Sunshine, bubbles and the camaraderie of colleagues -- what better way to spend a summer lunch hour at Cornell's College of Engineering?

On June 24, approximately 40 staff members gathered at the Engineering Quad for the first brown bag lunch of a new monthly series designed to provide networking and learning opportunities for College of Engineering employees in a non-work setting. The series was organized by the college's Work Life Committee, which first convened in March to explore ways to help meet the needs of both the college and its staff.

"In this time when so many things are happening at Cornell and in the world, we wanted to provide staff with ways to deal with change and uncertainty, as well as increase the sense of community and cohesiveness across departments within our college," said Julie Delay, committee co-chair and director of human resources at the College of Engineering and Cornell Library. In addition to the summer lunches, the committee has initiated an engineering staff Facebook page and has planned other events, including workshops, tours and presentations.

"We hope to mix educational and networking opportunities," said Hayley Harris, assistant human resources director and committee co-chair. "We've already held a workshop on managing stress and uncertainty and are considering others on personal budgeting and healthy cooking, as well as arranging for faculty and researcher presentations on topics they are exploring, such as an 'invisible' cloak and an earthquake study."

Tim Brock, a committee member representing civil and environmental engineering, has begun arranging various tours for the staff. "We have planned visits to the mineralogy museum in Snee Hall and to the hydraulics lab in Hollister to get better acquainted with the wealth of knowledge right here in our own college," he said. "We also hope to arrange tours of Cornell sites outside of the engineering college to better connect staff with the university as a whole."

"We have a great community," says Linda Tompkins, associate director of the Engineering Learning Initiatives and Work Life Committee member. "These events give us an opportunity to enjoy each other's company. They also are evidence of the spirit of the college. Julie and Haley put out the call for volunteers to help with this initiative, and the response was tremendous."