Dr. Geraty played Dr. Seuss at a local school, on Seuss’ birthday in March. He read Seuss stories to school children.

Lourdes Morales-Gudmundsson, chair of modern languages, was keynote speaker for the Pacific Union Conference-wide Hispanic women’s retreat held in Arizona during the weekend of April 20-22, 2001. She also presented her seminar "I Forgive You, But...".

Delmer G. Ross, professor of history, recently had two articles published. The first is a history of the Bagdad Chase Mine, located at the southern terminus of the long-extinct Ludlow and Southern Railway. Titled "The Bagdad Chase Mine," it was published on the Internet by THE T&T AND ITS ENVIRONS (http://ttrr.virtualave.net), January 16, 2001. It follows an earlier article on the Ludlow & Southern that was published at the same site in 2000. The second recent article, "The Hauser Geode Beds," ROCKHOUND NOTES, Vol. 6, No. 2 (February 2001), pages 6 - 12, deals with the history and development of the famous Hauser Geode Beds in the Colorado Desert.

Anees A. Haddad, professor of sociology and family studies in the Department of History, Politics and Society, presented a paper at the 72nd Annual Pacific Sociological Association Meeting in San Francisco, March 29-April 1. The title of his paper was "The Maori Minority in the New Zealand Culture," emphasizing the plight and challenges of the Maori family. This paper was a report on Haddad’s recent research in New Zealand. In addition, Haddad organized and chaired session #124 entitled "Minority Families and Their Struggles," at the invitation of the Sociological Association. This is the fifth year Haddad was invited to organize and chair a session at the Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association.

Con-"grad"-ulations go to Johnny Thomas, dean of SBM. He completed the requirements for his PhD in Politics/Economics from Claremont Graduate School and will be graduating in May. His dissertation studied the crisis in international lending.

SCT Summit 2001 in Toronto: Chris Bartholomew, Nate Brandstater, Hugo Chinchay, Craig Cole, Matt Curtis, Jorge Heyde and Adrian Serna attended this year’s Banner conference in Toronto. Areas of Finance, Financial Aid, Recruitment, Reporting, etc., were covered and new ideas were brought back to improve our use of the Banner System. This will be passed along as needed and new ideas and processes will be implemented. Next year’s summit will be in Anaheim.

Sigrid James, assistant professor of social work, presented a workshop at the 28th Annual Children’s Conference in Riverside on Patterns of Placement Movement of Children in Out-of-Home Care.

The Riverside Orange Blossom Festival attracts about a quarter-million people to its annual downtown festivities. This year, it was held April 21-22, and as usual, La Sierra University was represented. On Mission Inn Avenue, between the library and the museum, the four Riverside colleges/universities put up their canopies and set out their literature and freebies. LSU had materials from Enrollment Services, the Evening Adult Degree Program (EADP), the graduate schools, and brochures on services offered by La Sierra to the community. Although it was primarily an information booth, volunteers took cards for information packets to be sent out, handed out two large boxes of oranges, and filled hundreds of LSU balloons with helium for children.

Volunteers at the booth were: Natan Vigna, Christy Robinson, Nancy Dittemore, Jeffry Kaatz, Marlus Coupinho, Bethany Morse, Nora Ramirez, and Gene Edelbach.

FYI for next year: We need representatives from the graduate schools to volunteer at the festival, because there was very strong interest in those programs and the EADP.