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O N B R I E F L Y Rise! Okay, here’s a great Campaign story: the University’s students donated $70,000 for the new recreation center. “What better proof of our mission,” observed University president Father Bill Beauchamp, “than our students sacrificing their own money to help the University rise?” Colin Dorwart, the student body president, was also direct: “This campaign is bold and we believe in it. We believe in what the University stands for. This is the strongest message we can send. How can we expect others to donate to the University if we don’t?” ¶ This on the heels of the Class of 2010 raising $100,000 for their Molly Hightower Scholarship, named for the 2009 alumna killed in Haiti’s earthquake in Haiti while working with orphans. Wow. Bang for the Buck The top school in Oregon for “return on investment,” says Bloomberg Businessweek: the University of Portland. BB estimates that the 30-year net return on investment for graduates of University of Portland is $779,600. ¶ A rush of national honors lately; the University was ranked first among its peers in producing Peace Corps volunteers, first in producing Fulbright scholars, top ten in the West for overall quality (by U.S. News & World Report, the 16th consecutive year), and our nursing and business programs were ranked among the national top 25 by Parade magazine. Neat. Student Feats Remarkable young energies this spring: the film Blood, Sweat, and Berries, about migrant workers in Washington’s Skagit Valley, by Scott Hines ’12, who proudly screened his movie on campus; a heck of a line, that. ¶ Nursing students were with faculty and alumni in Narasaraopet, India, this spring, volunteering health care at an orphanage. ¶ Students Kenny King and Kurt Berning raised $20,000 for education in Cambodia through their non-profit company Global Alliance for Developing Education. Wow. ¶ Fifth in America in the 2011 Boulder ing Youth Nationals, and thus now a member of the U.S. National Team in that rockclimbish sport: Lisa Chulich ’14. ¶ The new student body president: theology major Zach Imfeld ’12, from Burbank. Hobbies: barbecue and Cincinnati Reds games. Whoa. ¶ The Beacon won four first-place awards from the Oregon Newspaper
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Publishers Association, and finished second in the entire Northwest among non-daily student newspapers. Excellent year. ¶ 130 business students suddenly painted not one but two North Portland schools this spring: Holy Cross and Ockley Green. Hilarious. Huge kick for the neighborhood. We love stuff like that. Alumni Awards Honored in April with the University’s four annual alumni awards: attorney and judge Bob Maloney ’64, who adopted a whole third grade in Portland; Army Major Paul Staeheli ’98, who has already served two tours in Iraq and won a Bronze Star; Tamara Faris ’00, whose work with kids now extends to India, Mexico, and all around Africa; and Katie Scally, who won the annual Tom Gerhardt ’54 award for a selfless and creative senior. Garrulous Guests Among recent speakers, performers, silver intelligences on campus: Securities and Exchange Commission economist Scott Bauguess, talking about the financial market crisis of 2008 and future regulation; author Michael Pollan, keynoting the University’s epic Food for Thought conference with a funny and revelatory talk about real food v. the “food-like substances that scream for our attention”; and theologian Peter Kreeft, on the fine Christian writers Walker Percy and C.S. Lewis. The Valedictorian of the Class of 2011 was Sean Frederick, a remarkable lad: he earned two full degrees (engineering and Spanish studies), never got a B, earned a Fulbright grant to study lasers at the University of Liverpool next year, and then will head, as an Air Force lieutenant, to the Air Force Research Laboratory in Ohio. Whew. Engineering Dean Zia Yamayee, at his retirement ceremony, confessed his rules for being on committees: never arrive on time, never speak until the meeting is half over, be as vague as possible, and be the first to move for adjournment. “Also, the best classroom in the world is at the feet of the elderly, ignoring facts do not change facts, if you are not yourself you are nobody, being kind is more important than being right, and pray steadily.” Zia will be back on campus in 2013 as the Brother Godfrey Vassallo, C.S.C., Professor of Engineering (Campaign target! Hint! Rise.up.edu!). The McNerney-Hanson Chair in Ethics has its second occupant this Summer 2011 15
summer: philosophy professor Michael Andrews, most recently at Seattle U. Andrews is particularly interested in health care and bioethics. Interesting guy: two doctorates, one from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The $100K Challenge, the University’s annual competition among creative students for best business idea, was won this year by a delighted Sarah Klemze ’12, inventor of an online business for connecting high school students with vocational programs and scholarships. What began as the Center for Entrepreneurship’s $16K Challenge in 1999 drew 24 fledgling businesses this year. Campaign target, you ask? Why, yes. Great one, too — new small businesses… rise.up.edu… Rise! And speaking of the Campaign, some cool gifts: $250,000 from Don Galarneau ’49 for a new automated manufacturing lab; $250,000 from Diane and Dick VanGrunsven ’61 for an experimental mechanics lab; $1.2 million from the Colatorti family in memory of their son Roger ’61, for a scholarship for Central Catholic grads majoring in English; and $4 from a reader of this magazine, age 93, who wrote Your magazine staggers my heart and soul. Bless you. Amen. Our new engineering dean as of July: civil engineer Sharon Jones, most recently head of engineering at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. Among her scholarly expertises: rural water and sanitation infrastructure and salmon management in the Pacific Northwest. She succeeds the wonderful Zia Yamayee, who after 15 deanly years returns happily to the faculty.