Phil brings UI community together

We Are Phil … What does that mean? Why would I want to get involved?

We all have so many things on our plate at the University of Iowa. As chief of staff at the UI College of Pharmacy, I have had several opportunities to get involved with different initiatives on campus, including serving for a year as president of the UI Staff Council. So what makes the We Are Phil opportunity special?  

In our college last fall, We Are Phil gave us the chance to come together as a community working toward one common goal. Even in a small college, it is easy to put your head down and focus on the daily tasks at hand and not fully interact with those around you. We Are Phil motivated us to act as one College of Pharmacy team and consider together what we could accomplish. We began last year’s campaign with a faculty/staff giving rate of less than 10 percent, and we were able to work together to accomplish a remarkable 70 percent participation by the end of the campaign. More importantly, I was able to observe faculty and staff interacting with each other, encouraging each other, engaging in friendly competition among units and really setting down their roots in our College of Pharmacy family. 

Taking a leadership role in this inspiring initiative in my college prompted me to look at the bigger picture of the UI-wide We Are Phil initiative. What could we accomplish if our entire campus could boast a 70 percent faculty and staff giving rate? What if we could get to 100 percent?

What an incredible message of loyalty, solidarity, and dedication we could send to those beyond campus, and even better, what an extraordinary sense of community and pride we could create here on campus. Can we do it? It will be difficult. Will it be worth it? Absolutely. I am beyond excited to see what WE ARE PHIL 2014 brings!

Amber Seaton (2001 B.B.A., 2013 M.B.A.)