Meet Corgi-licious

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I’m Sydney, and I’m a 3-year old corgi-mix who owns Susan Whitman and Mark Gergen. I took over their house two years ago after Susan and Mark saw this glamor shot on the SF SPCA website and couldn’t resist adopting me. I excel in being cute, fetching balls (I’ll drop them at your feet and bark until you throw them, and I’ll do it over, and over, and over….), and in snuggling. And I’m a well-known Cal fan. Two years ago, I starred (with Mark) in Susan’s low-budget video encouraging donations to the Big Give. I was a minor media sensation and received an extra ration of dog biscuits for my part. For all further media inquiries, contact Susan, my agent.

First Annual Berkeley Law Backpack Drive

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Dear Berkeley Law Faculty and Staff,

On behalf of PIWG (Public Interest Working Group) and the Climate Committee’s Events/Recognition Subcommittee, we are excited to organize our First Annual Backpack Drive. We have selected the Davis Street Family Resource Center in San Leandro which operates a shelter and is collecting backpacks for students to start school with new and nifty backpacks and supplies. We need your help in two ways:

  1. Please donate! We are aiming for $2,000 – any amount is great – but if you need a range ($5 -100) works. If you’re interested in donating, or volunteering, contact Sue Schechter, sschechter (at) law.berkeley.edu. Please donate by Friday, August 4, 2017 so we can purchase the supplies. If anyone has a good lead on backpacks, school supplies, we welcome it! If you are more comfortable giving supplies, here is the list of K-12 supplies that we are collecting (only new items please): Backpacks, Pencils/pens, Colored pencils, Crayons/Markers, Composition Books, Folders, Highlighters, Erasers, Note cards, Ruled paper, Notebooks, Glue sticks, and Scissors. Please drop off in the Law Library barrel or box in 471 Boalt Hall by Friday, August 4, so we know what we need to buy.
  1. Whether you donate or not, please join us from 3:00 – 5:00 on Wed., August 9, in the Warren Room to help assemble backpacks. We hope to gather enough money and supplies to provide between 35 and 50 backpacks to local kids in need. If you have ideas, suggestions – we welcome them.

Thank you for your help – it takes a village as we all know!

PIWG and the Climate Committee’s Events/Recognition Subcommittee

Goings

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Our outstanding Academic Personnel Manager, Marva de Marothy will be leaving the familiar halls of Berkeley Law to join the campus Academic Personnel Office team effective 7/1/17. In keeping with Marva’s wishes, please stop by for an informal gathering to wish her well on Friday, June 30th from 3 pm – 4 pm in the Dean’s Seminar Room.

Ramon Munguia, our trusty and wonderful evening custodian, is retiring at the end of June.  He has been at the law school for 21 of his 23 years at the university. For those of us in the building in the evening hours, he works the 5:00pm – 1:30am shift and is always a friendly face who on top of doing his job, helps us feel safer and well-cared for in those evening hours. We are planning a brief gathering at 5pm on Thursday, June 29 in the Dean’s Conference Room  – if you are around, please join us for cake and an informal good-bye.

​Performance Reviews & Annual Merit Increases for Staff​

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​The annual performance review period is fast approaching for the performance period covering 7/1/16 – 6/30/17. Merit increases this year will once again be based on performance review ratings and will not be issued as a straight percentage across the board (i.e. 2% for everyone).

As was the case last year, all employees are required to have Sexual Violence/Sexual Harassment training in order to be eligible for a merit increase. To check your status or that of your direct reports, log into the UC Learning Center.

All managers are required to complete a performance evaluation for all of their direct reports in addition to the Sexual Violence/Sexual Harassment training in order to be eligible for a merit increase.

If you do not complete the Sexual Violence/Sexual Harassment training by July 21st, your merit increase effective date will be delayed to the first day of month following the month in which you do complete the training and will not be retroactive. Anyone experiencing technical issues with completing this training, please see these FAQs.

HR will provide more information as it becomes available in the coming weeks.

Trisha Milazzo, SPHR
Senior HR Analyst

Pet Tales

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Meet Big Ben. His nickname is Bennie, and he’s a chocolate Lab, 10 years old (translates to approximately 70 human years) and my constant companion. He loves to retrieve ANYTHING, and will on command round up my rescue cats (yes, you can herd cats!), our other dog Belle, bring me my sneakers or slippers or any specific toy we tell him (he knows the difference in each toy’s name), and even opens doorknobs and carries in bags of groceries for me.

Funny thing that Bennie does: He eats corn on the cob like a human! I hold the ear of corn and spin it for him, he nibbles the kernels only and never bites the cob. Looks hilarious, almost like Fred Flintstone.

Submitted by Cheryl Kuntz

Shout-Out: ESU and Student Services

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Shout-Out to the Event Services Unit and Student Services for pulling off another awesome commencement. This is our biggest event of the year, and these two units made it look easy—even though nearly everyone on both teams wasn’t working at Boalt for last year’s commencement.

Way to go:

Thembi Jackson
Michael Sensei
Nancy Donovan
Kyle Valenti
Izzy Mayer

Impressed by someone’s hard work and commitment? Want to say thank you to a colleague or team for going the extra mile? Take a moment to say so! 

Shout-Outs are limited to 100 words.. Use this form to submit your Shout-Out, and we’ll run it in an upcoming issue.

10-second Bio: Jen Covens

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Name:
Jen Covens

Title:
Educational Technology Specialist

Dept./Unit:
IS&T, Media Services

When I started working here:
Sept. 2015

What I do in ten words or less:
I support, document and archive classroom lectures and events.

The best part about working here:
Our amazing community of students and facilitators who all contribute to making the world a more just and better place. (Also – FREE FOOD!)

Something you don’t know about me:
I sometimes enjoy watching trashy reality TV shows like MTV’s Catfish and docu-dramas like My Crazy Ex.

One weird fact about the town I grew up in:
Danbury, CT was once the “Hat City in the World.” Although this may sound cool, Stetson Hats poisoned the water supply with mercury—a byproduct of the tanning process. Danbury was once rated as having the third worst water quality in the country. I only learned this after going away to college and using a Brita for the first time. My high school mascot was the “Mad Hatter” – due to the mercury driving the “hatter” crazy!

If I could have any job in the world (besides the one I have now), it would be:
Director/Actor/Choreographer working on environmental and social justice pieces.

New Hires

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Welcome to our new employees: Jen Griego, Associate Director of Alumni Engagement; Erin Dineen, Alumni Engagement Officer; Samantha Zepeda, Annual Fund Officer; Sohayla Farman, Publications & Communications Specialist for the Robbins Collection; and Jann Dudley, Associate Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology; Purba Mukerjee ’15, Environmental Health Fellow, Environmental Law Clinic; and new faculty members Abbye Atkinson, Adam-Badawi, and Joy Milligan. Read more about these great new additions.

(more…)

Adding Network Printers

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People at the law school need to print a lot. So, our tech gurus have tried to make it as simple as possible for you to add network printers (such as the copiers located throughout the school). Here are tips for PC users:

  • On Windows 10: click start, then, under Berkeley Law IT, click Add Network Printer.
  • On Windows 7: click start, all programs, then Add Network Printer.
  • Double click on the printer you want to add, and you’ll be all set.
  • For details (including “how-to” photos), please go to here.

On a laptop or a Mac? Contact the Help Desk at trouble@law.berkeley.edu.

For more computer tips, check out these tutorials.