Each year, The Citadel honors one team and one employee for their outstanding efforts and performance that goes above and beyond.

For the 2023-24 academic year, The Citadel recognized The Citadel Daniel Library Technical Services Team, as the 2024 Team of the Year, and Assistant Commandant for Operations and Training Col. Charles Dunne, USMC (Ret.), ’90, as the Employee of the Year.

Employees may be nominated for the award in writing by any member of the faculty or staff. The Citadel Staff Council reviews all nominations and selects the Employee and Team of the Year based on exceptional contributions to The Citadel, fellow employees and the community in the following areas:

• Service and quality of work in performing “beyond the call of duty”
• Impact of professionalism and dedication to excellence
• Initiative and reliability beyond required assignments and expectations
• Uniqueness of contributions

Here’s what set these employees apart:

Col. Charles Dunne, 2024 Employee of the Year

Col. Charles Dunne is the Assistant Commandant for Operations and Training. Dunne is a member of the Class of 1990, is a retired Marine colonel. In addition to his role in the Commandant’s Office, Dunne also serves as the TAC officer for Regimental Staff.

His nomination letter reads in part:

Col. Dunne epitomizes the mission of The Citadel and personifies the core values of honor, duty and respect. He is an inspiration to all daily through the example he sets; he’s the first in, the last out and productive throughout. Col. Dunne has one of the most demanding and impactful jobs on campus. As the Assistant Commandant for Operations and Training, he develops the plans and schedules, oversees execution and then assesses, makes adjustments and then moves on to the next major campus event. Additionally, he serves as the Regimental Staff TAC, providing mentorship, leadership development and support to the senior cadet leaders of the Corps of Cadets. He supervises not just cadet training but is also the Commandant’s representative for all the campus auxiliary services such as the laundry, bookstore and mess hall. He is also responsible for the cadet activities personnel and programs. If you check Jenkins Hall late on a weekday night or on most weekend days you will find him at his desk, ensuring the plans are in place for the upcoming week and preparing for events in the coming weeks and months.

The demands and complexity of Col. Dunne’s billet cannot be overstated. He is an indispensable member of The Citadel. Whether it is operations, logistics, training or education, in all areas, Col. Dunne is supremely competent. In addition to his incredible intellect, seemingly unlimited band width, and superior work ethic, what is most extraordinary about this member is the quality of his character and leadership. Col. Dunne just makes all around him better.  Col. Dunne believes in cadets and takes the time with all ranks to mentor and develop others, no fanfare or ego, just inspires others to perform at a higher level.

The Daniel Library Technical Services Team, 2024 Team of the Year

The Library Technical Services Team is always working behind the scenes to build an outstanding library collection of books, journals, videos and databases along with providing excellent services. Technical Services has tremendous outreach through their interlibrary loan service whereby The Citadel name is being heard around the globe. They also gather and preserve important Citadel resources such as the Sphinx, the Gold Star Journal and other Citadel publications.

Members of the team include:

• Kathy Greco
• Pam King
• Pamela Orme
• Michele Ruth
• Kisha Smalls

Their nomination letter reads in part:

The Daniel Library Technical Services Team is always striving to improve services to Citadel students, faculty and staff. Their improvements in resource sharing enable The Citadel to support students, faculty and staff in their scholarly endeavors by borrowing resources from other libraries and sometimes these resources are rare and hard to obtain. Sometimes they are challenged by language barriers when requesting foreign language titles, but they figure it out and obtain them. The team investigates and trials new databases, improves collection development by purchasing new content and improves access to The Citadel collections to distance learners. Database cleanup is a continuous improvement project that improves access to Citadel resources. Their project to purchase e-textbooks, with unlimited access licenses when available, improves access to textbooks for students and helps with textbook affordability. Obtaining resources through interlibrary loan is often less expensive than purchasing the resources, especially in regard to journals. Journal subscriptions can cost thousands of dollars whereas The Citadel can get free copies of journal articles by borrowing from other libraries. The team also cut costs annually by reviewing database usage statistics and cancelling any that aren’t being used. Their project of obtaining unlimited access to e-textbooks when available is a huge cost savings to students.