The Elections Committee conducts all elections as specified in the Constitution and Bylaws and continues to refine the procedures for the foregoing annual elections as well as developing a tool for successful electronic voting in the future. The Committee generally meets on a monthly basis.
The Elections Committee will conduct Senate elections as specified in the constitution and to develop and refine procedures useful to the on-going work of the committee
Chair: Kimberly Krzemien
Current Members: Dominic Licata, Cassandra Walker-Whiteside, Mary Odden
The election for PSS Officers for the term of July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2025 is now open. The officer positions include Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary. Candidate nominees and their statements are as follows:
Three and a half years ago I began a journey with you as your Professional Staff Senate Vice Chairman. I knew the role would have its challenges but was unaware of the magnitude of what would occur, largely due to the pandemic. With Chair Tim Tryjankowski, and the other officers we not only met the pandemic head-on, but we have thrived through it. We accomplished much in the past months from enabling our organization to conduct its business virtually, to holding our committee meetings remotely, all with great participation. In the role of Vice Chair, I am a member of every committee. I have taken that responsibility on with specific intent. I have enjoyed removing obstacles for committees to do their work, communicating between the committees, the Executive Committee, and the officers to tee up new progress, new recognition, and new opportunities for our members. In my tenure we have navigated through two staff transitions, and several committee leadership changes, each time acclimating our new leaders to our expectations. We have enticed new member participation through programming, sensitivity to cultural changes in the community and on campus, by passing resolutions on important topics such as the Drive to Twenty-Five, making structural changes to our governing documents and to our very composition moving from five representative areas to 25 representative areas mirroring UB’s decanal/vice presidential structure.
As advisors to the President, we are recognized as representatives of our wonderful staff. We enjoy a very good working relationship with his office and look to continue to have that relationship in the future. We also advise the President when we are not in agreement with a university’ position or policy and persist in representing the views of our members in an agreeable manner.
With a return to greater in person activity on campus we are seeing a continued and growing interest in what we are doing as an organization by our members, but also by campus partners who look to collaborate with us.
The Professional Staff Senate is a Breakthrough Organization. “Breakthroughs come when ordinary people make extraordinary contributions Harvard Business School Professor Linda Hill writes. “Instead of trying to come up with a vision and make innovation happen themselves, she writes, a leader of innovation creates a place-a context, an environment-where people are willing and able to do the work that innovative problem solving requires.” Through the work of our committees, our members expand their comfort zones in ways that their daily work does not perchance permit. In doing so they turn their work experience from something expected, into something extraordinary, enriching their own work life and enriching the work life of their colleagues.
Please allow me with the Executive Committee, our other officers, and our senators to continue building that fulfilling environment with you and for you, so you might flourish as a professional through meaningful advocacy, purposeful programming, joyful networking, and participative governance.
I am running for the Chair position and would like your support to lead UB’s Professional Staff Senate (PSS). Currently serving as the first, the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion’s Training Coordinator, I have been a professional staff member with over 20 years of experience serving all three campuses in various academic support roles. I have applied my EMBA in leadership positions and have insight from my student experience as an alumnus of UB.
I am running in support of Sherene Milizia who is running for the PSS Vice-Chair position. We believe our strengths complement each other and will provide the PSS the leadership needed to support our diverse members, strengthen the PSS’s voice within UB’s shared governance system; energize the PSS relationships with the Faculty Senate and Student Council; foster new initiatives and collaborations for all UB professional staff members.
Together with Sherene Milizia, we are both committed to:
UB’s professional staff members serve our faculty and students in critical roles to achieve our educational mission. Often, PSS members gain valuable insights that will improve organizational as well as individual outcomes. Strengthening our relationships with the Faculty Senate and Student Council will ensure our voice is heard in shared governance discussions with University Leadership.
Understanding who the PSS represents provides our active members the opportunity to include and encourage participation by members who are not currently active. It is only with full participation that we can elevate and support concerns and issues impacting all our members.
To improve our members work life balance the PSS, it is imperative that the PSS works with not only the Faculty Senate and University Leadership but the community we support which is not limited to neighborhoods but places of employment as well. To improve everyone’s work life balance, Child Care and Elder Care are the foremost reaching impact on not only women’s lives but the economic impact on the potential removal of 50% of our workforce from the workplace. Establishing facilities that have the capacity to support our student’s, professional’s, faculty, and community will help to eliminate barriers to growth and employment.
Hello! I am looking to run for Vice Chair of the Professional Staff Senate (PSS) and hope to get your vote. As part of the ad hoc committee that provided the data and guidance for the structural reorganization of the senate (from the previously formed “areas” to now using decanal units) I feel this is a great time for me to step up and help carry the transition forward. Prior to coming to UB in 2020, I was at Binghamton University for 5 years and while there I served as a senator and was part of the executive committee serving as secretary and then as treasurer. I understand the value of belonging to the Professional Staff Senate and the work that it does to make our lives as professional employees more fulfilling.
For those of you who do not know me, I am a first-generation college student. I initially attended SUNY Albany and then transferred back home to Long Island to earn a BA in Linguistics from Stony Brook University. In 2006 I moved to northeastern PA and while working at Binghamton University I earned a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) through the UUP space available program. Prior to coming to higher education in 2015, I worked in the private sector as both a real estate broker and a residential real estate appraiser and reviewer. I am currently Administrative Director for the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (IAD) and have held previous roles in academic departments and as WiSE Program Director. Through these varying roles, I have been fortunate to work with employees across the campuses.
I am running alongside Tony Waleszczak (running for secretary), who was Chair of the ad hoc committee and is a dedicated PSS member and Senator. Together we hope to continue to strengthen the PSS from the foundation upon which it was built as well as work toward increasing participation and representation for the professional staff. Thank you for reading this and please consider voting for one or both of us, but most importantly please cast your vote because your voice matters!
I am running for the Vice-Chair position and would like your support to lead UB’s Professional Staff Senate (PSS). Currently serving as the first Registrar at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, I have 15 years of experience as one of UB’s professional staff members in various administrative roles throughout UB’s campuses. I bring valuable insight as an alumnus and former international student as well as professional experience with a global perspective. I previously served on UB’s Child Care Center’s Board of Directors and currently participate on the PSS Marketing Team and the Inclusion and Diversity committees.
I am running in support of Kimberly Behun who is running for the PSS Chair position. We believe our strengths complement each other and will provide the PSS the leadership needed to support our diverse members, strengthen the PSS’s voice within UB’s shared governance system; energize the PSS relationships with the Faculty Senate and Student Council; foster new initiatives and collaborations for all UB professional staff members.
Together with Kimberly Behun, we are both committed to:
UB’s professional staff members serve our faculty and students in critical roles to achieve our educational mission. Often, PSS members gain valuable insights that will improve organizational as well as individual outcomes. Strengthening our relationships with the Faculty Senate and Student Council will ensure our voice is heard in shared governance discussions with University Leadership.
Understanding who the PSS represents provides our active members the opportunity to include and encourage participation by members who are not currently active. It is only with full participation that we can elevate and support concerns and issues impacting all our members.
To improve our members work life balance the PSS, it is imperative that the PSS works with not only the Faculty Senate and University Leadership but the community we support which is not limited to neighborhoods but places of employment as well. To improve everyone’s work life balance, Child Care and Elder Care are the foremost reaching impact on not only women’s lives but the economic impact on the potential removal of 50% of our workforce from the workplace. Establishing facilities that have the capacity to support our student’s, professional’s, faculty, and community will help to eliminate barriers to growth and employment.
I humbly ask for your vote to become the next Secretary of The Professional Staff Senate (PSS). I believe my professional experiences along with my service to the PSS over the past 3 ½ years will make me a great candidate.
For those who may not know me, I am a first-generation college student and completed both my undergraduate (BA, Classics) and graduate (EdM, Higher Education Administration) here at UB. At current, I am a Program Support Specialist in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and I have been in this role since April 2022. Prior to this role, I worked for three years as the Student Retention Coordinator of Student Support Services (SSS) in RF, where I worked with first generation, income-eligible, and students receiving services from Accessibility Resources. I feel working with students and people are strengths of mine. Moreover, I understand what it is to be a RF employee and how the PSS is able to represent the concerns and needs both RF and UBF employees (without union representation).
I am running for Secretary because the PSS has reorganized, and it is one that I helped engineer, as chair of the Reorganization Subcommittee, along with Virginia Stever and Rachel Poole. Together, we worked for almost three years to create the framework (effective January 2023), navigating concerns, and feedback of the PSS’s General Membership and Executive Committee. I feel with my knowledge of the reorganization and the nuances of the Senate that I would be an amazing addition to the Senate’s officer group as we transition.
Virginia Stever and I have also decided to team up. Virginia is running for vice-chair of the PSS and has a breadth of experience with staff senate reorganization and committee work from her time at SUNY Binghamton. We hope together we will be able to usher in a new age for the PSS building on its 50 years of success in staff engagement and representation.
Therefore, I humbly ask for your vote to become the next PSS Secretary and hope you will consider voting for Virginia Stever as vice-chair. Thank you for your time to consider my candidacy.
All my best,
Tony Waleszczak
