Campus News

Staff Council, BFSO elect officers for 2005-2006 academic year

Staff Council and the Black Faculty and Staff Organization have elected officers for the 2005-06 academic year.

Bob Ratajczak, who has served as president of the Staff Council for the past year, has been re-elected for another year.

Ratajczak, a research coordinator in the Warnell School of Forest Resources, was elected at the council’s June 1 meeting. Other officers are vice president, Shannon Scott, a publications specialist in the Institute of Continuing Legal Education; coordinator, Brenda Keen, business manager of the Georgia Review; and recording secretary, Bonnie Norwood, senior administrative secretary in the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations.

Linda Brawner, a scientific administrative specialist in the genetics department, was elected to serve a one-year term as BFSO president. Other elected officers are vice president for faculty, Ron Baxter Miller, professor of English and African-American studies and director of the Institute for African-American Studies; vice president for staff, Michael Hodgeson, a fire safety inspector in environmental safety services; treasurer, Cheryl Gantt, a senior administrative secretary in the genetics department; corresponding secretary, Tera Hurt, a project coordinator at the Institute for Behavioral Research; and recording secretary, Marian Wells, a student affairs counselor in the Career Center. The new BFSO officers will be sworn in at the group’s August meeting; however, they will assume their new responsibilities July 1.

The Staff Council is an advisory body to the university president, representing the interests of classified and other non-faculty university employees. Members of the council, which originated in 1987 and became an officially recognized organization in 1992, are elected by fellow staff members in academic and administrative units.

BFSO’s mission is to create and maintain a coordinative function relating to recruitment, retention, advocacy, intellectual growth, political awareness, and social enhancement of, and on behalf of black faculty and staff at UGA.