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The Magazine of San Diego State University
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Summer 2005
San Diego Story. The unique synergy between San Diego and San Diego State.
A Gwynn-Gwynn Situation. Tony and Anthony Gwynn both love baseball--and SDSU.
The Universal Scientist. When disciplines converge, researchers collaborate.
One Singular Sensation. Musical theatre hopefuls polish their acts.
360
The Magazine of San Diego State University
(ISSN 1543-7116) is published quarterly by
SDSU Marketing & Communications and
distributed to members of the SDSU Alumni
Association, faculty, staff and friends.
Editor: Sandra Millers Younger
Associate Editor: Coleen L. Geraghty
Editorial: Colleen DeLory
Graphics: Lori Padelford, John Signer
Cover Photo: Joel Zwink
SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY
Stephen L. Weber
President
DIVISION OF UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT
Theresa M. Mendoza
Vice President
Allan Bailey
Chief Financial & Information Officer
Jack Beresford
Assistant Vice President
Marketing & Communications
Jim Herrick
Executive Director, Alumni Association
Kim Hill
Associate Vice President, Development
We welcome mail from our readers.
Please submit your comments to:
360 Magazine
Marketing & Communications
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego CA 92182-8080
Fax: (619) 594-5956
E-mail: [email protected]
Read 360 Magazine on-line at
www.sdsu.edu/360
Volume 12, No. 2, copyright 2005
San Diego State University
Postmaster:
Send address changes to:
Information Services
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego CA 92182-8035
Opinions expressed in 360 Magazine are
those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily represent the views of
the university administration nor those
of The California State University Board
of Trustees.
Member, Council for Advancement and
Support of Education (CASE)
Features
8
San Diego Story
Linked by history and destiny, San Diego and San Diego
State University benefit from a singular synergy.
By Sandra Millers Younger
360
Departments
Horizons
14
A Gwynn-Gwynn Situation
Inner Space, Outer Space
4
Tony and Anthony Gwynn share a dedication to
baseball–and SDSU.
By Sandra Millers Younger
Global Security
6
Philanthropy
22
26
The SDSU Alumni Center
30
The Universal Scientist
When disciplines converge, researchers collaborate.
By Coleen L. Geraghty
One Singular Sensation
With ev’ry move that they make, musical theatre students
grow as scholars and performers.
By Colleen DeLory
Horizons
First published Fall/Winter 2003
Academic Excellence
Inner Space, Outer Space
Exploring the Micro and the Mammoth
The observatory, the only facility of its kind in the California
State University System, operates under a special-use permit
from the U.S. Forest Service, which recently challenged SDSU to
increase accessibility for visitors with disabilities. As a result,
the telescope will become more usable for students as well.
By Coleen L. Geraghty
In film and fiction, university science labs are often depicted as soundless, sterile
chambers tucked away in some deserted corner of campus and permanently off limits
to the public. Get real.
San Diego State’s core scientific facilities are bustling hubs. Thousands of students,
faculty and private researchers stream through each year, working individually or on
group projects. A degree of disorder is part of the equation.
“The issue is enabling people to look through the telescope
if they’re unable to climb the ladder,” explained Paul Etzel,
astronomy department chair and the observatory’s director. “We
can’t lower the telescope; it needs a certain range of motion.”
Two of these facilities are about to become even more user-friendly. With new equipment and improved computer interfaces, SDSU’s Electron Microscope Facility and
Mount Laguna Observatory will be more accessible than ever to undergraduates, other
CSU constituents and the general public.
Instead, SDSU astronomers envisioned a remote, computeroperated system that would allow users seated in the visitors’
center to control a modest-sized, 10-inch telescope by pointing and clicking on a graphic of the sky.
ATOMIC INSIGHT
A $390,000 grant from the National Science Foundation recently enabled the university
to purchase a new transmission electron microscope, as well as a high-resolution digital
camera to enhance the instrument’s operation. Motorized and computer controlled, the
new microscope can automatically collect images of a researcher’s sample during a stable, controlled rotation. The result: an accurate reconstruction of the sample quickly
captured, then displayed on a high-resolution monitor. Steve Barlow, who operates the
Electron Microscope Facility, is delighted. “No longer will we have to sit in a dark
room poring over a faintly glowing screen through binocular eyepieces,” he said. The
new scope is operated in dim light, not darkness, and the computer monitor displays
the image with considerably more contrast and better resolution.
NEW HORIZONS
“The solution opened up some new horizons for us,” Etzel said.
“We thought, why not extend that capability to our beginning
astronomy students? They’ve been using our campus telescopes
for lab classes, but the nights are usually too cloudy for good
viewing because of the marine layer. Why not set up computers
on campus with remote control of a Mount Laguna telescope?
Additionally, our undergraduate majors would have an
exciting tool to initiate their own research projects, which
would carry over to further research at Mount Laguna under
faculty direction.”
A second type of electron microscope, which scans the surface of samples rather than
transmitting beams of electrons through them to produce images, is also available in the
lab. Barlow will continue to use this instrument in his outreach work with Clear View
Charter School in Chula Vista. Through an existing cable hook-up between the lab and
the school, students can see their own pre-prepared samples of plants, insects, pollen,
sand and dust mites on a classroom computer screen linked to the microscope viewing
screen in the SDSU laboratory 14 miles away. The microscope operator controls the
focus and magnification, and a fixed camera in the lab allows students to videoconference with Barlow and other SDSU scientists.
A $60,000 grant from the O.P. & W.E. Edwards Foundation
will support a graduate student for three years to develop the
remote system and help upgrade the existing 40-inch telescope’s control system, among other duties. Etzel predicts a
day when newer and larger telescopes at Mount Laguna will be
controlled over the Internet. Eventually, the link could be
extended to all CSU campuses where astronomy is offered.
Tom Scott, dean of SDSU’s College of Sciences, applauds the
university’s advances in exploring both inner and outer space.
“For most of human history, our inquisitiveness about the natural world has been limited to what our senses could convey
and our minds imagine,” he said. “In rapid succession, about
400 years ago, came the invention of the microscope and the
telescope. The Electron Microscope Facility and the Mount
Laguna Observatory are SDSU’s ultimate vehicles for informing people of what the micro and the mammoth worlds hold.”
STAR POWER
About 40 miles east of the Electron Microscope Facility, at a dark site in the Cleveland
National Forest, San Diego State’s Mount Laguna Observatory also serves campus and
community. Its primary research instrument: a 40-inch reflector jointly operated by
SDSU and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Also on site are 24-inch and
16-inch telescopes for student, faculty and independent researchers, plus the 21-inch
“Buller Visitors’ Telescope,” donated by Reginald Buller for use by SDSU general education students, accredited school groups and participants in special public programs.
The general public may also join the Mount Laguna Observatory Associates for access to
special observatory events.
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SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
For more information, call 619-594-6182 or check online at
http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/emfacility/.
Photo: Anthony Nelson
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE
5
Horizons
First published Summer 2003
Academic Excellence
PALPABLE ENTHUSIASM
The flexible and comprehensive nature of ISCOR seems to
appeal especially to nontraditional students. Of the 120 or
so enrollees in the curriculum, many are ROTC cadets or
international students. Others are pursuing degrees after
years in the work force.
Global Security. Addressing international
issues demands big-picture perspective.
By Coleen L. Geraghty
But all share a common characteristic – a palpable enthusiasm for a program that, in the words of student Leonie
Wichert, “is at the same time broad and diverse and very
specific and particular.”
Choose an academic program that best reflects San Diego State’s
distinctive assets – its diverse international population, its esteemed yet practical
academic offerings, its extensive community outreach – and that program might well be
ISCOR, the study of International Security and Conflict Resolution.
In addition to completing classes, ISCOR students must
write a thesis or serve an internship in a government or
private agency involved in international security or conflict
resolution work.
Unique within the California State University (CSU) system, San Diego State’s ISCOR
program takes a multidisciplinary approach that also distinguishes it from international
relations and global security programs at most other universities. This broad perspective
was ISCOR’s hallmark from the start, notes David Johns, professor emeritus of political
science and the man credited with shepherding ISCOR along the thorny path to
CSU approval.
Most students choose the internship, which becomes the
culmination of “a highly practical education in the field
of world affairs,” says ISCOR adviser Allen Greb, In 20032004, study abroad will also become a mandatory component of the program.
“In the mid-80s, a number of us at SDSU became concerned that our academic disciplines
were too narrow,” Johns recalls. “A student could not examine the international picture by
majoring in history or political science. We needed something outside the existing
disciplines that took account of human rights, of globalism, of environmental issues and
of international organizations.”
INTERNSHIPS
For her internship, Wichert, who is from Germany, spent
a semester in Washington, D.C. with the Atlantic Council
of the United States, a nongovernment organization that
promotes constructive U.S. leadership and engagement in
international affairs. She intends to work in Washington
before returning to school for a degree in human rights
and international security.
Johns, with physicist Alan Sweedler, biologist Roger Sabbadini and political scientist
Dipak Gupta, envisioned a program spanning three colleges: Sciences, Arts and Letters,
and Professional Studies and Fine Arts. It seemed an unorthodox approach to many.
“People thought it was ridiculous to involve three colleges,” Gupta says. But the founding
board was adamant. “How can you expect a historian to teach about anthrax?” Sabbadini
asks. “We knew that to address international security issues, we had to draw from a
variety of disciplines.”
SDSU alumnus Hunan Arshakian is now secretary of the
Foundation to Support Humanitarian Programs, the San
Diego-based organization he joined as an ISCOR intern.
Fluent in five languages, Arshakian helps the foundation
implement social projects in Russia with funds from the
Departments of State and Commerce.
INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
ISCOR students take four core courses, supplemented by classes in a wide variety of
disciplines relating to one of three specializations: global systems, environment and
security, or cooperation, conflict and conflict resolution.
Edwin L. Hom is one of many ISCOR students who
interned at the San Diego Mediation Center. After graduation, he applied for a job with the center and is now an
alternative dispute resolution specialist.
Jeffrey McIllwain, director of the program, is currently planning a fourth specialization
in homeland security, which he believes will be unique in the field. “I see SDSU becoming
the intellectual capital of this emerging discipline,” he says. “We could be the beta site
for scholarly analysis of changes that occur in the name of homeland security.”
With each graduating class, ISCOR students bring to
the work force a genuine understanding of world affairs
coupled with a commitment to conflict resolution. Reflecting
the success of a multidisciplinary program pioneered by
San Diego State 20 years ago, these assets could not be
more relevant in today’s world.
Already, ISCOR instructors often adapt course material to address events with ties to
global security and conflict resolution. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack, for
instance, lecturer Lisa Maxwell scrapped her next few lesson plans and invited students
to express their personal reactions to the event. “It became a lesson in how to facilitate
difficult issues,” she says.
6
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
Photo: Anthony Nelson
7
First published Spring 2003
San Diego at the dawn of the
21st century is at once diverse
a n d s i n g u l a r, a n amalgam of
native Californians, f r o s t - b e l t
refugees and global-village
expatriates—San Diegans all.
And all touched daily by the
permeating influence of San
D i e g o S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y.
San Diego Aztec
Influence
Story
S o m e 8 8 , 0 0 0 o f S D S U ’s
200,000 living alumni have
City of Hope
B y
S a n d r a
M i l l e r s
Yo u n g e r
Like all good stories, the story of San Diego springs from
relationships between characters, perhaps none more
influential than the interaction between a young town and
a tiny teachers’ school that grew into San Diego State
University. Over a span of 106 years, San Diego and San
Diego State have evolved together, enriching individual
lives and building a human infrastructure strong enough
to support a growing metropolis.
Today, the resulting synergy permeates countless
conversations, decisions and endeavors, in every sector
of commerce, at every level of society. Linked by history
and destiny, the San Diego region and San Diego State
University have forged a dynamic interdependence,
each strengthening the other, and together creating
a greater whole.
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The City Heights Collaborative
Some 30 years ago, the San Diego community of City
Heights offered hope of a new life for thousands of immigrants, many fleeing oppression. But the aging neighborhood slipped into poverty and despair, its 72,000 residents
struggling against crime, illiteracy and unemployment.
The situation troubled San Diego philanthropist Sol Price,
who launched a community renewal effort and in 1998
challenged SDSU to help revitalize education in City
Heights. The dual mandate: instructional improvement
for students and professional development for teachers.
Funded initially by an $18 million grant from
Price Charities, San Diego State responded with
the City Heights K-16 Educational Collaborative,
a partnership with San Diego City Schools, the San Diego
Education Association, plus teachers and parents.
SDSU now manages three City Heights schools, while also
providing on-site teacher education leading to credentials
and master’s degrees. With test scores, attendance and
teacher retention already improving, City Heights is
once again looking toward a brighter future.
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE
9
chosen to remain in the region,
investing their talents, their
knowledge and their energy
h e r e . C o n s e q u e n t l y, i t i s
impossible to live in San
Diego without benefiting
f r o m t h e e ff o r t s o f A z t e c s .
Yo u r c h i l d ’s t e a c h e r. Yo u r
b a n k e r. Yo u r C PA . T h e
reporter who brings you
the news. The engineer who
inspected your office building.
The police who patrol your
neighborhood. The military
personnel who ensure your
freedom. The artists, performers and sports stars
who entertain you. The
owners and managers of
your favorite stores, hotels
a n d r e s t a u r a n t s . Yo u r c i t y
c o u n c i l m e m b e r, c o u n t y
s u p e r v i s o r, s t a t e a s s e m b l y
representative. Any —or all —
could well be SDSU alumni.
“ We a r e l e a d i n g t h i s entire
county, from the middle l e v e l
to the upper level,” says
Dipak Gupta, SDSU professor
of political science.
In economic terms, San
D i e g o S t a t e ’s c o n t r i b u t i o n s
to the San Diego region
run wide and deep, both
through expenditures and
jobs generated.
as health clinics and cultural
enrichment, from KPBS to
student musicals.
But equally important are
t h e u n i v e r s i t y ’s n o n m o n e t a r y
contributions, including laborforce education; knowledge
t r a n s f e r, v i a f a c u l t y / s t a ff
consultants and regionally
focused research; and
community services, such
More than 50 years ago,
Lowell Davies of the Old
Globe Theatre wrote to then
S D S U p r e s i d e n t Wa l t e r
Hepner about “the worth of
intellectual training rippling
out into many fields from
a n e d u c a t i o n a l c e n t e r. ”
Global Think
Heart and Soul
The International Business Program
The SDSU Heart Institute
From its ideal location on the Pacific Rim, just next door
to Mexico, San Diego anchors a region poised for success in
an era of growing internationalism. Increasingly, the work
force here must possess not only professional skills, but
global savvy.
SDSU is answering this challenge, building worldwide
educational partnerships and multiplying international
learning opportunities. The most comprehensive of
these initiatives is SDSU’s undergraduate international business program, one of the biggest and best,
offering the nation’s No. 1 study-abroad program.
More than 750 SDSU students are currently pursuing the
international business degree, a rigorous academic endeavor
demanding internships, regional studies, study-abroad
credits and foreign language proficiency in addition to the
typical business coursework.
SDSU also offers several transnational degrees, including
the nation’s first triple-degree program, requiring coursework at partner universities abroad.
International business program chair Steven LoughrinSacco sees such opportunities as crucial to developing
international perspective among San Diego’s future leaders.
“You can’t make them global if you keep them local,”
he explains.
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SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
“What Davies wrote then
r e m a i n s t r u e t o d a y, ” S D S U
historian Raymond Starr
o b s e r v e s . “ T h e u n i v e r s i t y ’s
existence has been inexorably
linked with the growth and
development of the community
since its inception.”
Here are three examples:
Coming together from both campus and community, a
growing number of San Diego’s health professionals share
a common passion: to eliminate cardiovascular disease, the
No. 1 killer of American men and women. More than 40
of these individuals also share an affiliation with the
SDSU Heart Institute.
Organized in 1999, the group comprises faculty, staff and
students from four of SDSU’s seven colleges, along with
several prominent San Diego-area physicians and scientists.
This interdisciplinary blend of talent has created “a research
powerhouse,” says Christopher Glembotski, institute director,
professor and chair of SDSU’s biology department.
Attracting more than $5 million in external grant funding
for 2001-02, Heart Institute researchers are engaged in
analyzing the molecular basis of cardiac disease, developing
gene therapies for its treatment, establishing new means of
prevention, and teaching the public, including schoolchildren,
the ABCs of healthy hearts.
What’s more, SDSU’s entrepreneurial approach to
research enables faculty to fast-track their discoveries
directly to the public through campus-based ventures.
Biology professors and Heart Institute colleagues Roger
Sabbadini and Judith Zyskind have each launched companies
based on their research. Sabbadini’s Medlyte Inc. is working
to revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of coronary
disease. And Zyskind’s Elitra Pharmaceuticals, now a part of
Merck, is developing a promising new breed of antibiotics.
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 11
Joint Venture
San Diego’s earliest civic leaders
realized it from the beginning.
Their little town would need a
university to become the city of
their dreams. They started small
in 1897, establishing the State
Normal School of San Diego, a
teachers’ college.
It wasn’t much, just a few rooms
over a downtown drugstore,
but it provided the homegrown
educators San Diego needed to
nurture future citizens, while giving city boosters and developers a
selling point. ”Education makes
property valuable,” explained real
estate mogul John D. Spreckels.
Spreckels was more perceptive
than he knew. Over the next
century, San Diego would grow
from a tiny seaside settlement
into the nation’s sixth-largest
metropolis, its rutted dirt streets
and clapboard storefronts morphing into 12-lane freeways and
shining skyscrapers, its tiny
teachers’ school evolving into San
Diego State University.
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SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
Now a comprehensive urban campus of 34,000 students, SDSU
is recognized by the Carnegie
Foundation as a “doctoral/
research university-intensive,”
a designation granted to only the
top 6.7 percent of the nation’s
institutions of higher education.
In a very real sense, the city and its
first university grew up together, each
providing at every turn the support
the other needed to take the next step.
As San Diego matured, San Diego
State reinvented itself time and again
to meet evolving regional needs.
Expanding academic offerings,
strengthening the faculty, upgrading
athletics programs, establishing satellite campuses, initiating regionally
focused research — San Diego State
paralleled the city’s trajectory through
a period of explosive growth. By 1986,
serving a population of 1 million, San
Diego’s Normal School had become the
nation’s 10th-largest university.
Along the way, customized curricula
helped advance the city’s key industries, first aerospace and, recently,
technology and hospitality. Special
initiatives met regional crises. In
the early 1990s, for example, SDSU
responded to military and aerospace
downsizing with a comprehensive
Defense Conversion retraining
program. Since Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist threats have triggered a
wide range of sophisticated homeland security initiatives that partner
SDSU researchers with civilian and
military specialists.
Entering the 21st century, San Diego
State University remains committed
to its threefold mission of education,
research and service — and to goals
set in 1997 as part of the Shared
Vision compact initiated by
President Stephen L. Weber. Moving
toward these benchmarks, SDSU is
distinguished by:
• Academic excellence:
More students than ever are applying
to SDSU, and they’re bringing better
qualifications as admissions criteria
become more selective. In 2002,
faculty brought a record $140.4 million in research grants and contracts
to the university. And all across
campus, you’ll find top-flight
departments, such as international business, No. 12 in the
nation, and entrepreneurship,
No. 20, as ranked by U.S.
News & World Report.
• Vibrant diversity:
On the Mesa, student and faculty
demographics reflect an unwavering
commitment to diversity, confirmed
by independent rankings that placed
SDSU No. 10 in the nation for bachelor’s degrees awarded to minorities.
• Wise cultivation of
r e s o u r c e s : Private giving to
SDSU has jumped dramatically
in the past three years, hitting
$52.7 million in 2001-02,
a target attained by only a
small percentage of universities
nationwide.
• Learning-centered
community involvement:
Beyond labs and classrooms, students
gain knowledge through real-world
experiences, such as tutoring innercity school children, interning for
San Diego-based businesses or monitoring regional ecosystems.
• Global opportunities:
More than 180 international
exchange partnerships offer studyabroad experiences in 40 countries,
some leading to transnational
degrees. Many of these opportunities
exist within the international
business curriculum’s study-abroad
program, recognized in 2002 as the
best in the nation by the Institute of
International Education.
A number of innovative town/gown
partnerships are combining these
objectives. Countering effects of a
nationwide nursing shortage, for
instance, SDSU Nurses Now has
enabled the School of Nursing to
expand enrollment by hiring additional nursing faculty with funds
contributed by area healthcare
organizations.
Similarly, industry donations
helped launch two new academic
programs — Hospitality and
Tourism Management and
Construction Engineering
Management — to produce homegrown leadership in those fields.
And community partners led by
QUALCOMM Incorporated have
helped fund the Entrepreneurial
Management Center (one of eight
NASDAQ centers of excellence
nationwide), which reciprocates by
returning business professionals
to the local start-up sector.
These stunning success stories
may well presage a new paradigm
of interaction between San Diego
State University and the region
it serves, continuing a tradition
begun long ago in a humble classroom above a downtown drugstore.
Sandra Millers Younger is editor of
360 Magazine.
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 13
First published Fall 2001
A
GWYNN
GWYNN
-
SITUATION
T
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SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
Baseball legend
Tony Gwynn and
his son, Anthony,
share a passion
for the game
and SDSU
By Sandra Millers Younger
PHOTO: JOEL ZWINK
ony Gwynn talks proudly about the day
he smacked a low line drive past second
base and became the 22nd player ever
to accumulate 3,000 major league hits. But
the pride in his voice has nothing to do
with his own astonishing accomplishment. Tony Gwynn is much
prouder of his son, Anthony
Keith Gwynn Jr., who wasn’t
even in Montreal that
day, Aug. 6, 1999,
to see his father
make history.
Anthony, then 16,
could have been there, would
have loved it. Earlier that
week, he had traveled to
St. Louis with a contingent of 40 Gwynns and
friends, all hoping to witness the big moment. But the St. Louis series
ended one hit shy of the record books, and
Anthony Gwynn was out of time. He had commitments elsewhere, promises to keep – to
others, to himself and to the game he had
already come to love as much as his father did.
Anthony had been invited to play in the Area
Code Games, a showcase of the nation’s top
high-school baseball talent, staged especially for
college and professional scouts. Held that year
in Long Beach, it was an opportunity no serious
aspiring player, not even the son of a baseball
legend, could afford to pass up. So with his
father poised on the threshold of history and
the rest of his family en route to Canada,
Anthony Gwynn headed home to California.
Tony Gwynn sees that decision as a turning
point, the moment Anthony proved he had
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 15
A Gwynn-Gwynn Situation
16
absorbed his father’s lessons about
baseball – and life. Lessons about
the value of discipline, effort and
consistency, about the direct relationship between commitment and
success. In short, the legendary Tony
Gwynn work ethic.
“Oh yeah, definitely,” Tony says of
Anthony, now a sophomore centerfielder at San Diego State. “I am
extremely proud. Especially from
that moment on ... I ended up getting
the hit; he ended up seeing it on TV.
But he had things he had to do, and
from that point on, he’s really done
everything basically on his own. He’s
done it through hard work, perseverance and dedication.”
To Tony Gwynn, dedication is
everything. Gwynn fans call it loyalty.
They point to Tony’s remarkable 20
years in major league baseball, a
career studded with hard-won
superlatives, yet spent in one city,
with one team. They mention Tony’s
strong family ties; his lasting marriage to his childhood sweetheart,
Alicia; his many quiet acts of generosity and community service. Most
recently, they talk about his coming
retirement and his well-publicized
desire to return to his alma mater
and continue the legacy of his mentor and friend, Jim Dietz, as head
SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
PASSING THE TORCH
Tony Gwynn realizes some people will never understand why he
wants to coach college baseball, just
as some will never understand why
he spent his entire career with the
San Diego Padres, making millions
less than so many show-me-themoney free agents.
This is a man, after all, who has
earned eight National League batting
titles and five Gold Gloves for fielding
excellence. This is a player hailed as
the best hitter of his generation, a
player with a lifetime batting average
of .338 – better than .300 every season for the last 18 years.
This is a man with more hits to
his credit than all but 15 of the
15,000 men who have ever played
major league baseball. He is a player
destined to join the likes of Ty Cobb,
Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Stan Musial,
Ted Williams and Hank Aaron –
giants enshrined in the National
Baseball Hall of Fame in
Cooperstown, New York.
With a record like that and financial security to boot, Tony Gwynn, at
41, could go anywhere, do anything,
or do nothing at all. Yet he is brimming with reasons why he wants to
coach for SDSU.
“One is, a lot of things that have
happened to me as an adult happened because I came to San Diego
State,” he begins. “The second thing
is that in my profession, you always
feel like you
have to give
back. And I can’t
think of a better
place to give
back than my
alma mater,
where I learned
a lot of things I
needed to learn
about being an
adult, a baseball
player and how
to live my life.”
Now, he says, he feels driven to
share those lessons, to show other
kids, just as he’s shown Anthony,
how to work toward realizing their
dreams. Some Gwynn watchers think
Tony’s encyclopedic knowledge of
baseball, his quick and easy banter
and his infectious laugh make him a
natural for sports broadcasting. Others peg him as a future major league
coach or manager. Tony disagrees.
“[Major-league coaching] was
never something I wanted to do,” he
says. “I’ve always wanted to go back
to either college or high school and
pass on the knowledge that I’ve
learned. To me, it’s going to be more
rewarding to help other kids get to
where they want to go than it would
be to help kids who have already
gotten to the professional level.”
In particular, Tony wishes the
kids in the baseball program that
launched his career drew the recognition he feels they deserve. “You
kind of get tired of all the other
schools getting the attention,” Tony
says. “If there were anything I could
do to bring that kind of prestige to
this university, as compared to USC
or UCLA or Pepperdine, or whoever,
I thought that was going to be more
rewarding than it would be to just go
home and live off the money I’ve
made playing baseball, you know?”
Listening to Tony Gwynn talk
about San Diego State makes it clear
that he loves the
place. So clear it’s
contagious. “Hearing Tony talk
“A lot of things that
have happened to me as
an adult happened
because I came to
San Diego State.”
— Tony Gwynn
TONY GWYNN
PHOTO: JOEL ZWINK
baseball coach at San Diego State
University.
PHOTO: JOEL ZWINK
The Gwynn family, 1991:
Tony, Alicia, Anisha and Anthony
Tony in his Aztec days.
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 17
people wrong.”
PHOTO: JOEL ZWINK
TONY GWYNN
— Tony Gwynn
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SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
GOOD BYE, MR. PADRE
When Tony Gwynn announced last
June 28 that 2001, his 20th season
with the Padres, would be his last in
professional baseball, there was no
joy in San Diego, a city that idolizes
the man they call Mr. Padre, even Mr.
San Diego. John Moores explains
why. “Tony Gwynn is the Padres for
much of San Diego and rightfully
should be,” he says. “It will always be
very unusual to contemplate a player
sticking with one club for 20 years.”
But neither was there any real
surprise. Multiple
knee surgeries over
the past few years
and a troublesome
hamstring injury
early this season
had sidelined San
Diego’s favorite son
far too often. The
handwriting hung
heavy on the walls
of QUALCOMM
Stadium.
Adding to the
speculation was
Tony’s surprise
announcement following SDSU’s head
baseball coach Jim Dietz’s May 29th
decision to retire after next season,
his 30th with the Aztecs. Not wanting
to put any pressure on the man who
“set the table” for his success, Tony
had kept his coaching aspirations to
himself for years. But once Dietz
made up his mind, Tony lost no time
in speaking up. “When Coach Dietz
said he was going to retire in the next
year, that was kind of my golden
opportunity,” Tony says. “Instead of
just sitting back and being quiet
about it, I felt like I should shout it
to the world, ‘Hey, I’m interested in
this job.’”
The world shouted back. Most,
including Dietz, loved the idea. “I
think it’s wonderful,” Dietz says. “His
name alone would add a lot, not
only to the baseball program, but to
San Diego State.” But even Dietz,
who knows Tony as well as anyone,
wondered why a future Hall of
Famer would want to coach college
ball. “I asked him why – ‘Why do
you want to do this,’” Dietz says. “He
felt like this was his calling. And
when Tony says something like that
he really means it. I could tell by
looking into his eyes.
“Some people have a hard time
understanding,” Dietz continues,
“but that’s just the way Tony is. That’s
his loyalty to San Diego State and the
city. You don’t ask why. You just
applaud it.”
Tony’s enthusiastic bid for the
SDSU coaching job, reported nationwide with news of his retirement,
raised both hopes and concerns for
SDSU Athletics Director Rick Bay, the
man responsible for hiring Dietz’s
replacement. Clearly, Bay was excited
to find a baseball legend knocking at
his door. “We could
not find a better role
model, a better player, a better person
than Tony,” Bay says.
“It just doesn’t happen that a future
Baseball Hall of
Famer is interested in
coaching a college
team. I don’t think
it’s ever happened.”
But Bay has been
careful to temper the
excitement with reminders
that state institutions must
conduct a formal search
process. And though no
one doubts Tony Gwynn’s
knowledge of baseball, or
his genuine interest in
young people, Bay points
out that college coaches do bear
additional responsibilities beyond
teaching sports.
Tony isn’t worried about that. “I
really want to do my homework,
because it’s more than coaching,” he
says. “That’s the thing a lot of people
think I don’t have a grasp on already,
and I really do. I really know that it’s
a lot of administrative stuff, NCAA
rules you have to learn. There’s
recruiting, fund raising. There’s all
kinds of stuff.”
There’s also caring for the field at
SDSU’s handsome, 4-year-old baseball venue. Funded largely by John
and Becky Moores, it bears a familiar name: Tony Gwynn Stadium.
THAT PERSONAL CHALLENGE
Ask Tony Gwynn what he loves
most about baseball, why he keeps
training so hard, grinding through
rehab every day, scrutinizing videos
of himself and opposing pitchers,
traveling week after week when he’d
rather be home with his wife and
kids, and you’ll discover a thread
that runs through his entire career,
all the way back to his Aztec days.
“I love that personal challenge,”
he says. “Baseball’s a great game
because it’s a team game. But when
PHOTO: JOEL ZWINK
about SDSU reminded me of my alma
mater (the University of Houston),
and that was the trigger for my
involvement with the Athletics
Department,” recalls Padres Owner
and Chairman, John Moores, who
with his wife, Becky, has contributed
more than $30 million toward the
transformation of SDSU’s athletics
facilities.
A Gwynn-Gwynn Situation
“For me it’s always
been about proving
PHOTO: CHRIS HARDY/SAN DIEGO PADRES
Tony with Padres owner
John Moores
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 19
IN THE BEGINNING
Jim Dietz remembers those early
days of Tony Gwynn’s baseball career.
After coming to San Diego State on a
basketball scholarship, the young
young athlete was playing two sports,
somewhat at the expense of his baseball skills.
“Tony was very gifted in hand-eye
coordination,” Dietz says. “He had a
natural ability to hit. Everything else
was rusty and needed to be developed. But I just knew because of
Tony’s work habits [he would
improve]. Tony’s a stickler. If it isn’t
right, he’s going to try to fix it.”
Tony did fix it. Soon he caught
the eye of Jack McKeon, then manager of the Padres and a frequent visitor to SDSU, where his son, Casey,
also played.
“Jack came to watch practice,
and I think Tony caught his eye early
on because he was so darn consistent,” Dietz recalls.
With McKeon’s endorsement, the
Padres drafted Tony in the third
round of the 1981 draft. On that
same day, Tony also received a call
from the then-San Diego Clippers
basketball team.
Faced with a potentially agonizing decision,
Tony appealed to logic.
“It was really easy,” he
says. “If I was six-three, I
would’ve played basketball. I love basketball. But
being five-eleven, playing
in the NBA, I wouldn’t
have played as long as I
would have wanted to. I
A LOT OF GWYNNS
Moving up to the big leagues,
Tony encountered the same test of
dedication Anthony faced in St.
Louis. “I basically had come to the
conclusion that I’d played baseball
for seven straight years, but I never
really worked at it,” he says, “and it
was time to start working at the
game and trying to see how good a
player I could be.”
His timing, as always, was impeccable. Dietz recalls that the Padres in
those days “were going through
tough times. They needed prospects,
players able to move through the system with a very short time in the
minor leagues.”
Tony did that. “Sometimes it’s
just fate where you end up,” he says.
“It’s like my brother. My brother got
drafted by the Dodgers and never
really got a chance to be a big guy in
a big league, where I got drafted by
the Padres, and it was just a perfect
fit. I was in the right organization at
the right time. I got to move up the
ladder real quick, and a year later I
was in the big leagues.”
Tony’s major league brother,
Chris Gwynn, had also played for
SDSU, as well as the 1984 United
States Olympic team, and later joined
Tony in the Padres dugout. Today he
runs an inner-city baseball program
and scouts for the Padres. The
Gwynn legacy at San Diego State also
“I do things
a little bit
different.”
— Anthony Gwynn
TONY GWYNN
knew that baseball was a lot different, that it would be more productive. So I decided to play baseball,
and it’s worked out.”
PHOTO: JOEL ZWINK
you get in that batter’s box, it’s just
you. It’s just you versus the pitcher
and those seven other fielders out
there, and the challenge is to find a
way, not to beat him, but to have success. To me there’s nothing better
than that.”
Some sports lovers say all great
athletes share a single passion, a
need that runs deeper even than the
desire to win. Tell them there is
something they can’t do, and they
will make it a mission to prove you
wrong.
It was never the silver bats, the
gold gloves, the chance at a World
Series ring that motivated Tony
Gwynn. It was never the countdown
to 3,000 hits, the roar of the crowd,
the media spotlight. It was never even
the dream of Cooperstown. It was
something else altogether.
“When I was [Anthony’s] age,
people were always focusing in on
what I couldn’t do,” Tony remembers. “I didn’t hit with any power. I
didn’t have the greatest arm in the
world. Nobody focused in on what I
could do until I was already 10 years
into my career. All of a sudden, people kind of jumped onto the goodthing train, you know? So for me, it’s
always been about proving people
wrong.”
You would think that now, in the
twilight of a Hall of Fame career,
Tony Gwynn has silenced his critics,
that he feels the adulation of his public and just doesn’t care about any
remaining detractors. But you would
be wrong.
“Even at this stage in my career,”
Tony says, “after all I’ve done, it’s still
the same. It’s exactly the same.
People still say, ‘You’re too old.
You’re too fat. You can’t do what you
used to do.’ And for me it’s still the
same way; it’s still about proving people wrong.”
Continued on page 31
PHOTO COURTESY OF SAN DIEGO PADRES
A Gwynn-Gwynn Situation
Anthony, a sophomore, plays
center field for the Aztecs.
Tony and Anthony share
a laugh in the Padres dugout.
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SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 21
First published Spring 2004
The Universal Scientist
When disciplines converge, researchers collaborate
half-century ago, three
researchers jointly unraveled the
secret of life, and simultaneously
ushered in a new era of collaboration among scientists. Biologist
James Watson, physicist Francis
Crick and biophysicist Maurice
Wilkins received the Nobel Prize
in 1962 for their discovery of
DNA’s double helix structure.
In 2003, exactly 50 years after
their breakthrough, several hundred scientists working together
in the Human Genome Project
completed identification of the
30,000 or so genes in human
DNA – a collaborative effort of
enormous significance.
Without a doubt, collaboration
drives the sciences today. Leading
the way among research institutions, San Diego State University
supports extensive faculty collaboration and significant interaction
with local business and industry
to engender high-caliber education and research.
Tom Scott, dean of the College of
Sciences, noted that SDSU’s current faculty are not only more
involved in research than their
predecessors, but also tend to collaborate more. “They have larger
grants and projects that lead to
greater interaction and create a
scientifically rich agenda for students at all levels of education,”
Scott said.
proteins bind to
salmonella DNA.
San Diego State’s status as a collaborative research powerhouse
excites young faculty members
like Matt Anderson, a laser
physics professor who came to
campus three years ago from a
post-doctoral position at the
University of Rochester. His work
demands close consultation with
engineers and biologists.
“The shift to a research orientation is evident in the number of
grants we are getting and the
number of scholarly articles written by faculty here,” Anderson
remarked. “The newer faculty
would like to see even more
emphasis on collaborative research
to increase SDSU’s exposure in the
scientific community.”
Dozens of campus-affiliated
research centers now distinguish
San Diego State. The Heart
Institute, the Center for Microbial
Studies, the Immersive Visualization Lab, the Center for
Behavioral Epidemiology and
Community Health Studies,
and the Center for Research in
B y
22
SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
Ph.D. student Angel
Rivera examine how
Indeed, grant money awarded for
research within the College of
Sciences rose nearly 20 percent –
from $24,564,566 to $29,817,827
– in the four years from 1997-98
to 2001-02. And the number of
interdisciplinary projects funded
within the sciences is rising
as well.
P h o t o : t i m t a d d e r. c o m
A
Biology professor
Stanley Maloy and
C o l e e n
L .
G e r a g h t y
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 23
Mathematics and Science
Education (CRIMSE) are just a
few of the interdisciplinary centers led by SDSU scientists.
Construction of a five-story $13
million BioScience Center on
campus beginning this year
promises exciting new opportunities for cooperation within the
scientific community. The center
will house the university’s top
research programs, serve as an
incubator for community biotech
entrepreneurs and provide a fertile
training ground for students.
Collaboration beyond the sciences
took a step forward in 2002,
when the Center for Applied and
Experimental Genomics opened
as SDSU’s first multidisciplinary
research facility. Drawing faculty
from the colleges of Sciences,
Engineering, Health and Human
Services, Education and
Professional Studies and Fine Arts,
the center operates under the
direction of Stanley Maloy, biology
professor and president-elect of
the American Society for Microbiology, the largest such group
dedicated to a single life science.
First in California
SDSU is also a leader in the flourishing interdisciplinary field of
computational sciences. As biologists, chemists, physicists and
astronomers uncover vast amounts
of new data, computational scientists can create virtual models
of phenomena too complicated
to grasp in a single snapshot –
ocean currents and solar systems,
for instance.
The first of its kind in California,
San Diego State’s Ph.D. program
in computational sciences, offered
jointly with Claremont Graduate
“The shift to a research orientation is evident.”
— Matt Anderson
School, is collaborative by design.
Each student works with faculty
mentors from two separate disciplines on a problem that intersects both fields.
Computational sciences chair
Jose Castillo is also working to
integrate regional industry and
national science labs with campus research efforts. For a fee
of $25,000, organizations participating in the Applied
Computational Science and
Engineering Student Support
(ACSESS) program can use SDSU’s
computing facilities and may
elect to support graduate students or post-doctoral fellows in
researching specific problems.
Graduate student Brian Pitsker
looks for gene variations within
a group of genomes.
Perhaps the most ambitious curriculum for SDSU science students
positions them directly on the
business track. In a fledgling program funded by Invitrogen, Pfizer
Inc. and CardioDynamics, three
molecular biology Ph.D. candidates
are pursuing concurrent MBA
degrees. The program is a prodigy:
no other university nationwide
caters to students seeking a
research-based doctoral degree
combined with solid grounding
in business practices.
Science and business
The joint efforts of Dean Gail
Naughton in the College of Business Administration and Sanford
Bernstein, coordinator of the
SDSU/ UCSD joint doctoral program in cell and molecular biology, created this new opportunity
for SDSU students. Naughton,
herself a scientist-entrepreneur,
discovered an innovative way
to replicate human tissue, then
found financial backing to develop
and market the product.
But as chief operating officer of
the resulting company, she also
discovered rampant discrimination
against scientists in the business
world, in part because science
majors are not traditionally
trained to work in teams or to
assess the market potential for
their discoveries.
P h o t o : t i m t a d d e r. c o m
“When it came to making the
big decisions,” she recalled, “my
colleagues would say, ‘Don’t you
worry about that; you just worry
about the science and the patent.’
Yet it was clear from their decisions that they didn’t understand
the product, or how to improve its
manufacturing and marketing.”
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SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
A resolve to master the business
side of science led Naughton to
UCLA and an executive M.B.A.
degree. When she later came to
San Diego State, where 95 percent
of science graduates head straight
into industry, Naughton resolved
to offer them better preparation
for the real world.
“We realized we were doing our
students a particular disservice by
not providing them with business
training,” she said. Naughton sees
the new M.B.A./ Ph.D. program in
molecular biology as an important
step toward addressing that need.
Matt Giacalone, who earned a
B.S. in molecular and cell biology
at SDSU, enrolled in the joint
program as a springboard to starting his own business. His Ph.D.
dissertation will summarize his
applications-based research, while
his M.B.A. thesis will be a business plan based on his studies.
In the meantime, Giacalone said,
he’s already realizing benefits of
his dual-degree program. Through
his entrepreneurship classes, for
instance, he’s gained new insight
into supervising lab students.
“Our team is leaping ahead of
the others, and I can pinpoint
exactly what we’re doing right,”
Giacalone said.
But these days not all science
graduates headed for industry
feel compelled to obtain Ph.Ds.
The notion of capping a science
education with a master’s degree
is gaining rapid acceptance in
response to increasing industry
demands for scientists with broad
interdisciplinary knowledge plus
a firm grasp of business and management practices.
Filling this need are a range
of professional science master’s
programs, designed to deepen
scientific knowledge, while
introducing collaborative skills
like teamwork, problem-solving,
workplace ethics and communications.
Late last year, San Diego State
received a $185,000 planning
grant from the Sloan Foundation
to assess demand for an array of
professional science master’s programs in CSU colleges. The initial
grant will gauge both industry
need and student/faculty interest
in academic curricula encompassing cross-disciplinary fields such
as bioinformatics, forensic science
and biotechnology.
Masters of science
If there’s sufficient demand, said
Faramarz Valafar, an SDSU computer science professor who wrote
the grant proposal, Sloan is prepared to contribute more than $1
million to help finance 40 new
professional science master’s programs at 16 CSU campuses. “We
are the largest university system
in the U.S.,” Valafar pointed out.
“The Sloan Foundation realizes
that in one big bang, this could
reshape the future of science
education at the higher level.”
Reshaping science education to
a contemporary agenda in which
researchers of every ilk collaborate, and academia joins with
industry to enhance technological
development – this is the era of
the universal scientist.
If you would like to learn more about
plans for the BioScience Center,
please contact [email protected].
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 25
First published Fall/Winter 2003
One Singular
Sensation
B y
C o l l e e n
D e L o r y
With ev’ry move
Photo: Ken Howard
S D S U ’s m u s i c a l
theatre students
grow as scholars
and performers
Photo: Joel Zwink
Suddeth in “Beehive.”
26
SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
two minutes into the Broadway
production of “Dreamgirls” and
continued weeping throughout
the show. A performer since the
age of four, she had acquiesced
to her parents’ request that she
“please not take theatre” at college and was studying business
instead. But during this fateful
trip to New York, she realized
she had to follow her heart.
Flash forward 10 years. Colleen
herself appears on Broadway in
“Sunset Boulevard,” a moment
she describes now as an out-ofbody experience. “I could hardly
take in that something I’d wanted to do since I was a little
girl was actually happening,”
she says.
This is the world of musical
theatre – where dreams come
true and stars are born. Where,
from the first notes of the overture, the audience is swept into
a world exploding with color,
motion, drama and song. And
it all seems effortless.
But peek behind the curtain,
and another story unfolds: performers, directors, designers
and choreographers, spending
a lifetime in the study and
practice of their craft. In their
pursuit of excellence, a chosen
few, like Colleen, attend San
Diego State University’s master
of fine arts in musical theatre
degree program.
that they make,
SDSU alumna Colleen
Colleen Suddeth started to cry
Star scholars
One of only three graduate
musical theatre programs in
the country, SDSU’s program is
dedicated not only to advancing
the students’ craft, but also to
furthering the field. “Our focus
on the academic side of the genre
is what distinguishes us from
the conservatories that concentrate solely on singing, dancing
Background photo: Joel Zwink
Recent P r oductions :
Honk!, Merrily We Roll Along,
A New Brain, Saturday Night,
110 in the Shade, Anything
Goes, Somewhere Over the
Rainbow: Yip Harburg’s
America, Children of Eden,
Triumph of Love, Company,
Flora the Red Menace, Berlin
to Broadway with Kurt Weill
and acting,” explains Paula
Kalustian, the program’s director. “We are graduating scholars
in the field of musical theatre.”
In fact, three alumni from the
class of 2000 have gone on to
teach at the college level. One,
Jim Brown, joined another
Aztec, John Bell, ’88, in the
musical theatre program Bell
launched at the University of
Central Florida in Orlando. By
design, the Florida curriculum
reflects the collaborative instructional approach of Bell’s own
professors at SDSU, including
Terry O’Donnell, on the musical
theatre faculty since the program’s inception in 1981.
“We’re very simpatico,” says
O’Donnell of his interaction
with colleagues Rick Simas and
Paula Kalustian. “There’s something about the connection of
our artistic energies and values
that is quite cohesive; it’s a powerful feeling in the classroom.”
All three professors collaborate
in the studio class, the heart of
the musical theatre curriculum,
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 27
One Thrilling
Combination
their on-stage talents receive the
kind of individual instruction
they could otherwise never afford
as starting actors. After one year,
Alison Bretches is already reaping
the benefits.
This summer, she got a callback
for a new Broadway show – a first
despite having lived and auditioned in New York for three
years before coming to SDSU. “I
got in front of the full production
team,” Bretches says. “It reaffirmed the work I’m doing here
at San Diego State. I’m in a good
place and will be in a better place
in terms of my art and my craft
after another year of study.”
History lessons
On the academic side, SDSU’s
curriculum emphasizes the
genre’s unique origins. “Musical
theatre as we know it is really an
American art form,” Simas says.
“From European operetta and
comic opera to turn of the century vaudeville and burlesque,
American musical theatre
emerged from the New World
melting pot.”
Photo: Joel Zwink
Faculty and students used three versions of the script and score to fashion the 2002 production of
“Anything Goes” in the Experimental Theatre.
“This program is
helping to keep
the art form alive.”
–R i c k S i m a s
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SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
which emphasizes the synthesis
of acting, singing and movement
as one exercise. This holistic
approach distinguishes San
Diego State from conservatories
that teach the three disciplines
separately. With only eight to
10 applicants accepted into the
SDSU M.F.A. program every two
years, students intent on honing
Students spend considerable time
tracing these theatrical roots.
“The faculty have a really firm
belief that to know where you’re
going, you need to know where
you came from,” says Bretches.
“We learn the history of musical
theatre and choreography and
study all the great American
composers and lyricists such as
Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart,
the Gershwins and Cole Porter.”
Bretches and her classmates’
studies are enhanced through
access to one of the most impressive archives of musical theatre
materials on the West Coast –
libretti, songbooks, sheet music,
audio and video recordings –
Simas’ own collection. “In
musical theatre, many materials
are never published or are out of
print,” he says. “I began collecting from a very young age to
preserve this rich heritage.”
says. “We want to expose our students to the training and opportunities available globally.”
As swing girl in “Sunset
In the spotlight
Students also benefit from realworld opportunities provided by
San Diego’s vibrant arts scene.
Although New York may be the
pinnacle of musical theatre, San
Diego boasts two Tony awardwinning stages – The Old Globe
and La Jolla Playhouse – plus a
wide range of smaller venues.
Another invaluable travel experience offered by the program is
the New York showcase, which
enables students to audition for
casting directors and agents. To
fund these important trips, the
program strives to attract grants
and private donations.
Colleen Suddeth mastered
SDSU students have understudied for musical productions
at both the Globe and the
Playhouse, and have performed
in a slew of productions at
the San Diego Repertory,
Starlight, Moonlight, North
Coast Repertory, Lamb’s Players,
Diversionary, Sledgehammer and
The Theatre in Old Town, where
Kalustian is artistic director.
Countless students and alumni
have worked there in longrunning San Diego favorites like
“Beehive” and “Forever Plaid.”
“This theatre’s been a wonderful
way to bridge the gap between
a university and professional
situation,” Kalustian says.
Road shows
Many other students and graduates have cut their chops on the
road with national and international tours such as “Victor
Victoria,” “The King and I,”
“Ragtime,” “South Pacific” and
“Beauty and the Beast.” The
current class is hoping to travel
to Gothenburg, Sweden, in the
spring to work on a bilingual,
cross-cultural program at
Högskolan för Teater, Opera
och Musikal vid Göteborgs
Universitet (School of Theatre,
Opera and Musical Theatre,
University of Gothenburg).
“They love American musicals
all around the world,” Simas
Background photo: Joel Zwink
Maintaining close contact with
colleagues in New York and other
theatrical centers also helps the
faculty remain current with developments in the field. “We produce
two musicals a year and consciously
steer clear of the old war horses,”
Kalustian says. “We focus on
intriguing new pieces or find an
interesting way to reconstruct
an older piece.”
Boulevard” on Broadway,
more than 32 parts, understudying eight women of the
chorus who each had four or
five roles in the show.
For example, the first musical of
the program’s 2003-04 season,
“Honk!,” was the 2000 Laurence
Olivier winner for Best Musical in
London, but still isn’t well known
in North America. Simas will direct
the pop musical, which is based on
the famous children’s story, “The
Ugly Duckling.”
“It’s a family musical with a great
moral about diversity, acceptance,
tolerance – all the things you want
young and old people to think
about,” Simas says.
This is the power of musical
theatre – to entertain and enrich
us with a living portrait of a
certain time, place and social
order. From the interracially
charged New York City of “West
Side Story” to the wartorn Vietnam
of “Miss Saigon,” the audience is an
active participant in life. Bretches
hopes to carry on a distinctive
tradition. “When one person can
turn around and touch hundreds
of people as a teacher and performer, it has a ripple effect,” she
says. “It’s like ‘pay it forward.’”
Photo: Ken Howard
L to R: Emily Mitchell, Laura Lamun and Colleen Suddeth
in “Beehive.” Mitchell and Suddeth are SDSU alumnae.
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 29
Philanthropy
First published Fall 2004
A Gwynn-Gwynn Situation
Continued from page 20
S o m a n y s u c c e s s f u l p e o p l e b e g a n h e re . . .
A r t L i n k l e t t e r, E l l e n O c h o a , J a c k G o o d a l l , S a n d r a
M c B r a y e r, To n y G y w n n , K a t h l e e n K e n n e d y, R a l p h R u b i o ,
N o r m a n B r i n k e r. . . a n d y o u . I t ’s t i m e t o c o m e h o m e .
It’s time to create a permanent home for SDSU’s 200,000
alumni. A place that is the cornerstone of the university’s efforts to serve its alumni and the greater San Diego
community. A place to reconnect – where we’ll honor
the past, celebrate the present and shape the future.
As SDSU strives to maintain its margin of excellence,
our need for private donations has never been greater.
Now, more than ever, alumni support is essential to
honor the legacy of SDSU and build its future. An
important way to foster engagement with our alumni is
to bring them back to campus. A dedicated Alumni
Center will allow us to significantly increase our outreach efforts, enabling us to reconnect with the alumni
so vital to SDSU’s long-term success.
The Alumni Center will do more than host alumni – it
will serve as a primary point of contact for visitors to
our campus, as well as offer spacious meeting and event
facilities. The building will be designed with the goal
of enhancing our ability to involve our alumni and community in campus-based activities.
Universities with dedicated alumni centers offer their
alumni a place to call home. This home will assist
SDSU in its efforts to secure the private support necessary to continue providing a first-rate education to
our students while also being responsive to the needs
of our community. But it will only become a reality
through the generosity and leadership of alumni and
community leaders.
Your alma mater served as a launching pad for some
of the world’s brightest minds in spheres including
business, science, sports, literature, education and
communications. The SDSU Alumni Center will be an
appropriate venue to honor and celebrate our alumni
and welcome them home.
A gift to the SDSU Alumni Center Campaign will create a permanent reminder of your belief in the university that made a difference in your life. Please join
your fellow alumni in securing the same opportunity
for future generations. For more information, contact
us at (619) 594-6119 or [email protected].
A number of naming opportunities exist to establish a legacy in your family name,
or that of a loved one. Naming opportunities range from $150,000 for the
Grand Hall Foyer to $10,000 for the Donor Honor Wall, and can be
paid over a 3-year period. All gifts are tax deductible.
includes Tony’s wife, Alicia, who ran track for
the Aztecs, and now, of course, Anthony. Watch
out, too, for Anthony’s sister, 16-year-old Anisha,
a promising singer and basketball player. As
Dietz puts it, “We’re talking about a lot of
Gwynns.”
“What I’ll miss most is my teammates,” he
says, “the camaraderie that you have in the clubhouse. And that competition aspect about proving people wrong. I will miss that a lot. Fans
have been great to me, not only here in San
Diego, but all over the country. I’ll miss that.
“But at the same time,” Tony continues,
A LITTLE MUSTARD
“there’s a lot more things I won’t miss. The travAnthony Gwynn shoulders the mantle of great
el, packing my suitcases, flying all the way across
expectations with more poise than anyone
the country. I won’t miss that at all.”
expects to find in a 19-year-old. Sure, he’s lookTony Gwynn does not measure his success in
ing forward to a major league career. He could
the game of baseball by counting his silver bats
have signed with the Atlanta Braves straight out
and gold gloves, his hits, his homers, his trips to
of Poway High School. But he’s happy to be at
the All-Star games and the World Series.
San Diego State, studying hard and playing for
“Success, to me, it’s consistency,” he says,
Coach Dietz, a man he’s known as far back as he
“being able to go out there and do exactly what
can remember.”
it is you set out to do. You just do what you’ve
Tony is glad, too, confident his son is receivalways done, and some of these things that
ing a great education, in the classroom and on
you’re looking for will come. Those 200-hit
the baseball field. “You get to the big-league
seasons will come, those runs, scores, hits, gold
level, and you always think it’s something more
gloves, all of it. All that stuff is a byproduct of
than it really is,” Tony says. “It’s still baseball. All
working hard and believing that you can do what
these things I’ve learned, I learned here at San
you’ve always done.”
Diego State.”
John Moores seconds that assessment. “I am
“I guarantee these kids who are here now,
unaware of anyone who has studied the game as
they think it’s going to be different,” he continmuch as Tony, or who worked harder, – every
ues. “They think they’re going to learn so much
day – to make himself a better ballplayer,” he
about the game when they get to the professional
says. “Tony is obviously a naturally gifted athlete,
COMING HOME
level, and when they get there they find out it’s
but his distinguishing characteristic is his intense
the same stuff Coach Dietz was talking about.
preparation for what has rightfully been called
Tony Gwynn’s fans still can’t believe it’s over.
... The difference is, when you get to the profesthe single most difficult thing to do in sports: to
Right field will never be the same. Tony himself
sional level, they’re going to expect you to know
hit a pitched baseball.”
is looking forward to this next chapter of his life
it already.”
If there is any justice whatsoever in the
with anticipation as well as nostalgia.
Dietz sees in Anthony Gwynn a blend of his
world, some day five years from now, Tony
father’s technical skills and his mother’s speed.
Gwynn will receive a phone call confirming his
Sports writers already banter about the younger
election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gwynn’s similarities to his dad. And granted,
He will be glad for that call, grateful for the
Anthony’s approach to baseball seems genetic.
honor. But in the meantime he will not worry
The mechanics, the focus on consistency, even
about his Cooperstown chances. Tony Gwynn has
the hunger to “prove peohis own ideas about how he
ple wrong” are all there.
would like baseball fans to
But Dietz makes the crumemorialize his playing
L I N E
D R I V E S
cial point. “He’s going to
days. It will be enough if
ANTHONY GWYNN
TONY GWYNN
be his own person,” he
they remember that dedicaWhat
car
do
you
drive?
Chevy
Monte
Carlo
1997
Porsche
says. “I keep trying to
tion is everything.
emphasize that he’s
“I want them to say I
Favorite movie?
“Rush Hour”
“Wall Street”
Anthony. He’s not his
was consistent,” he says,
Favorite baseball movie?
“Major League”
“Major League”
dad.”
“but I also want them to say
Anthony chalks up the
I played the game the way it
Favorite family tradition?
Christmas dinner
Family discussions
difference to personal
was supposed to be played.
Favorite pastime?
Going to the mall
Being at home
style. “I do things a little
I prepared for success. I
bit different,” he says. “I
worked hard for success. I
Favorite restaurant?
Cheesecake Factory
Cheesecake Factory
like to have the baggy
was successful.” ■
Favorite music?
30
SUMMER 2005 | sdsu.edu/360
pants, the shirt, the high socks. Dad doesn’t do
that. ... I’m talking; I’m loud; I’m singing; I’m
dancing before games,” a time when Dad gets
serious.
Proud papa Tony believes Anthony is “much
further along now than when I was his age.” He
sees a difference in style, too. “Anthony’s more
outgoing than I’ve ever been,” Tony says. “And
he’s got a little mustard in him; he’s got a little
bit of showmanship in him.”
If there was any silver lining to Tony’s long
stint on the disabled list last spring, it was the
opportunity to spend more time at the stadium
that bears his name, watching Anthony and his
fellow Aztecs play ball. On the field or in the
stands, the Gwynns each feel the significance of
the giant red letters splashed across the outfield
wall: Tony Gwynn Stadium.
“It’s always a joy to come out on the field,
see that there’s a stadium there named for my
father,” Anthony says. “I think it’s a good thing
to come out to every day. I wouldn’t change it
for anything else.”
Tony sees it from a different perspective. “As
a parent coming to watch my son play, you hear
the announcer say, ‘Welcome to Tony Gwynn
Stadium.’ It’s, it’s – I still can’t believe it.”
Snoop Dogg
Contemporary jazz
[email protected] | 360 MAGAZINE 31
You can increase
the value of your
SDSU degree.
Matthew Giacalone
Biology and business, MBA/Ph.D. candidate
(Future bioscience CEO, Alumnus and
Donor, too)
Every $50, $100, $250 or $500 gift to the SDSU Annual Fund makes a difference.
Thank you for reading 360 Magazine online!
To receive your own subscription, join the SDSU
Alumni Association or help support the university
with a financial gift. Contact the editor at
[email protected] for more information.
360: The Magazine of San Diego State University is
produced by the Marketing and Communications
Department, University Advancement Division, San
Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive,
San Diego, California 92182-8080. Copyright 2005.
Only 4% of SDSU’s alumni are donors, ranking us last in the Mountain West Conference. Since alumni
giving figures are used to determine national rankings, the value of your degree is directly affected.
Your gift, combined with others, boosts SDSU’s standing as a world-class university. So, it doesn’t
matter how much you contribute – just that you do. Call now to make your gift.
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360 MAGAZINE 30
P h o t o : M a r c Tu l e
360 MAGAZINE