Annual Service Award Recipient for 2007

Craig R. Oliveira, manager of the Enterprise System Administration team, received the CITS Outstanding IT Service Award for 2007. The award is given annually to a CITS employee who exemplifies excellent service distinguished by initiative, innovation, dedication, outstanding performance and service "above and beyond expectations."

The Enterprise System team develops and maintains centralized systems and data center operations for the university. The group maintains CITS servers and data storage systems, partners with other departments for administration of hosted servers, and provides back up, recovery and archiving of university data. It is also the team responsible for campus email access and troubleshooting of problems with spam, viruses and failed email delivery.

A member of CITS since 1993, Oliveira's dedication to his job is evident in the "countless hours" he has spent keeping a watchful eye over the university's systems technology, almost, in the words one of his colleagues, "to the point of obsession." Another colleague noted that Oliveira's "innovative ideas and initiative" have often made him a "driving force in keeping the university current in its systems technology."

In making the award, Peggy Dias, Executive Director for IT Quality Service, noted that Oliveira is always service-oriented: "no problem is too small, nor question too basic, for him to assist in a respectful manner, despite the complexity and challenges of his position." Another important quality noted in the award nominations is Oliveira's sense of humor: "it brings relief to what can sometimes be a stressful environment as CITS staff strive to provide quality service to customers."

"The IT service award committee selects the award recipient from a list of candidates nominated by their peers in CITS," noted Donna Massano, Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology. "It's always a difficult process to select one outstanding individual from the number of service-minded professionals we have in CITS. I'm delighted that Craig is this year's award recipient, because he does indeed embody our organization's culture of service."

Oliveira received his own award and will also have his name placed on the CITS Service Award plaque displayed outside the CITS main office in the Carney Library.

This is the third year of the service award program, which is one of the service standards that CITS has established to advance concepts of quality service throughout the organization.