We have never been more keen to the importance of our essential staff, from the custodial staff who keep our spaces clean and sanitized, to the IT staff who have assuaged our fears about navigating the digital world – from home – to the student support services staff who work tirelessly to keep our students on the path to success. Pictured above are, from left to right – Jan, Victoria, Luz, Yessika, Patricia, Maria, and Ciro – who made sure our campus was ready for all those who would enter it. We would like to also thank the team members not pictured above – Hector, Keyanna, and Richard – who were on a much needed vacation. The work our custodial staff performs to ensure safety and peace of mind for our learning community has been taken for granted, but the unprecedented times have illuminated their importance to our success. Thank you, team, for the daily embraces in too many languages to list and for keeping our campus safe!

Our maintenance staff are true community liaisons. Not only do they ensure that our restored campus that was once the Hartford Times is maintained and preserved for cohorts of students to come, they also work with local businesses and institutions to make sure our campus grounds are accessible for all. From left to right are Dale, Michael, and Mark. These colleagues also help in the revival of the Carol Sing tradition by helping to complete the process of putting up those holiday lights that vine up and across the granite columns and facade of our campus and light up our corner of the city. Dale, Michael, and Mark love having the campus in Hartford and shared with us the many wonderful memories each have experienced growing up in and around the Hartford area and while working here. They do miss the crowds of curious students and the conversations they’d have with them. Needless to say, Dale, Michael, and Scott, we miss them, too, and we cannot wait to return to the glory that is our beautiful campus that you all have kept in the best of condition.

Our dear Nicole Williams’ motto: “Teamwork makes the dream work” and “It’s not ‘me,’ it’s ‘we’.” Nicole, who is the lead on Client Services and Bursar functions, has been a part of the UConn Hartford staff for nearly 17 years. She attended UConn, was a student employee, and has been an anchoring staff member for the Hartford campus when it comes to processing student payments, scholarships, and helping them rectify the holds on their accounts. This semester, unlike any before, Nicole’s job was made more difficult by not interacting with students in person and not being able to process their documents on a daily basis. We know of a freshman student who depended on a scholarship to purchase his books and was having trouble beginning the process. A staff member directed the student to Nicole, who managed to get his scholarship deposited within a week. Nicole’s best advice to students?: “Ask questions,” she said. “No question is a stupid question! I am here to answer all your fee bill questions or at least point you in the right direction.” Having spent most of her life at UConn, we asked her what her favorite memory is. Nicole’s response was: First Nights! “I’ve attended every First Night until my son was born. I remember one of those first nights, they were shooting shirts into the crowd, and girl, I jumped up like I was rebounding a basketball, boxed my friends out, to catch that shirt, which I did.” Nicole, we know you keep all the ‘thank you’ cards you receive from students and their families in your desk drawer. By now, that drawer is overflowing. We, your colleagues, offer you another thank you for relieving students of their fee bill fears.