Dana Wespiser has a special connection to the Alumni Association. Like eight other financially needy undergraduates, last fall Wespiser received a $2,500 scholarship funded by the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund. "The scholarship made a difference to me financially and personally," Wespiser says. After graduation, instead of loan repayments, "I might be able to afford to buy my daughter a new coat, not a used one, or enroll her in gymnastics classes, things that other people just take for granted."
Pursuing her educational goals has not been easy for Wespiser, a single mother who receives no child support. "As an AFDC recipient, I'm always looking back at the media stereotypes of welfare moms," she says. "Winning this scholarship lets me know that not everybody has that image." Her hard work has paid off with an A.A. degree in history from De Anza College, membership in the college's honor society, and admission to the university.
At UCSC, Wespiser has a double major in history and literature, focusing on Spanish history, literature, and culture. She has received encouragement from her professors for her work, in particular, her study of Sephardic Jewry and Spanish culture, which has led her to the fascinating assertion that a clandestine Passover seder may be depicted in Cervantes's Don Quixote.
As she mulls over her future and considers graduate school, Wespiser appreciates the alumni whose scholarship support "gave me a buoyancy I really needed."
Donations to the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund build an endowment
for future generations of financially needy students like Wespiser. Thirty-three
AASF awards, totaling more than $60,000, have already been made, and over
$240,000 has been contributed by alumni and other campus friends. Checks
payable to the UCSC Foundation with a notation "Alumni Association
Scholarship Fund" are gratefully accepted by University Advancement
at the Carriage House, UCSC, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077.
l-r: Gatua Mbugwa, Florentina Dobrin, Karim Simplis and Jason Alessio are among
the nine undergraduates who received 199697 $2,500 Alumni Association
scholarship awards. Not pictured
are Mie Kim, Christopher Le Mon, David McKague, Jeanette Rector and Dana Wespiser. (photo:
Victor Schiffrin)
jnw | 11/10/10
Every year for most of the past decade, John Laird (Stevenson '72) has spent two days--of vacation time and at his own expense--at the annual University of California Legislative Conference. "The issues we read about in the papers are issues we lobby about at the conference," he says. "Affordability and fee increases, access for students who qualify, the expansion to a tenth UC campus, affirmative action: All those things are on the table when we are lobbying."
The conference is a joint project of the UC system's nine alumni associations. Participants attend briefings by top UC officials and legislators--even, in some years, with the governor. A small handpicked group of alumni then meets with legislators in their offices.
"Last year," says Laird, "I heard a legislator tell a non-UC group that the UC Legislative Conference is a model of how good lobbying is done. The UC delegation that visits the legislator might include an individual who worked on his campaign, a neighbor down the street, and someone from a business he patronizes. A few years ago UC had me visit Terry Friedman, then a legislator; he and I were antiwar activists together 25 years ago!"
This year's conference is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, April 14 and 15. All interested alumni are encouraged to attend and to personally influence the California legislature's support for UC. For more information or to get involved, contact the UCSC Alumni Office locally at (408) 459-2530; toll-free at (800) 933-slug; or via e-mail at alumni@ua.ucsc.edu.
John Laird (Stevenson '72), former mayor of Santa Cruz,
works as a budget analyst for Santa Cruz County.
Alumni, current and prospective students, their families, and all friends
of the campus are invited to visit UCSC for Banana Slug Spring Fair on Saturday,
April 19. This year's campus open house features reunions, tours, lectures,
and exhibitions. Alumni highlights are listed below. For more information,
contact University Advancement at (800) 933-SLUG or locally at (408) 459-2501.
For the latest information, access the following Web site: www.ucsc.edu/intro/bssf.html.Here
are some alumni highlights of the upcoming Banana Slug Spring Fair:
Alumni journalists and other writers are invited back to campus to share their insights with students and each other on Friday and Saturday, April 1819. Panels will address such topics as "Covering the Big Story" and "Is There Life after Daily News Writing?" Contact Roz Spafford, Kresge College, UCSC, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077 or rozl@cats.ucsc.edu to get involved.
The Class of '77 will celebrate its twenty-year reunion with an evening of conversation, dancing, and reminiscence.
The all-class reunion luncheon is the keystone event for all alumni.
The classes of '67, '72, '77, '82, '87, and '92 will be honored.
Mary Holmes, art history professor emerita, will be the focus of a celebration at Cowell College, including a lecture, an exhibition of her work, a reception, and festivities commemorating her teaching at UCSC from 1965 to 1977.
Every college will host a reception. In addition, Cowell will hold its annual evening waltz; Porter will host a celebration of Asian culture; Oakes will hold an awards ceremony; and Merrill students will paint the moat.
Special reunions are also planned: a celebration for mathematics
majors with emeriti faculty Ralph Abraham, Al Kelley, Ed Landesman, and
others; a picnic for classics majors; and gatherings for the Oakes Class
of '76 and the Cowell Class of '72.
At Banana Slug Spring Fair 1996, Frank Drake, research professor
of astronomy and astrophysics, lectures on recent progress in the
scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligent life;.
The all-class reunion luncheon attracts a huge crowd of alumni.
Sherry Drobner (left) and Deborah Lott laugh over their
classmates' submissions to the "memory book" at last year's
Class of '76 reunion.
Art history professor emerita Mary Holmes will be the subject of a
day of events at Cowell College during Banana Slug Spring Fair 1997.
(Photos by Greg Pio)
It sits in a dusty box at the back of the closet or shivers on a cobweb-covered shelf in the garage. It's your commencement program, the brochure or booklet that lists your name and the names of those who graduated with you, describes the commencement speaker whose words of wisdom or folly sent you into the world beyond UCSC, and gives other information from your graduation day.
The Alumni Association is building a commencement program archive. All alumni are invited to participate by donating original copies of these documents. The association's goal is to create a complete archive, including original commencement programs from the colleges, Graduate Studies, and African American, Chicano-Latino, and Native American graduation celebrations, as well as programs from chancellors' inaugurations and other historic campus events.
Programs may be sent to the Alumni Office at the Carriage House, UCSC,
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077. For more information, call
(408) 459-2530 (locally) or (800) 933-SLUG.