Recent gifts include:

The Graphic Communication (GrC) Department has partnered with Apple Computer, Heidelberg Creo, Kodak Polychrome Graphics, Agfa, Xerox, and other major companies to implement an all-digital workflow.

As a result, students get hands-on experience with the technology that is revolutionizing printing. GrC's Electronic Publishing Laboratory now has a "blue look" with 16 Power Macintosh G3 computers and 21" Apple ColorSync monitors.

Apples also access the direct-to-plate digital thermal imaging system in the Digital Graphics Imaging Lab, and they link to a DocuColor digital printing system provided by Xerox. Apple provided the stations as part of a matching grant in 1999. Also, Heidelberg Creo installed an eight-page Trendsetter 3244 system that electronically images printing plates for GrC's Heidelberg Speedmaster 74 press and Goss Community press which produces The Mustang Daily.

Together with these previously gifted components, the entire system is valued in excess of $2,000,000.

Kodak Polychrome Graphics provided the thermal processing that uses lasers to image the printing plates. This equipment complements other gifts from Agfa (1998) and Xerox (1996-97) that further digitize-and streamline-pre-press and printing processes.

Dr. Harvey Levenson, GrC head, said, " We are now positioned to teach AppleScript and ColorSync which provide automatic solutions to electronic publishing." He credits Professors Michael Blum and Philip Ruggles as the brains behind the Electronic Publishing and Digital Graphics Imaging Labs. Roger Siminoff, in charge of world-wide developer relations for Apple's ColorSync, said, "Cal Poly's GrC faculty recognize the movement to digital technology and have been aligning this new lab to what today's and tomorrow's students need."

Heidelberg Creo's Bill George, National Manager for Print Media, said, "As more printing and publishing companies change to a fully digital computer-to-plate work flow, the demand for experienced professionals will grow. This type of hands-on training at Cal Poly is crucial."

"As more printing and publishing companies change to a fully digital computer-to-plate work flow, the demand for experienced professionals will grow. This type of hands-on training at Cal Poly is crucial."

Bill George
Heidelberg Creo

For the better part of a decade, the Modern Languages and Literatures Department dreamed of replacing their rusty cassette tape lab with a digital facility. In 2000, dream became reality. Willy and Vreni Borner, parents of a Cal Poly student Nicole who minored in German, made a key gift the supplement Cal Poly funds to further the project.

The Borners' donation has enabled us to get the lab up and running as soon as possible," said Bianca Rosenthal, Chair of the Modern Languages and Literatures Department. According to Lab Project Director John Thompson, "The lab is dedicated to the study of world languages and cultures. The lab replaces our traditional tape recorder and headphone language laboratory."

Officially the Poly Lingual International Resource Center (PIRC), the lab is a multimedia teaching and learning facility, compete with a ceiling projector, stereo speakers, and a new Canon digital document camera, so instructors can integrate into their classes a large variety of visual and audio The PIRC was researched and designed by faculty members and students of the Modern Language and Literatures Department, Cal Poly's academic computing service (ITS) and the Chancellor's Strategic Language Initiative (SLI).

Assistant Professor John Thompson was able to coordinate the implementation of the lab after visiting state-of-the-art facilities at many colleges and universities, thanks to a Cal Poly Plan grant, The PIRC contains 22 Dell PCs in a Local Area Network, powered by a high-end video and audio server for the easy storage and use of digitized versions of films, slides, music, language tapes, and other media. The server will, with an upgrade now being beta-tested at the CSU by the SLI, let students consult specialized course materials from other computers on campus and on the Web.

What's next? The department, thanks to yet another Cal Poly Plan grant, will install 15 Apple G4s in the adjoining room 12-105C to serve as a Multimedia Development Lab for CLA students. The grant will also make available specialized software packages allowing students to learn languages not taught at Cal Poly, including several Asian languages. Finally, the facility will be fitted with a satellite dish and subscribe to the international educational television system SCOLA (news and other copyright-free programming from all major and many smaller countries).

"The lab is dedicated to the study of world languages and cultures. The lab replaces our traditional tape recorder and headphone language laboratory."

John Thompson
Lab Project Director

Tevis and Nelson Gifts Enhance Music Programs

A long-time resident of Los Osos has generously endowed a Fund for Visiting Artists in Music in Cal Poly's College of Liberal Arts. "The Fund will allow us to bring new resources to the department that will enrich the program and benefit students directly," said Music Department Chair Clif Swanson. Dean Harry Hellenbrand said, "The gift is essential for the enrichment of our students and the SLO community".

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Alice Parks Nelson of San Luis Obispo also has made a substantial gift to establish the Alice Parks Nelson Orchestral Music Endowment Fund in Cal Poly's Music Department. "The fund will be used for a wide variety of purposes not usually available through normal funding. It will fund such things as private lessons for non-majors, master classes, and other activities that enrich the orchestral opportunities at Cal Poly," said Music Department Chair Clif Swanson.

In other words, many Cal Poly students will now have opportunities that are traditionally reserved for exclusive private institutions. "Nelson has been a generous friend and supporter of the Cal Poly Music Department for many years," Swanson said. "She has been a major figure in the musical history of San Luis Obispo," said Dean Harry Hellenbrand. " She is incredibly well respected, and we are deeply honored by this.

Nelson is one of the founders of the San Luis Obispo Symphony and prime force behind the annual Alice Nelson Music Competition.

"Alice Parks Nelson has been a major figure in the musical history of San Luis Obispo. She is incredibly well respected, and we are deeply honored by this.

Harry Hellenbrand
Dean, College of Liberal Arts

"We have a Japanese daughter-in-law, a Eurasian daughter-in-law who was born and raised in Hong Kong, a one-generation-away from Poland son-in-law, a daughter who teaches in England but considers New Zealand home, and a sort of adopted (not legally but emotionally) son who is African American," writes former Dean of Students (1951-1977) Everett Chandler. Small wonder then that he and wife, Arlene, who also worked within Student Affairs, have become such ardent supporters of the Ethnic Studies program at Cal Poly.

They have established a Unitrust that benefits Ethnic Studies as well as Athletics. The trust will yield annual interest to benefit these programs. The Chandlers' generosity extends to the management of how the funds are spent, too. "I don't like to micro-manage. I'll leave it to the departments to decide what to do; they're smart people."

Department head Donna Langston reports that Ethnic Studies plans to use the funds initially to bring speakers to campus, enrich student research and publications, and promote better understanding about how important diversity is to understanding the U. S. and the world.

Both Arlene and Everett attended public universities (Berkeley and Wisconsin respectively) and saw first-hand how financial aid could assist students who struggled to earn their way through college. The economic and ethnic diversity of these schools nourished everybody, the Chandler report, explaining their dedication to making such experience possible for today's students.

A chance encounter with Roots author, Alex Haley, affected the Chandlers deeply and directed their thinking about what eventually the could give back. In a tour before completing Roots, Haley spoke to a small crowd at Cal Poly. Afterwards, Arlene and Everett spoke to him for over three hours about his family background, the opportunity and prejudice that he experienced in the Navy, and his writing projects. "We were mesmerized," Everett recalls. "We will always feel grateful to him for solidifying our beliefs about the worth of all people and all cultures".