USD Magazine, Summer 2004

USD's Unique Office Spaces

by Timothy McKernan bout two years ago, I interviewed USD political science Professor Del Dickson for a story about a book he had just published. After 20 minutes or so of talking about all the cool stuff in his office, we got around to discussing the book. Then we resumed the conversation about the cool stuff In a gallery that includes presidential election artifacts and baseball memorabilia, Dickson has a baseball autographed by the entire 1994 Senate Judiciary Committee. Apart from being a perfect tchotchke for a constitutional scholar to possess, where else would you find, on the same item, the signatures of famously liberal Senator Ted Kennedy and famously conservative Senator Strom Thurmond? That visit spurred this photo excursion through some of Alcala Park's more compelling faculty offices. When I first decided to do this piece, I took a series of walking tours of campus, glancing in faculty offices from the law school to the IPJ . Most, I found, are merely functional. Some have so few personal items they seem to be interchangeable. But a few literally burst with personality. Even on a campus with its own chapel, these offices are hallowed ground to some students. One wall of math and computer science Professor Luby Liao's office is dominated