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Women’s First: Engineering

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Nun in black habit using surveying equipment
Sr. M. Hildegarde, O.S.B., 1957

One picturesque, often employed image used by the University Museum shows a nun in full habit posed behind surveying equipment, with the caption “First woman to enroll in the School of Engineering”.

The juxtaposition claims a viewer’s attention. Who is this nun? And what brought her to UP?

She is Sr. M. Hildegarde, O.S.B. (Order of St. Benedict), enrolled as a student in the School of Engineering from the Fall of 1956. Beacon reporter Linda Wright profiled Sr. M. Hildegarde for an article published April 5, 1957. Originally from New Zealand, Sr. Hildegarde obtained a master’s degree in history there and then went on.  And on.  Around the globe.

There is a list of places, but not of whens in this life-story: the article mentions that she studied at several universities, located in Canada, the United States, London, France. Her home convent is in Normandy, France, though she studied art and was trained as a teacher in Australia.

For a three-month period during World War II, Sr. Hildegarde was detained by German forces as an enemy alien on French soil.  She was soon released because she carried an Australian passport.

After the war, appearing here in 1956; that is, sometime during those ten years Sr. Hildegarde made her way from her Normandy convent to the western United States, to Portland and her enrollment at UP, to pursue a degree in architecture which involved a surveying class (and the photo above!), as well as other coursework.

The picture is great; and likely too colorful and too perfect.  Taken together with the backstory of a New Zealand, MA (History), French, Benedictine, Australian concentration-camp-survivor, art-teacher, engineer-architect nun, the whole story appears almost too good and too complicated to be true.  The gaps in Hildegarde’s itinerary suggest how both the picture and the biography have been posed, partially staged for effect.  But as a marketing photo-op—still irresistible!

Asked her own opinion about her possible publicity-function, Sr. Hildegard is nun-ishly modest, telling The Beacon how she “didn’t care for it because it distinguishes me from the others.”  And yet, on the contrary, The Beacon reporter concludes: we think she is a remarkable credit and most interesting figure, deserving of recognition on our campus.

Taste of UP for Families

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Museum Display at Junior and Senior Family Dessert Social on November 1, 2019
University Museum Display, Junior & Senior Family Weekend, Beauchamp Recreation Center, November 1, 2019 (click on image to enlarge)
Parents and students viewing the Museum display.
Parents and students viewing the Museum Display (click on image to enlarge)

The first (annual) Junior & Senior Parents Weekend was 1-3 November 2019.  There was food, there was a soccer game, there were Q & A’s with the President and School Deans, there was a social flavor to the whole event.  A new and old initiative by the office of Alumni & Parent Relations.  In fact, celebrations sharing the campus and the students’ campus experience go way-back.  Junior Parents’ Weekend became an institution running 25 years, from 1994 until expanding in 2019-20 into two separate events; Junior & Senior Family Weekend in November, First-Year & Sophomore Family Weekend in February.

The University Museum was invited, setting up at the Beauchamp Recreation & Wellness Center for the Welcome Social.  Over 1,000 in attendance throughout the weekend – mixing, mingling, proud as Pilots. 

Campus Picnic from 1934
Campus Picnic 1934
(click image to enlarge)
  • Old Time Picnic, 1934
  • Junior & Senior Family Weekend Invitation, November 2019

See the entire schedule of Events & Activities planned by the Dads and the Mothers Clubs in 1936 in the Clark Library Digital Collections: https://up.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16472coll10/id/312/rec/39

Prophecy and Visions

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University of Portland Bulletin, Fall 1949 (click to enlarge)

In the 1940s and 1950s many Humanities majors harbored Law School ASPIRATIONS. Liberal Arts universities can suffer out-sized ambitions too. In the years immediately following World War II, as response and answer to the needs of returned Veterans, surging enrollment had the University of Portland dreaming big dreams. The 1949 State of the University Address promised both a Law School and a School of Engineering. Fr. Bob Sweeney, C.S.C., who in the next year was to become the 12th University President, proposed how it would only cost $5 million to right-size the campus. Taking that 70-year old Five-Year Plan as a Wish-List / Check-List, there is still no Law School.

The Engineering Building did in fact open in 1949 (it was already under construction as these promises were made); and we got the free-standing library in 1959– no football program though. More recently, the ‘Aged Building’ housing Engineering received a 2009 face-lift, and today in 2019, the University of Portland Shiley School of Engineering is ranked 26th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. The University of Portland keeping the promise and the vision by providing innovative programs and facilities to meet the needs and challenge the minds of the current 4000+ student body (a total larger than the 1950 alumni mailing list!)

  • Engineering Building, 1948
  • Shiley Hall, 2009

Additional links:
UP Press Release, September 10, 2019

The Quadrant, 1949 – Engineering Building Dedication Issue

Related Museum blog post “Founding Visions”

Museum blog post: End of Football

The Bells Are Ringing

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Bell Tower Dedication with Archbishop Vlazny, September 2009
Bell Tower Dedication with Archbishop Vlazny, September 18, 2009

The classic timepiece with hour and minute-hand worn around the wrist has all but disappeared. Replaced by multi-function cell phones, activity trackers, and smart watches that not only tell time but record steps, spent calories, heart-rate, and more. And while subjective-time differs according to setting and activity (crushing a weight machine in the Beauchamp or walking the mind through a series of axioms in Calculus), on the UP campus, standard, objective, shared time is announced by the digital reader board at the corner of the Chiles Center, by the six-foot clock adorning the new Dundon-Berchtold Hall, and the resonant notes of the Bell Tower carillon standing proud beside the Chapel of Christ the Teacher. With fourteen bells — each named and baptized and with its own distinct musical voice– The Bell Tower chimes the hour and quarter-hours from 9 to 9 and sounds a call to prayer for Sunday and the daily noon Masses. Observing a ten-year anniversary, dedicated September 18, 2009, the Bell Tower is our tallest structure at 106 ft.; a landmark at a crossroads where faith, academics, and student life intersect.

Related post:
https://sites.up.edu/museum/hours-and-bases/

Also, Clark Library Digital Collections

2019 Retiring Faculty

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At the end of the 2018-19 academic year, four members of the University of Portland faculty will retire after many years of service to this institution and making a difference in the lives of untold numbers of students.  The University gives thanks to our retiring faculty for their dedication and commitment to teaching and learning and wishes them all the best.

Dr. Russell Butkus, Theology & Environmental Studies, at UP since 1985
Marcela Cinta, International Languages and Cultures, at UP since 2007
Susan Hinken, Library, at UP since 1980
Dr. Mead Hunter, Performing and Fine Arts, at UP since 2012

(Photos from the University Archives, Clark Library, Marketing & Communications, Performing and Fine Arts, International Languages and Cultures; Click on image to enlarge)

 

Additional photos on display in the Buckley Center first floor display case across from the Studies Abroad office.  

Brushes with Fame: Buzz Aldrin

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Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon, July 1969 (NASA photo)

Fifty years ago during the summer of 1969 human-space flight reached, and humans walked on, the surface of the moon.  The next year we scored the SECOND person to walk the lunar trail as UP commencement speaker.  Not Neil Armstrong, but Buzz Aldrin spoke to the 1970 graduation class, commissioned the new AFROTC cadets, and left us inspired.  Astronaut Edwin Aldrin served as Mission Specialist on the Apollo Eleven craft that landed on the moon 20 July 1969.

Alumni Bulletin, July 1970

University President Rev. Paul Waldschmidt, C.S.C. and 1970 Commencement Speaker, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Alumni Bulletin, July 1970

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Alumni Bulletin, July 1970

 

Commencement Speech by Buzz Aldrin, Alumni Bulletin, July 1970

 

 

 

Buckley Center at 50

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Buckley Center, West Side, ca1990
Buckley Center, West Side, ca1990

Buckley Center is fifty years old, dedicated February 7, 1969.

When new, Buckley Center met a major need on the UP campus for faculty office space, general-use classrooms, and nursing and communications labs.

The Alumni Bulletin (January 1969) touted the advantages of the new faculty and classroom building, “a modern facility in every sense of the word“, including fresh features like:

AIR-CONDITIONED 400 seat auditorium …
the newest audio-visual equipment…
the most up-to-date nursing apparatus…
three psychology instruction rooms equipped with two-way mirror glass…
the language laboratories, the radio and TV laboratories…
and study rooms and seminar rooms look more like a board room…. and [where] students and professors may study Shakespeare or Buber, whatever the class may be, around polished tables, surrounded by formal arm chairs, or colorful posture chairs. … Variety abounds!
                                                                                                  … a total of 92,1187 square feet.  It’s big!”

Plastic-molded desk chairs will always have disputed chiropractic effects, but The School of Nursing’s Learning Resource Center, has continued to grow in space and clinical sophistication, and Buckley has come to house student services such as The Shepard Academic Resource Center and The Learning Commons.   As a result of changing with the times and adapting to student needs, even at age fifty Buckley Center remains a positive contributing factor in the University receiving high national and regional rankings for the quality and value of the student experience in our community. 

 

For more photos and memorabilia associated with Buckley Center, visit our display case on the first floor of Buckley Center across from the Studies Abroad Office.

Also, Clark Library Digital Collections

Four Corners meet at the Center

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Día de los Muertos invitation postcard, 2018

A University is a cross-roads and intersection.  We mix intellectual disciplines in Schools of Business, Engineering, Nursing, Education, Arts and Sciences and hold to core competencies in the education of every student moving forward toward a University of Portland degree.  We also mix and meet a diversity of students.  The life-experiences and the family, geographic, national traditions encountered among the student body and faculty – in the people of our campus community – are diverse and enriching.

Implementing the University’s Vision 2020 Strategic Plan, a new academic unit was formed this summer, The Office of International Education, Diversity, and Inclusion.  One of its first initiatives, a new Diversity Center – a nurturing, inclusive, safe space for all members of the University Community – was dedicated in September 2018.

Alumni Bulletin, January 1948, p. 11

Enrollment analysis for the 206 students of 1918-19 records 2 Peruvian plus 8 international students drawn from Canada.  In 1938-39 the count is 117 non-Oregonians of a 795 total; in 1958-59 the 1434 students include 257 drawn from 8 countries beyond the United States (where Hawaii is still part of an outsider demographic in 1958).

Cultural diversity within the student body population has been part of UP for years.   And for years and years student clubs and organizations have sponsored programming on campus to introduce and celebrate awareness of our cultural differences.  From International Week (every November, from 1963), The Hawai’i Club’s annual Lu’au (in the spring, since 1974), to Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

Día de los Muertos altar, 2007

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) was first organized on campus in 2005 by the students of UP’s Foreign Language House and Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish Honors Society).   The holiday expresses the Catholic holy days of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day from a particular cultural tradition.  Our students observe Día de los Muertos with the creation of a traditional altar display where personal objects, photographs, and food honor and remember deceased loved ones.   The day-long celebration also includes displays of artwork and a fiesta with food, music, and dancing. 

Click image to advance through the slide show

[Show thumbnails]

 

Videos of previous Día de los Muertos celebrations (from The Beacon)

2016 – http://www.upbeacon.com/multimedia/7459

2017 – http://www.upbeacon.com/multimedia/9814

Dr. Art Schulte: A Life on the Bluff

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Dr. Art Schulte, arrived in 1958, appointed Instructor in Business Administration; retired 1996, appointed Executive Vice President Emeritus and Special Assistant to the President.  A good and faithful servant.

Dr. Schulte receiving the Culligan Award from Rev. Richard Rutherford, C.S.C., 1990
Dr. Arthur Schulte, Dean of the School of Business, 1965
Dr. Art Schulte & Rev. David Tyson, C.S.C. University President, 1992
John Goldrick, Dr. Schulte, Rev. David Tyson, C.S.C. President, Roy Heynderickx, Br. Donald Stabrowski, C.S.C., Tony DiSpigno, 1996
Dr. Schulte with students, 1967
Dr. Schulte as Financial Vice President, 1971
Front: Bob Fulford, Dr. Schulte, Louis Masson, Rev. George Bernard, C.S.C.; Back: Mike Johnson, Bob Duff, Richard Harris, Mauro Potestio, Nick Bauman, Manuel Macias, 1987
Dr. Arthur Schulte, Acting President, 1981
At the Renaming of West Hall to Waldschmidt Hall, 1992
Dr. Schulte and University President, Rev. Paul Waldschmidt, C.S.C. move Columbia Hall, 1976
Dean of the School of Business, 1967
Alan Timmins, ’81, Robert Pamplin, Dr. Art Schulte, ca1980
Dr. Schulte and Robert Pamplin, Jr.
University President Rev. Thomas Oddo, C.S.C. and Rev. George Bernard, C.S.C., Hal Westby, Dr. Schulte, Guy Sievert, 1986
Art and Ruth Schulte, 2003

In Memory: Dr. Arthur Schulte, Jr., March 15, 1928 – September 24, 2018

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100 Years of Service to UP: Dr. Manuel Macias, 34 years; Dr. Arthur Schulte, 34 years; Dr. James Covert, 32 years in 1992

Dr. Arthur A. Schulte, Jr., died September 24, 2018 at age ninety in his sixtieth year as a Pilot. Which is not to say that his priorities were strange, though there is a hint of madness topping the list when asked in 1998 how he would choose to be remembered and Dr. Schulte confessed:

“Well, I’d like to be remembered as a man who loved the University and the people he worked with, as a man who worked and prayed each day for the University’s success. As a man who worked hard to keep the University’s progress as a whole in mind, and bent all his efforts to making it secure so it could grow safely and responsibly.  As a good steward of the Church I loved.  As a father who loved his daughters deeply.  And as a husband – a good one, I hope, but there you’ll have to ask Ruth. God blessed me with Ruthie.  Or that I used the tools God gave me to make the University better than it was when I started.  I helped the place change for the better, I hope.” (Portland Magazine, Spring 1998)

In truth, that hope was full and realized.  Dr. Schulte’s work earned him the University’s highest faculty honors and national recognition for his scholarship.  And also the University’s trust, twice steering the University in crisis times, appointed Acting President following the resignation of Brother Raphael Wilson, C.S.C., and once more after the tragic death of Rev. Thomas C. Oddo, C.S.C. in 1989.  In fact, he served as Executive Vice President for 25 years in total, from 1971-1996.

Therefore, very much a good-steward as in the quotation above, but remember those words were delivered in the Alumni magazine, and large heart is able to answer more than one duty.   Dr. Schulte’s family also earned the full devotion of a full heart.  And after their children were grown two Schulte scholarship funds were established at the University assisting a new and expanding generation of the Pilot family learning, living, and growing at UP.  From 1996 to date, the Dr. Arthur A. Schulte, Jr. Endowed Scholarship and the Tessa Ruth Schulte Endowed Scholarship funds have provided a helping-hand for nearly eighty students attending UP.

Gallery of photos from the University Archives