May 5, 2016  

Purdue Profiles: Jaylene Nichols

Jaylene Nichols

Jaylene Nichols, secretary in Asset Management. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)
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Jaylene Nichols, secretary for Physical Facilities' Asset Management unit, has worked to build connections across the West Lafayette campus through a variety of roles during her 11 years at Purdue. Nichols has served on the Clerical and Service Staff Advisory Committee, acted as the Physical Facilities junior chairperson for the 2015 United Way campaign, built relationships and skills as a member of the Accomplished Clerical Excellence program, and assisted students and employees with scheduling the right space for their needs.   

What do you do at Purdue?

As secretary for Brad Bowen, senior director of Asset Management, I assist Brad and his department of 31 staff members with travel, appointments and office needs. I work closely with Kim Rechkemmer, director of Space Management, scheduling events, tracking space inventory and maintaining classrooms. I'm the voice on the other end of the phone when you call 494-3900 about a classroom issue. 

What do you enjoy most about working at Purdue?

I like working with student groups to schedule their events. Some know exactly what they want and when.  Others need to be coached to get them thinking about what they want to do. For example, when students wanted to use colored powder during their event, we needed to move them out of the Armory and onto Memorial Mall. The gamer group that plans an all-night event in the Armory will need work orders entered for electricity and having the building open and closed. 

I’m very interested in new buildings that go up on campus. I’m looking forward to Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC) becoming available to the campus community for the  fall of 2017. There will be 27 new classrooms in WALC and a redesigned adjacent mall/quad to schedule. 

What has been your favorite project?

My favorite project has been working with the UniTime scheduling system. When I started at Purdue as a part of space management, we were working on UniTime. Now UniTime is used to schedule courses into classrooms and students into courses, then events into open times. In the early design stages, I was able to help with ideas that made it more user-friendly. It felt good to work on something that was going to help students. I like knowing that I was there when it all started. 

What was your experience with CSSAC and the Accomplished Clerical Excellence program like?

CSSAC was my first venture out of my department and onto campus. It was a little scary at first, but soon found that the committee was interested in me and my experiences. Some of the subcommittees that I worked with were PEAP, Staff Memorial and Martin Award. I have just completed ACE, and my class number was 35. They were a great group of women to get to know and to work with. We all had to work through giving a talk and building our resume. I’m glad I took the time to sign up for both of these opportunities.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I enjoy spending time with my boys, my family, and having weekends away with my six sisters. I was able to go on a mission trip to Ndola in Zambia in 2014. I’m looking forward to planning a trip to the Czech Republic to see Prague and visit some friends. 

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