Columns:: Campus Closeup

since 12/15/98

Columns::September 3, 2002

Three are named GUC undergraduate program directors
New NSF pilot project will produce ‘gene encyclopedias’
‘Bridges to the Doctorate’ NIH grant will support graduate education of minority students at UGA
Chick-fil-A hold grand opening at Tate Student Center
Mountain ecologist is appointed international education director
The burden of care: Study shows mothers’ depression affects children’s well-being
Managers complete training; Research Fellows announced
Writing wrongs
Retirees
Newsmakers
The Honduras Connection

Campus News

A 1980 alumnus of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Tony Hughey is president of the university’s Staff Council, an advisory group that represents UGA’s approximately 9,000 employees. (Photo by Peter Frey)

Campus Closeup

TONY HUGHEY
Pharmacy Technician III
Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital

TIME IN CURRENT POSITION: “Twenty-three years. I didn’t decide on this as a career but after earning my journalism degree from Grady College in 1980, I needed a job. Because the person I was with at the time was going to vet school, working here seemed like the logical thing to do for a little while. A ‘little while’ became 23 years.”

JOB DESCRIPTION: “We take the same medications that people use and reformulate them to fit the needs of the animals we deal with. Because the animals all have different rates of absorption, we have to tailor the drug to meet their individual needs.
“The kinds of animals treated at the vet hospital range in size anywhere from a 15-gram bird to the occasional elephant.”

OTHER UGA EXPERIENCE: “I have been involved with Staff Council since its inception around 1990 and am currently serving a one-year term as president of the organization. As president, I represent the approximately 9,000 staff people here and at UGA locations across the state from Blairsville to Tifton to Sapelo Island. Even though Staff Council is an advisory rather than a policy-making body, we deal with a variety of issues such as the pay and classification study and parking. A lot of our issues are on the back burner at this point because of money. Child care, for instance, sort of got shuffled away. It’s not forgotten but it’s stalled. Everything at the university is driven by money--or lack or it.
“If I could tell employees one thing about Staff Council it would be that Staff Council is a tool, and tools need to be used. So people need to get involved. Because the university moves at a glacial pace--even under the best of circumstances--a lot of people give up. I can understand why, but we’ve got to keep plugging along.”

IF I WAS NOT DOING THIS JOB, I WOULD MOST LIKE TO: “Write fiction--although I really don’t think there’s such a thing as fiction because you have to base it on something. I’m talking more contemporary, John Irving-ish type of character studies about the way people interact.”

OFF-THE-JOB INTERESTS: “I’m an avid gardener and also like hiking or anything to do with nature.
“For a while I also was raising bats. Usually I raised one or two at a time because not many people do bats, and that was a niche that needed to be filled. I still occasionally take care of some adult bats that have been injured but I don’t raise baby bats anymore. You can’t release them so they never learn to hunt, and living in a Styrofoam cooler is not what I would call much of a life.”

FAVORITE MUSIC: “I listen to a wide variety of music. New age music is what’s in my CD player now but last week it included classical, Neil Young, Creed and Billie Holiday.”

THE ISSUE THAT CONCERNS ME MOST ABOUT TODAY'S WORLD: “Apathy. If you see something wrong, think of a creative solution. Don’t just say it’s bad. Someone out there has an answer and maybe if we all put our heads together, we will have a bunch of answers. That shotgun approach works a lot of the time.”

--Juliett Dinkins

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Columns is produced by the UGA News Service, a unit of UGA Public Affairs.
Beth Roberts: Columns editor, Juliett Dinkins: Columns managing editor,
Janet Beckley: Columns art director. Peter Frey: Columns photo editor

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