HAMLINE SPRING 2009 Defending public good 22 18 Features 10 10 Unfinished business Brandon Gleason ‘09 12 Inside the Admission Office Answers to your college search questions 14 Lawyer Hero Chris Messerly JD ‘86 16 Masters of their craft Graduating the first class 18 Bringing it all back home Internships in social justice 20 The impact of layoffs New research on joblessness 22 A life-changing experience Sarah Houghton ‘07 Departments Hamline’s Kristen Weniger ’09 closed out her 4 Happenings on Hewitt collegiate career by winning the floor exercise in a three-way tie at the National Collegiate 24 Alumni News 24 Associations of Hamline Alumni 26 Class Notes 32 In Memoriam Gymnastics Championships, which were hosted this year by Hamline University. Spring 2009 1 From the Editor From the President Are you part of a Hamline family? If your DNA shares a BA (or MA, or...), if your blood runs burgundy, if you could hold a family reunion during Alumni Weekend, then let us know! We want to make sure we have your family’s information so we can keep track of important connections. Email [email protected] with the names and class years of your family members who have Hamline degrees. While Hamline doesn’t pop up in my family tree, I was lucky enough to marry into a Hamline family. My husband is part of the Rysgaard/Hupfer/Lund family, honored in 1997 as a Family of the Year. I’m always happy to sneak in a late class note for cousin Jennifer Lund Treptau ’97, and my mother-in- While traveling back from visiting family in Wisconsin for Eight undergraduate students are gaining real-time experi- law, Margaret (Peg) Lund Hegg ’73, keeps these magazines on Easter and reading the draft of this issue of Hamline magazine, ence with housing, environmental, and cultural issues that hand so she can brag about me at a moment’s notice. I began to feel that the greening pastures and thawing ponds will transform neighborhoods and communities all along the Hamline families are special. Let us know so we can help that attracted ducks to their edge signaled not only nature’s Central Corridor when the light rail project begins in 2010. celebrate your Hamline family. transformation to spring but also served as a metaphor for the stories of transformation featured within its pages. As each In each of these stories, we find evidence of courageous story of courage, leadership, and social justice unfolded, I could decisions and actions by students and alumni to live out John readily see the legacy of shared experiences at Hamline, even Wesley’s charge to “make the world a better place.” Their nar- Breanne Hanson Hegg MNM ’04 though each person attended the university at a different time, ratives inspire each of us to engage in transformational change in unrelated circumstances, yet all with the outcome of serving whenever the opportunity presents itself, especially when we a purpose greater than themselves: find ourselves challenged to achieve our “personal best” in our families, our work, and our communities. Athlete Brandon Gleason triumphed over a potentially With the approach of spring comes renewal and transforma- career-ending injury to achieve All-American honors. tion. It’s comforting to know that people like Brandon, Sarah, Chris, and student interns Maria, Leonel, Reed, Aaron, Brian, Sarah Houghton courageously returned to Bolivia to Teng, and Jade and their professor, Earl Schwartz, are leading establish a community center after recovering from extraordinary, principled lives of service. Their common link is literally falling over a cliff in a bus accident. the learning-centered experience they have shared at Hamline, a vision for the university that honors individual achievement and Law alumnus Chris Messerly JD ’86, in a landmark case the power of collective and transforming change. before the Minnesota Supreme Court, transformed the VOLUME 106 / NUMBER 1 / SPRING 2009 law requiring doctors to report cases of child abuse and ON THE COVER Chris Messerly JD ’86, pictured alongside the new led the pro bono representation of 125 victims of the HAMLINE 35W bridge in Minneapolis 35W bridge collapse. POSTMASTER Change service requested to: Hamline Magazine, THE MAGAZINE OF HAMLINE UNIVERSITY Linda N. Hanson MS-C1916, 1536 Hewitt Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104-1284 President EDITOR Breanne Hanson Hegg MNM ’04 QUESTIONS/LETTERS Hamline Magazine MS-C1916, 1536 Hewitt Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104-1284, 651-523-2012, [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dan Loritz ’69, Jen Thorson ’96 Hamline University first published an alumni periodical in 1904, called the Alumni CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Emily Amici ’09, Rick Dornfeld ’12, JacQui Getty MFA ’09, Quarterly of Hamline University. Now simply titled Hamline, the magazine is published Sarah Kirchner ‘06, Sunni Monson ’10, Kelly Westhoff MALS ’01, Maura Youngman ’09 three times per year. Hamline is printed on 10 percent post-consumer recovered fiber CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jenn Barnett, Eliesa Johnson, Andy King, stock with agri-based ink. The coating is water based. Cory Ryan, Dawn Villella, Steve Woit Hamline University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, DESIGNERS Kelly Christ, Allison Long ancestry, sex, disability, religion, age, sexual orientation, or veteran status in its education 2 Hamline MAGAZINE or employment programs or activities. Spring 2009 3 Happenings Hamline adopts new visual identity Hamline University has adopted a new logo and ON HEWITT brand identity. Hamline will use the new logo, which launched on February 2, to identify itself and its five schools. Sorin goes trayless Designed to support Hamline’s brand identity, the new logo conveys a sense of energy and excite- traditional academic In a smorgasbord society that hungers for individuality and trash cans a day to one a day, which projects a savings of 66,528 ment and better communicates Hamline’s identity symbol, the logo gives a choice, variety may feed our eyes but overwhelm our stomachs. pounds for the 2008–09 year alone. as innovative and distinctive. sense of strength, bold- Think window shopping. Aren’t there times that we didn’t Students are mixed on lack of trays. The logo underwent an extensive review pro- ness, celebration, and know we wanted it until we saw it attractively displayed before “I thought the trays were a good idea because it let you get cess with Hamline community members. permanency. The logo was designed by Kelly Christ, Hamline’s us? The same holds true for all-you-can-eat cafeterias. For the an array of different items rather than just one and having to “The creative design of the new logo boldly confirms our graphic design director, with assistance from Allison Long, buffet-goer, the aromas, colors, ease, and fast pace urge us to go back up over and over again,” said Brady Dube ’10. Some presence as an innovative leader in the marketplace of higher senior graphic designer. sample indiscriminately. But many of these samples, much students even protested by joining official petition groups on education and will serve us well in future years,” said John Pyle, Hamline’s old wordmark has been discontinued after eighteen bigger than bite-sized, end up in the trash. social networking sites. vice president for enrollment and marketing. years of service. Hamline will retain its athletic mark (the inter- In an effort to reduce food, energy, and financial waste from But a USA Today study found that 79 percent of 92,000 stu- The new logo uses a combination of serif and sans serif fonts, locking HU) for use on athletic apparel and materials, as well as purchasing and washing excess items, campus cafeterias from the dents surveyed nationwide last spring supported trayless dining suggesting both history and innovation. A modern take on a its seal, for use on official academic materials, such as diplomas. University of Minnesota to New York University to Hamline to reduce campus waste. Aramark, a company that provides din- are going trayless. It’s a simple formula: zero trays equal fewer ing services at more than 400 colleges and universities, including plates, and fewer plates of uneaten food equal less waste. Hamline, expects to ditch trays at more than half of its schools But does it work? this year. Julian Dautremont-Smith, associate director of the Hamline’s Sorin Dining Hall, which serves an average of Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher 6,700 meals per week, expects a cost savings in waste reduction Education, projects that most U. S. colleges and universities will of twelve cents per person, or a total of $26,532 this academic follow within the next five years. year. According to its estimate that it takes four cups of water to If estimates prove true, Hamline alone will save $132,660, Hamline named to President’s Honor Roll for wash one tray, the Dining Hall will save 27,637 gallons of water 138,185 gallons of water, and 332,640 pounds of food in that annually. Furthermore, the amount of leftover food waste has time—a savings that ensures trayless dining will be part of the Distinguished Community Service already been halved from two ninety-pound, thirty-two-gallon future of universities nationwide. Hamline University was one of More than seventy Hamline students, faculty, and staff eighty-three schools nationwide to volunteered their time on service-learning projects in New be named to the President’s Higher Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the past year. In addition to Education Community Service Honor doing hard physical labor, such as ripping down walls and help- Roll for distinguished community ing to clean out rotting homes, they have also tutored students service.