U Magazine, Summer 1987

LETTERS

THE EDITOR'S DESK Summertime at Alcala Park. It conjures up visions of a peaceful campus basking in long, lazy sun-splashed days. Few students. Fewer faculty. Bucolic daydreams, yes. But guess again. This summer more than 1,300 students will attend some 112 classes on campus, ranging from art appreciation to international economics. Con– struction workers will finish the east campus housing project next to the Sports Center, a 157,000-square-foot project which will provide another 156 apartments for students when they return in the fall. Major renovations to convert the former Camino Hall dining room to a performing arts center and to add an electrical engineering laboratory and other lab and faculty offices in Serra Hall are already complete. And then there is USD 's summer conference program. Between the begin– ning of June and the end of August, an estimated 6-7,000 people will attend conferences on campus and stay overnight in USD dorms and apartments. The visitors, who rent campus meeting rooms , eat at University Center din– ing facilities and sleep in USD dorms and apartments, will generate about $1 million during the 13-week conference season, the kind of income that brings smiles to the faces ofadministrators charged with balancing the University's budget. So while that men ta! picture of a campus dozing through the summer is a popular perception, Alcala Park most definitely is not a 'turn out the lights and roll up the sidewalks· kind of place in the summertime. * * * * * USD 's crew program, which has grown from humble beginnings to a dynamic and vigorous present - highlighted perhaps by the men·s and women 's Cal Cup victories in the 1986 San Diego Crew Classic - was enriched twice in the spring by generous and loyal supporters committed to the University's crew efforts. First, longtime USD crew boosters Paul and LucyWhittier, who already had donated two shells to the University, made it three with the dedication of the Lucy Whittier II in March. A little later that month , the Kathleen Stehly was dedicated. A gift from Jerome Stehly, father of six USD crew alumni , the shell is a memorial to his late wife , whose enthusiasm for crew was contagious among those who knew her. USD is fortunate to number theWhittiers and the Stehlys among its ranks ofsupporters. They, and so many others like them, are helping to enrich and shape a university that wouldn't be as successful as it is without this kind of unselfish support.

To the editor: On the very day that my youngest child turned 13 and became a teen– ager, a good friend in Los Angeles sent me a copy of "U" and I was advised to turn to page 10 of the Spring, 1986 issue. Be prepared for a blast from the past, he warned. Seeing yourself in an historical photograph over a story about the 25th anniversary ofyour fraternity is like one of your children reacting with surprise when told that Paul McCartney was in "another band" before WINGS! Or seeing a ·59 Triumph like you used to drive in an auto show labeled "antique classic. " As I read the article memories came flooding back and I wondered what had happened to all those thin , baby-faced young men with the nar– row ties. I already knew that Frank Ponce had become a priest and that Fr. Eagen had become a Monsignor but the rest was a blank. I remem– bered that Noel Hall always carried a guitar and assume he is a rock musi– cian and expect to see his video any day now! My oldest son is 23 and I have two grandchildren who live in Sedalia, Missouri and my 21-year-old daugh– ter lives in San Diego, working nights as a stand-up comic. She plans to keep her day job for the time being. We have lived in Tallahassee, Florida for three years , coming down from Minnesota to be the Marketing Director for Florida tourism. I left the Division of Tourism a year ago to become a regional director for Heritage Company of Gastonia, N. C. It is a 50-year-old company that pub– lishes books based on the Bible for families in small communities all over the U.S. I am involved in sales throughout the Southeast. In 1960 I came to USD as the school's first photographer and brought my cameras and darkroom equipment to set up in the basement of the College for Men. The first year I was very involved in doing photog– raphy of the football team (the Pioneers, but that was dropped the second year) and the yearbook. I still have some 16 mm film I shot of the jazz concert - called Jazz Ole - men– tioned in the article and it has some snappy footage of a very talented Frank Ponce. Also on a reel is the sod– ding of the football field (which was destroyed later that year when the Chargers football club used the (Please see page 22)

John Sutherland Editor

We goofed

The photo that accompanied the story on the death ofFr. Henry McDonnell published in the spring "U" was the wrong Fr. McDonnell, as many of our readers were quick to point out. The photo we ran was that of Fr. Joseph McDonnell, a current member of the theological and religious studies department who is in good health, we are pleased to report. We apologize for the error.

On the Cover: Happy graduates (top row) Rich Yousko , Cris Rossi , James Potts, Robert Blodgett, (bottom row) Mary Whalen, Eugenia Hudson and Tammi Durham celebrate. Photo by Pablo Mason .

2