Section Two: 1998 – 2002–History of Pacific University
(Written by Nancy Meltzoff unless otherwise indicated)
Faith Gabelnick was the president of Pacific University from 1995-2003; not coincidentally, it was also a time of great growth and success for the Eugene program. But as much as we appreciated Faith, this was, for us, the era of Willard Kniep, who was Dean from 1996-2001.
During the Spring Semester of 2002, the School of Education, which had been part of the Faculty of the Professional Schools, finally became a College of Education, joining two other Colleges at Pacific University (College of Arts and Sciences and Optometry). Under Willard’s leadership, we had threaded our way through all of the university channels to get to that point. Richard Rutt (Chair of the FPS) wrote, I would like to be one of the first to congratulate you all on the University Faculty’s vote last evening in favor of creating the College of Education. The proposal submitted by the School last year was passed in its entirety. It is my understanding that the President will take this result to the Board during their October meeting. While we will miss your participation in the Faculty of the Professional Schools, I feel your interests will now be better served. Again, congratulations.
The change to a College of Education from of a School of Education meant that we started to govern ourselves, with our own governance documents, Personnel Committee, and representatives to University Council and other university-wide committees.
Willard came to Eugene every Tuesday. He’d settle in, and then whoever was available would go to lunch. We’d go to a different restaurant each week. We all paid for ourselves except on special occasions. Willard loved trying the restaurants in Eugene’s downtown area as well as the camaraderie. He always said that coming to Eugene was his favorite part of the week, the drive notwithstanding. We laughed a lot, came up with ideas, and unsuccessfully tried to teach Willard to say Eugene properly (he accented the first syllable). Bob and Willard developed a solid friendship spanning many topics, including a shared love of good vodka. Willard and I loved to talk about different places in the world, as he was a traveler and had worked in Mexico and Russia, as well as other countries. His new wife came over from Russia, and he proudly introduced her to all of us. Some of us felt that we had more than a professional relationship with Willard. Of course, as with any administrator, he was not universally loved for all of his decisions, but for the most part, Willard’s years were successful years for the Eugene campus. Our numbers increased quickly and we began to establish a presence in Eugene, although most people in town still did not know there was a campus of Pacific University in Eugene.
We continued to have challenges working with the main campus. We were in a bit of an odd position, with some say about the major issues in Eugene but not real control. Rose Mary said, It sometimes reminded me of a student teacher’s experience (it’s your class but it isn’t, it’s your decision but it’s not, having an outline or blueprint of the main campus vision, but not the specifics). Indeed, although we needed the people on the main campus, we were also quite independent in many ways.
The entire faculty participated in redesigning the MAT curriculum and Eugene started using the new curriculum in January of 1998. We had a lot of work to do to get it going, but we were happy with the results. It was a group effort, with everyone invited to “dream big” at the beginning, and then working together to bring it all into fruition.
In 2002, we got a small grant for what we called the “Teachers of Color Planning.” This evolved into the Touch the Future event, which officially began in 2003 (see Section Three). See Document: Grant for TTF
Undergraduate Program
In 1999, we started an undergraduate teacher licensure program. Students came with two years of coursework at a community college (usually an AAOT), and then transferred to the Eugene campus to earn a Bachelor’s Degree and a teacher license in the next two years. We graduated approximately 8-12 students a year in that program for awhile. Classes were held evenings and weekends, as many of the students worked as instructional assistants in schools during the day.
After the undergraduate program had been going for awhile, in perhaps 2002-2003, Bob initiated the Pathways Program. Bob wrote, This idea came from my involvement with Carmen Urbina and the Educacion y Justicia para la Raza (Education and Justice for the People) Committee. In this program, local districts supported selected employees, usually teaching assistants of color, as they became licensed teachers. Most of the Pathways students who chose Pacific went through our undergraduate program, but some joined the MAT/FLEX program.
School Counseling Program
Just before 2000, Bonnie Witkin-Stuart and I were standing outside of the Temple Beth Israel during High Holiday services in September or October. We were dreaming up futures, and one idea that came up was to start a program to license School Counselors. Since Willard was generally very open to new ideas, I decided to pitch it to him. Bonnie came in to meet him, and, sure enough, in the 2000-01 school year, we opened the School Counseling program. Many excellent counselors were licensed through Pacific. During the 2001-02 school year, we added Danielle Torres to our faculty.
Campus Leadership
As referred to in Section One, Kay Burg-Fry, our Director in Eugene died in February of 1998, and we needed to regroup our faculty and leadership once again. A big change after Rose Mary retired in 1999 was that the person dedicated to administration was given a real administrative title (assistant dean).
Bob wrote, In ’99, I was briefly the assistant dean for the program after Rose Mary left. It must have been a couple of months between when Rosemary left and Vivian arrived that I was temporary, interim, not-yet-ready-for-prime-time assistant dean.
Vivian Moen had worked at Lane ESD and she was hired after Bob served for a very short time as interim assistant dean. Vivian was 40% instructor and 60% assistant dean at that time, but she moved into more administration. She knew a lot about the school reform efforts (HB 3565, Certificate of Initial Mastery, Certificate of Advanced Mastery) and we felt we needed an expert on that topic to lead us into the future. As it turned out, that statewide reform effort failed some years later.
MAT (Daytime and FLEX)
Between 1998-99, we had nearly 70 students in our daytime MAT program. We also started the night program, which was called a Post-Baccalaureate program, for those who didn’t need a Master’s Degree, but needed a teaching license. We particularly worked with a group of unlicensed, but dedicated and skilled, teachers from Marist High School. This morphed into the FLEX program in 2000, using almost the same curriculum as the daytime MAT, but offered at night and on weekends. The group consisted of about 15 students. Many of them were working in schools during the day. Bob Bumstead worked hard to create and nurture this program.
Our faculty at that time was Bob Bumstead, Rose Mary Gray, Karen Baldwin, Jill Schwimmer, Nancy Meltzoff, and some wonderful part-time folks, among them:
Michael DuBrowa, who taught secondary social studies methods and applied for a full-time position just prior to his critical illness.
Pete Mandrapa, social studies teacher from Jefferson MS, was a supervisor and taught a course or two.
Daniel Duarte, who had first come to our campus to team-teach Culturally Responsive Teaching with me, was then hired full-time at the Forest Grove Campus, and then continued to team-teach Learning Communities in Eugene.
Debi Noel, who helped teach Expressive Arts.
By 99-00, we were over 70 students strong, and we added some key people, Mark Szymanski and Shelley Smolnisky. Mark had been teaching at Lane Community College. He was younger than the rest of us, as many of the faculty had worked a full career in the public schools prior to coming to teach at Pacific. Bob, especially, constantly ribbed Mark about being young. Mark brought a whole new world to Pacific: technology. At first, our computer lab consisted of just a few computers in a small room, and he helped it grow into a full-fledged, state of the art computer lab.
I was assigned to supervise a student teacher in a first-grade classroom in Veneta. The teacher was Shelley Smolnisky, a teacher with a wonderful reputation. When I walked in that room, I remember thinking that THIS is what classrooms ought to be like. I was so excited. A student showed me the aquarium with salmon eggs in it, and I looked in with a small scope. I sat at the reading table with another student. There were interesting learning centers all over the place, everything was organized and delightful, and Shelley presided over it all with calm assurance. All was right with the world in there. I went back and said that we had to get her to come in to teach a course for us, which she did. She taught more and more for us until she was hired for a full-time position in 2000. I remember being head of the search committee and we wanted to hire her. I remember making Willard angry because I called him at home to advocate for her. She didn’t have a PhD at that time, and there was a push to increase the number of faculty with advanced degrees. There was a real split in the COE then, between “academics” and “practitioners.” Shelley eventually bridged that gap by coming in as a practitioner and earning her PhD.
We added some of the best teachers in the Eugene area for our part-time faculty in this era, which helped our reputation grow. Fern Kellow brought her prodigious expertise to reading classes. Valerie Nguyen was deeply loved for her art classes.
Betty Sharp taught foreign language methods and supervised students in this area.
Anselmo Villanueva taught a section of Learning Communities. Merrill Watrous, the energetic master teacher from Fox Hollow, taught one course for us. She went on to run the education program at Lane Community College, sending us many, many excellent students. Carla Gary, from the Office of Equity and Diversity at the U of O, came over to Pacific team-teach some Learning Communities classes with me, after Daniel Duarte became full time at the Forest Grove campus and he couldn’t drive to Eugene anymore.
Around 2001-2002, we added the incomparable Paula Wilkes. She had been known in Eugene as a master elementary school teacher and expert in Talented and Gifted Education. Paula really raised the bar for our courses. Students would walk into a classroom utterly ready for them, with a labeled, colored folder on each desk, they did special physical exercises called Brain Gym during class to keep them alert, and students flocked to her office for advising. She had experience as a supervisor of supervisors, and it seemed that she was basically able to do anything well.
The office staff went through some changes. Pam Rooney worked for a short time. She was young and hip and very good on the computer. Anna Shipway served out front for a short time. Then Susan Laycock took over at the front and was very friendly with the students. Cindy Irvin took over the administrative tasks and whipped everything into shape. She was very professional and organized and our campus began to feel a lot more streamlined with her there. Around 1999, we stepped up in our use of technology with the addition of Geoff Henderson. Always friendly and helpful, he assisted faculty and students alike.
The 1999 class sticks in my mind for some of the students who went on to work with us at Pacific later on. Debbie Miller became a teacher at Magnet Arts Elementary and was a mentor teacher for many of our candidates. Linda DeSpain taught English and went on to be a part-time teacher for us, as well as a supervisor. Karen Marashi went on to teach math and become a mentor teacher in middle school. Brenda Monroe taught at the Family School and was a mentor to many of our students. Mark and I also saw her just before she died when our graduate students joined her elementary school students at an outdoor education program, studying salmon. When Brenda died, in 2014, I happened to find copies of some of her papers that I had saved, which I sent along to her children.
That year, we also had a good-sized group of about 20 students working on their Standard Licenses.
Robert Christie was a much-loved student in 1999 who passed away a few years later, thus adding another plaque to our wall of remembrance.See Document: Christie.2001
In 1999, we had a part-time instructor named Laurel Waterhouse, a local SPED teacher who taught a class. Unfortunately, she died in an accident, and another plaque was up on our memorial wall. There were just too many around that time, but the losses seemed to make us feel even closer as a community. See Document: Laurel Waterhouse articles
Around 1997-98, we hired Jill Schwimmer, a reading expert with a big smile and sense of friendship and humor. Around 2000, Rose Mary Gray retired and we hired Michael Tanner. The standing joke was that when we hired new faculty, the faculty went to a restaurant with the finalists. We each, of course, ordered our own meals, but we’d share desserts. The joke went that we needed to do the “share dessert test” on new candidates. Michael did not approve of sharing desserts, so perhaps that was why he didn’t stay too long at Pacific.
The students in the ECE/Elementary cohort in 2000 were a memorable group. There were a record number of wonderful male students in the ECE cohort, all of whom went on to become master teachers. Interestingly, most of them favored alternative settings: Kevin Peck went onto a career in Bethel; Eric Bear was at Ridgeline Montessori; Eric Freeman was in Bethel and then helped get the new Camas Ridge program going and also taught Learning Communities for us at Pacific on a part-time basis; and Anil Oommen taught at the Village School for many years before we hired him at Pacific as a part-time and then a full-time instructor (see Section Four). Leah Kent was always a wonderful addition to any group and she went on to River Road. Jen Brito was always out-spoken and entertaining. Once, when Shelley Smolnisky was walking by his classroom, Bob said something about Shelley being in his dream the night before. Jen called out, “Bad visual!” and that became a catchphrase that was never forgotten. Brenda Waske was a young parent from the east coast, and Gina Wilde was a dedicated student who went on to become a principal in the area. Jody Sedlak was also in this group. She kept everyone involved, engaged, and positive, and went on to become a deeply-loved teacher in Springfield. Esther Takacs went on to marry another Pacific graduate. The secondary cohort was also fascinating that year, with world traveller Mike Saltz, gregarious Alicia McGraw (married to another Pacific student). Leah Dunbar (along with her twin sister Rena, an earlier graduate), went on to teach English in Eugene, and served as very entertaining guest speakers for one of our alumni events later on. Steve Connelly definitely spoke his mind and went on to be a wonderful middle school teacher. And Jamie Teran was always expressive and kept conversations hopping. There were more students, of course, who were important, fascinating additions to this year’s class. There was just something about the program around that year that shifted—we were well-established, we attracted the best and the brightest and most creative students, and we had a strong sense of community on our campus. Their good-humor can be seen in the student newsletter they entitled the Annual Exam. See Document: 2000 student newsletter.
In 2001, we had 69 students. Alan Merrill went on to assist with a digital project explaining School Law (a grant was obtained by Paula Wilkes and Nancy Meltzoff); his middle school class served as actors in the film. He later went on to work in the Indian Ed program at the Lane ESD and came back to be a guest speaker at Pacific.
In 2002, we were still large, with 56 students, among them Peter Hoffmeister, who went on to be a wonderful teacher, coach, and author, and the irrepressible Ahmed, Al-Sayad, who returned to be a guest speaker for us at an alumni event.
In 2002, Carla Gary, who was a guest speaker/part-time instructor for Learning Communities, wrote about what happened in one evening class that she had taught:
Wow, what a class. I continue to count my blessings for this phenomenal experience…. We did the exercise from McIntosh and it was really profound. XX noted during our conversation about the Tatum book and the reference to historical frames of reference and social anchors, profound life shaping experiences, identity formation, etc…that he had been mugged by two black guys and that he hated all black people, but his friends and family helped him to not let one incident determine how he felt about a group of people. I thanked him for sharing that and then asked him if he had been mugged by white people would he have said the same thing…he looked at me…and pondered just how absurd that sounded and everyone in the class just shook their heads no and got it, for at least that moment.
These years, 1998 to 2002, were extremely vibrant and exciting. We grew to our largest, where we served between 100 to 200 students each year, including all of our programs. We continued to add programs, to try new things, and to forge strong connections with the community and the local schools. We had the reputation as THE school to go to for teacher licensure in Eugene.