Volume 50 Number 33 May 19, 2003 |
||||||
This Week
|
NewsBen Fong-Torres
named Alumnus of Year Fong-Torres, who earned a bachelor of arts degree in radio-television-film in 1966, will receive the award at the University's 102nd annual Commencement exercises at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 24, in Cox Stadium. From Ray Charles to Paul McCartney and Elton John to the Grateful Dead, Fong-Torres has interviewed hundreds of world-famous musicians and actors and written stories for Rolling Stone and other magazines and newspapers during the last 35 years. His time wasn't only spent punching out stories on a typewriter, as his voice was also heard on Bay Area radio stations KSAN and KQED and his face appeared on television programs in the late 1970s. Today, he continues to write and emcee community events. "I've had a pretty incredible career and I owe it all to having attended San Francisco State. When I first registered in the summer of 1962 and plunked down the $48 tuition, I thought about the things I wanted to learn and to do in writing and in broadcasting but I also saw them as long-shot fantasies," said Fong-Torres, 58. "But I was at the right school at the right time. Here at San Francisco State there were no closed doors, no well-meaning little chats about how I might want to consider other lines of work … where Asians have done well." Fong-Torres found work that melded his love of music with journalism. As Billboard Magazine recently exclaimed, "You couldn't hope for a more upbeat, sane and dryly revealing observer of popular music's halcyon era." In addition to his Alumnus of the Year honor, Fong-Torres will be one of four inductees into the SFSU Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Friday, May 23. "It gives
me and this entire University great pleasure to honor Ben Fong-Torres
for his extraordinary work as a journalist, author and broadcaster," President
Robert A. Corrigan said. "San Francisco State University was his training
ground for a successful career in newspapers, radio and television. We
are proud to call him one of our own and we look forward to welcoming
him back to campus to present this award."
Four tapped for Alumni Hall of Fame Artist Roy De Forest, San Francisco Poet Laureate devorah major, writer and rock journalist Ben Fong-Torres and bebe boutique founder Manny Mashouf will be inducted into the SFSU Alumni Hall of Fame for 2003. The group will be honored at a campus reception Friday, May 23. Each year the SFSU alumni association selects new inductees, whose pictures will hang on the Hall of Fame wall in the first floor of the J. Paul Leonard Library. Now a professor emeritus at UC Davis, De Forest, who received a bachelor's degree in art in 1953 and master's degree in art in 1958, was a member of San Francisco's "Funk Art" movement of the 1960s. His paintings evolved into vividly patterned landscapes packed with animal and human figures. He's been in more than three dozen one-man exhibits, and his print "Country Dog Gentlemen," was part of a recent exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. major, a 1975 graduate with a bachelor's degree in black studies, is an essayist, novelist and poet. Her latest work, "With More Than Tongue," will be published this month. A San Francisco resident since childhood, major captured the essence of the Fillmore District in her 2002 novel "Brown Glass Windows." Mashouf, who earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1966, started his career as a manager for rock impresario Bill Graham. His stay in the music business was short as he moved to women's apparel. He opened the first bebe boutique on Polk Street in 1976. Now with 178 shops in the United States and Canada, bebe is a cutting-edge retailer and its apparel is featured on "The Practice" among other television shows. Mashouf also serves on the College of Business's Advisory Council. For biography
on Fong-Torres see story above.
In
Memoriam: Griffith G. Richards Richards
joined SFSU in 1969. A licensed speech pathologist, he earned a Ph.D.
in speech and hearing sciences from Stanford in 1970.
Richards
taught courses in the Speech and Communication Studies Department, including
anatomy and physiology of speech and voice production, voice and articulation
improvement, public speaking and group discussion.
In the '60s
and '70s, Richards' research in speech science led to several innovations.
He worked on speech control of machines with Lockheed Inc. and aided in
developing the voice identification tests that are used to verify the
accuracy of courtroom testimony.
He served
on various University committees throughout his career. A founding member
of the Liberal Studies Council, he served as chair 1987-90. He also served
as Speech and Communication Studies Department chair, summer sessions
coordinator and president of the University Club.
Richards
was also known as a careful and caring student advisor. To honor his contributions
to SFSU, make a donation to the Speech and Communication Studies Department's
Emerti Faculty Scholarship Fund. For details, contact Nancy Pappas at
ext. 8-7398.
A memorial
service will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday at the University Club. R.S.V.P.
to Victoria Chen at kumquat@sfsu.edu.
CSU
Trustees to meet about student fee increase The CSU
Trustees will meet this Wednesday to review the latest information on
the state budget and to vote on a 25 percent fee increase for undergraduate
students and a 20 percent increase for graduate students.
Both items
will be part of the agenda of the Committee on Finance meeting, which
will meet at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday in Long Beach. The fee increase will
then be discussed and voted on during the Trustees plenary session, which
takes place an hour later at 10:15 a.m.
The fee
increase was recommended by Gov. Gray Davis in his January budget proposal
as a way to mitigate the effects of a $447.7 million reduction in the
CSU's budget. Even with the proposed fee increase, undergraduate fees
would still be lower than the lowest fees of the CSU's comparison institutions.
There are
also indications that the May Revise of the Governor's budget proposal
may impose deeper cuts on the CSU. If that is the case, an additional
mid-year fee increase may be necessary or the CSU system will be forced
to reduce enrollment for thousands of students and lay off personnel.
The meeting
agenda can be found at: www.calstate.edu/BOT/Agendas/index.shtml.
|
|||||
|
||||||
Home
Search
Need Help?
1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco,
CA 94132 415/338-1111 |