Meet This Year's Exceptional
Service Award Winners

At the end of the count, the voters had spoken: The winners were an IT guru who has spent countless weekends ministering to men in prison, and a woman whose many tasks on campus include supervising an end-of-the-year "party" for more than 2,500 peoplea.k.a. Commencement.
Bruce Frost and Cindi Guimond are this year's Exceptional Service Award Winners, two longtime CMC staff members who were nominated by their peers, as well as students, and selected earlier this spring by a committee of CMC faculty, staff, and students. Frost, known by many as the man behind the round-the-clock e-mails encouraging "safe computing," is the assistant director for Information Systems and Network Services at CMC, while Guimond, associate director of academic affairs, also serves as the Commencement and Convocation Coordinatortwo events that start and end the academic year at CMC. She is the mother of two children, Matt and Kendall.
Frost and Guimond were among the 97 nominations that were submitted this year for the Exceptional Service Awardpresented annually to employees who best represent the Claremont McKenna College ideals of leadership, commitment, teamwork, and excellence. The awards are open to all staff who have worked at the College for at least 12 months (with a few exceptions), and recognizes the vital contributions that staff members make to the education of our students and the excellence of the CMC community. (Last year's winners were Marsha Tudor and Jorge Ronchi.)
Nominations come from current CMC student, faculty, or staff members who send in a written statement of 250 words or fewer, focusing on the nominee's accomplishments in as many of the following possible areas: leadership, commitment, teamwork, and overall excellence.
Vice President for Student Affairs Jeff Huang, who served as chair of this year's selection committee, says the majority of the nominations this year came from faculty and staff26 were from students. (A side note should be made here that 97 submissions does not mean 97 different people were nominated; three people, for instance, each received 10 nominations. And to further clarify, the award is not a popularity contest, so the number of nominations a person receives doesn't mean they're a cinch for the prize.)
In announcing this year's winners, Huang says Frost has been a runner-up several times before. People know him to work at CMC at all hours (battling virus and phishing attacks, for instance, is an inexhaustible crusade), and to be a kind and thoughtful colleague who "keeps the infrastructure of the College's computing resources running." What they probably don't know is that for the past 15 years, Frost has gone into the men's prison in Chino to lead religious services (to as many as 80 men in a room), with only a small alarm on his belt to activate if things get out of hand. His dedication and commitment to excellence both internally and externally of his department make him an invaluable colleague and friend.
"I am very lucky to be able to work directly with so many individuals on campus," Frost says of winning this year's award. "It is an honor to be recognized, knowing firsthand how deserving so many others are for recognition of their exceptional service."
Guimond has also been a runner-up several times before, and could easily be described as one of the many "unsung hero" types of employeessomeone who quietly balances an incredible amount of work at the College. Notes Huang, "It has been said that the way to make someone unpopular is to put them in charge of assigning faculty members to offices, but Cindi is a ray of sunshine that handles her responsibilities with tact and grace." She is essentially "a one-person office who handles all the support-needs of the Dean of the Faculty's Office," Huang noted, A daunting task to be sure. Guimond's tireless work ethic and leadership make her an indispensable part of the CMC family.
"I am totally honored by this award," Guimond says. "It was a wonderful surprise and I am truly blessed to be working with such great friends and colleagues."
Both Frost and Guimond will be recognized again at the Convocation Ceremony this fall.
Members of this year's selection committee included: Sandy Russell '10, Jeffrey Wagner '11, Zephanii Smith '12, professor Gaston Espinosa, Marsha Tudor, Pam Franco, John Faranda, and Huang.