Coz McNooz Fall 2018

cozmcnooz Issue No. XXX

Fall 2017

Dear Johnston-Alums,

When I walked into Bekins Lobby on November 13, you can imagine my delight to find that Don Miller’s family had brought in the original Johnston College sign as a donation to the center. A hearty thanks to Don and his family for holding on to this great piece of Johnston memorabilia. We’re working with our resident archivist and Assistant Director MG Maloney to display the “Johnston College” sign prominently in our community!

Over the course of the last few months, we’ve been working to transform the Bekins Basement into an interactive living-learning space. Thanks to your generous donations to the Building the Johnston Community Endowment and a grant from the Ahmanson Foundation, the basement is both unrecognizable and a vibrant place for classes, projects and community.

In the Coz this fall, you’ll find the latest on our alumni trips, the Vintage Johnston fundraiser, students’ political activism, our most recent Kathryn Green speakers and a memorial piece on Hugh Redmond – among other news.

Looking for ways to contribute to Johnston? Here are just a few ideas: include Johnston in your end of the year giving, identify a high school in your area that might be a good Johnston feeder school, send MG Maloney information on any unique archival material or memorabilia that might be a good addition to the 50th.

Above all, save the date for the 50th in spring of 2019.

Cheers to you!

Julie

Inside the issue: Kathryn Green Lecture 3 Jon Garcia, ‘13 Amanda Clayton, ‘07 4

Alumni Trip Ashland, OR

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Johnston students and the DSA Basement Renovation

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Photo Journal Vintage Johnston Red Carpet 5

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Graduation Excerpt 2017

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bekins basement past, present, and future

By Julie Townsend

past

In the spring of 2017 the Bekins Basement was a marginally functional space. The bathroom hadn’t been updated since the 1960s, the dorm rooms were dilapidated, and the collaborative work rooms and lounge area were neither functional nor well-appointed to the types of academic and community-based activities that Johnston wanted to support. Jerry Yu in the department of Advancement suggested that we apply for a grant from the Ahmanson Foundation; the vision that we proposed was to combine grant funds with the returns from the “Building the Johnston Community Endowment” to reconfigure and update the space with the following goals:

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Provide updated bathroom facilities and dorm rooms for the 12 residents of the basement.

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Provide several collaborative work spaces that would support academic and creative work as well as functional common areas that would encourage students fully partake in the living-learning community.

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Use the spaces in a way that brought faculty, staff and students together in classes, projects, activities, etc.

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Use the spaces to support students’ emotional well-being.

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ation present The Multiplicities Seminar uses the seminar room, the film screening room, the art room and the movement room to hold discussions and do collaborative, interactive facilitations in the area of interdisciplinary humanities and experimental art practice.

1 The Johnston Radio Collective uses the music room and the editing room to develop and edit content for their podcasts.

2 Student organizations are using the spaces as well: The Democratic Socialists Club screened “Bread and Roses� in the screening room, there are student-led meditation/ yoga/pilates workshops in the movement room, design students are using the art studio to develop graphic design project for Johnston Community events, etc.

3 A counselor from the counseling center is offering weekly workshops in the seminar room, topics for these have included: managing anxiety, self-care during stressful times, interpersonal communication strategies, etc.

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We are working with students (both individuals and groups) to make sure that the spaces are meeting their needs. For example, we have a group of students who are interested in silk screening, so they are putting in a proposal for student project funds to buy equipment and add that to the studio art room.

We have a group of student who are starting a weekly dinner club that will cook together in the common space and invite faculty members to join them for themed dinner and conversations.

We continue to collaborate with the Counseling Center to offer wellness programing.

Several faculty members plan to schedule their spring classes in our new seminar room or in one of the other work rooms.

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Kathryn Green Lecture Series

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on Garcia wanted his Kathryn Green talk to be different. He didn’t want to stand. He didn’t want to have a powerpoint or materials or a whiteboard. “I’m thinking a fireside chat,” he said to me on the phone, months before he was scheduled to fly down from Oakland, “will you interview me? That would be cute, right? We’ll sit on a couch in front of the fireplace and it’ll be real cozy.” I told him I’d be happy to and we could work out what to talk about closer to the date. “Yeah, I’m not worried about us having things to talk about,” he said, “but what should we wear?”

When Jon walked in Bekins on November 10, after sliding through his hometown of Fontana– a drive he used to do almost daily when he was a Johnston student living at home– it didn’t feel strange to have him there. Jon graduated in the spring of 2016 with an emphasis in Advancing Culture; he’s been working at the Kapor Center for Social Impact since January of 2017 as a Community Engagement Associate, using his negotiating skills to shape his position so it focuses on diversity and inclusion. This is one of the ways in which Jon has used his Johnston education out in the “real world.” Negotiating is a part of every Johnston student’s education: figuring out how to craft what you want out of a pre-existing syllabus and show how your method and

Jonathan Garcia, ‘16

interests intersect with those of the professor and the larger class, or building something that doesn’t exist yet within an institution that likes to do things a certain way. Jon was able to take a job description that had already been written and show that what he could bring to the table was essential, as well as point out the qualities and experience that he had that the Kapor Center didn’t even know they were looking for.

The experiential learning that he did through his work as Editor-in-Chief of The Redlands Bulldog and as the co-founder of the Race on Campus Conference meant that Jon was well-versed in reconceptualizing a wellknown publication on a new medium and in bringing forth an event that had never existed before, all while having very little experience in designing a student newspaper or a student conference. He spoke about the importance of mentorship in all endeavors, but especially when you’re coming at something foreign to you; when Jon has moments of self-doubt, he doesn’t turn inward, he looks outside of himself for reassurance and guidance. In Johnston that came in the form of his advisors (both formal and informal), peers and staff. In his current work life, he utilizes that same technique: asking for feedback and support from his direct supervisor and his colleagues.

By Maggie Ruopp 3

Amanda Clayton, ‘07 It was a ten-year homecoming for Amanda Clayton, who graduated from Johnston in 2007. After starting as an assistant professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University in 2014, Amanda was back in Holt Lobby on November 6 to share her work on gender representation in political bodies. Her lecture began with some reminiscing and great pictures of the good old days in Bekins and around campus, then quickly turned to the main topic of her talk, entitled “The Benefits of Inclusive Representation.”

Two puzzling slides showed the ten countries with the highest percentage of women in politics in 1997 and 2017–that’s when the audience’s curiosity switched on. It’s easy to believe that Sweden and Norway led the list in 1997, but how did Rwanda and Bolivia make it to the first and second spots by 2017? After an X-ray and a forecast of women in government in the United States, the talk went transnational, and progressively zeroed-in on one of Amanda’s main scholarly interests: electoral gender quotas.

These are policies implemented by federal law or adopted by political parties, which require that women comprise a certain number of seats in–or candidates for–legislative bodies. Most of the people in the audience had never heard of such thing, and questions from students and faculty began to fill the room. Amanda interwove answers, more questions, and bits of lecture like the pro-instructor she must be. She went on to discuss how gender quotas affect patterns in government spending when a higher percentage of women is

By Lorenzo Garbo

present (for instance, do governments with a higher percentage of women spend more on healthcare?), and citizens’ perceptions of fairness/gender bias in political decision-making.

The timeliness of the topic, Amanda’s enthusiasm for her studies and her visible joy of being on campus again were clearly contagious. Her professional path is, for many, tantalizing: she graduated with honors in economics, with a thesis that looked at the women empowering effects of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh; six years later, she obtained a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Washington; she spent one year as a post-doctoral scholar at the Freie Universitat in Berlin; she was a fellow of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government for two years; and she now holds a tenure-track position in politics and gender studies at Vanderbilt. And it all began in Johnston. Her emphasis allowed her to meet her intellectual curiosity headon, and shape her studies right at the intersection of economics, politics and gender studies; her semester in Chile turned on a passion for field work that brought her to spend the year after graduation with an NGO in the Dominican Republic, and several stays in Namibia, Lesotho, Uganda and Malawi during graduate school and beyond; and her community experience led her to study fair representation and decision-making in larger communities. No doubt, her visit inspired many students and deeply touched many faculty members.

THEofREDVintage CARPET Johnston 2

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This year’s keynote speaker, alum Jon Garcia, and his dad, whom all of us at Johnston lovingly call “Pops”

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The heart, brain, and backbone of Vintage Johnston, John Slater, indulges in his favoritae part of the evening (besides the wine)– the raffle drawings.

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Bill McDonald indulges students Molly Green and Emily Main’s eccentric wine tasting techniques.

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What could alums Lorraine Hedtke and Denise Davis and faculty member Kathy Feeley be talking about? If we had to guess, it’s the absurd amount of raffle tickets that Kathy bought this year Current students Katie Lumsden, Maina Minchin, and Hadley Hughes and Johnston’s assistant director MG Maloney can barely contain their laughter for the camera–hard to do with alum and rising star Jessie Kahnweiler next you! (She seems overjoyed that she managed to sneak her date into the party)

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Emeritus Johnston faculty member Yash Owada and alum Lee Harrington spend some time catching up. No doubt they’re talking about how amazing Lee’s design of all our silent auction materials looks!

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Coyotess Provost Kathy Ogren pauses from “tips on good bidding strategies” to snap a photo with Vintage newcomers Tom Horan, Dean of the School of Business, and his partner Ruit Abra Shkin.

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Janet Ducey, Nancy Carrick, Dwight Yates, and Charlie Ducey toast to another great year at Vintage.

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It’s the second year at Vintage for on campus powercouple Kendrick Brown, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Hideko Sera, Associate Dean at School of Education.

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS The g host of J immy Johnston wants to know, What exactly happe ne d during those middle years?

Call fo r Jo hn s to n P HOTOS, ART, and E P HE ME RA fro m

1975-76

1983-86

1995-99

2004-13

The D e tail s: minim um 300 d p i p r int q uality at 4x6 o r g r e ate r D e taile d d escr ipti o n o f the imag e with the ye ar and auth o r o f the imag e (if kn own) E mail s ub mi ss i o n s to j o hn s to nb uffalo@g mail.co m The D e tail s: By s ub mit tin g, yo u ar e g ivin g yo ur co n s e nt fo r the imag e(s) to b e p ub li s he d in the 50th bo o k and part o f the Jo hn s to n d i g ital archive N ot all imag es will b e p r inte d in the bo o k b ut all imag es will live imm o rtally in the archive Q ues ti o n s / Co n ce r n s / Hauntin gs?

Ple as e co ntact M. G. Malo ney, Ass i s tant D ir ecto r at m g _malo n ey@r e d l an ds . e d u o r cal l ( 9 0 9 ) 7 4 8 -8 3 9 3 .

50th Renewal

Savethe Dates The 50th Renewal is only a year away and Johnston wants you to come home and visit. Mark your calendars for President’s Day Weekend, February 15th-17th, 2019 and start getting excited for a celebration for the record books.

Race on Campus

The third annual Race on Campus Conference will be held on April 27th and 28th, 2018. Keep an eye on the website (www. raceoncampus.org) in the next few months to see what the student collective planning the conference will focus on this year and what the weekend schedule will look like in case you’re free to attend. If you would like to donate to Race on Campus, click here and make your gift to the Student Activism and Community Service fund.

Democratic Socialist of America

By Michael Donatuti A Johnston community meeting is different from a debate in that the resolution the room is working towards is a goal rather than a principle. We consent on plans of action (how is X space going to be used on Y date, how much of the budget are we allocating for Buffest, etc.). I think we’re at a point in the country where the concept of debate has become entirely dysfunctional and irrelevant (does a Nazi have free speech? Does a football player?), where the 35ish % of people who support the Trump administration are so entrenched in their beliefs that they’ll see everything the administration does through the lens of ownership–like “owning” the San Juan mayor by neglecting Puerto Rico–and cannot possibly be convinced otherwise.

Debate is broken (good riddance), and participating in the Chicago DSA has allowed me to continue engaging in goaloriented political meetings.

The DSA has developed into a big tent for people who feel a sense of obligation to do something about the state of the country and the world. Each local branch divides itself into “working groups” that develop actions and tactics relevant to their specific interest– environmental justice, public education, socialist-feminist, etc. Because the DSA is a socialist organization, it’s biggest emphasis is on labor and workplace politics.

This emphasis on labor meshes quite well with the Johnston ethos. I didn’t realize it when I was a student, but being in Johnston is very much like being in a genuinely-democratic labor union. There is massive development in the labor movement

Being in such a union has two enormous benefits: “

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The increase in standard of living. More money, fewer working hours, safer conditions; all of these things significantly increase quality of life.

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One now has an an intellectual and emotional stake in their labor. Rather than turning your brain off for the majority of the waking day and becoming alienated from yourself in order to make waged-labor possible, work becomes a place where you participate in a community with a common enemy.” right now where the corruption-prone models are being replaced with less bureaucratic ones. These unions consent on a list of demands (higher wages, better insurance, etc.) and bring a contract to management which is then negotiated.

I have really come to believe that this second benefit is what made Johnston the greatest thing to ever happen to me. The Johnston experience is humane in that the education each student receives is bound-up in their passions and interests. Johnston taught me what it’s like to work in an environment where productivity isn’t dependent on my being alienated. Not only has the DSA enabled me to participate in local politics in a way that feels meaningful, but I can fight for a model of workplace organization that I know from experience significantly enriches life.

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n response to the rising tide of fascism, Rosa Luxemburg famously posited that we were headed towards either “socialism or barbarism.” While uttered over a century ago, the sentiment has reappeared in American society following the rise of authoritarian conservatism that culminated in Trump’s election. At the same time, the membership of the Democratic Socialists of America has swelled, shooting from 6,000 members to 30,000 in the last two years. We, the Young Democratic Socialists of America at University of Redlands, decided to take a stand against the rising tide of conservatism present both at the university and nationwide. In the spring, three Johnston Community members, Matthew Thompson (’18), Saraí Tirado (’18), and Kai Peattie (’18) began the process of starting a YDSA chapter on campus. While Matthew is abroad this fall, we (Saraí and Kai) have started the chapter and begun organizing.

10Our goal is to provide an outlet for the anger expressed after the recent election by establishing an explicitly left wing organization. Rather than wallow in our own impotence at the national level, we’ve come together to

enact progressive change here on campus. We came into this semester with ideas and projects to create connections between students and workers. One of the projects we’re working on is the “child care working group” through which we hope to coalition with blue-collar workers at the school to get a child-care service accessible to the workers who need it. We’ve also hosted film screenings, parties, and produced and distributed pamphlets. On Sunday, November 27th, we had the first meeting of our weekly reading group. In the Marxist (and Johnston) tradition, it focuses both on practical and theoretical issues. Readings will be organized around weekly topics such as mental health, university bureaucracy, or labor organizing on the practical side, and a hodgepodge of philosophical and historical writings on the nature of value, experience, and political economy.

Progress has been slow. Building an organization from the ground up without a strong worker’s movement or leftist presence is difficult and confusing work. But we’re learning how to hold meetings, how to attract interest, how to delegate work, and the hundreds of other small details that go into running an organization like this one. We’re a small chapter right now; we have 10-15 active members, about half of whom are Johnston students. But we hope to expand our membership by the end of the school year and host a number of public forums on what socialism means in the 21st century. The Left’s strength is the realm of ideas; to bring forth the traces of reason is our goal, both through organizing and through education. We don’t expect most of the projects we’ve planned to be realized in our last year here. Our goal is merely to lay the foundations of something that will grow beyond us.

Solidarity, Saraí Tirado and Kai Peattie Co-Chairs of the Young Democratic Socialists of America at the University of Redlands

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Dr. Rhonda Collier Speaks on Female Women in Hip Hop Culture By Talullah Plummer-Blanco

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n Tuesday, September 26th, Dr. Rhonda Collier, an associate Professor at Tuskegee University, came to Holt lobby to deliver her lecture: “The Hip Hop Family Album: Engendering Afro-Brazilian Female Rapper.” As a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in São Paulo Brazil, Dr. Collier spent her days studying Brazilian poetry and enjoying the Afro-Brazilian music scene. Dr. Collier’s passion for hip hop culture lead her to develop analytical research that dissects the female presence in hip hop.

Dr. Collier began by asking: “how do we allow, or see, Black or Afro-Brazilian women take or ‘wreck’ the male dominated stage of hip hop?” The presence of this question lingered in the air of Holt lobby throughout the lecture.

Dr. Collier played samples of music from a variety of artists, and highlighted the importance of differentiating the conscious rapper from the unconscious rapper.

Contrasting these two types of musicians’ lyrics allowed audience members to begin to understand the nuances between them. And, more importantly, how each influences the role of women in the patriarchal hip hop scene.

Tuskegee University, a historically black university in Alabama, recently entered into an exchange program agreement with the University of Redlands. This is an exciting new opportunity for Johnston students who are interested in pursuing a domestic cross-cultural experience. Students from Tuskegee will also have the opportunity to study at Redlands, including as part of the Johnston program. Dr. Collier wanted to spend time in Johnston in order to get a feel for the community, which she said was open, engaged, and welcoming, and that she would recommend it to her students.

The female body, and in particular the Black female body, is hypervisible in hip hop culture, both in the form of the ever-present video vixen or, less commonly, the female rappers as counterpart to male rapper who dominate the industry.

So where does the Black female body belong within hip hop culture, as a background dancer or as a Queen dominating the stage? Dr. Collier posed this overarching question and proceeded to enlighten the audience with examples of female rappers in both the Brazilian and American hip hop scene.

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Alumni Trip to Ashland, Oregon This summer, a group of alumni, faculty, and staff headed up to Ashland, Oregon for six days at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We stayed at Buckhorn Springs, a rustic lodge surrounded by cabins located in the woods of southern Oregon. Lively discussions on Henry IV, parts I and II, Julius Caesar, The Odyssey, and Shakespeare’s life were facilitated by Daniel Kiefer, Bill McDonald, and Nancy Carrick.

Attendees read the plays beforehand, and like the good life-long learners we are, came prepared with pens and scripts and questions. We even got to indulge our inner limelight cravers by reading scenes aloud– a personal favorite of mine was Dwight Yates hauntingly delightful rendition of Falstaff. We saw six plays in all: Julius Caesar, Henry IV Part I, The Odyssey, Shakespeare in Love, Henry IV Part II, and the world-premier of a new play based on August Wilson’s poetry: UniSon. The plays spanned time periods and scale–allowing us to experience all three of the stages utilized by the festival. One day was spent doing a scenic rafting tour of the Rogue River, with many us choosing to brave the cold water after managing to stay dry on the rapids. Resident “wine guy” Bill McDonald hosted a side-by-side wine tasting of Oregon and California pinot noirs, which meant that I learned a great deal beyond my usual party trick of distinguishing between reds and whites. As always, the events and activities were fun and exciting, but the best thing about spending time with fellow Johnstonians are the small in between moments where memories and knowledge are shared and friendship blossoms.

By Maggie Ruopp

chilifest

Just a few examples of the work students in the First Year Seminar created that was displayed at Chilifest.

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his year’s freshman class was brought together to participate in a First-Year Seminar entitled Interpersonal Mindfulness. Led by Fred Rabinowitz and Johnston Peer Advisors, Amelia Boyle, Jenna Moreno, and Maria Alfaro-Campos, the freshmen were challenged to expand their interpersonal and introspective skills through face-to-face groups and mindful activities. The semester has been a lot of fun with activities such as meditation exercises, guest speakers and student led workshops including a labyrinth walk, movement lab, poetry workshop and student facilitated discussions. We hope students will walk away with a better understanding of themselves and excitement for their futures as members of the Johnston community.

Help us find the next generations of johnston students . . .

Who better to identify potential Johnston students than Alums? We want to find more students who seek an individualized and integrated college experience, who value community and collaboration as well as academics, and who are passionate about their interests… in short, people like YOU. If you know of high school students who might be interested in a Johnston-style education, please encourage them to visit Johnston. And, if you know of a high school whose pedagogical model seems similar to Johnston’s, please let our admissions coordinator, Maggie Ruopp (margaret_ruopp@redlands. edu) know about it!

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graduation An Excerpt From Adam Ghovayzi’s Graduation Speech I’m so glad that everyone could make it out. As many of us know commencement ceremonies celebrate the accomplishments of the students, but it’s not just for the students. It’s for everyone who helped these students get to this successful moment: all the staff and faculty here, and all the friends and family along the way.

This moment is also recognition that, at some point, we got something right.

When I was writing this I realized I was writing a paper, as if it had been assigned to me by a professor. Which makes sense, college has been my life nigh on a decade, that’s the world I’m in; but then I also realized I’m not just in college, I’m at Johnston and I won’t be forced to write a paper. Not when I have the ability to contract! So I’m contracting out of this paper, instead I’m doing an oral report I hope you, the senior class, will allow for this change in the syllabus. Now, a definition: Complaint- A tool you’ll use for the rest of your lives So yes the complaint! You are all experienced complainers, but

you should leave knowing how to use them properly.

A complaint serves many functions, but it starts with a relatively simple premise. You’re upset about something! Something exists in a way that you think is totally bogus and you’re done with it. You’ve had it. Great, that’s important, because the fact that you’re complaining means you’ve begun comparing your situation currently with the one you’d rather have.

The next function of a complaint is to get you into a better situation. Just complaining isn’t enough. Complaints, as I’ve seen them, work best when you are complaining to the right people.

People who can help you make the change you want, or people who can help you rethink your actual complaint, those are good ears to yell into; what doesn’t often help 15

is complaining generally, into the void, and then waiting for a resolution. That mentality is sort of like having a raccoon for a pet. If you’re really careful things might work out, but most of the time you’re in for a huge mess and things are probably worse off than they were before.

Finally complain about the things that mean the most to you. If you complain all the time about just anything people will not take you as seriously.

That doesn’t mean you can’t always strive to find things that need improvement, but also acknowledge where things are already good. Complain in order to see your values empowered, to uplift your society, complain to make a world that’s better for both you and those you care about.

Hugh Redmond, 1937-2017: Transformations

Hugh came to Johnston College in 1971, while finishing his dissertation in Urban Studies at USC’s Center for Urban Affairs. That degree only begins to describe Hugh’s range, however; like most Johnston faculty members, the College’s open spirit gave Hugh freedom to explore his much larger palate of interests, and to create interdisciplinary courses that integrated them. His transformation began right in his first year. Predictably, he taught “Urban Studies” and “Problems of Urban Education,” but he also offered, among others, “Parapsychology”; “Man” (men’s issues); “Change Strategies”; “Creative Psychology”; “The Teachings of Gurdjieff.” Within a short time his official title morphed to “Faculty Fellow in Psychology and Education”; Urban Studies drifted into the background and Hugh’s transformations continued. His deepening immersion in humanistic and transpersonal psychology was strengthened greatly by his wife Nancee, a gifted therapist for many in the greater Redlands community; they were a terrific team. Then came the full program in Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology program —America’s first— in 1973, followed the next year

by Johnston’s first graduate degree with the same title. Hugh led both, revealing fresh talents for administration, and for recruiting both students and adjunct faculty. Courses like “Psychosynthesis” (with student Sam Dunbar); ”Letting Go”; and “Healing” now appeared regularly in both his undergraduate and graduate offerings. When that degree program was phased out by the University as part of the College’s closing, Hugh was ready for yet another transformation: this time into an entrepreneur for the spirit. He founded, with Nancee and others, the Transformational Arts Institute in Redlands that enriched the Inland Empire for ten years.

I list so many courses because I’m hoping they will trip memories and reflections for former students as they did for alumna Sheila Lee Prader. She writes: “I have many fond memories of Hugh. His JC class, “Change Strategies,” really informed my thinking. And I was blessed to go through his Transformational Arts program more than once. There I met many co-learners whose ways and practices have improved my life beyond measure. Nancee was very dear to me as well.

She was my first therapist and a portal for my journey on that path…. I carry the results of their life energies forward with pride and love and gratitude.” Sheila speaks for the many students and clients that the Redmonds touched and inspired; there’s no better tribute. Hugh ended his final letter to his friends with three phrases:

SLOW BOAT CALM RIVER QUIET LANDING. The transformations continue.

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