Ed Kaeufer recognized for programming skills, personal touch

Do you work with an outstanding colleague at Western Washington University? The Western Way program provides the opportunity for faculty and staff to recognize the great efforts of others on campus.

Any time throughout the year, folks in the WWU community can visit the Western Way website to recognize a Western employee who demonstrates excellence in serving students, visitors or colleagues, based on the characteristics that make them uniquely Western: inviting, engaging, distinctive, collaborative and adventurous.

Western Way honorees are recognized online on the Western Way Wall of Acknowledgment, in Western Today and in a slideshow at the Employee Recognition Ceremony in April.

Recently recognized was Ed Kaeufer, an information technology specialist with Administrative Computing Services. In their nomination letter, Joanna Reynoso, Marcia Merth and Leanna Bowman wrote:

Ed was the programmer assigned to completing the Banner report for the newly developed Official Narrative Transcript for Fairhaven College students and alumni. This move to bring the supplemental narrative transcript under the Registrar's Office and increase the security to the level of the existing degree transcripts is a MAJOR undertaking. Ed's positive attitude and programming magic allowed this 9 month project to finally be realized. We begin printing the official transcripts on Monday, August 3rd! He is the easiest programmer I have worked with at WWU and provides that bridge between what the College needs and what the programming realities are. He is simply fantastic!

Recently our office worked with Ed to develop an official on-line evaluation transcript for Fairhaven College. Ed fixed what was previously unfixable. He listened, made suggestions, and was extremely responsive to all of our needs. His quest for excellence was shown in the way he approached the project and by the finished product. Thank you Ed for being so easy to work with!

Ed is probably going to hate this as he is very humble and unassuming...but he deserves a shout-out! He exemplifies the traits that qualify him for this recognition. I really appreciate his excellent problem-solving skills, and his ability to take a program apart piece by piece; and then put it back together in working order...I am always elated when he is assigned to one of my programming requests!

To view more information on the nominees to date, visit the Western Way website atwww.wwu.edu/westernway/.