Bidding adieu to Berkeley: New retirees look back, and ahead

BERKELEY — With tenures that often stretch into decades, many Berkeley staff, by the time retire, have seen and withstood many institutional changes. The NewsCenter asked a few soon-to-be retirees about their campus experiences, plans for the future, and advice for Cal colleagues. Photos (except Emily Sexton, Lisa Harrington, and Mike Smith) are by Wendy Edelstein/NewsCenter.

Proudest accomplishment?
Receiving my first Berkeley Staff Assembly Excellence in Management Award from Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien. This award was very special because my staff and immediate colleagues nominated me.

Words to live by?
Over the years, I have been animated by the poem "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes.

Retirement plans?
Travels afar are on my immediate agenda. I’m undecided how, but I do plan to engage in activities meaningful to others.

Proudest accomplishment?
I created the campus’s first coordinated system for handling Title IX harassment/discrimination complaints across departments to provide support and advocacy for students, staff, and faculty who have had experiences of sexual harassment, stalking, or assault.

Retirement plans?
To keep my promise to myself and my family to do everything I want to do and not to do anything I don’t want to!

Retirement plans?
Being there for my son when he is not in school. Volunteering to do musical-instrument repair at a local music-based school. Starting a new career in violin-making.

Proudest accomplishment?
Writing a proposal that resulted in the renaming of student apartments at Durant and College avenues for Berkeley alumna Ida Louise Jackson. The dedication ceremony drew friends and admirers of the late Dr. Jackson from around the country and was truly moving and unforgettable.

Favorite campus activity?
Lunch Poems, hiking to the UC Botanical Garden, attending J-School and Human Rights Center events, exploring paths and bridges along Strawberry Creek, reading under the redwoods.

What will you miss about working at Cal?
Everything. For a writer, the campus is a gold mine. For a mother, it’s been a wonderland to share with my girls. From any angle, it’s a magical place to build a career — and the opportunity to work with talented people at all levels, to ride UC’s waves together, is the best part.

Advice?
Hang in there, and, as much as you can, take advantage of working in such a lively, brainy place. Get out of your office and go to the free concerts at noon, visit the museums, take a class.

Retirement plans?
I’m directing an oral history project and also have plans to travel next month to the Mediterranean.

Lena Holstein
Academic Human-Relations analyst, College of Engineering, Office of the Associate Dean for Research

Proudest accomplishment?
During my long career, I was part of various campus committees that led to positive changes in policy and practice. And, making my father proud (he retired from Berkeley in 1979 after a 31-year career).

Favorite quote?
"There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle." — Albert Einstein

Favorite campus activity?
Walking around this beautiful campus with its peaceful creeks, trees, fountains, lawns, and historic buildings. Also, feeding the squirrels healthy snacks like nuts and grapes (from a safe distance).

What will you miss about working at Cal?
My colleagues, the campus, my office, and being a part of this great institution.

Advice?
In good times as well as difficult times, your experience here becomes what you expect it will be. Choose wisely, stay positive, and make the most of your time here.

Retirement plans?
Sleeping in, getting reacquainted with my natural rhythms, travel, exercise, spending quality time with family and friends, and kicking back in my garden with a good book (I might even write one).

Proudest accomplishment?
Reigniting the preventive maintenance program and helping to establish the dig notification procedures.

Favorite campus activity?
Staff Appreciation Day, when I can meet and socialize with everyone that I don’t get to see during normal hours.

Retirement plans?
I will take some extended trips and then study to be an enrolled agent. That is, I’ll be working as a tax professional representing taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service.

Proudest accomplishment?
Serving as project manager for the Mellon Library/Faculty Fellowship for Undergraduate Research.

Advice?
Insofar as you can, do the work that you think is important and that adds value, try to improve someone else’s experience of the campus each day, and take pride in your contributions.

Retirement plans?
Traveling in June to Greece to participate in the Hellenic Academic Libraries’ Institute on Undergraduate Research and, later in the fall, journeying to the Taklamakan Desert and its oases. Look that one up in your world atlases!

Proudest accomplishment?
Starting and building Berkeley’s ergonomics program for faculty and staff, which has put ergonomics on the map for the campus and significantly reduced work-related injuries.

Favorite campus activity?
It’s a toss-up between walking through a campus that is as beautiful as a park and going to classes at Recreational Sports.

Advice?
The period ahead promises to be a challenging one. Have the courage to speak truth to power as wisely as you can so that all members of the campus community — including staff — are part of the conversation on the future of the university.

Proudest accomplishment?
Working with the Class Schedule and Instructional Record Quality Control Group to create shared knowledge across central-campus offices and provide system improvements with quality-assurance oversight.

Advice?
Always be kind; keep your own counsel; the big picture rests on details and is informed by history; one’s integrity is rooted in self-respect and respect toward others.

Retirement plans?
I hope to travel, pursue photography and singing, have more time to spend with loved ones, and see where my accumulated experience might be of further use.

Kathleen Phillips Satz
Director, Strategic Planning and Communications, Vice Chancellor-Administration

Proudest accomplishment?
Successfully working as chief of staff to eight different vice chancellors. That represents multiple priorities, eras, and changes, which is why it has felt like eight different — and fascinating — jobs.

Advice?
Never take your current job description as a boundary to what you can accomplish. Volunteer for assignments that scare you and get excited by change.

Retirement plans?
Don’t know (and I like it that way), but they will involve art, travel, and people. Right now I’m somewhere between Burning Man and the Pushkar Camel Fair...

Proudest accomplishment?
Maintaining most of the values I had as an activist student (I was arrested during the Free Speech Movement) while implementing the mission and interests of the university.

What will you miss about working here?
The collegiality and commitment of the staff; the energy and enthusiasm of the students; the beauty of the campus.

Deborah Sommer
City Planning and Landscape Architecture Librarian, Environmental Design Library

First job at Cal? While a grad student in library school, I worked at the now-defunct Institute of Library Research, editing printouts that resulted in the first Melvyl online catalog.

Proudest accomplishment?
Supporting students’ development as lifelong learners (bet they didn’t know that’s what I was doing!). And all the collaborative and organizational work in the Library over the years.

Proudest accomplishment?
Helping thousands of students finance their education. Giving money to deserving families is a great feeling.

Favorite quote?
"Stupid, stupid, stupid." I know this isn’t a very lofty or inspiring quote, but when something inexplicably stupid happens, it just makes me feel better to say those three words!

What will you miss about working here?
My work family. Most of the people I work with really care about each other. When someone has a family crisis, everyone here pulls together to help.

Advice?
Stay focused, think of new things to make your office run better. If you keep yourself occupied with new ideas you will never be bored.

Retirement plans?
I might start a travel-related website. I will do more artwork, and visit my daughter in Austin more often. I might move there in the future.