In response to Governor Schwarzenegger’s request today for state
agencies to cut the pay of state workers to the federal minimum wage until a budget is
passed, California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed said that CSU employees
will continue to receive their regular paychecks while the university seeks ways to
cooperate with the state to minimize the impact on the state general fund. While CSU is
not under direct executive authority and subject to the requirement, Governor
Schwarzenegger has requested that CSU and a number of other state entities assist in the
effort.

“We are working to ensure that CSU employees will receive their regular paychecks and
can expect their normal compensation until a new budget is signed,” said Reed. “At the
same time, we are looking at paying compensation with alternative revenue sources other
than the state general fund in an effort to cooperate with the Governor and the legislature
in this challenging budget environment.”

Gov. Schwarzenegger has announced his intent to issue an order to cut the pay of about
200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until a budget is
signed in an effort to avert a cash crisis. The budget deadline was July 1, and without a
signed budget soon, the state has indicated it may run out of cash and be unable to borrow
the billions of dollars needed to meet the state’s financial commitments.

The Governor has also called for a hiring freeze of all non-critical functions. For the
CSU, this will mean “we are going to be prudent in our hiring, but the CSU needs to be
prepared to serve the record number of students that will be enrolling on campuses for the
fall semester beginning in August. To be responsive, the CSU will need to hire faculty
and staff to help meet the needs of those students,” said Reed.

In addition to the CSU, the Governor has requested that other state entities including the
University of California, California Community Colleges, the California Public Utilities
Commission, constitutional officers, and legislative and judicial branches, assist with
similar efforts to help preserve the state’s cash supply during the budget impasse.

“KHSU is the most listened to radio station on the North Coast and I know Elizabeth’s many colleagues and supporters join me in expressing our appreciation for her efforts on behalf of HSU and KHSU,” Dr. Gunsalus said.

Called Competitive Intelligence, the pilot year of the program will be anchored by Adrienne Harling, a regional research consultant with a master’s degree in Library and Information Science. She founded the Klamath Salmon Natural History Library in Orleans in 2002, securing a $14,000 grant and supplying a strategic plan and budget blueprint.

Competitive Intelligence is information about a company’s rivals, customers, markets and industries that can equip it with a competitive edge. Businesses learn a great deal about their potential customers and their competitors’ performance in attracting them.

Active support of local, growth-oriented companies with high caliber research is a crucial component of a successful economic development strategy for communities that emphasize building their own entrepreneurial talent, instead of recruiting industry from out of the area. This strategy is called “economic gardening.”

In her new role with the OECD, Harling will assist Redwood Coast businesses with customized research in six industry sectors that have been identified as having the highest potential economic impact in the region: diversified health care, niche manufacturing, specialty agriculture, management and innovation services, investment services, and building and systems construction and maintenance.

“I’ll help our local businesses grow using reliable strategic information,” said Harling, who for five years has been providing natural resources research to agencies, tribes and other organizations in the Klamath River basin. “Our Competitive Intelligence Research Service will strengthen local economic development, helping our entrepreneurs to make informed, critical decisions about their businesses. The research will be customized, concise and actionable so that businesses can address specific issues efficiently. This kind of research is very expensive on the open market, so it’s a wonderful start-up opportunity that HSU is able to provide these services for free this year, and at a reduced cost in future years.”

Financing comes from a $66,000 start-up grant from the Headwaters Fund of Humboldt County, in cooperation with the North Coast Small Business Development Center. Harling will operate out of Humboldt State’s OECD at 707/826-3924.

Maggie Gainer, OECD’s Director, said, “I am thrilled that this new C.I. research service and Adrienne’s expertise will apply the tremendous information resources, databases and research tools at the University to help local firms expand and compete in national and global markets. It’s a perfect role for HSU in the region’s economic development.”

Visit Growing Local Economies for additional information about Competitive Intelligence.

Campus access north of Harpst on B Street will be channeled through the Library parking lot entry, via Plaza Avenue to Laurel Drive.

Artist’s rendering of landscape design around Harry Griffith Hall. The landscaping is part of the proposed access upgrade project.

A 24-7 detour for emergency vehicles will be located at the corner of Harpst and B Streets, in concert with the Arcata Fire Department and the University Police Department.

The work marks the final project portion of the year-long remodel of Harry Griffith Hall that includes better access for the disabled, a new elevator, new fire alarm and refurbished finishes. Financing comes from capital renewal funds and campus deferred-maintenance accounts.

The new Eureka Waterfront Litigation Collection is available to researchers and the public at . It comprises upwards of 1,000 documents, maps, charts, photographs and newspaper clippings.

The records were compiled by the legal firm that represented the City of Eureka from 1968 to 1981. The case had a complex history rooted in federal swamp lands and state tideland law and cases. The collection includes historical maps, comtemporary aerial photographs and archaelogical findings. The city donated it to Humboldt State in 1984.

The website has a finding aid that serves as an “index” to the contents. It also has a slide show that extends the physical exhibit and places the collection in context. Scanned images show some of the maps and photographs.

HSU students were directly involved with the project as part of their studies. Suzanne Guerra, in the master’s program in Environment and Community, has been engaged with the issues posed by the collection for a number of years in her work as a cultural resources consultant. She conceptualized and designed the exhibit and prepared an online version for the collection website. Jacqualine Faria, who is completing her bachelor’s in English and preparing to seek a master’s degree in Library and Archives Management, cleaned and inventoried the many parts of the collection. She researched the context for a paper for her history research methods class.

HSU Library Special Collections staff Joan Berman and Edie Butler guided the many aspects of the project to its fruition.

A grant from the Tracy Memorial Trust Fund, under the Humboldt Area Foundation, supported the processing of the collection and the preparation of the exhibit.

Other HSU Library Humboldt Room resources recently introduced to the public include the Northwestern California Forest Communities project in January 2007 and An Arcata Ago, an exhibit in several venues this year as part of the celebration of Arcata’s 150th anniversary. It features photographs from HSU’s Ericson and Shuster Collections and will be presented in the Library Lobby in the fall.

Hansen celebrates her wedding anniversary in August and has already “hinted” to her husband that the perfect gift would be a ladder—with a paint tray!

An aspiring science illustrator, Hansen laughs when asked if she believes her anniversary wish will come true. “There’s a good chance,” she says knowingly.

Her husband served as Man Friday, helping Hansen with the precise measurements and surface preparation necessary to create an imposing mural of dark brown silhouettes that portray, among others, a nine-feet tall wooly mammoth, a flightless, non-flying “terror bird” (diatryma), a rhino and bats with wingspans of three to four feet.

“The whole idea is to convey size, to show how big these prehistoric creatures really were,” says Museum Director Melissa Zielinski.

While pursuing a concentration in science illustration, Hansen learned about the Natural History Museum’s highly valued internships from Art Professor Teresa Stanley. It took Hansen six weeks to complete the mural drawings when Zielinski commissioned the project in August, 2007. Committee approval was completed last January, but inclement weather and final exams prevented Hansen from brandishing her paint roller until the closing days of May.

She completed the mural in a month, based on spaces she had mapped out for each silhouette. The creatures chosen for illustration were not a foregone conclusion. Size, impact and visual recognition were key criteria. For example, Hansen and Zielinski considered using a prehistoric whale, but realized it would look as if it were flying, not swimming, on a background of uniform color.

Hansen’s drawings measured one foot by four feet, inscribed on engineering graph paper. After nightfall, she and her husband used an overhead projector to shine the images on the museum’s north wall. Wielding a long piece of floor trim as a stick, they marked off one foot increments up to 10 feet. This ensured that the scales remained accurate as they copied the drawings from the overhead transparencies onto the wall. The projector enabled her to trace the outlines with a graphite pencil onto the surface in the dark, then return in the day time to paint the figures.

Hansen says one of her biggest “lessons learned” is that a large-scale mural is definitely a team effort. Heretofore, she labored solo as an artist, but murals require shared effort. The museum project gave her “a whole new respect for the murals I see around town here and in Eureka. To work outdoors on that scale and achieve the color, the depth and the detail—and then cope with North Coast weather!—well, it’s just phenomenal.”

Hansen is ready to have at it again, as long as she has a mentor. “There must be specific tricks they use, working with giant grids and traversing a scaffold. I don’t have the experience or know-how to take something like that on by myself,” she says.

Delighted with the compliments she has received from the first young observers of her new mural, Hansen smiles as she recalls two girls, about fourth or fifth grade, who confided to her in the gravest, hushed tones, “You know, this is what they really look like,” they declared. “That’s the size they really are!”

Hansen is uncertain what she will do when she completes her degree in another year—she has a great deal of teaching experience—but she is already at work on illustrations for the museum’s bee exhibits. It is clear her success with the mural is an inspiration to her as well as the museum’s visitors.

On Monday, July 7, friends, family, and supporters will join Powell as he crosses the Golden Gate Bridge at 7:00 p.m. People will begin gathering for the bridge crossing at 4:00 p.m. Powell is scheduled to speak, before the bridge crossing, at the amphitheater between the Fort Point Mine Depot and the West Bluff Picnic Area in Golden Gate.

Powell says “walking up the California Coast provides the perfect opportunity to slowly shift my life from San Diego to the forests of Humboldt. One step, one breath at a time.”

“This is my service,” Powell adds. “This pilgrimage affirms my dedication to help heal the wounds of humanity and mend our relationship to the earth.”

Powell draws the inspiration for his journey from John Francis’s book “Planetwalker: How to Change your World One Step at a Time,” a gift Powell received for high school graduation.
After reading about Francis’s 22-year walk around the Americas, Powell realized he had talked enough and now “needed to walk the walk.” After a few conversations with Francis he felt ready to hoof it to Humboldt State. The two have plans to meet in Point Reyes and spend a few days walking up the coast together.

Powell embarked on May 23 and spent his first day walking with his father, Allen Ray Powell. “Seth is inspiring me,” says his father.

Once at Humboldt State, the 20-year-old transfer student will begin his academic adventure – creating his own major that combines environmental science with deep ecology – a branch of philosophy that looks at humankind’s relationship with the natural environment.

Along the way Powell has found support. He says, “My big pack and I seem to attract some attention, so I have been meeting some friendly folks.” A man in a grocery store recognized Powell as “the guy walking up the coast.” A family from Idaho invited him into its campsite for dinner. So far, Powell’s found, “people see something in me that sparks a seed in them.” Change starts with individuals and it grows to groups and communities, he says.

Staying in homes, campsites and hotels along the way, Powell says he is trying not to ask for things like food, shelter, or rides but instead stay open to the possibilities.

“This is my own pilgrimage and I’ve got to do what feels right for me. So I’m going to attempt to travel leaving as light an imprint as I can – without killing myself.”

To find out more about Powell’s Pilgrimage visit http://www.mindfulroots.com or http://www.mindfulroots.blogspot.com. For more information about the July 7 Golden Gate Bridge Crossing contact Allen Ray Powell (925) 977-1865, arpowell@holy-flame.net.

Lori Dengler on a field survey in November, 1998, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea, with graduate student Michael Nongas of the University of Papua New Guinea, who was field assistant and translator. Photo credit: Jane Preuss

Campus ceremonies honoring her achievements will be held in the fall.

In approving Professor Dengler’s selection, President Rollin Richmond spotlighted her Redwood Coast and national reputation for saving lives across the globe. “HSU is indeed fortunate to have Dr. Dengler as a distinguished member of our faculty and our students are always eager to study with such an eminent scholar and field expert,” he said.

Dr. Dengler has been a member of illustrious international post-tsunami survey teams, including Crescent City (2006), Indonesia (2005), Southern Peru (2001) and Papua New Guinea (1998).

Troy Nicolini, a professional colleague at the Eureka office of the National Weather Service who authored a letter of recommendation for the award, wrote, “Lori has spent many years developing and compiling a geologic and historic record of tsunamis that have occurred in northwestern California,” synthesizing a wealth of knowledge to serve “as the scholarly bible for all the tsunami hazard mitigation efforts in the region.”

Nicolini added: “Her tsunami inundation maps, in particular, have become the default reference in the region. At any meeting where the tsunami threat is being discussed, you will invariably hear someone ask, ‘What does Lori’s map say?’”

Director of the Humboldt Earthquake Education Center since 1986, Professor Dengler joined HSU in 1979. She is the featured tsunami expert on NOVA’s “Wave That Shook the World” web site and a top leader of Redwood Coast initiatives to improve earthquake and tsunami preparedness. The University’s Department of Geology sits astride the Cascadia subduction zone, which the faculty uses as a natural laboratory for student field research and exercises.

A member of the team that developed the United States National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program in 1995, Dr. Dengler served as California’s scientific representative on the program’s steering committee from 1996 to 2003. She authored the program’s Strategic Implementation Plan for Mitigation Projects in 1998.

In 2007, she was the co-convener of a meeting sponsored by the National Science Foundation to examine future directions for tsunami research in the United States.

The author or co-author of more than 50 journal articles and technical papers, Professor Dengler has also written a number of publications for the general public, including three editions of the North Coast earthquake and tsunami preparedness magazine, “Living on Shaky Ground.” She is currently at work on the fourth edition, scheduled to be released in September.

Dr. Dengler was the first recipient of NOAA’s Richard Hagemeyer Tsunami Mitigation Award for her leadership and role in the Redwood Coast Tsunami Work Group and a host of related community and statewide activities.

She earned her doctorate at UC Berkeley in 1979, where she also earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees. Her research centers on earthquake intensity studies and tsunami and earthquake mitigation.

Dr. Dengler will deliver the 2008 Scholar of the Year lecture on Monday, September 29, 2008, followed by a campus dinner in her honor at a time and location to be announced.

Details are available from the Office of Research and Graduate Studies at (707) 826-5194.

Tess Wilder-Cervantes, Hoopa High School, a member of the Karuk Tribe

Each recipient receives full funding for four years to attend the college of her choice. Those who go on to a graduate degree could potentially receive more than $500,000 if it is in the areas of science, computer science, mathematics, engineering, education, library science or public health.

Alcaraz said, “Here in Burney, I am the only one in my entire family to attend college. I have graduated from school early with a 3.8 GPA.”

Wilder-Cervantes, the Karuk member, plans to return to the reservation to teach composition and literature. She joins her cousin Vikki Preston for the start of classes August 25 at Humboldt State.

Cheyenne Alcaraz, Burney High School, a member of the Pit River Tribe and of Yana and Wintu descent

Blythe George looked at the expense of Dartmouth and realized “the cost of one year is more than my family makes in two. But then with encouragement from my counselors at Indian Education, McKinleyville High School and Educational Talent Search, I applied for the scholarship—and now I’m going to Dartmouth!”

The four North Coast winners are among 1,000 Gates awardees nationwide, selected from more than 13,000 applications. Adrienne Colegrove-Raymond, director of HSU’s Student Academic Services Outreach (SASOP) and Talent Search programs, said, “Because the competition is so great and the application can appear daunting, we have partnered with the American Indian Graduate Center and the Gates Millennium Foundation to establish an annual Gates Scholars Workshop at HSU. There are definitely tips that can give the students an edge.”

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HSU has hosted the workshop for four years, providing a key forum for high school counselors and students to learn how to apply for Gates Scholarships. The SASOP framework supports college-bound disadvantaged students, encouraging them to apply to Humboldt State and other institutions with comprehensive outreach services. It also extends early outreach to elementary and middle schools and coordinates a series of CSU scholarships.

Talent Search is a federal TRiO program, an in-school college entrance initiative for identified students in grades six through 12 who are the first in their families to go to college. Talent Search serves 19 Humboldt County secondary schools.

Established in 1999 and funded initially by a $1 billion grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gates Millennium Scholars Program reduces financial barriers for African-American, Hispanic American, American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian Pacific Islander-American students who possess high academic and leadership promise. The program is designed to enlarge their ranks in engineering, education, mathematics, public health, and the sciences. It fosters the successful completion of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, providing seamless support across them.

Cheek’s Lumberjacks got it done Saturday, earning the NCAA Division II Softball Championship with a 1-0 victory over Emporia State in the event finale. The victory completed an unbeaten march through the nationals winner’s bracket, and capped a 10-game winning streak that began with the Jacks emergence from the loser’s bracket at the regional tournament.

“One high point isn’t better than any other, but I believe in living in the present,” Cheek said. “Right now, this one is best. When we won before, it was best. And I had some great wins in wrestling that were up there.”

Many stars shined for the Jacks again, none brighter than senior pitcher Lizzy Prescott, named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Toiling again one night after throwing a record-setting 17-inning one-hitter, Prescott shut out the Hornets on five hits, striking out 10 and walking none.

“Why not win? Why not us?” Prescott said, following the final game of her collegiate career. “We worked just as hard and we deserved it.”

Humboldt State’s All-American pitcher Lizzy Prescott took HSU to a 1-0 win over Emporia State. Photo Credit: HSU Athletics

Her simple approach to the game belies the complete domination that Prescott displayed while taking on the best in the country. For the week, Prescott posted a 4-0 record, pitching 41 innings and allowing only one earned run for a 0.17 earned run average. She also struck out 52 batters, while walking none.

“Seven innings, you knowm I asked my team for seven and they got it done,” Prescott said. “It felt like a quick game and I was happy about that.”

Prescott had help, to be sure, including heroics from Chrissy Motzny and Natalie Galletly again, both of whom were rewarded by being named to the all-tournament team. Catcher Marissa Slattery was also honored with selection.

Galletly provided the only offensive support Prescott needed with her first-inning blast. With two outs, the junior first baseman drove a Samantha Sheeley pitch over the left field fence for an opposite field home run.

Motzny came up big defensively once again, making another run-saving catch just as she did during Friday’s semifinal contest. This time, Motzny raced in for a diving grab of Angela Mahan’s sinking fly ball, ending the third inning and stranding a runner in scoring position.

“Natalie and Chrissy helped me out a lot,” Prescott said. Thank God they were born. I tell them that all the time, too.”

The big win finished the Jacks season with a 57-18 record that included the California Collegiate Athletic Association regular season championships and West Region title. After finishing off their championship week at the NCAA Division II Spring Sports Festival Closing Ceremonies, they’ll make their way back to Arcata on Sunday,with an approximate 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. arrival at the airport.

Visit the HSU Jacks’ homepage for more Athletics at HSU.