WCU Stories      December 4, 2018

The North Carolina Housing Officers have chosen Western Carolina University’s Lisa Surber, a housing assignments coordinator for the Department of Residential Living, as the recipient of its Scott Braswell Housing Function Award.

The award recognizes outstanding teams or individuals who work in functional areas within housing or residence life programs at North Carolina institutions. Taylor Dodge, area coordinator for Reynolds, Robertson, Madison, Judaculla and Buchanan Halls, nominated Surber for the award.

“Because Lisa handles and organizes much of our most important processes, such as room changes, room condition reports and assignments, our department would struggle to function without her,” Dodge said. “She is the maypole around which most of our residence life paperwork spins. Her contributions to the department have helped hall staff successfully focus on building community because she handles so much of the behind-the-scenes administration.”

Surber organizes the assignments for nearly 5,000 students. With WCU being forced to resort to a housing waiting list the last two years, Surber worked diligently to clear the list as spaces became available, while reassuring students and providing updates on their status, Dodge said.

Last summer, Surber also implemented and trained residence life employees on the new Mercury software that was installed.

“Lisa Surber deserves to be recognized through the Scott Braswell Award because Lisa is the administrative backbone of our department,” Dodge said. “Her behind-the-scenes work for room assignments, room condition reports and room changes ensure that our residents’ needs are met from check-in to check-out.”