Brown employees filled the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center Friday to celebrate the fourth annual Brown Employee Appreciation and Recognition Day. In her remarks thanking Brown employees, President Ruth Simmons also announced that Walter Hunter, vice president for administration, plans to step down from his position.
"This is an opportunity to honor our exceptional staff," Simmons said in her remarks to a packed room. "It is an opportunity to say thank you for the hard work that keeps Brown running efficiently and successfully."
Brown employees contribute a total of over seven million hours of work to the University each year, according to a video presentation at the beginning of the event.
Simmons honored the over 490 employees who have been at Brown the longest, asking employees commemorating five, 10 and 15 years of service to stand and those marking 20, 25 and over 30 years to join her on the stage.
Simmons and Hunter also recognized 28 "excellence award" winners in the categories of citizenship, diversity, efficiency, innovation, managing for excellence, service and "rising star." The winners, who were selected by a committee of faculty and staff from among 78 nominees, were each given a check for $2,500 and had their photographs taken with Simmons.
In her speech, Simmons thanked employees for the roles they played in the University's successes in the past year - finalizing the Brown-RISD dual degree program, pushing the Campaign for Academic Enrichment past the $1 billion mark and completing the implementation of Banner. Simmons took a moment to honor Hunter, the master of ceremonies at the event, who will retire and return to the private sector after more than seven years at Brown.
Employees were pleased by the celebration. "It's nice to be recognized for the job you do day to day," said James McCurdy, a purchasing agent. McCurdy received an Excellence Award in Innovation for creating a furniture-recycling program that made unused furniture in a given department available to the entire University. Furniture not claimed by anyone within the University was donated to the Providence School System. He estimated that he has saved the University over $100,000.
The first BEAR Day was in January 2005, after the Human Resources Advisory Board and the Staff Advisory Committee began working on it in 2004.
"I'm very grateful. I think it's great," said Adrian Doyle, a study abroad advisor for the Office of International Programs. He was there with his co-worker Linda Brault, senior study abroad adviser at the OIP, who was celebrating her 20th year working at Brown.
Brault, a Rhode Island native whose father also worked at Brown for 20 years, said she was thankful not only for the honors but also for the hefty benefits that Brown gives its full-time employees.
"Brown's a great place to work. We have low co-pays on health insurance," she said. "I love the 35-hour work week during the summer," she added. Moving into her third decade at Brown, Brault now works alongside her son, Todd,
"She's great," Doyle said of Brault. "She's getting some well-deserved credit."
Norman Morse, a shipping and receiving supervisor at the Brown Bookstore with 26 years of service, was given an Excellence Award for Citizenship. Morse runs a program he calls "Three Minutes of Love," in which he volunteers his mornings before work to come to the OMAC and help people from the community get fit and stay healthy.
Many at the event enjoyed the annual introductory video, which was filmed as a parody of the movie "Mission Impossible." The mission: find out what makes Brown tick. The producers of the video interviewed dozens of employees, most of whom mentioned the diversity, enthusiasm and independence of the people at Brown. The video garnered laughs from the crowd of employees.
"Wasn't that fantastic?" Simmons asked of the video.
"Our main goal was for the video was to be funny," said Angel Hilliard, a manager in the human resources department for employee programs, which planned this year's event.
The video also asked what employees considered their weirdest experience at Brown. Brown Dining Services employee Gail McCarthy was shown saying, "(Students) start doing push-ups in the middle of the dining room." Other interviewees said the oddest thing they'd ever seen was the frequent nudity among the student body.
