Four Washburn University staff members were honored with eminentes universitatis status during a staff and faculty awards event.

 

Dave Boose began work at Washburn in 1983 and has single-handedly built or designed much of the campus cabling infrastructure. Boose started working in what was then called the media center. In more recent years, he has served as the chief engineer for the ISS department and has recently implemented a new software system to create a database of the campus cable plant. Boose retired on March 31 after 28 years of service to Washburn.

 

Marj Murray began work at Washburn in 1989 as the library assistant in charge of interlibrary loans. Murray has overseen growth of library operations in the digital age and has always strived to maintain an outstanding level of user services. With Murray’s direction, Washburn’s interlibrary loan operation has connected our scholars, students and faculty to local, regional and global resources, with an ease that has increased their successes on a daily basis. Murray always brought a level of wit, charm, and professional excellence to the Washburn libraries.

 

Vickie Waters began her service to Washburn as a secretary II in the university relations office in 1993, with a position upgrade to office assistant in 2000. She has garnered much respect with her excellent editing skills and proofreading skills and has been a constant leader in completing many of the tasks required for disseminating accurate and relevant information to the campus and community. She has complemented the branding and publicity efforts of Washburn by having established and maintaining good working relationships with members of the media and has enhanced the credibility of the department through vigilance in fact checking and her adherence to deadlines. Waters’ institutional knowledge of Washburn has been an asset when assisting the public and she is a reliable representative of Washburn in the community. She is an active member of the Washburn Administrative Assistants Association and has been a volunteer with the Quest Academic Competition Super Saturday event for the past 13 years. Waters will retire on June 10 after 18 years of service to Washburn.

 

Linda Williams began her service to Washburn in January 1988 at KTWU-TV as a part-time underwriting representative in the development department seeking sponsorships for KTWU programming. Shortly after Williams joined the KTWU team, the station became one of the first PBS stations in the country to establish an endowment fund and to see the value in having a development staff member working in the area of planned giving. For two decades, Williams shaped the development program, nurtured the donors and helped put KTWU on the course that has helped to provide financial stability. She helped staff two capital campaigns – one for KTWU’s building on the Washburn campus and the station’s digital conversion campaign. Williams also helped established the KTWU Producers Club. Williams retired Feb. 11 after 23 years of service to Washburn.

 

Washburn University awards the honor to individuals who have been an administrative or classified employee of Washburn University for a period of 10 years or more and effective July 1, 1991 and after, employees must have employment contracts of 1,000 hours or more per year of service to the University to be eligible. Individuals who retire from the university in good standing after 10 years are also eligible for nomination.