Between Hurricane Sandy and the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers last year, Tufts’ staff stayed hours beyond their normal working days on several different occasions. To honor their work, junior Gabe Rothman organized a staff appreciation reception -- a tradition he will continue this year.
“I decided to do it again this year, because even though we didn’t have three disasters, ... I feel like the effort those staff put in on a daily basis is something that should be recognized,” he said.
Rothman has organized an appreciation reception in the Remis Sculpture Court this afternoon starting at 3 p.m. From the athletics and police departments, to dining services and facilities, Rothman said that he hopes the reception will be an opportunity for the school to demonstrate the value of its employees.
“I don’t think students really acknowledge it around here ... there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff that goes on, when people come fix your heat [and] keep the maintenance up,” he said. “The purpose of this event is for the student body to come out and say ‘Thank you’ to all these people who basically keep the campus moving for us.”
While Rothman considers last year’s event a success, he said he hopes that more students attend this year’s. To encourage greater student involvement, Rothman organized the event in conjunction with Tufts Labor Coaltition and has integrated performances from two student music groups -- the Amalgamates and B.E.A.T.S. -- in order to generate greater interest.
“I know the administration does stuff over the summer and at the end of the year for the staff… so I felt like the students should really have an event where we show how much we appreciate [the staff’s] work, so that’s the big effort this year: to ... get more students,” he said.
Although he acknowledged that there is room to improve upon the current structure of the event, Rothman said his intention all along has been to create this reception as an annual tradition at the university.
Reaching out to student groups to sponsor the event has been part of that effort, he said. His plan is to find and encourage a student-run organization to take over the organization of the reception in the future. As part of that search, he said, he contacted senior Rae Axner, a member of TLC, to co-sponsor the event this year.
Axner said TLC was proud to be co-sponsoring the event. While TLC has focused its attention on negotiations between adjunct faculty and the administration this semester, Axner said she has enjoyed working with Rothman to organize the event -- though she said Rothman should be credited for most of the work.
Axner echoed Rothman’s hope for a greater student participation in this year’s event.
“I’m hoping that the student attendance cross-cuts [across] lot of students,” she said.
Vice President for Operations Linda Snyder and Michael Baenen, the chief of staff in the Office of the President, also worked with Rothman in planning the event this year. They expressed their appreciation for his efforts in creating and organizing the reception for the second year.
“We are very grateful to Gabe Rothman and the many students who are responsible for organizing and participating in the student–led Staff Appreciation Event this year,” they told the Daily in an email. “We recognize how busy students are at this time and the extra effort and commitment involved in creating an event of this kind. It means so much to the many hundreds of staff members and contract employees to know that their work is appreciated by students.”
