Spring 2012

Cover Story

Bully Pulpit

First Amendment speech rights may be nowhere murkier than in schools. Is student speech protected on and off campus? Is bullying speech in cyberspace protected? What if it originates in a student’s home? Court rulings have been unclear, and school administrators are caught in the middle. We asked Martha McCarthy, President’s Professor in the School of Education, for some clarity. She was interviewed by Doug McInnis, a freelance writer in Casper, Wyoming.

Melissa McCabe Navaroli ’05

Melissa McCabe Navaroli is co-owner of McCabe’s Nursery & Landscape Construction in Temecula, Calif.  We asked her to tell us about her favorite hardy, low-water and easy-to-maintain garden plants especially suited to Southern California.

The Way to the Cathedral

Herbert Medina, professor of mathematics, practices the art of walking. Several times a year, he leads faculty and staff on weekend walks from LMU to the Getty Museum, Manhattan Beach and elsewhere. In May 2011, he and a group of LMU staff members and students walked El Camino de Santiago de Compostela, also known as the Way of St. James, the centuries-old pilgrimage in Europe that ends in Santiago, Spain. The pilgrimage is actually several paths, and Medina’s group took the 200-mile journey that starts in Leon, Spain. To train the group, Medina led walks across L.A. of increasing distance throughout the 2010–11 academic year. The ultimate L.A. test was a 15.5-mile trek from LMU to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. We asked Medina to map it for us, with L.A. highlights, and to use his mathematical expertise to provide a comparison between his own Way to the Cathedral and El Camino de Santiago.

Private: From the Desk of Laurie Levenson, Law Professor

Oddities and knickknacks found in the office of one of the most prominent lawyers and teachers of the law in Los Angeles.

SAT Showdown

We recently challenged alumni to take our eight-question SAT test to see if they’d be admitted to LMU today. The results are now in! You can still take the test here.

Getting Admitted

In fall 1911, arriving students found an institution that was only just up and running. If it’s difficult to imagine their experience, they’d probably find it just as tough to picture today’s.

A Conversation with J.D. Hokoyama ’67, M.A. ’75

J.D. Hokoyama was president and CEO of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP), an organization he helped cofound that develops leaders in the Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the United States and abroad. After 23 years at the helm, he retired in November 2011. We sat down with Hokoyama to talk about acculturation, social media and his views as an immigrant of the proverbial American melting pot. He was interviewed by José Martinez ’11.

A Conversation with Johnny Gilbreath ’12

Johnny Gilbreath ’12, a business administration major, is president of the LMU Men’s Lacrosse Team, a non-NCAA club sport. As a freshman, Gilbreath and Marc Napp ’11 began teaching lacrosse to Westchester kids. Today, the LMU team is deeply involved in the city program, and the Westchester teams compete in the West L.A. Lacrosse League. On March 4, Gilbreath was inducted into the West L.A. Lacrosse Hall of Fame in recognition of his work with kids. He was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch.

A Conversation with Raj Tut ’06

Raj Tut graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a degree in mechanical engineering. Today, he is director of product for Disney Interactive Media Group in Palo Alto, Calif., a position he took in 2008 when Disney acquired Togetherville, a social networking website for kids that he co-founded. We spoke to Tut about children’s social networking sites and his engineering education. He was interviewed by Fred Puza.

A Conversation with Wojciech Kocyan

Wojciech Kocyan is a clinical professor of piano in the College of Communication and Fine Arts, where he teaches piano and opera among other courses. Born in Poland, Kocyan has performed around the world and won multiple awards. In 2007, Gramophone magazine named his “Skriabin Prokofiew Rachmaninow” (Dux Records) as one of the 50 best classical recordings ever made. He was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch.

Susan Barber

Susan Barber is an associate professor of film studies in the School of Film and Television whose expertise is in Australian and American films. She is finishing “Visions of Australia,” a book on the Australian Film Revival from 1970 to the present. Barber also is working on a project exploring the depiction of fathers and daughters in Australian films of the 1990s.

Bully Pulpit

First Amendment speech rights may be nowhere murkier than in schools. Is student speech protected on and off campus? Is bullying speech in cyberspace protected? What if it originates in a student’s home? Court rulings have been unclear, and school administrators are caught in the middle. We asked Martha McCarthy, President’s Professor in the School of Education, for some clarity. She was interviewed by Doug McInnis, a freelance writer in Casper, Wyoming.

Dispatches Spring 2012

In Memoriam Spring 2012

Henry M. Espoy [SciEng ’39] on Nov. 26, 2007 John W. O’Neil [LibArts ’41] on Nov. 27, 2007 Henry Ugarte [BusAdm ’42] on Aug. 19, 2011 Wayne T. French [BusAdm ’44] on Sept. 10, 2011 William F. Avitabile [BusAdm ’45]...

See Yourself

Graciela Limón ’65, who has taught Latino literature, is best known today as a leading fiction writer herself. Limón’s novels are exercises in crossing borders. Her characters may be poor immigrants making a desert passage to new lives in Los...

Writer for Life

By the time she finished fourth grade, Meg Grant ’81 had decided that she would spend her life writing. “I’m one of those weird and maybe fortunate people,” Grant says, “who knew what I wanted to be when I was very young.”

To Arrive and Not Depart

Like other Los Angeles landmarks — Hollywood, the freeways — LAX is a symbol of transience.

Sacramento

Forty-one years ago, I left the gentle ocean breezes and sunshine of Westchester to live and work in Sacramento — cold, damp, foggy Sacramento; government-town Sacramento; tomato-and-rice farming Sacramento. Goodbye, civilization. Hello, “cow town.”

MAAA Renamed as Latino Alumni Association

This spring, the MAAA Board of Directors unanimously decided to take the occasion of the group’s 30th anniversary and LMU’s centennial celebration to rename their association the LMU Latino Alumni Association. The change makes clear the commitment of the association’s founders to serve Latinos throughout Southern California.

Mountain Do

In February 2012, 10 students journeyed more than 2,400 miles From L.A.’s southwest urban sprawl, palm trees and freeways to the creeks and hollers of the coal-ridden mountains of West Virginia.

A Dreamless World

A poet ponders life without imagination. Submit your take here.

Rapid Prototyping Machines

From materials like water and resin come complex and extremely useful objects of almost any kind. It almost seems like magic.

Bill Campbell ’65

When Bill Campbell was 16 years old, his aunt told him something that remained with him for the rest of his life: “Sometime in your career you must give back to your community.”

Kelly Sorensen M.B.A ’03

Kelly Sorensen’s passion for hockey goes way beyond a typical fan’s love of the game, even beyond the enthusiasm you’d expect from a former pro player. For Sorensen, hockey is a constant, a star to steer by.

John Daly, S.J.

John Daly came to LMU in 1995, when he founded the Center for Asian Business. Since then, the center has grown to include three faculty summer research fellowships, the “Exploring Asia Cultures” study abroad course, the Y.B. Min Lecture Series and the John P. Daly, S.J., Summer Scholarships for Cultural Immersion in South Korea.

Road Marks

May 2012 marks the end of LMU’s centennial celebrations. To help honor the occasion, we asked Albert Koppes, O.Carm., who has witnessed more than a third of the university’s history since being hired in 1975, to share his memories of events and developments — road marks along the path — that he witnessed and often shaped. During the past 37 years, Koppes has been a professor, department chair, dean of the school of education, academic vice president and associate chancellor, his current post. His comments here are a combination of interviews he gave to Michael Peterson ’12 and LMU Magazine Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch.

Sam Fischer ’12, Hitter

Senior shortstop Sam Fischer is the greatest hitter in LMU softball history. She is the all-time home run and RBI leader in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference, and she’s on track to finish as LMU’s career leader in home runs, RBIs and batting average. That would make Fischer a career Triple Crown holder. We asked about her hitting secrets. She was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch

Antonia Darder

The Dilemma is a new feature of LMU Magazine in which we ask a member of the faculty for ethical advice about a complex question. Send your moral quandary to magazine@lmu.edu with the word “dilemma” in the subject line. We’ll pick one, put it to a faculty member and give you an answer in the next issue.

Sunday Night Mass

It’s Sunday night, just before 8 p.m. All you can hear as you walk up the steps to Sacred Heart Chapel is the buzz — loud, almost like a roar — of conversations coming from the sanctuary. You see the opened doors, and they seem to whisper to you, “Come in, all are welcome here.” You look for a seat, but it’s tough to find an empty space in the pews because the chapel is full, again.

Joe Randazzo and Dan Mirk, From The Onion

Two humorists came to the LMU campus to deliver a lecture using risqué language, shocking images and jokes. That may sound like an exercise in tasteless humor, and some of it was. But more important, theirs was a primer on the First Amendment of the Constitution.