Life in UMass Boston IT
This past August 2023 UMass Boston IT held its annual Summer Social, an event that gives IT staff a break from their usual work schedules to enjoy some time outside in the summer sun. This year the event included a barbeque, lawn games, and cold beverages as it always has, but there was also special recognition of every IT staff member based on their years of service to the university. New staff members, plus those who have worked in IT for at least a year, five years, ten years, 20 years, and 30+ years were honored for all they’ve done to make IT perform to the exceptionally high standard it has throughout their careers. Collectively, the staff has worked over 1,550 years at UMass Boston!
Of course, anyone who has worked as long as many people have at UMass Boston deserves to be recognized, especially those who have served for more than two or three decades. But even among that group of long timers, there are two people that stand out the most for their length of service. Peter Tofuri Jr., Learning Management Systems Administrator, and Ruth Tremblay, Network Services Clerk, have each worked at UMass Boston for about 40 years!
Ruth Tremblay said she began in groundskeeping in 1983 (now known as the Facilities department) and worked there for five years before moving to the Materials department, where she worked in the university warehouse. She was there another 15 years until her boss retired and the department was dissolved. At the time she did not know what would happen next, but when a job opened up in IT, she decided to apply for it despite her lack of experience. And as it turned out her career took a big step forward, even if she describes it as simply and humbly as anyone could. “A job opened up, so I just got in it,” she said without a hint of hubris. “So, for the last 20 years, I’ve just been in Telecom, strictly just telecommunications for IT.”
When given the chance to look back on her four decades at UMass Boston, she said, “Well, 40 years ago I started in the grounds, but I have been in IT for 20 years, so I would rather think about my IT years instead of the grounds. It was fun and everything, but it was hard work!” She quickly added though, “Not that this (IT) is not hard work. It is a different kind of hard work. I was younger, so it was fine, but now I do not want to be pushing a mower around now to tell you the truth.” She is very happy in the position she is in, even in a shift that starts at 4:30 AM!
The 40-year journey of Peter Tofuri also had its share of dramatic twists and turns. He was just 19 years old and a student at UMass Boston when he got a job in what was then the Dean’s office for enrollment services. He laughed when recalling, “So I remember back in 1983, there were no computers in the office back then. The big technology was an electric typewriter. I think the first paycheck I received from UMass was for $67 in cash.” He rotated through the different enrollment services offices for a while, working a few years each in admissions, financial aid, and the Registrar’s office. But his first decade at UMass Boston was before the advent of the Internet, PCs, and even email. “Everything was like hard copies of your transcripts and just stacks of papers and files.”
Eventually a job came up in the development office for a data manager, and here an amazing turn of events led him to IT for the first time. “My boss left, and she was a programmer, so they had no one to take over, so I started taking over and I did not even have any programming experience! I basically self-taught myself how to do it.” He stayed in development until 2008, when he was offered a job in what is now known as Learning Design Services and where he still works today.
Retirement is on the radar for both Ruth and Peter, and neither one has any regrets that they have spent their entire professional life at UMass Boston. Of course, the same can be said about the entire IT staff, as the collective 1,550 years of experience would seem to suggest.