Carolyn Soniat Recognized for Service to University Staff Council

News item published on: 2019-06-07 15:45:00

Carolyn Soniat, administrative assistant in Cook Library, was recently recognized for her service to the University’s Staff Council, where she was a member from July 2016 to June 2019. During her tenure, she served as secretary-elect, secretary, and a member of the technology committee.

In her role with the technology committee from 2016 to 2018, Soniat was tasked with taking photographs of guest speakers, scholarship recipients, and travel award recipients, as well as photographing all social functions and posting them to the Staff Council web page.

In 2017, Soniat took over as secretary-elect. In this role, she was responsible for notifying council members of meetings and distributing the meeting agenda, proposals, and minutes of each meeting to all council members and other individuals as directed by president. She was also responsible for the council’s listserv, taking roll of members and proxies, and attending chair meetings and executive council meetings with the associate vice president for human resources and the vice president for finance and administration.

Soniat assumed the role of secretary in July of 2018 and was responsible for managing the minutes of council meetings, including presenting the minutes of previous meetings and recording changes to the minutes as approved by the council. She preserved and maintained all official council documents, presided as president-elect or president in their absence, and archived all materials pertaining to committee activity for the current year in electronic format for historical reference. This role also required her to attend all chair meetings and executive council meetings with the associate vice president for human resources and the vice president for finance and administration.

Soniat says, “Serving on staff council at Southern Miss has been a great honor. I feel it is an important job as it ensures that every staff member has a voice when decisions about the University are being made.” She also considers it an honor to have worked alongside the intelligent and hardworking staff professionals from around campus.

Soniat has worked as the administrative assistant in Cook Library since 2011.