GRIT and GRACE in the Face of Adversity of Face the in OCH TAMALE MAGAZINE VOL
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SPRING 2016 | VOLUME 92 | ISSUE 2 News for Alumni & Friends of the University of Redlands GRIT and GRACE In the face of adversity of face the In OCH TAMALE MAGAZINE VOL. 92, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2016 WILLIAM VASTA President Cover Story Ralph W. Kuncl CONTENTS Chief Communications Officer Wendy Shattuck Editor Judy Hill Vice President, Advancement Anita West Associate Vice President, Development Ray Watts 20 Director, Alumni and Community Relations Shelli Stockton Team Jasmine Class Notes Editor by Catherine Garcia ’06 Michele Nielsen ’99 Director, Creative Services Facing an extraordinary challenge, Jennifer Alvarado ’15 MAM this courageous Redlands student drew strength from her Graphic Designer community, and in turn inspired Juan Garcia many with her grace and grit. Web Director Anthony L. Fisher Contributors Charles Convis Olivia de la Cruz Jennifer M. Dobbs ’16 Laura Gallardo ’03 Catherine Garcia ’06 Su Del Guercio John Hagstrom Coco McKown ’04, ’10 Laurie McLaughlin Aaron Okayama 14 Carlos Puma Rachel Roche ’96, ’02 Peter Surowski A changing landscape Nancy Svenson WILLIAM VASTA by Judy Hill William Vasta Who are today’s Bulldogs, and how is Och Tamale is published by the Redlands responding to shifting demographics University of Redlands. in higher education? POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Och Tamale University of Redlands PO Box 3080 30 Redlands, CA 92373-0999 Copyright 2016 Finding a life’s Cover Photo: William Vasta work together Phone: 909-748-8070 COCO MCKOWN Email: [email protected] by Laurie McLaughlin Web: OchTamaleMagazine.net Jonathan ’10 and Raquel Arellano-Jackson ’10 returned to Redlands to help kids find a better path in life. Letters to the Editor Hi Och Tamale, I just wanted to thank you all so much for being so willing to put Redlands’ culture of musical theatre study and performance front and center in the last issue. From honoring Richard Sherman to highlighting the Glenn Wallichs production of Little Shop of Horrors, it’s great to see the modern American musical alive One thing they don’t tell you and well at U of R. “ For those of us who were involved in the student- driven MTC (Musical Theatre Club) in the early about is what it feels like when 2000s and yearned for opportunities to honor U of R’s musical legacy (in places like Frederick Loewe Performance Hall and in celebration of they’re drilling through your skull...” John Raitt, Class of 1939), bravo to you! To my fellow musical theatre Bulldogs and Buffalos, “Break a leg!” Jasmine Sturr ’16 From the stage in Chicago, Ill., Sarah Sapperstein ’05 Johnston 20 The issue I just received is the best issue of my 50 years as an alumna. Thanks! DEPARTMENTS Darlene Palmer ’54 2 View from 305 Our winter edition of Och Tamale arrived in the mail today. From cover to cover it is stunning. The 3 On Campus changes in format and style drew Sherryl and me to browse and read as never before. Congratulations COCO MCKOWN on your first issue. 8 Faculty Files Tony ’63 and Sherryl ’64 Taylor 12 Arts & Culture 10 Send your comments to Och Tamale, 1200 E. Colton Ave., P.O. Box 3080, 13 Bulldog Athletics Redlands, CA 92373-0999, or email [email protected]. 30 Alumni News 32 Class Notes History of the “Och Tamale” cheer 37 Fresh Phrases Originally called the Psalm of Collegiate RACHEL ROCHE Thanksgiving, the Och Tamale cheer was 42 Engagements, written by cheerleader C. Merle Waterman ’20 and classmates Walter J. Richards ’21 and Jack Marriages and 13 Slutsk ’22. The “Och Tamale” is recited when the Bulldogs score a touchdown, at pep rallies, Partnerships Homecoming, alumni events or as a greeting to fellow alumni. 43 Baby Bulldogs Och Tamale gazolly gazump Dayump dayadee yahoo 43 History Mystery Ink damink dayadee gazink 44 Dayump, deray, yahoo In Memoriam WILLIAM VASTA Wing wang trickey trackey poo foo 46 Class Notes Reporters Joozy woozy skizzle wazzle Wang tang orkey porkey dominorky 49 49 Redlands Dreamers Redlands! — Rah, Rah, Redlands! Spring 2016 | 1 VIEW FROM 305: THOUGHTS FROM THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE Why there will always be a place for a residential liberal arts education college, with more than 80 percent believing a college degree is important to a desirable career and nearly two thirds feeling the benefits of college outweigh its costs, I know our mission continues to be relevant. It’s not hard to argue that a college education will always have a role in society, but what I’m proposing is that our particular model—the residential liberal arts college— will also continue to survive because we offer something that young people will always need, a place and a space to mature. Huge psychological growth occurs from the ages of 17 to 25. Those years are a critical COCO MCKOWN period in human development; that’s when we develop independence and form our core concepts and beliefs. And I submit that the best way to make the journey from teenager to adult is in social groups where we are in residence with our peers. In a nurturing yet re we relevant for today’s students? As a who believe sharing photos of what they challenging environment with mentoring, university president, that’s a question I cooked for dinner and how many miles A support, intellectual engagement and reasoned ask myself every day. And as the person at the they ran at the weekend is the purpose of feedback, and the opportunity to take risks and center of a 100-plus-year-old residential liberal social media. make mistakes, people derive what they need arts college, it’s a question that is particularly Tediously often, I hear the complaint that to travel a sometimes daunting but rewarding pressing as the liberal arts and the traditional “today’s students” don’t know how to write as journey to adulthood. college experience itself come increasingly well as their predecessors. Texting is blamed. Students seek us out today at the University into question. Similar claims have been made consistently of Redlands because they see an alignment If you spend long enough reading about through the decades. But, according to at least between their desire to create their own Generation Z—young people born after one study described in a higher education educational path and the freedom a liberal 1996—you can start to feel they are a species journal I read, errors in writing have not arts education such as ours offers. They see apart from older alumni and our readers, many actually increased in the last hundred years. the breadth of our education and the global of whom are so-called baby boomers. Our students’ writing may be different enough perspectives they can learn, and they know It’s said that the young men and women today to be inscrutable to some of us, but it’s that is what they need if they are to make the of Gen Z send more than 100 text messages not necessarily worse. And it could even be difference in the world to which they aspire. a day and have a communication attention that with spelling and grammar checkers and Our community annually welcomes a new span of eight seconds. Workwise, they assume online writing help always accessible, students group of travelers who, like those of every they will cycle through innumerable jobs in today have a better understanding of the generation, are full of promise and at the their lifetime, with one recent study reporting process and complexities of writing. start of a complex odyssey of learning. With that 83 percent of today’s students believe that I would argue that young adults are not its sophisticated understanding of multiple three years or less is the right amount of time so very different from the generations that viewpoints and its insistence on creating to spend at one’s first job; fully a quarter feel preceded them and that college life, despite meaning, this is a generation of dreamers and they should stay at their first job for a year or what you may have heard, is not dead. activists, change makers, and visionaries. less. For those of us who can count on one When I read that Generation Z is made up hand the number of employers we’ve had over of idealistic young men and women who want Sound familiar? a career of several decades, Generation Z’s to change the world and are passionate about job-hopping ways fairly boggle the mind. How social justice issues such as world hunger and does one read a résumé filled with stints lasting climate change—and when I meet these people nine or 11 months? among our own student body—I am reminded of the generations of the ’60s and ’70s as So, yes, Gen Z may have its quirks. As the Ralph W. Kuncl, PhD MD college students. When I hear that Gen Z first true digital natives they are spending President upwards of two hours a day on YouTube and shuns authority and conformity and values University of Redlands finding and sharing information over Snapchat authenticity and empathy, I’m taken back to and Instagram, leaving Facebook to the my own campus culture. And when I learn that generation of their parents and grandparents students today still see strong value in going to 2 | OchTamaleMagazine.net ON CAMPUS COCO MCKOWN World-renowned British a capella vocal ensemble pays a visit to campus Those fortunate enough to have a seat in Memorial Chapel on the afternoon of February 21 were in for a treat as The King’s Singers took to the stage to perform a varied program of songs from around the world.