Extra innings

Baseball seniors 2013

Noelle 2001

Eleven members of the Trinity University baseball team were honored in a special commencement ceremony on Monday, May 20, 2013. The seniors missed their regular commencement on Saturday, as they were participating in the NCAA D-III playoffs in Austin. The team had a winning season and it was a pleasure to participate in the extra ceremony. (Editor's note: I get great pictures as part of the platform party!)

The tradition of special ceremonies at Trinity dates back, in my era anyways, to Noelle Stockman (now MacGregor), who was ASR VP and a softball player. She is a regular reader of my blog too! She insisted that President Brazil do her honors under similar circumstances. That was in his office in the old Northrup. Nice tradition Noellie.

President Ahlburg was on top of his game at this year's ceremony, comparing himself to an umpire by calling the graduates "safe" after he conferred their degrees. He also suggested that the audience sing "Take me out to the Ballgame" rather than the Alma Mater. Not bad for an Aussie who loves Cricket.

Fifth Annual: The Year in Review - 2012-2013

As you will note in the section below ("Big Hurts"), I experienced some losses in a variety of dimensions this year. I playfully described the exodus of my friends and colleagues Raphael Moffett, Ben Newhouse, and Rick Roberts in a post in September (Breaking Bad). In that post, I included an application for new friends. Alumni Sponsor Jim Boelens, my son Nathan, and an anonymous person responded. So did the four students above. We had lunch in the Skyline Room last week. Turns out, they are all friends with one another and I am the newest cast member. So here's to my new BFFs Erin, Emily, Tyler, and Ben. And here is to another memorable year of highs and lows at Trinity University.

More regular posting to resume in the fall.

Top Stories

1. Bollard-gate
This story, about a closed road on inner campus, had legs from beginning to end this year. As with most things in relationships, it wasn't JUST about bollards and access. It was about students wanting to be heard and administrators looking long-term. And it was a flash point. (Guess who won.) A positive outcome was that new VP Gary Logan has added students to the master planning advisory committee for the future.

2. Fraternities and Sororities
Besides bollards, the reinstatement plans and ultimate return of four organizations also consumed a great deal of Trinitonian coverage. So did the blueprint for the future.

3. HOPE Hall
Students organized academic, service, and leadership components into a residential community to learn and take action on the issue of homelessness. This may be a perfect formula for future living-learning communities, as encouraged in the new strategic plan.

4. Tacos
ARAMARK surprised students with the announcement that local favorite - and nationally recognized - Taco Taco will have a satellite operation in the Coates Commons next year. Our dining program is evolving!

5. Construction
That it is still happening, and is winding down, is a story arc that may never be nudged from the top ten. CSI nears completion. Other projects are on the table (see "On the Horizon.")

6. Jurgens
Yes, a personal favorite of mine. The Dog Jurgens had a great run here, including a heart-warming 9/11 program with family members of hero Paul Jurgens. And she is set to graduate from bomb-sniffing school in late May before heading to her first assignment, one of the airports in Houston. Sniff.

7. APO
This was a tough one, as members of the organization engaged in personal and organizational issues fraught with blurry lines, connections, and emotionally charged - and messy - attempts at resolution. With lessons this learned we can all look forward to seeing this important group rebounding next year.

8. Staffing
Two new VPs (Gary Logan and Lisa Baronio), departures of CCI stalwarts (Moffett and Newhouse), and the promotion and hiring of new staff (Thompson, Polivka, Bovio) had far-reaching direct and indirect impacts on student life.

9. Strategic Plan, Curriculum, Activity Bock
A lot of talk, but not a lot of resolution. Yet what can matter more? So these things have to make the top ten. These should all be higher in the future as talk turns to action. Often complicated, occasionally contentious, frequently controversial, and laced with compromise, these issues will set our direction for a long, long time. No sleight at number nine, but watch for a big jump in the next two years.

10. Skyline Room
Renovation of this space has moved the dining program refurbishment closer to completion. Tacos by August, CSI menu by January, more Commons changes are on the horizon.

Hits
All Things Trinity (a fun tournament style game of Trinity favorites)
Sherlock Gnome (a broken mascot breaks and is replaced, and cleverly renamed)
ASR (amazing how money brings power - and nice job to the officers and senators!)
Trinitonian and TigerTV (outstanding student communication laboratories and products)
TU license plates (haven't seen many yet, but feels like we are in the big leagues)
Bell Center Bandit nabbed (locker room thief gets chased down by TUPD)
 
Misses
Tattoo column (big fuss about so little - nice save Trinitonian. I thought the President was being whimsical, topical, and trying to discuss a student-oriented topic. Last time he will do that...)
Put Yo Hands Up (lots of money for a punch-line Mr. Hype-man)
On-line gossip sites (rude, anonymous, crass, short shelf lives...)
Men's conference (the miss is that it didn't happen this year - future in question)
Drug Dog (no Jurgens, this dog, brought into the dorms, made an impression none-the-less)
Lectures (low attendance means soul-searching, incentives, and accountability for the future)
Skyline (liked by many, disparaged by more, great potential...)
Monte Vista (concerns may have some merit - or not, but we are SO lovable)
Tower bells (with all of our high-tech, people missed the bells when they were shut down for repair)

Under the Radar
Career Services changes (new direction and additional staff in the future)
Drugs and laws (students hearing conflicting messages with medicinal exceptions and legalization)
Presidential Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll (over 100,000 hours... it has become common place now. POP goes the bubble.)
Playboy condoms (could we be any tackier? Maybe HH can sell them in person at the POD in his jammies and robe.)
Trinity Food Project (HOPE Hall move over - the Trinity Food Project is coming)
Tower lights (yes, I control the special occasion lights with my iPhone)
Leadership awards (a favorite event, personally, reinforcing how much better than me our students really are)

Big Hurts
Sheena (loss, tragedy, heartbreak, impact, and grief)
Chris (alumnus, friend)
Legends (Trinity was built by many great people)
Jurgens (tough to say farewell)
Nutmeg (our 12-year-old golden, lived her last year in the shadow of puppy Jurgens. We lost her April 2 and miss her dearly.)
My friends (see photo, above)
Brian Hirsch (Career Services director says farewell next week - thanks for everything Brian!)

On the Horizon
Web page (look for a new Web and marketing presence)
Fire lane and inner campus walkway near Magic Stones (it will be so cool)
CSI (opens in full in January. Had a tour and it is spectacular!)
Chi Delta Tau teams up with Yellow Cab on new safe-ride debit card program
Coates (look for a more student-friendly lobby in 2014)
Lectures (swipe, get points, get something... ideas?)
Winn Witt (summer renovation means all first year and sophomore college buildings will be recently renovated)

Archives
Year 4
Year 3
Year 2
Year 1

Bonus tracks
In case you missed it, here are some other topics I got to write about this year. Trinity is rich with material:
Inspiring student
Cool Coach
Trinity in the movies
On Belonging
On Falling

The Harder We Fall

Chris

I'm ready now. To post on this topic, I mean.

I haven't been, since November. That's when I learned that a Trinity alumnus named Chris jumped to his death in Mexico. His parents broke it to me. I didn't remember Chris as a student in the mid-1990's. I met him, officially, in the spring of 2011. That's when he showed up on campus a bit down on his luck. Members of the Student Affairs division and some other kind souls on staff reached out to him and tried to help.

Chris and I became friends. He had issues, but he was kind, funny, indignant, and easy to talk to. Especially about sports. And he didn't want to show up on my blog some day. So I will say little else, except that we made a bet and it turns out we both won - technically. Instead of cashing in on my lunch, I cashed in in a different way. His parents made two generous donations for me to disburse to other alumni who might one day show up to campus needing help. They are gracious, even in their grief.

When a first-year student, Sheena, took a similar path last month I wasn't ready, again. I didn't know her as a student either. Her actions were just as jarring, though. They shook the whole campus community. Like Chris, she has a grief-stricken and gracious family. They probably don't want her to be on my blog any more than Chris wanted to be. So I will say little else.

Reverend Nickle asked me how I was handling Sheena's death. He knows my mom killed herself when I was a college student. That event defined me for some time. I talk about it freely now because I have a soft spot for college students who lose a parent. But that was a LONG time ago for me (over 30 years). The deaths of Chris and Sheena didn't bring my parental past back up as Rev kindly worried. It did bring up what happened to the lovely Melisse Buland in 2006. And this year has been more of the same.

I'm sad. And I guess I'm never ready when we lose a member of the Trinity family.

We all want to tie things up neatly somehow. "Look out for one another..." "Get help for yourself..." "Get help for others..." "Pay attention to signs..." This community does all that. And it is really difficult to keep stats on the lives saved. I suspect - thanks to the care extended by faculty, staff, students, and parents - that the number of students helped would be incredibly high. But those numbers we speculate on are over-shadowed by the concrete number of losses. There is no ambiguity with those. With Chris and Sheena, they were determined, if not impulsive. And that is a dangerous combination.

I vacillate, honestly, about how I feel about suicide. In some ways, one has to feel such despair, such pain, and such hopelessness, that suicide seems like the ONLY option. How can any of us judge. On the other hand... Why not give the rest of us a chance to help? Why not wait a day? Because lost in their own turmoil is one certainty: When others fall, we fall with them.

In the end, we are left to wonder - because we have lots of  unanswered questions. We don't know - with our Melisse's, Chris's, and our Sheena's - if we could have made more of a difference. We wonder if sometimes pain plus determination equals utter helplessness. In these few cases, perhaps there was nothing we could have done. Maybe that makes it easier to bear. Or worse, maybe harder.

Day Break

Administrative Assistants from Student Affairs start their day with a homemade breakfast!

To celebrate Administrative Assistants Day, the Student Affairs Directors hosted the annual divisional breakfast at the home of first lady Penelope Harley on April 24. The breakfast break has become an annual tradition in which the directors cook breakfast and the other staff members serve and clear in order to turn the tables on our wonderful Administrative Assistants.

Members of  each department said a few words about their beloved and thanked them for their hard work, their efforts to make our jobs easier, and their excellence in how they serve our students. We are lucky to have (pictured above) Ruby, Lisa, Cecily, Sam (first row), and Maureen, Judy, Minerva-lous, Amy, and Carolyn (back row standing) on the Student Affairs team. Thanks for all you do!

Director-level staff serve up some good eats for the staff on April 24, 2013.

Inspired by tragedy: Chelsea Lately

Anthony, Chelsea, Joyce, and Cory Castillo

On April 5, Chelsea Castillo (Class of 2013) received the National Alumni Board Service to the Community Award. She was also recognized the next day at the Honors Convocation as part of Spring Family Weekend. It was a privilege to meet Chelsea's outstanding, courageous, and gracious family. I know a little about Chelsea and sent her some written questions for this post. I was blown away... and can't do any better than she did. Here are excerpts from Chelsea's responses:

My sister’s name is Chloe “Belle”, she would now be 13- she was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma on her 7^th birthday, June 12, 2006 and passed away two days shy of her 9^th birthday, June 10, 2008.

Though we are 8 years apart in age, she really was one of my best friends. 

Since Build-a-Bears were her favorite toy, she decided, while spending one Christmas in the hospital, that she wanted to buy a Build-a-Bear for each patient on the oncology floor who had to be there for Christmas as well. She created an event at Texas Children’s Hospital called Chloe’s Wish, inspired her Child Life Specialist to create the organization Legacy of Love, and won theheart of future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, who significantly facilitated our efforts to raise over $60,000 donated to Texas Children’s Hospital. This has become an annual event for my family at Texas Children’s hospital and has expanded. We now give over 100 bears each Christmas to the oncology floor and clinic in Houston.

My family’s effort to make our lives, while on the horrible roller coaster ride that follows a cancer diagnosis, as normal as possible definitely prevented us from slipping into despair (which can easily happen when regularly spend weeks in the hospital) and maintained our hope, strength, and integrity as a family unit - in the fight together.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve as Program Head of TUVACs Cancer Awareness group for the past 4 years and, with the growing support from my peers on campus, we’ve been able to expand this event to San Antonio’s Children’s Methodist Hospital.

When I was in kindergarten and asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I drew a stick-figure doctor with a stethoscope and what appeared to be a superhero cape. I still have this drawing and it also helps me remember two things: That there was never any hope for me becoming an artist and that I’ve wanted to be a doctor as far back as I can remember.

My experience with Chloe’s illness did solidify the type of doctor I want to be, both in regard to the specific field and in how I treat the patients, their families, and other health care professionals I am surrounded by on a daily basis. 

I feel like through indescribable lows that my sister endured as she battled for her life, as a child who should’ve been found swinging from monkey bars rather than becoming ill from toxic chemos an watching as strands of hair would fall out from her head, she remained a light, an inspiration, and a vessels of God’s pure love through her continuous and selfless compassion for others.

This inspires me day in and day out to attempt to do the same. She is absolutely an inspiration and example of how I think I should give 110% each day, without excuse, in investing in and serving others.

I have witnessed more incredible kids than I can count on my fingers succumb to their illness because despite the impressive technologies, resources, and knowledge that we currently have, there is still no cure. This reality definitely fuels my passion for the research aspect. My friends are often surprised that I do lab work because I am quite extroverted and research many times involves hours of isolation under a hood, staring at a flask of cells essentially. I admit that I think this would be incredibly boring and laborious if I didn’t have the faces of children who had battled Neuroblastoma, the specific cancer that I am currently working with, ingrained in my mind.

I started my research on childhood cancer last summer at the Greehey Childhood Cancer Research Institute, associated with UTHSCSA, have continued it through this school year, and have recently received a stipend to finish my work this summer. I am dedicated to finding a cure for this disease, but I am also very passionate about working with the children who continue to battle for their lives now. The MD that works in our group gives me hope that I can do both as a doctor.

My sister’s selfless love and service was definitely contagious and I think it’s a way that I am able to keep her legacy alive.

Other highlights (in addition to Chloe's Wish, TUVAC, Greehey Research) from Chelsea's resume:
- Camp Periwinkle: serves as counselor at a week-long camp for children with cancer
- Periwinkle Foundation: serves as volunteer with childhood cancer patients using therapeutic art projects
- Trinity University Chemistry summer research: potential applications in cancer treatments
- American Association of Cancer Research: presented research

- Cancer Research Institute: Best poster on micro-RNA in pediatric cancer
- UT-Austin Summer Research Symposium

Tennis Tables

One of two tables presented to the Tennis program in April. An identical table from the women's team was included.

I always made a point to take my sons to the San Antonio Spurs' opening night games in the seasons after each of the team's four championships. I wanted them to see the banners hoisted so one day when they took their kids to games they could say "I was here when they raised those banners." Then the Spurs moved from the dome to the AT&T Center and someone decided to hang different banners. Then they did it again. This makes me think they don't understand the point of hanging banners. At least we aren't the Lakers, thank goodness, and for a number of reasons.
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When I was a lad... Every Christmas season I looked forward to visiting the Kooky Cookie House at the outdoor Capital Court shopping mall in Milwaukee. In that mechanized faux cookie bakery house, children would wait in line to see Santa while watching a robot and gingerbread men bake cookies. Of course it was just an illusion, but I believed the cookies were being made right there, though clearly it was a lie. (Rows of fake cookies were on looping conveyor belts: Think the background animation in a Flintstones cartoon.) Several years ago - probably after eating gingerbread, I did a search to see if the Kooky Cookie House was still a "thang" for the youth of Milwaukee. Well, it was disassembled and apparently is sitting in a barn somewhere in Wisconsin. A sad ending for those in my nostalgic generation.
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In 2011 the tennis courts and stadium renovations were completed on the Trinity campus. Living in our campus residence next to the south campus courts I was surprised to find the metal 2000 championship signs/banners left in a scrap heap near the end of my driveway. Apparently the new digs would get freshly updated championship signs, and the old ones were being trashed. I knew students on those dual national championship teams and remember the elation of people on campus when Trinity University captured two national titles in different cities on the same day. Dual titles is a rarity in any college sport.

Given my feelings about the Spurs championship banners AND given the unsavory fate of the Kooky Cookie House, I had to act. Or felt compelled to, anyway. So I dragged the signs up the driveway where they sat for several months, to the delight of my lovely wife, Donna.

I feel a connection to the tennis program, here, because Coach Butch Newman once allowed Donna and me to audit his tennis PE course. We were always at the losing end of the challenge courts, but had a great experience anyways. (Side note: Chi Beta April Ancira was in the same class with us.) Before each class Coach Newman would give the class a pep talk and connect life lessons to tennis. He was a motivator (though not good enough to motivate us up the challenge court food chain). Coach was a star here in the D-I hey-day and has been the foundation of the D-III program since the 1980's.He is beloved.

I decided it would be appropriate to make a gift "gesture" toward the tennis program and Butch Newman, on behalf of Student Affairs, by having the signs crafted into multipurpose tables to be used at the new pavilion. I was able to secure capital equipment funds for $1,000 - the minimum - for tennis tables, which I think people thought were table tennis tables. So the funding was approved. I don't know if the tables would have been funded had I given a proper description.

Finally, the Facilities Services staff hauled off the signs and colleague Jim Baker oversaw the transformation from rubbish to tables, which was done by Charlie Naranjo (welder) and Joe Dominguez (painter). They did terrific work (and under $600 total), turning the old signs into something lasting and usable. In my brief presentation (below) to the tennis teams and staff, set-up by current men's Coach Russell McMindes, I was able to offer some ribbing to Coach Newman for trashing the original signs.

He just laughed at me in the self-deprecating way he does. I think he liked the tables and was impressed with the work of the Facilities staff. In hindsight, I may have even nudged him to regret tossing the old signs in the first place. It seemed clear to him, he said after all, that one man's trash is another man's treasure: In this instance, it's the same man.

Coaches Russell and Jacob McMindes and Butch Newman call the team together for a brief presentation of two tennis tables on April 6, 2013, prior to a match. Also in attendance were Athletics staffers Bob King and Seth Asbury.