For the Spirit of Boxer

By Kenneth Colman '84 

My memories of Boxer flashes with Boxer II include mobs of students struggling to get the Boxer for themselves or their groups’ keeping. There was an energy on campus following a flash that helped make me realize I was part of a special place.

It brought students together sometimes in ways they would never have before. It took planning and organizing to get Boxer and have him in a safe place before another was able to.Once in possession, there were many nights in McCormick Hall where we would plan flashes to create a buzz of Boxer pride across campus. It was a way to bring crowds to sporting events and have a pride in black and red.

I just read a history of Boxer, and how he came to campus the first time and how the tradition of Boxer grew over the years. You can read that history here: www.pacificu.edu/boxercentral/about/documents/boxerhistory.pdf.

Boxer was made and created in China brought and made as a gift in the late 1890’s. Boxer, I believe, triggers the very spirit of Pacific University and connects us to those who brought this tradition to Pacific 112 years ago. Every flash and every scrub to be the possessor of Boxer has built a pride and memories of our years at Pacific University. So as Boxer, or a piece of Boxer returns to campus, we need to remember that we are all connected to this long tradition of Boxer pride. Our education and our years at Pacific have taken us all over the world to continue to learn and give to the world working at making it a better place.

For those who have had a chance to have Boxer, you know what I am talking about, for those who long to hold and flash Boxer your time will come. We all need to remember that we are connected to a long tradition where Boxer has watched over many alumni all over the world in many different situations.

I would like to think that as each one of us has gotten our diplomas, moved out into the world using the gifts of learning to think for ourselves and creating better places wherever we are, we have Boxer watching over us.


May the pride and the spirit live on in all of us.

Colman '84 is a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and currently lives in Washington state. 

Questing for New, Empowering Knowledge

Maile '10 posing with his new state's sign

By David Maile '10 

 The Pacific University community is familiar with disparate disciplines of the academy. As undergraduate students, we tenuously and vigorously questioned, critiqued, and masticated some heady scholarship; such theory and/or data may have come from ontologies founded by scientists, social scientists, humanists, or lexicon lovers of words like “ontology.” The point is that each of us can identify a time where our situated experience brought us closer to an opportunistic quest for knowledge.

At the heart of our sojourns for understanding and explanation, we all must admit our privilege. Coming from Honolulu, Hawaii as an undergraduate student to Pacific, I was very fortunate. I had, and still have, a family system consisting of familial relatives and friendly relations. This dyad constitutes my support from an emotional, physical, and monetary standpoint. With much of these foundations, I have been given a significant amount of opportunities.

The opportunity that I am currently situated in identifies me as a “New Mexican,” not be mistaken for an “old Mexican” or “Mexican.” After graduate school at the University of Portland (graduating in 2012), I was fortunate enough to be admitted to the Ph.D. program at the University of New Mexico (now you get it) in Albuquerque.

In my research, I hope to make sense out of human experience through a lens of intercultural communication. Interestingly, I reflexively enter a discipline that allows for subjective considerations of privilege, power, and social justice.

I enter the field as a result of conscientious ambition to return power to my cultural identity/group (i.e. Native Hawaiian) by means of crafting my critical intercultural communication standpoint (e.g. Postcolonialism, identity negotiation/formulation). Inherently, this is a lonely, privileged position to maintain but the roads less traveled are often hidden from the busy “Waikiki-type” foot traffic.

Okay, so, I’ve fulfilled my Public Speaking duty as a current instructor of that respective course at UNM by making my quest for knowledge inclusive AND fostering rapport for our privileged positions (let’s see: those are also known as “topic significance/relevance” and “speaker credibility/ethos”).

Remember, I like to use the word “ontology,” drink coffee because it sparks my creativity, and to be attracted to sight-impaired individuals with impressive spectacles (regular eye glasses are infatuating, too).

My journey from the calcified walls of Marsh Hall and the spooky, sterile basement of Walter Hall has been full of apprehension and terror.

To me, this is the only way to live life—on my toes rather than my heels. I don’t wish to be a model citizen, student, or individual. I simply aspire to pursue my passions, what I love, and I encourage you all to do the same. Instead of allowing our fears and apprehensions to cripple our abilities, break down the barriers of inability and push through the front lines of Western, Anglo-Christian, and elitist agencies and structures.

On August sixth, I drove, with my long-time friend Adrian Shipley '09, MAED '11, about 1,500 miles to a place I’d never visited, physically seen, or understood in order to be challenged—because that is the purpose of a quest, to problematize and seek answers.

Whether you are/were a non-traditional, undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral degree seeker, our objectives persist in adventuring for self-betterment, educational attainment, and lived experience. Know that you are not alone in the financial burdens, social awkwardness/antiquities, and powerful epistemological (i.e. knowledge) crescendos. My questions in life are comparable to your foundational quests. Our privileged, educational world is riddled with dichotomous and disparate decisions. I wish that my passage into a power-laden and power-distributing academic realm echoes a model of citizenship, open-mindedness, and adventure.

Find your passage.

Maile '10  is now working at the University of New Mexico. He was heavily involved with the Speech and Debate team at Pacific. He was also involved with Track and Field, Student Giving Committee, Hawai'i Club and Phi Eta Sigma (Honor Society).

From Boxer to Broadcaster

Trotter '12 with her parents during Commencement 2012

By Molly Jean Trotter '12

During the spring of 2012, I applied for reporting jobs at more than 70 news stations. I heard back from a few, but nothing regarding getting a job. 

In the spring, I took an electronic journalism class from Grant McOmie '75, from KGW's "Grant's Getaways" and Jeff Kastner to learn the ins and outs of the broadcast journalism world. By taking that class, I really learned what it is like to be a "backpack journalist" I filmed, reported, edited and produced my own story.

Before spring break, Grant called Rick Howard, the news director and Ktvl, News 10 in Medford, Ore. Rick and I scheduled an interview during spring break, where I had the chance to visit the station and meet a few faces. The interview lasted all of 20 minutes, so I thought nothing of it.

On May 3, I received a call from Rick Howard offering me a three year contract with Ktvl. You can imagine my excitement.

For someone who didn't go to a school with a big journalism department, like U of O and ASU, I was so excited that they offered ME a job! I knew all my hard work had to pay off, but I didn't know how long it would take for someone to notice.

Currently, I am a daily reporter at Ktvl and I cover every topic out there. On Friday nights, starting August 31, I will be covering high school football and basketball in the winter.

Trotter '12 hard at work at the station

I love my job! I work about nine hours a day, but those nine hours are packed full of filming, reporting, editing and writing scripts for my story for the newscasts that day. It is a lot of work, but every day is a new day and I am continually getting better at it. You have no idea how good it feels to pick a major, go to school for it and get out in the real world to use those skills and actually LOVE your job. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Even though Pacific doesn't have a broadcast journalism department, I did what I could as a journalism major and taking film classes to get where I am today. I will always be grateful for the connections I have made at Pacific.

My ultimate goal is to be a sportscaster at ESPN. I cannot wait for my job to take me somewhere big someday. 

Trotter '12 was a journalism major at Pacific and also enjoys photography, volleyball and outdoor recreation. She describes herself as a "sports junkie" and that ESPN never leaves her television! More more information on KTVL you can visit the website, www.ktvl.com.

Education to Activism

By Garrett Russell '08 

Russell '08 during his first cross country trip

 An education in multiple forms is a gift of magnitude to any individual seeking to find their own path. My education at Pacific University gifted me more than the role of being a student, or graduate. I discovered I was a traveler, globe hopping with Ellen Hastay's service learning journeys in the great corners of this planet. I found a passion for studying cultural cause and effect throughout history and my own generation by cooking and walking the streets of Europe with Cheleen Mahar's anthropology travel course.

My education inside and outside the walls of Forest Grove propelled me into a world of connecting the dots in both my own life and the web around me. My miles on foot, bike, ship and plane traveling the U.S. and globe since graduating four years ago has supplemented a foundational process, which has me creating films and web series about the connective human experience in both painful destruction and triumphant solution. Turns out that we are magnificent beings of limitless potential.

From the most ignorant, hateful, malicious and unhappy individuals I have met to the iconic joy spouting, innocent, smiling and surviving poverty-stricken child, there is goodwill somewhere within us. I know this sounds like new-age rhetoric, but all it took to create great patriotism in my spirit for the land, people and being of this beautiful, volatile nation was a simple bike ride for a passionate desire to get those without clean drinking water, an option to a new way of life.

I, who once cracked jokes at the plight of spandex-laden cyclists, or even worse, cycle tourists (with their giant pannier bags and ridiculous bright tractor reflectors) found myself to now be one of them. My dear friend and confidant and photographer, Brittany App and I set off on an unsupported trip from San Diego, Calif. to St. Augustine, Fla. The journey was a total distance of over 3,200 miles with over $15,000 dollars raised for clean water and sanitation in Africa and Asia thus far.

As a tribute to the stories of the magnificent individuals we met along the way, of each region and its water abuses and successes and to highlight the vibrant way of life it has been traveling by bicycle, I directed and edited the short episodic web series, "Water Tension."

This series is my humble piece of the puzzle in our conversation of making positive changes and enacting direct and compassionate solutions into our daily lives and culture for the betterment of the children of seven generations from now. The issue of water is a basic, elemental right to all living beings and connects us all to other issues in this world involving the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of our connected future outcomes.

We are one giant family on this floating orb that sports a Dr. Seuss-like plethora of animals, cultural, geological and environmental diversities. Breath it all in. There are a billion different causes with billions of us strong and waiting to act. It is about taking that education, opportunity, passion, frustration and even apathy, and taking action in this moment. For the sake of your own well-being, for the connected plight of those we care about and the life you claim to want to live, we need to let our differences remain frivolous and stride towards seeing our similarities with celebration and understanding.

It may not be a crazy long bike ride. It may not be a documentary. We all have different forms of expression for change, but unless we all start expressing a lot, soon and with open minds, ears and hearts, that seventh generation and our kids will have a life on this earth in which the beauty may be harder to innately experience.

Pass it on. This is a fine generation of young people on this daily-shrinking digital earth, with an hourly-expanding consciousness. Let us do something about expressing who we truly are and where we would like to end up. Let us each choose our own way to make a gracefully, powerful mark on this collective experience.

Visit Russell's website "Cycling for Water"

And so, I ride on. I currently am 500 miles into what will hopefully be a 15,000 mile bicycle trek that has myself and my partner, Sara Miller ’11, following the four approximate borders of the United States. We started in Northwest Washington and are in western Montana on our way east on our first leg to Bar Harbor, Maine. We serendipitously ride for the cause of clean rainwater and healthcare for the very indigenous I met in the Ecuadorian rainforest with Ellen Hastay on a Pacific travel course in 2007.

The communities we ride for consist of strong and beautiful peoples who have inspired my drive toward activism through film and connecting people to promote peaceful solutions. In solidarity with their fight to save their lands and offspring from pollution created by an American company Texaco/Chevron, we are riding in hopes that our cause will connect with other's causes and that a positive movement of service and revolution will dictate the path we move down together. Cheers to clear skies, fair winds and memories worth having. Peace be your journey.

Russell '08 is the director of GBR Productions, "Giving Untold Stories a Voice." He was a film and video production and anthropology major at Pacific University. In the spare time he has, he is a musician and gardener. He is the middle child from a large multi-ethnic family and enjoys life activities from jumping out of planes to knitting scarves as gifts. Follow Russell's adventures on his blog: http://cyclingforwater.com/blog/

Boxer 'Ohana on Oahu

By Logan Okita '06  

Pacific alumni at the Oahu Boxer 'Ohana Reception on 7/20

I recently attended the Oahu Boxer 'Ohana Reception for alumni, parents, and friends of Pacific University. It was held at Kapiolani Community College as a part of the Hawaii student registration weekend festivities.  What a great event!  

There was a great turn out with a wide range of participants. It was great to see so many new faces! The food was prepared by students in KCC’s culinary arts program, a great group of current students shared about their experience at Pacific, we heard about the new business school opening, and played a fun BINGO game related to Pacific. Can you find someone at your next Pacific gathering who has touched Boxer, met their significant other while in college, and rode the 57 (TV Highway) bus? The prizes for the games were handy Pacific gear like a blanket, a portfolio, and tumblers. A group of us had so much fun that we went out afterward for more dessert to end the night.

Now I may be biased because I helped with some of the coordination by contacting alumni from the Class of 2000 to the Class of 2012 along with several other alumni and parent volunteers, but these events are always a lot of fun. 

Each year, we work together to promote the January and July events to encourage others to attend and get to know more about what is going on at Pacific. When I first attended one of these receptions, I was scared about not knowing anyone, but I remembered what I loved the most about Pacific, no matter what your relationship with the person or your age, everyone is a part of the family. Everyone at the events is welcoming. 

Okita '06 and her mom after Honolulu Marathon in 2011.

You run into parents of your friends who want to know what you have been up to, classmates that you’ve lost touch with, and in July, professors who impacted your life and career or are now teaching your favorite course. Both events are a great way to hear about what is happening at Pacific, what has changed since the last time you were in Forest Grove, and what the plan is for the future. They are also a great opportunity for networking to build your client base because who wouldn’t want to support someone else from Pacific?

I enjoy getting phone calls from the students during Phonathon, especially when I can answer their questions about teaching in Hawaii and encourage them to come here to teach. While I wish I could give more to Pacific to financially support what they do, I have found I can give back by volunteering for these events. 

I hope if you graduated since 2000 and live on Oahu, you receive my emails about the events, come out to the January and July events to represent your class, and have joined our Hawaii Pacific Young Alumni group on Facebook where we post about things happening at Pacific and arrange our own happy hours to catch up.  I’m looking forward to seeing even more alumni, parents, and friends at the next event!

Okita '06 teaches second grade at Fern Elementary School in Kalihi, Hawaii and will start her seventh year this fall. She majored in Education and Learning with a minor in Psychology and she went on to earn a Master's of Education in Curriculum Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, doing craft projects, and exercising (walking, turbokick, and boot camp).

Motivation Mojo

By Shannon (Janes) Hess ’06

Everybody talks about motivation but not many people have it. 

It’s that energy that gets you up and moving an hour earlier each morning to work out or that resolve to drive to the gym before we head home. We call it motivation, but it answers to many other names – desire, ambition, need.

Hess '06 before and after a kick of motivation mojo.

Motivation is tricky thing. It smacks you in the face on January 1 when we make our New Year’s resolution; when we no longer fit into our favorite pair of jeans; when we get winded from keeping up with the kids at the park; when we think about that upcoming spring vacation in a swimsuit. We all get motivated – for a while. The question is how to stay motivated. I think the key to understanding motivation is to understand habits. A habit is the status quo, the comfortable, the ordinary, the rut. It’s the place we all inhabit and most of the time it serves us well.

We make a habit of brushing our teeth before bed, where we grocery shop, of working to a schedule, driving the same way home from work, or putting the left leg into my pants before the right one. Habit is unconscious behavior. It requires no thought, uses little energy; it is our automatic pilot through life.

To see how a habit works move a trashcan from one side of your desk to the other. It will probably be several days of catching yourself before the waste basket’s new location becomes the norm again.

Habit is the path of least resistance. That is why it is so hard to change – our minds or our bodies. In fact, the only thing that can change a habit is conscious energy, conscious thought and choice. When we are ‘breaking’ a habit we feel resistance. The comfortable ‘old way’ calls to us. It is so much easier not to change, to go with the flow of the past.

We all know our motivation to workout will falter. We all know our initial desire will fade away. Knowing this, what can we do to keep our motivation mojo energized? 

Here are some suggestions:

Set realistic goals: Nothing is more discouraging than setting goals that are too hard or too high. Break that big goal down into smaller steps that are easier to meet. Feel proud each time you reach one.

Focus on the process: View your workout as an end in itself. Yes, you have a larger goal in mind but be present in this moment, in this day’s program and enjoy that first. Pat yourself on the back every single time you complete your workout.

Prepare for temptation: Admit that you may sometimes be tempted to skip your workout and be ready with good answers.

Schedule your workout: This means actually scheduling your workout times on your calendar, cell phone, whatever. Make a commitment to your workout time with the same seriousness as you schedule a business appointment.

Work out with a partner: This works because it helps keep you accountable. If you don’t show up for your workout you not only disappoint yourself but your partner.

Finally, don’t be so hard on yourself. Yes, you want to lose weight, get fit or perform better, but don’t put yourself down with a lot of negative self-talk when you occasionally slip up. After all, we’re only human. When you do miss a session, examine why it happened, look at the temptation and be ready for that resistance the next time it rears its head.

Hess '06 played basketball and softball while studying at Pacific. Since her time at Pacific, she married Jordan Hess and is now a mother to two daughters. She is a Certified Health Coach from Take Shape for Life. Learn more here: www.GetFitAndLiveHealthy.tsfl.com

Discovering the Bonfire and Noise Parade

By Jessica Giles

71 foot bonfire from Homecoming '67

“The falling leaves, the crisp night air, the cheering from the grandstand and the blazing fire - these things tell us - fall is here.” This quote was taken from the Class of 1954’s yearbook. What intrigued me about this quote was “the blazing fire” as that is what my search was all about.

In planning for Homecoming 2012, we wanted to showcase a few of the traditional events as segments in our monthly alumni eNews, particularly the Noise Parade and Bonfire. So here I am, only five months in to my employment at Pacific, and I am writing about a tradition I have never experienced.

This is where my search begins.

Of course I’ve already been told the essentials of the Noise Parade and Bonfire, but to just write about that is not much of an article. I wanted to dig deep, get to the roots, and find where, when and how this tradition began.

I started my search by talking to a few members of the University community. Steve Klein, Director of University Center and Student Activities, took me a little bit deeper with his stories of outhouses being at the top of the bonfire which was created by the freshman and ownership of the Noise Parade belonging to the Greeks. Jeri Dobbs ’58 shared his memories of the multiple days spent “engineering” the bonfire, how it blazed two to three stories high, and when it was lit, it was “the most spectacular thing seen.”

These conversations fed my desire to know more about the traditions. I spent days researching yearbooks and archived copies of The Index in hope to find the answers to my questions. What I found was inspiring, but what I didn’t find was a little disappointing.

What I can tell you about the tradition of the Bonfire and Noise Parade is this:

Queen Virginia lights the bonfire during Homecoming '69

• The first yearbook to mention the Bonfire was in 1912 and the first index reference to a Parade and Bonfire was in 1909.
• The Noise Parade and Bonfire was held the night before football games.
• The football team and coaches gave speeches around the fire getting the crowd amped for the game the next day.
• The freshman did indeed build the fires, back then they were referred to as “frosh” or “rooks” and the Bonfire was sometimes called the “Rook Bonfire.”
• In the beginning, the Noise Parade was led by the marching band with crowds following behind them through the town singing and chanting Pacific spirit.
• There was some sort of “serpentine” or “serpent” involved in the Noise Parade for some of the years. It led the parade in some way.
• Competition between opposing teams often meant for a prematurely lit bonfire which often led students to burning a creation of the opposing team’s mascot in the bonfire.
• The Homecoming queen would often light the bonfire.
• The first reference to Greeks in the Noise Parade was in 1926; however it was referenced as a separate parade from the actual Noise Parade.
• The first year to recognize an award for best entry in the Noise Parade was in 1934 and was given to the Gamma Sigma Fraternity.
• Each year the bonfire was reportedly bigger than the year before, however in 1967 the bonfire reached a height of 71 feet, which was the tallest one I found record of.

The Alpha Zeta fraternity at Noise Parade in '46

What I can’t tell you about the tradition is this:

• When the first Noise Parade and Bonfire was.
• Why the responsibility of building the bonfire was left to the freshman.
• When the Noise Parade was taken over as a Greek event.
• What exactly the serpentine was and when that tradition started and ended.
• If the 1967 bonfire was truly the tallest in history.
• Plus a whole bunch more…

When I sat down to write my article for the Alumni eNews, I realized I don’t really have an article to write. With so many holes still in my story, what I would have written would have been from imagination rather than facts. Not to say that wouldn’t have been interesting. What I don’t know is what wasn’t documented on paper, but instead stored in the memories of Pacific’s alumni. 

So what do you remember about this tradition? Can you help fill in any of my blanks? I would love to hear more about this long lived tradition and hopefully fill in some of the gaps. We can add your memories to the Memory Books given out during the weekend. To fill out a memory book form visit www.pacificu.edu/events/homecoming/memories.cfm

I hope to hear these stories and more at Homecoming 2012, September 28-30. Join us in celebration. Registration will be available soon at pacificu.edu/homecoming.

Giles is the Associate Director of Alumni Relations at Pacific University. Originally from St. Pete, Florida, Giles moved to Oregon to pursue a degree in Marketing and Advertising Management from Portland State University where she graduated in 2009. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, home projects and planning her wedding in spring of 2013.