Chrystal Riley has a wealth of institutional knowledge. After almost 38 years with The University of Texas, she’s seen a lot. She even got to watch the Facilities Complex get built! Aside from a brief stint at the Pickle Research Campus, Chrystal has spent her UT career supporting human resources functions for the administrative side of campus – ranging from Custodial as part of the Physical Plant to Campus Operations to Financial and Administrative Services.
From her first day, Chrystal has been keenly aware of the many intricate HR policies on campus. She started on January 2, in a snowstorm that eventually caused UT to cancel for the day after she had already arrived. One day on the job and she already got to learn about the importance of working the first day of the month and how to record time worked during emergency leave. To this day, she enjoys working through the puzzles created by how leave policies interact.
Many staff can share a time when they have made a request, had it passed around, and eventually found the answer in Chrystal. She has lots of varied duties, all reliant on her keen attention to detail. She plays a key part of the team at HRSS as their Senior HR Quality Assurance Coordinator. The Pay Action process, which guides job postings, reclassifications, equity increases, etc., starts and ends with her. She catches possible errors and makes sure everything is correct in Workday. Until UT Works launches, she manually assigns all crew members in FAMIS – like many UBS staff, she is looking forward to the automation brought by the new project. She also facilitates construction and custodial contractor assignments so they can get access to campus buildings.
Chrystal was extremely honored to be one of the recipients of the David Carter Integrity Award at the FAS Core Values Awards in June 2022. This was especially meaningful to her because it is an Integrity Award named after the late Chief of Police, David Carter.
When Chrystal isn’t working, she enjoys reading and listening to audiobooks. She’s also a movie fan, especially the older classics. Some of her recommendations include the original Cheaper by the Dozen (which is a true story based on efficiency experts), My Man Godfrey, and Westward the Women. Chrystal is also a fan of traveling. She likes road trips because there is so much to see, and would love the opportunity to take more trains. Fun fact – she’s been on the train featured in Indiana Jones that travels between New Mexico and Colorado.
We’re lucky to have Chrystal and her wealth of historical knowledge about UT!
Mary Kemp