Two employees of the Office of Student Media have received major awards given to university staff members for outstanding service.

Lori Cantor, interim senior business manager, and Audrey Lingenfelter, business officer, were surprised Sept. 24 with balloons and flowers by a committee of university staff members representing the Office of Human Resource Development.

Cantor won the Outstanding University Citizen Award and Lingenfelter the Leadership Award.

JMC Director Jeff Fruit was in on the surprise and had invited Lori and Audrey to his office for "a discussion of the budget." And, it worked.

Says Lori:

"I thought, oh my, what have I done? Then there was a knock on the door and this friendly, smiling face peeked in. I thought, go away, I'm in trouble and I need to find out what I did. Then Jeff started laughing and I saw this big group standing behind the woman with the smiling face. They were carrying balloons and flowers. It still took a long time for it to register even though they all started congratulating me and telling me about the award."

Added Audrey:

"I was very surprised when they came to Jeff's office to present me with the award because I had no idea I was even nominated."

The Citizen Award honors recognizes a staff member who has demonstrated extraordinary dedication and enthusiasm toward Kent State University and/or the surrounding community.