2010 Summer: University of Denver Magazine

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Inside: Condoleezza Rice, study abroad, violent girls, Evans Chapel, Pioneers gymnastics, Evans Chapel, astronomy, undergraduate curriculum, movie producer Zak Kadison, medial marijuana, sculptor Ed Dwight

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Summer 2010

U N U V I VR S I T T Y OO F I N E E R S I Y F

M A G A A Z I NE MAG ZIN E

N I U N IR S I T Y T Y F F V E V E R S I O O Z I E A GM AZ IAN E N U N I V E R S I T Y A G

F U N I V E R S I T Y OOF M AM A G A Z I E E GAZINN

U V VE S I T Y U N IN I E R R S I TY MAG Z I I E M A G A A Z NN E

Condi’s next chapter

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University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

Contents
Features

26 32 36

Facing Forward, Looking Back
Alumna Condoleezza Rice opens up about DU, 9/11, the George Bush legacy and more.
Interview by Tamara Chapman

Whole Wide World
Study-abroad students capture their experiences in photos.
By Elizabeth Fritzler

All the Rage
Assistant Professor Lisa Pasko has a plan to help violent girls.
By Tamara Chapman

Departments

44 45 47

Editor’s Note Letters DU Update 8 News Astronomy discovery 15 Sports Gymnast’s cancer fight 17 History Evans Chapel 19 Academics New common curriculum 21 People Movie producer Zak Kadison 23 Q&A Medical marijuana 24 Arts Sculptor Ed Dwight Alumni Connections Essay Learning in Alaska

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Online only at www.du.edu/magazine:

On the cover: One of DU’s best-known alumni, Condoleezza Rice, will be honored with the Josef Korbel Outstanding Alumni Award at the annual Korbel Dinner in August; read an interview with her on page 26. Photo by Jeffrey Haessler. This page: Junior photography major Rachael Roark’s photo of a food market in Vienna, Austria, was one of dozens of submissions to the 2010 study abroad photo contest; read the story on page 32.

University of Denver Magazine Update

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U N I V E R S I T Y

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Editor’s Note
I’m long overdue in introducing the newest member of the University of Denver Magazine editorial team. Greg Glasgow joined the magazine in June 2009 after a decade as the arts and entertainment editor at the Boulder Daily Camera. As assistant managing editor of the University of Denver Magazine, he writes and edits stories and manages much of the magazine’s day-to-day business. Don’t miss his articles about movie producer Zak Kadison (page 21)
Wayne Armstrong

MAGAZINE

w w w. d u . e d u / m a g a z i n e
U N I V E R S I T Y Number 4 Volume 10, O F M A G A Z I N E

UN I V ER S I T Y O F MAGAZINE

Publisher

UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

OF

Carol Farnsworth
Managing Editor

Chelsey Baker-Hauck (BA ’96)
Assistant Managing Editor

Greg Glasgow
Associate Editor

Tamara Chapman
Editor

and sculptor Ed Dwight (page 24) in this issue. You can learn more about Greg, and read more of his work, online at www.du.edu/today. Greg is the latest addition to a team of exceptional writers, photographers, designers and editors who have garnered more than 100 awards for magazine excellence since the University of Denver Magazine published its first issue in fall 2000. I’m extremely proud of all we’ve accomplished. But as we complete our 10th year in print, I find myself most excited about what’s to come—particularly in the digital realm. We recently launched a new online version of the magazine at www.du.edu/magazine. It’s a companion to DU Today (www.du.edu/today), the University’s daily news Web site. There, you’ll find online-only extras and fresh content virtually every day. You also can subscribe to our news feeds, join Facebook conversations, watch DU videos, browse images of campus and more. Follow the magazine on Twitter (twitter.com/DUMagazine) for the latest alumni news and an inside track on what’s coming out in the magazine. The sites are works-in-progress, and we plan to roll out new interactive features and content on an ongoing basis. In our most recent reader survey, more than 95 percent of respondents said they prefer to read the magazine in print, and more than 67 percent said they’d never visited the magazine’s Web site. The print version isn’t going away, but I hope you’ll also visit us online and see all that we have to offer.

Kathryn Mayer (BA ’07, MA ’10)
Editorial Assistant

Elizabeth Fritzler
Staff Writer

Richard Chapman
Art Director

Craig Korn, VeggieGraphics
Contributors

Jordan Ames (BA ’02) • Wayne Armstrong • Jim Berscheidt • Tamara Chapman • Janalee Card Chmel (MLS ’97) • Kim DeVigil • Kristal Griffith • Jeffrey Haessler • Doug McPherson • John Schiavone • Andrew Sherbo • Nathan Solheim • Chase Squires
Editorial Board

Chelsey Baker-Hauck, editorial director • Jim Berscheidt, associate vice chancellor for university communications • Thomas Douglis (BA ’86) • Carol Farnsworth, vice chancellor for university communications • Jeffrey Howard, executive director of alumni relations • Sarah Satterwhite, senior director of development for research and writing • Amber Scott (MA ’02) • Laura Stevens (BA ’69), director of parent relations

Printed on 10% PCW recycled paper

Chelsey Baker-Hauck Managing Editor

The University of Denver Magazine (USPS 022-177) is published quarterly—fall, winter, spring and summer—by the University of Denver, University Communications, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816. The University of Denver (Colorado Seminary) is an Equal Opportunity Institution. Periodicals postage paid at Denver, CO. Postmaster: Send address changes to University of Denver Magazine, University of Denver, University Advancement, 2190 E. Asbury Ave., Denver, CO 80208-4816.

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University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

Spring 2010

U N I V E R S I T Y

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Letters
OF

MAGAZINE

U N I V E R S I T Y M A G A Z I N E

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UN I V ER S I T Y O F MAGAZINE

Immigration debate

UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE

Regarding “Can immigration be reformed?” [spring 2010]: I remember working in the fields alongside the “braceros.” This was a good program while it lasted. They made enough money during harvest time to last them all winter back in their home country, where living is much cheaper. Then along came some “reformer” congresspeople who thought they had a better idea: Make them U.S. citizens so we would have a permanent agricultural work force. Only one problem: U.S. citizens don’t do that kind of work. Now I read that DU is recommending the same solution to the same problem all over again, a solution that will once again multiply the problem rather than solving it. Has anyone at DU ever heard of the principle of unintended consequences? What do you think is going to happen when word gets around to an overpopulated, underfed global population that all they have to do is sneak into the U.S. illegally and we will make them citizens? Boatloads of the poor and desperate are already arriving on the shores of European countries, and it doesn’t take much imagination to realize we will be the next target—especially if we unwittingly issue an invitation. What a wonderful opportunity for terrorists to blend in with the hordes, thereby bypassing pat-downs from customs!
Dean Edmonds Palmer Lake, Colo.

largely to blame as well. When the quality of life for foreign populations is suppressed and they are more than motivated to migrate, so it goes that it affects our interests. Until these gabby “experts” see and act on what’s happening on both sides of the fence, don’t expect enduring solutions anytime soon.
David Reusch Denver

Can immigration be reformed?

It seems astounding that for all the enlightened leaders brought together to draft this “immigration road map,” not one of their recommendations dealt with the influence of U.S. foreign trade policy. The lessons of NAFTA alone should teach us that border porosity and domestic immigration policy are not the only issues at hand. By inking exploitive economic policy with other countries and reducing real wages and sustainable living opportunities there, shortsighted free-trade agreements are

I commend the University of Denver policy panel for its excellent proposals regarding immigration reform, with which I wholeheartedly agree. As for my own family history, my greatgrandparents fled Jewish pogroms in the Ukraine and settled in the San Luis Valley [in Colorado] in the 1890s. They operated a family store, living among the SpanishAmericans, most of whom, although practicing Catholics, were descended from Marrano Jews. In 1917 my grandparents, also fleeing Jewish pogroms, settled there as well. My father, Ely (BS ’48), tells me that his parents, although they could speak many Eastern European languages, insisted on speaking English in the home. To become an American citizen, my grandfather diligently studied the U.S. Constitution and other documents and came before a federal judge in Missouri. The judge questioned him extensively, and my grandfather feared that he might be sent back to the Ukraine. After he took the oath of citizenship, however, the judge praised him in front of the other immigrants and cited him as an example of learning to which they should all aspire. My view: Let those who come here and are willing to study, work hard, obey our laws and speak our language be welcomed with open arms.
Marc Birnbaum (JD ’78) Overland Park, Kan.

I was pleased to see the story about Rosie Meyer [Donor Spotlight] in the spring 2010 issue of the magazine. I knew Rosie while we were fellow students in the late 1940s. Contact was lost after we graduated but one day, some 50 years later, my telephone rang. It was Rosie calling to say that she had come across my novel, War’s Wake, which is based upon my time at DU as a GI Bill of Rights student. She had found a picture of herself among the photos I used as inspiration for the story and recognized her father, Professor Elwood Murray, as the model for one of the fictional characters. Afterward, we exchanged correspondence and pictures and enjoyed reminiscing by way of several delightful telephone conversations. We had planned to meet, but Rosie passed away before that came about. I never knew about the Richard and Rosalind Meyer Family Kitchen at the hotel, restaurant and tourism management building and her generous support of the University. In characteristic humility she never mentioned it. Anyone who knew Rosie never forgot her laughter and zest for living that enlivened many a gathering during those heady GI Bill days just after World War II.
Allan Howerton (BA ’48, MA ’51) Alexandria, Va.

Remembering Rosie

Heating up

Don Burgess’ letter in the spring 2010 issue stated his skepticism regarding global warming, declaring it to be a fraud and a tool for those with socialist political agendas. Skepticism is an integral part of all scientific inquiry. Challenges to scientific thought are the means by which erroneous concepts are discarded and valid ones are made stronger. Over time, the scientific community gravitates toward positions that
University of Denver Magazine Letters

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are generally defensible, although unanimity is seldom reached and dissenters serve to keep the majority honest. Regarding global warming, it is notable that the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and comparable organizations in more than 30 other countries have come to the position that global warming is happening and that human activities are a significant contributor to it. These groups, and the respected scientists in them, are risking their reputations by concluding that global warming is a real and serious problem. Such positions are not taken lightly. It seems highly unlikely that all of these groups have been fooled and that they support a common political agenda. We should all be skeptical of evolving science, but we should also be open to changing our positions as evidence is collected and authoritative bodies weigh in to the debate.
Steve Johnson (BSME ’67) Lakewood, Colo.

It’s not a choice

After reading your article “Full House” [winter 2009] and the letters to the editor in regard to it, I am again reminded of the long struggle gays and lesbians have against being demonized in our society. And it seems that DU continues to blindly follow along with that demonization by publishing letters that continue to portray being gay as a “lifestyle,” one that is unfit, unhealthy, etc. If DU were truly concerned with diversity and inclusion, I would not have to read how my life is again put down by certain people, who with their letters make being gay a sin or something to hide. While I am all for freedom of speech, where are the letters denigrating certain religions or interracial marriage, etc.? Of course you won’t find them here, because those types of letters are not acceptable. So why is it acceptable to publish letters demeaning gay men and women? Is it because gays are the only group of people left that it is still acceptable to demonize? DU has a choice to not partake in this action, to stop this cycle of denigration. Americans have the right to their viewpoints, but if you want to

denigrate, save, change, scorn or belittle gay men and women, keep it to yourself. Being gay is not a lifestyle, not a choice. It is not a sin, it is not a shame, it simply is. How many Ted Haggards, Mark Foleys, Larry Craigs and others do we have to hear about because certain people think that being gay is wrong or sinful? How many times do we have to hear that sexual orientation can be changed? How many times do we have to hear religion used as a basis to discriminate? I look forward to the day when I won’t have to read or hear people say I should be “treated with dignity” yet be told that my life is unhealthy, immoral or abhorrent. I personally don’t want or need acceptance or tolerance; what I do need is for people to stop using my life as an excuse to tell me how awful or immoral I am. The next time you write an article about a gay family or individual, I want to say thanks, but please write it with the knowledge that while it is good to hear about the acceptance of gay families and individuals, it is not good to hear about the misconceptions, lies and twisted ways that people think my life and those of other gay men and women are supposed to be.
James Rogers (MLIS ’08) Denver

According to your editorial policies, the alumni magazine aspires to accuracy: “The University of Denver Magazine will correct all errors of fact,” and requires that “submissions ... may not malign specific individuals or groups.” I was therefore surprised and deeply saddened that several letters regarding the “Full House” article do both. I enjoyed the article and commend you for publishing it in the first place. Ronald Munoz’s letter suggests that LBGT lifestyles are “biologically unhealthy.” William Brown’s letter calls LBGT people “aberrant,” and compares “homosexuality” to a “physiological and/ or psychological dysfunction” akin to alcoholism. He also suggests that gays can be turned heterosexual. As a master’s candidate in the University of Colorado at Denver’s counseling psychology program in marriage and

family therapy, I feel compelled to note that homosexuality (an offensive and outdated term that implies disorder) was removed as a form of psychological dysfunction from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973. It is no longer considered “aberrant” or any form of psychological disorder by the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association or the American Counseling Association. Furthermore, “reparative” therapy (turning gays “straight”) is considered unethical and unquestionably psychologically harmful. Contrary to Brown’s claims that being gay is not “predetermined, or inevitable,” most research suggests that sexual orientation is a predetermined trait caused by the biology during gestation— in fact, it is more predetermined than the left/right handedness of an individual and cannot be changed after birth. I found both of these letters full of factual errors and an attempt to malign gays and lesbians, and I am frankly surprised that they were published in our magazine. Gays, lesbians and transgender individuals continue to be the most blatantly marginalized and oppressed group in our society, and DU does no service to them by publishing letters that are uninformed and perpetuate misinformation that is used to rationalize their further degradation. I understand the magazine is interested in providing “fair and balanced” coverage and reader input, but allowing it to be a vehicle for misleading, false statements; supporting a culture that causes unconscionable harm to an entire group of people; and allowing the suggestion that they can be “changed” (contrary to opinions of mental health professionals and scientific research) does nothing to advance and support the development of mankind, which is the purpose of DU.
Robin Ruscio (BM ’01) Denver

Send letters to the editor to: Chelsey BakerHauck, University of Denver Magazine, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816. Or e-mail [email protected]. Include your full name and mailing address with all submissions. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

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University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

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Teaching grant Volunteer profile Earth Day Communication program Skiing championship Business school ranking

Wayne Armstrong

Home to theater students for 82 years, the Little Theatre in Margery Reed Hall hosted its final departmental performance in February 2010 with a production of Closer, the Patrick Marber play that was turned into a 2004 movie starring Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. Most theater productions will now be performed at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. Daniels College of Business faculty and staff will occupy Margery Reed and plan to use the theater as a lecture auditorium.
University of Denver Magazine Update

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Top News

Astronomy professor publishes star system discovery in Nature
By Chase Squires

more than a century, there has been a mystery. For decades, there have been hypotheses. For years, University of Denver astronomy Professor Robert Stencel has sought answers. But there hasn’t been an image. Until now. Stencel (pictured) and DU PhD student Brian Kloppenborg are co-authors of a paper that appeared in April in the international science journal Nature. The paper details how the two worked with teams from Georgia State University and the University of Michigan to capture an image of the mysterious binary star system Epsilon Aurigae. The system, with one bright star that appears to “blink” every 27 years, was discovered in 1821. The blink, which is actually an eclipse, lasts for two years. The cause of the eclipse was unknown. Some astronomers suggested an orbiting twin star or a black hole, but there was no way to capture an image and be sure. Stencel has studied the system since the 1980s and was joined by teams of scientists and even amateur astronomers—all funded by four separate National Science Foundation grants. Stencel and the teams from Michigan and Georgia tested Stencel’s proposal to combine the University of Michigan’s newly developed imager and software with Georgia State’s giant array of conjoined telescopes in the California mountains near Los Angeles to produce a snapshot of what exactly is going on during the eclipse. “What we’re seeing has been the subject of hypotheses for decades. What we’ve never had was a ‘picture’ of what is actually happening,” Stencel says. “We’ve produced a reconstruction of an image based on sampling done with multiple telescopes. A reasonable analogy is what you ‘see’ with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). You don’t have a shutter going off, but you’ve scanned the object repeatedly, and after a while the computer has enough information to put together a picture.” For the first time, scientists are seeing what’s happening some 2,000 light-years away: A huge star 150 times the mass of our sun is being eclipsed by a whirling dust cloud 930 million miles across. “What we’re seeing, that we’ve never seen before, is this giant cloud,” Stencel says. “It’s just that, a giant, dense cloud of dust.” Because astronomers had not been able to see much light from the system, they had described it as a smaller star orbited by a disk of dust that had to be precisely aligned with the star’s orbit and then again aligned along the same plane as the Earth’s orbit to catch the eclipse. It was all very unlikely. The new images show that as nearly impossible as that seems, it is the case. “This really shows that the basic paradigm was right, despite the slim probability,” says University of Michigan Professor John Monnier. “It kind of blows my mind that we could capture this.” Stencel says getting everything to work—from the funding to a “Citizen Sky” initiative that encouraged amateur astronomers to help assemble data to getting the critical telescope time from the California array—took an immense amount of time and work, and a bit of luck. This plus the work of graduate students such as Kloppenborg, who processed the volumes of raw data, made the discovery possible. “This has been a very good project for all of us,” Stencel says. “We have a picture of something that until now we’ve only had hypotheses about. We are certainly not done, but this is a big step forward.” >>www.nature.com
University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

For

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Wayne Armstrong

University selling Phipps estate
DU put its Lawrence C. Phipps Memorial Conference Center up for sale in March, and the historic estate had a buyer within a month. Tim Gill, founder of Quark Inc. and the Gill Foundation, and his husband, Scott Miller, a local investment adviser, announced plans to purchase the estate. The sale is expected to close in December 2010; the price is around the $9 million listed for the property. Gill and Miller plan to live in the 33,123-square-foot Georgian home in Denver’s Belcaro neighborhood. The mansion has a storied history: It was the home of a senator, the location of hundreds of weddings and the host of world leaders for the Summit of the Eight in 1997. The University will use the sale proceeds to fund student scholarships. DU Chancellor Robert Coombe said the decision to sell the property was consistent with the University’s focus on its core mission: education. Bookings at the Margaret Rogers Phipps House and adjoining Phipps Tennis Pavilion had declined due to increased competition from other Denver-area venues as well as the economy. Plus, DU now has ample on-campus meeting space, which made an off-campus facility unnecessary. Sen. Lawrence Phipps built the 6.5-acre estate between 1931–33. His widow, Margaret Rogers Phipps, donated the estate’s tennis pavilion to DU in 1960 and the mansion in 1964. Gill founded Quark in 1981, and the company became a world leader in the development of page-layout software. He started the Denver-based Gill Foundation in 1994 to support nonprofit organizations that serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied individuals, as well as people with HIV/AIDS.
—Media Relations Staff
Richard Chapman

Pioneers Top 10

Refreshments sold at DU hockey games
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Soft drinks/water Beer Popcorn Carved sandwiches Nachos Dippin’ Dots ice cream Pretzels All-beef hot dogs All-beef footlong hot dogs

10. Nutty Bavarian nuts

Denver Teacher Residency program awarded $8.2 million grant
Denver Public Schools has received an $8.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to expand and broaden the Denver Teacher Residency program (DTR), a partnership between Denver Public Schools and DU’s Morgridge College of Education. Launched in 2009 with a grant from the Janus Alliance, the nation’s first district-based teacher residency program is modeled on medical residency programs. The five-year program includes a yearlong classroom residency with a lead teacher, a DU master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a four-year classroom teaching commitment. Its hands-on teacher preparation is designed to cultivate and support quality teachers in high-needs schools within the Denver school system. The $8,204,269 grant will be used to bring talented teachers to Denver and train them to serve in areas of critical need. It also will expand programs in special education and linguistically diverse education. The program is one of 12 that will receive funds from a $100 million Teacher Quality Partnership grant aimed at raising student achievement by improving instruction. Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the grant will enable the DTR to expand the work initiated through the Janus Alliance and deepen the district’s work to support the Denver plan. The residency program directly supports the district’s wider investment in recruiting, developing and retaining high-quality teachers. “There is no harder job than teaching in a school district with children living in poverty, but there is also not a more important job,” says U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who helped secure the grant. Starting with a group of 25 residents apprenticing in five Denver elementary schools—Archuleta, Gust, Harrington, McMeen and Montclair—the program draws on DU’s experience in teacher preparation and educational leadership. The first group of residents will begin teaching this fall.
—Kim DeVigil

Kelpfish | Dreamstime.com

Compiled by Christopher Lauber, concessions manager for Sodexo Sports and Leisure Services at the Ritchie Center

University of Denver Magazine Update

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Staff Spotlight

Tyrone Mills
Tyrone Mills, associate director for campus safety, is well-known across the University of Denver campus. Nearly 40 years of employment with one institution will get you that. But there was a time when Mills was so well-known that he could enter a hockey game and students would start shouting his name en masse: “TY! MILLS! TY! MILLS!” And it was not a friendly chant. “They hated me!” he says, laughing. “I was the top ticket-writer on campus.” Mills received the Distinguished Service to the University award at the 2010 Founders Day gala in March. Since he was hired as a security officer in 1972, Mills has held nearly every position in the campus safety department, including 18 years as its director. In those four decades, he has served five chancellors and has seen the annual car registration fee climb from $2 to more than $100. He also has seen his share of tragedies and world-class events. Mills remembers 1985, when an arsonist was igniting fires at fraternity houses on many of Colorado’s college campuses. DU suffered through three blazes, and Mills called the biggest meeting he has ever had to lead. “There was a mob mentality on campus,” he recalls. “People were saying they would take up arms and patrol campus themselves. I was the only person to stand up in front of the group, and I had to calm them down.” Mills’ ability to calm others is one of his strengths, according to Assistant Director of Campus Safety Michael Holt. “One of the things about Ty, whatever the challenge is, whatever comes up, and especially in really difficult situations, he is very cool and calm,” Holt says. “In fact, he’s the person that I’ve tried to pattern my professional life after.” Mills is credited with many safety advancements at DU, including the Rape Aggression and Defense program, emergency “blue light” telephones and the nighttime shuttle. He’s received more late-night phone calls than he can count, and he admits that some of them break his heart. On the flip side, Mills also has shaken hands with President Barack Obama and coordinated security for President Bill Clinton, Secretary General of the United Nations Kurt Waldheim and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. “You have to have a commitment to this job,” Mills says. “There are a lot of ups and downs in police work. Some things can cut you to the ground and others leave you happy for days, but you learn how to accept all the areas of the job.”
—Janalee Card Chmel
Wayne Armstrong

History professor awarded Guggenheim fellowship
Susan Schulten, associate professor of history at DU, has received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The fellowships, according to the Guggenheim Web site, “are intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.” The award will fund Schulten’s current book project, A Nation in Time and Space. The book, which is under contract with University of Chicago Press, will examine the rise of new forms of mapping and graphic knowledge in 19th and 20th century American life. Schulten has written about half of the book and will use the fellowship to finish it while on sabbatical from fall 2010 to fall 2011. She will spend the bulk of her time in Denver writing the book, but the short-term fellowship will allow her to spend June researching at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, Calif. She also will make short trips to study archives in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee. In addition to the book, Schulten plans to deliver a companion Web site where visitors can see high-resolution versions of the maps.
—Kristal Griffith

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Courtesy of Susan Schulten

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

Volunteer Spotlight

Students help lead conservation on campus
University of Denver students who live in residence halls are finding that the best carbon offset is the carbon that isn’t used at all. A fall-quarter competition among residence halls saw students reduce energy and water use across the board. Overall, students doing everything from turning down the thermostat to taking shorter showers cut water use by more than a million gallons and slashed electricity use by more than 100,000 kilowatt hours, successfully keeping nearly 190,000 pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere. Throughout the fall quarter, students were reminded of the conservation challenge with signs such as “Don’t gush when you brush” (turn off the water when brushing teeth), “Flip it off” (turn off lights) and “Don’t be a drip” (bring a towel to the bathroom rather than use paper towels to dry hands). Several local and campus businesses donated prizes to the contest. The prizes were used as incentives for students to make a pledge to help the environment or to nominate friends’ and neighbors’ efforts to make a difference. Also during fall quarter, a conservation blitz at residence halls helped reduce natural gas, electricity and water consumption. The grand prize went to Nelson Hall, which saw a 28.9 percent drop in electricity usage and an 8 percent cut in natural gas usage. Residents also used 14.5 percent less water. DU Energy Engineer Tom McGee says warm weather helped cut some costs, but the biggest factor was students’ willingness to turn down the thermostat and wear a sweater on chilly days. In the past three years, McGee says, DU has reduced its carbon footprint by nearly 10 percent, with more cuts anticipated in the coming year. This year, the campus has added energy-saving measures such as lights that turn off automatically in unused restrooms. Administrators continue to explore options such as incorporating solar panels and working with the city of Denver to bring so-called “gray water” lines for irrigation, instead of using potable water.
—Chase Squires

Margaret Hall
Wayne Armstrong

University community makes donation to Haitian relief
The University of Denver community has exceeded its goal in raising money to help the earthquake-stricken Caribbean nation of Haiti. DU students, staff, faculty, organizations and departments donated $13,610 to the relief campaign. Organizers originally had hoped to raise $10,000. “I’m just really proud that the University came together around a single cause,” says Jami Duffy (BA ’03), program coordinator for DU’s Social Justice Living and Learning Community. More than 200 individuals and 30 student organizations and DU departments donated money to Haiti. Proceeds from the campaign will go directly to the Lambi Fund of Haiti, a nonprofit dedicated to building democracy and sustainable development in the country. In the days and weeks after the earthquake, DU hosted a number of events to raise money and awareness for Haiti, including a barbecue on Driscoll Green, a panel at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies and an a cappella concert.
—Nathan Solheim

It’s Thursday afternoon at DU’s Fisher Early Learning Center, and naptime is just ending. Groggy toddlers wake up to crackers, bottles and a familiar presence in their classroom: “Grandma” Margaret Hall. The Volunteers of America (VOA) foster grandparent program came to Hall’s senior citizen residence in January to recruit volunteers for schools in the Denver area. Hall was looking for volunteer opportunities in early childhood care, so VOA matched her with Fisher. “It was a good chance to be with little kids again,” says Hall, whose four grandchildren live on the East Coast. “I’ve felt welcome since the day I started.” Hall is the first volunteer from VOA to donate her time to Fisher. She volunteers three to six hours a day, three days a week. She works with children ages 6 weeks to 1 year. “Grandma Margaret brings diversity and a valuable age difference to us,” says Fisher Human Resources Manager Nicole Kramis. “She’s so helpful, and the kids love her.” Although the classrooms have a low child-toteacher ratio, Fisher teachers still need volunteers like Hall to accommodate the kids’ short attention spans. Hall spends the majority of her time playing, often sitting with kids during mealtime or helping them get accustomed to playtime outside. Hall has gained an unexpected benefit from her volunteer work: sign language. Her Fisher kids are too young to talk, but teachers have shown them how to communicate through simple hand signs. The signs strike a personal note with Hall, too. “I have hearing loss in my right ear,” Hall says. “Learning to sign gave something back to me.” Outside her time at DU, Hall enjoys sewing and baking and belongs to a local plant club. But she sees her most generous hobby, volunteering at Fisher, enduring for a long time.
—Elizabeth Fritzler

University of Denver Magazine Update

11

Students ‘think globally’ during Earth Day events
The message was clear at the University of Denver’s Earth Day Summit: You can do this (and you really don’t have a choice). Scores of University of Denver students assembled April 22 to recognize the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and learn about what can be done to save the planet they will one day help run. The summit, with its slogan “Acting locally, thinking globally,” attracted leading government and activist speakers—including an actual rock star—who challenged students to do something now, no matter how small. In between presentations, students broke into smaller sessions for group discussions with business, civic and government leaders on how to reduce emissions and live more sustainably. James “Jonny 5” Laurie—a rapper with the nationally known, Denverbased rock band Flobots—presented the summit’s keynote address, focusing on the band’s social activist role. The Flobots run programs through a Denver studio that encourages young people to express themselves through music and energizes them to get active in their community. Students also dedicated a new permaculture garden behind the SIÉ CHÉOU-KANG Center for International Security and Diplomacy. The garden, which will be tended by students and volunteers, will demonstrate techniques for growing food in a sustainable, organic way, without depending on chemicals.
—Chase Squires

Jeffrey Haessler

JOSEF KORBEL SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Where leaders learn
13TH ANNUAL KORBEL DINNER FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2010
KEYNOTE ADDRESS:

CONDOLEEZZA RICE

Madeleine Korbel Albright will present the Josef Korbel Outstanding Alumni award to Condoleezza Rice.
HONORING

LEO KIELY AND THE REVEREND SUSAN KIELY J. LANDIS MARTIN
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12

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

One to Watch

Brian Stafford
Athletics are a family affair for sophomore finance major Brian Stafford. His father played football and his mother ran track and field at the University of California-Berkeley, and his grandfather helped the school win an NCAA title in basketball. His older brother currently plays basketball at Azusa Pacific University. With influences like these, it’s no wonder Stafford has been playing sports since age 5 and is now the top returning scorer for the Pioneers basketball team. Stafford came to DU from the San Francisco Bay area. After University of Denver coaches watched him play in an Amateur Athletics Union tournament, they recruited him for the Pioneers basketball team. “I fell in love with the DU campus and area after I had already made my decision to come here,” Stafford says. “And I thought the coaches and team were great.” Since he began his basketball career at DU, Stafford’s defensive skills have improved immensely. He practices up to three hours a day. The demands of practice and high-pressure games have yielded impressive results for Stafford. During the 2008–09 season, he was named the Pioneers’ most valuable freshman and led the team in scoring five times, steals 10 times, blocks twice, rebounding once and assists once. In the 2009–10 season, Stafford was among the top 10 three-point shooters in the Sun Belt Conference. “Brian has started every game since he’s been at DU,” says men’s basketball coach Joe Scott. “His experience and even-keeled demeanor will help him improve through his junior and senior years.” Though much of his life is dedicated to sports, Stafford still manages to maintain a 3.81 GPA. He takes summer classes to lighten his workload during basketball season. Off the court, he enjoys fly-fishing, the outdoors and classical piano. “I’ll probably play piano for the rest of my life. It helps me relax,” he says. Stafford is unsure what he will pursue after graduation in 2012, but he says he wants to stay involved with basketball.
—Elizabeth Fritzler

Wayne Armstrong

Changes to communication programs expand options
The University of Denver is realigning a part of its Division of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) in an effort to provide a greater number of choices to communication students. The new arrangement—approved by the DU Board of Trustees—dissolves the School of Communication as an academic and administrative unit. The school’s departments have been renamed the Department of Communication Studies and the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies. Four new majors also were created. “I’m very pleased that these thoughtful changes to the communication program at DU will result in greater options for our students,” says Anne McCall, AHSS dean. The Department of Communication Studies will feature a single major with three emphases: culture and communication, interpersonal and family communication, and rhetoric and communication ethics. The department will continue to offer master’s and PhD degrees in communication studies. The Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies will offer three new majors: strategic communication, media studies, and film studies and production. The department will keep its journalism studies program, its graduate programs and its relationship with the School of Art and Art History for its digital media studies program. Current communication students can finish the degree they started or opt into one of the new majors.
—Kristal Griffith

Business college to launch one-year MBA program
DU’s Daniels College of Business will launch a one-year MBA program specifically for students who have recently graduated with an undergraduate degree from an AACSB-accredited business school. The program, which launches in August 2010, is designed to encourage undergraduate students to move directly into the graduate school track. The program will provide the same academic rigor and learning opportunities as Daniels’ traditional two-year MBA, but in a format that leverages the momentum students have gained during their undergraduate business studies. Students can reduce the amount of time spent out of the workforce and reduce tuition dollars spent. Students will be able to select a concentration in marketing, innovation, entrepreneurship, finance, accounting, or real estate and construction management. Business ethics and values-based leadership theories will be integrated throughout the program’s core courses. Students also will engage in consulting projects, development of business plans, and career and professional development to build their experience and prepare them for the job market. The one-year MBA is a highly selective program that requires students to start within 11 months of receiving an undergraduate business degree. Students are not required to have professional work experience, though an internship is preferred.
—Jordan Ames

University of Denver Magazine Update

13

Campus Safety officer gets commendation from Denver police
Denver police presented commendations to DU Campus Safety Sgt. Steve Banet and three other citizens April 26 for extraordinary service in support of police. “To honor citizens who have supported what we do is a great honor,” said Chief Gerald Whitman at the award ceremony at police headquarters in downtown Denver. “The Denver police department would not be so successful without the support of the community, and this is a good example of that.” Banet’s commendation was for his “keen attention to duty” in preventing a convicted sex offender from entering the women’s locker room in the Ritchie Center. Banet’s recognition skills on the University’s surveillance system helped Denver police “get a very dangerous party off the street,” said Kris Kroncke, District 3 police commander. The individual, whom police identified as Ronald McClain, has a record for sexual assault, robbery and theft from motor vehicles. On March 25 he pleaded guilty to being a habitual criminal and to assault on an at-risk adult and was sentenced to six years in prison. Banet is an eight-year Campus Safety officer with nearly four decades of investigative experience. Although he got thanks from the Denver police, Banet says he was just doing his job.
—Richard Chapman

Richard Chapman

UNLOCKING DOORS FOR DU STUDENTS
Giving Real Estate and Other Assets Can Make A Huge Impact
Cliff Heglin, long-time Lamont School of Music supporter, gave a vacation home to DU while retaining the right to use it. After he passed away, the property was sold and used to create a scholarship for talented music students. “My sadness has been lessened by seeing what Cliff ’s scholarship has meant to deserving students.”

–Jennifer Heglin, Donor & Volunteer

Office of Gift Planning 1.800.448.3238 or 303.871.2739 E-mail: [email protected]

www.giftplanning.du.edu

“At the Lamont School of Music I’ve learned from world-class faculty and performed with amazing student musicians. Receiving the Heglin Scholarship made it all possible!”

–Nathan Bird, Heglin Scholar, MA ’10, Vocal Performance

14

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

Sports

Degree of difficulty
By Doug McPherson

When

Kelley Hennigan was 12 years old she had a secret—one that, if kept, could have killed her. Hennigan’s story began when she was 5 years old, growing up near Houston, Texas. It was at that young age that she fell in love. “I loved gymnastics immediately. It stuck from that age on, and it always won out over other sports,” says Hennigan (BA digital media studies ’10), today a newly minted graduate who was a standout gymnast for the University of Denver. “It’s a sport you don’t do just halfway, and you have to decide early on if you’re going to be competitive at it.” She decided she wanted to be competitive, and she backed that vow up by piling on the hours of practice after school and on weekends, flying through the air in her routines. But at age 12 she noticed some pain in her shoulder. At first it was nothing. Pain was part of what she signed up for. But it lingered. “Then after a while I noticed a lump,” Hennigan says. Still she kept quiet. “I kept it a secret. I hid it because it’s part of the sport—you try to work through pain. I wanted to keep competing,” she says. “I loved gymnastics, and I didn’t want anything to come between me and it.” After a few weeks, as the lump kept growing, Hennigan finally relented. Her doctor found cancer—soft-tissue sarcoma—in her shoulder. Not surprisingly, she was told no gymnastics and no practice. That was something Hennigan wouldn’t accept. “I went ahead anyway,” she says. “I cut back some, but I kept training. I know that was crazy, but it was the only thing that kept me feeling normal. I didn’t want to feel sick.” But she was very sick. She faced five weeks of radiation treatment and then surgery. After three months of treatment the cancer went away. Looking back, Hennigan says it was the lessons from gymnastics that served as her chief weapon in her battle with cancer. “Gymnastics has taught me an insane amount of lessons, but especially how to handle pressure … and to put everything I can into what I’m doing, to do the best I can,” she says. Fighting cancer, she tapped those lessons. “I looked at treatment as a challenge. I had a calendar and I marked off each day of treatment knowing that if I could make it through, something good would be waiting for me on the other side.” Waiting on the other side was the sport she loved. “I’ve always loved it. Every day is different, and I think that makes it fun. But it’s challenging. The sport has always kicked my butt.” Hennigan has done her fair share of kicking butt, too. She was one of the nation’s best collegiate gymnasts and a star on the DU squad. As a freshman she helped the team earn a berth to the NCAA tournament for the first time in seven years. In 2009, Hennigan finished second on the team with six event titles (three vault, two all-around and one bars), along with season averages on vault (9.806), floor (9.747), bars (9.658) and all-around (38.954). In April, she made her second trip to the NCAA national championships, where she took 20th place in the all-around in the semifinals. (Sophomore Brianna Artemev finished in 11th place.) Head coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart isn’t surprised by Hennigan’s resilience. “Kelley has been a tremendous competitor throughout her career; she has been one of the most consistent on our team,” Kutcher-Rinehart says. “Her competitive drive, fire and focus set her apart from the rest.” When asked if she has advice for those fighting cancer or other hardships, Hennigan says, “Each day is a new day. You’re given what you’re given, so make the best of it you can.”
University of Denver Magazine Update

Wayne Armstrong

15

H1N1 vaccines given

2,400
Seasonal flu vaccines given

Wayne Armstrong

DU Health and Counseling Center flu shots, 2009–10 academic year

Sturm College of Law raising the bar on diversity
The University of Denver Sturm College of Law, with a new dean and a newly developed strategic plan, is taking on yet another new goal in 2010: diversity. Dean Martin Katz announced in March the appointment of Catherine Smith to the post of associate dean of institutional diversity and inclusiveness. In her new role, Smith says she’ll focus on broadening DU’s commitment to diversity, recruiting a broad range of faculty and students and reaching into traditionally underserved segments of the community. A graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, Smith was an assistant professor at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University from 2000–04 before coming to DU. She teaches torts and employment discrimination, and her research interests include civil rights law and critical race theory. Smith says she envisions building stronger ties to associations and organizations that serve minority communities and reach into socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. The goal, she says, is to have a law school and a community of lawyers that better reflect Colorado’s diversity. Diversity, she says, brings in new ideas and ways of looking at legal challenges and fosters opportunities for a traditionally disadvantaged population that has much to contribute.
—Chase Squires

1,800
Community members who came to campus for a flu shot

Celebrated alumni return to DU to connect with students
Notable alumni from across the country made their way back to the University of Denver campus April 12–13 for the Masters Program. The Masters Program is an annual event that recognizes alumni who are distinguished professionals in their fields. The alumni “master scholars” are nominated by division deans and faculty and staff from various colleges. Fifteen scholars were named for 2010. They include Peter Funt (BA ’69), president of Candid Camera Inc.; Eloise May (MA ’74), executive director of the Arapahoe Library District in Colorado; and Michael Kromrey, (MSW ’80, pictured with Graduate School of Social Work Dean James Herbert Williams), director of Metro Organizations for People. The scholars returned to campus to teach, learn and engage with current students and faculty in their degree programs, says Cheri Stanford, associate director of alumni programs and communications. “Through the direct connection with current DU students, the master scholars demonstrate how their professional achievements and life experiences continuously exemplify the rich tradition and excellence we value at the University of Denver,” Stanford says.
—Kathryn Mayer

Jeffrey Haessler

75
Health officials at the center

14
Months that flu season is at its peak

4
Compiled by Bryndi Schult, H1N1 nurse coordinator at the health center

16

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

History

Going to the chapel
By Kathryn Mayer
Courtesy of Tom and Ruth Drabek

Evans

Chapel was so narrowly finished when Tom and Ruth Drabek were married in it in 1960 that then-Chaplain William Rhodes told Tom before the couple’s ceremony: “Hopefully Ruth’s gown doesn’t drag along a wall of wet paint.” Evans Chapel was rededicated to the University of Denver at 2 p.m. on June 10, 1960. The Drabeks were married at 5 p.m. that day. “She was convinced it wouldn’t be ready by then,” Tom says. “Well, it was close,” Ruth says with a laugh. Indeed it was. The chapel had been disassembled stone by stone from its downtown location and then reassembled in the heart of campus during the winter and spring of 1960. “I was living in Aspen Hall at the time and would see them bringing the pieces of Evans Chapel to the campus,” says Ruth, who was studying journalism. “Day by day, I would go to class and watch the process of more pieces being put together.” The chapel—completed in 1878 in downtown Denver—was the initiative of DU founder John Evans in honor of his daughter, Josephine, who had died a decade earlier. DU bought the historic Tom and Ruth Drabek were married in Evans Chapel on June 10, 1960, hours building in 1958 as part of a land purchase. after the building was rededicated to the University of Denver. In 1960, Ruth Obduskey and Tom Drabek were both enrolled at DU. She was 19; he was 20. They were high school sweethearts from Pueblo, Colo. “I invited her to join the debate club [at Central High School in Pueblo],” Tom says. “But we found that we enjoyed looking in each other’s eyes, I guess.” At DU, Tom got involved with the school’s chapel committee. He had worked on issues regarding DU’s Buchtel Chapel and regularly attended Sunday services there. The committee also spoke about Evans Chapel coming to DU. Rhodes was very involved in the planning—everything from new paint to an updated interior, Tom says. “The chapel was important to Tom,” Ruth says. “Because of his involvement in the committee and his relationship with [the chaplain], we decided we wanted Chaplain Rhodes to marry us and we wanted it to be in Evans Chapel.” The couple didn’t stray from the University after graduation: Tom taught sociology and criminology at DU for years; Ruth worked in the library and in the alumni department. Their son, Russell Drabek, and daughter, Debi (Drabek) Kerr, attended DU as well. Many other couples have followed in the Drabeks’ footsteps. The chapel holds an average of 53 weddings each year, the majority of them DU-affiliated. The chapel’s small size creates a feeling of intimacy—it holds 60 people at most. Members of DU’s Fellowship of Catholic University Students attend mass there weekly, officiated by a local priest. Current DU Chaplain Gary Brower holds meditation there. And many have been mourned and remembered at memorial services held at the chapel. To many, Evans Chapel has filled a void on campus. Buchtel Chapel was very large—which was useful during an Easter service, for example—but at most services, it made attendees seem dwarfed, Tom recalls. When Buchtel Chapel burned down in the 1980s, it only increased Evans Chapel’s presence on campus. “So much of what we do at universities is aimed at the mind and the body—think classroom buildings and sports facilities,” Brower says. “To have this one small chapel is a great visual reminder of that other part of the human experience: that of the heart.” While there are no plans to celebrate Evans Chapel’s 50 years on campus, the Drabeks do plan to celebrate their half century together—in the Bahamas.
University of Denver Magazine Update

17

Pioneers win 21st NCAA skiing championship
University of Denver junior Nordic skier Antje Maempel won the women’s 15K freestyle on March 13, completing the Nordic sweep for the second straight year as the Pioneers won their record 21st overall and third straight NCAA championship. Maempel became the second women’s skier in NCAA history to win both the classical and freestyle individual championships in two consecutive seasons. DU sophomore and 2010 Olympian Leif Kristian Haugen gave Denver another individual title with a win in the giant slalom, while sophomore Lindsay Cone captured second in slalom and giant slalom. Denver ran away with the title, becoming the first team since 2002 to lead the NCAA championships from start to finish. DU opened up the NCAA championship by winning the men’s and women’s giant slalom on Mount Werner at Steamboat Ski Resort March 10, and the Pioneers carried the momentum across town to Howelsen Hill for the remaining three days. After entering the last day of competition with a 54.5-point lead, the DU men’s Nordic team held the lead and the women’s Nordic team blew the gap open, winning by 70.5 points with a four-day total of 785.5 points. The University of ColoradoBoulder finished second and New Mexico finished third.
—Pioneer Athletics Staff

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F10.Athletics_Summer half page.HOC SAS.indd 1 University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

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4/1/2010 4:36:01 PM

Academics

Common knowledge
By Tamara Chapman

Wayne Armstrong

the class of 2014 arrives at DU in the fall, its members will participate in a new general education program—the common curriculum—designed to help students integrate and apply knowledge from across disciplines. All DU undergraduate students will be required to complete 52–60 credits in the curriculum. That’s down from the 72 credits called for in the current general education program known as UReqs, or University Requirements. By freeing up student schedules, the re-imagined curriculum allows students to complete more coursework in their majors and minors, says Jennifer Karas, associate provost of academic programs. Still others, she adds, may apply the hours to double majors or an additional minor. Eighteen months in the making, the common curriculum was developed by a 15-member faculty committee chaired by Luc Beaudoin, associate professor of Russian. The committee was charged with structuring a curriculum relevant to a global culture and tied to the University’s vision, values, mission and goals. “It’s outcomes-focused,” Beaudoin explains, noting that the curriculum was shaped with specific learning objectives in mind. What’s more, it demonstrates how various fields of knowledge relate to one another. The new requirements focus on two themes: the natural and physical world, and society and culture. Students begin the curriculum with a first-year seminar that helps them discover what it means to be an active member of an intellectual community. Luc Beaudoin, associate professor of Russian, chaired the A carryover from the previous general education curriculum, the seminar faculty committee that developed DU’s new common curriculum. emphasizes critical reading, discussion, research and writing. The seminar is followed by two courses in writing and rhetoric. These develop the skills essential for college-level writing and reasoning. The common curriculum also calls for three courses in a language of the student’s choice. Even if students test out of the three introductory language classes that generally satisfy this requirement, Beaudoin says, they will be required to take at least one advanced course in that language or one introductory course in another language. This requirement prepares students for study abroad and for an increasingly global marketplace. Another component of the curriculum emphasizes ways of knowing—both through analytical inquiry and scientific inquiry. Analytical inquiry is cultivated by one course in math or computer science and two in the arts and humanities. In these courses, students will learn to apply formal reasoning to problem solving; to understand connections between different areas of logic; to create or interpret the texts, ideas and artifacts of human culture; and to analyze the connections characterizing human experience. Students will immerse themselves in scientific inquiry through five courses drawn from the natural and social sciences. They will learn how the scientific process is used to contend with uncertainty, draw conclusions and make predictions. They also will learn how to apply qualitative and quantitative forms of analysis and evidence, and they’ll explore the basic principles of human conduct in social and cultural contexts. The common curriculum concludes with a writing-intensive advanced seminar in which students apply knowledge and skills gained from previous courses in the curriculum. “It’s a class that is upper-level where students will be able to work on issues from various points of view,” Beaudoin says. Most students will take an advanced seminar in a subject outside their major. Karas and Beaudoin believe this will broaden perspectives and prepare students for capstone projects and senior theses required in the majors. The curriculum was approved by the DU Board of Trustees, the Faculty Senate and the Undergraduate Council, a faculty group responsible for new curriculum.
University of Denver Magazine Update

When

19

Business college ups its admission requirements
Students who enter the University of Denver beginning in fall 2010 with the intention of majoring in business will face new competitive entrance requirements for the Daniels College of Business. The secondary admission process is designed to reduce the number of undergraduate business majors from roughly 2,200 to 1,800 over the course of four years. “Nationwide, the interest in business degrees is increasing, and as the Daniels College of Business’ reputation has grown, so have our numbers,” says Dan Connolly, associate dean for undergraduate programs at Daniels. “By reducing the number of students, we will be able to continue to deliver a high-quality educational experience in the personal manner for which we are known.” Daniels joins many other schools—including Texas Christian University, Notre Dame, the University of Virginia and Southern Methodist University—in implementing a secondary admission process. Students will be able to enter the Daniels College of Business through three channels. A very small number of highly accomplished candidates will be invited to be admitted upon application to the University. Transfer students also will be evaluated for direct admission to Daniels when applying to DU, provided they have met the prerequisite course requirements. The majority of students will participate in the secondary application process during the fall quarter of their sophomore year. Students who are currently enrolled at the University of Denver will not be subject to the new admission requirement. To apply, students must first complete seven prerequisite courses and pass the Microsoft Certified Application Specialist exams for Microsoft Excel 2007, Word 2007 and PowerPoint 2007. The application process includes an online application, submission of a cover letter and resumé, and an interview with business professionals. Using a whole-person evaluation approach, the admission committee will base decisions on a student’s academic performance and promise, involvement in the University and surrounding communities, quality of resumé and cover letter, interview performance, and overall well-roundedness. Those who are not admitted on their first attempt may apply again during the next application cycle, provided their applications and credentials have changed enough to warrant a second consideration. Students interested in pursuing one of five business minors are not required to complete an application.
—Jordan Ames

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20

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

People

Multi media
By Greg Glasgow

more than one way to tell a story, and Zak Kadison wants control over all of them. Through his company, Blacklight Transmedia, Kadison (BSBA ’03) is pioneering a new approach to the business of show, developing original stories that can be told across multiple platforms: movies, video games and comic books. “While I was at Fox I learned of this notion of transmedia storytelling, which is essentially when you tell a cohesive narrative using a variety of platforms—video games, comic books, movies, TV—but each one of those properties tells a unique story that’s stand-alone but complementary to the whole,” says Kadison, who spent two years as a senior production executive at Fox Atomic after interning for Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Spyglass Entertainment during breaks at DU. “An example of a transmedia story would be Star Wars. The film is different than the video games, which are different than the comic books.” Of course, comic books and video games based on movies already exist, but the current model, Kadison says, is for studios to license a film’s plot and characters to other companies, which often end up making inferior products. “Our company has actually been set up to manage the creative process of the video game, the comic book, the movie, etc., across all of those platforms,” he says. “It’s an incredible opportunity for creative talent to expand on the stories and create new experiences for fans of the movie or vice versa.” Blacklight has only shopped two projects so far, and both have been purchased by studios. The first—simply called Blacklight—will roll out this summer with an online video game and a comic book. A movie is in development at 20th Century Fox, along with a console game. All the content is overseen by creative talent working for Blacklight Transmedia and its partner company, video game designer Zombie Studios. “One of the main benefits of transmedia storytelling is that it doesn’t matter in what order the content is created or in what order it’s consumed,” Kadison says. “Everything is designed to be a stand-alone experience that’s good in whatever medium it’s in.” Another benefit, he says, is that transmedia stories further involve the audience in the narrative and reward viewers for making subtle connections. He points to a minor character in The Matrix Reloaded who was the protagonist of a Matrix-themed comic book that came out around the same time as the film. You didn’t have to know about the comic to enjoy the movie, and vice-versa, but someone familiar with both might have experienced a deeper connection with the story—and a bit of a thrill at having an extra piece of inside knowledge. Kadison started Blacklight less than a year ago, but already he’s got some major movie muscle on his side—producer Brian Grazer, who owns Imagine Entertainment with actor-turned-director Ron Howard. Impressed with Kadison’s vision, Grazer offered the young mogul a first-look deal that gives Imagine the first opportunity to partner on a Blacklight project. “The projects I saw were well-thought-out concepts with strong underlying symbolism and archetypal foundations, with graphic novels and designs that were exquisite,” Grazer told the Web site Deadline Hollywood. “Zak was enormously charismatic, and his ideas were different from the typical movies Imagine has made. I wanted to bet on him and his team.” >>www.blacklighttransmedia.com

There’s

John Schiavone

University of Denver Magazine Update

21

Business magazine ranks Daniels tops in Colorado
The University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business is ranked No. 74 on BusinessWeek’s 2010 list of undergraduate business programs. Daniels also is the top undergraduate business school in the state, according to BusinessWeek, which ranked Colorado State University No. 84 and Leeds School of Business at CU-Boulder No. 93. The report uses a methodology that includes nine measures of student satisfaction, postgraduation outcomes and academic quality. The survey asked corporate recruiters which programs turn out the best graduates and asked each institution the median starting salary for its most recent graduating class, the ratio of full-time faculty to students and its average class size. In October 2009 the Daniels College of Business Executive MBA program was ranked No. 85 in the world by the Financial Times—it was the only Colorado school to be ranked—in addition to being named No. 20 in the world for teaching business ethics by the Aspen Institute. In November 2009, BusinessWeek ranked the Daniels Professional MBA program for working professionals 53rd in the country. Daniels was the only Colorado business school in the rankings.

Longtime neighborhood eatery closes
A popular University Park eatery that served the campus community for more than 25 years has closed its doors. New York native Mike Schettler (BSBA ’83) closed Stick-e-Star, which was located near the intersection of University Boulevard and Evans Avenue. Previously, his Star Market deli—located in a nearby storefront—was a popular lunch spot with a similar menu. Schettler and his wife, Tina, closed Stick-e-Star April 5. In mid-March, the couple opened a new restaurant, Emerald Grill, in the Denver area and were unable to sustain both restaurants.
—Kathryn Mayer

Richard Chapman

—Kim DeVigil

DU’s debt rating raised
The University of Denver’s long-term debt rating has been upgraded to A+ from A by Standard & Poor’s. The agency also reports that the University’s rating outlook is stable. “The upgrade is based on Standard & Poor’s assessment of the University’s continued strong demand trends and healthy financial profile, including continued strong operating surpluses and adequate levels of financial resources during an otherwise challenging economic environment,” according to a Standard & Poor’s statement. The statement notes that the University’s debt of $143 million currently is structured at a fixed rate. The maximum annual debt service is approximately $11.6 million, or a low 2.8 percent of budget, and the University has indicated it has no near-term debt plans. “The stable outlook reflects our expectation that DU will continue to report strong operational surpluses and maintain its solid demand profile and financial resources as well as conduct a successful capital campaign,” says Blake Cullimore, credit analyst for Standard & Poor’s. “We also expect that any additional debt will be commensurate with a growth in financial resources.” Craig Woody, DU’s vice chancellor for business and financial affairs, says the Standard & Poor’s rating upgrade matches the University’s current credit rating from Moody’s Investors Services of A-1. “It’s very good news for the University, especially in this challenging economic climate,” Woody says.
—Jim Berscheidt

22

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

Q&A

Sensible Colorado founder Brian Vicente on medical marijuana
Interview by Greg Glasgow

Wayne Armstrong

on their own. They don’t have to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars to buy it at the pharmacy. So I think a lot of people started thinking about alternative health care when they couldn’t afford traditional health care. Also, the Obama administration came out and said, “As long as you’re following state law, we’re not interested in prosecuting you federally.” They issued an official memo from the Department of Justice in October 2009 saying this. For the nine years prior to that, if you used medical marijuana the federal government’s position was, “We’re going to put you in jail.” I think for a lot of people that shroud of fear was lifted and a lot of people began talking to their doctors about medical marijuana, becoming educated, and learning that it does indeed have some degree of medical efficacy for certain conditions. by a 2000 Colorado constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana in the state and emboldened by a liberal presidential administration, entrepreneurs are opening medicalmarijuana dispensaries at a record rate across the Front Range. As founder and executive director of nonprofit medical marijuana advocacy group Sensible Colorado, Brian Vicente (JD ’04) is on the forefront of the medical marijuana issue in the state, lobbying to make sure that new laws regulating dispensaries won’t end up hurting patients.

Empowered

A lot of people think that dispensaries and medical marijuana are the first steps toward outright legalization of marijuana in Colorado. Do you agree?

Q A

Q A

What is Sensible Colorado and how long has it been around?

We were formed in 2004; I actually helped found the organization when I was a law student at DU. We’re the lead nonprofit that advocates for Colorado’s medical marijuana patients. We do that in the courtroom, at the legislature, at the ballot box, wherever it needs to be done. We also work on broader drug policy reform issues, focused largely on removing criminal penalties for adults possessing marijuana.

I think it’s important to separate the two issues. The first and foremost issue for us is making sure patients have safe and legal access to medical marijuana. With the emergence of these regulated storefronts where people are purchasing marijuana for medical purposes, will that lead to a broader discussion about whether our current marijuana laws make sense? It’s quite possible. We’ve had 70-plus years in our country where the sale of marijuana to anyone would put you in prison. And now we have a number of states, including Colorado, where these regulated sales are entirely sanctioned by state and local government. The sky hasn’t fallen, and there have been a lot of positive effects. If you look at our economy, one of the few growing industries right now in Colorado is the medical marijuana field. Do you ever worry that people are going to label you as the pothead lawyer?

Colorado passed a ballot initiative legalizing medical marijuana in 2000, but only recently have we seen an explosion in the number of dispensaries. What changed?

Q A

Q A

I think it was a number of factors. One was just that the economy took such a nosedive that a lot of people can’t afford health insurance. And marijuana is actually a medicine that people can grow

Not really—to me this is an issue that I care passionately about. It’s a matter of social justice. We need to change the drug law and the war on drugs, and if I can be a part of that then I’m happy. I happened upon an issue that has really been at the forefront of Colorado and the nation in the past couple of years. It’s a fun ride. >>www.sensiblecolorado.org

University of Denver Magazine Update

23

Arts

Heavy metal
By Greg Glasgow

a place where Martin Luther King Jr., Miles Davis and Barack Obama all hang out together, and it isn’t in the fantasy of a jazz-loving, nonviolent Democrat. It’s at the 25,000-square-foot north Denver studio of sculptor Ed Dwight (MFA ’77), who specializes in pieces on black history, from his funky sculptures of jazz musicians like Davis, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to more realistic portraits of leaders like King and Obama. Dwight himself is part of black history—in 1962 President John F. Kennedy appointed the young Air Force jet pilot as America’s first black astronaut trainee. Dwight went through training but never made it out of the Earth’s orbit: When Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, racial politics at NASA forced Dwight out of the program. “After the president got killed my life changed dramatically,” Dwight says. “I got appointed to the regular officer corps, which means I could have stayed in 30 years if I wanted to. But after he died, the whole thing was so controversial—I said, ‘Screw it, I’m getting out.’” He had been interested in art at a young age, but Dwight had turned down an art school scholarship to study engineering and flight. Once his dreams of being an astronaut were behind him, he slowly returned to art, eventually teaching himself to weld and sculpt in metal. His first serious foray in the field came in 1974, when George Brown, Colorado’s first black lieutenant governor, asked Dwight to build a sculpture of him for the state capitol building. Brown challenged Dwight to quit his sales job at IBM and turn to sculpture full time, where he could document the contributions African-Americans had made to U.S. history. “He said, ‘If you look at the United States and the history of blacks, blacks have done all this wonderful stuff—they’ve made scientific discoveries, they’ve fought in the wars—and nobody nowhere is recording this,’” Dwight says. “‘There’s nothing in the public square where you can walk into a town or even walk into Washington, D.C., and see a statue or any kind of art of any black people.’ “I said, ‘That’s crazy—what have black people done?’ I went to white schools and I didn’t know anything about black history. So he’s telling me about Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass and George Washington Carver—I was 42 years old and I had never heard of these people. And he said I was pitiful; I should be ashamed of myself.” Dwight more than made up for his initial lack of knowledge in the years to follow, doing extensive research to create series on black cowboys, black soldiers and black athletes. He enrolled at DU’s art school at age 45 to study art history and refine his sculpting technique. As word spread about his skills, he received public art commissions including Underground Railroad memorials in Michigan and Ontario, the still-in-progress Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the African American History Monument in Columbia, S.C. “I found out there was something missing in the landscape of history reflecting black folks doing things,” he says. “I did this whole series on the buffalo soldiers—on black soldiers—I did another series on black cowboys, and I presented myself to the gallery

There’s

Wayne Armstrong Wayne Armstrong

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system, and all these people with these massive collections didn’t know there were black cowboys or black soldiers. I ended up hitting a niche I didn’t know was there.” At 77, Dwight is ready to retire—but not before he finishes a sculpture of Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, for the city of Allentown, Pa., and a portrait of Rosa Parks for Grand Rapids, Mich. His new exhibit The Inauguration of Hope, which celebrates the election of Barack Obama, recently was on display at the Colorado History Museum. The exhibit—which features sculptures of Obama accepting the presidential nomination at Invesco Field during the 2008 Democratic National Convention and the Obama family during the president’s swearing-in ceremony in Washington, D.C.—is Dwight’s testament to the onward march of black history. “It isn’t over, and that’s why I did the Obama thing,” he says. “Regardless of what you feel about Obama and his politics—screw all that. The fact of the matter is, he was the first black guy to be the president of the United States. The history is still being made.”
University of Denver Magazine Update

Wayne Armstrong

See a video of Ed Dwight’s studio and a photo gallery of his sculptures at www.du.edu/magazine.

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Alumna Condoleezza Rice opens up about DU, 9/11, the George Bush legacy and more.

FacingForward,
Interview by Tamara Chapman Photography by Jeffrey Haessler

Looking Back

As the nation’s 66th secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice (BA ’74, PhD ’81) logged more than a million miles and visited 85 countries. By the time she left her post in January 2009, she had confronted everything from the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian problem to the 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict over South Ossetia. Today Rice is out of the diplomatic spotlight, but she is nonetheless on the go, serving on two faculties at Stanford University and as a senior fellow at the school’s Hoover Institution, traveling the globe for various speaking engagements and preparing—accomplished classical pianist that she is—for a series of benefit concerts, including one with queen of soul Aretha Franklin. One of DU’s best-known alumni, Rice will be honored with the Josef Korbel Outstanding Alumni Award at the annual Korbel Dinner in August. The biographical details of Rice’s career are well-known: She grew up in Birmingham, Ala., during the civil rights era; pursued her college education at DU, where her father served as a vice chancellor for enrollment; and prepared for a career in Sovietology under the tutelage of Josef Korbel, who founded what is today the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at DU. She joined the faculty at Stanford in 1981. While at Stanford, she met Brent Scowcroft, who later served as national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush and who recruited her to serve as the 41st president’s director of Soviet and East European affairs in the National Security Council. She returned to Stanford in 1991 and was appointed provost in 1993. When George W. Bush announced his campaign for the presidency, Rice became one of his key advisers on foreign affairs. She served as his national security adviser during his first term in office and during his second term she served as secretary of state. Throughout her career, Rice has made history and generated controversy—as the first female national security adviser, as a provost who took aggressive steps to balance the budget, and as the foreign policy adviser who, in the months preceding the Iraq War, first warned about the dangers of smoking guns and mushroom clouds. In February, Rice sat down with the University of Denver Magazine to discuss her life and career. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. 26
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University of Denver Magazine: Rumor has it that you have a book coming out—the first installment in a two-volume memoir. Could you give us a sneak preview? Condoleezza Rice: I do have a book coming out in October—a family memoir, really. I decided that while it’s very important to write the policy memoir—the sort of obligatory secretary of state’s policy memoir—that it would be better to start with my family and my extraordinary parents and how I grew up and give people a sense of where I came from, because whenever people ask me, ‘How did you get to be who you are?’ I say you had to know John and Angelena Rice. This book is as much about them as it is about me. DU: Will you spend some time in Denver in that book? Rice: Well, the book starts in Birmingham, where I was born, and then traces my family’s decision to move to Denver. And it has quite a bit in there about my time at the University of Denver and then on to Stanford. It will end just before I go to Washington. DU: The story goes that you were set to have a career in music. And then one day you wandered into a course with Josef Korbel (founder of what was then DU’s Graduate School of International Studies). That must have been some course. Rice: The truth of the matter is that I was a failed piano major by the time I wandered into Dr. Korbel’s course. I had studied piano from age 3; I could read music before I could read—I was really headed for a career at Carnegie Hall. And then, the summer of my sophomore year, I went to the Aspen Music Festival school. I met 12-year-olds who could play from sight what it had taken me all year to learn, and I thought, ‘Uh-oh, I’m going to end up teaching 13-year-olds to murder Beethoven, or maybe I’m going to play [in a] piano bar, but I’m not playing Carnegie Hall.’ And so I came back to the University. I was already a junior, trying to find a major. My parents were really worried that I wasn’t going to find a major and figure out what to do with my life. I took a course in international politics in the spring quarter of junior year, so it was pretty late. And Dr. Korbel was a magnificent storyteller. He was someone who made international politics and the Soviet Union come alive. He did it through wonderful stories about his time as a diplomat, about his time in the dark days of World War II. He had magnificent stories about being in Yugoslavia and knowing Tito. And suddenly this world opened up to me, of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ It really was this course that led me to believe there was another future for me. Even if I couldn’t be a great concert musician, maybe the study of the Soviet Union would provide a passion. I’ve often said, sometimes your passion finds you instead of the other way around. I think this is a case where my passion found me.

DU: Could you walk us through your day on Sept. 11, 2001? Rice: Well, Sept. 11 was, of course, a day that no American will ever forget, maybe no one in the world will ever forget. But for those of us in a position of authority, every day after Sept. 11 was Sept. 12. You really had a complete change in the way you thought about everything after Sept. 11. I got to the office, as usual, early—6:15 or so. The president happened to be going that day down to Florida to do an education event, and ironically, either the deputy national security adviser, Steve Hadley, or I would normally have been with him whenever he traveled, even domestically. But this was just going to be a four-hour trip, so both of us stayed in Washington. There was lots to do. Just after the first plane went into the World Trade Center, my executive assistant came in and said, ‘You know, a plane has hit the World Trade Center.’ I thought, ‘Well, that’s a strange accident.’ I called the president, and we talked about how odd it was. Then I went down for my staff meeting, and they handed me a note that said a second plane had hit the World Trade Center. I thought, ‘My God, this is a terrorist attack.’ So I went into the situation room to try to gather the national security principals— Colin Powell was in Peru; George Tenet, the CIA director, had already gone to the bunker; and I couldn’t get Don Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense. I looked behind me, and a plane had hit the Pentagon on the television. At about that time the Secret Service came to me and said, ‘You have to go to the bunker, planes are flying into every building in Washington; we don’t know if the White House is going to be next.’ And so I was sort of spirited away down to a bunker. On the way, I stopped and I called my aunt and uncle, and I said, ‘Terrible pictures are going to be coming out of Washington, but I’m OK. Tell everybody I’m OK.’ And I called the president, and the president said, ‘I’m coming back.’ And I did something I never did before or after: I raised my voice to him, and I said, ‘You stay where you are.’ I said, ‘You cannot come back here. Washington is under attack.’ And the rest of the day was trying to deal with the consequences. I talked to Vladimir Putin on the phone. He said, ‘We know that your forces are going up on alert. We are bringing our forces down.’ As an old Soviet specialist, it was really confirmation for me that the Cold War was over, and here was Russia trying to help at that moment. I remember the horrors of thinking that the plane that went down in Pennsylvania—that we’d shot it down, because the president had given an order that any plane that was not properly responding could be shot down by the fighters. We couldn’t let planes keep flying into buildings in Washington. And I remember sitting there just trying to deal with everything that was coming across our desk in a sort of fog that, frankly, didn’t lift until several days later at the memorial service, when, I think, for all of us the period of mourning was over and the period of action and defiance began.

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“I’ve moved on to my other life, which is teaching at Stanford and writing books.”

DU: I read in The New York Times that you considered the national security post a great job, but then you added, ‘It’s also a very difficult job because everything is by remote control. You do not own any of the assets.’ What did you mean by that? Rice: Well, national security adviser is a fancy title for assistant to the president for national security affairs, and you are the president’s staff. It’s your responsibility to help him in any way that you can. But the fact of the matter is that the way you help him the most is to get the constitutional officers—the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the secretary of the treasury—all working in the same direction to help the president’s policies. But the secretary of state is the person who has the diplomats, the secretary of defense has the military forces. They are the people who have the authority that comes with being confirmed by the Senate. As national security adviser, you are staff—rarified staff to be sure, but you’re staff. So I told President Bush once, ‘It’s like working by remote control.’ Can I get secretary A to do this, and can I get secretary B to do that and secretary C to stop doing that? And that’s really what being national security adviser is like. DU: In 2002, the administration outlined what came to be known as the Bush Doctrine, with two pillars being preemptive strikes and encouraging democratic regime change. Given that preemption could be used as justification for aggression, was this controversial within the foreign policy [and] national security apparatus? Rice: Of course, preemption—or its cousin, preventive war—have long been a part of American military doctrine. If you ask the

question in a rather simple way—if you suspect that something is about to attack you, or if the storm clouds are gathering, the threat is gathering, do you wait until you are attacked? Or do you try to deal with the problem before? Then I think people understand why prevention and preemption have a place in military strategy. And after Sept. 11, the idea that we would sit again and wait for threats to gather, as they had in Afghanistan, I think that was what was far-fetched. And yes, for some it was controversial. But I think the mistaken view is that we intended somehow to go around preempting and preventing war—with preventive war—all over the globe. In fact, there were a limited number of threats that were concerning enough to try and deal with before they fully materialized. DU: March 19, 2003: The United States launches an air strike on the Dora Farms, where Saddam Hussein was supposedly visiting his sons. The next day the war begins. Tell me about March 19. Rice: As of fall 2002, the president had gone to the Security Council to say it was time for Saddam Hussein to either comply with the will of the international community, expressed in more than a dozen Security Council resolutions—16 or 17 Security Council resolutions—and fully disarm and allow inspectors back in with full access or he would have to pay the consequences. That work then unfolded until February, when I think it was clear that Saddam Hussein was not going to fully comply, that the word of the United States and the word of the Security Council had to have meaning, and it was at that point pretty clear that we were likely headed toward some kind of military confrontation with Iraq.
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But the Dora Farms events were not planned, and they are, to me, one piece of evidence against the idea that somehow we were just dying to go to war—we just wanted to go to war against Saddam Hussein. The reason that we launched the strike at Dora Farms was that we had intelligence that Saddam might be going there, and we thought if we could kill him, then perhaps we wouldn’t have to go to war. And it required a revision of the war plan. The war was supposed to start with air strikes the next day against Iraqi air defenses. But instead we took this chance to try and get rid of Saddam Hussein. As it turns out, he either wasn’t there or he escaped. Most likely he wasn’t there. And we then went to war the next day. DU: So you must have been on the edge of your seat wondering, when the strike was launched, have we just prevented the war? Rice: What was actually controversial was whether to launch Dora Farms at all. I can remember being in the Oval Office with the president, Don Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Colin Powell and the chairman of the joint chiefs, because everything was set for the execution of the war plan. The president had that morning met with his commanders one last time by video, asking if there was anything more that they needed. Everyone had said, ‘God bless America,’ and we were ready to launch the war. Then to suddenly decide to change the plan—which could have, of course, given the Iraqis strategic warning of the time of the launch of the military advance—was somewhat dangerous. And we had a long discussion about whether to even do that, whether to do this and give the Iraqis a chance to get ready. We decided, in the final analysis, that it was worth taking the shot. And yes, we waited some 12 hours and then learned that, in fact, we’d not gotten Saddam Hussein, although there was a false report—just shows you how the fog of war acts—there was a false report that somebody had seen somebody like Saddam Hussein on a stretcher. And that got everybody’s heart rate going for a moment, but then it came in that probably he’d not been killed then. DU: Let’s move on to the secretary of state years. I’m curious: After four grueling years as national security adviser, why weren’t you ready to retire? Why did you want such a challenging job as secretary of state? Rice: The truth of the matter was, I was ready to retire after being national security adviser and told the president so. I said, ‘You know, your national security team is exhausted. We’ve had the worst terrorist attack in American history, fighting two wars, it’s time to leave.’ I would not have remained as national security adviser. When the president and I talked about my becoming secretary of state— because Colin had said that he was ready to step down as secretary of state—I said to the president, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? You probably could use new blood.’ We then talked about what was on the agenda for reconciliation with our allies after the difficulties of 2003, 2004. I felt that we had a lot of work to do in the Middle East, particularly if we wanted to launch a Palestinian-Israeli negotiation. And so for those reasons, it seemed worth doing. The part for me that was daunting was that I knew I was going

“I’ve often said, sometimes your passion finds you instead of the other way around.”
to be on an airplane all the time. The fact is, I’m kind of a nester. For somebody who does international politics, I don’t really like to travel that much. I’d just as soon be in my bed in my house with my things. And I thought, ‘OK, you’re just going to have to get ready to travel,’ because I traveled a million miles as secretary. You cannot do it by video, you cannot do it by phone. You have to be with people. For me, that was in some ways the hardest decision, determining, in fact, that I could go forward. DU: What did you think you could bring to the position? Rice: Well, I thought I could bring to the position the experience of having been national security adviser, but also I knew what we needed to achieve strategically, and I knew where the president was. The secretary of state and the president of the United States need to be close. It can’t be that any foreign government or even the bureaucracy in Washington thinks they can split the president and the secretary of state. The president and I had differences during my tenure as secretary of state. Nobody ever knew it, because we would sit down and we’d hammer it out,

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and he’d listen to me—ultimately, he was president. But I felt that bringing that close relationship and the need to do some things that would now lay a firm foundation going forward, from the difficult years that we’d been through— from Sept. 11 through 2004—that I could do that. DU: Since leaving the post of secretary of state, you’ve been very quiet about foreign policy and unfolding circumstances. Why is that?

Condoleezza Rice will deliver the keynote address at the 13th annual Korbel Dinner on Aug. 27 at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center. Rice also will receive the 2010 Josef Korbel Outstanding Alumni Award, which will be presented by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. For ticket information, contact Yvette Peterson at 303-871-2882 or [email protected].

Keynote

different Middle East than we found. If, in fact, al-Qaida is defeated, that will be a fundamentally different situation than we found. And if the president’s efforts to deal with the scourge of AIDS and malaria and poverty in Africa, something for which he is fondly remembered on the continent, if there are fewer orphans as a result—there are currently 2 million people under treatment with antiretrovirals; there were 50,000 when we started—history will judge our administration well. DU: Would you return to the foreign policy apparatus in another administration?

Rice: Well, first of all because I don’t really want to be a former anything. I’ve moved on to my other life, which is teaching at Stanford and writing books and doing some speaking and work that I love with the Boys and Girls Club and K-12 education. I’ve never particularly wanted to just sort of hang out in Washington and ‘comment’ on foreign policy. I was the nation’s chief diplomat—I had my chance. We had eight years, and after eight years, we did what we could do—some of it good, some things I’d do differently. But I’m very aware that it looks a lot easier from the outside than it does when you’re sitting at that desk. I don’t want to be somebody sitting out chirping criticism at my successor. I think you owe those who come after you more than that. You owe them a certain decorum—you’ve had your chance, you’ve done your best. The good thing about change is that they now get to do it their way. DU: There are critics and historians today who say the Bush administration will be ranked as one of the worst in history. How do you feel about that? Rice: I’d say they’re not very good historians if they’re making those judgments now. I think about all the times that today’s headlines and history’s judgment didn’t turn out to be the same. In fact, I kept four portraits of secretaries of state near me: Thomas Jefferson, although to my mind he’s a little bit overrated as a founding father. Alexander Hamilton is my favorite founding father. I kept George Marshall, certainly the greatest secretary of state. But I also kept Dean Acheson. When Dean Acheson left office, people talked about who lost China. Now Dean Acheson is known as the father of NATO and he laid the foundation for victory in the Cold War, in which I was lucky enough to participate in 1990 and 1991. And I kept William Seward. He bought Alaska, and at the time it was Seward’s Folly and Seward’s Icebox. I think we’re all glad now that William Seward bought Alaska from the tsar of Russia—for $7 million by the way. So I give no credence to any historian who is ready to make those judgments now. They ought to read their history and realize that it takes a long time, especially for consequential events, to play out the string. History has a long arc, not a short one, and if, in fact, the Middle East is a place that, instead of Saddam Hussein, finally has an Arab democracy in Iraq, that will be a fundamentally

Rice: I can’t imagine why anybody, after having been secretary of state, would want to go back and be part of the foreign policy establishment. Secretary of state is the greatest job in government. You get to represent this great country that I love so much, you get to see its strengths and its challenges, and there’s nothing quite like stepping off that plane as secretary of state, with the plane behind you saying ‘United States of America.’ Once you’ve done that, I don’t know why you would want to try and replicate an experience like that. In that sense, maybe you really can’t go home again. I will always find ways to engage in public service, but I am content with what I did and with what we did, and I don’t really see the circumstances that would return me to Washington. DU: To wrap up this interview, I want to deliver another quote of yours: ‘I don’t do life crises. I really don’t. Life’s too short. Get over it. Move on.’ Still feel that way? Rice: I feel very much that way. I don’t quite understand the impulse of people, first of all, to always have their hair on fire. Everything’s a crisis; everything’s nuclear war. A lot of life is paper clips. A lot of life you just have to say, ‘OK, I’m putting that aside, I’m going on, it’s too bad, but I’m going on.’ We all have our emotional times and struggles. The deaths of my parents were times that were not so easy just to get over. Obviously those times come. But for the most part, I’m not, frankly, all that reflective. I don’t spend a lot of time trying to get to know myself. Maybe that’s somebody you won’t like very much if you spend too much time trying to get to know yourself, so I think I’m just maybe not that reflective. Maybe it’s not a good thing, but I try very hard to take life as a blessing and a gift. I am a deeply religious person—whatever you go through, I believe, is part of honing yourself to be better the next time. And in that regard, just being thrown off kilter whenever life gets a little difficult seems not really worth it. To read a full transcript of the interview, in which Rice discusses growing up in Alabama, her favorite composers, the election of Barack Obama and her debt to Josef Korbel, visit www.du.edu/ magazine.
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Study-abroad students capture their experiences in photos.
By Elizabeth Fritzler

Whole WIDE World

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fficials at the University of Denver know that travel is an education unto itself. Through DU’s Cherrington Global Scholars program, students have an unparalleled opportunity to explore the world beyond their front doors.

The Cherrington program—which allows eligible students to spend a quarter abroad with no additional cost for

tuition, room and board—was a major factor in DU’s third-place ranking in the 2009 Open Doors report on percentage of undergraduate students studying abroad. “Our study-abroad programs encourage students to immerse themselves in other cultures,” says Eric Gould, vice provost for internationalization. “We have tremendous support from our faculty and administration, which has allowed these programs to become so popular.” The report, which was released Nov. 16 by the Institute of International Education, shows DU sent 73.6 percent of its undergraduates to study abroad. Only Pepperdine University and the University of San Diego ranked higher than DU. “Study abroad gives students the opportunity to live in a culture while having structure and earning credit for a degree,” says Karen Becker, associate director of study abroad. “It’s a win-win situation.” Students can choose from more than 150 locations around the globe for their study-abroad program, including Kenya, Turkey and Denmark. “Worldview is one of the most important parts of education,” says junior human communication and French major Alex Gross, who studied in France in fall 2009. “It affects how we learn and how we apply what we learn. Study abroad was a liberating, independent experience for me.” Since 2003, DU has sponsored a study-abroad photo contest that encourages students to capture their experiences to share with others. The following photos were submitted for the 2010 contest. A judging panel of students and staff picked five winners and 15 honorable mentions in the following categories: cultural interaction; DU students abroad; people, places and food; and flora and fauna. Winners were awarded cash prizes at a gala event in January. The photos offer glimpses of life outside the U.S. through the eyes of students abroad during the fall 2009 quarter. Some photos feature breathtaking scenery; others capture local life and the faces of citizens. Each one reveals beauty and a distinct culture, regardless of the country’s social problems or economic condition.

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“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”
— St. Augustine

While in India, junior theater and anthropology major Gwen Adams met these four Rabari girls, who displayed their traditional tribal dress before a wedding. They gave Adams a tour of their village, offering her chai and showing her their mothers’ embroidery.

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Junior Alex Gross stayed in Aix-en-Provence, France. He was preparing to photograph this rainy square when the couple under the umbrella passed. He snapped the picture just in time to see them kiss. Gross is a human communication and French major.

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Junior mass communications major James Tarras captured this dramatic image during an August freeride competition at the Temple Basin ski area in New Zealand. “It was unlike any other mountain—or ‘resort,’ if you would even call it that—that I have ever been to,” he says. “Immense amounts of hiking were involved in getting up to some of the best snow and most beautiful peaks imaginable within the Southern Alps of New Zealand.”

Junior international business and finance major Nathan Polta spent his fall quarter in San Jose, Costa Rica. He was fascinated with the local life and art in the country and snapped this photo of two men breakdancing in a park gazebo in downtown San Jose.

Senior international studies major Jessi Jones visited Gaziantep, Turkey, and shared her story about the local woman pictured here: “I was walking through these pistachio fields and saw an elderly lady who was murmuring Muslim prayers for forgiveness. She was sitting in such serenity next to the fields in which she had spent her life picking pistachios.”

See more study-abroad photo contest entries at www.du.edu/magazine.

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Assistant Professor Lisa Pasko has a plan to help violent girls.

o

Rage
All the Rage
By Tamara Chapman

Peggy Fox/Getty Images

At a party in a west Denver neighborhood on Halloween night, the tensions between two

teenage girls turned into a full-fledged fight. After the initial violence, one of the girls left the scene, five sets of fists flying and five pairs of legs thrashing and kicking. It took the police to break up the fracas, and the two primary “combatants,” as the Post called them, were taken to Denver Health with injuries. One of the girls was subsequently arrested on assault charges, and police hinted that more arrests might be in the offing. Because they were juveniles, their names were not published. To readers, they were just two faceless girls gone dangerously wild, one of them headed for a juvenile justice system that knows too little about violent girls and not enough about how to help them. Lisa Pasko, an assistant professor in DU’s Department of Sociology and Criminology, wants to remedy that.

only to return later with three friends. Then, according to The Denver Post, the fight continued, with

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Co-author of The Female Offender: Girls, Women and Crime and a nationally recognized expert on issues of gender and delinquency, Pasko has spent the last two years examining how Colorado’s juvenile justice agencies respond to violent middle school and high school girls. Her work, supported by a grant from the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, aims to help professionals working with violent girls better understand—and thus better address—the adolescents and teenagers populating their caseloads. Her research helps explain why the number of female offenders has grown significantly over recent years and what approaches work best to help them become productive members of society. Her findings also suggest that, across the board, the strategies for dealing with violent girls beg for fine-tuning. Considering how many girls are crowding the juvenile justice system, the sooner that fine-tuning begins, the better. A 2008 report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention notes that in the last three decades arrests of girls have increased steadily, even as arrests of boys have decreased. As recently as 2004, girls accounted for an unprecedented 30 percent of all juvenile arrests nationwide. In 2003, the arrest rate of girls for simple assault was more than triple the rate in 1980, while the arrest rate for aggravated assault nearly doubled. Although these statistics suggest that violence among girls is up dramatically, Pasko isn’t so sure. “Girls have always been picking fights with one another,” she says. What’s new is that we’re responding to their offenses more aggressively. That’s especially true in school settings. Once upon a time, before heightened concerns about bullying, gang violence and school shootings, administrators might have responded to a girl fight by calling both parties into the office and mediating. Today, they call the police. “With zero tolerance, there is no discretion. Our school systems have transformed themselves into a capture-and-release program,” Pasko says, noting that fighting girls are “captured” on camera and “released” to the juvenile justice system. Many of them, she contends, don’t belong there. If zero-tolerance policies account for some of the increase in arrest statistics, technology also shares top billing. It plays a role in escalating tensions and in documenting their zenith. For example, before the advent of cell phones, schoolgirls taunted one another via passed notes. Chances were good that these missives would be intercepted by an adult prepared to quash mischief. Today, Pasko explains, girls can text fighting words to dozens of people without an adult ever learning about it. With the chances for adult intervention minimized, fights inevitably break out. Once fights do break out, they often are recorded for posterity by security video systems or cell phone cameras. Should these fights happen on school premises, administrators often have little choice but to summon police. In many instances, Pasko says, fights could easily have been avoided. After all, where adolescent girls are concerned, violence typically is a desperate, last-resort option.

To illustrate her point—and the violent girl’s quandary— Pasko shares a story from Colorado case files: In one middle school, a seventh-grade girl—let’s call her Julia—was dating the former boyfriend of her former best friend (Sally). Angry and jealous, Sally dispatched text messages far and wide, alerting the community to Julia’s supposedly promiscuous behavior. The slanderous text messages continued long after the boyfriend had moved on to another girl. Time and again, Julia took the problem to teachers and counselors, who proposed solutions that yielded lackluster results. Mediation didn’t work; face-to-face meetings didn’t work; admonitions and warnings didn’t work. The text messages continued. Finally, Julia asked her mother for advice. “Her mom told her, ‘Kick her ass,’” Pasko recalls. Which she did. Julia did such a thorough job that she earned a felony assault charge. Later, when her probation officer asked if she regretted her actions, Julia offered an emphatic no. Why should she regret the one tactic that put a stop to the harassment? “Girls try to avoid physical violence,” Pasko explains. “Then it happens, and it’s pretty functional for them.” Education and social work professionals could help girls avoid violence if they knew more about how girls come to violence and about how their fights and issues differ from those of their male counterparts, Pasko maintains. As brutal as violence among boys can be, it flares up and de-escalates quickly. “For boys, violence is often the result of a masculinity challenge. In order to prove yourself as masculine, you have to be ready to fight, or at least not back down from a fight,” Pasko says. The issues generally are straightforward and uncomplicated, making it relatively easy to mediate boy-on-boy conflicts. In fact, boy violence is often telegraphed in advance, giving adults ample opportunity to intervene. Some may schedule their fights for after school or off campus. As Kristi McCollum, a psychologist with Denver Public Schools (DPS), notes, “boys are much more flat-out upfront about it.” In her 11 years with DPS, McCollum has counseled a fair number of violent girls. Their fights often grow out of simmering gossip, much of it centering on boys and much of it conducted off the adults’ radar screen. “The girl drama can go on for days,” McCollum says. “Somebody telling somebody that somebody said something bad about them. It starts with a lot of verbal back-and-forth. Pretty soon you’ve got a big drama and they start screaming in the hallway.” By the time it gets to that point, several girls may have united against a single peer, McCollum explains. Such scenarios, Pasko says, typically result from a hierarchical power structure in which girls are evaluated by other girls on three primary criteria: whom they are dating, what they look like and how they express their sexuality. A failure to pass muster in “girl world” cuts a girl off from the social networks and relationships associated with a healthy adolescence.
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Wayne Armstrong

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Such counterproductive The complexity of girls’ behavior changes, Bolding and issues makes prevention and Pasko agree, when girls have intervention tricky. Strategies access to programs structured with that often work with boys can them in mind. backfire with girls. Take peer One of the intervention counseling, a tool thought to programs Bolding directs, foster group cohesiveness. InterCept Too, offers a gender“That is probably the most specific skills curriculum for girls humiliating situation for girls,” in the juvenile justice system. Pasko says, explaining that girls Many of them have been referred who get into trouble tend not to the program by teen courts. to trust their peers or value InterCept Too—whose their advice. They are in trouble practices and philosophy feature precisely because they are not prominently in Pasko’s research— functioning well within their teaches girls how to channel anger peer groups. into productive behavior and how What does work, Pasko to deal with the troubled personal says, is professional mediation— histories they bring with them. mediation that takes gender into Girl offenders are far more likely account by addressing the girls’ than boys to have endured sexual needs to talk through issues abuse, Bolding points out, and and air concerns. Because this that requires special therapies and approach requires time and strategies. professional services, it isn’t Perhaps most important, cheap. And too often, it isn’t the DU Assistant Professor Lisa Pasko says social work professionals InterCept Too shows girls how to recourse of first resort. could help girls avoid violence if they knew more about how their build and maintain relationships Once they enter the fights and issues differ from those of their male counterparts. with other girls and women. juvenile justice system, violent “Most of our girls will tell girls face a world constructed you, ‘I don’t get along with without much thought for females. I only get along with guys,’” Bolding says. That’s an their reality or their needs. As Kimberly Bolding, director of youth immediate indicator that they are headed for additional trouble. services at the Colorado Springs-based Women’s Resource Agency, To help them change course, InterCept Too takes the time to puts it, “Our juvenile justice systems were devised by males, for model productive female relationships, showing the girls how to males, and [are] run by males.” share experiences and negotiate differences and conflicts. Were these As a result, Pasko says, males understand the system and know girls in a more traditional program, one designed for boys, they’d be how to function within it. For example, boys tend to have crisp, urged to work off steam on the basketball court. businesslike relationships with their probation officers. They check Although the InterCept Too approach is time-consuming and in when expected and provide only the minimum information labor-intensive—and thus expensive—it gets results, Bolding says, needed to comply with the terms of their sentences. Girls, on the pointing to a 20 percent recidivism rate, compared to a 30 percent other hand, often see their probation officers as sympathetic friends rate for many other state programs. and mentors. They’ll unwittingly confide in them, letting slip, As Pasko sees it, the emphasis on female relationships is critical perhaps, that they skipped school or smoked a joint. for the long-term prospects of violent girls. That’s a point she “They provide evidence for their own revocation,” Pasko emphasizes in her report to the Colorado Division of Criminal explains, noting that as a result, girls typically remain on probation Justice. Girls who can maintain a strong tie with at least one female, twice as long as boys. whether a friend or relative, tend to make healthy and safer choices. In fact, without effective intervention, girls tunnel deeper into “As long as they have their feet in girl world, they don’t engage the criminal justice system. “Not over major, major crimes,” Bolding in violence as much,” she says. says, “but over failures.” And investing in their success is important not just for the For example, while on probation or serving a sentence, they’re juvenile justice system but also for society as a whole. After all, she more likely than boys to commit “status offenses,” such as running says, “they’re the people who are going to be raising the next away from home or violating curfews at group homes. These generation.” aren’t crimes, but they are violations that come with significant consequences.
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Dads & granddads Book bin Pioneer pics Reunion recap Announcements

DU Archives

A member of the DU Pioneers baseball team takes a swing during a home game photographed sometime between 1955 and 1965. Baseball at DU has been around since the early days—the first recorded athletic event at the University was a Colorado Seminary baseball game in 1867. Though varsity baseball disappeared in 1997, the game returned as a club sport in 2008. If you have any athletics photos you would like to share, please let us know.

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The classes
1952
Kurt Weinke (BS ’52) and Elizabeth (Knowles) Weinke (BA ’54) of Cherry Hills, N.J., have been married for 57 years. Kurt is a Korean War veteran and was the first ROTC student at DU to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the military police. He has spent the last 10 years working internationally in agricultural chemistry. After retirement, he founded a company in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

1953

Calvin Ammerman (BA ’53) of Denver retired from his ministry position at Augustana Lutheran Church in October 2000 after 38 years. He has delivered papers worldwide on family and sexual ethics; one was published as a book. He and his wife, Thelma, have two children, Rise and Ravel.

Rob Conklin (BA ’57, MA ’60) has worked for Colorado’s athletic administration for 33 years and Denver Public Schools (DPS) for more than 50 years. He has coached at Denver South High School, directed athletics and student activities for DPS and served as president of the Colorado High School Activities Association and the Colorado High School Athletic Directors Association. Nationally, Rob helped create the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. In 2002, he was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame.

1957

Chapter for his fundraising efforts for Camp Mak-A-Dream, a free program for young cancer patients.

1967

Nancy Hall Chase (BSBA ’67) of Denver is the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) program coordinator for University College at DU. Before her University College position, she worked in nonprofit management and developed a wedding consulting business, Nancy Chase Weddings and Celebrations. During her 2009 DU sorority reunion, Nancy guided a tour of the campus and sorority house. She has two daughters and four grandchildren.

1964

1968

G.D. “Corky” Christman (BSBA ’64) of Billings, Mont., was named 2009 person of the year by the Montana Certified Residential Specialists

Mary Anne (Edwards) Cole (MA ’68) was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. In November 2007 she received a pacemaker, allowing her to continue her political writing. Despite some chronic health issues, Mary Anne is building her strength to pursue her hobbies: organic gardening and listening to recorded books. She resides in Lutherville, Md.

Winning combination
DU’s Young Alumni Endowed Scholarship Committee joined with the Recent Graduate Committee in January to create a new organization that will promote networking for alumni and raise funds for scholarships. So many members had served on both committees that combining the two seemed natural. “We had tapped all our resources,” says Solveig Tschudi Lawrence (BSBA ’02), co-founder of the scholarship committee. “The committees were combined to get reconnected with more recent graduates and to get some new, fresh ideas and new people in there too.” The new organization, still called the Recent Graduate Committee, will handle alumni events and social activities at DU, including a spring cocktail party and fundraiser. According to Lawrence, the group’s overall goal is to communicate with scholarship providers and reach out to potential donors while keeping recent graduates connected to the University. Last October the scholarship committee made its first award to junior Lacey Henderson, a Spanish and international studies major. Henderson is a DU cheerleader who lost a leg to cancer at age 9 and provides mentoring at Children’s Hospital. The committee was searching for an upperclassman who was overcoming obstacles and providing community service. Members of the new committee are finding it easier to network with one another, and the scholarship funds are seeing a wider range of donors. “We’re close to getting over $100,000 in total commitments,” says Craig Harrison (BSBA ’03), co-founder of the scholarship committee. “That’s a pretty huge accomplishment.”
—Elizabeth Fritzler

1969

A. Michael Marasco (BS ’69) and his wife, Pamela Marasco (BA ’70), reside in Crown Point, Ind. Michael has spent the last 30 years specializing in foot and ankle surgery with a private medical practice. Pamela recently won a contest for her travel writing about Italy; her business, Cositutti, markets Italian artisan products.

1972

Al Batten (MS ’72) retired from the electrical and computer engineering faculty at the U.S. Air Force Academy in December 2009. He has worked in academia for 30 years, including a teaching position at Colorado Technical University. He and his wife of 41 years, Nancy, reside in Black Forest, Colo., and frequently travel to Wisconsin to visit their new granddaughter.

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Janet Beardsley (BA ’72) received a Daily Camera Pacesetter Award on Feb. 16 for her community service in Boulder County, Colo. She has been executive director of Boulder’s YWCA for 23 years, overseeing service for more than 2,500 people annually. Janet also led the YWCA’s $2.5 million capital campaign project, which included a large addition to the facility. She has received the Be Bold Award from the Women’s Foundation of Colorado and was named a “Woman Who Lights Up the Community” by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce.
Wayne Armstrong

Volunteer Meyer Saltzman
Meyer Saltzman (BA accounting ’58) knows that one man can’t change the education and health care systems enough to make life better for everyone. Instead, for most of his life, he has worked to change people’s lives through education and health care, one person at a time. “If you can get one kid into college, all the rest of the kids in that family will follow,” he says. “If you can put 100 kids into college and then see the rest of their siblings and then their own kids go, the economic benefit to this country is immeasurable. Certainly you haven’t solved the systemic problems, but you’ve taken a small bite of the apple.” Saltzman, who received the DU Community Service Award at the Founders Day ceremony in March, was born and raised in Denver. His father died three days before he was born and his mom continued to work as a seamstress and waitress. Saltzman started working when he was 12. He received a scholarship to attend DU and believes that was the beginning of many opportunities the Denver community provided to him. Thus, throughout his successful accounting career, Saltzman has tried to return the favor. He has chaired the boards of National Jewish Health and the Caring for Colorado Foundation. He currently is on the board of Western State College and serves as a commissioner of the Colorado Limited Gaming Commission. He and his wife, Geri Bader Saltzman, endowed a scholarship at DU, and Saltzman serves on the board of the Denver Zoo because he likes “to see families enjoying themselves.” But he gains the most satisfaction when he sees that the organizations he works for are changing lives. “Some of these kids we help through Caring for Colorado have never been shown how to brush their teeth. Or they believe that they won’t live past the age of 20. They haven’t been shown any opportunities,” Saltzman says. “When I see young people who believe they don’t have opportunities, it is important to me to help. I get a lot of good feelings for doing it.” Lynn Taussig, former president and CEO of National Jewish and special adviser to the provost for life sciences at DU’s Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, says that when Saltzman decides to join an organization or champion a cause, he commits everything he’s got—time, resources and good old-fashioned elbow grease. “He’s a fabulous role model for community service,” Taussig says. “He works hard to enhance the community and help people who need assistance, whether financial, medical, educational or professional advancement. That’s what he feels is his role in the community and in life.” Still working at Saltzman Hamma Nelson Massaro, the accounting firm he helped found, and volunteering many hours each week, Saltzman, 73, says that his friends ask him when he’s going to retire. He simply states, “I am retired. I’m doing what I love to do.”
—Janalee Card Chmel

1977

Brenda Hollis (JD ’77) has been appointed prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, Netherlands. She also is a senior trial attorney at the Special Court and leads the team prosecuting Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia. Brenda has served in the office of the prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

1978

John Hale (MPA ’78) has been appointed chief communications officer of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). He is responsible for communications and public affairs for VHA’s 153 hospitals and more than 800 clinics nationwide. Hale also teaches the capstone public relations course at Hood College in Frederick, Md. He was selected in the first class of presidential management interns after receiving his MPA from the Daniels College of Business in 1978 and has served in business and government—most recently as founder and principal of consulting firm MINDWEST Strategies, which continues under independent management.

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1979

R. “Lee” Mays (BA ’79) moved to Dallas after his graduation from DU and earned an MBA at Southern Methodist University. Lee worked in banking until 1989, when he became a real estate developer in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. He returned to banking in 2007 but remained in Madrid. He married his wife, Maria, in 1981; they have two children, ages 12 and 19.

Downtown Hotel. Warner and his joint venture partner, Suburban Water Technology, installed an environmentally beneficial water softener for the hotel. This was the largest project of its kind ever completed by an independent water treatment dealer in Colorado.

1983

consultation and property management company. Happy Home Solutions owns or controls 14 properties, primarily in the Chicago area. Diane uses her TV reporter experience to create video presentations of the company’s available properties. She also is a volunteer with her children’s activities: She is a Girl Scout leader, room parent, soccer coach, chess teacher and homework facilitator. She lives in Woodridge, Ill.

1982

Keith Warner (BSBA ’82), Denver resident and president of Highland Water LLC, was recently chosen for a special project with the Sheraton Denver

Mary Jo Rapini (BA ’83) published Start Talking: A Girl’s Guide for You and Your Mom About Health, Sex, or Whatever (Bayou Publishing, 2008), a question-and-answer book featuring advice from two nationally recognized women’s health experts. Rapini resides in Houston, Texas.

1987

1986

Diane Moca (BA ’86) started Happy Home Solutions, a real estate investment,

Jeff Hannah (MA ’87) of West Des Moines, Iowa, owns Touchstone Executive Development, which recently was appointed as a certified

General George Casey Jr.
DU has graduated plenty of leaders in its time, but it’s likely few have as solemn a responsibility as Gen. George Casey Jr. (MA ’80), who was sworn in as the 36th chief of staff of the United States Army on April 10, 2007. He previously served as commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, overseeing a coalition of more than 30 countries. Casey, a previous recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, received the Evans Award—the University’s highest alumni honor—at this year’s Founders Day ceremony. Named for University founder John Evans, the award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated professional achievement, humanitarian service to the community and continuing interest in the University. It was 32 years ago that Casey enrolled in DU’s international studies program while stationed in Colorado Springs, Colo. He thanks three of his professors at the Korbel School—Arthur Gilbert, Karen Feste and Jonathan Adelman—for their work and what they taught him. “How fortunate I was to have studied here,” Casey says. “I had no idea at the time that I would do some of the things I’ve done.” Though he came from a military family, Casey didn’t initially plan on having a career in the armed forces. He planned to do his required two years of military service, then go to law school. Instead, he told Georgetown University reporter Geneva Collins, “I got to my first unit and I fell in love with it. There’s that bond that you build with your soldiers, when you realize they depend on you for their lives. And it was that commitment back to them to never let them down that has driven me my whole career—never to let my subordinates down.” As part of the Korbel School’s D.C. Career Connections Program, several Korbel students recently met with Casey at the Pentagon to learn more about professional opportunities and operations at the Department of Defense. “Having lunch with Gen. Casey was one of the highlights of the D.C. Career Connections trip,” says Heather Beebe, who is working on a master’s degree in international security with a certificate in homeland security. “We expected him to walk in while we were having lunch, say ‘hello,’ and then depart to deal with more important matters. Instead, he sat with us during the entire meal and discussed issues that we found interesting and wanted to learn more about, such as the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
—Greg Glasgow

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Associated Press/Lauren Victoria Burke

affiliate within Resource Associates Corp.’s international network of senior-level business and executive development professionals. The firm specializes in organizational development and change management for businesses. Jeff has led several businesses and health care systems and taught for several years at DU and the University of Minnesota; he also has experience in financial services and hospitality.

Ambassador Cindy Courville
Cindy Courville (MA ’80, PhD ’88) says that sometimes she has to pinch herself as a reminder that it’s all real. “I have this image of myself in my head, and I’m all grown up, still growing up, but I am this little girl from Opelousas, Louisiana, who made it to the White House and became ambassador to the African Union,” she says, pausing. “Wow!” Courville has served as senior director of African affairs for the National Security Council, senior intelligence agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency, special assistant to the president of the United States and the first-ever (from any country) ambassador to the African Union. She was this year’s recipient of the University of Denver Professional Achievement Award at the Founders Day ceremony in March. One might expect a person of Courville’s caliber to be ultra-serious and aloof. Instead, she’s warm, witty and quick with a story about her childhood. Courville grew up in a “very loving family” during the days of Jim Crow law. Her father worked for International Harvester and her mother was an in-home seamstress and cook at Courville’s school. She also was a civil rights activist who toted her kids along to NAACP meetings, set them up on phone banks during elections and volunteered them as fraud watchdogs at the polls. Courville was one of the first black students at an all-white school under the Freedom of Choice Act, and she served as secretary of her town’s NAACP chapter at the age of 15. Still, she says, it wasn’t until she enrolled at DU’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies that her perspective moved from local to international politics. “DU was where I made the leap across the ocean,” she says, explaining that she discovered parallels between her childhood and the struggles that were ensuing in Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia. “The segregation of Rhodesia mirrored Louisiana. It fascinated me to watch it unfold while I was in school.” Good friend Joan Helpern, who met Courville several years ago at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where Helpern is on the Women’s Leadership Board, says Courville “has a passion for making anything she comes into contact with a little bit better than the way she found it. “She doesn’t waste a moment feeling sorry for herself or for anyone else in the world,” Helpern adds. “She demonstrates that each of us, by moving slowly forward, can ultimately make the world slightly better than it was when we found it.” Courville, now a professor at the National Defense Intelligence College in Washington, D.C., credits many others with her career accomplishments, calling them her mentors, patrons and “extended family.” And she says this family has supported her as she continuously redefines herself. “My parents gave me that gift, teaching me that I define who I am,” she says. “The civil rights movement taught me to always rise above. You can define yourself. It’s not easy, but you can do it.”
—Janalee Card Chmel

1988

1989

Mitchell Foster (BSBA ’89) is a trial attorney and has founded Mitch Foster Law, a criminal defense firm dedicated to defending the rights of the accused in criminal and drunk driving cases. Mitch was named to Michigan Super Lawyers magazine for the past three years. He and his wife, Kelly, reside in Milford, Mich., with their daughter, Emma.

1990

Frank Bonanno (BSBA ’90) of Denver was nominated for outstanding restaurateur in the 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards, which promote culinary heritage and diversity. Bonanno is the executive chef-owner of Bones, Luca D’Italia, Mizuna and Osteria Marco.

1992

Elizabeth (Dietsche) Montgomery (MA ’92), of Tulsa, Okla., released her seventh album, Somebody’s Praying For You, in December 2009. Though classically trained with experience in opera, Elizabeth is now a Christian recording artist. As a child, she struggled with a severe lung illness, but she recovered and recorded her first gospel album before age 20. She has toured in the U.S. and Europe.

Stephen Voss

Ignacio Jimenez (BS ’88) and Christina (Rice) Jimenez (MA ’88) of Denver have been married for almost 20 years. Ignacio runs the translation and interpretation company Translationlinks, which received the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce “Minority Business of the Year” award in 2009. Christina has worked in cardiac rehabilitation for 22 years. The couple also imports food from Spain and operates an e-commerce retail store, Comida España.

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cool off this summer in

Pioneer style!

Dads and granddads get a glimpse of student life at DU
Every February, the DU Parents Association sponsors a weekend of tours and events for DU students and their parents and grandparents. This year, Dads and Granddads Weekend took place Feb. 19–20. The event drew 260 dads and 40 granddads from 35 states, including Alaska and Hawaii. On-campus activities included two hockey games, a DU Grilling Society pregame rally, carillon tours in Williams Tower and a pizza-making contest hosted by the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management. In Denver and the surrounding area, a sold-out ski bus transported families to Breckenridge, and Metech Recycling and Project C.U.R.E. hosted their own tours. “We had a really great response to the activities this year. The weekend was a huge success,” says Hilde Gill Kaiser, co-chair of the Hugh Meeker Sr., Hugh Meeker Jr., Henry Meeker and Parents Council. Lee Sundet Dads and Granddads Weekend alternates years with Moms and Grandmoms Weekend. Last year, Moms and Grandmoms Weekend featured a tea at the Brown Palace Hotel. Although any DU student can invite his or her father or grandfather to participate in the activities, a few legacy families were in attendance. Kaiser and her husband, Jerry (BSAC ’76), have two children who are DU students: Their son Jon is a sophomore accounting major, and daughter Ali is a first-year law student. Kirsten Litchfield, a sophomore English major, has two grandfathers who earned degrees at DU; sophomore Andrea Fitch and her alumnus father, Carl (MBA ’83), Hunt and Tim Bergen registered for the weekend too. The events are one way for alumni parents and grandparents to stay in touch with their alma mater. Many remarked at how much the DU campus has improved since their college days. “The campus is dramatically different,” Carl Fitch said, “but the spirit of the place still seems the same to me.”
—Elizabeth Fritzler
Laura Stevens

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1993

Bill Cushard (BSBA ’93) of Charlotte, N.C., was hired as chief learning officer for the Knowland Group, a hospitality marketing company. Bill has spent 10 years developing learning strategies for customer-company relations. During his first year as learning and development director for E-Trade Financial, Bill increased quality monitoring scores by 25 percent and customer satisfaction with employee knowledge by 31 percent.

Bryan Ehrenholm (BSBA ’93) of Modesto, Calif., won first place in the nut pie category for his Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut Pie at the 2009 APC Crisco National Pie Championship. The annual contest, featured on Food Network Challenge, also awarded Bryan second place in the open category for his Hula-licious Pie. Bryan owns the Lunch Pail restaurant in Modesto, Calif.

Erik Jacobsen (JD ’93) was elected town justice for Bedford, N.Y. His term began Jan. 1, 2010. Daniel Robinson (PhD ’93) of Fort Collins, Colo., received the Clay Reynolds Award for his second book, The Shadow of Violence (Texas Review Press, 2010).

Pioneer Mike St. John
In a way, Mike St. John’s work on behalf of the University of Denver mirrors his professional life. Over the course of his career, St. John (BSBA ’81) has created and launched successful businesses in many different industries and discovered a passion for fields he never expected. He remains committed to absolutely everything he decides to tackle. His endeavors include success in the cellular phone industry with a business called Cellular Products Inc. and in the high-tech industry with a company called Life Cycle Services LLC. At his alma mater, St. John has volunteered for, donated to and assisted students, causes and campaigns across many schools, departments and teams. He says that at the heart of his ability to work and volunteer in so many areas is an innate sense of curiosity. “My curiosity leads me to meet a lot of great folks, learn from them, understand where there are opportunities and where we can make a positive impact in the community,” he says. For his extensive efforts and impact, St. John was the winner of the Randolph P. McDonough Award for Service to Alumni at DU’s Founders Day ceremony in March. St. John is the first to admit that he needed a little “nudging” to realize how important DU was in his life. That nudging came in 1995 in the form of Peter Firmin, then-dean of the College of Business Administration. Firmin had been instrumental in St. John attending DU, even helping him to secure a scholarship, so when Firmin called and asked him to lunch, St. John obliged. “I had had no involvement with DU since graduation,” St. John confesses. “Peter basically chastised me and said, in his succinct, dry, direct way, ‘You got a heck of an education on our dime. You need to—and have an obligation to—contribute back to the University.’ And he was absolutely right.” Firmin says he always believed St. John had something special to offer both his community and his alma mater. “I saw in him, early on, a person with a great deal of talent and a person with vision,” Firmin says. “He has obviously worked very hard with alumni and committed himself to the University. Mike’s a leader, and he always has been a leader.” St. John has given his time, know-how and personal resources to the Daniels College of Business, the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, the DU ski team, the alumni association and many others. However, he believes he gains more from his relationship with DU than he can give, and he simply likes being part of the community. “Whenever I go back on campus, there is a sense of calm, there is a sense of youthfulness,” he says. “DU has, thanks to many people, a life and a soul. I’m proud to be part of it.”
—Janalee Card Chmel

University of Denver Magazine Connections

Wayne Armstrong

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1994

Suzanne Peters Payne (MSW ’94) of Lafayette, Colo., retired from her job as a palliative care social worker in 2009. In November of the same year, she married Heinz Bulmahn surrounded by 110 family members and close friends at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver. Jason Starr (BSBA ’94) was promoted to vice president of Winona Capital Management, a venture capital and private equity firm based in Chicago. Jason previously was an associate at Opus Capital, a principal at BoldTech Systems and a manager at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Prior to joining Winona Capital, he earned his MBA from the University of Chicago. Jason lives in Oak Park, Ill., with his wife, Kathy, and his two children, Zachary and Madeline.

2003

Kevin Charles (MBA ’03) of Kannapolis, N.C., married Caitlin Elizabeth Walter in August 2009. He is financial manager of Cabarrus Pools in Concord, N.C.

2006

2004

Anthony Epps (BSBA ’06, JD ’09) of Denver was hired at Kutak Rock LLP a corporate , practice group. His practice will focus on assisting a variety of national clients in securities, general corporate and franchise law issues. Karly (Campbell) Kothmann (BA ’06) and her husband, Tanner, welcomed their first child, Bella Reese Kothmann, on Sept. 14, 2009. The family lives in New Braunfels, Texas.

Erik Johnson (BSBA ’04) of Denver is the advance coordinator for Our America Initiative, a political advocacy committee that seeks to increase discussion and involvement regarding current issues in America.

2005

Jill Doherty (BSBA ’05, MBA ’06) and Adam Wallenstein (BA ’05, MBA ’06) were married Aug. 29, 2009, in Westminster, Colo. The couple met the first week of their freshman year at DU. They live in Cleveland, Ohio.

Save the Date for Homecoming and Family Weekend

October 14-17, 2010

Return to campus for a weekend filled with Pioneer spirit and fun!
Don’t miss the excitement—alumni and parent celebrations, kids’ activities, a parade, Pioneer hockey and more.

Bring the whole family home to DU!
46
University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

Book bin
And Darkness Was Under His Feet: Stories of a Family (BookSurge Publishing, 2009), the latest book from Annie Dawid (PhD English ’89), traces the author’s ancestral roots through a collection of short stories from the perspective of Dawid’s paternal relatives. The collection begins in the early 20th century with a Jewish Orthodox couple, Lazar and Reizl Soloman. Bukovina (now Ukraine and Romania) serves as an ethnic backdrop for the stories that follow. As each son or daughter reaches adulthood, the family continues to drift apart and reunite. The Holocaust plays an especially important role in the family’s religion and relocation. Generational differences—and similarities—become apparent in the culminating reunion, where the effects of the war years are seen in the elders. Much of Dawid’s work is historical fiction that places individuals in the midst of major events. And Darkness is her exploration of personal heritage, highlighting fleeting moments that have shaped her family tree. As The Jewish Review describes the stories, “The effect is like that of an old family album, where black-and-white photographs are pasted carefully in place, a woman’s spidery handwriting underneath.” The book, Dawid’s third, also has been reviewed by Colorado Central and The Oregonian. It won the Litchfield Review’s award for short fiction. Dawid directed the creative writing program at Lewis & Clark College for 15 years. Her other books include York Ferry and Lily in the Desert: Stories. In addition to her stories, Dawid’s photography has been featured in literary magazines nationwide. She lives in Westcliffe, Colo.
—Elizabeth Fritzler

?
Country

Which alum serves on the board of the Denver Zoo? The answer can be found somewhere on pages 39–50 of this issue. Send your answer to [email protected] or University of Denver Magazine, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816. Be sure to include your full name and mailing address. We’ll select a winner from the correct entries; the winning entry will win a prize courtesy of the DU Bookstore. Congratulations to Allan Howerton (BA ’48, MA ’51) for winning the spring issue’s pop quiz.

Contact us
Tell us about your career and personal accomplishments, awards, births, life events or whatever else is keeping you busy. Do you support a cause? Do you have any hobbies? Did you just return from a vacation? Let us know! Don’t forget to send a photo. (Include a self-addressed, postage-paid envelope if you would like your photo returned.)
Question of the hour: What is your favorite building on the DU campus and why? Name (include maiden name) DU degree(s) and graduation year(s) Address City State Phone E-mail Employer Occupation ZIP code Fax

What have you been up to? (Use a separate sheet if necessary.)

Post your class note online at www.alumni.du.edu, e-mail [email protected] or mail your note to: Class Notes, University of Denver Magazine, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816.

University of Denver Magazine Connections

47

Pioneer pics
“Since I am an alumna and a staff member on campus, my kiddos have sported DU gear since they were born!” writes Kristin Olson (MA ’04), assistant director for the Office of Citizenship & Community Standards and adviser for campus fundraising group Up ’Til Dawn. “Recently our family went to explore the not-so-far-away Black Canyon of the Gunnison [National Park, in western Colorado] where this photo was taken.” As you pioneer lands far and wide, be sure to pack your DU gear and strike a pose in front of a national monument, the fourth wonder of the world or your hometown hot spot. If we print your submission, you’ll receive some new DU paraphernalia courtesy of the DU Bookstore. Send your print or high-resolution digital image and a description of the location to: Pioneer Pics, University of Denver Magazine, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816, or e-mail [email protected]. Be sure to include your full name, address, degree(s) and year(s) of graduation.

2007

Ewan Rankin (BSBA ’07) married his longtime girlfriend, Shanelyn Pablo, in Maui, Hawaii, on Oct. 3, 2009. The couple resides in Issaquah, Wash.

2008

Sara Hebert (MA ’08) of Shreveport, La., joined the marketing communications firm Williams Creative Group Inc. as an account executive with a specialization in digital media. Sara also is a multimedia design teacher at Centenary College of Louisiana. She was named one of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce’s “40 Under 40.” Sara received the Carl

Deaths
1940s
Thomas Allen (BA ’49, MA ’55), San Francisco, Calif., 6-19-09 Sal Guido (BS ’49), Lakewood, Colo., 9-3-09 Alan Hess (BSBA ’49), Littleton, Colo., 10-5-09 Andrew Koonce (BS ’49), Albuquerque, N.M., 12-13-09

1980s 1990s

Renye Ress (attd. ’81–83), Denver, 12-22-09 Thomas Taylor Jr. (BS ’84), Venice, Fla., 5-25-08 Susan Weston-Frey (attd. ’87–89), Scarborough, Australia, 9-12-09

Roger Hogoboom Jr. (JD ’96), Arvada, Colo., 11-11-09

1950s 1960s 1970s

Faculty and Staff

Bruce MacFarland (BSBA ’53), Encinitas, Calif., 2-25-10 Robert Maines (BA ’54), Lakewood, Colo., 12-22-09

Yale Huffman (JD ’60), Denver, 10-27-09 Robert Grinstead (BS ’61), Denver, 12-19-08 Donna Ryan (MSW ’68), New Richmond, Wis., 10-28-09

Troy Bledsoe (PhD ’73), Pioneers head basketball coach (1962–68), Grand Junction, Colo., 12-31-09 Francis Bonomo (BA ’43, MS ’49), retired lecturer and research assistant at the Denver Research Institute, Englewood, Colo., 1-9-10 Sallye (Wrye) Smith (MA ’69), Penrose Library assistant professor emerita (’90–92), Denver, 1-1-10

Friends

Daniel Pakenham (MA ’73), Elm Grove, Wis., 1-15-09

Patsy Trottnow, former Board of Trustees member (1999–2005), Denver, 2-5-10

48

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

J. Couch Internet Research Award for her master’s thesis, “Your World, Your Imagination: Representation and Social Expectation in Virtual Memorials.” Brooke Meyer (BSBA ’08), of Aurora, Colo., completed a sports marketing internship at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley and was then hired as assistant director of operations for the university’s women’s basketball team. This summer she will travel with Up With People, a program that aids underserved communities worldwide. Brooke will work with 100 young adults to present a musical stage production; the group will perform more than 200 hours of community service for cities in the United States, Mexico and Asia.

Reunion recap
During the 2009 holiday season, the DU Twin Cities Alumni chapter worked with Hope for the City—a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization that donates overstock food, medical and consumer products to people in need—to provide outreach services in Minnesota communities. On Nov. 17, four chapter members helped unload 10 semi-trucks of Target baby products (such as shampoo, baby oil and diapers), and then resorted the items for distribution to those in need. Volunteer Michael Brehm says Left to right, Meghan Draxler, Becca Burns, Michael Brehm he and his team “felt compelled to and Katie Ross reach out and share our time and energy to help others. We would like to make this a regular activity, and as our chapter grows, we hope to get more volunteers and do more work around the community.” >>www.du.edu/alumni
Courtesy of Michael Brehm

Post your class note online at www.du.edu/alumni, e-mail [email protected] or mail in the form on page 47.

—Elizabeth Fritzler

WONDER WHAT YOUR ALMA MATER HAS BEEN DOING SINCE YOU LEFT ?

Do you ever

On the Road

Come to a DU on the Road event and find out. University representatives will travel to cities this fall to provide an update on campus developments and the vision and goals behind them. All DU alumni, friends and parents are invited to enjoy an evening of food and drinks with fellow Pioneers, faculty and staff. Look for us this fall as we travel to the following areas: Los Angeles, CA Chicago, IL Milwaukee, WI Salt Lake City, UT Washington, DC
For more information, please visit www.alumni.du.edu/DUontheroad or call 1-800-448-3238, Ext. 0

University of Denver Magazine Connections

49

Money matters
Although it’s easy to put off financial decisions, there is one item you probably want to put on your financial calendar in 2010: Consider converting your traditional individual retirement account (IRA) to a Roth IRA. This year is the first to offer that opportunity for everyone, regardless of annual income. (Prior to 2010, the limit was $100,000 in annual income.) If you convert to a Roth, you will have to pay taxes on all those taxable gains you had in your traditional IRA. That could be a big amount, but then any withdrawals from your Roth IRA are tax-free. If you convert in 2010 then you can split the tax bill, with 50 percent paid in 2011 and 50 percent paid in 2012. For example, if your tax bill because of the Roth IRA conversion in 2010 is $10,000, you can pay $5,000 in 2011 (when your 2010 taxes are due) and $5,000 in 2012, with no interest penalty. Although IRA conversions regardless of annual income limits are available after 2010, the 50 percent rule does not apply after this year. The best way to figure out whether the Roth IRA conversion is a good deal for you is to go to a Roth IRA conversion calculator. I have looked at a few of them, and the best one I found was Fidelity Investments’ “Roth Conversion Evaluator” at www.fidelity.com. Their methodology does consider, among many assumptions you need to make, the time value of money. That is very important because, after all, you are paying taxes today so you do not have to pay taxes on your IRA withdrawals in the future. In short, “do the math” and only then will you be able to make a sound investment decision.

Andrew Sherbo is a lecturer of finance in the Daniels College of Business and director of the Center for Cost and Financial Analysis for Science Applications International Corporation, a Fortune 500 company with offices in Colorado Springs. He has 35 years of financial management experience in the public and private sectors.

Salesperson Nora Heitmann
Nora Ellen (Schneider) Heitmann (BA communication, political science ’00) was named one of Colorado’s 25 most powerful salespeople by Colorado Biz Magazine in February 2009. At the company where she works, Forward Logistics Group (FLG), she is consistently the No. 1-ranked salesperson, accruing more than $2.5 million annually. And she’s achieved all this while working only two days a week. Two years ago, after the birth of her daughter, Heitmann decided to reduce her hours. She says that motherhood is her first and favorite role in life. Yet she still maintains top numbers for FLG and also finds time to volunteer extensively for the community. It was for these accomplishments that Heitmann received the Ammi Hyde Award for Recent Graduate Achievement at the Founders Day ceremony in March. According to fellow DU alumna and friend Laura Rogers (BSBA ’02), the secret is in Heitmann’s approach to life. “Nora is a very passionate person about everything she does. She is one of those unique women who can do it all and who has this amazing ability to balance personal, professional, community, family and social, and juggle all these aspects of her life with flair,” Rogers says. Heitmann believes her success is based on one fundamental aspect of her personality. “I sincerely like people,” she says. “I’m the opposite of schmooze. I have a genuine love of getting to know people and what makes them tick. My mom says I could make friends in a paper bag.” She also enjoys being busy. Heitmann serves on the Junior League of Denver and has held many leadership positions at DU since graduation, including executive member of the Alumni Association Advisory Council and co-sponsor of the Young Alumni Endowed Scholarship Committee, for which she has helped to raise more than $100,000. At FLG, Heitmann’s job is to secure new clients and maintain existing customers who need help coordinating their national and international freight shipping. It sounds rather dry, but Heitmann gets practically giddy when she talks about it. “I have the funniest meetings all day,” she says. “I work with a lot of entrepreneurs who are very creative people. Many have found a product they love or have made and designed themselves and they need help sourcing in China and bringing it here to sell domestically. “I look at supply chains and can tell them, ‘Here’s where we can make improvements,’” she explains. “I build paths and connect people.” Heitmann, 31, seems to possess a rare ability to “do it all” happily. “There is nowhere else I’d rather be in my life right now,” she says. “My real achievement is balance. I have a job and a family I love. I feel blessed.”
—Janalee Card Chmel

50

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

Wayne Armstrong

ANNOUNCEMENTS
DU Photography Department

share your career experience and advice with current DU students and alumni. >>www.du.edu/studentlife/career

Get Involved Mentoring Join the Professional Network and

Local Chapters Just moved to a new city and

don’t know anyone? Need to expand your professional network? Want to attend fun events and make new friends, or reconnect with old ones? Join a local alumni chapter: Atlanta; Boston; Dallas; Houston; Minneapolis/St. Paul; New York; Phoenix; and Washington, D.C. New chapters are under way in Portland and Southern California. To find out how you can get involved, call the Office of Alumni Relations at 800-871-3822 or visit www.du.edu/ alumni/chapters. alumni and friends regularly come together to raise funds for Penrose Library and participate in continuing education initiatives. Programs include lectures, teas, special events and book sales. >> library.du.edu/site/about/wla.php

membership program designed for men and women age 55 and “better” who wish to pursue lifelong learning in the company of like-minded peers. Members select the topics to be explored and share their expertise and interests while serving as facilitators and learners. >>universitycollege.du.edu/olli

Lifelong Learning OLLI DU’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is a

Enrichment Program Noncredit short courses,
lectures, seminars and weekend intensives explore a wide range of subjects without exams, grades or admission requirements. >>universitycollege.du.edu/learning/ep

Salon Series DU’s Humanities Institute offers an
intimate series at which about 20 people meet in a private home with a faculty member from the arts, humanities or social sciences to learn and exchange ideas. >>www.du.edu/salons

Women’s Library Association A group of DU

Pioneer Generations
How many generations of your family have attended DU? If you have stories and photos to share about your family’s history with DU, please send them our way!

from other Colorado colleges and universities on June 17 to meet employers with positions available for those with three-plus years of experience. For more information, contact Cindy Hyman at chyman@ du.edu.

Mark Your Calendar Colorado Alumni Career Fair Join alumni

Calling All Experts
We’re trying to get to know our alumni better while developing possibilities for future articles. Please send us your ideas. We would especially like to hear about readers who: • re working in the nuclear energy industry a • re HRTM graduates a • ork in the food and beverage industry w • re working/serving in Iraq or Afghanistan a • ere DU Centennial scholars w • erved in the Peace Corps s • erved in AmeriCorps s

Youth Theater The Rocky Mountain Conservatory
Theatre, directed by DU’s Anthony Hubert, presents youth productions of The Pied Piper, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and West Side Story (June 24–26) and The Jungle Book, Guys and Dolls Jr. and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (July 15–17) at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. >>www.RMCTonline.com

Homecoming Come back to campus Oct. 14–17 to
cheer on the Pioneers, watch the parade, enjoy great food and live music, tour campus and more. >>www.du.edu/alumni

Alumni Symposium Take part in a weekend learning experience on campus during the fourth annual symposium Oct. 1–2. Enjoy a wide variety of class sessions with DU faculty, hear from distinguished keynote speakers and network with alumni and friends. >>www.du.edu/alumni

area alumni for networking events each month. >>www.du.edu/alumni

Alumni Connections Pioneer Alumni Network Join other Denver-

DU on the Road Find out what your alma mater has been doing since you left. See if DU is coming to a city near you. >>www.du.edu/alumni Stay in Touch Community News DU’s monthly online newslet-

Contact us
University of Denver Magazine 2199 S. University Blvd. Denver, CO 80208-4816 [email protected] 303-871-2776

ner honoring distinguished alumni and faculty of the Sturm College of Law is Sept. 16 at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center. Proceeds benefit the Student Law Office and the DU Law Scholarship Fund. For more information, contact Laura Dean at [email protected] or 303-871-6122.

DU Law Stars Dinner The annual awards din-

ter features campus news, profiles, an events calendar and more. >>www.scribd.com/uofdenver

Nostalgia Needed
Please share your ideas for nostalgic topics we could cover in the magazine. We’d love to see your old DU photos as well.

Online Alumni Directory Update your contact information, find other alumni and “bookmark” your alumni friends and classmates. You may also read class notes and death notices. Online class note submissions will automatically be included in the University of Denver Magazine. >>www.du.edu/alumni
University of Denver Magazine Connections

51

Miscellanea

Cover to cover
A collection of vintage science fiction paperbacks amassed by Trace Reddell, associate professor of media, film and journalism studies at DU, was part of the Faculty Collects exhibit that was on display at the Myhren Gallery in April. Showcasing the diverse collections of DU faculty and staff, the exhibit included sets of motel keys, airline safety cards, Popsicle sticks, bottle caps, Fiestaware, antique vibrators and more. “I’ve been collecting sci-fi paperbacks since I was 12, but only a few of those are actually still in this collection, which I’ve gathered up over the last nine years or so,” Reddell says. “This collection is more about the cover art than anything else. I’m interested in the surreal space art more than accurate or nostalgic representations of space technology (rockets, astronautic gear), aliens or planetary surfaces. I particularly like the psychedelic covers from the mid-1960s for this reason, though my favorite in the collection is the Unexpected Dimension book by Algis Budrys.”

52

Wayne Armstrong

University of Denver Magazine Summer 2010

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