Tyler Klaver, who works as the office manager for the Oshkosh Student Association and Student Legal Services at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, has been named the recipient of the October 2021 STAR Award.
He was nominated by Missy Burgess, associate director for student involvement:
“When asked to think of someone who ‘goes consistently above and beyond their position description,’ I can think of no more appropriate description of Tyler.
“Tyler started as the OSA office manager in August o2019. The position had officially been vacant for seven months, with an LTE occupying five of those months. By the time Tyler started, there had been no one in the position for the two prior months, so there was no one left to provide him with direct transition. This was not a problem for Tyler. He jumped right in, reading every document he could get his hands on and rebuilding relationships with students, faculty and staff. The OSA leaders started affectionately referring to him as ‘dad,’ despite the fact that he was only a few years older than them. He implemented new office traditions, like an always available pot of coffee and Donut Fridays. The OSA Office became a destination ‘home’ for many students because of the environment he created.
“As Ian McDonald, OSA president for 2020-2021 stated, ‘Tyler is so incredibly dedicated to his work. Since day one, he has been a problem solver and an advocate for student interests.’ When Tyler says he is going to do something, he will always get it done, and it will always exceed your expectations for quality and completeness.
“What stands out for me about Tyler is not just how diligent and dedicated he is to doing his job well, it is the ways I have seen him go above and beyond. With Tyler’s arrival, he transitioned to being supervised by the director of the union. We quickly identified that he may benefit from attending student involvement staff meetings as well, in order to keep that staff updated on OSA and for Tyler to have a team of resources to pull from. We did not know how much this would pay off until the pandemic hit. With the arrival of the pandemic and the fact that five student involvement team members were placed on continuous furlough in summer 2020, Tyler stepped up to help cover some of the items which were left open. This included serving as the adviser for the Fox Student Association and attending Fox Cities Student Affairs team staff meetings, serving on the training team to develop online virtual training modules for student organization training, and even volunteering to plan and host an event for the first Titan Nights. None of these were in his position description or expected, but he jumped right in and saw them as opportunities, rather than additional responsibilities. I can easily say that we could not have had as seamless of a transition in and out of furlough experiences without Tyler’s assistance.
“As Zackary Debroux, OSA’s Speaker of Assembly for 2019-2020 stated, ‘Tyler exceeds expectations with his behind the scenes work to help student organizations function and keep student leadership initiatives operating.’ Despite not yet having a student development background, he truly ‘gets’ what it means to work with students.
“Another way that Tyler has gone above and beyond his position is through his work with the campus food pantry, The Cabinet. This new OSA initiative was opened in spring 2020. While helping with OSA initiatives may be a part of his job, he has been dedicated to making it a smooth and efficiently run operation, making sure we provide the best service to students and negotiating a relationship with the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry to make sure there is always food on the shelves. When the pandemic hit, Tyler came in and packaged up all of the remaining food in The Cabinet to go to the OACP. This meant that he also helped to unload and organize over a half ton of food to help reopen the pantry this fall. He also created a mobile ordering system so students can do a contactless pickup, and he helped to rewrite the Cabinet Standard Operating Procedures to comply with the new campus standards. The Cabinet has served over 100 students this fall, and I can easily say that this would not have happened at this level without Tyler’s commitment to wanting it to be the best possible and putting his time in to make it so. He has done all of this while also starting his master’s degree in public Administration this fall and planning for and marrying his partner, Madi, in October.
“Dedicated, caring, positive and helpful are all words I would use to describe Tyler. He undeniably makes UW Oshkosh a better place for students and staff. As Sydney Devitt, the OSA vice president for 2020-2021 stated, ‘Tyler is such a genuine human who puts his heart and soul into his job and his students. He never fails to check in on how I am as a human, and for that, I couldn’t thank him enough. Tyler has made my college experience the best.’ This nomination is long overdue, as Tyler goes above and beyond his position description in some way nearly every day.”
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