Alumni Association


March 16, 2000


SFSU e-News


Welcome to the March 2001 edition of e-News, San Francisco State University's e-mail newsletter for alumni, students and friends. In this Issue Headlines SFSU celebrates 102nd Birthday: The annual Founders Day celebration is right around the corner. International Composing: Emeritus professor appointed to jury of international composers competition. Honoring one of our own: The Student Center dedicates the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center. Dancing for relief: SFSU lecturer performs with MC Hammer to raise earthquake relief funds. Alumni Art for the University: Alumnus to donate three portraits to the University. Where are they now: Spotlights on alumnae Sue Opp and Nancy Steinbeck. Events One-act for one hour: The One-Act Theater Festival runs through March 18. The latest act in the Morrison Artists Series First-ever Pasker Chair Lecture: Dr. Christopher Waldrep on racial violence in America Exhibits in the Fine Arts and Science Buildings, both free. Sports Keep up the good work: Three SFSU wrestlers named Academic All-Americans.

Headlines

Founders Day 2001 is fast approaching. The University will be celebrating its 102nd birthday on March 20. A Caribbean beat will be the backdrop for a program that includes SFSU President Robert A. Corrigan and Jean E. Van Keulen, executive director of the San Francisco Head Start program (which is now administered by the University), children from the San Francisco Head Start program, and free birthday cake!

Professor Emeritus Wayne Peterson has been appointed to the jury of the first Seoul International Competition for Composers. It will be held March 19-21 at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. Peterson will also present two seminars on his music while in Seoul and his work “Vicissitudes” for Six Players will be performed on March 21. Professor Peterson joined the music faculty in 1960. He won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

The Cesar Chavez Student Center at SFSU announces the dedication of the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center on March 22. As a new program of the Cesar Chavez Student Center, the goal of the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center is to provide an open and safe environment that promotes understanding and encourages dialogue among all people. The dedication ceremony for the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center is scheduled to take place at the Cesar Chavez Student Center on Thursday, March 22 between 11 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. A welcoming hour with the California Indian Dancers and All Nations Drum kicks off the dedication at 11 a.m. Remarks by college officials, students and family members of Richard Oakes will be presented along with a dance exhibition and musical selections from noon to 4 p.m. The dedication continues at 7 p.m., when Ojibway filmmaker Jim Fortier will present his film Alcatraz Is Not An Island.

Chitresh Das, lecturer in Dance, and his dance company, performed in a benefit show, "The India Earthquake Concert," March 2, at the Jubilee Christian Theater, San Jose. The concert, which included Bill Clinton on the sax and Das dancing with rapper MC Hammer, raised close to $10 million for survivors of the earthquake that recently devastated India.

Alumni

Peter Newton, Class of ’89, plans to donate three paintings by well-known artist and SFSU alumnus Al Chealey. Newton, a graduate of the Black Studies department, will donate three paintings by Chealey, a quadriplegic artist, who graduated from SFSU in 1992, as soon as a suitable location can be found to house the works. The paintings depict Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Hospitalized at Laguna Honda since he was 15, Chealey began classes at SFSU in the late 1980s. Chealey received the Art Department Honoree award and was the 1992 hood recipient for the College of Creative Arts. Newton assisted Chealey for ten years. “I have enough of Al’s works that have personal meaning,” said Newton. “I wanted to share these, in a way that would reflect Al’s life, in a mainstream fashion.”

SFSU alumna Sue Opp is working to build a manlier, sterilized fly. The Contra Costa Times profiled Opp in the February 27 edition. Opp graduated from SFSU with a bachelor’s degree in biology and is a professor at California State University, Hayward. Opp is the first woman to enter the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame in the field of science. She currently researches Mediterranean fruit flies. She is trying to annihilate the pests by breeding a sterilized fly to release into natural populations. You can read the complete profile by going to the Contra Costa Times

Did you know? The daughter-in-law of author John Steinbeck attended SFSU from 1962-1964. Nancy Steinbeck has recently written a combined memoir, The Other Side of Eden. The book includes the posthumous autobiography of her husband, John Steinbeck IV, and details Nancy and John’s life together as well as thoughts on Vietnam, the 1960s, and living in the shadow of John Steinbeck III. The book was published by Prometheus.

Event Highlights

Theater

The annual One-Act Festival, presented by the SFSU Theatre Arts Department, features three plays directed by students. "Varicella Zoster," written by Virstyne Henry and directed by Marc Adelman, explores the life of a painter tormented by an abusive past and in search of a love she may never find. "Late: Bus Stop Monologues," written by Melissa Klein and directed by Jennifer Brooks, features the voices of four disparate urban characters who moralize, justify, contemplate and struggle with their lives while waiting for the bus. "About Something," written by Marty Brown and directed by Angel Lopez, explores the chaotic memories and dreams of a man as he contemplates his bed and the three women who may or may not have been there. March 17-18, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Studio Theatre, Creative Arts Building, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. (at 19th Avenue). $10 general. $8 students, seniors. Tickets may be purchased at the Creative Arts Box Office or by calling (415) 338-2467.

Music

The Morrison Artists series presents violist Kim Kashkashian at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 22, in McKenna Theatre, located in the Creative Arts Building on campus. Her recital will include performances of Bach's Organ Sonata in E flat Major, BWV 525/C Major and BWV 529; Paul Hindemith's Sonata Op. 11, No. 4; György Kurtág's "Signs Games and Messages"; and Rebecca Clarke's Sonata for Viola and Piano. Admission is free. For more information on this concert, go to http://www.sfsu.edu/~pubaff/prsrelea/fy00/065.htm For more information about the Morrison Artists series, go to http://www.sfsu.edu/~allarts/morrisonartist.html

Creative Works and Lectures

The History Department presents the first Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Chair Public Lecture. Dr. Christopher Waldrep will give the inaugural public lecture in his field of American Constitutional History. The lecture, titled "Racial Violence on Trial: Our Legal War Against Hate,” will take place on Wednesday, April 4, at 4 p.m. Seven Hills Center, Nob Hill Room, San Francisco State University campus. Light refreshments will be served following the lecture. The Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Chair in history was established with a generous gift from Robert Pasker (’93) and Lori Pittman.

"Storytellers: The Figure in Time and Place" is on display in the Fine Arts Gallery, FA 238, through March 22. Curated and organized by SFSU art professors Barbara Foster, Candace Crockett and Sylvia S. Walters, the exhibition can be viewed Monday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

The Treganza Anthropology Museum presents “A Glimpse of Cuba: The Chinese in Cuba.” The exhibit will run from March 21 through June 1. The exhibit will be presented in the Hohenthal Gallery, Science Building, Room 388. Hours of operation: 10 a.m.- 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Admission is free.

Gator Sports

San Francisco State wrestlers Mauricio Wright, Jarred Waller and Michael Cordsen were named to the NCAA Academic All-American Wrestling Team. Wright was named to the first team. Waller and Cordsen were named honorable mention. Wright, an art major, has a 3.08 GPA. At the NCAA Division II National Championships on March 10, the sophomore from Folsom, Calif. finished third in the nation in the 174-pound weight class and earned All-American honors for the second year in a row. Waller, a sophomore from Santa Rosa, Calif., was named an Academic All-American for the second year in a row. The Gators’ 125-pound wrestler has a 3.31 GPA and is majoring in business administration. Cordsen, a junior from Paso Robles, Calif., was named an Academic All-American for the second year in a row. The Gators’157-pound wrestler has a 3.21 GPA and is majoring in business administration. For more about SFSU athletics go to http://athletics.sfsu.edu

Visit the following links to catch up on all the latest goings-on at SFSU!

Weekly Calendar of Events:
http://www.sfsu.edu/~pubaff/look/calendar/calevents.htm

University Academic Calendar:
http://www.sfsu.edu/deptpage/acal4.htm

Performing Arts Calendar:
http://www.sfsu.edu/~allarts/CAEvents.html

Alumni Association Calendar:
http://www.sfsu.edu/~advance/calendar.html

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