Spring Calendar

March 2001

12-18 Spring Break (College Closed)

17 St. Patrick’s Day

29 Student Financial Services Fair (Student Center)

April 2001

2 Daylight Savings Time Begins

2-6 Honors week

6-7 PAC Jazz Festival

8 Palm Sunday

13-15 Easter Holiday
(College Closed)

26 PAC Fest 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Courtyard)

27 Fiesta Holiday
(College Closed)

May 2001

6 Last day of Spring & Spring Flex II Classes

7-12 Final Exams

“Comfort” based on Freethinkers

“Comfort,” a play by San Antonio playwright Diane Monroe that will be presented at Palo Alto College, is based on research of Freethinkers from Germany.

“Comfort” is free to the public and will be presented on March 8, 2001, at 2:15 p.m. and March 9, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Building room 100A. Serious issues will be discussed, so “Comfort” may not be suitable for young children.

Kim Corbin, Fine and Performing Arts/SpeechCommunication Department Lab Technician, designed period costumes and Chuck Squier, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Speech, will direct the play.

The play’s opening sequence involves 36 Germans being confronted by Confederate soldiers. The Germans are given the choice to join the Confederates or leave, and they decide to head to Mexico. Fifty miles from the Mexican border, they are ambushed and massacred. From that point on, “Comfort” centers on one of the families.

Two men and two women make up the cast. All four cast members are Mexican-Americans playing Germans.

Five Palo Alto students win big

Five Palo Alto College jazz students took top honors at two Texas Junior College Music Competitions.

The students that placed in the All-State Junior College Jazz Orchestra are Jeremy Valadez, lead alto saxophone; Jason Valdez, guitar; Richard Rosas, tenor saxophone; and Thomas Jimenez, drums; Donald O’ Dell, trombone, placed in the All-State Junior College Wind Ensemble.

“The students from our jazz orchestra who placed worked very hard on their project,” said Palo Alto music instructor Armin Marmolejo. “ It is an honor for them to be part of this elite group.”

Students who competed were asked to submit recorded jazz etudes, which were judged on accuracy, musical content and improvisational skills by the Junior College Band Directors Association of Texas.

In addition to their All-State success, Valadez, Valdez and Rosas were named to the International Association of Jazz Educators All-State Jazz Orchestra.

Learn to play the accordion!

In other music news, the Palo Alto Music Department will be offering new courses in the Fall of 2001, including a music composition course for computers, private accordion lessons and a music literature course. Contact Brent Osner, Assistant Professor of Music, at 921-5340 for more information.

English prof nominated for award

Peers nominated Ellen Shull, Associate Professor of English, for the Piper Professor Award, which is presented by the Minnie Piper Stevens Foundation to 10 professors in Texas.

The winners will receive a certificate, $2500 cash and a gold commemorative pin in May.

Shull is humbled by the Piper Professor nomination. “ Anyone would be terribly, terribly honored to be voted by this outstanding faculty, my peers, for such an honor,” Shull said after being notified of this honor.

Ellen Shull teaches Freshman Comp. II and Multicultural Literature, and she is the founder of the Ides of March Writing Contest. She also co-edits the Palo Alto Review: A Journal of Ideas, the nation’s only community college academic journal, which is published semi-annually.

Elroy Smith, retired Assistant Professor of Mathematics, received the Piper Professor Award in 1996, and is the only Palo Alto faculty member to have received this prestigious award.

Night out with the Spurs

Palo Alto is sponsoring the third Annual Palo Alto College Night with the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday, April 10, 2001. The Spurs will play the Dallas Mavericks at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $15.00.

The college will have a specific section, usually on the Club Level. Wear your PAC attire, because Palo Alto will be highlighted on the Jumbotron during the game. Tickets are available at two campus locations: Administration Building, Room 112, or the General Education Building, Room 139C.

Tickets are sold on first come, first served basis. A portion of each ticket sold will go to the Staff Council Scholarship Fund. Tickets are available to Palo Alto family and friends and sales are open to other ACCD campuses.

For information on Spurs tickets, call Larry Jackson at 921-5332 or Jose Escobar at 921-5418.