\’pe-dant\: A scholar; one prone to ostentatious displays of learning; a learned academic; a nit-picker.
the pedant
VOLUME 6 NUMBER 2
OCTOBER 2013
EDITOR’S NOTE
In September, I asked a friend if she happened to read the story
about transdisciplinarity in that month’s issue of the Pedant.
After a moment of fumbling for an excuse, she admitted that she
couldn’t stand reading any more about such a tired, overplayed
topic. This got me to thinking: Sure, the story contained new
information about the continued evolution of T-studies at CGU,
but was it really old news?
Transdisciplinarity, like accreditation, the student council,
and the various resources and centers around campus, are the
lifeblood of what makes CGU CGU. Speaking about CGU without
those things would be like talking about Paris without the Eiffel
Tower, or McDonald’s without the cheeseburgers (for more on
that, turn to page nine). And while these topics may start to
feel redundant, our continued coverage of them at least means
that they’re changing, growing, and more fully embodying their
missions, ideals, and goals.
This issue of the Pedant looks at these core aspects of what makes
us CGU and how, even when faced with confusion and maybe
even a loss of direction, we continue—from the students up to the
trustees—to aim for a more perfect university.
Cheers,
Rachel Tie
Editor, the Pedant
in this issue
2
5
6
campus news
GSC update
feature: bootcamp
8 la flâneuse on cheeseburgers
10 student achievements
12 events calendar and more
the Pedant
Volume 6, Number 2 October 2013
Many thanks to Julia Ward, Aracely Torres, Krystal Miguel, Alana
Olschwang, Stephen Ward and the GSC, the Writing Center,
Lisa Flores-Griffith, Julia Wendt, and the Back Abbey for photo
permission. And much heartfelt gratitude and best wishes to Susie
Guilbault, financial-aid director extraordinaire.
Rachel Tie, Editor-in-Chief
Emily Schuck, Writer
Sharone Williams, Contributor
For questions or comments, e-mail Pedant@cgu.edu
2 Otium cum dignitate
campus news
Claremont Graduate University
Associate dean of students
Lisa Flores Griffith
New associate dean
In the spirit of student centeredness,
one of the goals that President
Freund set with her induction in 2011, a new dean is in town.
And she’s putting student success at the forefront of the
campus.
Lisa Flores Griffith—formerly the administrative director
of the School of Arts and Humanities—is spearheading the
brand new Student Success Center (SSC) as associate dean
of students.
The SCC is a newly designed umbrella program that will
oversee Career Management, the Writing Center, the
Preparing Future Faculty program, the Office of Student Life
and Diversity, and Disability Services. The ultimate goal of
bringing them together is to streamline student services
under a single cohesive body.
Instead of working independently, as each program has in
the past, they will now be working collaboratively. Presently,
this means clearly defining the mission of the center. Each
director of the aforementioned departments is hard at work
and meeting regularly to figure out how to best serve their
number-one client. That’s you.
“By building a bridge to access these services, we invite
students as active partners to participate and take
advantage of these opportunities for self-assessment that
foster excellence,” Flores Griffith said.
Even better, the SSC has a house at 131 E. Tenth Street
(formerly the Humanities Resource Center) that will be
open to all students to attend workshops, study, or just hang
out. Creating this new space for students is one of Flores
Griffith’s biggest goals for this year. The SSC is slated to
open in January 2014.
Claremont Graduate University
campus news
The transdisciplinary house and lab is located on the east side of
College Avenue just south of seventh Street.
Hub Club revives transdisciplinarity
CGU student research conference
In the August issue of the Pedant we wrote about the transition
phase transdisciplinary studies (T-studies) is undergoing at CGU.
Now, it seems like something is happening, but it’s coming from
the students themselves.
You have an idea. You may even have a paper written. You also
have stage fright.
While serving on the Graduate Student Council, School of
Educational Studies doctoral student Krystal Miguel kept hearing
students voice concerns about the T-studies program; and when
those concerns reached a fever pitch at the spring 2013 T-studies
focus group, she decided to do something about it (for more on
that, see “Accreditation Situation,” page four).
“We created the Hub Club because there was a disconnect between
the transdisciplinary mission and its implementation [at CGU]
into a vibrant community of scholars,” said Miguel.
With support from the graduate student council and university
administration, the Hub Club secured the old transdisciplinary
house as a transdisciplinary methods lab and meeting space.
Members are currently working as a group on a paper that address
topics in transdisciplinarity such as shared responsibility, shared
governance, and transdisciplinary community building.
“I entered CGU as an interdisciplinary student,” said Miguel.
“My undergraduate degree is interdisciplinary blending rhetoric,
sociology, anthropology, and ethnic studies to address diversity
in cultural institutions. I have never believed one discipline could
hold all the answers so I diversified. I am a divergent thinker and
transdisciplinary work is especially meaningful to the way my
mind works.”
To get involved and receive regular communications, join the
transdisciplinary community group on your student portal.
Currently, meetings are only open to executive board members.
However, members and interested students are welcome to drop
by the T-house (which is staffed by Hub members) as well as rent
out space for meetings and study groups. Currently, 47 students
representing every school at CGU are members.
One of the biggest components of being an academic is
participation in conferences (along with publishing, service,
and teaching). But for those for whom public speaking is akin
to torture, a twenty-minute presentation may as well be twenty
minutes of water boarding.
Yet the fact remains that it is an essential part of being a scholar,
and one that is better gotten over now than later (or never). CGU’s
fifteenth-annual student research conference is a great way to get
your feet (not face) wet in the conference-giving word without the
added burden of doing so in front of the big wigs of your field.
This year’s conference will take place on Friday, January 24, 2014
at CGU. The theme, “embracing connections in times of global
stress” is broad enough to encompass nearly any topic—especially
that one you’ve been thinking about. But the theme was also
selected because of its import to CGU right now.
“CGU’s recent climate report and WASC (the association that
accredits institutions of higher education) feedback let us know
that we could be more supportive [of students] in more ways,”
said Aracely Torres, Minority Mentor Program (MMP) director.
“We want to establish community and create connections based
on similar desires, finding areas that allow us to relate to one
another.”
Along with presenting papers, the conference also welcomes art
and poster exhibits, artist talks, and panel- and discussion-group
proposals. You may also volunteer by becoming a committee
member and assisting the day of the conference.
Proposals should consist of a 250-word abstract and are due
online at http://tinyurl.com/mmpconf2014 by midnight December
2, 2013. Further questions should be directed to aracely.torres@
cgu.edu.
The club’s first major event will be a panel discussion comprised
of scholars in the fields of team science and transdisciplinary
research on November 18. For more information, e-mail
tndy@cgu.edu.
Leisure with dignity 3
Claremont Graduate University
campus news
Accreditation Situation
WASC. Accreditation. Realignment. Transdisciplinarity.
These are buzzwords that have been—well, buzzing—around campus for
the past three years. And as it turns out, they’re all related.
WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges)—that is, the
institution that validates our degrees—last approved CGU in June of
2002 with a ten-year accreditation, the longest amount of time any
school can go without a revisit. Basically, we got an A+ with WASC.
To continue the academic analogy, think about this like a research
paper.
in quantitative ways (that means numbers). The more interesting
recommendations include increasing diversity for faculty, staff, and
students, re-envisioning the Transdisciplinary Studies Program as
part of realignment, and—in their words—”[reexamining the] research
culture, most particularly the flow of research-related funds.” WASC
wants us to have more funding for research. Awesome, no?
Now for the good news. The WASC team loves realignment. They
also mentioned the “striking culture of inclusion that permeates the
university. . . [and that] the passionate embrace of CGU and its values by
so many members of the community is inspiring.”
Hooray! We’re great. But there is still work to be done.
The WASC visits are divided into three parts. The first is the
institutional proposal, which functions like an abstract or paper
proposal, and it outlines what CGU is planning to do. In the 2010 review,
the WASC team suggested that our decentralized administration lacked
coherence between university-wide goals and individual schools and
that our emphasis on transdisciplinary studies was vague. So, our goals
since then have been to improve these things.
To meet these challenges, CGU underwent realignment in order to
condense the nine schools into five. CGU has had a transdisciplinary
studies program in place since 2005. WASC recommended a thorough
program review to determine what was working well, take a look at
what others are doing outside of CGU, and identify what to improve.
Thus, in CGU’s abstract (institutional proposal), we outlined our
future plans to continue to better the university and move in a positive
and successful direction. This is CGU’s chance to be self-critical and
identify areas of improvement before WASC returns in March. Our
proposal included continuing to improve our Transdisciplinary Studies
Program and a focus on “research that matters,” that is, contributing to
the world around us. (Does that ubiquitous T-shirt “I am in the world to
change the world” ring a bell?)
Great. We’re self-assessing, improving, working to make ourselves
better. We have our abstract.
Then, in the spring of 2012, the WASC team returned for part two of the
process (kind of like giving a first draft to your adviser). When WASC
arrived, they conducted a Capacity and Preparatory Review. You can
think about this as sort of a lit review or an annotated bibliography,
with perhaps the beginnings of an analysis.
The 30-page report (which your ever-assiduous Pedant sifted through
with a fine-toothed comb, so you didn’t have to) has six commendations
(thumbs up!) and six recommendations (areas of improvement).
Bad news first:
Most of the recommendations center around identifying “measurable
outcomes” for CGU’s work, phrased like “redouble [CGU’s] current
efforts to develop an academic plan that connects institutional
goals, programmatic goals, course goals, and student learning
outcomes.” That means that we need to continue to evaluate ourselves
4 Otium cum dignitate
The third part of the process—the Educational Effectiveness Review—
was postponed for a semester. Originally slated to take place this fall,
the WASC team recommended, in order to “provide the institution with
time to build upon its progress to date,” that we push it back to spring
2014. This is sort of like your professor telling you that your paper isn’t
finished yet. You’ve done great work on the proposal and the research,
but it will take more time to see the results of your experiment. Not a
bad thing. You know what they say about art (or research papers): they
are never finished, only abandoned.
Now that you’ve written your abstract, done your research, and run it
by your professor, it’s time for the final polishing. That’s what CGU is
doing now.
A school-wide e-mail went out in early October from President Freund
that outlined what we can expect in the coming weeks. It boils down to
this: your participation matters.
Alana Olschwang, accreditation liaison officer and guru for all things
WASC, noted that “It’s important for students to realize that filling
out a survey, participating in town halls—this is part of a student
responsibility as a community member and in making the university
a better place. On the flip side, if things are not going well or there is
an idea for improvement, it’s also a shared responsibility—the student
should discuss these things with their program coordinator, faculty,
chair, dean, or central administration to work toward a resolution.”
WASC tends to carry a certain weight with it. But actually, it’s a good
thing. Not only does it keep CGU accountable, it also encourages us to
improve.
“The expertise provided by the accrediting team that will visit in March
will serve as a consultation for CGU to get feedback on how best to
allocate time, energy, and resources in the future. How well are we
doing in comparison to others? What are others doing that we can learn
from?” Olschwang said.
Keep an eye out for more information as the semester comes to a close
about how you can get involved with the accreditation process. For more
information, visit www.cgu.edu/wasc.
Claremont Graduate University
gsc page
Shaky beginnings, hopeful future
The resignation of the secretary of the
Graduate Student Council (GSC) over
the summer followed by the the recent
resignation of the vice president has led
many to wonder what is going on with
our representative body and whether it
is capable of successfully completing the
school year.
Aside from the resignations, there have also
been scheduling malfunctions—which led
to the printing of incorrect information in
the last issue of the Pedant. Events such as
the “State of the Student Address” that was
scheduled for October 14 and last-minute
changes to other event times and locations
have left some students wondering if more
important GSC business, like the bi-annual
travel awards—whose deadline passed on
November first—will be properly managed.
But GSC President Stephen Ward is
optimistic.
“We are still on pace [for the year] and
there is still time for improvement. We are
resilient, and even though some changes
have been made the foundation is still
strong,” said Ward.
Although the vacated spots have been filled, a successfully completed year of student
governance by the GSC is TBD.
One area where the GSC seems to be exhibiting this resilience is
in its planning of social events (long a mainstay of student life
at CGU). The fall welcome back BBQ saw a great turnout, and the
mid-semester karaoke night had over 180 attendees: a record for
what is usually a much smaller event. Additionally, the GSC is on
point with the planning of their annual Thanksgiving potluck,
scheduled for November 19 at 6:00 p.m. (see calendar, page 12).
In October, the council held a mid-semester election to fill the
vacated roles. Gloria Page was elected as the new secretary; Neil
Patel, a master’s student in the School of Community and Global
Health (SCGH) was elected diversity chair; and Gar-Wei Lee,
another MPH student in SCGH was elected vice president.
The role of the vice president is to serve as the primary liaison
between the GSC and student clubs, advocacy groups, and other
student organizations, as well as to serve on the student affairs
committee. But Lee has plans for expansion:
“The student affairs committee is often viewed as the ‘party
planning committee’ by many people,” said Lee. “That’s fine, but
I would also like to expand its role into something other than
[that]. We plan to co-host academic events with the transdisciplinary
committee, which we haven’t done before.”
Patel also hopes to increase programming with student groups across
campus.
“One plan in particular is to partner with the student affairs committee
and put together an ally training in conjunction with the Queer
Resource Center,” said Patel.
But ambition is one thing, and the ability to make things happen is
another. Without the right support of and leadership within the GSC—at
every level—the best of plans may never see the light of day. But with
the right leadership in place it is hoped that the recent election will
serve as a turning point for the council.
“Students want to see the GSC work,” said Ward, “and it affects them
when it doesn’t. Our council members have the right attributes to do
the job. We need the right facilitators with the right chemistry to bring
these people together.”
For more information on the GSC, visit www.cgu.edu/gsc or e-mail
gsc@cgu.edu.
Leisure with dignity 5
Claremont Graduate University
The “X” Files:
Confessions from dissertation boot camp
Just call me “Student X.”
By the time I finally attended a dissertation boot camp, I had
been ABD for seven months and had only written the shadow of a
hint of my proposal. Really, it was more like notes.
I had convinced myself that not working was part of working; like
how Google employees are encouraged to go out on the town to
get their creative juices flowing.
But after several months of convincing myself that having
“basically written it, just in my head” was a viable approach
to writing a 200-page original manuscript, and with another
semester—nay, school year—just weeks away, I knew the time had
come to begin to climb the dissertation mountain, to ascend—as
it were—to doctoral candidacy.
Other dissertators may know the feeling: After studying alone
for an entire year and passing your qualifying exams, you feel
accomplished, qualified: all-but-dissertated. But as the weeks
and months roll on the severity of your situation gradually
becomes clear: That year of solitude, torture, intensity, and
agony was the easy part. If studying for exams is like standing
outside a conference room in which the greats in your field are
having a conversation, memorizing that conversation, and then
reporting it back to your exam committee, the dissertation is like
having to walk into that room—you with all of your zero years of
professional experience in the field—and tell them that you’re the
next best thing.
So really, writing a dissertation is as much a work-ethic problem
as it is an emotional one. “Who, pray tell, are you, to come into
our field and tell us what’s what?” you may imagine the academic
community sneering at you. And to a certain extent, you’re right.
Academia is a club which requires six or more years of skull and
bones-style hazing, only harder, because instead of just making
you drink a case of beer without your shirt on while dangling
over a fire by your ankles (which, given the right attitude, could
be fun), you are forced to undergo intense and unrelenting
Student X wends her way to dissertation boot camp.
6 Otium cum dignitate
Student X landed a desk with a vew at the October dissertation boot camp
We didn’t sign up for the academic life because it was easy or comfortable. We signed up because there
was something we had to know, something we had to say.
intellectual scrutiny while your 20s—and any dreams of financial
security—pass you by.
Like the addict, who wakes up one morning penniless, shirtless,
and living in a two-door 1980s Civic, I awoke one morning in late
summer to the realization that I, too, had hit rock bottom. After
spending several nights in a row tearfully Googling “should I
leave my doctoral program?” and “what to do with an English MA,”
I knew that something had to give.
So I signed up for dissertation boot camp. Offered by the CGU
writing center, boot camp comes in two forms: A monthly,
weekend-long version, and an annual weeklong version, usually
held in June.
And I was weary.
I pictured drill-sergeant style oversight on my writing progress,
forced writing activities, and touchy-feely group sessions. But the
name “boot camp” is something of a misnomer, for what really
transpired over the two days was an incredibly calm, supportive
work session unencumbered by anyone else’s agenda or goals.
Also: coffee.
So for two days, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. I worked in 90-minute
blocks with 30-minute breaks. Yes, it was tiring, but it was
also incalculably rewarding. Not only did I remember that I
could indeed write, but I learned some skills and methods for
maximizing my writing. Perhaps the most poignant of these was
the knowledge that I don’t need vast swathes of time to work
on my dissertation (a self-defeating assumption, for when does
anyone actually have eight hours to spare?): an hour here and an
hour there is all it really takes.
What’s more: We all know that person in our program, the one
who always seems on the ball, appears deeply enmeshed in and
passionate about their project, and couldn’t possibly struggle with
the self doubt that plagues you. Well they’re not, and they do. And
that’s nice. Not for reasons of schadenfreude (ok, maybe partly
for reasons of schadenfreude), but because it forces you to realize
that this isn’t easy for anyone.
Listen. The room may either be too hot or too cold. You will
get bored, you will get tired. There will most likely be a mouth
breather or a “sniffler” in close proximity. You will listen to
complete strangers moan. But we didn’t sign up for the academic
life because it was easy or comfortable. We signed up because
there was something we had to know, something we had to say.
Finishing your dissertation allows you into the conference of
knowing and saying, to sit at the table with the very people who
once kept you out and clink glasses in sinister delight while even
newer recruits walk over coals for your enjoyment.
Something happens at boot camp—at least it did for me—because
that monthly cloistering in silent spaces with vegan meals and
other people’s mouth noises allowed me to proudly say that I have
now submitted my proposal and am well on my way to being “Dr.
X.”
Leisure with dignity 7
La Flâneuse
things—maybe we should ask the Freakonomics people?], the cheeseburger has become an American institution. Some would call it the
most perfect, marvelous, and supremely delectable food ever created. Is
that an exaggeration? Probably not.
Like the hamburger, the cheeseburger has numerous supposed progenitors from all around the country, but the earliest claims come from
our neck of the woods: Lionel Sternberger’s Rite Spot in Pasadena
and O’Dell’s on Figueroa (both, sadly, defunct). And since your faithful
flâneuse is all about celebrating local life in all its glory, it only seemed
right that I spend some time exploring what Claremont brings to the
cheeseburger scene.
Out of my deep devotion to you, dear reader, over the last few weeks I’ve
eaten cheeseburgers at five restaurants within about five minutes of
campus, and I’m going to give you the straight facts about all of them
(in the order in which they were eaten).
The Back Abbey
128 N. Oberlin Ave., Claremont
Menu selections: The Back Abbey and the grilled vegetable burger
by Sharone Williams — writer, editor, loafer, PhD
graduate in English
flâneuse, French: 1) a city wanderer; 2)
one who strolls about aimlessly; 3) a
shopper with no intent to buy; an
intellectual parasite.
As part of the Pedant’s mission to enhance student life, La Flâneuse
features goings-on about town outside of the moated ivory tower that is
CGU. This month: The Great Cheeseburger Challenge.
No one really knows who invented the cheeseburger. It’s strange when
you think about it. I mean, if I’d been around, I would have sent up
fireworks and rounded up the nearest marching band for a parade that
would still be going today. But I wasn’t, and somehow this cultural milestone passed largely unmarked.
It must have taken some kind of genius. We just don’t really know who
that genius was. What we do know is that at some point people started
making patties out of ground meat. One theory traces the geneaology of
the meat patty from eleventh-century Mongolia to Russia to Hamburg,
Germany (hence the word hamburger, which if you think about it is
really some clever wordplay). Things really picked up steam in the late
nineteenth-century United States when people started slapping these
patties between two pieces of bread. Literally everyone in the universe
tried to take credit for this innovation. It was only one small step from
there to the invention of the hamburger bun in 1916 (Walter Anderson
of White Castle fame claims this one), and the evolution of this fine
species of hot sandwich reached its peak with the addition of cheese
some time in the 1920s. In the decades since, thanks to McDonald’s and
a zillion roadside restaurants and backyard cookouts and [some other
8 Otium cum dignitate
The Back Abbey burger is pretty famous as cheeseburgers go. It’s been
named one of the best in LA and the Inland Empire, and everybody on
Yelp loves it, except for the people who are too cool to like things everyone else likes—and it’s easy to see why people say so. It’s a “special dryage grind” beef patty (you can sub in a turkey patty for no extra cost)
served with gouda, mustard aioli, bacon from some fancy bacon ranch
(not an expert), and micro greens. It comes on a brioche bun that’s light
and soft. All of these things add up to one killer cheeseburger, strongly
savory but with a nice mixture of flavors and textures: crispy bacon, the
fresh, tiny crunch of the micro greens, the tang of the aioli, a beautiful
crust on the patty (medium rare!), combined with a bun and cheese that
seem to melt together. This is a cheeseburger I think about in a longing
kind of way sometimes. If you haven’t tried this, put it at the top of your
list.
Because we know the world isn’t made up solely of meat lovers, I also
tried the grilled vegetable burger, which is not so much a burger as it is
a stack of layered grilled vegetables on a bun. You get portobello mushroom, zucchini, red peppers, and eggplant, along with feta and an herb
sauce, also served on brioche. I have to say, I alternated bites between
this and the Back Abbey burger, and I would have been hard pressed
to say which I liked better. The vegetables were beautifully seasoned
with parmesan, garlic, and parsley, and the feta added a nice sharpness.
There were a lot of exclamation points in my notes.
The Buffalo Inn
1814 W. Foothill Blvd., Upland
Menu selection: Buffalo burger
The Buffalo Inn is a low-key place with a huge outdoor patio where they
often have live music and dancing. The vibe is wood chips and biker
chicks and Eagles cover bands on Sunday afternoons. One of the house
specialties is the buffalo burger, which I naturally had to try. I mean,
that is basically an American icon made from an American icon, and I
am really into investing my foods with complicated symbolism these
days (life after the dissertation, amirite?)
So. The first thing to say about it is that it’s enormous, a giant slab of
ground buffalo served on a sourdough bun along with tomato, mayonnaise, cheddar cheese, and chopped onions, with fresh potato chips on
the side. I’d never had buffalo before and was surprised by how dark
it was, but as far as flavor, it wasn’t much different from your typical
ground beef. Maybe that’s my philistine taste buds
talking? It was alright, but I mean, I’m not stampeding up to Foothill for another one. (Get it? Stampede?
Heh. Oh, buffalo, we hardly knew ye.)
Hagelbarger’s
Come on, you know where Hagelbarger’s is.
Menu selection: bacon cheeseburger
So we all know about Hagelbarger’s. They do
straightforward, uncomplicated, short-order type
food. Nothing fancy about it. I say this with great
affection, because the people there work hard to feed
us and keep us happy, and we grad students are not
always known for being easygoing and neurosis-free.
Many are the quesadillas I have happily consumed
on breaks between classes during my time at CGU.
If you have a similar go-to order, you know that
when you eat from Hagelbarger’s, you’ll get solid
food on the greasy side with no surprises. The bacon
cheeseburger is no exception. It comes with plentiful amounts of your basic cheeseburger toppings:
greenleaf lettuce, two kinds of American cheese,
onion (LOTS of onion—so much that I think I’d opt
out next time). This cheeseburger’s strength was
not construction. With all the vegetables, it was a
little bit hard to wrangle. However, what it lacked in
ease of handling it more than made up for in size.
Intrepid Editor Rachel and I could easily have split
this*, and I am no bird-like eater. In terms of taste,
this cheeseburger’s middle of the road, standard in
every way. The bottom line: if you’re on campus with a few minutes to
spare between classes and meetings and you’re craving a cheeseburger,
you can satisfy that craving here. Extra napkins may be required.
Rounds
885 S. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont
Menu selection: The Hawaiian
Rounds started as a food truck in LA and now has a few permanent
locations, one of which is just south of I-10 on Indian Hill. They have a
bunch of different burgers on the menu, but you can also create your
own using their handy order form (similar to The Counter or Slater’s).
Patty options include beef, chicken, turkey, and veggie. I went for the
Hawaiian, which comes with teriyaki, grilled pineapple, and jack cheese
served on a fresh bun that’s grilled and caramelized a bit at the edges.
Do I have to tell you that it was delicious? It was. The teriyaki sauce was
a great mix of sweet and salty and, while I would have preferred fresh
pineapple rather than canned, this is a minor quibble. I added fresh jalapeños because they’re my jam, and my face was on fire, which I guess
is no better than I deserved. I put the fire out with Hangar 24’s Orange
Wheat beer, which they have on tap (Dale Bros. and Pomona Queen, too).
Rounds is great fast food and gives you lots of options if you don’t want
to spend $15 or you’d prefer to eat your cheeseburger in bed under the
covers while watching episodes of Call the Midwife. If I wanted, I could
walk to Rounds from my house. I might be walking there right now. You
don’t know.
* Editor’s Note: Said editor unabashedly devoured the mangled remnants of
la flâneuse ’s burger.
Eureka! Burger
580 W. First Street, Claremont
Menu selection: jalapeno egg burger
Eureka! is a small California chain that started, surprisingly, somewhere other than Eureka. Since opening in Claremont a few years ago,
they’ve become a staple of the Village scene, at least in part because
they have great burgers and a rotating selection of craft beer on tap.
The three most popular burgers are the fig marmalade, the cowboy, and
the jalapeno egg burger. I’ve had all three and can happily recommend
them to you, as well as the Loma Linda veggie burger (which I quite
like in spite of my distaste for beets). This time around I went with the
jalapeno egg burger, which is nothing short of sublime. This is another
caramelized bun, in between which you’ll get a fried egg, melted cheddar cheese, perfectly cooked bacon that crumbles in just the right way
when you bite it, chipotle sauce, pickled jalapenos, and a good-sized
hunk of beef. The patty comes from vegetarian, non-antibiotical noneverything cows, which should make everyone happy but the cows
themselves (turkey and veggie patties also available on all burgers for
no extra charge; no word on whether the turkeys are vegetarian). In
spite of all the ingredients, this burger doesn’t get very messy. All the
components play together nicely, and there’s a good balance of flavors
in every bite. I sat on the patio in some lovely sunshine and watched
people walk by, and my only complaint about this cheeseburger was
that it could not last forever.
So here’s the thing, dear reader: This is just a small selection of local
cheeseburgers. There are so many even at these restaurants that I
didn’t try! Do you know what that means? It means you’ll have to grab
your girlfriend or your roommate or a handful of hungry strangers and
go try something and report back to me. And hey, if 2,000 words on
cheeseburgers doesn’t make you want to rush out and eat every burger
in sight, fine. More for me. I’ll be right back.
Leisure with dignity 9
student achievements
Abdullah Murad
Sophia Silva & Meghana Rao
MA/MBA, Positive Organizational Behavior
and Management; PhD Positive Organizational
Psychology
Silva and Rao recently attended the American
Psychological Association (APA) convention
in Hawaii to present their research and
to promote CGU and the Western Positive
Psychology Association (WPPA). Each had the
opportunity to discuss their research for the
Division 35 roundtable discussion titled, “Feminist Practice and Our
Collective Future: Exploring Positive Frameworks in Social Action.”
Throughout the conference they also volunteered at a joint CGU and
WPPA booth to build awareness for these organizations and to expand
their communities. WPPA is a new collaborative scientific community
of faculty, students, and scholars working together to create an
influential and sustainable academic presence of positive psychology
in the western region of the United States.
Krystal Miguel
PhD, Education Administration and Leadership
Along with Craig R. Seal, Joanna Royce-Davis, and Dranna AndrewsBrown, Miguel authored a chapter entitled “Developing Capacity
for Responsible Leadership: The Interactive Role of Identify and
Competence Development” for Leader Interpersonal and Influence
Skills: The Soft Skills of Leadership.
Manuel Silva
PhD, Higher Education
Over the summer, Silva presented a peerreviewed research paper “Effects of Three Week
Preseason Strength and Conditioning Program
on a Professional Soccer Team,” at the National
Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)
annual national conference in Las Vegas.
Andrea Mendoza
MA, Health Promotion, Education and
Evaluation
The American Association of University Women
(AAUW) awarded a 2013–14 Career Development
Grant to Mendoza. Career Development Grants
help women advance in their careers. Through
her studies in public health, Andrea plans to
acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to
be able to empower communities and design
programs to serve women and children in populations acutely affected
by socioeconomic disparities.
Billy Williams
PhD, Cultural Studies
Williams recently presented his paper, “‘And Even the Like Precurse of
Feared Events:’ Hamlet, Enoch Powell, and Banger Racing’s Staging of
Demolition” at the conference, New Elizabethans 1953-2013: Nation,
Culture and Modern Identity at the School of Advanced Study at the
University of London this past June.
10 Otium cum dignitate
PhD, Information Systems and Technology
Murad’s paper, “Enabling Patient Information
Handoff from Pre-hospital Transport Providers
to Hospital Emergency Departments: DesignScience Approach to Field Testing” was
accepted for publication in the elite 47th
Hawaii International Conference on System
Sciences (HICSS-47).
Jameelah X. Medina
PhD, Higher Education and Student Affairs
Recently, Medina served as a reviewer of manuscripts submitted
to International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, Journal
of Homosexuality, and SAGE Open. Medina has also been offered
book contracts by two academic publishers seeking to publish her
dissertatio. Lastly, Medina presented her paper, “Coming Full Circle:
The Growth of Islam among Latinas,” at the National Association of
African American Studies & Affiliates joint national conference in
Louisiana.
Tamar Salibian
PhD, Media/Cultural Studies
Salibian’s paper, “The Personal Journal as Ethnography,” was accepted
for publication in the forthcoming edition of the International Journal
of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts. Additionally,
her paper, “Rethinking Reality Television: So You Think You Can Dance
and the Intersection of High Art and Popular Culture,” was accepted for
presentation at the 12th International Conference on New Directions in
the Humanities which will take place in June 2014 in Madrid, Spain.
Nicole Smith
PhD, Special Education
Smith developed a training for faculty and staff at California State
University, Long Beach (CSULB) called “Autism Ally” so the university
will be able to recognize students with autism, work better with
students with autism in the classroom and on campus, and assist
them in a productive way. She presented her work at the California
Association of Postsecondary Education and Disabilities convention on
October 2013 on the Learning Independence For Empowerment Project,
a program she developed at CSULB to utilize peer support in working
with students with autism spectrum disorders.
Sarah Barnard
MFA, Art
Barnard’s four-minute documentary film
How Do You Know? was selected for inclusion
in the LGBTQ Fargo-Moorhead Film Festival
in Fargo, North Dakota. Barnard’s film was
one of fourteen projects shown at the festival
in September 2013. The festival grew out of a
weekly queer film series at Minnesota State
University Moorhead in the fall of 2008. The
festival brings people together from all aspects of the Fargo-Moorhead
community to bring new visions and voices to the screen.
Richard Tom
Ryan Murphy
Certificate in Leadership, Drucker
This past July, Tom was appointed to the newly created California Task
Force on K-12 Civic Learning by Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye of
the California Supreme Court and Superintendent of Public Instruction
Tom Torlakson. The purpose of the task force is to bring definition to
the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that California students need
to be informed and engaged citizens and community members, and
to make recommendations for how to achieve those outcomes for all
California students.
PhD, English
Murphy’s review of Eve Sedgwick’s The Weather
in Proust was recently published in vol. 42 no.
7 of Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary
Journal
Natalia Romuzga
MPH, Health Promotion
This past summer, Romuzga conducted global research in Poland,
Ukraine, and Georgia analyzing the effects of The Children’s Medical
Care Foundation, a foundation devoted to training predominantly
neonatologists and pediatric surgeons from post-Soviet developing
nations. Because of this research and and her Polish heritage,
Romuzga received the “Polish University Club” scholarship for the
2013-2014 academic year. Additionally, she is the new recipient of the
Randall Lewis Health Policy Fellowship, and will be working on needs
assessment for the community of Upland in order to use the available
resources to increase the health and well-being of community members.
Diki Diki
PhD, Teaching, Learning, & Culture
Diki presented a poster at the Third World
Congress on Positive Psychology this past
June in Los Angeles. Diki’s paper is entitled
“Creativity to Overcome Transactional Distance
in Online Learning for Undergraduate Biology
Students.”
Kevin Fleming
PhD, Education
Fleming wrote and narrated the motion graphics video “Success in
the New Economy: How Prospective College Students Can Gain a
Competitive Advantage.” In collaboration with Citrus College, this video
was developed to help parents and students learn how to navigate some
of the realities of higher education to ultimately secure a competitive
advantage in the 21st century economy. The video, and complete
transcription with data references, is available at www.TelosES.com.
David Pichardo-Gomez
MPH, Public Health
Pichardo attended the 40th annual Society
for Advancing Hispanics/Chicanos and
Native American in Science (SACNAS)
conference in San Antonio, Texas to present
his undergraduate senior thesis (from Pomona
College), “Why Everyone Should Eat More
Fruits and Vegetables: Antioxidant and MetalChelating Abilities of Phenolic Compounds.”
Julianna Kirschner
PhD, Cultural Studies
Kirschner was recently named the 2012 winner of the Organization
for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender’s (OSCLG)
outstanding thesis concerned with communication, language, and
gender completed between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012. In
her thesis, “The Spaces in Between: Grief from an Autoethnographic
Perspective,” Kirschner uses her experience of loss as a means to
understand what it is to be a bereaved person in western society. She
would like to thank her family and friends for supporting her during an
emotionally challenging writing process, and for the encouragement to
apply for this award.
Lincoln Hale
PhD, History of Christianity
This past May, Hale presented his paper, “Omission of the Lectures on
Faith: A Mormon Response to Political Turmoil in the Early Twentieth
Century,” at the American Academy of Religion Pacific Northwest
Conference at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington.
Deke Parsons
PhD, English
Parsons presented his paper, “Robert E. Howard’s Pulps: From
Adventure to Weird Tales” at the 2013 Popular Culture Association
Conference in Washington, D.C.
Lisa Longoria
PhD, Education
In October Longoria accepted a position as
an online reflective coach for the Riverside
County Office of Education’s Teacher Support
Center Online Induction program. TSC Online
Induction is a Commission-approved induction
program to earn a California Clear Credential.
Alicia E. Alvarado
MPH, Leadership and Management
Alvarado served as a graduate fellow last summer for the Hispanic
Serving Health Professions Schools (HSHPS)/Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) at the Honolulu VA Regional Office/Veterans Service Center
in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Did you land a job? Present or publish a paper? Accomplish something else awesome in your academic or professional life? Send your achievement
to pedant@cgu.edu to see your name proudly in print. Please include your name, MA or PhD, your specific degree program (not your school), and a
short description of your achievement. High-resolution, professional-looking headshots welcome.
Leisure with dignity 11
Claremont Graduate University
calendar
November 13 Revamp your presentation skills with this workshop from the
Writing Center on Prezi at 2:00 p.m. in the student success center (131 E.
Tenth Street).
CGU Concerts at Claremont School of Theology presents works by
Schumann, Scriabin, Granados, and Uehara featuring Warren Lee on piano
at 4:15 in Kregse Chapel (1325 N. College Avenue).
November 15 Need some guidance writing a lit review? The writing center
has just the thing. Join them for a workshop on writing the lit review at 3:00
p.m. in the Student Success Center (131 E. Tenth Street).
EVENT IN FOCUS
Jauary 24:
CGU Student Research Conference
CGU’s 15th annual research conference will focus on the
theme “Embracing Connections in Times of Global Stress.”
A call for papers is out, with a deadline of December 2,
2013 for proposals. There’s always room on your CV for a
conference paper—and this is an opportunity to hone those
rhetorical skills that you’ve been avoiding for the whole of
your adult life. At the very least, there’s a keynote speaker
and a free lunch. For more on why you should do this, see
page three. For more information, and to submit an abstract
for the paper, visit http://tinyurl.com/mmpconf2014.
November 16 Join the Division of Behavioral and Organization Sciences’
Peer Mentoring Program for kickball in the park. 3:00 p.m. at the park
on Indian Hill Boulevard and Eighth Street, for food, drinks, and a dose of
kickball.
November 18 The Team Science and Transdisciplinary Panel will feature
Dr. Dan Stokols, Dr. Maritza Salazar, and Dr. Richard Carp as they discuss
bridging methodologies, organizing a team, and transdisciplinary funding.
Hosted by the Hub Club (see page three) and the GSC (see page five), this
event will be from 4:00–5:00 p.m. in the board of trustees room in Harper
Hall (150 E. Tenth Street).
November 19 Join the GSC at their annual Thanksgiving dinner. Festivities
begin at 6:00 p.m. in the McAliliser Center, for religious activities, 919
Columbia Ave.
November 20 CGU Concerts at CST presents works by Bach, Koshkin,
Mangore, and Emmanuel featuring Moses Sun on guitar at 4:15 in Kregse
Chapel (1325 N. College Avenue).
November 28-29 Thanksgiving Break! Enjoy a couple days off to stuff yourself with turkey and/or tofurkey (or both!).
December 4 CGU Concerts at CST will feature Carissa Gibson on violin,
playing works by Vivaldi and others at 4:15 in Kregse Chapel (1325 N. College Avenue).
December 11 Beini Qin will play works by Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, and
Ravel at this week’s CGU Concert at CST at 4:15 in Kresge Chapel (1325
N. College Avenue).
graduate tips
CGU Professors Paul Gray and David
E. Drew, authors of What they Didn’t
Teach You in Graduate School: 199
Helpful Hints for Success in Your
Academic Career, have been kind
enough to allow us to publish one
helpful hint from their book in each
issue. This is so that one day you don’t
raise your fist in the air and curse
CGU for not teaching you . . .
9. REMEMBER THAT A PHD IS
PRIMARILY AN INDICATION OF
SURVIVORSHIP. Although the public at large may view your
doctorate as a superb intellectual achievement and a reflection
of brilliance, you probably know deep in your heart that it is
not. It represents a lot of hard work on your part over a long
period of time. You probably received help from one or more
faculty to get over rough spots. Your family, be it parents or
spouse, stayed with you over the vissicitudes of creating the
dissertation. You stuck with it until it was done, unlike the
ABDs (All But Dissertation) people who complete all the other
requirements but bail out before they finish their dissertation.
December 16-20 Finals week. Work through that anxiety with the knowledge that sweet winter break is nearly here. Nearly.
December 18 The last concert of the year, Han Na Park will play works by
Handel, Haydn, Liszt, and Prokofiev on piano at this CGU Concert at CST.
It’s at 4:15 p.m. in Kresge Chapel.
December 21 Last day of the semester, degrees awarded. Congrats, winter
grads!
12 Otium cum dignitate
Are you in the dark about some aspect of graduate or
academic life? Is there a topic you want the Pedant to cover?
Send your queries and suggestions to pedant@cgu.edu.