Sunnie Kidd Remembered
Sunnie Kidd, assistant to the dean at the School of Education, died from a heart attack March 28. She was 59. A devoted employee in the dean’s office, Kidd filled nearly every administrative position at one time or another during her 22-year USF career, including assisting at least four consecutive deans, overseeing the school’s payroll, acting as budget coordinator, supervising school maintenance, and administrating all off-campus educational programming. She was also the school’s unofficial historian and an impressive typist with a rapid-fire rate.
“She was very valuable. As it changed from dean to dean, she kept picking up duties and a great number of them too,” said Paul Warren, dean of the School of Education. “She worked behind the scenes and wanted it that way.” In an announcement of her death, Warren described Kidd as someone who carried out her role with “dignity and a sense of professionalism.”
A memorial service will be held for Kidd at St. Ignatius Church on April 16.
Faculty Promotions and Tenure Announced
The University of San Francisco announced promotions and tenure advancements for 17 faculty and librarians on March 26. Promotions are effective beginning this fall.
Two tenured professors in the College of Arts and Sciences, Associate Professors Rachel Crawford, English, and Andrew Heinze, history, were promoted to full professor. Eight other faculty in the College were given tenure and promoted to associate professor, including Joao Amaral, biology; Yoko Arisaka, philosophy; Kevin Chun, psychology; Jeremy Howell, exercise and sports science; Tom Lucas, S.J., fine and performing arts; Tom MacDonald, environmental science; Patrick Murphy, politics; and Bruce Wydick, economics.
The following four faculty were promoted from assistant to associate professor and advanced to tenure: Sylvia Flatt, College of Professional Studies; Lanna Andrews, School of Education; Judith Harr, School of Nursing; and Todd Sayre, School of Business and Management. Alice Kaswan, School of Law, was promoted from associate to full professor and given tenure. Of the Gleeson Library/Geschke Center faculty, Joe Garity and John Hawk were promoted from associate librarian to librarian.
Lani Guinier Speaks at Law School Symposium
 Lani Guinier, a Harvard University law professor and former President Bill Clinton’s controversial nominee to head the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, expounded on why the legal profession must teach a power-sharing model of jurisprudence rather than one dominated by winners and losers in a March 16 speech sponsored by the School of Law’s student law journal.
“What other ways are there of learning, of lawyering?” Guinier asked. “How about sharing power in a way that’s sustainable?”
Guinier’s speech closely followed the thesis of her book, The Miner’s Canary, which uses the metaphor of a canary used to signal environmental toxicity in mines to explain why minorities and women do not perform as well as white men in law school.
“The argument in my book is that people of color and women, who are often outsiders in law school, have been excluded. It’s an atmosphere, an attitude of the mind,” Guinier said. “We need to make a space of learning, not just of winning.”
Guinier’s speech, billed as a symposium on the dynamics of the legal profession, was sponsored by the School of Law’s quarterly law journal, Law Review. Other speakers included San Francisco Superior Court Judge David A. Garcia.
Homosexuality Symposium on April 21
Combining the fruits of scholarship with new methodologies, speakers at a homosexuality symposium in April will offer ideas about how to reconcile homosexuality with their religions.
Long ignored or denied by the major religions, homosexuality will be openly discussed by scholars, clergy, and laypeople in a symposium titled “New Jewish and Christian Approaches to Homosexuality” from 1–5 p.m. April 21 in McLaren Center. The symposium is sponsored by USF’s Swig Judaic Studies Program and a host of community organizations and churches.
Faculty from Loyola University in Chicago, Loyola Marymount University, and the University of Judaism in Los Angeles will talk about how Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish gays and lesbians can be more comfortable in their faiths.
For information, contact Andy Heinze, director of the Swig Judaic Studies Program, at (415) 422-6231 or email heinzea@usfca.edu.
Celebrating Latin American Culture
The student group Latinas Unidas will celebrate Latin American culture April 4 with its first annual signature event, Celebrando Nuestra Cultura (Celebrating Our Culture).
There will be homemade Latin American food and pastries along with live entertainment from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Harney Plaza. There will also be a performing arts event at 7 p.m. in the Pacific Rim Room, featuring performances by Loco Bloco (a drumming group), Capoeira (Brazilian martial arts and dance), Ballet Folklórico de Mexico (Mexican folk dance), and spoken word.
The cost for the evening event is $1 with a canned food donation or $2 without canned food. Proceeds will benefit Loco Bloco, a Cuban/Afro-Brazilian drum group that recruits youth from the Mission District. Canned food will be donated to the San Francisco Food Bank.
For information, call Cynthia Zavala of Latinas Unidas at (415) 422-8198.
Nominations for Distinguished Teaching Award
Members of USF’s faculty association are invited to nominate themselves or other faculty for the Distinguished Teaching Award. The deadline for applications is April 8. The award carries a $2,500 stipend.
Nominees should send their curriculum vitae, a personal statement, testimonials from students crediting their teaching performance, and samples of course outlines, among other requirements.
For information, contact Martin Claussen, associate professor of history and chair of the nominating committee, at (415) 422-6726 or at claussenm@usfca.edu
Creating a Sustainable Society
Describing a world “collapsing” under the weight of a hectic global market that produces too much waste and pollutants, speakers at a March 15 symposium prescribed slower, sustainable societies for Japan and the United States.
Titled “Junkan Shakai” or “Creating a Sustainable Society in Japan and the United States,” the symposium promoted sustainable energy use, recycling, and a lower rate of consumption for the world’s biggest consumer countries.
“The definition of sustainability is the need to balance the natural ecosystem, society, and the economy,” said Susan Murcott, a lecturer on environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Other lecturers included Saburo Kato, of the Japan Association of Environment and Society for the 21st Century, and Yoko Arisaka, assistant professor of philosophy at USF.
The symposium was sponsored by the Kiriyama Chair for Pacific Rim Studies at the University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim.
Japan’s Wartime Past
The University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim will host a symposium April 22 discussing Japan’s wartime past. Titled “Can Japan Lead? Confronting Japan’s War Memory Problem,” the symposium will include speakers and a panel discussion on why and how Japan should heal its past aggressions against other countries. The symposium will take place from 1-5:30 p.m in the Pacific Rim Room of the Lone Mountain campus.
Keynote speakers will include Iris Chang, a MacArthur Foundation Peace and Cooperation Award recipient; Steven C. Clemens, expert on U.S. foreign policy in Asia; and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. A survivor of Japanese atrocities during its invasion of China is also scheduled to speak.
The event is free for USF students, faculty, and staff. Admission is $20 for the general public and $5 for seniors. For information, call the Center for the Pacific Rim at (415) 422-6357.
Law Enforcement Focus on Terrorism
Police response to terrorism was the theme of USF’s third annual Law Enforcement Leadership Symposium March 25-27 sponsored by the College of Professional Studies’ International Institute of Criminal Justice Leadership.
Chiefs of police from major U.S. cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston discussed new technologies for apprehending terrorists, the ties between drug trafficking and terrorism, and the impact of terrorism on civil rights.
The Institute of Criminal Justice Leadership also presented the 2002 Law Enforcement Leadership Award to San Francisco Police Department Inspector John Sanford, Jr.
 New Look for USF I.D. Cards
A cancelled contract with Bank of America has prompted USF to design and produce new identification cards for students, faculty, and staff.
“We won’t be issuing the card to everyone at the start,” said Singin Dinh, who manages the production and maintainance of the cards. “Rebadging takes a lot of time because you have to hand out each card personally.”
In order to keep his office from being overrun with people interested in the new cards, Dinh plans to advertise the cards to faculty and staff during summer and then promote them to students in the fall. In the meantime, new students and those who need their cards replaced will receive the new cards.
Current cards will remain valid. In addition to a gold background and the USF logo, the new cards will feature a photo of St. Ignatius Church at night.
“They’re a little more dignified, a little more refined,” Dinh said.
Cards were formerly produced with a Bank of America link so card holders could also use them as automatic debit cards. Bank of America decided to cancel the debit card function because USF chose to forego the expense of producing the cards with the necessary logos or embossed lettering needed to meet credit-card standards.
Pride Law Given Award
Representing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, the law school’s Pride Law Association won an award for raising awareness of sexual orientation issues at the 22nd Annual Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) dinner March 21. The award included a $500 check that the club may use to pay for a group activity, to sponsor future seats at the BALIF dinner, or for charitable purposes, said club president Kinna Patel. The dinner also honored Sharon Smith, partner of dog-mauling victim Diane Whipple, for her efforts to legitimize wrongful death suits filed by victims’ same-sex partners.
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