Submitted by Alexandra Collett on Thu, 29/08/2024 - 12:26
On the 17th of July, a celebration was held for Colleagues across the University, who have committed 25 years of their employment to the University.
The event was held at the Cambridge Union Society and was opened by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice.
She expressed her appreciation for all their contributions and hard work over the years and spent some time looking back to the year 1999 and how the University has changed over the last decade and half.
Within her speech she said: “A University can only be as good as its people – Cambridge is an excellent university, and we rely on excellent people.”
Some of the attendees have shared their biggest highlights of working the University:-
Professor Sara Hennessy, Professor of Educational Dialogue and Pedagogical Inquiry, Faculty of Education said: “My biggest highlight of working at the University over all this time, is probably securing my permanent post as a lecturer after many years as a Postdoc.
“One of the highlights I also remember is the University’s 800th birthday party, celebration year, I thought the team, that put that together and the events did an outstanding job and one of them in particular was the all staff Botanic Garden Party, it was a fantastic day, it was so well organised, it was just a fantastic reward for staff and their families.”
Mr Barry Widmer, Technology Lead, Cambridge Integrated Data Environment, Department of Psychiatry said: “It’s always fun to learn something new, that’s the thing, I have been very lucky, because I’ve done lots of different things in the University and I’ve learnt a lot along the way and that’s interesting because I think, there can’t be many jobs where you do the same thing day in and day out for 25 years and get up on Monday morning and think oh great I get to go and do this again.”
Dr Ben Outhwaite, Head of Genizah Research Unit at the University Library said: “My biggest highlight is being responsible for the world’s best collection of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts, for the past 25 years.
“If you have an academic research interest, I think you should always do you’re best to maintain it and there are always opportunities in the University to further develop you’re skill set, it’s a great benefit of working at the University.”