employee Recognition Convocation on Oct. 20.

The winners are:

• Velma Graves, office coordinator at the Department of Sociology. Graves displayed extraordinary professionalism and diligence as she helped the department through the transitional period following the appointment of a new chair and the hiring of a new secretary. She maintained an upbeat and positive spirit as she trained the secretary while taking the initiative of providing the new chair with information needed to assume the duties of that position.

• Elvia Reyes, dental assistant, IU School of Dentistry. Reyes unselfishly gives of herself to the campus and the Indianapolis community. She serves as a family advocate and medical interpreter for the dental school. Her volunteer activities include providing free dental treatment at homeless shelters, shelters for abused women and underserved minority clinics. She also devotes entire Saturdays to volunteering at the Amish Dental Clinic in northern Indiana.

• Andrea Eickhoff, manager of marketing and recruitment at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). Eickhoff’s positive, friendly spirit contributes greatly to her department. She developed SPEA’s ambassador student volunteer group which represents IUPUI at various functions; and also coordinated projects involving Herron School of Art and New Media students who developed wall displays and video materials to advance the academic mission of the campus as well as SPEA.

• Amy Jones, assistant to the dean, School of Liberal Arts. Jones exemplifies the spirit of IUPUI as an institution that seeks to afford all citizens a chance for quality education. She was a major leader for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and an organizer for the Mapping Education Toward Achievement (META) conference. She has organized department sessions in handling work force violence and is a treasured resource for students facing domestic violence issues.