FALL/WINTER 2020 Monterey Bay THE MAGAZINE OF CSU MONTEREY BAY Campus Living During COVID-19 CSUMB provides housing for students in need Dear friends of Cal State Monterey Bay, I am consistently impressed by our students’ determination and resilience, the ingenuity and commitment of our faculty, and the dedication and professionalism of our staff. A hallmark of our university is that CSUMB Otters care for one another in difficult times, “Raft Up” and help each other succeed. This is a special place of learning and support within an inclusive community. Now, more than ever, the region needs more college-educated people in the workforce. Our graduates leave us having acquired critical thinking and analytical problem-solving skills with which they will contribute toward social and economic progress on the Central Coast, across California, and beyond. When we emerge from our current state, today’s students will be more flexible, adaptable, and prepared for unforeseen circumstances. Their resourcefulness will carry them forward to boosting industry, reinventing services, and providing new ways of engaging disadvantaged populations. Throughout 2020 we leveraged our culture of creativity and innovation to continue delivering on our mission. Our faculty and staff’s accomplishments in this extraordinary time are a testament to their dedication to our students. Over the summer and winter breaks, faculty rolled up their sleeves and mastered the skills necessary to continue delivering effective learning opportunities. Faculty provided context about issues of social justice and created new programs that will contribute to a thriving region. Our staff devised innovative ways to provide student support, and fostered opportunities to keep us connected. I am proud that our students and alumni continue to create, contribute, and thrive in the spirit of service they learned while at CSU Monterey Bay. I am humbled by the outpouring of support from our community through generous donations that meet student needs. That support makes the dream of a college education a reality for so many in our area, improving their lives and the lives of their families. I am hopeful we will return soon to a vibrant, immersive, in-person educational experience. I look forward to welcoming everyone back to campus. Sincerely, Eduardo M. Ochoa, President PHOTO BY RANDY TUNNELL THE MAGAZINE OF CSU MONTEREY BAY | CSUMB.EDU/MAGAZINE 3 Psychology major Jennifer Hernandez-Araujo at Fort Ord Dunes State Park. CSUMB is the closest CSU campus to the beach. PHOTO BY SCOTT CAMPBELL 4 Fall/Winter 2020 | CSUMB.EDU/MAGAZINE Features Departments 6 JOURNEY TO JUSTICE Otter Cross Cultural Center celebrates 10 years Vol. XIII, No. II as social activism incubator. Fall/Winter 2020 Published twice yearly for 12 AGRICULTURE INNOVATORS alumni, donors and friends New plant and soil science degree program of CSU Monterey Bay by trains future industry leaders. University Communications. Send letters to the editor 16 BLACK LIVES MATTER and address changes to Professors recommend books to learn about [email protected]. social justice movement. 28 SNAPSHOT President CSUMB launches new interactive 360-degree Eduardo M. Ochoa 20 GUARDIAN SCHOLARS virtual campus tour. Program helps foster youth achieve education Vice President dream of earning college degree. for University Advancement 32 & 34 STUDENTS Barbara Zappas Darchelle Burnett and Jasmine Bardwaj lead 24 CAMPUS LIVING DURING COVID-19 student groups to help others. Director of Communications CSUMB continues to provide housing for and Marketing students in need. Aaron Bryant 36 STAFF Editor New provost dedicated to university’s mission Sophia Huang McKenzie and student success. Art Director Joan Iguban Galiguis ’06 38 FACULTY Humanities & Communication professor uses Writers poetry to inspire and teach. Ivan Garcia Liz MacDonald Sophia Huang McKenzie 40 ATHLETICS Tatiana Olivera MB United committee forms to fight racism and Walter Ryce help create social change. Joanna Snawder-Manzo On the Cover 42 NEWS BRIEFS An aerial photo of an empty campus taken in September from the main quad looking 44 ALUMNI north. CSUMB has limited on- CART grad’s career includes work on top TV campus activities to critical shows and blockbuster horror films. business operations only since March because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 46 CLASS NOTES COVER PHOTO BY PEEKPEEK, TOC PHOTOS BY SCOTT CAMPBELL AND PEEKPEEK AND CAMPBELL SCOTT BY PHOTOS PEEKPEEK, TOC BY PHOTO COVER THE MAGAZINE OF CSU MONTEREY BAY | CSUMB.EDU/MAGAZINE 5 6 Fall/Winter 2020 | CSUMB.EDU/MAGAZINE On Pages 6-10: highlights from Otter Cross Cultural Center activities and events over the years including concerts, cultural celebrations and Affinity Graduation ceremonies. Journey to Justice Otter Cross Cultural Center celebrates 10 years of impact BY WALTER RYCE The Otter Cross Cultural Center began life in a vacuum with few resources. It has since grown into an activism incubator and familial second home for many students. The impact of the Otter Cross Cultural Center, aka OC3, is easy to discern. It’s in the passionate way people talk about it; it’s in a webpage full of appealing programming; it’s in cool T-shirts and swag sported by supporters. The historical record is harder to pin down. The story flows through many people — across gaps of attrition and changes — PHOTO BY PHOTO CSUMB BY PHOTOS and few of those people are still here. THE MAGAZINE OF CSU MONTEREY BAY | CSUMB.EDU/MAGAZINE 7 PHOTOS BY CSUMB BY PHOTOS 8 Fall/Winter 2020 | CSUMB.EDU/MAGAZINE One of them is Ronnie Higgs, served as a pipeline to student clubs of change in eliminating inequality; vice president of Student Affairs and and organizations, and taught social fostering dialogue, activism, empathy Enrollment Services. When he arrived justice, identity and activism. and social justice; and highlighting the at CSUMB, he saw a need for a space “There was a lot of momentum,” importance of storytelling and owning for the diverse student population zhang said. “People were really down one’s story. to gain insight into identity, embrace to support the OC3.” There’s also an unofficial tagline: empathy, and foster inclusiveness. Money was still scarce and she “Chisme [Spanish for “gossip”] saves After conversations among students was the only paid staff, but that lives.” and members of the CSUMB allowed her more freedom to shape OC3 signature events have community, the idea of the Otter Cross the center and the conversation emerged that demonstrate the Cultural Center was born. around equity and inclusion. She mission. The Social Justice Dialogues helped create the Safe Zone training brings students, faculty, staff and The Origin Story program on campus LGBTQ+ issues, community leaders together to talk established retreats for training about urgent issues. There are eight “There was no extra money laying activists, and steered the focus toward Affinity Graduation Celebrations for around,” Higgs said. “I scraped intersectionality — foundational roots historically underrepresented groups enough funds together from different that would later bear more fruit. including Black, Native American, sources within the Student Affairs “It’s interesting working at radical and students with disabilities. The division to start a one-person office.” spaces like OC3 because I feel like I’m Otter Days OC3 Block Party welcomes Early on, that one person was rita the bridge between students’ dreams, back new and returning students, zhang (she lowercases her name), a visions and demands — which are connecting them to cultural and student activist who became OC3’s often progressive, radical and forward identity-based student clubs and first coordinator. She inherited thinking — and the administrators.” resources, replacing anxiety with campus goodwill, a peer mentorship The homebase of OC3 was the camaraderie. (This year, all of those program, some grant funding, and Student Center, Building 12, a busy activities have been virtual.) space in the student union. hub of activity surrounded by student The three core colleagues have “But for all intents and purposes it clubs, campus groups, a lounge, kept OC3’s evolution moving was like a brand new center,” she said. study spaces, and games. It was a forward. They brought back a focus “Not a lot of groundwork but a great space for students to gather and build on knowledge and scholarship, desire to make it a vision.” community — and OC3 has been an connecting students with mentors, She started by listening to and important part of that. offering graduate and postgraduate talking with different campus school test prep, building bridges constituents. Then she shifted the peer The New Guard with local community colleges, and mentorship model to one of student taking students to conferences like coordinators with different areas The 2017-18 academic year was a the National Conference on Race and of responsibility in a flatter, more big year for the center. A new team of Ethnicity in Higher Education. grassroots approach. professional staff — Shantel Martinez, “We walk the talk,” said Martinez. “Once we had the first set of Bianca Zamora and Allymyr Atrero — “We present at national conferences. student coordinators, my role was to began to assemble and usher OC3 to We’re also in the trenches — teaching, facilitate their learning, growth and its present form. publishing, presenting.” agency in creating what they wanted,” “We’re the little engine that could,” Martinez holds a doctorate in zhang said. said Martinez, OSU assistant director. communications and media, with One student coordinator created There were times before Martinez a focus on ethnic studies. Atrero a program on racism and cultural arrived when the center was without studied molecular and cellular biology appropriation in Halloween; another professional staff. During those times, and has a master’s degree in higher created dialogues around issues that she said, “Students kept it alive. They education. were vital to students. were so dedicated to having this on “I really value curriculum, seeing Hiring student employees was a campus.