President's Medal awarded to Arthur and Jennie Lee Hansen  Gerlach receives special focus award for paper  Waldow earns grant for polymer research  Five more Fulbrights bring PLU's total to 45  University celebrates second annual Raphael Lemkin Essay Competition  Ingram authors new book, "Wrestling the Ox"  Dennis Cox displays work  Professor chosen association president-elect  PLU honors inspirational banquet  David Olsen inducted into NACDA Hall of Fame  Marriage and Family Therapy professors author books  Three students named Rotary scholars  Permanant chairs dedicated to Mary Baker Russell and George Lagerquist  PLU focuses on 'The Americas' during spring term, adds new Social Sciences minor

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Jennie Lee Hansen '34 and her husband, Arthur, have given over two decades of ardent support to PLU's missions and goals. For their work and dedication, the couple was honored with a President's Medal in March. 

The President's Medal is presented to special individuals who have demonstrated strength in vocation, excellence in professional service and who exemplify Christian values. PLU seeks to emphasize its own objectives in action by honoring people who in their daily lives are fulfilling them.

 PLU has honored 25 individuals with President's Medals since the recognition program began in 1981. Some of the recipients include former Speaker of the House Tom Foley, King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden, former Washington State Secretary of Transportation Duane Berentson, famous anthropologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl, and former ELCA Bishop (Northwest Washington Synod) Lowell Knutson.

 Since the early 1960s, Arthur, the retired founder of a food services and distribution company in Hawaii, and Jennie, a retired teacher, have actively recruited students on behalf of PLU, as well as advocated for the life and mission of the university. 

For more than 20 years, the Hansens have provided important support for students through Q Club gifts, special challenge grants and the Jennie Lee Hansen Scholarship. PLU President Loren Anderson presented the Hansens with the award at a party thanking the national leadership of the Make a Lasting Difference campaign, of which Arthur and Jennie were honorary co-chairs.

Kent Gerlach, education professor, co-authored an education text, "Supervising Paraeducators in School Settings," published by Pro-ed Publishers, Austin, Texas. Gerlach was also recently honored at a reception at the Council for Exceptional Children Conference in Salt Lake City, receiving a Special Focus Award from the Council of Administrators of Special Education for his paper "Current Issues Affecting the Training and Employment of Paraeducators."

Dean Waldow, assistant professor of chemistry, was awarded a National Science Foundation Research in Undergraduate Institutions grant of $31,900 for 1997 for his project titled "Phase Separation Kinetics of Ternary Polymer Blends Containing a Random Copolymer." His project delves into the physics of materials. In simple terms, he looks at how different kinds of plastics mix, and don't mix, together. The grant support begins in June and covers the first year of what is expected to be a three-year project. Additional funding for 1998 and 1999, contingent upon scientific progress and availability of funds, will bring the total project award to $87,000. The award will provide summer stipends for two student researchers each summer, as well as Waldow's own summer salary and supplies, travel and equipment.

Five new Fulbright Scholars were named this spring. The new crop brings PLU's total number of Fulbright Scholars to 45 since 1975. Rodney Swenson, professor of languages and literature, has been instrumental in the students' success.

 Jen Hamlow, a senior communications major, leaves for Salzburg, Austria, in September. She will study public relations from the European perspective.

 Martha Pleasance, a senior German and global studies major, leaves this fall for the German state of Saxony, part of the former East Germany. She will be teaching English as a Second Language to German high school students.

 Brian Perron, a 1996 grad who majored in legal studies and German, leaves for the University of Rostock, Germany, in August. Perron, who works in the California General Attorney's office in Sacramento, will compare Germany's cosmetics, brewing and retail food industries to determine whether the packing law has lowered competition in these markets by raising the prices for their products more than necessary to meet changes in production costs.

 Kristi Carpenter, a 1994 grad and Spanish teacher at Kentridge High School in Kent, Wash., will attend a seminar for teachers of Spanish in Chile.

 Annette Goldstein, a senior education and Spanish major, will study bilingual education in Bolivia sometime this fall. Goldstein, who is minoring in ESL and cross-disciplinary studies, is interested in learning how the brain acquires a second language.

FROM LEFT, senior Erin Hess, history Professor Chris Browning, junior Kristen Kehayas, President Loren Anderson and PLU Regent Don Morken '63, celebrate the achievements of Hess and Kehayas at the second annual Raphael Lemkin Essay Competition Awards Banquet in April. Kehayas, a junior nursing student and ROTC cadet, won first place in the competition and Hess, a senior English major, won second place. The prestigious competition, brought to PLU by Morken and his colleague Bruce Littman, judges essays on the issue of genocide, a term coined by Raphael Lemkin. Other schools with a Lemkin competition include Yale, Duke, Hamilton College and Colgate University.

Paul Ingram, religion professor, wrote "Wrestling with the Ox: 

A Theology of Religious Experience." The book will be published by The Publishing Group this fall. Ingram also wrote 10 

individual entries on Japanese Buddhism for the 1997 edition of the Oxford Dictionary of World Religions from Oxford 

University Press, and is currently co-editing a book of essays, "Sound of Liberating Truths," with Sally B. King of James 

Madison University. Ingram was selected as president-elect of the Pacific Northwest Region of the American Academy of Religion during its annual meeting in Langley, B.C.

 Art Professor Dennis Cox's work was on display at an exhibition of prints during February in the Willard Gallery at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. The exhibition was sponsored by the Northwest Print Council of Portland, Ore.

 Dick Olufs, political science associate professor, was chosen as president-elect of the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association at its 48th annual conference in Portland, Ore. The association's main interests are scholarly research, current national and international issues, and teaching materials.

 Commitment to individuals, community and justice are characteristics that build mentors. PLU recognized five women with such inspiring attributes at the first Women's History Month Banquet on March 12.

 Joanne Eager, secretary of communication and theatre, was recognized for her outstanding office management and support of department staff and students. 

Beth Kraig, associate professor of history, was honored for her support of equality for all people, particularly those of sexual minority. 

Sara Officer, assistant dean and professor of physical education, was recognized for her work with issues surrounding poverty and homelessness, including her January on the Hill class. 

Pat Roundy, director of the Accelerated Undergraduate Re-Entry for Adults program, was recognized for her dedication to the program and non-traditional students. 

Barb Wick, Harstad Hall housekeeper, was honored for her contribution to student success through friendship and maintaining a clean living environment in the residence halls.

 David Olson, former director of athletics and dean of physical education at PLU (1968-1996) is one of 12 highly respected athletics administrators to be inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame this month. The ceremony takes place on June 16 in Cleveland, Ohio.

 The 1997 Hall of Fame class includes the following colleges: Ohio State University, Gloucester County College, University of Iowa, Gannon University, Vanderbilt University, Iowa State University, College of Wooster, Fort Valley State University, Brandeis University, Penn State University and Central Methodist College.

 Olson, a 1989 NAIA Hall of Fame inductee, expanded the university's athletic program from 12 to 19 varsity men's and women's sports. During his tenure, PLU won nine NAIA national titles, three in football and women's soccer, two in softball and one in women's cross country; garnered 167 conference championships and 25 conference all-sports awards. He also held many regional and national leadership positions.

 Cheryl Storm and Thomas Todd, marriage and family therapy professors, co-edited two books: "The Complete Systemic Supervisor: Context, Philosophy & Pragmatics," and "The Reasonably Complete Systemic Supervisor Research Guide." Charles York and Teresa McDowell, also from the marriage and family therapy program, authored several chapters in each of the books.

 Rotary International named three PLU students as Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars. Laetitia Thompson received a two-year $22,000 scholarship to study international business in Belgium. Tayah Rathje will study political science in Panama City for one year with a $22,000 scholarship. Melissa Koshel was awarded a six-month $17,000 Cultural Ambassadorial Scholarship to study Spanish in Salamanca, Spain. 

Rotary International sponsors one of the largest and most international scholarship programs in the world. Scholars study abroad, serving as unofficial "ambassadors of goodwill." In 1996, 1,215 scholarships were awarded to students to study in the country of their choice, with travel expenses, tuition, room, board, books and institutional costs covered.

 

George Lagerquist snips the dedicatory ribbon to his chair at a special ceremony in February. Several Choir of the West members, including junior vocal performance major Angela Kellogg, carried the chairs out of the wings as a part of the surprise for Lagerquist and Mary Baker Russell.

 Never will Mary Baker Russell or George Lagerquist be without a seat in the music building they helped to create. As two people who have given much to PLU's music program, they have been given something back: their own chairs.

 When the Choir of the West returned from its annual tour to give a homecoming performance in February, the special gifts were given. At a special pre-concert ceremony led by President Anderson, Lagerquist and Russell were each presented with their very own chairs, forever reserved for them in Lagerquist Concert Hall. On one arm of each chair is a small silver dedication plaque.

As part of a project to internationalize PLU using the Pacific Rim as a unifying theme, spring term was celebrated across campus as "The Americas Semester."

 The Americas provided a framework to compare and contrast the diverse historical, political, social, economic and cultural experiences of peoples of Canada, the US, Latin America and the Caribbean. All this materialized in the form of classes and events for PLU and the community.

  The schedule included an afternoon conference on food issues in the new world order, and an all-day conference on the politics of language and identity in the Americas. Andean, Native American and Brazilian musicians performed at the "Music at the Crossroads in the Americas" concert. The Humanities Film Series and the Feminist Scholarship Series both featured Americas topics, and classes from "Comparative Slavery" to "Women's Literature of the Americas" also helped develop an understanding of these issues.

 Also, the Social Sciences Division added a minor in The Americas. Students must take four required and 16 elective hours, and must take a composition and conversation course in a language spoken in the Americas, other than their native language.