Berkeleyan

In it for the long haul
Event honors staff who have logged 10 years or more of service

By Wendy Edelstein, Public Affairs | 14 October 2004

Members of Berkeley’s “40-year club” Marcia Bogart and Charles Haydis. (Peg Skorpinski photo)

Staff members who have marked 10 years of campus employment, and those celebrating anniversaries at each five-year increment beyond that, were honored on Tuesday, Oct. 5, at the university’s fourth annual Service Awards Luncheon.

Cumulatively, the 682 staff members invited to the event have given 12,340 years of service to the Berkeley campus. More than 300 invitees attended the luncheon, including one who commemorated 45 years at Berkeley and five others who celebrated four decades of service each.

Chancellor Birgeneau congratulated those present, allowing that he was “embarrassed to stand here, because this is my 13th day of service. I should call on you,” he added, “to tell me what it’s like to work here.”

“You are the heart and soul of this campus,” said Christina Maslach, vice provost for undergraduate education, who has worked at Berkeley for 33 years, the past three as an administrator. Maslach, a professor in the psychology department, told the staff, “I want to thank you as a faculty member, as a daughter of alums, and as a parent of a daughter who just graduated from this campus.”

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources David Moers told the celebrants, “I want you to know that what you do really makes a difference.” He said it was a staff member during his own college days at the University of Arizona who made the most lasting impression on him.

“The person I most remember from my college years is the department secretary in educational psychology, Mrs. Miller — I don’t even know her first name,” Moers said. “Her kindness and support helped me navigate the bureaucracy at the university. She is the one,” he said, “who touched my heart.”