University of La Verne

Generations of Transforming Lives

Generations of Transforming Lives

THE UNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE FOUNDED IN 1891

University of La Verne Copyright © 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the University of La Verne.

1950 Third Street La Verne, California 91750

909.593.3511 www.laverne.edu

Devorah Lieberman, Ph.D. President

Myra Garcia

Vice President, University Advancement

Robert Dyer ’63, Wendy Lau ’98 125th Anniversary Co-chairs

125TH ANNIVERSARY BOOK COMMITTEE

Mary Ann Melleby ’79 Chairperson

Marlin Heckman, Ph.D. ’58

Galen Beery ’59

Jon Blickenstaff ’66

Chuck Davis

Sean Dillon ’87

Clair Hanawalt ’49

Ben Jenkins, Ph.D. ’11

Bill Lemon

Greg Asbury

Project Director

Ginger Morris

Project Assistant

BOOK DEVELOPMENT

Bookhouse Group, Inc. www.bookhouse.net

Editor Rob Levin

Author Michele Cohen Marill

Copyeditor and Indexer

Bob Land

Cover and Book Design

Richard Korab

Archivist

Renée Peyton

The University of La Verne has reached a significant milestone—125 years of transforming faculty, staff, and students’ lives and positively impacting the community. For well over a century, our core values of lifelong learning, ethical reasoning, civic and community engagement, and diversity and inclusivity have guided the university. These values provide the foundation on which we strive to fulfill the institutional mission of providing a distinctive and relevant educational experience to all traditional-age undergraduate students, adult learners, and graduate students throughout all four colleges and across all regional campuses.

The university is perfectly positioned to continue our 125-year-old mission with even greater student and community impact. The University of La Verne is recognized among national higher education leaders for accessibility, affordability, inclusivity, quality of educational experience, and lifelong learning. We are held as an exemplar for recruiting and retaining all students, including those from low-income families; fostering the success of first-generation students; and practicing significant civic and community engagement. Our signature program, the La Verne Experience, creates an interdisciplinary multiple-year experience for all students that includes both curricular and co-curricular elements, and prepares graduates to be future leaders nationally and internationally. We are also realizing our Campus Master Plan that proactively anticipates the needs of our students today, tomorrow, and decades into the future.

Higher education across the country faces many challenges, and the University of La Verne is no stranger to difficult circumstances. Over the last 125 years, the university has continually dedicated itself to accomplishing whatever is necessary to maintain academic integrity and remain focused on the success of all our students. We are most proud that the university has remained focused on its mission and connected to its values, and this anniversary is an exciting moment for the University of La Verne. As we reflect on the past 125 years of institutional progress and achievement, I also encourage us to focus on the next 125 years. I am confident they will be filled with innovation and inspiration where every member of the campus community—students, trustees, faculty, and staff—will achieve more than they ever imagined.

Congratulations on 125 years of Leo pride!

Devorah Lieberman, Ph.D. President

Forged in 1896, this bronze bell has been rung at special events throughout the University of La Verne’s history, including here at a graduation ceremony by legendary football coach Roland Ortmayer.

GENERATIONS OF TRANSFORMING LIVES

THE UNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE: FOUNDED IN 1891

A Dear, Favored Spot

With a yank of its handle, the bell resounds like a summons that echoes through the late summer breeze and through the streets of Old Town La Verne.

The heavy bronze bell, forged in 1896 just five years after the founding of the University of La Verne, carries a tone from the past, when citrus groves bloomed from the edge of town to the foothills of the slate-green San Gabriel Mountains towering to the north. CHAPTER ONE

Yet today, the sound also harkens to the future, calling the new students to their first moments of college life.

The students look up at University President Devorah Lieberman, Ph.D., who is dressed in full academic regalia, the tassel of her cap dangling near her forehead. They are standing in the Johnson Family Plaza outside the Sports Science and Athletics Pavilion where they will have their convocation. As incoming first-year students, they may not grasp the meaning of this tradition. Not yet accustomed to college, they do not know what to expect. By the conclusion of the convocation, they have a mission for this new world they are entering. Lieberman urges the students to commit themselves to their community: “This is a pivotal year for each of us: Change the world and achieve more than we ever imagined.”

For 125 years, the University of La Verne has been a place for those who want to exceed expectations. Members of the Church of the Brethren who saw promise in a failed California boomtown founded a school they called Lordsburg College. Today, the University of La Verne is a comprehensive doctoral-granting

For 125 years, the University of La Verne has been a place for those who want to exceed expectations.

The Lordsburg Hotel, with its ninety-foot tower, was to be an early draw to the fledgling town of Lordsburg. It never hosted any paying guests, and the expected land boom of the late 1880s was a bust. The hotel was sold to the Church of the Brethren for a fraction of what it cost to build.

university with approximately eighty-five hundred students across more than seventy graduate and undergraduate disciplines. The University of La Verne offers an avenue to the future for a student body that is diverse in age, ethnicity, culture, religion, and interests.

At a time of increasing concern about college expenses, Washington Monthly named the university as a “Best Bang for the Buck.”

Many of the University of La Verne’s students come from within Inland Southern California, a fast-growing region about thirtyfive miles east of Los Angeles. The university’s emphasis on theory-to-practice and community engagement attracts students from throughout California and well beyond. Almost 10 percent of the University of La Verne’s undergraduates are international students. Approximately twenty-five hundred alumni live in Asia, primarily in China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore.

The University of La Verne is designated by the US Department of Education as a HispanicServing Institution (HSI), whose student body must be more than 25 percent Hispanic. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recognized it as a communityengaged campus, and US News & World Report and Forbes magazines named it a top-tier national university. Its online undergraduate program ranked No. 1 among California colleges and universities for three years in a row. At a time of increasing concern about college expenses, Washington Monthly named the university as a “Best Bang for the Buck.”

Yet those and other accolades do not describe the essence of the University of La Verne. Many of the original core values of the founders remain the bedrock of the university: ethical reasoning, diversity and inclusivity, lifelong learning, and community and civic engagement.

Former college officials gathered for a portrait. From left: J. M. Cox, chairman of faculty,1908–1909; Edward Frantz, president, 1911–1915; W. C. Hanawalt, president 1902–1908; Ellis Studebaker, president, 1923–1938; C. Ernest Davis, president, 1937–1948; Samuel J. Miller, president, 1915–1921; W. I. T. Hoover, president of Lordsburg College, 1899–1901, and dean of La Verne College, 1912–1938.

How Lordsburg College Became the

University of La Verne

Men of Capital, Men of Nerve, Men of Brain are investing in Lordsburg! Catch on to the BOOM!

The Santa Fe Railway created a station in this would-be town in partnership with Isaac W. Lord, a land speculator who made his fortune off the sudden popularity of Southern California. But despite this advertisement and a later pronouncement that “Lordsburg stands equal to any other place in point of productiveness and health,” it did not become the thriving destination Lord envisioned. n In 1891, the town gained a new, nobler purpose with the establishment of Lordsburg College. The Church of the Brethren founders wanted to create “a first class College or Seminary of learning for the complete education of the young in all useful learning and knowledge,” and they were undaunted when they realized that the local students were not prepared for college work. n Instead, Lordsburg College began as an academy. In a photograph soon after its opening, the first students stand in rows on the steps of the hotel-turned-college, some of them barefoot children who look as young as six or seven. Older students stand behind them. n Within a few years, the students grew tired of jibes about the name, which sounded too much like a haughty way to say “God’s town.” In 1912, they petitioned the board of trustees to change it to Palmera College. For one summer, the school moved toward this new identity—until Lord filed a complaint in court and the college backed

down. n When Lord died in 1917, demands for a name change gained new traction. The nearby La Verne Orange and Lemon Association shipped citrus around the country, and the residents of Lordsburg voted overwhelmingly to associate with that verdant image. By the fall, La Verne College opened in the town of La Verne. n The evolution from a college to a university occurred much more gradually. For many years, La Verne College was known primarily for producing teachers and missionaries. In 1963, the college began offering a master of arts in teaching. By 1975, there were six additional master’s degrees and a doctoral program in school management (EdD). The law school opened in 1970, and the College Accelerated Program for Adults began in 1971. La Verne even housed the American Armenian International College, which offered a major in Armenology (the study of Armenia). n In 1977, President Armen Sarafian asked the board to acknowledge the new reality of the school’s broad focus and change the name, setting the stage for future transformation. Eighty-six years after its first promise of spreading a values-based education, the University of La Verne offered a full array of academic programs for students of various ages and backgrounds.

Above: Land speculator Isaac W. Lord harbored great expectations for his town—Lordsburg. He died in 1917, well before he was able to appreciate the thriving community he had created. Right: 1912 Tennis Club.

Professors nurture students with as much care as they did when enrollment numbered just a few hundred.

While all colleges and universities assert that they are student-centered, “I have never been on a campus where it is more true on a daily basis than it is at the University of La Verne,” says President Lieberman. “Students graduate with the theory and knowledge of their discipline and fundamental core values, all to be applied for the rest of their lives.”

In the early 1900s, the University of La Verne evolved at the east edge of the San Gabriel Valley, blessed with leaders from the Church of the Brethren who lived their creed of simplicity, temperance, and faith. Edward Frantz, president of what was then called Lordsburg College from 1911 to 1915, believed that education would help students appreciate “the length and breadth, the height and depth of life.” Yet the early years were challenged by financial struggles, and the future of the college was often uncertain.

Today, while standing in the center of

“Education would help students appreciate the length and breadth, the height and depth of life.”

— Edward Frantz

An early Lordsburg College painting class. Today the University of La Verne boasts the Department of Art and Art History, with a major in both areas. The studies prepare students for graduate school or careers in art, museum administration, art conservation, and other related fields.

The Santa Fe Railway stopped at this station in Lordsburg during the early years of the town.

It is hard to imagine what Church of the Brethren leader

Matthew M. Eshelman saw in 1889 when he stepped off the train platform of the Santa Fe Railway in what was then the fledgling town of Lordsburg.

campus, ensconced in a suburb that Family Circle magazine recently called one of the nation’s best places to raise a family, it is hard to imagine what Church of the Brethren leader Matthew M. Eshelman saw in 1889 when he stepped off the train platform of the Santa Fe Railway in what was then the fledgling town of Lordsburg.

Near the train station stood the massive Lordsburg Hotel, which rose like a beacon of Victorianism, the dome and spire of its ninety-foot tower visible from afar. Yet the scene was agrarian. Vacant lots surrounded the hotel, each carefully surveyed, numbered, and drafted on a town site map—all unsold. The 130-room hotel itself never hosted a paying guest.

In the early 1880s there was a land boom in Southern California, but by 1888 the real estate market had collapsed. In an unrealized dream, Eshelman saw an opportunity for education. Four Church of the Brethren colleagues agreed—providing the price was right. They offered fifteen thousand dollars for the hotel

and one hundred lots, and they may have been a bit startled when the owners accepted. The hotel alone reportedly cost about seventy-five thousand dollars to build.

By the fall of 1891 they had transformed the hotel into classrooms, offices, a chapel, library, dining hall, and dormitory for the first seventy-six students.

By the fall of 1891, about two years after that first visit, they had transformed the hotel into classrooms, offices, and a chapel, library, dining hall, and dormitory for the first seventy-six students. A sign hung on the gable proclaiming Lordsburg College, but that also was more aspiration than reality. The first students were not prepared for collegiate work, and the school served as a preparatory academy.

From the start, the college founders intended to improve their new community. Their school was inclusive, intentional, and multicultural, welcoming the children of some of the original Mexican rancheros of the area. In the first graduation photograph in 1896, students and faculty posed in front of the motto, “From Preparation into Practice,” an early expression of the school’s commitmenttoprovidingprofessionalskillsof theory-

The class of 1912 pauses before dinner in the dining room of the former Lordsburg Hotel, which by then had morphed into Lordsburg College.

The class of 1896. Little did the college know at the time, but the motto “From Preparation into Practice” behind them would still have resonance more than one hundred years later.

“From Preparation into Practice,” an early expression of the school’s commitment to providing professional skills of theoryto-practice, along with a solid academic foundation.

to-practice, along with a solid academic foundation. By special arrangement, students who completed college preparatory work at Lordsburg were automatically admitted to Stanford University.

Still, tuition did not cover expenses, and the school struggled financially. In 1901–1902, with no one willing to take the helm, Lordsburg College was shuttered. W. C. Hanawalt, an educator and member of the Church of the Brethren in Pennsylvania, came west to revive it the following fall. True to the values of thrift and hard work, the Lordsburg teachers and students tended gardens, picked fruit, and milked cows. Hanawalt’s wife baked huge loaves of bread. His father kept hives of bees for honey.

Like the founders, Hanawalt believed that more prosperous times would come, and he invested in additional land for the campus. When the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference came to Los Angeles in 1907, the college advertised that “Lordsburg is an ideal city for such as may wish to withdraw from the severities of eastern climates,

and have a lovely quiet place to educate children away from the temptations and allurements of city life. There is not a saloon within twenty-five miles; no pool rooms thrive in this community.”

Eventually, Lordsburg College began to fulfill its purpose. “The [college] department has had its ups and downs but on the whole the ups have been ahead, by far,” students wrote enthusiastically in 1912 in the Orange Blossom yearbook, two years before P. J. Wiebe received the school’s first bachelor’s degree. “If in six school years such progress has been made, what fear need there be for the future?”

Take a walk around the campus today, and the future that the yearbook mentioned unveils itself. Each new building represents growth and change.

Miller Hall, named in 1926, with its neoclassical columns flanked by palm trees, was dedicated in September 1918 as a women’s dormitory and now houses the English department, photography department, and liberal arts. Founders Hall, now shaded by century-old live oak trees and partially covered in vines, arose in 1926 to replace the former Lordsburg Hotel, a wooden structure that was deemed a firetrap and torn down in 1927. A Craftsman-style gymnasium opened in 1921 and was replaced with the Campus Center, which opened in 2009. In 1917 the town and college both changed their names to La Verne.

Looking north from Sneaky Park just outside Wilson Library and across the street from Miller Hall, an “L” remains visible on a mountainside. Four friends from the class of 1921 trekked

Founders Hall under construction in 1926. Now shaded by massive live oak trees, it replaced the Lordsburg Hotel that was deemed a fire hazard and demolished.

to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in April 1919 with bedsheets and tools to measure and then clear the brush on a ridge into the largest such emblem in the United States. One of those students, George Hollenberg ’21, later wrote the lyrics of the alma mater, imbued with nostalgia for a cherished college: “There’s a dear favored spot / that shall ne’er be forgot. . . .” This original alma mater is still sung by participants at all major university events.

After World War II, sentimentality gave way to an era of sturdy brick buildings, a coming of age under the steady leadership of President Harold Fasnacht that brought the W. I. T. Hoover Memorial Library, as well as Studebaker, Hanawalt, and Brandt residence halls; the Science and Education Building (now Mainiero Building);

Students clear the “L” in the San Gabriel Mountains. The giant capital letter first appeared in 1919, courtesy of four friends from the class of 1921. The ridge-side emblem was the largest college letter symbol in the country.

the Davenport Dining Hall; and Dant Chapel. The alma mater sounded twice a day from speakers in the Hoover clock tower.

“There’s a dear favored spot / that shall ne’er be forgot. . . .” This original alma mater is still sung by participants at all major university events.

In 1952, when the one thousandth student graduated, La Verne College remained a small liberal arts school that specialized in teacher education. While only about half of the student body belonged to the Church of the Brethren, the foundation was set for the Brethren values to engender a broader impact. Today, the University of La Verne continues to pursue bold dreams and new opportunities for the university and all of its graduate and undergraduate students with modern facilities arising around the historic campus to meet the changing needs of students and faculty.

At nine o’clock on a summer morning, while their friends back home are still asleep,

The clock tower is still a prominent landmark on the University of La Verne campus. The sign announcing “Christian College Day” is testimony to the school’s deep roots in the Church of the Brethren.

fifty-seven high schoolers fill the chairs in the classroom at the University of La Verne and imagine themselves in a different sort of life. For three weeks, they experience a dream—living like college students and playing the role of top executives at a startup company. Every summer, the University of La Verne hosts the REACH

Every summer, the University of La Verne hosts the REACH

Summer Business

Camp to inspire local high school students to think of a greater future.

Summer Business Camp to inspire local high school students to think of a greater future. The camp, founded by longtime professor of finance Adham Chehab, is just one example of the university’s ongoing commitment to serve the diverse needs of its region.

By the end of the three-week camp, the students will devise a new business, conceive a marketing plan, and present their ideas before a group of business leaders. The winning team nets one thousand dollars, which amounts to about two hundred dollars per student. But there is a deeper purpose: In the past ten years, 96 percent of participants in the REACH camp have gone on to college, and 84 percent of them graduated. Some of them are drawn back to the University of La Verne and its mission of nurturing each student’s potential.

The REACH program is less about recruitment than it is about inspiring teenagers to believe in themselves.

“So, how are we doing on the business plan? Are you all working together?” Professor Issam Ghazzawi’s deep voice reverberates as the students nod and give their assent. “Excellent, excellent!”

Ghazzawi left a successful career as a vice president with Sigmanet, a technology company, to enter academia. Now he is distilling the principles of business management. On the whiteboard, he has written four large letters: POLC.

“What does it mean? Anytime you have a

High school students at the university-sponsored annual REACH Summer Business Camp work on business ideas and plans that will be presented at the end of the three-week program.

At La Verne, Winning Is Not Everything—or the “Only Thing”

Roland Ortmayer, the University of La Verne’s storied football coach, was not known for winning games. His team only won about half the time, and that seemed about right to him. Instead, he regarded his athletes as students first, young people whose life off the field was more important than the time spent between the goalposts, and he fervently believed football should be fun. n In a sport frequently dominated by a win-at-all-costs mentality, Ortmayer was known for letting players decide their own plays, never cutting a player from the team—and occasionally turning a practice into a watermelon race. During his forty-two years as football coach, his record was 182-193-8. In a 1989 profile, Sports Illustrated called him “the most unusual football coach in the U.S.” n This Ort-ism sums up his philosophy: “Football to me is like climbing a mountain. The climbing is where it’s at.” n Today, Ortmayer’s values still resonate at the University of La Verne. Not that the coaches and players are not competitive: many of the university’s teams, including football, have been conference champions, and in the 2015–2016 season the Leopard football team was SCIAC champion. The baseball team captured national championship titles in 1972 under Coach Ben Hines ’58 and in 1995 under Coach Owen Wright. Jimmy Paschal coached the women’s volleyball team to national titles in 1981 and 1982. The University of La Verne Leopards won two other national championships (men’s volleyball in 1999 and women’s volleyball in 2001) and had individual national champions in track and field and golf. n In 2013–2014 the University of La Verne ranked 37th out of 444 schools in the Learfield Division III National

Directors’ Cup, a standing that reflects the overall success of its teams. n Every athletic office features a framed copy of the university’s vision and mission statements and its core values. Competitiveness is just one of three “standards of distinction” in the Department of Athletics Strategic Vision. The other pillars are “experiential” and “academic.” n “First and foremost, we care about our student athletes, to make sure we are helping them develop further as human beings—building leadership skills, character, all the life skills,” says Athletic Director Julie Kline, who began at La Verne as a softball and women’s volleyball coach. n About 20 percent of the University of La Verne’s traditional undergraduates are involved in athletics, and Kline cares about all of them. “We get that question all the time: What are your top sports? All twenty-one. It’s about all twenty-one programs,” she says. “We try to support each program to the level it needs to be successful.” n That sentiment influenced Ko Yajima ’16, who came to the University of La Verne from Tokyo. Attracted to the university’s tight-knit community and small classes, he walked on to the soccer team and played four years as a midfielder. “Being on the team helped me build good relationships from the start,” he says. Even though he had traveled far and to a much different environment, he says, “It felt like it was home.”

The Leopards enjoyed many successes under legendary football coach Roland Ortmayer (above) and later boasted a 2015–2016 conference championship. Competitiveness is just one of the three standards established by the Department of Athletics. The other two pillars of the strategic vision are “experiential” and “academics.”

Part of a global nonprofit organization, Enactus brings together students, academics, and business leaders who are committed to using the power of entrepreneurship to transform lives, shape our society, and help sustain a better world. Professor Issam Ghazzawi established the program at the university, and since then the teams have been recognized nationally for their local and international community projects. Students have also received career job offers as a result of their participation.

business, we need to plan, right? P stands for planning, O stands for organizing, L is leading— we need to lead—and C is controlling.”

The students scribble notes on their yellow legal pads, and do their research during computer sessions in the library without distractions from cell phones.

Ghazzawi asks them to gather in their teams and create mission statements for their businesses. Soon those statements morph into nascent business ideas: customizable eyewear,

“P stands for planning, O stands for organizing, L is leading—we need to lead—and C is controlling.”

—Issam Ghazzawi

a mobile app to connect students with tutors, a food truck with Asian-Mexican fusion cuisine, and a solar-powered charging case for cellphones. All sound like viable enterprises.

In the back of the room, Jasmine Marchbanks ’17 listens and smiles. She is a REACH counselor and a member of the university’s Enactus chapter, an international network of student teams with a service focus. She, like many of these teenagers, was a little uncertain about how she would fit in

at college. “I just tell them that college is possible for everyone,” says Marchbanks, a communications major. “It’s not as hard as they think it is. I think college is attainable for anyone and everyone if you’re willing to work.”

In an era of public institutions experiencing rising costs and bulging class sizes, the University of La Verne offers a supportive and often more economical path. About half of the university’s traditional undergraduates are the first in their families to attend college. The First Generation Student Success Program provides faculty mentors and special workshops, and the First Generation Club welcomes the students like family.

The university draws about 75 percent of its entering class of traditional-age undergraduates from Inland Southern California. “One of the goals of the 2020 Strategic Vision is for the student body to reflect the demographic of the communities we serve,” says Homa Shabahang, vice president of strategic enrollment management and communications. Through outreach, the University of La Verne attracts a diverse student body while the overall academic qualifications have been rising.

For example, the university sponsors college

George Keeler, Ph.D., a professor of journalism, has been involved with the University of La Verne for over forty years. His impressive credentials run long and deep, and his students’ publications have captured top prizes across the country.

preparation classes at African American churches in Southern California through its Master’s Academy. The University of La Verne was also the first private university in California to become a partner of the Dream US Foundation, offering scholarships to undocumented students who have protected legal status because they came to this country as children.

The university has a history of serving those whom society often marginalizes. A prison education program spanned more than three decades, and a summer institute served children of migrant workers.

Outreach “is connected to the long history

and legacy of the Church of the Brethren—a church that from its origins believed in the full inclusion and integration of all humanity,” observes Dr. Daniel Loera ’12, director of the Office of Multicultural Services. “It all starts from that vantage point.”

Professor of biology Jerome Garcia, Ph.D., ’98 stands on the stage in the Morgan Auditorium and looks out at the rows of teenagers sitting with their parents. He once sat in those seats as a first-generation college student, and he cannot help but remember how clueless he felt—scared and confused, not sure he belonged. After his freshman year, he considered dropping out.

He tells a bit of his story to these incoming students who are beginning their journeys by meeting with faculty advisers during the Summer Opportunity for Advising and Registration (SOAR). By the time he was a senior at the University of La Verne, Garcia was doing research on a tumor-suppressor gene and had gained a prestigious place in a doctoral program at the University of Southern California.

“You’re going to develop your character, you’re going to find your passion here,” Garcia assures them. “It was service and community engagement that really helped me find my passion as a professor.”

Today, he mentors first-generation students, some of whom work in his lab,

Students at the University of La Verne run the gamut from traditional-age to older, to military and marginalized, such as children of migrant workers and the incarcerated.

Compared to earlier years, the clock tower today is perched amid beautiful landscaping and is a focal point on campus.

contemplating careers they could not have imagined just a year or two before. One group is studying the antioxidant properties of certain proteins in fermented milk. The work can be slow, even frustrating, but these undergraduate students practically live in the lab. They can delve as deeply as they are willing to in a research setting that at other universities is dominated by graduate students.

“We do it to learn and be a part of this,” says Sabrina Bawa ’16, a biology major from Diamond Bar, California, who dreams of becoming a physi-

The university draws about 75 percent of its entering class of traditional-age undergraduates from Inland Southern California.

cian. “It’s about being something greater than ourselves.” n

Miller Hall, completed in 1918, today is mostly used for class space. Photography labs dot the basement while English and the Writing Program (a division of the Department of Modern Languages), the Carlson Gallery of Photography, Philosophy & Religions, and other programs are also housed in the building.

Science and other STEM programs have enjoyed tremendous growth at the University

where undergraduates can participate at a level usually reserved for graduate students at other universities.

of La Verne,

“We do it to learn and be a part of this, it’s about being something greater than ourselves.”

Sabrina Bawa ’16

GENERATIONS OF TRANSFORMING LIVES

THE UNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE: FOUNDED IN 1891

CHAPTER TWO

Theory to Practice

Traffic flows northward and eastward, steady as the evening tide, wave upon wave of people making their way home after a tiring day at work. The din of the freeway is audible from the parking lot of the small office building in Burbank, where students park their cars and ride the elevator to the third floor.

At five o’clock, classes are just beginning at the University of La Verne’s nine regional campuses and its Campus Accelerated Program for Adults (CAPA). Although class time may be during the day, evening, or weekend, the tradition of tying theory to practice has special relevance. The university is known for experiential learning and community engagement—projects and programs that connect the academic content to experience on the job.

“Lead people and manage things. What did you notice about that this week in your business world and your encounters?” Adjunct professor Kathleen Haworth asks one evening in the bachelor’s-level course Leadership in Organizations.

Lydia Prendiz, forty-seven, a manager at a lighting company, raises her hand immediately. Day-to-day work has become just a tactical mission, an ongoing push to get the tasks completed, she says. “It was really good to question how I can reconnect and put some leadership back into the

continued on page 38

The university is known for experiential learning and community engagement—projects and programs that connect the academic content to experience on the job.

All University of La Verne students, including CAPA adult students, are taught to collaborate, observe, think, reason, and be engaged in their community.

Creating a Bold New World of Legal Education

Law schools are in crisis around the nation, with fewer applicants and anxious graduates worried about job prospects and the value of the degree.

“They are right to be concerned,” says Gilbert Holmes, dean of the University of La Verne’s College of Law. n Holmes has a clear idea of the necessary path for legal education, and it is as far from the traditional program as a faraway planet is from Earth. Holmes, a fan of sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, thinks of the University of La Verne as the Planet Terminus of law schools—a new, more sustainable empire on a planet at the edge of the galaxy. n On the wall of his office, near the glowing blue Planet Terminus poster that reminds him of his iconoclastic mission, Holmes posted a framed copy of the core values of the College of Law: basic skills, high performance on the bar exam, ready-to-practice curriculum, a beacon of hope and inspiration. n The University of La Verne gained national attention when it set a single, affordable, and transparent annual tuition of twenty-five thousand dollars—the True Tuition model—with no discounts or scholarships to attract targeted students. While other law schools often avoid even talking about the bar exam, letting their students find their own way to prep classes or testing centers, the College of Law provides a well-staffed Center for Academic and Bar Readiness to help students prepare. n The curriculum has become increasingly experiential, with a simulation of drafting and negotiating an agreement, in addition to the litigation experience that culminates in a mock trial. Legal writing and law practice skills are embedded in the academic

program. n “We’re developing new methods of delivery of legal education while the rest of the galactic empire and legal education as a whole is slowly crumbling,” says Holmes, who came to the University of La Verne from another institution because of the unique opportunity to shape the law school. n From its inception, the University of La Verne’s College of Law grew out of a need for legal education in Inland Southern California. Superior Court Judge Paul Egly approached President Leland Newcomer ’42 in 1969 with a proposal that was quickly accepted. The La Verne College Law Center, as it was initially called, opened in 1970 with Egly as dean and an advisory committee of prominent local attorneys and judges. The law school grew quickly, merging with the San Fernando Valley College of Law in 1983. Its graduates soon made their mark as judges, prosecutors, and local attorneys. n In 2016, the law school was granted full accreditation from the American Bar Association. It was a long-sought standard, and it could not have come at a better time, as enrollment at the school continued to increase while other law schools have seen a decline. Additionally, the program is now the most affordable ABA-accredited law school in California. n A banner hangs in Holmes’s office. It proclaims, “Congratulations to our February 2014 bar exam passers! La Verne College of Law 87.5%.” That was twenty points higher than the state average for ABA-accredited programs—and a sign of the success of the University of La Verne’s relevant and experiential approach.

The University of La Verne College of Law is known for assisting students with the True Tuition model. This provides a fixed rate for all three years of fulltime students’ legal education, or all four years of part-time students’ education, with a provision for performance-based, outside-funded scholarships in the latter years. This brings financial stability to students and families knowing in advance that there will be no increases during their studies. The College opened in 1970 and soon was witnessing its students emerging in the profession as successful lawyers, judges, and prosecutors.

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job. Continue to manage, but remember where my focus really should be.”

Other students nod in agreement. They all know managers who lack the leadership skills they are studying, and they have all experienced days in which the main goal was just to make it until closing time. The most inspirational moments of their week come from this class.

Ruby Medina, thirty-one, mother of a child with autism and a six-month-old baby, works full-time as an administrative assistant at the Southern California Gas Company. But on Monday nights, at the University of La Verne’s regional Burbank campus, she sees herself on track for a better future.

“Once you have already had a career and you know the career life, when you learn new skills, you apply them right away.”

When the University of La Verne developed CAPA in 1971, few options existed for people who had not completed college in the usual window of their early twenties. Typically, if you could not

“Once you have already had a career and you know the career life, when you learn new skills, you apply them right away.”

Ruby Medina

Located within the Abraham Center, the Lewis Family Grand Staircase is named in honor of the family whose generosity has touched countless lives at the University of La Verne. Here and across Southern California, the Lewis family (Richard, Robert, Roger, and Randall), through the Lewis Family Corporation, has funded scholarship programs.

Linda De Long, who came to teach at the University of La Verne after a long career in human resources, is the program director for the Academic Success Center. After more than twenty years as an adjunct professor, she earned a doctorate from the College of Education and currently teaches leadership courses in the College of Business and Public Management.

quit your job to go back to school, you could not pursue a degree.

The University of La Verne started the CAPA program with a pilot test of this new idea with just two students and then quickly expanded. Within a few years, more than one hundred students were attending weekend classes at Founders Hall. Today, about thirty-four hundred adult learners pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees, many of them through partnerships with employers who offer courses at their worksites.

“Everyone is there because they are

“Everyone is there because they are mission-driven. It is a second chance for education.”

— Dr. Steve Lesniak ’96

mission-driven,” says Dr. Steve Lesniak ’96, former dean of the regional and online campuses who retired in 2015 after thirty-nine years at the University of La Verne. “It is a second chance for education.”

The regional and online campuses reflect a broad commitment by the university to adapt education to the needs of all students. In its 125 years, the university has seen tremendous

change—and remains poised for more by pioneering new programs and teaching techniques that prepare students to succeed in an interconnected world.

For much of its history, the University of La Verne was like an extended family, a close-knit campus where everyone went to chapel once a week and enjoyed hayrides, picnics, and square dances.

For much of its history, the University of La Verne was like an extended family, a close-knit campus where everyone went to chapel once a week and enjoyed hayrides, picnics, and square dances. Beyond the usual holidays, students looked forward to Beach Day and Snow Day for annual treks to the shore and mountains. On Build La Verne Day, they helped wash windows and pull weeds. On L Day, they cleared the mountain paths of the famous L.

Lifelong learning, inclusivity, community engagement, ethical reasoning—those were natural parts of the university. “It was an extension of life as we knew it from church and home,” recalls Dr. Marlin Heckman ’58, who served as head librarian for thirty-two years and later as the university archivist.

But the tide of change that swept college campuses across the country in the 1960s also came to the University of La Verne. The change agent was Dr. Leland (Lee) Newcomer, a 1942 graduate who became the university president in 1968. A former public school superintendent, he wanted students to explore existential questions through their chosen studies: “‘Who am I? What is the meaning of my existence in the world? What is my place in it?’”

To facilitate change, Newcomer successfully pressed for the enlargement of the board of trustees, which resulted in the Church of

Five of the exactly one hundred graduates at the 1961 commencement with Harold Fasnacht, the president from 1948–1968 of what was then La Verne College. After his retirement, the university established the Fasnacht Distinguished Lecture Series, which has since been a mainstay on campus.

To appreciate the connectivity between a campus and its community, the university’s La Verne Experience includes service-oriented Community Engagement Days. This one is linked to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

In the mid-1970s, La Verne College operated academic programs in Athens, Greece, and then Naples, Italy. These La Verne students enjoyed some time visiting ancient Greek ruins.

the Brethren trustees becoming a minority with decreased influence. In the next few years, under President Newcomer, the university opened its first coeducational residence hall, created the January interterm, eliminated the requirement to attend chapel, and encouraged students to devise their own majors. He developed CAPA and initiated the largest federally funded program in the United States to train bilingual educators. He even created an off-campus program for active military at the US Naval Pacific Missile Range in Point Mugu, just north of Los Angeles.

Although the Church of the Brethren

“‘Who am I? What is the meaning of my existence in the world? What is my place in it?’”

Dr.

Leland (Lee) Newcomer ’42

retained its strong historic commitment to being a peace church, the university took an all-encompassing view of its mission to serve the needs of the community. Members of the military—and their civilian support workers—were finding it hard to pursue higher education. The University of La Verne program gave them a chance to work toward a degree. Other field studies centers opened on bases in the Philippines, Greece, Italy, and Alaska.

train bilingual educators.

Leland Newcomer ’42 succeeded Harold Fasnacht as president in 1968. The former school superintendent was controversial and grew the university in ways unimaginable in earlier years, including opening the school’s first coeducational residence hall, eliminating the chapel requirement, and developing the largest federally funded program in the country to

President Newcomer was controversial— not just because of his proposals, but also due to his brash approach. He did not shy away from controversy. He embraced it, as he explained in a yearbook comment about a “very active and exciting year”:

Some people in our community

“He was probably the most visionary person I ever worked with; he loved to stir the pot. He loved to make people uncomfortable.”

Steve Morgan ’68 former University of La Verne president

have said we created more problems this past year than we have solved.

I hope this is true and that it will continue this way, for problems create tension—tension creates dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction motivates action to change behavior or conditions. . . . So let’s get on with the identification of problems and the struggle for solutions.

“He was probably the most visionary person I ever worked with; he loved to stir

the pot. He loved to make people uncomfortable,” says Steve Morgan ’68, who worked as Newcomer’s assistant and later became the University of La Verne’s longest-serving president.

While the CAPA program became a lasting legacy, Newcomer’s last visible contribution to campus was the construction of the “Super Tents.” The world’s first permanent tensioned-membrane structure integrated a fiberglass fabric canopy coated with Teflon

Newcomer’s last visible contribution to campus was the construction of the “Super Tents.”

resin, suspended by cables and frames, to create what are now the Sports Science and Athletics Pavilion and the Dailey Theater. Opened in 1974 and renovated in 2005, the Super Tents added architecturally significant space in the most economical way, originally costing less than $3 million.

When Newcomer moved on to another post as a public school superintendent, his spirit of innovation resonated into the future.

The University of La Verne’s iconic Super Tents are suspended with cables and frames and wrapped with a Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric. Opened in 1974 and renovated in 2005, they now house the Sports Science and Athletics Pavilion and the Dailey Theater.

The University of La Verne Literacy Center is a unique learning program both for kids and the graduate students who practice teaching strategies. Since it opened in 2002, close to one thousand kids with reading challenges have benefited from the program, enabling many of them to raise their reading levels by up to two years.

Raggedy Ann and Andy rest on a chair upholstered in an alphabet fabric, as if they are waiting for a young child to snuggle up and begin reading to them. Nearby, children sit on the floor with a board book while mothers gather toddlers on their laps. The waiting area of the University of La Verne Literacy Center feels like a mix between a cozy living room and the children’s section of a library.

It is actually the entryway to a unique learning environment, a hands-on graduate reading program that enables university students to learn teaching strategies and practice them under professional supervision. The graduate students tutor from 4 to 5:30 p.m. and then attend their own classes from 6:15 to 9 p.m.

In one classroom, Gene Simons, a high school computer applications teacher who is working toward certification as a reading specialist, pulls out a set of flashcards he has made and laminated. As he flips them over to

The University of La Verne Literacy Center is described by one of its directors as “magical” and “amazing.” The center is just one of the myriad ways the university’s education program impacts education in Southern California.

drill a preteen boy who has been struggling with his reading, Simons notices that the boy often tries to sound out the -tion ending of words as “tee-on.” But one word, nation , he has memorized and pronounces correctly.

“You see, this ending is the same,” Simons shows him, comparing the card with one showing “narration.” “When you see t-i-o-n at the end of word, it sounds like shun.”

Simons could almost see a light going on in the boy’s eyes. He smiles and pauses, a moment that makes the long days and late nights of work and graduate study worthwhile. “It seems like a little thing, but it’s a big deal because he learned he can do it,” Simons says.

The University of La Verne Literacy Center has worked with approximately a thousand children since it opened in 2002, helping them progress by as much as one year in their reading level in just ten weeks of free tutoring. Some children take a second session, enabling many of them to catch up by two years.

The University of La Verne Literacy Center has worked with about a thousand children since it opened in 2002, helping them progress by as much as one year in their reading level in just ten weeks of free tutoring.

“For some children, it’s a saving grace. They bond with the tutor, and something happens that couldn’t happen in the regular classroom,” says professor of education Janice Pilgreen, Ph.D., codirector of the Literacy Center and founder and chair of the Graduate Reading Program. “It becomes pretty magical. What happens at the center is amazing.”

The teachers touch lives one by one, but they also spread their successful strategies to their

colleagues in their schools. It is hard to overstate the impact the University of La Verne has had on education in Southern California. Even when it was just a small college, dozens of new teachers graduated every year. John “Skip” Mainiero ’62, who served as chair of the education department before becoming vice president for administration and finance, helped develop some of California’s rules for teacher accreditation programs.

Beginning in 1975 the doctoral program in

“For some children, it’s a saving grace. They bond with the tutor, and something happens that couldn’t happen in the regular classroom.”

Janice

school management (EdD) became a laboratory for new teaching methods that reflected the flexibility and creativity that the university sought to bring to education. Doctoral students, who were already California educators, worked in teams to improve decision-making and problem-solving.

“It was like a think tank for leadership,” says Dr. Barbara Poling ’82, professor of organizational leadership, who earned her EdD from the University of La Verne in 1981.

Pilgreen, Ph.D.

The bonding between student and tutor in the Literacy Center takes place over just a few weeks, but the impact and results are lifelong achievements.

The University of La Verne continues to innovate. In 2001, with a grant from the US Department of Education, the university developed a Spanish Bilingual Bicultural Counseling certificate, the first of its kind in the nation. The program gives future counselors tools and skills to help the children of native Spanish-speaking immigrants balance the culture and expectations in their homes with their need to acculturate into American society at school.

Just having academic success is not enough. That is what Dr. Rita Patel Thakur ’03, associate dean and professor of business management, remembers thinking when her business students graduated and asked for references to become a bank teller or a secretary, despite having new degrees that could open the door to professional careers. She realized that students need the practical skills and confidence to reach higher.

Thakur grew determined to reshape the College of Business and Public Management with an experiential curriculum that she calls “the most

In 2001, with a grant from the US Department of Education, the university developed a Spanish Bilingual Bicultural Counseling certificate, the first of its kind in the nation.

Cultural entertainment is under way at an annual Latino Education Access and Development (LEAD) Conference, developed by the University of

During LEAD, the school hosts several hundred Latino students from nearby school districts. The students spread across the campus, attending information sessions and listening to speakers, all in an effort to help them learn about the benefits of higher education. One recent LEAD conference offered sessions on topics such as STEM careers, Latinos in Entertainment, and Communication Career Pathways.

La Verne.

Thakur grew determined to reshape the College of Business and Public Management with an experiential curriculum that she calls “the most unique program in the United States.”

unique program in the United States.” Sophomores learn how to function in the business environment, from dining etiquette to resume writing. They practice interviewing and even receive feedback from area business leaders. Juniors are paired with business mentors, who take them to networking events and coach them. Seniors provide market research, financial analysis, and other consulting for local businesses, creating reports that they can later show prospective employers.

“You wouldn’t believe the confidence they build,” says Thakur, who led the application for the $2.47 million federal grant that helped establish the program.

The centerpiece of this Skills for Success program is the Integrated Business Curriculum in the junior year. Instead of listening to lectures and watching PowerPoint presentations, the University of La Verne’s business majors learn

Student housing at the University of La Verne is spread over several residential communities, each with its own style and personality. A residential life team helps coordinate all aspects of student life in housing, with special focus on respect and appreciation for diversity as well as student safety and individual academic success.

Each year, students in the Integrated Business curriculum create working businesses and generate profits. These profits are then donated to local charities. Here, the Boys and Girls Club receives its funds as Ibrahim (Abe) Helou, Ph.D., dean of the College of Business and Public Management, looks on.

about marketing, finance, and management by actually building companies. Each team presents a business plan to a local bank and, when approved, receives a twenty-five-hundred-dollar loan to launch a product or service, to be repaid from their revenue at the end of the year. Students then select which charity will receive their net profits.

It is not just a class; it is a challenge—and the students meet it with gusto. Consider the case of ConnecTech, an enterprise that offered to solve a common problem for people who want to use their devices while they are charging. The students sold a six-foot-long charging cable to replace the typical two-foot version that does not reach very far from the outlet. The cords, offered in four colors and three models, sold for $15, or two for $25. They cost only $1.97 wholesale, netting the team a significant profit. ConnecTech raised about $10,000 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Integrated Business Curriculum students have netted more than $70,000 in profits.

When business students leave the University of La Verne, they seek management and finance jobs—or start their own companies with real experience. Theory-to-practice helps build dreams. “Our students are hungry for success,” says Dr. Abe Helou, dean of the College of Business and Public Management. “When you give them a chance to demonstrate their skills, they shine.” n

“Our students are hungry for success. When you give them a chance to demonstrate their skills, they shine.”

— Dr. Abe Helou, dean of the College of Business and Public Management

The REACH Summer Business Camp was developed by the University of La Verne to motivate high school students to envision a better future. Over the course of a decade, 96 percent of REACH attendees enrolled in college, and 84 percent of them graduated.

Magpie Ranch Brings Theory-to-Practice under the Big Sky

Magpies screeched their wakeup call, and the dew was still fresh on the tall grass when Stephany Gonzalez ’15 stepped out into a Montana summer morning. Insects buzzed around her and a snake slithered away from her path, but she barely noticed them as she walked from the road into the ranchland. Gonzalez was peering closely at a wooden bird box where she had placed a fake cowbird egg— one that she had formed out of clay and painted to look authentic. n Would the mountain bluebird accept this intruder’s egg as its own? Or would it become aggressive and reject the egg? n For about a month, Gonzalez conducted research into brood parasitism, or what happens when one bird lays eggs in another bird’s nesting area to be raised by a different host. Her fieldwork at the University of La Verne’s Montana Research Station, also known as Magpie Ranch, yielded much more than research data. n “Coming out here has opened up my eyes to what I want to do with my life,” says Gonzalez. A biology major, she was aiming for medical school, but she discovered a new passion for field research. n The Montana Research Station is a prime example of the University of La Verne’s focus on translating theory to practice. In the 1990s, alumnus Richard Base ’61 donated 160 acres of mountainous forestland about twelve miles from Drummond, Montana, a perfect spot for naturalists. The university purchased another seven acres in the valley, which are more

accessible, and constructed two buildings that serve as laboratory and dormitory space. It even features a full laboratory for DNA molecular analysis. n Magpie Ranch is a labor of love for Dr. Robert Neher, former Natural Sciences Division chair and biology professor at the University of La Verne for fiftyfour years. Professor Neher convinced then-president Steve Morgan ’68 to develop the field station, and helped purchase the land and more recent additions. Neher and his wife, Mary, still work as managers and caretakers of the property. n “Just the experience of being up there is life changing to a lot of people,” says Neher, who notes that many students have never spent time out in nature. n Each year, University of La Verne faculty members take students on the trek northward, stopping at spectacular national parks in Arizona and Utah. In Montana, students gather data for their capstone projects at the university, which they will develop into thirtypage thesis papers. n “This gives the students some independence in their work,” says Dr. Kat Weaver, associate professor of biology and codirector of the La Verne Experience. “They run their own projects with a faculty mentor.” n Some students find the foundation for their life’s work. “It’s gotten them started in research projects that they may continue right on through to their Ph.D.s and probably after that,” Neher says.

Robert Neher coddles an old friend at the University of La Verne Montana Research Station, nestled in a valley roughly forty miles east of Missoula. Known affectionately as Magpie Ranch for the prevalent bird, the facility was Neher’s brainchild when he was a biology professor at the university. He convinced then-president Steve Morgan to pursue the concept, and Neher and his wife, Mary, now serve as its caretakers. The station is more than a rustic outpost. Serious research is conducted on its 167 acres, which includes a laboratory for DNA molecular analysis. Many field research papers that originate at Magpie lead to doctoral dissertations down the road.

The free HOLA tutoring program is yet another example of outreach that is so important to the University of La Verne’s mission. Through HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles), students who are engaged in the La Verne Experience reach into underserved neighborhoods to learn about children’s social and emotional development while assisting them with their homework, music, or athletics.

GENERATIONS OF TRANSFORMING LIVES

THE UNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE: FOUNDED IN 1891

The LaVerne Experience

Two days before the start of the fall semester, freshmen

at most colleges are still decorating their residence hall rooms and getting to know their roommates. They are checking out the local pizza hangout and buying textbooks and T-shirts in the campus bookstore. They are Snapchatting and

Skyping with family and friends back home. But at 8 a.m. on the Saturday before classes begin at the University of La Verne, incoming first-year students,

CHAPTER THREE

Community Engagement Day, a service-oriented start to their La Verne Experience, is a unique program based on the university’s values, that builds connections in the classroom and beyond.

faculty, and staff members gather behind the Sara and Michael Abraham Campus Center to get to know each other in a very different way. They form into teams based on their assigned FirstYear La Verne Experience (FLEX) classes as part of Community Engagement Day, a serviceoriented start to their La Verne Experience. A unique program based on the university’s values, that builds connections in the classroom and beyond.

For example, thirty-two of the firstyear students had signed up to take the interdisciplinary FLEX course called Markets and the Good Life, a kind of point-counterpoint experience taught by two FLEX professors: a free-market conservative and a socialistleaning liberal. Their professors appeared in khaki shorts and T-shirts, with garden gloves and sun

Community Engagement Day, which is part of the La Verne Experience, is the university’s unique way of incorporating its values into the beginning of a student’s entry into the school.

Community Engagement Days at the University of La Verne take many forms, but one consistent theme involves getting your hands dirty and getting to know your neighbors—many of whom may be very different from your life experience.

hats. Other groups of students huddled around their professors. Even the president and provost were dressed for manual labor. In all, six hundred students in thirty-three FLEX courses gathered to work in the community for the day.

The first step to a University of La Verne education is to get your hands dirty, work hard alongside people who may be very different from you, and make the surrounding community better.

For Marvin Tapia ’17, that entry to college feels a lot like the dynamic in his extended Latino family in Anaheim. “That’s one of the reasons I came to this school,” says Tapia, a first-generation college student. “They create community here.”

The La Verne Experience involves more than service. It extends the personal touch of professors and the support of peers beyond the classroom. It links the university’s core values with academic disciplines. It builds critical thinking and communications skills by requiring students to reflect on their experiences. And it connects the theory from class to the greater community:

The first step to a University of La Verne education is to get your hands dirty, work hard alongside people who may be very different from you, and make the surrounding community better.

theory-to-practice.

Thoroughly connecting disciplines and coursework with community building, “It is the current incarnation of our 125-year history.”

Provost Jonathan Reed, Ph.D.

The La Verne Experience extends throughout the four years: the first-year FLEX program, second-year SoLVE (Sophomore La Verne Experience), junior-year experiential education, and senior-year capstone courses. The La Verne Experience enhances the CAPA (College Accelerated Program for Adults) and graduate programs.

Thoroughly connecting disciplines and coursework with community building, “It is the current incarnation of our 125-year history,” explains Provost Jonathan Reed, Ph.D.

At first, students may not fully appreciate why the La Verne Experience is special. But then, one day, it clicks. Tapia was working with the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice in Los Angeles as part of the University of La Verne’s Summer Service, a program that dates

At the University of La Verne, the Leopard cheerleaders do more than rouse team spirit at athletic events. They welcome new students and their parents to campus at the beginning of the year.

The International Voluntary Service (IVS) was launched in the late 1950s and played an inspirational role in the formation of the Peace Corps, founded during the Kennedy administration several years later. Here a quartet of La Verne College singers, along with other IVS students, perform in Cambodia in 1963, singing at a Buddhist festival.

back to 1957.

Some Summer Service students travel to work with summer camps in Washington and Oregon or at a sustainable living center in Virginia. Others mentor local teenagers, lead activities in a nursing home, or run a peace camp for the La Verne Church of the Brethren.

Tapia helped promote workers’ rights, and during his first week he served as a marshal at a protest march helping guide people along the designated route. That is when he realized something that will shape his future: “Alone you can’t really do much, but if you come together and create one big voice, you can actually make a difference,” he says.

Some Summer Service students . . . mentor local teenagers, lead activities in a nursing home, or run a peace camp for the La Verne Church of the Brethren.

The drive to make a difference also describes the motivation of many professors who came as young faculty members to the University of La Verne and stayed for their entire academic careers.

“We take people with potential and we really develop that potential. We give them new opportunities.”

Dr. Steve Morgan ’68

One of those who came early and happily stayed late was Dr. Steve Morgan ’68, who was just thirty-nine when he became one of the nation’s youngest college presidents. His life had been shaped by the University of La Verne, the alma mater of his grandmother, Grace Hileman Miller in the class of 1914; his mother, Ruth Miller Morgan ’36; and numerous cousins, aunts, and uncles. He graduated in 1968 with an aspiration to become a city manager, but he lingered at La Verne, working for President Leland Newcomer ’42, who convinced him to stay in the academic world after he completed his doctorate at the University of Northern Colorado.

As with so many other students and faculty, he discovered that the legacy of contributing to the surrounding community appealed greatly to him, well before it had a formal name as the La Verne Experience. The University of La Verne, he realized, was the place to shape future leaders and to build a better world. “We take people with potential and we really develop that potential. We give them new opportunities,” says Morgan, who spent nine years as executive director of the Independent Colleges of Northern California Consortium before returning to the University of La Verne as president in 1985.

The university has stayed true to its core values throughout its history. It remains an intimate campus, a place where professors get to

For Steve Morgan, the University of La Verne was a family affair, including his grandmother, mother, and many others. So it was a natural that he would attend, graduating in 1968. But the connection to his alma mater didn’t stop there. He worked for President Leland Newcomer and after earning his doctorate and working in higher education elsewhere in California, returned to the university as president in 1985. His first major task: tackling a budget in disarray. He served for twenty-five years, retiring in 2011.

One could call the rock that sits solidly in front of Founders Hall a sort of campus instant messaging service as its hard surface endures paint job after paint job as students overlay each layer with everything from club names to inspirational slogans. Whether what is painted is art—however short-lived—is best left to the beholder. But, if nothing else, it’s one of the most enduring traditions at the university, which has given voice to issues, thoughts, and passionate debate over the decades.

know their students and offer them guidance and encouragement. Skipping class is not an option; wayward students are likely to run into their professor, who will pepper them with questions and may leave them with a stern lecture.

The university has stayed true to its core values throughout its history. It remains an intimate campus, a place where professors get to know their students and offer them guidance and encouragement.

The university also needed to adapt to changing times in practical ways. Morgan discovered that while the university continued to inspire a new generation, behind the scenes, the finances were in disrepair. In fact, budget deficits and accumulated debt placed its future in peril. Morgan rolled up his sleeves and took a scalpel to the budget, while rallying the university community around its longtime strengths and emphasizing its core mission. “I had confidence that if all of us moved in the same direction, we could achieve new levels of excellence for the university,” he

continued on page 82

Ahmed Ispahani, Ph.D., landed at the University of La Verne in 1964, though his journey began in his native Pakistan. As a business professor, he has taught generations of students, through different economies and political landscapes. Through it all, he has remained eternally optimistic and takes pride in the accomplishments of his students, including former university president Steve Morgan.

In a World of Many Faiths—and Lack of Faith—University of La Verne Builds Bridges

Being at the University of La Verne has been a soul journey for Roxana Bautista ’16—figuratively and literally. n As president of Common Ground, an interfaith organization on campus, she takes part in “Souljourns,” or visits to different houses of worship. But the Mormon from Ontario, California, also has deepened her own spirituality as she reaches out to others of different faiths. n “We’re building friendships across very vast differences, but showing that those drastic differences do not have to separate us,” says Bautista. n The University of La Verne’s diverse student body includes people of many faiths—Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Sikh, and Hindu. The largest group may be “nones”—young people with a sense of spirituality but no organized religion, humanists, agnostics, or atheists. The university has a large Secular Student Alliance. n “It becomes very important for them to develop language to ask the big questions in life,” says Dr. Zandra Wagoner ’89, university chaplain and a Church of the Brethren ordained pastor. “With core values that emphasize inclusivity and no coercion in religion, the University of La Verne is a supportive place for them to explore issues of faith and spirituality,” she says. n Interfaith work played a role in the university’s recognition as part of the 2014 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The university recently created a minor in interfaith studies, which includes courses in conflict resolution and the history of pacifism. It is one of the first such academic

programs in the country. n But this is not a new direction for the University of La Verne. It is an extension of years of interfaith work, spearheaded by Dr. Richard Rose, professor of religion and philosophy, who is also assistant pastor at an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in Irvine. n Every week, students gather downstairs at the Interfaith Chapel for guided meditation, and the interfaith student group, Common Ground, tends a community garden at the Church of the Brethren. They participate in a community peace walk and other interfaith activities. n “I feel like there’s nothing better I can leave in the world than an understanding among these different faith traditions,” says Bautista, who is a psychology major. ”It helps break down walls of prejudice.”

Friendships forged at the University of La Verne Interfaith Chapel cross genders, cultures, and religions—sometimes all on the same day.

Left: The Interfaith Chapel on the University of La Verne campus plays host to weekly guided meditations, is home to Common Ground (an interfaith student group), facilitates the tending of a community garden, and hosts many other programs. One recent event was a Coming Out Vigil in honor of LGBT History Month.

continued from page 78

says.

Morgan also knew that appearance matters. His wife, Ann, spearheaded a beautification effort, planting flowers and shrubs and greening the lawns. Morgan added new space that enabled the university to expand its programs—first in the most economical way, by repurposing buildings. The Alpha Beta Market became the new library; the automatic doors remained in place for many years, until it underwent major expansion and remodeling in 1993. The Tastee Freez was painted and renovated into a music building; it retains the iconic A-frame style. The Office

Morgan added new space that enabled the university to expand its programs.

of University Advancement took over the office donated by Dr. Marvin Snell, former director of Student Health Services, on Bonita Avenue.

Upgrading the campus also enabled the university to project a new public image. “The overwhelming modesty of the Brethren culture made it uncomfortable for La Verne to brag about itself, to promote its successes, to market, to advertise,” says Phil Hawkey, the university’s

Vista La Verne is home to 378 students who live in suite-style apartments consisting of bedrooms, bathrooms, and a living room. The LEED-certified facility was the largest building on campus when it was completed in 2012. Vista is one of several residence halls on campus, including the Oaks Residence Hall. Studebaker-Hanawalt (“Stu-Han”), and Brandt Hall. The university also offers themed living and learning communities, such as the Women’s Experience community located in Oaks.

The Sara and Michael Abraham Campus Center hosts programs for student leadership, personal growth, and community development. Opened in 2009, the Center is essentially La Verne’s family room, a gathering place and campus hub. Its 40,200 LEED-certified square feet contain recreational facilities, lounges, dining areas, a rooftop garden, and meeting spaces. The Abrahams—Mr. Abraham serves on La Verne’s board—provided $4 million in matching funding to make the Center possible.

executive vice president. The university began to look outward.

The university’s centennial in 1991 was truly a cause for celebration. As the university began to thrive, more ambitious projects became possible, exemplified by the sleek, glass-walled Abraham Campus Center, the Oaks Residence Hall, and the purchase of the fifty-five-acre Campus West for athletic fields and future expansion. When Morgan retired in 2011, the university had grown dramatically, from about four thousand

“The overwhelming modesty of the Brethren culture made it uncomfortable for La Verne to brag about itself, to promote its successes, to market, to advertise.”

Phil Hawkey

full-time-equivalent undergraduate and graduate students to almost seven thousand. The endowment, virtually nonexistent when he arrived due to debt obligations, approached $30 million.

Morgan’s twenty-six-year tenure made him the longest-serving president in the university’s history. “My intention was to stay for ten [years],

but like many people at the University of La Verne, I got hooked in,” he says. “At La Verne, you realize you can make a difference.”

How do you describe the La Verne Experience?

For Peggy Redman, who received her bachelor’s (’60), master’s (’87), and doctoral (’91) degrees at the University of La Verne, and whose parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins came to the College beginning in the 1920s, it was a feeling as natural and comfortable as breathing. La Verne was a place that truly became a lifelong home.

“My intention was to stay for ten [years], but like many people at the University of La Verne, I got hooked in. At La Verne, you realize you can make a difference.”

Dr. Steve Morgan ’68

Redman was a student at La Verne College during a time of innocence, the post–World War II years when American culture celebrated the sort of wholesome life found on campus. The continued on page 90

Cheering for the Leopards football team, which was established over eighty years ago, is a community passion in La Verne. Playing in a recently renovated Ortmayer Stadium—named in honor of legendary coach Roland Ortmayer (1948–1990)—the Leopards have had three Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships, two unbeaten seasons, and an NCAA playoff berth.

La Verne Classrooms Open a Window on the World

Picture these scenes: Dr. Felicia Beardsley, professor of anthropology, forges a path through a jungle on a remote Pacific island, clearing vines away from a cliffside cave and discovering an ancient carving of a giant face. Dr. Ahmed Ispahani, professor of business administration and economics, who was an economic adviser to the Shah of Iran and to his own cousin, then–Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, describes a secret meeting between the US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and Chairman Mao Zedong of China. n Dr. Jonathan Reed, provost and archaeologist, digs for artifacts of early Christians in the Galilee of Israel. Dr. Juli MinovesTriquell, professor of comparative politics, teaches from his perspective as the former minister of foreign affairs, permanent representative to the United Nations, and ambassador to the United States and Canada from the tiny country of Andorra, tucked between Spain and France. Dr. Abe Helou, dean of the College of Business and Public Management, developed a partnership with the International Business School of Sao Paulo in Brazil, bringing hundreds of South American students to the university each year. n The world comes alive in classrooms at the University of La Verne, thanks in part to the extensive international work by these and other professors. n Beardsley, a consulting archaeologist for Micronesia, collaborated on the World Heritage nomination for massive stone cities found on manmade islands in the lagoons on two islands. She collects oral histories from people of the islands and uses their stories to guide her work. During a January trip in 2013, she discovered a painted cave and a giant face carved onto a cliff—then headed back to her classroom at La Verne, where she showed her students the photographs. n It might seem a bit anticlimactic to return to the Southern California

expanse of suburbia after navigating through remote jungles, but Beardsley feels grounded in the open and flexible academic environment of La Verne. “We are creating global citizens and students who can think rationally—reasonably, be creative and imaginative thinkers—and who really can adapt to just about anything the world is likely

From left to right, Ryan Mansell, Bryan Pride, Brittany Lokar, and Thomas Allison, students on the internationally ranked debate team on La Verne’s annual debate trip to Oxford’s prestigious Inter Varsity Debate Tournament.

to throw at them,” she says. n Ispahani came to La Verne when he was finishing his dissertation and needed to make a little extra money. He ended up staying for more than fifty years. “What really attracted me were the people—incredible people,” he says. “They went out of their way to accommodate me. They treated everyone like a

family.” n Ispahani took a few leaves of absence over the years, including a five-year stint as the economic adviser of the Central Bank of Iran. But he always came back to the university. Today he coteaches a course in international economics with University President Devorah Lieberman, whose scholarly work focuses on intercultural communication. n In the story about Henry Kissinger’s meeting, a precursor to President Richard Nixon’s historic trip to China, Ispahani notes that Kissinger had first traveled to Pakistan, where newspapers reported he was absent from his scheduled local events because he was ill. He was actually attending the secret meetings in China. n “What you hear officially and what is unofficial are two different things,” Ispahani tells his students. “Do not trust everything you read in the newspaper.” n In the College of Business and Public Management, Helou prepares students to enter a marketplace that is constantly changing. The course work blends practical skills and decision-making with management theory. By recruiting international students, Helou has infused the program with a global perspective. Indeed, as a native of Lebanon (he migrated to the United States in 1985) with an undergraduate degree from Lebanese University, a worldwide perspective is important to him. Since his appointment as dean, he has worked to dramatically increase the enrollment of international MBA students and boost recruitment contacts on the Pacific Rim.

n When Helou first came to the University of La Verne in 1993, after earning a Ph.D. in finance from Arizona State University, he was like many of the students today—full of youthful ambition. He stayed at the university because he had the freedom to flourish.

“After a few months here, I found out this is the place you can really make the biggest difference in students’ lives,” he says.

continued from page 86

Krankers were a campus club of hot-rodders who fixed and raced cars. GATs—or Girls About Town—sponsored the school’s Christmas Tea and made decorations for the May Daze celebration.

The University of La Verne was also a place where you could find your passion—which, in Redman’s case, was teaching. She worked as a math teacher and later became director of teacher education and finally the director of the La Verne Experience.

In 2011 President Devorah Lieberman arrived to succeed Morgan, bringing fresh ideas about strengthening student engagement. A native of Covina, California, she had spent over

How do you describe the La Verne Experience? For Peggy Redman it was a feeling as natural and comfortable as breathing. La Verne was a place that truly became a lifelong home.

thirty years in higher education as a professor, a vice provost, a special assistant to the president, and, during the seven and a half years

before taking over as director of the La Verne Experience.

Peggy Redman earned her bachelor’s (’60), master’s (’87), and doctorate (’91) from the University of La Verne, and she is part of a long line of family members who graduated from here. It was at the university that she discovered her lifelong passion for teaching, working as a math teacher and later as director of teacher education

Devorah Lieberman was tapped as the eighteenth (and first woman) president of the University of La Verne in 2011, and it’s been full throttle ever since. Drawn by the inclusive and open atmosphere, she has spearheaded programs to further enhance diversity and connectivity among students, faculty, and community (areas in which she is widely published).

prior to coming to the University of La Verne, the provost at Wagner College on Staten Island, New York. On her first visit to the University of La Verne campus, she fell in love with the open and inclusive atmosphere. She had a keen sense of the school’s legacy and a deep appreciation for the school’s core values. Lieberman challenged Peggy Redman and others to define what makes the University of La Verne distinctive and relevant and to give it permanence and structure in the curriculum and cocurriculum.

“For me, the La Verne Experience is all about connection. That is at its core,” says Lieberman.

In 2011 President Devorah Lieberman arrived to succeed Morgan, bringing fresh ideas about strengthening student engagement.

“It is connecting students with students, students with faculty, students across disciplines, students with the greater community, and students with their futures.”

In Peggy Redman’s day, such interactions needed no special recognition. Her class of 1960 was the first to have one hundred graduates. It was easy to know everyone, and with so many siblings and cousins attending, the University of

La Verne resembled a large family.

“For me, the La Verne Experience is all about connection. That is at its core.”

— President Devorah Lieberman

Today, the University of La Verne enrolls approximately eighty-five hundred students— almost twenty-seven hundred traditional undergraduates and two thousand graduate students on the main campus, and about thirty-four hundred graduate, online, CAPA, and regional campus students—yet the university still places a priority on creating community. About two-thirds of the undergraduate classes have fewer than twenty students, allowing for close relationships to develop between them and the faculty.

From 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays—community hours when no classes are scheduled—the Campus Center is abuzz with friends connecting or student organizations meeting. Just outside in Sneaky Park, students offer an impromptu concert, set up booths to raise money for charity, or hold outreach events for campus organizations.

One visible sign of togetherness occurs on the third Tuesday of every month, when throngs

Homecoming festivities are a chance to reconnect with old friends and make new ones—as well as catch an errant football bobbling through the stands. Other somewhat more organized activities spread over a three-day weekend in October typically include receptions, an alumni awards dinner, a street fair, Fun Run, a parade, soccer and football games, and a service at the Church of the Brethren.

From 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays—community hours when no classes are scheduled—the Campus Center is abuzz with friends connecting or student organizations meeting.

Catching up with classmates and grabbing a bite to eat at the patio outside of Davenport Dining Hall is all part of the day. Several restaurants operate within Davenport, and they each source their food locally as much as possible. Indeed, the menus are often written based on seasonality and availability of farm-fresh items, and occasionally there are themed food events such as Oktoberfest and French food days. But food is not the only item on the menu at Davenport’s restaurants, as sometimes live entertainment is offered.

of students walk from campus to the La Verne Church of the Brethren a few blocks away to attend an evening of fellowship and homecooked food, dubbed the Food Network. A host and organizer is Corlan Ortmayer Harrison ’79, daughter of longtime football coach Roland Ortmayer and parent of first-year student Rayna Harrison ’19.

That enduring sense of connection inspired the La Verne Experience, a unique program of learning communities that weaves together interdisciplinary academic study, co-curricular activities, self-reflection, and community engagement. When Lieberman received the 2015 President of the Year award from the Association of College Unions International, the association cited the novel program as a way of successfully engaging students, alumni, and the community.

“There’s a thread that began with the academy in 1891 that is still present in today’s

graduating classes,” says Redman, who became the first director of the La Verne Experience. “These concepts of community engagement, lifelong learning, ethical reasoning, diversity— they’re all part of what La Verne is, has always been, and always will be.”

That enduring sense of connection inspired the La Verne Experience, a unique program of learning communities that weaves together interdisciplinary academic study, co-curricular activities, self-reflection, and community engagement.

First-year students soon discover that, at the University of La Verne, they have entered a kind of academic fellowship. Three out of four of their first-semester classes are interconnected, with professors who collaborate to teach a group of students. They share the FLEX (First-Year La Verne Experience), which starts with Community Engagement Day and continues with other service-learning activities.

continued on page 103

Founders Hall is home to the president’s office, provost’s office, the Department of Music, Department of History, and Political Science, among others. The third-oldest building on campus, it was completed in 1926 and it was in its auditorium (now the Ann and Steve Morgan Auditorium) that the first student assembly took place that same year.

Growing the Arts—A Conversation with Four Leaders: Gary Colby, David Flaten, Ruth Trotter, and Reed Gratz

A confluence of creative people descended on the University of La Verne in the late 1970s and 1980s: Reed Gratz in music, Ruth Trotter in visual/fine arts, David Flaten in theatre arts, and Gary Colby in photography. This group and many colleagues were the driving force in creating the University of La Verne’s vibrant arts programs we know today. n “We had a shell when I arrived in ’83,” said nowretiring theatre chair David Flaten. “The single tent was designed for theatre but had no equipment. There were only 12 dimmers, six lighting instruments, and no shop equipment.” n Music department chair Reed Gratz, who came in 1977, said, “Morgan Auditorium was old, with wooden seats, fluorescent lights, and no air conditioning.” n Ruth Trotter, an arts professor hired by fine arts chair Joella Mahoney in 1989, remembers teaching arts classes “in a corner of the tent [then the campus center], underneath the basketball courts and next to the snack bar and grill.” n Gary Colby came to advise the Campus Times on photography in the mid-1970s and ended up establishing a photography program to support both the journalism and arts within five years. n “The photography laboratory and studio were designed as a multipurpose room, housing the Campus Times and sandwiched between the campus bookstore, the radio station, and the campus center administrator’s counter,” said Colby. “All of it was beneath the basketball courts, precluding printing when games were under way, because of the vibration.” n The group shared a vision of the arts as accessible, relevant, and a doorway to the outside world. They brought acclaimed artists to the university and created opportunities for their students. Flaten, Gratz, Colby, and Trotter all used their outside gigs in theatre production, jazz, photography, and painting

to bring world-renowned artists to the university. These artists, inspired by the freedom to create, often stayed to teach, mentor, or assist in developing the blossoming arts program. n Flaten brought in brilliant directors, such as Crispin Thomas, Jane Dibbell, and Georgij Paro, who inspired students for decades. Paro, of the Croatian National Theater of Zagreb, came once a year to direct. n “Paro could have directed anywhere, but he chose us because of the openness of the students and the freedom to direct and teach directing, dramatic literature, and theory—to do a bit of everything,” said Flaten. n Throughout this rich period of growth, students always played a part. “Students came here with no preconception of what theatre was supposed to be,” Flaten remembers. “They didn’t have the idea that ‘it was too much work.’ They were willing to roll up their sleeves. We built everything together.” n Many students graduated from the University and emerged as internationally recognized artists.

Seeing a Rich Future

Each leader has a distinct vision for the future of their departments. n The art department is on par with peer institutions. Trotter notes, “We now have a viable art history program and major with five full-time faculty. Increasing numbers of students are majoring in studio art and art history, as well as graphic design. Many are going on to attend prestigious graduate programs. We have a renowned gallery exhibitions program, a visiting artist program, and a developing internship program, among other things.” n The photography department is housed neither in art nor in journalism, and Gary Colby thinks that is exactly the right spot. “Photography is a disruptive technology in our world today. We don’t train students to be studio photographers or photojournalists. We educate the

Preproduction rehearsal for Anton Chekov’s classic play The Three Sisters, which played to sold out audiences at the Dailey Theater. Chekhov’s unique way of portraying the lives of his characters was not only in the hands of the University of La Verne’s talented student actors, but in those of the dedicated faculty in the university’s Department of Theatre. The production was an example of the brilliant theatrical experience that La Verne’s community has come to expect over the decades.

whole person, developing respect and enthusiasm for traditional academic disciplines.” n Music is flourishing here. “We have 120 students taking piano classes alone and 90 in the guitar class. These are students who are not music majors, but are seeking and finding expression through arts,” commented Gratz. n Theatre is poised for the next evolution, says Flaten. “As part of our future plans, we hope to continue to attract outstanding artists in residence to work with our amazing students. We look forward

to the renovation of our performance spaces.”

n Lyceum, an umbrella program established by College of Arts and Sciences Dean Lawrence Potter, may well be the next catalyst to bring the group together. Lyceum consolidates all of the performing, speaking, fine arts, and art expression activities on campus throughout the year. Appropriately, Lyceum has its inaugural year in this 125th anniversary of the university.

“. . . community engagement, lifelong learning, ethical reasoning, diversity— they’re all part of what La Verne is, has always been, and always will be.”

— Peggy Redman, ’60, ’87, ’91

continued from page 98

For example, Dr. Adonay Montes, assistant professor of education, who was undocumented when he came to the United States as a teenager from El Salvador, teaches the poetry portion of a course titled The Chicano Paradox: Using Poetry, Communication, and Writing to Understand My Cultural Dimensions. The course fits nicely with the University of La Verne’s mission as a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution and gives students a comfort zone as they begin their academic journeys, says Montes. “The language of poetry really allows them to explore identity issues, to help them understand the richness of their bicultural identities,” he says.

Robert Ruiz ’05, director of forensics, teaches

Miller Hall was completed in 1918, making it one of the oldest buildings on the University of La Verne campus.

Intercultural Communication, a writing course that gives students further opportunities to express themselves as well as a foundation for their future academic work.

In the Sophomore La Verne Experience (SoLVE), a two-credit course, students explore the values of the university and engage in campus activities. Their reflections on those activities become a part of an electronic portfolio.

The Junior La Verne Experience incorporates experiential learning into the major field of study, and students complete a culminating seminar and

“The language of poetry really allows them to explore identity issues, to help them understand the richness of their bicultural identities.”

Dr. Adonay Montes

write a capstone autobiography as part of the Senior La Verne Experience. Additional reflective writing is added to the e-portfolios throughout their academic years.

Adult undergraduates capture the La Verne Experience through e-portfolios that reflect on the university values, community engagement, and career issues. Even the graduate programs incorporate cross-

The REACH Summer Business Camp is three weeks of high school students living like college students, thinking like executives, and dreaming of the future. Hosted and run by the University of La Verne, it is just one more way the school displays its commitment to the diverse region.

The La Verne Experience has multiple goals along the way. Sophomores explore the values of the university and engage in community activities, juniors incorporate experiential learning into a major field of study, and seniors must write a capstone autobiography. What’s key is that all students benefit from mentoring, what one school administrator calls a “more holistic approach to education.” The proof is in the numbers—the retention rate of first- to second-year students was at 85 percent in 2014.

disciplinary learning communities that broaden the academic perspective.

The La Verne Experience ensures that all students benefit from the mentoring and personal touch of a close-knit university, says Provost Reed. He calls it “a more holistic approach to education.”

The retention rate for first-year to second-year students has been strong since the introduction of the La Verne Experience and in 2014 was at 85 percent. Ultimately, the La Verne Experience transforms the traditional college program into communities of learning and prepares students for life beyond college.

“The La Verne Experience gives you the La Verne advantage when you graduate and continue on to the next chapter in life,” says Redman. n

First-year students soon discover that, at the University of La Verne, they have entered a kind of academic fellowship.

“The La Verne Experience gives you the La Verne advantage when you graduate and continue on to the next chapter in life.”

— Peggy Redman, ’60, ’87, ’91

Richard Rose, Ph.D., is a professor of religion and philosophy at the University of La Verne who has presented papers in Cape Town and New Delhi. He is also the program director for the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies.

GENERATIONS OF TRANSFORMING LIVES

THE UNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE: FOUNDED IN 1891

Shaping Tomorrow’s Leaders

Extreme drought. Wildfires. Traffic congestion. Heat waves. Blackouts. The high price of the American Dream. How will we solve these intractable problems of the twenty-first century? The answers may not emerge from a classroom at the University of La Verne, but people who seek the solutions will find them.

CHAPTER FOUR

Inland Southern California is run by a who’s who of University of La Verne alumni, including graduates who govern municipalities such as Chino, Azusa, and Alhambra. In Rosemead, the mayor pro tem, city manager, and assistant city manager are all Leopards.

Marcie Edwards, the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, also known as LA’s “water ruler” who helps Californians cope with the drought, earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration in the University of La Verne’s evening program for adult learners. Orange County sheriff Sandra Hutchens ’97, the first woman to hold that position, learned how to manage conflict and change while studying for her bachelor’s degree in public administration at the University of La Verne.

Meanwhile, the University of La Verne’s education graduates have been shaping classrooms across California for decades. Approximately 30 percent of California school superintendents hold their doctoral degrees from the University of La Verne.

For his doctoral dissertation at La Verne, Dr. Bryon Schaefer ’93 studied the key strategies used Clockwise from top left: Marcie Edwards is general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and earned both her undergraduate and master’s degrees in public administration from the University of La Verne’s evening program for adult learners; Leon Kintaudi ’75 came to the university from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, after graduating from medical school, returned to his homeland to help rebuild a healthcare system; Jem Spectar ’89 came to the United States from Cameroon as a teenager—today he is president of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; and Bryon Schaefer, Ph.D., is superintendent of the fifteenhundred-employee Kern High School District in Bakersfield.

by high school principals to improve academic achievement before he became superintendent of the Kern High School District. Dr. Robert Miller ’79, DPA ’14, assistant superintendent and former interim superintendent and president of Pasadena City College, also holds a University of La Verne doctorate.

“I call it the Leopard public service nation. We produce leaders in public service in this region.”

Jack Meek ’75

“I call it the Leopard public service nation,” says Jack Meek ’75, director of the master’s program in public administration. “We produce leaders in public service in this region.”

The University of La Verne’s influence extends across the country and around the world.

Spectar ’89 was still a teenager when he came to the university from Cameroon, hoping for a new life of promise and possibility. Today, he is president of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. Leon Kintaudi ’75 came to the University of La Verne from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After graduating from medical school, he returned to his homeland to rebuild a healthcare

continued on page 117

At the Top of the Worlds: The University of La Verne Makes a Name in Debate

The students push open the doors on the third floor of the Sara and Michael Abraham Campus Center, looking for a place to practice. In the empty ballroom, they find only a few circular high-top tables and some green benches. n “I’ve debated in worse at Oxford,” quips Melanie Nadon ’15, a former debate captain who is helping with the summer practice. n “Definitely true. I’ve debated in closets at Oxford!” says Natalie Holland ’15, as she pulls a bench into place. n Within minutes, they create a makeshift forum, with benches forming a horseshoe and a table functioning as the podium. They are ready to take any random current controversy in the news and pronounce a point of view, with detailed reasoning. n Harvard, Yale, and Brown may carry the glory of the Ivy League, but in debate halls, the University of La Verne shares a place of honor. In 2007 the University of La Verne won the US national championship in British Parliamentary-style debate, beating more renowned and much larger universities. The University of La Verne is one of only nine American teams to ever make the final round of the World University Debate Championships. n In 2013 the University of La Verne hosted the national championships, providing a surfboard-fashioned

trophy that was a whimsical take on the California lifestyle. But the university’s debate team is anything but laid-back. n Debaters listen to NPR, set the BBC as the home page on their Internet browser, keep stacks of the Economist in their dorm rooms, and read actual newspapers instead of just scanning headlines on a smartphone. n To debate at the University of La Verne, students need a passport. Debaters go to the Oxford Intervarsity Debating Championships in England every year. In December 2014, top debaters traveled to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. n While the University of La Verne offers scholarships to a few top high school debaters, the university prides itself on shaping students who show potential. n Robert Ruiz ’05, MED ’09 grew up in East Los Angeles and knew little about debate when the university speech professor Ian Lising ’01 asked him to give it a try. Lising taught him the rules, coaching and encouraging him. In 2007 Ruiz became a national champion with his debate partner, Josh Martin ’07. n Today, as director of forensics, Ruiz nurtures the spark in new debaters. “When they’re frustrated and do not think it’s possible, I tell them about my story,” he says. n Debate began at Lordsburg College in 1912 and remained mostly a campus pastime until

Above: Kandin Maraquin, member of internationally renowned University of La Verne’s debate team, participates in Politicon, the quintessential nonpartisan annual convention that brings together thought leaders, politicians, and entertainment and business A-listers to debate and discuss current issues of our times. Opposite: Ian Lising has taken his La Verne debate team to the world championships and is a former World Debate Council chair.

Robert Rivera arrived in 1981 with grander plans. Under his leadership, the university reached the National Debate Tournament in 1988 and was invited to the World Debating Championships in Oxford in 1993. n Ian Lising, recruited in 1999, took the debate team to new heights, including the world championship finals in 2000. Now associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), Lising was World Debate Council chair from 2002 to 2008 and served as grand finals adjudicator at the world championships for six years. n In 2016 the University of La Verne’s debate

team tackled a new challenge when it competes in the Pan-American Universities Debating Championship in Jamaica, a Spanish-language event. n For Juan Rodriguez ’16 of Ontario, California, this will be his first trip on an airplane and one of his first competitions. He is practicing his arguments—and, oddly enough for the native speaker, his Spanish. The quick-paced debate requires an expansive vocabulary. Daunting as that is, debate opens new avenues for Rodriguez, who dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. “I want to be smart and funny,” he says.

The advance of the sciences at the University of La Verne shows a lot about where the school is heading. Crossing multiple scientific disciplines, the school is increasingly showing its appreciation for all four STEM legs.

continued from page 113

system in the war-torn land. Time magazine named him a Global Health Hero in 2005.

The University of La Verne has produced college presidents and police chiefs, judges, city attorneys, district attorneys, professors, business executives, journalists, scientific researchers— people dedicated to “a value system that actively supports peace with justice, respect of individuals and humanity, and the health of the planet and its people,” as the university’s core values state.

“These are the future leaders locally, nationally, and internationally.”

— President Devorah Lieberman

The University of La Verne is committed to serving a student body that is diverse in age, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation—a microcosm of the world. “These are the future leaders locally, nationally, and internationally,” says Lieberman.

Luz Villarreal ’89 still remembers when she sat in the newsroom of the Campus Times, a classroom on the ground floor of the Super Tents building (now the Sports Science and Athletics Pavilion).

Photos of previous editors lined the walls with a conference table in the middle and desks around it. The Campus Times is one of the oldest continuous student organizations, dating to 1919. When she was not in class, working, studying, or sleeping, Villarreal worked at the Campus Times.

One afternoon, the staff reporters and editors met to discuss why they were having trouble meeting deadlines. Villarreal listened as students gave a litany of excuses about other work and responsibilities. Then it was her turn to speak.

“Well, I work, too, and I’m a full-time student. But this is what I want to do for my career,” said Villarreal, who was just a freshman. “Either you want to be a journalist or you don’t. There’s no excuse. It’s just not acceptable.”

The room fell silent. This upstart had reminded everyone that their work at the University of La Verne was a precursor to their life’s work. Villarreal had a passion that propelled her to become editor in chief of the Campus

“Well, I work, too, and I’m a full-time student. But this is what I want to do for my career. Either you want to be a journalist or you don’t.”

Luz Villarreal ’89

The Campus Times has been keeping the University of La Verne community informed since 1919. Its newsroom walls are peppered with awards and plaques, and the newspaper took even more honors in a recent competition. To Professor George Keeler, who is the university’s communications chair, this is the real world—there is no room for missed deadlines and inaccurate stories.

Times as a sophomore—and to launch a career in newspaper and broadcasting. As a producer for NBC’s Dateline news show, Villarreal covered stories across the country, including Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans; the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado; and a shark attack in Hawaii.

The University of La Verne was her foundation. Here, she learned about persistence, dedication, ethics—“the rules that we live by.” She carried those values into her career as an independent network producer.

Today, student journalists are still hard at work at the Campus Times, which occupies space in the Arts and Communications Building, a former citrus packing house. The newsroom, which doubles as a journalism classroom, is filled with award plaques. The University of La Verne also publishes a quarterly city periodical, La Verne Magazine, and hosts two public-access television stations and a radio station, with state-of-the-art, highdefinition digital equipment and soundproof studios.

“We hold to a saying that ‘This is the real

A recent edition of the Campus Times, the University of La Verne’s student newspaper that has received national awards for excellence.

Online and On Point: Learning in the Virtual World

In the class of adjunct professor Anita Hanawalt ’71, students meet regularly in the virtual “Worldwide Water Cooler.” They are not usually there at the same time. One might wander into the online chatroom at midnight and catch the thread of conversation that someone left hanging at noon. After all, in an online class, time and place have a different meaning. At the university of La Verne, even a virtual classroom has a personal feel. n Hanawalt teaches music appreciation and a course on music in religion called Song and Spirit. She encourages students to experience concerts and different types of worshipful music beyond their classwork and to share their experiences through a discussion board. The “water cooler” is an informal part of that discussion space where students can get to know each other. n Online classes at the University of La Verne are limited to twenty-five students to keep the same kind of close connections that the University fosters on its physical campus. Most of the professors are full-time faculty. n “There’s an intimacy in online learning that I did not find in a face-to-face classroom,” says Hanawalt, who teaches her classes while traveling across the country in a recreational vehicle. “I get to know my students, and they email me.” n The University of La Verne launched its online program in 1995 and now offers online bachelor’s degrees in business administration, organizational management, and public administration. Online programs also are available for a master’s of business administration and a master’s of science in child development. n In 2015 US News & World Report ranked the University of La Verne’s undergraduate online program eighteenth in the country, the third year in a row that it achieved a top-20 ranking. It scored well for strong student engagement and a high student retention rate. n

Online learning at the University of La Verne is more than just an afterthought. In fact, the university has developed one of the top-twenty online programs in the country for several years in a row, available to both undergraduate and graduate students.

“We believe active learning is important, and now there’s technology that allows that to take place,” says Dr. Steve Lesniak ’96, a former director of the online program who retired in 2015. n Online students have access to university resources, such as writing tutors. Professors also design courses with their needs in mind.

“With adult learners, you want to make everything relevant to their lives,” says Adjunct Professor Hanawalt.

“I find as many ways as possible to do that.”

International students are a growing and welcome presence at the University of La Verne, whether Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, from the African continent, or Europe. To the university, diversity is not just a phrase but a mission statement stipulating that diversity promotes “social justice and sensitivity to global interdependence. The university will engage [the La Verne community] to achieve this campus climate.”

world.’ I never want to hear anybody in my department say, ‘When you arrive in the real world . . . , ” says communications chair George Keeler ’77. “We have real-world TV stations, a real-world radio station, real-world newspaper and magazine. They’re read by more people than some publications in small towns.”

All journalism students are required to have at least one internship, and 87 percent of the students receive a job offer from an internship employer. There are six majors in the department of communications, and everyone must cross-train by taking courses in other areas. In a fast-paced world, the University of La Verne makes sure its students have the versatility and leading-edge skills they need to succeed.

“Today Is Our Moment, Tomorrow Is Our Future.”

That was the title of Devorah Lieberman’s 2011 presidential inauguration address. Even before she donned the billowing green academic regalia of the University of La Verne with its orangelined hood; accepted the wooden presidential mace, envisioning the La Verne Experience; and recited the oath of office, she had started work on a road map for the university, which she dubbed the 2020 Strategic Vision. She framed her guiding principles: “We will challenge ourselves and our colleagues, seizing this opportunity to embrace our institutional niche and create a profound

“Today Is Our Moment, Tomorrow Is Our Future.” That was the title of Devorah Lieberman’s 2011 presidential inauguration address.

President Devorah Lieberman and a recent graduate share a congratulatory hug. Including adult learners and graduate, law, and online students, the university has over eighty-five hundred students, who enjoy a 14:1 student/faculty ratio.

collective vision while remaining true to the soul of the institution.”

As Lieberman spoke of the University of La Verne in her inauguration, she also thought more broadly about how to confront the challenges of the times. Rising costs, changing demographics, unemployment, and underemployment have led to serious concerns about the relevance and trajectory of the nation’s institutions of higher education. With its commitment to lifelong learning, interdisciplinarity, and community engagement, Lieberman saw that the University of

The University of La Verne focuses on [students] strengths and offers them the opportunity to succeed.

La Verne could be a model for the way forward. The university’s core values are “the areas in higher education that I believe institutions throughout the country need to embed in their curriculum and cocurriculum,” she says.

The student body of the university also reflects the demographic trends of the United States. The University of La Verne focuses on their strengths and offers them the opportunity to succeed. “They are not necessarily students who come from privilege, but they are students who

Members of the Class of 2019—and proud of it. Statistically, more than 80 percent of the class would choose the University of La Verne again if given the opportunity, and quite a few of them will make their mark on Southern California in particular and the rest of the world in general—as generations of students before them have done.

The Moseley Fitness and Strength Center serves the health, fitness, and wellness needs of all students, faculty, and staff. The Moseley facility is also an integral part of building champions for Leopard athletics.

come from appreciation of higher education,” says Lieberman.

Luis Faura ’89, chair of the university’s board of trustees, was the first person in his family to earn a college degree. When he meets today’s first-generation students, he understands their struggles, their ambitions, and their potential. He knows the University of La Verne will help them rise to meet—or exceed—the level of their peers

“I owe a lot to the University of La Verne for helping shape me academically as a business individual and as a contributing member of society.”

Luis Faura ’89

Luis Faura ’89 (right), chairman of the University of La Verne Board of Trustees, was the first college graduate in his family. “My experience at La Verne helped forge the very individual I am,” he says.

who had an easier path to college.

“My experience at La Verne helped forge the very individual I am,” says Faura, president and chief executive officer of C&F Foods, a food distribution company in City of Industry. He has been on the university’s board since 2002. “I owe a lot to the University of La Verne for helping shape me academically as a business individual and as a contributing member of society.”

What will the future hold for today’s college graduates? They are emerging into a world that is constantly in flux—shaped by new technology, fueled by new energy, informed by new media. They need an academic institution that evolves with the times, that blends practical experience with a solid educational core, and that provides bedrock values.

Those essential elements are reflected in the mission and history of the University of La Verne. A new strategic planning process now builds on the university’s foundation to position it for new challenges and opportunities.

The 2020 Strategic Vision identifies four overarching goals: achieving educational excellence, strengthening the human and financial resources, heightening the university’s visibility and reputation, and enhancing campus facilities and technologies. Developed through a two-year process of focus groups and feedback from

What will the future hold for today’s college graduates? They need an academic institution that evolves with the times, that blends practical experience with a solid educational core, and that provides bedrock values.

Scattered throughout the University of La Verne campus are learning spaces, such as this one in the Abraham Center, where students can focus, alone or in small groups, on their studies or projects.

The Facilities and Technology Master Plan (buildings shown in blue) provides a blueprint for physical changes that will support the vibrant campus and exceptional academic program outlined in the Strategic Vision.

“The Strategic Vision has become the centerpiece of how we are planning to remain distinctive and relevant as an institution of higher learning into the future.”

Luis Faura ’89

students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, and board members, the plan ensures that the university will remain at the forefront of higher education. “The 2020 Strategic Vision has become the centerpiece of how we are planning to remain distinctive and relevant as an institution of higher learning into the future,” says Faura.

The Facilities and Technology Master Plan provides a blueprint for physical changes that will support the vibrant campus and exceptional academic program outlined in the Strategic Vision. A Comprehensive Campaign is under way to help implement these detailed plans. With a working goal of raising $125 million, the campaign will be the university’s largest ever, enabling the institution to move into a new era.

The 2020 Strategic Vision guides the university as it creates areas of institutional strength. For example, the university is poised to be a leader in interfaith work with the Center for Spirituality, Interfaith Cooperation, and Multicultural Advancement, which will be housed in a new building. The Center will provide flexible space for faith, interfaith, and multicultural interactions and meditation.

continued on page 134

The Changing Face of STEM

A seminar during Dr. Christine Broussard’s first year as a graduate student in Texas shattered her preconception of what a typical scientist looks like.

n The speaker who walked out onto the stage in 1991 to talk about DNA was white, five feet tall, and a woman. n “I was very excited,” said Broussard, University of La Verne professor of biology and chair of the Natural Science Division. “Here’s this short little woman who is a scientist and looks like me.”

n The speaker, Caltech Professor Dr. Jacqueline Barton, has been described as a role model to young women in science, a field that remains maledominated even today. But diversity is increasing at the University of La Verne with the help of the institution’s seven female faculty members whose focus is on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). n Women have contributed to science for thousands of years, from physicians of ancient Egypt to scientists of the present. Seventeen women have received the Nobel Prize for scientific discoveries between 1901 and 2015. Marie Curie— known for her pioneering research on radioactivity— won the prize twice. n Women in STEM fields began teaching at the university in the 1980s, starting with professor of computer science Dr. Seta Whitby ’84 at the institution’s American Armenian International College. Dr. Farah Sogo became the university’s first female biology professor in the mid-1990s. n Female role models in the sciences are crucial, given the university’s enrollment of about 60 percent women. Numerous studies have shown diversity leads to better science, Broussard said. Female students look to faculty for support with curriculum, but also seek answers to balancing family life with STEM careers.

n With the demographic shift in students taking on STEM majors and the university’s emphasis on research-based curriculum, the institution is leading

the way in both scholarship and diversity. n The key lies in high-impact practices (HIPs) connected with the university’s La Verne Experience—learning communities, collaborative assignments, community service activities, and undergraduate research. The research experiences and capstones faculty provide not only give students an edge in their future in the STEM field but also improve retention, particularly among students from underserved and low socioeconomic backgrounds. n The university has received national attention at STEM conferences for its continuing work promoting access and inclusive excellence in STEM. n Broussard is one of numerous faculty who have successfully gained large grants aimed at increasing success among a diverse student population. Broussard has authored or coauthored more than $1.5 million in federal grants focused primarily on diversity in STEM from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety. Dr. Kathleen “Kat” Weaver, professor of biology, has been awarded $3.7 million in Title V grants focused on increasing student involvement and success among Latinos. n STEM faculty members participate in numerous groups supporting diversity, such as Assistant Professor of Biology Heidy Contreras, who established the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences in 2015. n University of La Verne alumni representing a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds have gone on to successful careers in the sciences. n They include Faraj Mourad ’10, who cowrote a grant with Broussard to promote diversity in health-related research. Mourad began his pursuit of a career in medicine at Western University of Health Sciences after graduating from the University of La Verne. n Andrew Garcia ’08 actually had to put his college

Christine Broussard, Ph.D., professor of biology and chair of the university’s Natural Science Division, is helping propel the University of La Verne’s commitment to STEM curriculum, especially for women. Broussard has authored or coauthored more than $1.5 million in federal grants focused primarily on diversity in STEM.

career on hold for several years because his mother was suffering from cancer. That experience motivated him to finish his undergraduate degree at the university and go to medical school. n Monique Chambers ’08, who is African American, earned doctor of medicine and juris doctor degrees. She currently works as a clinical researcher at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. n After earning a bachelor of science in biology, Alma Parada

’08 earned a doctor of philosophy and currently serves as a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University, where she researches microbial ecology. n As demographics change, the university will continue meeting the needs of its changing student population. n “The core distinction is that we get to know our students, their strengths, and their challenges, and we’re able to help them achieve the goals they set for themselves,” Broussard said.

“We need to figure out how to build bridges so religion is not a bomb of destruction but a bridge of possibility.”

Zandra Wagoner ’89

continued from page 131

In a world where religion often fuels strife, the Center will build on the peace and justice mission of the Church of the Brethren by advocating dialogue and acceptance, says university chaplain Zandra Wagoner ’89. “We need to build bridges so religion is not a bomb of destruction but a bridge of possibility,” she says.

An endowed Center for Civic and Community Engagement would ensure that the La Verne Experience has the support it needs to be fully integrated into all undergraduate and graduate programs. The Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence and the aim to secure additional endowed professorships and department chairs will sustain the rich curriculum and close relationships that have been a hallmark of a University of La Verne education.

Strong financial support undergirds the university’s programs. One of the goals of the Comprehensive Campaign is to increase student scholarships, ensuring that the La Verne Experience is available to meritorious students regardless of their financial status. The university funded $45 million in scholarships in 2015–2016, but greater scholarship needs are anticipated, President Lieberman says. “It is critical to the success of our students that we have scholarships that will support them through their academic careers.”

Also, in May 2016, the university announced the largest gift in its history—$10 million to

Zandra Wagoner, Ph.D. ’89, University of La Verne chaplain and an ordained pastor for the Church of the Brethren, outside the school’s Interfaith Chapel. She praises the school’s core values, emphasis on inclusivity, and no coercion in religion as combining to create a supportive place for secular and nonsecular students alike.

A recent student art show at the University of La Verne showcased the talents of the university’s art students in many different media. The Department of Studio Art and Art History provides a rich environment of interdisciplinary learning, including much hands-on experience.

establish the LaFetra College of Education (formerly known as the College of Education and Organizational Leadership).

Given by Anthony LaFetra, a member of the board of trustees, it funds several new initiatives, including scholarships for high-achieving undergraduates with financial need, faculty training on cultural competence and technology, learning centers to support autistic and other special-needs children, and a cultural and bilingual education program focused on children and families of migrant workers.

“I know that education can transform lives,” said LaFetra, whose mother served on the board for sixteen years, and who has other family connections to the university. “My parents . . . believed strongly in the power of education.”

The Comprehensive Campaign will help fund a new academic building for health and sciences, providing new research laboratories, classrooms, and meeting space for students and faculty. The facility will enable growth in programs that address the needs of an aging population. One in four jobs created in the next decade will be in health care, according to the

One of the goals of the Comprehensive Campaign is to increase student scholarships, ensuring that the La Verne Experience is available to meritorious students regardless of their financial status.

A science lab at the University of La Verne, where not only the chemical and biological sciences have enjoyed renewed support, but also other branches of STEM studies as well.

a field that is in high demand in the

offers other programs to prepare students for medical school or other advanced health-related degrees.

The University of La Verne will soon be offering a master of science for physician assistant practice,

region. The university also

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The University of La Verne is preparing students to enter that sector.

For example, the physician assistant program, which is currently under development, will provide much-needed practitioners for the region. The university also offers strong programs to prepare students for medical school or advanced health degrees as well as its own master’s programs in healthcare administration, gerontology, and kinesiology; a doctorate in psychology; and a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy.

The Comprehensive Campaign, in keeping with the Strategic Vision, will enable the university to promote its accomplishments and raise visibility about how its programs benefit Inland Southern California. “We’re here to cultivate that combination of head and heart, to educate students to go out and make good decisions and do good works to make the world a better place,” says Wendy Lau ’98, an attorney and member of the board of trustees.

At its 125th anniversary, the University of La

“We’re here to cultivate that combination of head and heart, to educate students to go out and make good decisions and do good works to make the world a better place.”

— Wendy Lau ’98

Verne is ready to build on its rich history and reach for even greater levels of educational excellence, human and financial resources, visibility and prominence, and campus facilities and technology. Once again, the university is positioned to achieve more than could have ever been imagined. Since its early days as a “college” that functioned as a preparatory academy, the University of La Verne has harnessed the passion to make a difference. There is no upper limit on that dream.

Something is going on at Sneaky Park: a picnic, a student gathering, a concert, a rally, a book drive, a product giveaway, the beginning of a service project, the end of a race. Or maybe it is just two friends meeting near the leopard statue and the old orange trees, the only visible reminder of the verdant groves that once surrounded the campus.

Previous generations used it as a gathering spot, some of them sneaking a cigarette or stealing a kiss, thus giving the small park its curious name. Even today, when there are nearby coffee shops, gardens, and a plaza, it remains a favorite place to linger. For new graduates, it becomes a place to launch.

On the day before commencement, at the close of the interfaith Baccalaureate service, graduates, led by the senior administration and board of trustees, march in gown and tassel in a parade from the Church of the Brethren through downtown La Verne to a reception in Sneaky Park. There they

Lenore Moreno, the University of La Verne’s track star, recently competed in the US Olympic Marathon Trials with her personal best of 2:39:44, finishing 13th out of 149 runners. A graduate student earning her teaching credentials, she holds the SCIAC 5,000-meter record and the school record for the 10,000-meter race, as well as being named an All-American in cross-country.

The iconic leopard statue, from his customary perch in Sneaky Park, has gazed upon everything that has crossed its path over the years.

begin their good-byes and step toward their new status as alumni. They honor the tradition as they touch the paw of the leopard statue and the book of knowledge upon which the leopard sits as a gesture honoring the connection to all the graduates who came before them.

Soon they will discover that the bonds forged at the University of La Verne span time and space, as do the core values that undergird

A recent University of La Verne graduate implores her fellow students to be what the university prepared them to be—legendary.

the academics; these are the intangible things that help shape their futures. As with so many graduating classes before them, the La Verne Experience has ultimately transformed their lives.

“What we look like today is very different, but those values, the connection to the spirit that existed 125 years ago, exist today,” says President Devorah Lieberman. “It will exist tomorrow and 125 years from now. While honoring the past, we are also future-oriented. Grounded in our values, we are creating the disciplines and skills that the students of today will need to be successful. When they leave, they have the La Verne Advantage— the skills of their profession and the values that are part of their lives.” n

“What we look like today is very different, but those values, the connection to the spirit that existed 125 years ago, exist today. Grounded in our values, we are creating the disciplines and skills that the students of today will need to be successful.”

President Devorah Lieberman

University of La Verne Board of Trustees

May 2016

Chair

Luis Faura, Ph.D. ’89

Vice Chair

Steven N. Reenders ’73

Secretary

Susan M. Searing ’71

Michael A. Abraham

Michael J. Bidart

Kimberly A. Bowen

Kim J. Burchiel, M.D.

Ann Quay Davis, C.P.A.

Robert P. Dyer ’63

Peter D. Eckel

Joseph V. Fengler ’89

Benjamin C. Harris

William A. Hawkins ’96

Mark P. Hicks ’90

Anthony W. LaFetra

Wendy M. Lau, Esq. ’98

Alex D. Lester, Esq. ’08, ’11

Richard A. Lewis

Emeriti

Kenneth D. Little ’89

James W. Long

Mary Ann Melleby ’79, ’91

Ivan R. Misner, Ph.D.

Paul H. Moseley ’88

Stephen D. Phinny ’79

Leslie I. Porras ’93, ’00

Deborah A. Proctor

Anthony R. Revier ’93

Valerie C. Romero ’00

Margaret H. Sedenquist

David D. Shively, D.D.S. ’74

Alan D. Simon

Owen R. Skelton

Emmett L. Terrell ’70

Reginald Webb

Marvin A. Belcher ’49

Kenneth L. Calkins ’56

Gerald A. Davis

Cecilia Martinez Morris ’75

Jay Rodriguez

Donald G. Wilson ’63

Comprehensive Board of Trustees List, 1891 to 2016

* Known to Be Deceased

Abraham, Michael A.

Alekel, Dennis A.

Allard, Joseph A. Jr.* Emeritus

Armey, Chester

Armey, Rutter*

Ausman, Kenneth

Baker, Charles W.*

Baker, Ed*

Baker, Harold L.*

Baldwin, Arthur*

Barkley, Roger J.*

Barr, F. H.*

Bashor, G.H.*

Bashor, Isaac F.*

Baum, Peter S.

Beard, Martha*

Beckner, Howard B.* Emeritus

Belcher, Marvin A. ’49 Emeritus

Berry-Brooks, Lulu B.*

Bidart, Michael J.

Bills, Robert C.

Bittinger, Desmond W.*

Blickenstaff, Andrew*

Blickenstaff, David B.*

Blickenstaff, Eldo R.*

Blough, Mary G.

Boaz, Gladden*

Bonewitz, Chester*

Bontrager, Clement*

Bosshart, O. A.*

Bowen, Kimberly A.

Bowman, Claude E.*

Brock, Milton J.* Emeritus

Brenaman, Isaiah*

Brodie, Ellen E.*

Bronner, Patrick E.

Brower, Jacob J.*

Brown, Blaine

Brown, Carl G., Jr.*

Brown, Michael H.

Brubaker, A. O.*

Brubaker, C. Harper*

Brubaker, Crawford*

Brubaker, J. A.*

Brubaker, J. H.*

Brubaker, John S.*

Brubaker, Joseph H.*

Brubaker, J. S.*

Brubaker, Lowell K.* Emeritus

Brubaker, Moses*

Brubaker, N. J.*

Burchiel, Kim J.

Butterbaugh, Fred W.*

Calkins, Kenneth L. ’56 Emeritus Callison, Gary D. Carl, Ernest W.* Carter, Douglas F.

Carter, H. Martin

Carter, Warren G.* Chamberlen, George F.* Cline, Joseph W.* Cox, John M.* Cline, J. W.* Copes, William B.*

Crites, Marvin A.* Crutcher, Maria B.*

Daniel, Susan R. Daugherty, S. Paul*

Davenport, L. M.* Davis, C. E.*

Davis, Jerald A. Emeritus

Davis, Larry A. Davis, T. Albert*

Deardorff, Noble E.* Dempster, Richard* Denney, Corwin D.* Dewey, Barbara* Dickey, J. P.* Doramus, Richard S.* Doty, Leroy Sr.* Dunahoo, Edmond O.* Dunning, Jess* Durward, Arthur* Dyer, Robert ’63

Eckel, Peter D. Edinger, Oscar H.* Eikenberry, E. R.* Eikenberry, James* Eisenbise, Merlin E.* Elam, Ray M. Ellenberger, A. J.* Emmert, J. B.* Enberg, Barbara* England, W. F.* Esbensen, Neils*

Fancher, Donald E. Faura, Luis ’89 Fengler, Joseph V. ’89 Fisher, Earl Flora, Fred* Flory, R. C.*

Forney, Clyde W.* Forney, D. L.*

Forney, Harold J.* Frantz, M. S.* Frantz, Russell J.* Fry, Robert P. Funk, Jacob* Funk, S. W.*

Garrison, Bill W.* Gensinger, E. D. Gilberg, Arvid J.

Glick, Norman

George, Richard A.

Gregory, O. B.*

Groff, Paul*

Hanawalt, H. M.*

Hanawalt, W. C.*

Hanawalt, William C.*

Harmsen, Fred*

Harris, Benjamin C.

Harris, Clarence D.* Emeritus

Harris, Willard E.*

Hart, Richard

Hartman, Zafon A.*

Hartshorn, A. T.

Hawkins, William A. ’96

Heckman, C. M.*

Heckman, Vernon L.*

Heiny, E. Wayne*

Heiny, Loyal

Heiny, Maurice*

Heminger, Ross A.*

Hepner, Ben F.* Emeritus

Hepner, Frank*

Hersch, Paul S.*

Hicks, Mark P. ’90

Hiner, R. F.*

Hiser, Escil*

Hoff, Harry*

Holderreed, Andrew*

Hollenberg, George J. ’21*

Hollinger, S. G.*

Hoover, Roscoe M.*

Houser, Daniel*

Houston, Ivan A.

Howell, Frank D.* Emeritus

Howell, Ida S.*

Huston, Ora I.*

Hutchens, Jens H.

Irwin, L. H.*

Jamison, Ben F.*

Jarboe, Russell E.*

Jeffers, Stephen F.* Emeritus

Jenkinson, R. H.*

Jennings, Joseph R.*

Johnson, Frank*

Johnson, Nadine B.

Johnson, Stephen*

Jones, J. E.*

Jones, Thomas W.*

Keim, Arthur C.*

Keim, Robert E.

Keim, W. H.*

Keiser, E. T.*

Keller, Stanley G.*

Kendell, Thomas W.*

Kerschensteiner, Edward*

Klinzman, L. C.*

Myer, C. J.* Comprehensive Board of Trustees List, 1891 to 2016, continued

Killingsworth, M. T.*

Korsmeier, Henry F. Kough, Jack

Kuns, David*

Kuns, Henry*

Kuns, Henry L.*

Kuns, John S.*

Kurtz, D. W.*

LaFetra, Anthony W. LaFetra, Mary E.* Emeritus

Laird, Jerald B. Landis, John W.*

Landis, Richard G.* Emeritus

Lau, Wendy M. ’98 Lauderdale, Kerby Laughrun, Odell Lefever, D. Welty* Emeritus

Lehmer, Mark*

Lehmer, S. G.*

Lester, Alex D. ’08, ’11 Lewis, Owen H.* Lewis, Richard A. Lininger, B. M.*

Lininger, Blanche V.* Liskey, W. I.* Little, Kenneth D. ’89

Long, James W. Lowrey, D. Tad

MacConnell, James D. Mardigian, Edward S.* Martin, Stephen J. Martinez Morris, Cecilia ’75

Matheis, James McCune, I. M.* McFadden, W. Glenn*

McInytre, William L. McKellip, David C. McKellip, Patti A. McMurray, Charles* Melleby, Mary Ann ’79, ’91 Meriwether, Richard Michael, Orin Miller, Don L.*

Miller, Herman F.* Miller, E. A.*

Miller, M. H.* Miller, Paul E.*

Miller, R. H.*

Miller, S. J.* Mishler, M. J.* Misner, Ivan R. Monteith, Robert Moon, Richard M.* Moore, O. M.*

Moseley, Paul H. ’88 Motter, John L.*

Moulton, Marilynn A.

Mummert, Jacob A.*

Nair, T. J.*

Neher, Kenneth E.

Netzley, Ira B.*

Norcross, D. A.*

Nordstrom, Howard*

Northup, Nathan

Northup, R. Truman*

Overholtzer, Jesse*

Overholtzer, Samuel A.*

Park, John

Peters, John R.*

Petersen, Gregory G.

Phinney, Robert ’79*

Pilot, Sidney I.*

Pimental, Alberto

Pobst, Harry*

Porras, Leslie I. ’93, ’00

Price, John C.*

Proctor, Deborah A.

Quay-Davis, Ann

Redman, Margaret D.

Reenders, Steven N. ’73

Revier, Anthony R. ’93

Rinehart, Larry M.

Richardson, Charles T.*

Riffey, Ivan

Ring, Selden*

Robertson, Oscar P.

Rodriguez, Jay Emeritus

Roloff, Wesley

Romero, Richard*

Romero, Valerie C. ’00

Root, Wandall W.*

Rothrock, Edgar*

Rothweiler, Kurt A.

Roynon, J. Marion*

Rupel, Beverly S.*

Rupel, Dennis F.*

Rupp, Abram*

Russell, John W.

Sanger, S. F.*

Sarafian, Armen*

Sbicca, Arthur Schafer, O. E.

Schechter, Joseph J.

Schwary, Dennis M.

Schweitzer, Mignon M.*

Scott, George A.* Emeritus

Searing, Susan M. ’71

Sedenquist, Margaret H.

Sheller, Harry L.

Sheller, H. Lynn*

Shively, Andrew*

Shively, David D. ’74

Shively, Ila L.

Shively, Sherlo D.*

Shryer, Earl*

Sillo, Frank Simmons, Carl*

Simon, Alan D. Skelton, Owen R. Slushser, Harold Smeby, Kyhl S.* Smeltzer, J. A.*

Smith, Claude V.* Emeritus

Snell, Galen R.

Snell, Harvey*

Snell, Marvin V.*

Snyder, Andrew R.*

Stanford, Glen

Stanley, Paula J.

Stern, Irven F.*

Stern, Marion M.*

Stephens, Garland G.*

Stover, J. Harmon*

Strohm, Fred

Stutsman, G. O.*

Stutzman, H. M.* Suttle, Bernard H.*

Taylor, H. R.*

Terrell, Emmett L. ’70

Thomas, O. N. Tarzian, Sarkes* Togasaki, Sim Toland, E. G.*

Toma, Kay Traughber, Earl H.* Trostle, W. E.* Tucker, Wendell D.* Tutor, Albert G.*

Vaughan, Lester* Verbeck, Donald E.* Verbeck, Kent R. Voake, Richard C.

Walker, Robert C.* Webb, Reginald Welty, Loretta* Wheeler, Myrna L.* Whisler, H. A.* Whitby, Gordon P. White, A. M.* Wilkinson, W. T.* Will, Harper* Wilson, Donald G. ’63 Emeritus Wilson, Elvin K.* Emeritus Winter, Jack R. Wray, Eldon Wyles, Duayne

Yearout, Floyd A.* Emeritus

Yearout, Robert L. Yoder, I. D.* Yundt, E. R.*

Special thanks to the University Archives and Special Collections, IV–V, X, 2–19, 21, 42–45, 74

Lisa Means Photography, 25, 26, 39, 40, 59, 96, 126, 129, 135, 142

LPA, Inc. 130

All other photos were furnished by the University of La Verne Office of Strategic Communications

Numbers in italics indicate images.

Abraham, Michael, 84 Abraham, Sara, 84

INDEX PHOTOGRAPHY

Abraham (Sara and Michael) Campus Center, 16, 39, 68, 84–85, 97, 114, 129 academic programs abroad, 44, 45 adult learners, 5, 41, 107, 112, 121. See also CAPA Allison, Thomas, 89 alma mater, 18

American Armenian International College, 5, 132 American Bar Association, 36 Arts and Communications Building, 120 Asimov, Isaac, 36 Association of College Unions International, 98

Baccalaureate Service, 144 Barton, Jacqueline, 132 Base, Richard, 64 Bautista, Roxana, 81

Bawa, Sabrina, 31 Beach Day, 42

Beardsley, Felicia, 88–89 Bhutto, Benazir, 88 bilingual education, 45, 46, 56 Boys and Girls Club, The, 60 Brandt Hall, 18, 82 Breast Cancer Research Foundation, 62 bronze bell, X, 1–2 Broussard, Christine, 132–33 buildings, repurposing of, 82–85 Build La Verne Day, 42

Campus Accelerated Program for Adults. See CAPA Campus Center. See Abraham (Sara and Michael) Campus Center campus housing, 82–83 Campus Master Plan, IX Campus Times, 100, 117–20 Campus West, 86 CAPA (Campus Accelerated Program for Adults), 34, 35, 41, 45, 48, 72 Carlson Gallery of Photography, 29 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 4 Center for Academic and Bar Readiness, 36 Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence, 134–36 Center for Civic and Community Engagement, 134 Center for Spirituality, Interfaith Cooperation, and Multicultural Advancement (SIM Center), 134 Chambers, Monique, 133 cheerleaders, 73 Chehab, Adham, 20 Christmas Tea, 93 Church of the Brethren, 2–4, 5, 6, 10, 19, 20, 26, 45, 134 clock tower, 18, 19, 27 Colby, Gary, 100

College Accelerated Program for Adults, 5 College of Business and Public Management, 58–63, 89 College of Education and Organizational Leadership, 136 College of Law, 36–37 Common Ground, 81 community engagement, 4, 13, 31, 34 Community Engagement Day, 43, 68, 69, 70, 104 Comprehensive Campaign, 134, 136, 139–40 ConnecTech, 61–62 Contreras, Heidy, 132 convocation, 2 Cox, J. M., 4 Curie, Marie, 132

Dailey Theatre, 48, 49, 100 Dant Chapel, 18 Dateline, 120 Davenport Dining Hall, 18, 97 Davis, C. Ernest, 4 debate, 114–15

De Long, Linda, 40, 41 Department of Athletics Strategic Vision, 21 Dibbell, Jane, 100 doctoral program in school management (EdD), 54–56 Dream US Foundation, 26

Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies, 109 Edwards, Marcie, 112 Egly, Paul, 36 Enactus, 22, 24 e-portfolios, 107–8 Eshelman, Matthew M., 9, 10

Facilities and Technology Master Plan, 130, 131–34

Fasnacht, Harold, 18, 42, 46 Fasnacht Distinguished Lecture Series, 42 Faura, Luis, 127–28, 131 First Generation Club, 26 first-generation students, 26–31, 128 First Generation Student Success Program, 26 First-Year La Verne Experience (FLEX), 68–72, 103–4, 107 Flater, David, 100, 101 FLEX. See First-Year La Verne Experience Food Network, 98 Forbes magazine, 4 forensics, 114–15

Founders Hall, 14–15, 16, 41, 77, 99 Frantz, Edward, 4, 6–9

Garcia, Andrew, 132–33 Garcia, Jerome, 28–31

GATs (Girls About Town), 90–93 Ghazzawi, Issam, 22, 23–24 Gonzalez, Stephany, 64

graduate programs, 72 Gratz, Feed, 100, 101

Hanawalt, W. C., 4, 13–14

Hanawalt residence hall, 18 Hanawat, Anita, 121 Harrison, Corlan Ortmayer, 98 Harrison, Rayna, 98 Hawkey, Phil, 85 Haworth, Kathleen, 34 Heckman, Marlin, 42 Helou, Ibrahim (Abe), 60, 62, 88, 89 high-impact practices (HIPs), 132 Hines, Ben, 21 Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), 4, 104 HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles) tutoring program, 66 Holland, Natalie, 114 Hollenberg, George, 18 Holmes, Gilbert, 36 homecoming, 95 Hoover, W. I. T., 4 Hoover (W. I. T.) Memorial Library, 18 Hutchens, Sandra, 112

Inland Southern California, 4, 26, 36, 112–13, 140 Integrated Business Curriculum, 60, 61, 62 Interfaith Chapel, 80, 81, 134 interfaith studies, 81 International Business School of Sao Paulo, 88 International Voluntary Service (IVS), 74 Ispahani, Ahmed, 79, 88, 89

Johnson Family Plaza, 2 Junior La Verne Experience, 107

Keeler, George, 25, 119, 123 Kintaudi, Leon, 113–17 Kissinger, Henry, 88, 89 Kline, Julie, 21 Krankers, 90

L, the, 16–18 LaFetra, Anthony, 136–38 LaFetra College of Education, 136 Latino Education Access and Development (LEAD) Conference, 57 Lau, Wendy, 139, 140 La Verne Advantage, 108, 144 La Verne Church of the Brethren, 75, 81, 95, 98, 144 La Verne College, 5, 45, 90–93. See also University of La Verne La Verne College Law Center, 36. See also College of Law La Verne Experience, the, IX, 43, 66, 67–76, 91, 93, 94, 98–108, 132. See also University of La Verne La Verne Magazine, 120 La Verne Orange and Lemon Association, 5 L Day, 42

Learfield Division III National Directors’ Cup, 21 learning spaces, 129 legal education, 36 leopard statue, 142–43, 144 Lesniak, Steve, 41, 121 Lewis, Randall, 39 Lewis, Richard, 39 Lewis, Robert, 39 Lewis, Roger, 39

Lewis Family Corporation, 39 Lewis Family Grand Staircase, 39 Lieberman, Devorah, 2, 6, 89, 92, 93–94, 98, 117, 123–28, 136, 144 Lising, Ian, 114, 115 living communities, 82 Loera, Daniel, 26 Lokar, Brittany, 89 Lord, Isaac W., 5

Lordsburg College, 4, 5, 10–14, 114–15 Lordsburg Hotel, 3, 9–10, 11, 15, 16 Lyceum, 101

Magpie Ranch, 64–65 Mahoney, Joella, 100 Mainiero, John “Skip,” 54 Mainiero Building, 18 Mansell, Ryan, 88 Mao Zedong, 88 Maraquin, Kandin, 114 Marchbanks, Jasmine, 24 Martin, Josh, 114

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, 43 Master’s Academy, 26 May Daze, 93 Medina, Ruby, 38 Meek, Jack, 113 migrant workers, summer institute for, 26 military, off-campus programs for, 45–47 Miller, Robert, 113 Miller, Samuel J., 4 Miller Hall, 14–15, 29, 102–3 Minoves-Triquell, Juli, 88 Montana Research Station, 64–65 Montes, Adonay, 104–7 Moreno, Lenore, 141 Morgan, Ann, 82 Morgan, Steve, 47, 48, 64, 65, 76–86 Morgan (Ann and Steve) Auditorium, 99, 100 Moseley Fitness and Strength Center, 126–27 Mourad, Faraj, 132

Nadon, Melanie, 114 National Debate Tournament, 115 National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety, 132 National Science Foundation, 132 Neher, Mary, 64, 65 Neher, Robert, 64, 65 Newcomer, Leland (Lee), 42–51, 76 Nixon, Richard, 89

Oaks Residence Hall, 82, 86 online learning, 121 Orange Blossom, 14 Ortmayer, Roland, X, 21, 87, 98 Ortmayer Stadium, 87 Oxford Intervarsity Debating Championships, 114

painting class, 6–7 Palmera College, 5 Pan-American Universities Debating Championship, 115 Parada, Alma, 133 Paro, Georgij, 100 Paschal, Jimmy, 21 physician assistant program, 138, 140

Pilgreen, Janice, 53–54

Poling, Barbara, 56 Politicon, 114 Potter, Lawrence, 101 Prendiz, Lydia, 34–38

President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, 81 Pride, Bryan, 88 prison education program, 26

REACH Summer Business Camp, 20–24, 62–63, 105 Redman, Peggy, 90–93, 94, 103, 108 Reed, Jonathan, 72, 88 research-based curriculum, 31, 64, 132 residential communities, 59 Rivera, Robert, 115 Rodriguez, Juan, 115 Rose, Richard, 81, 109 Ruiz, Robert, 107, 114

San Fernando Valley College of Law, 36 Santa Fe Railway, 5, 8 Sarafian, Armen, 5 Schaefer, Byron, 112–13 Science and Education Building, 18 Secular Student Alliance, 81 Senior La Verne Experience, 107 Shabahang, Homa, 26 SIM Center, 134 Simons, Gene, 53 Skills for Success, 61 Sneaky Park, 97, 142, 143–44 Snell, Marvin, 85 Snow Day, 42 Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences, 132 Sogo, Farah, 132

Sophomore La Verne Experience (SoLVE), 72, 107 Souljourns, 81

Spanish Bilingual Bicultural Counseling certificate, 56 Spectar, Jem, 113 Sports Science and Athletics Pavilion, 2, 48, 49 Stanford University, 13 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects, 132–33, 137 Studebaker, Ellis, 4 Studebaker-Hanawalt (Stu-Han), 18, 82 Studebaker residence hall, student housing, 45, 59 Summer Opportunity for Advising and Registration (SOAR), 28 Summer Service, 75 Super Tents, 48–49, 118

Tapia, Marvin, 71, 72–75 Tennis Club (1912), 5 Thakur, Rita Patel, 58, 61 theory-to-practice, 4, 13, 34, 64 Thomas, Crispin, 100 Three Sisters, The (Chekov), 100

Trotter, Ruth, 100 True Tuition model, 36, 37 2020 Strategic Vision, 26, 124, 130, 131–40

University of La Verne adult learners at, 41 (see also CAPA) anniversary of, IX arts at, 6, 100–101, 135 athletics at, 21, 87, 126–27, 141 board of trustees, 45 centennial of, 85–86 community engagement at, 4, 31, 34 diversity at, 4, 26, 81, 117, 122 emphasizing theory-to-practice, 4 endowment of, 86 experiential learning at, 34, 36, 58–63 family atmosphere at, 42, 71, 89, 94 fundraising at, 134 future at, 128–43 health degrees at, 138, 140 as Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), 4, 104 influence of, 54–56, 112–17, 125, 144 international students at, 122 journalism at, 117–23 mission of, IX as model, 124–27 name change to, 5 as national leader, IX, 4 online learning at, 42, 121 recognition for, IX, 4, 22, 81, 98–103, 120, 121 regional campuses of, 34, 41–42 retention at, 107, 108, 121 scholarships at, 136 serving the underserved, 26–31 STEM subjects at, 30, 116, 132–33, 137 values of, IX, 6, 20, 21, 36, 68, 69, 71, 78, 81, 94, 107, 117, 120, 124–27, 134, 144

University of La Verne Literacy Center, 50–54, 55 US Naval Pacific Missile Range, 45 US News & World Report, 4, 121

Villarreal, Luz, 117–20 Vista La Verne, 82–83

Wagoner, Zandra, 81, 134 Washington Monthly, 4 Weaver, Kathleen (Kat), 64, 132 Whitby, Seta, 132

Wiebe, P. J., 14

Women’s Experience, 82 World Debate Council, 115 World Debating Championships, 115 World University Debate Championships, 114 Worldwide Water Cooler, 121 Wright, Owen, 21

Yajima, Ko, 21