USD Magazine, Summer 1995

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HUGHES ADMINISTRATION CENTER DEDICATED devoted service, the USD community recently held a ceremony on campus highlighted by the dedication of the uni– versity's newly acquired building. Formerly the headquarters of the San Diego Diocese, the three-story building on Marian Way was officially named the Author E. and Marjorie A. Hughes Administration Center. University employees, students and guests gathered on the lawn and along the street between the Hughes Adminis– tration Center and the lmmaculata to witness the dedication, then moved across the street for a reception in front of the lmmaculata. Hundreds of well– wishers mingled with Author and Marge Hughes at one of their final appearances before the entire USD community. Hughes retires on June 30. The Hughes Administration Center is currently under renovation and is sched– uled for completion this fall. At Hughes' request, the administration center will be open to students while also serving the administrative functions of the univer– sity. The president's and provost's offices, as well as various student services, will be housed in the 28,680-square-foot building. When Bishop Charles Buddy founded the College for Men - one of USD's two predecessor institutions - and com– missioned construction of the diocese building, his original vision was that it would eventually serve as an administra– tion center. The university began a $3 million cap– ital campaign last fall to fund the renova– tion and officials hope to wrap up the fund-raising by time the center opens this fall. Trustee Robert H. Baker is chairing the effort with a committee of seven volunteers. o honor retiring President Author Hughes and Marge Hughes for their 24 years of

RE-CREATING HISTORY

dango tonight at the Bandini House and Juan Bandini danced on and on,"' Engstrand says. Guests to the Old Town visitors cen– ter, which is now under construction, will be able to share the experience of the dancers at individual computer ter– minals or watch IO-minute historical films that will run continuously on a giant movie screen. As historians, Schoenherr and Engstrand are determined to produce an accurate and appealing CD-ROM, and so are writ– ing the text as well as the computer pro- . gral;Jl for their project. ' ."Everybody's getting on the multi· ' media bandwagon, but what's being left behind is the histo117..," Schoenherr says. "il've alwa'Y.I? bell ed that historians ought to.. 'dP, he, ' t '• s rather than turn them over to a tedini:cian. "A lot of documentaries are made by people who only know .the technology," he adds. "I've tried to learn enough of tht! technology so I understand what's goin on,-but I want ,to keep the focus on ~ content." Th professors bave enllsted help from a team of staff and students verse_dj n variou ~ pects of computer desi • Everyone is working furiously to com· ple tb ~ oj~ct by September for i:he ·ch'edu.leJl ~ niQf t e visitors center. ' _e pro~!JP1-~ team includes software te~lmician"Fho.1~'B-..ickman from the aca– demic computing Bepartment, history graduate students George Rothrock and Damon Rouse, undergraduate Valerie Schoenherr and video consultant Kristin Engstrand. The project is funded by grants from The James Irvine Foundation, Thornton Foundation, The Fred Hansen Foundation for World Peace and Joseph W. Sefton Foundation. The CD-ROM will be usable on Macintosh and IBM computers and the ambitious team hopes to put part of the exhibit on the Internet eventually. Curious computer users will be able to purchase the CD-ROM at stores through– out Old Town.

With the click of a mouse, Steve Schoenherr, USD associate professor of history, guides a tour through the streets of 1830 Old Town San Diego. He stops at the famed Estudillo House, and with another click, enters the building and turns the tour over to one of the first residents of San Diego. Well, OK, not the resident, but a · modern-day narrator playing tb,e-rqle for the computer-generated tour.

The sound of a human · one high-tech feature in 't

After gathering histo,tical-p otos and their own slides, Schoeru, a~ Engstrand created a program ·that ,used seven slide projectors. "TI,atJwas multi– media in 1978," Schoenherr says. Today, multimedia is music, three– dimensional color pictures and movies, all on one compact disk. The Old Town project will include all three elements plus graphs charting San Diego's 1850 census and archival documents written by Old Town's original residents. Noting that festive dancing was an integral part of historic Old Town life for Mexicans and Americans, Engstrand found an artist in New Mexico who wrote original Southwestern guitar music for the CD. "Every American who writes of being in Old Town says, 'We went to a fan-

Pictured ahava: Postcards (r:in:a 1920) used in Iha Did Tawn CD-ROM prajact.

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