Section One: 1993-1997–History of Pacific University
(Written by Nancy Meltzoff unless otherwise indicated)
Rose Mary Gray was hired in the fall of 1992 to start the Pacific University satellite campus in Eugene. The campus was at St. Alice’s Church, in the basement, where one room served as offices and library, and another room was the classroom. Pacific University opened the doors to its tiny satellite campus in Eugene in January of 1993 with 26 students enrolled in the MAT program.
In this way, the Pacific University Eugene Campus became part of the history of Pacific University in Forest Grove. This history will not, of course, relate that entire history, and will begin in 1992. But I must acknowledge our beginnings. Although the story was often told that Pacific University started as a school for orphans from the Oregon Trail, I found the document attached to this section entitled See Document: Training School for Indian Youth.early history of Pacific U. It certainly appears that on October 4, 1881 (p. 198), there were 18 Puyallup Indian scholars in attendance at the school, and it grew in size to 76 students from 10 different tribes. As we now know, in retrospect, the Indian Schools were designed to instill mainstream, white values and practices in their students, and to remove from them their Indian cultures. The Report at the School at Forest Grove provides us with a glimpse into those practices.
Our Eugene Campus began with 26 MAT students and grew to approximately 75 in the MAT program at its height, eerily mirroring the sizes of the early Forest Grove programs. Our story, in Eugene, begins with the first coordinator, Rose Mary Gray.
Rose Mary Gray wrote,
I was hired during the summer of 1992 and was coordinator of the program from 1992 through 1999. The program grew from 26 students in the class of 1993 to 76 students in 1999. The final initial preparations for establishing Pacific University’s Master of Arts in Teaching program in the Eugene/Springfield area transpired during the summer and fall of 1992.
Site: Interviewing and accepting applicants; Various personnel; Curriculum; Student practicum/student teaching placements
I was hired as the program coordinator during the summer of 1992. I was involved in a sometimes lesser, and sometimes greater, degree in the multiple tasks in getting the program started. I was not really involved in the selection of the location for the program. The final selection of St. Alice’s Elementary School building was an interesting one. Though the building was no longer used as an elementary school, the Head Start Program was there, as well as an area for community food distribution and various community meetings. We had 2 small classrooms and another room that served as office space, storage, equipment, faculty area, library, meeting room and other sundry “things.” I was involved in getting the tables and chairs, file cabinets, various furniture needs, computers and other “tech” stuff. I also participated in the “decorating” (putting up blinds, setting up tables, desks, chairs, overhead equipment, etc). Nancy Watt was very involved in all aspects of the program (inception, organization, requirements, university directives/directions/requirements/main campus committee members [roles, responsibilities, active or distant involvement], budget considerations, state certification considerations, collegial approach or a main campus avenue, hiring of adjuncts, office support, interviewing, selection/acceptance of applicants), everything that goes/went in to getting the program in place and active. We had a part time admin assistant (Dawn) who did multiple tasks to help get things organized and running.
Some of the more academic tasks included: interviewing prospective students; determining placement needs, contacting district and building administrators and faculty for appropriate/effective placements; meeting/interviewing faculty; preparing schedules (teaching and supervisory); teaching and student teacher supervision; on-going meeting/discussions/guidance/support with Forest Grove colleagues and administrators.
During the fall of 1992, I was somewhat involved in interviewing students, adjuncts, and office support. I contacted and met with various district administrators and building principals/faculty prior to the official beginning of the program in January 1993. It was important to have districts, administrators and strong, prepared and willing mentors for our students.
Karen Freud Jones came on board the program in Feb. or Mar. of the onset of the program. She was an adjunct faculty/coordinator of Elementary Education.
Students began the program in January and they completed it in December. The program was very full and demanding. One of the things about the program that characterized its uniqueness and strength, I think, was the closeness that developed during the year, among the students — rather like a family atmosphere. Each class had its own personality, challenges and strengths. I did find a group picture of the class of 1993. It was taken in the church next to the school. I also found copies of the students’ Pac U. ID card.
Among the students we had were a sister and brother, Deon and Peter Saraceno. She was from California, moved to Oregon; graduated from UO with BA’s in English and Magazine Writing. She also was a member of UO’s track teams. Peter’s interests leaned toward liberal arts, particularly lit, music and art. We had a husband and wife, Greg and Patti Goeller. Both were UO grads with BA’s in English. Patti indicated that “we both desire to teach and travel together.” The class had 20 women and 6 men members. One of the men indicated that he had once considered becoming a priest and wanted to “lecture about God and help people find solution(s) to their problems. He said he enjoyed working with computers and helping people become more “relaxed” with computers. One man, with a business degree, had managed a retail store for 3 years and owned a Dairy Queen for 9 years before selling it and deciding to apply to the MAT program. After finishing a degree in English at the U of Alaska, one man moved to Eugene so his wife could attend UO. He then decided he wanted to focus on teaching. One man just identified as himself, someone who wanted to be a teacher. Among the women students were: wives, retired military, mothers, a preschool/daycare teacher who was interested in alternative education and dreamed of having her own preschool someday, a nanny who had played volleyball for UO, a legal assistant, and one woman who had toured the northwest for four years with a singing group prior to teaching preschool for a year and a half and then applying to this program. I mention the backgrounds of the students as an indication of the talents, experiences, dedication and dreams of the members of the first class of Pacific’s presence in the Eugene/Springfield area.
I don’t know where most of the students went after graduation. Deon Saraceno taught at South Eugene High School. I think Peter Saraceno taught at one of 4J’s middle schools but I’m not sure. I think Mark Schneider taught at Thurston. I think Debbie Eickmeyer was at Sheldon. I don’t remember where the graduation ceremony for that year was held.
The beginning of the program and the years that followed were unique, and each year, each class was characterized by rewards, challenges, and the many complexities of any school year in any educational institution.
To put this all in a larger context, it is helpful to understand what was going on at other teacher-education institutions around this time. In 1992-93, there was a shake-up in the faculties of Willamette and Pacific Universities as well as the University of Oregon. Right around that time, the University of Oregon’s College of Education closed, so there was nowhere for students to earn a teaching license in Eugene. A long-time faculty member, Ted Ozawa, at Willamette retired, and Linda Tamura moved from Pacific to Willamette. I had been in a term position at Willamette for two years, but did not receive the tenure-track appointment. So, I applied for the position that Linda had left vacant at Pacific’s Forest Grove campus, sometime in Spring, 1994, I applied for a full-time position with Pacific University in Forest Grove. At the end of my interview, which had gone very well, I told the committee that I didn’t want the job in Forest Grove and I really wanted a job in Eugene. The committee was quite surprised, as there was not a posted position there. I went on to explain what my vision was for a campus in Eugene. Having worked at Willamette University’s School of Education for two years, as well as teaching in an Add-On program for OSU, I was well-aware of what was needed to create an excellent, competitive program in Eugene. Pacific was interested in starting what was called Add-On Programs and Standard Licensure programs, that is, courses that practicing teachers could take to either get recertified as classroom teachers, or work from their Basic Licenses towards their Standard Licenses. Rose Mary and I had been graduate students together at the University of Oregon, graduating in 1990. Following graduation, she had worked at Willamette from 1990-1992, when I began at Willamette. Thus, there were strong connections between the three programs in some ways.
My first contract was in June, 1994 for work between August 94 and May 95 for a .625 position. The committee gave me the opportunity to create a recertification (Add-On) program for music, art and PE teachers who had all lost their jobs in the deep cuts. They offered me half-time pay, and told me that I would be moved to full-time in the second semester if I succeeded in meeting my first set of goals. By spring, I was full-time with an overload. My Add-On program had about a dozen students and was held in the evenings in Cottage Grove in a school building because most of the students were from that district.
In the fall of 1994, I was assigned a few students to supervise, but I had not taught them between January and August. Our program began in January, basically because that had been when it was ready for the first cohort. It turned out to be an excellent calendar, as students entered classrooms full-time at the end of August with their mentor teachers. They got to see how to set up a classroom from the very first moments. I remember vividly Antje Snawder and Allan Chinn. Antje was the younger sister of a student I’d supervised at Willamette, and she was kind enough to request me as her supervisor. She was a gifted teacher from the start and I felt I learned more from her than she from me. I will never forget Allan in the kindergarten classroom. I placed him with Elga Brown, whose classroom community I had studied for my dissertation. Allan was basically overwhelmed by the utter cuteness of the children. He watched them and laughed. It took some work for him to see them as the serious learners Elga saw. Allan grew to become an elementary school principal, but never lost his genuinely kind and appreciative spirit.
In the infancy of the program, I was most concerned with the ability of the program to survive. I pushed for us to move us to a more professional location, and to receive minimal support from Forest Grove. It was really like the Wild West for Rose Mary, me, and the adjuncts. We got minimal attention from the FG campus. We did everything from making our own budgets to ordering toilet paper to hiring to interviewing to making relationships with school districts to teaching and supervising.
The first time I walked into the Pacific office, in the basement of the church, I was met by a small, yapping dog, which belonged to the secretary. I told the folks in FG that I would work from home until we moved to a different location. I don’t remember how we actually made the decision to go to the building at 19th and Willamette, but I know that it had the most beautiful, large, round window on the upper floor, which was for rent.
Rose Mary writes,
Each move had its own challenges, requirements, and rewards. I think we were in the Springfield location (St. Alice’s Elem. Sch) for just 1 year. The need for a move was quickly recognized and was determined by the main campus. Representatives from the main campus searched several locations before selecting the 1899 Willamette site. As a result of the program’s success and growth, main campus administrators and general university support of and plan for growth, it was decided that we needed a more appropriate and serviceable location for the program. In keeping with this approach, the program was moved to the 1899 Willamette address. We were on the second floor and shared this area with another business. We had more space for classes and offices for faculty and staff. I think we were there for 2 years before moving to the Broadway location.
We moved in to 1899 Willamette and had two classrooms and a small office. The secretary found it difficult to handle everything that we had to do. Rose Mary was her boss, and, quite often, I would see them out on the little balcony, with Rose Mary comforting a crying secretary. We depended on that person for so much that it probably was a very difficult job. Each time we hired a new one, she or he took on more responsibilities than the one before.
One of the early adjunct hires became the soul of the program for many years to come, serving as the coordinator of the Secondary Program. On Shakespeare’s birthday, he’d dress up in his Shakespeare outfit, with tights and hat included, and have people choose a typed quote. Then, at any time during the day, if you could approach Bob and speak the line you’d memorized, you’d get a piece of chocolate. He had a wicked sense of humor and a deep love for students, which he encouraged our future teachers to pass on to their students. He played at being modest, but we all knew he was a master high school teacher, with about 30-years experience, and he went on to become a master teacher-educator. We’ll let Bob (“I’m Bob Bumstead and you’re not.”) speak for himself with his typical tongue-in-cheek humility and humor:
I first heard of Pacific University School of Education in 1993 when Deon Sarceno appeared as a student teacher at South Eugene High where I was teaching. Then in the early summer of 1995 I was engaged in building a sauna on my house in Eugene when I received a call from Rosemary. She said something to the effect of, “I heard you were a competent teacher and we need someone to teach English and social studies methods this summer. Our previous methods teacher did not work out.” I had just retired from the 4J school district but I was hired to teach two sections of Advanced Placement English at South Eugene High School. I told her I was not interested, but then went on a run and decided it was worth a shot. I called Rose Mary back and said I could come in for an interview. She said that was not necessary and that I was hired. I came into the campus at 19th and Willamette the next day and she informed me that she did not have any required textbook and that I would be alone on campus teaching the course as Nancy was on vacation.
So I found some texts and cobbled together a course with a joint English and social studies section first thing every day and then separate sections later on in the morning. My students survived and some went on to become respected teachers in Eugene, especially Rebecca Hammonds and Helen Haberman who I still work with every year as part of the Salmon Watch program.
Rose Mary apparently thought I was competent, or at least available, and the next school year (‘95 and ‘96) I taught English methods and Reading and Writing Across the curriculum and supervised student teachers. My best student was Brooke Harter who I had taught at Churchill where she was also a member of my soccer team. Back then we could supervise out of our area and I supervised her student teaching in Health. I also remember our Czechoslovakian student Lubos Hubata-vacek. He was so quiet, I had him lie on the floor and scream periodically to try to get him to open up. I also taught Rachel Muravez who ended up teaching in Borrego Springs in the Southern Californian desert. I occasionally ran into her there.
When Pacific finally hired Willard Kneip as dean for both the Eugene and the Forest Grove programs, he approached me to teach educationally psychology. This was before Mark Szymanski was hired, so I was to teach both the elementary and secondary sections. I proposed a course description and he bought it. So the three courses brought me up to a full-time load. I remember Rena Dunbar who always talked about her evil twin sister. She went on to, with her sister, Leah, become mainstays of several English programs in Eugene. Vicki Eckert had a long career as a biology teacher at Sheldon. Brad Jungert started out as the tech guy at South and then became an excellent social studies teacher there. Honore Prazdral ended up at Roosevelt running a very successful library program. I was the supervising teacher for all five of them.
By the summer of 1995, Camille Wainwright was Director of the School of Education. She did come down to Eugene and give us guidance and assistance, which we really appreciated. At some point after Linda Tamura had left the FG campus, Camille Wainwright, who was fairly new to the School of Ed, was named Director of the School of Education (we weren’t a college yet). There was political turmoil in Forest Grove. Rose Mary and I drove up together to some of the faculty meetings, holding our own campus faculty meetings in the car. She drove and I took notes; we actually got a lot done during those drives. We always stopped at the gas station in Gaston and then made our way to campus. The mood and tone was not positive at that time. Some faculty thought that Anita McClain, who was the longest-serving faculty member of the School of Education, should have been made director, while others backed Camille. Faculty meetings were difficult and communication was a struggle. As soon as we’d arrive, someone would pull me aside to tell me about the latest struggle and try to get me to take a side. Rose Mary and I continued to claim ignorance about it all and used our distance as a shield. We never did get too involved in all of it.
However, we did have challenges of our own. As Rose Mary Gray writes,
Not unlike other educational practices and institutions, challenges in various arenas existed throughout this program’s inception and development–some political, financial, personal, belief systems, application/teaching approaches, social interactions, professional expectations and practices, and evaluative restrictions/demands/definitions/outcomes…When the program began, when I began, I was told (by Tom) that my position would be a tenure track position within 3 years. I know that Karen was told this also. This didn’t turn out to be true. I know that Susan Laycock was let go (unexpectedly at the end of the year). I know that people were “let go” under the guise of the “position being eliminated.”
By 1995, we were up to 37 students. I was teaching and supervising. We were at our location at the corner of 19th St. and Willamette St. then. I remember that group fondly, perhaps because they were my first full-year group at Pacific and I taught them for a few courses and supervised at least six of them. We were at the 19th Street building, in a long, narrow, second story classroom with a large, round window. There was a romance budding between Jocelyn Hale and Ed Mendelsshon, who later married. Rebecca Hammons had left court reporting and kept us all entertained with words like “bailiwick.” Julie Hohenemser was smart and kind, and went on to become an excellent science and math teacher, mentoring many of our students. Free spirit Laura Hisrich and I hit it off splendidly, and she taught locally for a full career. Amethyst Arden came from a large family and they all came to graduation. I always loved meeting the families at graduation.
In fact, our graduation ceremonies in those years were incredibly touching. We were all so very close. Rose Mary would hug all of the students as they came to get their diplomas and she would be crying before too much time passed. People always said how personal these ceremonies were. We held our ceremonies at various places: a meeting room at the Downtown Athletic Club (where we also held our first-day program—Orientation plus Learning Communities activities led by Daniel Duarte and me), the Lane Community College Theater, the McDonald Theater, the Hult Center’s Soreng Theatre in the big years, and finally a ballroom at the Hilton. Some years we held a reception back on our campus afterwards.
Jason Mitchell carried on the tradition of strong male elementary teachers, working with Vic Hansen at Eastside. The first week of classes, Susan Rochester gushed that this is what she thought school should be like but never was for her before. Tonya Harms moved on to San Francisco and out of touch. Wendy Schwall became an elementary school teacher in Junction City. I attended the wedding of Terry Torrey, the daughter of our mayor. And then there was John Scott, a wrestling coach with a huge heart and the ability to memorize long pieces of text, but not able to put his words into writing very well. Later, I ended up helping him finish the program by working with him individually. When he was offered a teaching contract at South Eugene HS, he brought it to my house to sign it in front of me, as he felt I had deserved to share the moment. Helen Haberman taught me patiently about working more skillfully with gay and lesbian students, and she was kind enough to contribute to our online module on sexual diversity twenty years later. Amazingly, looking at this list of students in 2015, twenty years later, I am still in contact with between 5-10 of these wonderful students. I believe we were creating a true learning community, where we worked well together and gave so much to the group.
Rose Mary writes, I think we were there for 2 years before moving to the Broadway location.
Camille Wainwright, the temporary Director of the School of Education, helped us choose our next location in 1996. We looked at four or five places for rent: at Valley River Center, in the black buildings by the river, in a rear building at Gateway Mall, at one out 18th St., one out 18th St., and the downtown location at 40 E. Broadway. We decided that a downtown location best served our needs and make us feel part of the community. There wasn’t much of a downtown, but it was better than being in a mall, where it felt like a school for hairdressers, not teachers. At first, we had a small part of the upstairs at 40 E. Broadway, but over the years we added more and more space to accommodate our growing student population.
In 1995, Faith Gabelnick became president of the university. She was the first president who really took notice of our fledgling campus. She was the first administrator from Forest Grove to visit our program in Eugene. I remember her sitting in Classroom A at 40 E. Broadway, when she visited. By that time, we had a good reputation in Eugene. Although we were the upstart program in Lane County, and we were spoken of with respect. President Gabelnick was very supportive of our program. She was a big believer in building community, and that was one of our focus areas. She saw the promise and room for growth and she suggested that steps be taken to allow me to move to tenure-track. After a few years, we were officially recognized as a viable—and quite profitable—extension of the Forest Grove campus. We were called the “Cash Cow” in those days, as we didn’t cost much and we brought in a lot of tuition money.
In 1993-94, there is a list of 8 students in the first part-time program, but, as the list shows, record-keeping was not very sophisticated (hand-written, first names only), to say the least. By 1994-5, we had a viable part time program in addition to the daytime MAT. I started a cohort in Cottage Grove of 13 teachers who needed to add-on an elementary license as they were losing their jobs as specialty teachers and librarians. The irrepressible Debi Noel, one of those students, went on to teach Expressive Arts for us later on and she invited our students into her vibrant music classes. Not surprisingly, this group wrote a song as part of their community-building: See Document: 1995.Add-on poem
We continued to offer this program and then to give local practicing teachers the option of earning Standard Licensure and then the Continuing License when licensing changed from Basic/Standard to Initial/Continuing. In 1996, we had 23 students in the MAT/Standard program. A few of those students were teacher-leaders in the community, such as Tim Whitley, who went on to start the Rachel Carson program at Churchill HS, where he worked with Helen Haberman for many years. Nancy Jo Carper was an excellent mentor teacher for us, while earning her Standard License and she did her research project on how to mentor a struggling student teacher. Marilyn Curtis went on to be a leader at the International HS in Eugene. Perhaps it was 1997, when Polly Moak was a student. She wrote:
My Cohort Group was a great mix of teachers seeking to add an Elementary Endorsement to our teaching certificates. Some were Special Ed teachers,some were music or p.e. teachers, and a few of us, including me had been high school teachers. Whatever our backgrounds, we all loved young children and wanted to work with them. We met once a week for an evening class and every Saturday, as I recall. This was quite a commitment because most of us had full-time teaching jobs and many of us had families. I loved what we learned–a terrific course on teaching reading and writing taught by Merrill Watrous gave us a strong foundation in literacy. A course on elementary taught by Nancy Meltzoff helped us consider the complexity of the social-emotional needs of children, as well as their diverse academic needs. We learned about “Judicious Discipline,” using a model connecting civics and civil rights to children’s rights in the classroom. It was a wonderful way to connect social studies to positive classroom climate and management. We learned to be inclusive of all traditions in honoring holidays.
When summer came, we joined the Fifth Year cohort for a terrific math class, which was based on the most recent research about teaching deep thinking and knowledge about how to solve problems and encourage classroom conversation about mathematics. We learned about hands-on science, p.e., and music. We began to learn about using technology to enhance learning. It was a rich experience, and terrific preparation for twenty-first century teaching and learning.
In 1996 we were up to 45 students in the MAT program. I remember Carol Voltz’ work sample (a state requirement consisting of a unit of teaching at least 8 lessons long, plus evaluation and analysis), which she taught in the Roseburg area. She taught the entire unit in three days, skillfully integrating the topic of hazelnuts into every subject for her students, who were in about second grade. They sang songs about hazelnuts, visited an orchard, measured and weighed, and read a poem. That was the year I experienced the tremendous dedication we gave our students at Pacific. There was one student who could not succeed at student teaching. After the other students graduated in December, he was given a second placement, with a woman who was earning her Master’s in the Standard License program. She studied mentoring for her research, and she worked so hard with him all the way through March, when he finally was able to demonstrate the necessary skills. We were a small, close community, and people really pulled together to help one another.
The biggest change to the School of Education came in 1995 when we were given permission to do a search for a real dean, which culminated in Willard Kniep joining us in 1996. One of my favorite stories about that is that, after we’d met the three finalists for the position, I wrote to the chair of the search committee that I did not think Dr. Kniep would be a good choice, and I went on to list my reasons. It turned out that Willard was a wonderful hire, and he was personable and supportive. Whenever I said, “Willard, I have an idea,” he would smile and we’d sit down together for him to hear me out. Of course, we didn’t act upon every idea that I had, but if Willard thought it was worth pursuing, I knew he would help me find a way to do it. After some months of Willard’s leadership, I wrote another letter to the chair of the search committee telling him that I had been wrong in my earlier appraisal of Dr. Kniep and that he was a wonderful dean. Willard brought us into the university as a whole and helped us grow in every way possible.
When Willard joined the School of Education, there were two definite factions among the faculty, and joint meetings of all faculty did not go smoothly. He ended up hiring a consultant to teach us how to hold faculty meetings. We’d put topics on sticky notes, which would be displayed on a board and then organized. There were specific ground rules about what one could say and not say. The consultant, Susan somebody, helped us move from a very stuck place to one that began to function. Willard also helped us move from being a School of Education to becoming a College of Education. This had a big impact on our governance, as we had to create a governance document from scratch. The committee for doing that was Willard, Mark Bailey, Bob Bumstead, and Nancy Meltzoff. My perception is that, from then on, faculty from the Eugene campus had a big impact on what happened in the College of Ed as a whole instead of being merely an appendage.
This is evidenced by an invitation I received in February of 1996 to give a guest lecture on the history of multicultural education in the USA to students at the Forest Grove campus. Faculty in Forest Grove began to see us as colleagues and peers. In August, 1996, Mark Bailey, Karen Nelson, and I presented at the Pacific University Faculty Planning Conference on Teaching Strategies: Concept Attainment, Multiple Intelligences, and the New American Lecture.” It was the beginning of many collaborations between faculty of the two campuses.
We jumped to 65 students in 1997, the beginning of a stretch of 3 cohorts. Even with so many students, we had the feeling of being an extremely close community. With artistic Vicki Eckerdt (science) and Rena Dunbar (English) in secondary, we laughed a lot. We had a strong group of young men in elementary and middle (future excellent teachers Greg Sherry, Ryan Beck, and Brian Gulka, and the dramatic Richard Leebrick who did some sort of interpretive dance piece for his metaphor project in Schools and Society), with the loving and sensitive Dena James and Ann Piazza and Renee Travis balancing it all out. Marty Smith was always solid and brilliant.
In the early years, MAT students had to write a formal research paper to earn the Master’s Degree. Rose Mary (ex-high school English teacher) carefully read every student’s research paper in those years. Towards the end of the semester, she would sequester herself in her office and pore over them, all while trying to finish up the semester.
I asked Daniel Duarte to work with me on a part-time basis early on (written records of employees are not available prior to 1996). I had co-taught a class with him at OSU and we were friends. We team-taught Culturally Responsive Teaching till 1997, with him driving to Eugene for Fridays. We flip-flopped two sections, so students had one of us all morning and one all afternoon. Those classes seemed to have a big impact on the students. Daniel was perhaps the most loved instructor ever to come to Pacific. He claimed that he never actually knew what he did that worked so well while teaching; he taught intuitively and and expertly, sharing his experiences and his heart.
In 1996-7, our faculty included Kay Burg-Fry, who first taught social studies methods and then served as our first director, at our invitation. She brought her infectious good humor and her wonderful interpersonal skills to our campus, as well as many strong contacts with the community. At some point in late 1997 or early 1998, Rose Mary and I asked Kay to serve as an administrator for us. Nancy Watt (the associate dean on the Forest Grove campus) and Willard both came down to meet with Kay shortly after she began). Her time with us was too short, as she died too young on February 22, 1998 from a heart attack. She had been undergoing chemotherapy the prior few months. We made our first plaque to honor those who passed on, and, in keeping with her sense of humor, placed it on a chair. It read: Well-endowed Chair, and had her name inscribed on it. It moved from the chair to the wall and stayed there all the way up to around 2014, when we gathered all of the plaques together into one.
Susan David was our secretary in the “back” office and friendly Susan Laycock served as receptionist. Students enjoyed stopping at the front desk to chat with Susan Laycock. In those years, we wanted our front desk person to be someone who reached out to students and gave emotional support, and Susan L. was really good at that. Around 1997-8, Pam Rooney joined the office staff for a short time. Pam was very skilled with organization and computer work and she helped bring us up to speed in those areas.
Karen Baldwin had been teaching quite a few classes from the inception of the program, and she became full-time somewhere around this time. She brought her interests in Native American issues to our curriculum and she had close relationships with students. Some favorite adjuncts were Frank James (who was a supervisor and went on to teach some classes), Ferne Kellow teaching reading, Debra Noel, who taught the Expressive Arts with Nancy, Al Phillips who held down PE, and Merrill Watrous, who was wonderful at whatever she did, which was to be a supervisor for our students for many years at Fox Hollow School. Michael DuBrowa was very dearly loved; he taught social studies methods until he passed away far too young, just as he was going to take on a full-time faculty position with us. The full list of employees can be found in the Introduction in the document painstakingly prepared by Barb Sample: Employees from July 1996 through 2015 Eugene Campus.
When we redesigned the MAT curriculum in 1997 we were given free rein to imagine and create. Daniel and I had a great time dreaming with this and the outcome was a series of courses called Learning Communities I, II, and III, including all the topics we thought students would need to understand themselves, others, and the community. The idea was that the themes would stretch across the entire program, starting with individual identity and moving outwards to what goes on in classrooms and society and then applying the concepts to the local community during student teaching. We had asked for 3 credits in each of the 3 terms of the program, but we ended up negotiating for 2 in each term. Nancy Watt, who was the person who made sure everything actually worked in the COE, said that the Learning Communities change was the biggest change in the redesign. Our redesigned program served us well for many years. Nancy Watt was also a big support to us during those years; as she had been an administrator in Elmira, she had a special fondness for our Lane County program. Nancy was practical, clear, and utterly competent.
We had strong adjuncts and university supervisors and our program grew to have an excellent reputation in schools in Eugene and the surrounding areas, although the general population had no idea that Pacific University had a campus in Lane County.
See Document: Post bac student list