Randy Phelps wins 2022 Staff Outstanding Achievement Award from Dornsife College

Facilities Coordinator Randy Phelps Recognized by Dornsife College for Outstanding Service
March 7, 2022, Kathryn Royster

On a sunny day in January, Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies Facilities Coordinator Randall Phelps climbed carefully down a ladder into the large clarifier tank at the wastewater treatment plant. Phelps is the primary person responsible for maintaining the plant, which handles wastewater from the Wrigley Institute’s Marine Science Center (WMSC) on Catalina Island. On this particular day, he and his teammates had to replace an air feed pipe deep in the bowels of the plant.

“It was teamwork personified: three people did the job in three hours,” he says. “It was a blast.”

Randy Phelps

That’s not the way everyone would describe a morning spent replacing a wastewater pipe, but Phelps isn’t everyone. For the last 25 years, he’s been a mainstay at WMSC, ensuring the smooth operation of crucial facilities and equipment. USC’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences recently recognized his skill and dedication with a 2022 Outstanding Staff Achievement Award. Given to only a few of Dornsife’s 795 staff each year, the award honors individuals whose work supports the college’s mission in extraordinary ways.

“Randy’s position is not for the faint of heart,” reads his award nomination letter, which was signed by eight of the Wrigley Institute’s managers and executives. They pointed out that Phelps often has to fix problems in the middle of the night or while battling extreme heat, heavy rain, wind, and billowing dust. Nevertheless, they said, “he has an incredible willingness to do what needs to be done and does it with a positive attitude. His humility, integrity, and work ethic are something to aspire to.”

Phelps’s role requires a wide-ranging set of skills. The WMSC campus is in a remote location, and the Catalina Island dust and salt spray are tough on buildings and equipment. Long Beach is 90 minutes away by boat, and Avalon, Catalina’s only large town, is the same distance away on unpaved, deeply rutted roads. Outside assistance, whether in the form of people or supplies, arrives in days or weeks, not minutes or hours. Phelps and his teammates have to be resourceful and creative problem-solvers, whether they’re fixing a broken pipe in WMSC housing, replacing a support post on the dining hall patio, or devising solutions to keep the island’s curious and persistent wildlife out of the labs.

Over the course of his tenure, Phelps has handled a host of everyday facilities issues alongside major projects such as water sampling for the EPA, converting WMSC light fixtures to LED models, and staff training. He has developed a strong understanding of how the staff and researchers’ presence affects the island’s ecology and often shares that knowledge with undergraduate and graduate students who come to the campus to study the environment.

And then there’s that wastewater treatment plant. During his first five years at WMSC, Phelps took the plant from “getting by” to serving as an aspirational model for the many similar plants that dot the island. He enrolled in professional development courses to learn skills and earn certifications, spent countless hours upgrading equipment, and developed a strong working relationship with contractors and the state regulatory authority.

I think that’s the pinnacle of what I’ve accomplished, taking the wastewater plant and infrastructure and turning it into something that is above standard.
Randy Phelps, Environmental Studies Facilities Coordinator
Useful resources for any Dornsife Wrigley user xnxxyouporn, xxx, futai, xnxx, filmepornoxxx, omarxnxx!

When Phelps thinks about his time on Catalina Island, though, he thinks more in terms of “we” than “me”—yet another reason his colleagues emphatically recommended him for the Dornsife staff achievement award. He says he joined the Wrigley Institute out of a desire to become part of something bigger than himself, something with staying power that would allow him to remain on the island for decades to come. When he first signed on, WMSC visitors consisted mostly of Elderhostel guests, with only a handful of summer researchers sprinkled in. Now, the institute’s island-based programs engage more than 1,000 undergraduates and more than 300 graduate students each year, and WMSC is embarking on a new round of renovations to further extend its educational and research capabilities.

“This place has gone through such a transition, it just amazes me. And knowing I’ve been a part of that, it’s a sense of pride,” he says. “I could retire tomorrow, but why? I’m happy, I’m healthy, [and] I love what I do. I enjoy helping people any chance I can get.”