A long-time UW-Eau Claire faculty member who spent much of her time involving herself with students completed her last day as an employee of the university Friday Oct. 2.

Since 1992, Susan Brumberg-Schaefer has affected many coworkers’ and students’ lives and said she has many stories and memories to take with her as she retires.

Brumberg-Schaefer started out at the American Ethnic Coordinating office, known today as Multicultural Affairs. During her six years there, she said she created many memories and met a multitude of students she continues to involve herself with today.

After another temporary job at the News Bureau, Brumberg-Schaefer was seeking a permanent position and that’s when she took a job with the University Police as their secretary.

“From the start, I just felt like I belonged here,” Brumberg-Schaefer said.

The officers and their work is what kept her with the University Police since the early 2000s and she said is what she is going to miss the most after retirement.

“The university is a wonderful place to work and I will very much miss the students,” she said. “They are what make the university what it is.”

Susan said she created a strong bond with the students she worked with because of her belief that the university is a student’s home away from home. Brumberg-Schaefer housed students who were in need, taught some how to drive and took others in for holiday breaks when they had nowhere else to go.

“The faculty members that work here make it that way for the students,” she said.

As of right now, there is no one hired to take her place and the University Police is planning to have student fill-ins for the time being. This puts some extra work on the officers who now have to take over some of her duties and teach the students how things work there, she said.

Brumberg-Schaefer said it will be a steep learning curve for whoever is chosen to fill her spot because of the way she kept things running.

“I like to have everything organized and accomplished,” she said. “If I have everything running smoothly then it makes it easier for the officers to do their job.”

With personal matters to attend to, Brumberg-Schaefer said this is the right time to retire.

Although these matters will take the majority of her time, she said she plans to spend more time attending her grandchildren’s events and continue volunteering through her church.

“I like to spend my time with others and helping others,” she said. “I want to continue doing so after I retire and that is what I plan to do with my free time.”

Taking all the things she has learned and taught in the past 23 years with her when she goes, she said she is fulfilled with the time she put in at the university and looks forward to what is to come next for her down the road.