University of Portland Museum

Carolyn

Keeping the Beat: UP Pep Band

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The University’s commitment to music as an academic accomplishment and as a gift that enhances any event and every life is as old as the University itself (The Catalogue of the Academic Division, 1902 lists course offerings in Violin, Piano, and Voice).  A dedication witnessed here by the photos of the 1904 band members with sartorial ensembles ready to enliven concert halls and sports stadiums.

Columbia University Band, 1904 Click to enlarge photo
Columbia University Band, 1904
Click to enlarge photo
Columbia University Orchestra, 1904 Click to enlarge photo
Columbia University Orchestra, 1904
Click to enlarge photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 1930s and 40s Pep Bands in full uniform graced the fields of Multnomah Stadium for football games and marched on Broadway Street in downtown Portland for homecoming parades and pep rallies.   In 1943, the Pep Band, along with students, faculty, staff, gathered at Union Station to send off the University’s enlisted reserve.

Though none embodied the vitality of music so much perhaps as the legendary Philip Cansler (trumpeter, band director, enthusiast, keeping Portland Purple from wig to shoes; 1980-2007).   Today’s Pep Band supports crowd and teams at sporting events home and away.   The beat continues on.  Go Pilots!

KBVM 88.3 FM: 25 Years on Campus

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Before there was a dream of a River Campus, KBVM has been broadcasting from the Gulch since 1989.

KBVM Radio Station, 2011
KBVM Radio Station, 2011

A syndicate of Metro Catholic Broadcasting (MCB), Catholic broadcasting came to the Northwest in 1983, and the University of Portland in 1988 (the UP location was the suggestion of Auxiliary Bishop Paul Waldschmidt, C.S.C., our former president).  And so KBVM, named in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Catholic radio station stands today in the gulch between Physical Plant and Mehling Hall.  Ground broke for the KBVM radio station on February 28, 1988 and the building was completed the summer of 1988.   KBVM was dedicated and formally went live on the air in the Portland metro area on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1989.  Today, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Dedication, KBVM (88.3 FM) provides live recorded programming that includes Christian liturgical and sacred music; live interviews with Catholic clergy, including diocesan and Holy Cross priests, local and national speakers and musicians, religious groups, and organizations; prayers and devotions; Catholic news, and even Catholic sports updates.  KBVM’s signal can be heard from Vancouver to Salem and its sister station, KMME (94.9 FM, 100.5 FM), reaches listeners in Eugene, Springfield, and Cottage Grove.  Online audiences can follow KBVM anywhere at www.kbvm.fm.

 

Extended hours, Weekends and Late Night

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During the last weeks of the semester as students are occupied with research papers and final exams, the Clark Library offers extras study hours to ease student stress.

The Christie Hall basement was home to the University Library from the mid-1930s until 1958.   The MAIN ENTRANCE view was this door at the base of the stairs in the BASEMENT with library hours posted:  Open M-F 8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M. ; evenings M-Th 7:00 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. Sat 8:00 A.M to noon.

Christie Library entrance door, 1958
Christie Library entrance door, 1958

Brother David Martin, C.S.C., library director from 1927-1966, recalled the library space as a:

“large room [approximately 6000 square feet], lined with shelves on two sides.  There were about six or eight round tables covered with cloth and rather mangy looking, because they had been ink-stained.  Certainly not attractive.  There was a twelve-drawer card file and approximately 10,000 books.  Of those 10,000 volumes there were probably a couple of thousand that were either texts or other useless library materials.  There were no periodicals taken at the time ….  To complete the rather dreary look of the library, the floor was cement – bare cement.  No covering of any kind.  This however was to provide a kind of blessing in a way, because of the tremendous number of leaks which occurred over the years.  The water could be mopped up without any great trouble …. ” (A Point of Pride, pg. 75).

In 1958, Brother David’s dream of a library with ample space for study and services was finally realized.  November 30, 1958 marks the dedication of The Library.  Expanded in 1979, the library received major renovation in 2012-2013.  Today, the newly remodeled Clark Library boasts private study rooms, expansive windows, open space on all three floors, light streaming through work and study spaces, and, most importantly, user-friendly hours. (Particularly during finals week.)

For more pictures and history of the library, visit the Clark Library’s Digital Buildings Collection displaying images of photographs and objects of the library held by the University Archives and Museum (with descriptions from the Archives and Museum).

In the Beginning: Rev. John A. Zahm, CSC: Name-dropper, Promise Keeper

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Zahm Telegram ZGx3.42 1902
Zahm Telegram ZGx3.42 1902 (University Archives, click to enlarge)

It was Fr. John Zahm, CSC who was Provincial Superior when Archbishop Christie first looked to the Holy Cross community to provide staffing and leadership on the Bluff.  After a hasty survey visit to the Northwest in January of 1902, Fr. Zahm agreed to the deal, swiftly dispatched a team of priests and brothers, such that the new and improved Columbia University was in-session on the Bluff by the time of his second visit in December of that same year.  Speaking before the student body and guests, he pronounced that the school’s “future is secure and it is only a question of a few years before it would take the more foremost rank among the educational institutions on the Pacific Coast.  He announced that he had his architect working on the plans for a new Hall, and also on a new library building.  Schools of Law, Medicine and Technology will follow, he said, in a very few years.”

The report on Fr. Zahm’s reception and welcome appears in the December 1902 issue of The Columbiad, the precursor student publication of the BEACON.   The report concludes: “We trust that it was only the beginning of those happy occasions that will make Columbia known far and wide as the New Notre Dame” (volume I, issue 3, p. 47).

In 2014 the University of Portland, for the 20th consecutive year, received a top-ten ranking by U.S. News & World Report.  In the magazine’s “2015 America’s Best Colleges” issue, the University of Portland is ranked 8th out of 114 institutions listed in the “Regional Universities – West” classification.  So in the meantime, it seems as if we are doing quite well.

For further, see James T. Covert, A Point of Pride: The University of Portland Story, pp. 34-37.

Veterans’ Day Observance

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The Praying Hands monument on the quad near Kenna and Christie halls has been a place of care and observance since 1948.   A graduation gift to the school from the Class of 1948, the bricks carry the names of the dead from World War II.

Since 1987 cadets of Air Force and Army ROTC have marked Veterans’ Day by mounting a twenty-four hour vigil at the memorial. And this being Portland, keeping vigil rain or shine means lots of hours spent in the rain.

The Air Force cadet program (DETACHMENT 695) has been a part of the University of Portland since 1951.  In these historical photos from the University Archives, we see the cadets prominently standing as Honor Guard at the Praying Hands during outdoor Military Mass, part of Campus Day, a spring-time tradition and celebration (picnic, dance, balloon toss!).

Each year the cadets honor the fallen with a thirty minute service beginning at 11:11 a.m.

Doug Edwards in ROTC uniform.
Doug Edwards, ’67, 1963
ROTC members lay flowers at the Praying Hands memorial.
Praying Hands Memorial, 1990
ROTC members, faculty, staff and students gather at the Praying Hands Memorial for an outdoor Mass.
Military Mass, 1963
Veterans Day observance ceremony with student ROTC members carrying flags
Dedication of the Broken Wall Memorial, 1990
ROTC cadets standing guard around the Praying Hands Memorial.
Military Mass, 1961

TGIF – all-class

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In the Winter 1982 issue of the alumni bulletin there is a small promotional announcement: “A new U-Portland tie has been designed and is now available to alumni and friends in the campus bookstore.”  The tie is a stately navy blue, bearing the University crest, selling for a modest $9.95 — plus shipping and handling for mailing orders!  That first University of Portland tie was designed by Dr. James Covert, Professor of History and energetic herald of institutional Pilot-hood through his authorship of A Point of Pride, the authorized 75th anniversary history of the University of Portland.

Covert tie 1982
Covert tie 1982

Classing up residence hall life today in 2014, the men of Schoenfeldt Hall –  Scholars, Leaders, Bothers – are coming forward with fashionable frame and masculine sinew to champion personal pride and smart-appearance with the Schoenfeldt Bro-Tie.  Established in 2009, Padre residents strive to bring class to their class sessions, and so while eyes and shoulders may droop from weary toil by the end of the week, on Fridays the Schoenfeldt men’s outward appearance contrives to be spruce and bright as they head to classes (see top of page).  Behold how bow-tie and sweater-vests approximate outward signs of inner character!

Included in our slideshows below are images from the first weeks of the semester.   The smiling faces and easy comraderie also bring to mind an even older UP tradition – the much less stylish freshmen beanies.  (The 1969 LOG documents the last evidence of the practice; a selection of “preserved” canvas beanies is on display in the University Museum.)  In a practice dating back to the early 1950s, all UP freshmen – women and men – were required to retain their beanie head-wear from the beginning of term until the Sophomore-Freshmen tug-of-war in early October.  The Schoenfeldt bow-tie is advertised as sophisticated and stylish, completely voluntary; cool — and not at all socially awkward.  As the legendary Padre, Fr. Art Schoenfeldt, C.S.C., often said, Brotherhood, like family, is when no one else will have you!

Current Schoenfeldt student photos, courtesy Brock Vasconcellos, Assistant Hall Director; historical photos from the Log, courtesy University Archives and Museum

Orphan Holiday

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This October students host neighborhood children in the residence halls and the Chiles Center for Halloween fun.   The basement of Shipstad Hall, scary enough in normal times, is decorated as a Haunted House.  And Trick-or-Treat events are scheduled for monsters, princesses, and characters from Frozen (college students as well as visitors in costume) on Halloween Day.

The seed of these celebrations, from an earlier slice of time, is the annual Orphans’ Christmas Party.  From as early as 1948, University of Portland student run service groups sponsored and hosted Christmas parties for children from St. Mary’s Home for Boys (Beaverton) and Christie Home for Girls (Oswego).  The tradition was maintained into the 1960s by the Associated Women Students, bringing as many as 100 orphan children to campus each year for this holiday event.   Then, as now, the festivities were almost as much for those who give as for those who receive.

In Memory: Rev. Thomas C. Oddo, CSC (1944-1989)

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Fr. Tom Oddo, CSC served as the 17th president of the University of Portland until his death in a traffic accident, twenty-five years ago on October 29, 1989.  He was forty-five at the time of his death; a dynamic leader and in love with the University.  Four years previous, at the end of the fall semester sending the students home for Christmas vacation, he wrote of himself and the University.

Painting of the Oddo Memorial and descriptive text
Color painting of the Oddo Memorial
Father Thomas Oddo

October 26, 1936 – domainname.com

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University of Portland Archives, ZG X6 RECORD 26762; University of Portland: Historical and Legal Documents File Items, DOCUMENT #76 (click to enlarge)
University of Portland Archives, ZG X6 RECORD 26762; University of Portland: Historical and Legal Documents File Items, DOCUMENT #76
(click to enlarge)

On October 26, 1936 the University paid a sum of $600 to Mr. Mark Paulson for relinquishing his rights and claims to the name, “University of Portland”.

“No frogs were hurt for this demonstration . . .”

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One resident of the University of Portland’s History Museum in Shipstad Hall is a life-size, half-a-manikin in a trunk named Resusci Anne.   With resilient rib-cage and sturdy pipes, Anne has survived hundreds of nursing student trials toward cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).   Resusci Anne was manufactured in the 1960s by a Norwegian toymaker, Asmund Laerdal, and acquired by the UP School of Nursing in 1969. Current nursing students receive hands-on and real-life situation training in the School of Nursing’s Dean Terry Misener Learning Resource Center, a five-bed, state-of-the-art, model hospital and clinic dedicated on April 8, 2008.  Anne, fully recovered and honorably retired, receives visitors in the University of Portland History Museum each semester, in particular, students in Introduction to Nursing and Healthcare 101.   Today the new hard-to-injure interactive patients in the Misener Learning Resource Center include multiple male and female manikins, a pediatric manikin, 3 infants and a newborn, plus a top of the line high-fidelity sim man 3G, all computer controlled to simulate symptoms and behaviors in the Nursing environment.

Resusci Anne (1969), 2014
Resusci Anne (1969), 2014

Resusci Anne (1969) in case, 2014.
Resusci Anne (1969) in case, 2014.