Retirement party for Bob Schneider is Dec. 19

Bob Schneider, director of Administrative Computing Services at Western Washington University, is retiring on Dec. 31.

A party will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Dec. 19 in the Old Main Solarium to thank Schneider for his 17 years of service to Western.

In an email announcement to Schneider's colleagues, John Lawson, Western's vice provost for information technology and chief information officer, wrote the following:

"I have been privileged to work with Bob for over 8 of his 17 years of service to Western. I can always count on Bob for two things: First, a robust discussion about the things he is passionate about; our service to students and our efficiency in administrative tasks. He continually advocated for improving our services and helping Western be a model for other institutions. Through his national professional activities in the Banner user group and conferences, he brought us great ideas to improve and shared with other institutions the great ideas that he and his wonderful staff developed at Western. Second, once decisions were made he was tireless in implementation. Things got done… what more can I say?"

Much has changed at Western, specifically in the Administrative Computing and Information Technology areas, during Schneider's time at the university. Schneider enjoyed working through those changes to take advantage of technological advancement and make positive change that allow the university to be more effective in providing services to its people. Because it's always the people who matter most, he said.

"I have been very fortunate to have the team in ADMCS, as they are the best people I have had working with me during my entire career," Schneider wrote in a statement provided to Western Today. "I want to thank them for their dedication and hard work to provide the best services to Western. Other departments within ITS (Technical Services and ATUS) provided critical support to ADMCS and the campus, without which ADMCS would not have been able to deliver the many new services that have been provided over the years. I also want to thank my past and present CIOs for their tremendous support of our work. And, it’s been a pleasure working with all the Western people I have had the chance to meet and work with in improving systems during my 'run' at Western.

"I wish Western the best. I know with great management and extremely dedicated and knowledgeable staff and faculty, Western will continue to deliver excellent education to many generations to come.

"Thank you for the many good years. I’ll miss being part of Western changes and working with you all."