After serving the university for sixteen years, Rabbi Susan Laemmle will retire in June, 2008.  She served as the Hillel Rabbi from 1992 - 1996, and became the first Dean of Religious Life in July of 1996.  Rabbi Laemmle has worked tirelessly to bring religious life into mainstream life at USC and to encourage every student she has met to seek their own religious path.  Recognized religious groups have grown from a handful when she began to almost eighty groups today.  She has sought to encourage every major tradition so that each and every student can find their religious home on campus. 

In addition to encouraging students, she has also nurtured the group of clergy and others appointed by their particular traditions to lead these student groups, into the fold of the university.  This has provided an opportunity for these "Religious Directors" to get to know one another and about  each other's traditions and produced a collegial learning environment where common issues and concerns can be addressed.

She has mounted numerous programs touching on religion and values for faculty, staff and students.  She brought the tremendously successful What Matters to Me & Why program to USC in the fall of 2001 and it continues today with over 100 in attendance at every session.

She also revived the Baccalaureate Ceremony to the point of standing room only and began the tradition of inviting speakers from different faith traditions each year.  Student religious group delegations now lead the processional behind banners of their organization and President Sample, the Provost, and trustees are in attendance.  Further she established the Baccalaureate dinner in 1996 as a way for graduates to celebrate their achievement with their families and it is a sold-out event today.

All of her achievements are too numerous to mention here.  She will leave very big shoes to fill and she will be sorely missed.  We wish her well in this new adventure in life, retirement!