Twenty-five years ago, Lacetia Foster came to Northeastern University with a plan.
“Five years, get a degree and gone,” Foster said.It didn’t go quite as Foster — now the university’s director of registrar services — imagined.
“But I loved it,” Foster said, wistfully.
Foster was one of 38 of Northeastern faculty and staff recognized Thursday morning at the annual 25-year Associates Brunch on Northeastern’s Boston campus. The event gathers employees celebrating their 25th anniversary at the university and their family members and colleagues, as well as longtime faculty and staff who have passed that milestone in service to Northeastern.
President Joseph E. Aoun praised the employees and noted that such a celebration uniting university faculty and staff is unique to Northeastern.
“This is something very important in our culture, in our DNA,” Aoun said. “We all work together.”
Diane MacGillivray, senior vice president for university advancement, asked attendees to visualize Northeastern in 1955, when the first celebration for 25-year faculty and staff was held.
“That cohort back in 1955 saw us through a Great Depression and a world war; you’ve seen us through a recession and an unprecedented global pandemic,” MacGillivray said. “You are the steady hands and the wise and calm and experienced voices that will guide us and help shape us through this next period.”
Twenty-five year associate Brian Loutitt, executive creative director of interactive experience, and Ravi Ramamurti, university distinguished professor of international business and strategy, director of the Center for Emerging Markets, and a 25-year associate alumnus, recalled the influence the university has had upon their lives.
“There’s the spirit of the people here,” Loutitt said. “It’s all about doing. It’s about, ‘How can we do this?’ There’s a lot of optimism and, it’s like, ‘What’s next?’ ‘What can we do?’ ‘How can we be better?’”
“So, it never gets stagnant for me,” Loutitt continued. “Through the entire 25 years, every year has been a challenge, and I’ve welcomed that.”
Meanwhile, Ramamurti said he appreciates the brunch because he “likes to feel part of a team.”
“It’s nice to see the people who have really built the university over the years, because I think it takes lots of hands and lots of people doing their jobs as best as they can,” Ramamurti said.
“I bought into the Northeastern team, and it became my home,” Ramamurti continued. “And then, as a member of a team, you always try to do your little bit to make it a better place.”
And time can fly when you’re a member of a team focused on improving.
“I never believed I’d be here 25 years,” said 25-year associate Ahmed Busnaina, university distinguished professor, William Lincoln Smith chair and director of the National Science Foundation Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing.
“It went by very quickly,” Busnaina said.