(HARTSDALE, N.Y. – July 10, 2014)  Theresa Carter, a keyboard specialist in the assessment office with SUNY Empire State College’s Hartsdale location, is a 2014 recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Support Services.

The honor provides systemwide recognition for consistently superior  professional achievement and encourages the ongoing pursuit of excellence. Individuals selected for this honor are role models within the SUNY community.

“Faculty and staff who receive the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence have served their students, fellow faculty and staff, campuses and communities with the utmost distinction, and it is a great honor to be able to recognize them with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher. "Congratulations to all of this year’s recipients.”

 “My congratulations go to Theresa Carter for being chosen as among the best support staff across the SUNY system,” said Merodie A. Hancock, president of the college. “The work our classified employees do is often unseen and unheralded, but they do it with excellence and diligence every single day. It is fitting that Ms. Carter is recognized for the important role she plays in preparing our students’ degree programs for academic review.”

“This prestigious honor was amazing,” said Carter. “I’ve always strived to perform my job with excellence and dignity to ensure those students who come through Empire State College know it is a great place to further their education. I want to thank everyone who had a part in this process. It’s nice to know that you are appreciated.”

Carter was lauded for her behind-the-scenes work in reviewing student degree programs to ensure that they comply with college policy and preparing them for review by the academic review committee in Hartsdale, as well as the collegewide Office of Academic Review.

“Ms. Carter performs a job that is usually performed by others at a higher civil service level, and she performs it excellently,” said Leslie Ellis, director of academic review at the Hartsdale location.  “As a team player, Ms. Carter excels and her work contributes to the success of the assessment office. She will work beyond the scope of her job, whether it is filling in as the receptionist or helping with student orientation. She is collegial and professional in all that she does and her work is invaluable.”

Although few people “see” what Carter does, “her work touches every student who graduates from the Hudson Valley Center. Without her accurate process reviews and her speed in moving proposed degrees forward, our students would not be standing on the podium at graduation,” Ellis added.

About the Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence

The Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence are presented annually to faculty and staff in six categories: faculty service, librarianship, professional service, scholarship and creative activities, teaching and classified service.

Through these awards, SUNY publicly proclaims its pride in the accomplishment and personal dedication of its instructional faculty, librarians and staff across its 64 campuses and system administration.

In acknowledgment of their selection, recipients are recognized in the college catalogue by the addition of the phrase "State University Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.” A certificate and a medallion are also bestowed upon each honoree to commemorate selection. Recipients are honored by their respective campuses during commencement exercises, at academic convocations, or other special events hosted in their honor.

About SUNY Empire State College

Empire State College, the nontraditional, open college of the SUNY system, educates more than 20,000 students worldwide at eight international sites, more than 35 locations in the state of New York, online, as well as face to face and through a blend of both, at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels.

The average age of an undergraduate student at the college is 35 and graduate students average age 40.

Most Empire State College students are working adults. Many are raising families and meeting civic commitments in the communities where they live, while studying part time.

In addition to awarding credit for prior college-level learning, the college pairs each undergraduate student with a faculty mentor who supports that student throughout his or her college career.

Working with their mentors, students design an individual degree program and engage in guided independent study and course work onsite, online or through a combination of both, which provides the flexibility for students to choose where, when and how to learn.

Students have the opportunity to enroll five times during the year.

The college’s 73,000 alumni are active in their communities as entrepreneurs, politicians, business professionals, artists, nonprofit agency employees, teachers, veterans and active military, union members and more.

The college was first established in 1971 by the SUNY Board of Trustees with the encouragement of the late Ernest L. Boyer, chancellor of the SUNY system from 1970 to 1977.

Boyer also served as United States commissioner of education during the administration of President Jimmy Carter and then as president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

More information about the college is available at www.esc.edu.