ON THE HILL

The moment the cover band struck up “Shut Up And Dance with Me,” everyone at February’s President’s Ball made a dash for the dance fl oor.

FINALLY, A TIME TO DANCE

When COVID-19 cases on campus dropped to zero in February, classroom and cocurricular activities returned to near prepandemic normal. It was fi nally time to pull out the dresses, suits, and dancing shoes. President’s Ball was on. P-Ball is the semi-formal dinner dance marking the beginning of spring for the student body, and this year was particularly poignant. Juniors and seniors had never experienced a P-Ball due to two years of COVID-19 and a 2019 weather cancellation. Gustavus fi rst-years and sophomores never even had high school formals. Their unworn prom dresses fi nally emerged from closets. “It’s defi nitely the longest standing ‘get dressed up and dance’ event,” says JoNes VanHecke ’88, vice president for student life. Brad Duhaime ’85 started the tradition as a student, which was planned by the presidents of the Campus Activities Board (hence the name). In the 1980s, “Buses would pull up to campus and Gusties would jump on them and head to the Twin Cities.” When the drinking age was 19, it was a bit of a “champagne fl ight.” One of VanHecke’s jobs as a student on CAB was to stand at the buses and hand out plastic fl utes. Like today’s Diversity Ball, P-Ball was sometimes so popular, people scalped tickets. But pre-pandemic, ticket sales had waned. This year, “People were hungry for it,” says director of campus activities Andrea Junso. Now held at Mayo Clinic System Event Center in Mankato, this year’s triumphant return to P-Ball included the live cover band Blue Water King, a cash bar for those over age 21, and more than 350 tickets sold— triple the amount of the last P-Ball. “It’s always been a let loose, winter’salmost-over situation,” Junso says. “Get dressed up, have a meal, dance your butt o .” This year, they didn’t stop dancing the entire night.

PRETTY GOOD NEWS

A Gustie received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award and three others received recognition as semifi nalists. Christopher Ortiz won a Fulbright ETA Award to teach in Spain. Sydney Stumme-Berg was named an alternate fi nalist for the program in Norway. Emily VanGorder and Samantha Raghu were named semifi nalists in the Czech Republic.

Christopher Ortiz ’22 Sydney Stumme-Berg ’22

Emily VanGorder ’22 Samantha Raghu ’22

Caroline Southworth ’24 and Dalton Dahle ’22 have both been awarded the

U.S. Department of State’s Critical

Language Scholarship. Southworth will study Russian. Dahle has also participated in an Arabic language immersion program for future military o cers.

CarolineSouthworth ’24 DaltonDahle ’22

The Ronald S. and Kathryn K. Christenson Lectureship in Politics and Law welcomed to campus Tim Johnson ’93 for a lecture titled “The U.S. Supreme Court: Still the Least Dangerous Branch?” Johnson is the Horace T. Morse Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Minnesota and an expert on the U.S. Supreme Court. (And a collaborator with Gustavus prof Chris Gilbert, see page 21.)

Justin DeGrood

’07 has been named head coach of the Gustavus Men’s basketball team after serving as assistant coach for the past nine seasons. He takes over for Mark Hanson ’83, who announced his retirement in February after a 32-year career as head coach. (See page 23.)

Yale University historian David W. Blight, author of the 2018 DavidW . Blight Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, gave the on-campus lecture, “The Legacies of Frederick Douglass in our Own Time.” The lecture is available on YouTube.

#whygustavus

The Gustavus nursing program is expanding from 30 to 40 students per class year. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is projected that the U.S. needs over 200,000 33% new registered nurses each year to meet increasing needs and replace retiring nurses.

NOBEL CONFERENCE 58

September 28 - 29, 2022

MENTAL HEALTH (IN)EQUITY AND YOUNG PEOPLE

gustavus.edu/nobelconference

Nobel Conference 58 will address mental health disparities and their e ects on youth, with a particular emphasis on the signifi cance of identity, trauma and technology.

Prioritizing the mental health concerns of young people has become essential amid times of global pandemic, racism, sexism, ableism, social unrest, climate change, and political upheaval. These social inequities limit our ability to promote resilience in the mental health of adolescents and young adults, especially those from marginalized communities. Young people often experience little control over their wellbeing; are a ected by the decisions of parents, schools and society; and in these technology-driven times are vulnerable to the negative side e ects of social media and information overload. In considering how to eradicate inequities and promote mental health, technology becomes central in how it both aids and hinders our modern existence, in the U.S. and around the world.

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW at gustavus.edu/events/

nobelconference.

CAMPUS SOCIAL

TWITTER

@gustavus Over a hundred #FutureGusties and family members are on campus today to learn more about Gustavus as they make their college decision! #GoGusties#WhyGustavus

@gustavus The Robert and Judy Gardner Laboratory Theatre is “a theater nerd’s dream,” according to @Mankatonews #whygustavus @gustiearts

Follow @gustavus, @gustiealum

@gustavusadolphuscollege @gustieathletics INSTAGRAM

@gustieathletics Congratulations to Annika Poe, Elizabeth Donnelly, and Birgen Nelson for all earning All-America status today at the NCAA Indoor Championships! #GoGusties

@gacgeology DUNES !!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Gustie Shoutout: Congrats to Monali Bhakta ’20 who was just named to the Minnesota Young Women’s Cabinet by Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan. ” —During her time at Gustavus, Monali majored in English and Political Science, served as Gustavus Student Senate CoPresident, and interned in Senator Amy Kobluchar’s Minneapolis o ce in the Summer of 2019.

Follow /gustavusadolphuscollege

FACEBOOK

10:00 a.m. Time for Refl ection

“Visit a museum and ask these questions: ‘What is being done in this space to amplify voices? What’s being done for racial justice?’ And if a museum professional can’t tell you that, then say ‘Hey, maybe this is something that should be done in this environment.’”

—Michelle Tovar, from her keynote at the Building Bridges Conference, “Knowledge is Power: Dismantling Systematic Bias in Educational Institutions,” in March.