The CU Shared Practices Program (CUSP) is open for 2012 business through Aug 31. Let others know about the good ideas that your department has implemented. Recent additions to the CUSP best practices pool:

Sponsored Project Administrative Check List

Charlotte Klaus, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences-AMC, describes how colleague Jill Rogers developed a checklist to assist principal investigators (PIs). There are many processes that must be accomplished when a PI receives a grant or contract award – and the checklist ensures that critical steps are not omitted. It is essential that sponsored research administration be completed in a timely fashion to ensure compliance, accurate reporting, timely collection of funds, appropriate expenditures, and correct processing of subcontracts. Charlotte notes that Jill’s list can easily be adapted to other departments’ specific data collection and shadow systems to improve administration and oversight.

Customer Service Training Program

Susan Szpyrka and Tamara Moore share their “Creating and Leading a Customer Service Culture” program – the result of a UCCS group effort by Susan, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance; Tamara, Executive Director of Auxiliary Services Marketing; and Gary Reynolds, Executive Director of Facilities Services. The program takes an insightful and engaging approach to customer service training. Participants are asked not only to define their customers, but also to consider for whom they themselves are a customer. Supervisors and supervisees quickly realize that they serve as customers to each other. The program further emphasizes trust, selfawareness, mindfulness, and communication styles – and how all these affect the customer experience. Take a moment to read the details on the above submissions – and to share your own.