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Celebrating 25 Years at SPU
At this year's President's Spring
Forum, I was recognized for 25 years of service at SPU.
The new dress watch was a timely gift, as the battery had just
died in my Hamilton the week before. The University
Communications department edited the biography the business
school had sent them. Here it is as published in the event
program.
Richard
Sleight
BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Richard Sleight changed majors from
electrical engineering to economics as an undergraduate at the
University of Washington, but it was in the UW College of
Engineering that he began his teaching career at the age of 22.
After 12 years on the UW faculty, in 1989, he became the
coordinator of the Adult Learner Program at SPU. That same year
he completed his PhD in educational policy studies, receiving
the best dissertation award. In 1991, Dick took on the
coordination of SPU’s MBA program, and in 1996 became SBE’s
technology manager. Today, he teaches spreadsheets and
statistics, advises all SBE minors, manages academic information
and technology, and serves as the McKenna Hall building manager
and SBE’s webmaster, photographer, and servant to all. Dick’s
wife is Nancy Rutherford Sleight ’77, and their children are
Annie ’10, Nathanael ’13, and Jean, an SPU junior who played
Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker this past winter.
Outside SPU, Dick is an avid reader of British Naval fiction and
a busy sports photographer. On Saturdays, he leads a men’s Bible
study at Bellevue Presbyterian Church, and in the summer he
teaches Bible classes weekly at Emerald Heights Retirement
Community in Redmond.
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 Grading
papers, grading papers, just keep grading, grading, grading . . .
I spoke with Gerard Duguay who taught my Spreadsheets class last autumn,
and we agreed that there is no quick way to grade Excel assignments.
To discover where students go wrong, we must be diligent in our review
of their work. I'm finding that it is taking a full six hours each
weekend for me score their assignments so as to have them ready for my
three Monday classes. Shadow seems to want to help but she slows
me down. Shadow ("the dog") is certainly my cat.
Laurie writes . . .
Hi all,
Just wanted to let you all know that we have a written contract now for
our new home in Loveland, CO. Our move-in date on the contract is Dec
30, but we are hoping for a Dec 1 move-in. So, yay. If our house here
sells early, we will move, and put our stuff in storage, and just hang
out in Colorado until our new home is complete.
Laurie
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  BCS
takes Ten Track & Field Athletes to State
May, for me, is all about
BCS Track & Field.
This year's boys and girls teams lacked the talent of previous seasons,
but we still managed to get a few members qualified for State, again at
Eastern Washington University. I went, once again representing
The Bellevue Reporter on the track.
Courtney Porter, now a sophomore, competed in
both hurdle events and the pole vault. On the boys side, Matthew
Carlson (son of conservative radio host and West Seattle High School
grad John Carlson who ran for Washington State Governor) qualified in
the 800m with a 2:02.04 time. Spencer Schwisow will contend in the
high hurdles, and both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays edged into the top
five Tri-District teams that qualified for State. State is on May
30 and 31 this year.
That last paragraph was written before we left
for State. Alas, none of our boys managed to place in the top
eight and thus race in the finals on Saturday. Courtney, however,
took 4th in
both the 100m high hurdles
 and
the 300m low hurdles and 7th in the pole vault, thus adding three more
State medals to her two from last year.
I feel well connected with the coaches,
athletes, and parents this year. I also shot the two Seattle
Christian girls who are Mrs. Disher's students. And, if that
wasn't enough work, I shot the Oroville and Tonasket girls for
photographer friend Brent Baker who couldn't stay for the final day of
the meet.
I didn't need the large salted caramel shake the
team got me at our traditional stop after the League championships. But
it sure was good. And, alas, I put on three pounds at State too.
But it is a brief working vacation I do look forward to each May.
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School of Business,
Government,
and EconomicsOn Saturday morning, May
31st, while I was at the State Track & Field Championships, this
important email arrived in my inbox from Dean Joseph Williams.
Exciting news! At
the direction of the Provost, Reed Davis and I have leveraged all the
great work done by the working committee chaired by Denise and (have)
come to an agreement on pulling PoliSci & Geography into the School of
Business and Economics, effective this coming academic year. We will be
renaming SBE as the School of Business, Government, and Economics
(SBGE). I expect the Provost to make a campus-wide announcement very
shortly.
I will be meeting
with AUSBE representatives on Monday and will ask them to expand AUSBE’s
charter to match the new school. There are a number of remaining details
yet to be determined but I am committed to bring our new colleagues into
McKenna and, as best we can, integrating their faculty and students into
our general rhythms. We will use the June 10 faculty meeting (staff
will be invited) to cover how officing will happen and what we will be
doing in the Fall to welcome our new colleagues. On September 12 we
will have our faculty retreat and will all be working together
hand-in-hand with PoliSci for the first time to craft a vision statement
and mission for the new SBGE (and maybe a new name if we come up with
something more clever).
Quoting from a
preliminary document that Denise’s committee created, We
believe that this school has the potential to transform not only SBE and
the Department of Political Science-Geography but the entire
university. In fact, we believe that this school can be a pivot-point
in Seattle Pacific University’s development. Consequently, this is a
vision statement in the widest possible sense: We want to convey the
range of academic and professional possibilities that this merger can
unleash for students and faculty at Seattle Pacific University.
I concur. We are picking up some very talented faculty and the
combination has amazing potential.
The next two weeks
are very busy for all of us and I’m sure everyone has a lot of questions
so please make every effort to attend the June 10 SBE Faculty meeting.
I will send out a formal welcome to the PoliSci faculty after Reed has
communicated to his faculty and I will try to meet with them as well
before this quarter is over.
There goes my
summer. I doubt it others realize how much reworking of signage,
forms, web pages, offices, phones, and etc. has just fallen into my lap.
And I suspect I will be moving my own office, where I have been for
twenty-one years as well.
Bits and Pieces
♦ My class on Matthew 17-21
starts Thursday, June 5th. I am not at all ready, but expect to
be. I'm happy that my final class in BUS 1700 will be June 2nd.
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My Quotes from May
"Duty is
the great business of a sea officer;
all private considerations must give way to it, however painful
it may be."
"In case
signals can neither be seen or perfectly understood,
no captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside
that of the enemy."
Prior to the Battle of Trafalgar,
21 October 1805
"Now I can do no more. We must trust to
the Great Disposer of all events and the justice of our cause.
I thank God for this opportunity of doing
my duty."
Prior to the Battle of Trafalgar,
21 October 1805
"Aft
the more honour – forward the better man!"
Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, KB
29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805
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BACK
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"Meet John Doe" (1941)
John Doe (Garry Cooper)
Delivers National Radio Address
John Doe: Ladies and Gentlemen, I am the man
you all know as John Doe. I took that name because it
seems to describe -- because it seems to describe the
average man, and that's me -- and that's me.
Well, it was me -- before I said I was gonna jump off
the City Hall roof at midnight on Christmas Eve. Now, I
guess I'm not average any more. Now, I'm getting all
sorts of attention, from big shots, too -- the mayor and
governor, for instance. They don't like those articles
I've been writing.
D.B. Norton: You're an impostor, young fella. That's a
pack of lies you're telling. Who wrote that speech for
you?
Announcer: Ladies and Gentlemen, the
disturbance you just heard was caused by someone in the
audience who tried to heckle Mr. Doe. The speech will
continue.
John Doe: Well, people like the Governor --
people like the Governor -- and that fella there can --
can stop worrying. I'm not gonna talk about them. I'm
gonna talk about us, the average guys, the John Does.
If anybody should ask you what the average John Doe is
like, you couldn't tell him because he's a million and
one things. He's Mr. Big and Mr. Small. He's simple and
he's wise. He's inherently honest, but he's got a streak
of larceny in his heart. He seldom walks up to a public
telephone without shoving his finger into the slot to
see if somebody left a nickel there.
He's the man the ads are written for. He's the fella
everybody sells things to. He's Joe Doakes, the world's
greatest stooge and the world's greatest strength.
Yes, sir -- Yes, sir, we're a great family, the John
Does. We are the meek who are -- who are supposed to
inherit the earth. You'll find us everywhere. We raise
the crops; we dig the mines, work the factories, keep
the books, fly the planes and drive the busses. And when
a cop yells: "Stand back there, you!" He means us, the
John Does!
We have existed since time began. We built the pyramids.
We saw Christ crucified, pulled the oars for Roman
emperors, sailed the boats for Columbus, retreated from
Moscow with Napoleon and froze with Washington at Valley
Forge.
Yes, sir. We've been in there dodging left hooks since
before history began to walk. In our struggle for
freedom we've hit the canvas many a time, but we always
bounced back! Because we're the people -- and we're
tough.
They've started a lot of talk about free people going
soft -- that we can't take it. That's a lot of hooey! A
free people can beat the world at anything, from war to
tiddle-de-winks, if we all pull in the same direction.
I know a lot of you are saying "What can I do? I'm just
a little punk. I don't count." Well, you're dead wrong!
The little punks have always counted because in the long
run the character of a country is the sum total of the
character of its little punks.
But, we've all got to get in there and pitch. We can't
win the old ballgame unless we have teamwork. And that's
where every John Doe comes in. It's up to him to get
together with his teammates. And your teammate, my
friend, is the guy next door to you. Your neighbor --
he's a terribly important guy that guy next door. You're
gonna need him and he's gonna need you, so look him up.
If he's sick, call on him. If he's hungry, feed him. If
he's out of a job, find him one.
To most of you, your neighbor is a stranger, a guy with
a barkin' dog and high fence around him. Now, you can't
be a stranger to any guy that's on your own team. So
tear down the fence that separates you. Tear down the
fence and you'll tear down a lot of hates and
prejudices. Tear down all the fences in the country and
you'll really have teamwork.
I know a lot of you are saying to yourselves, "He's
askin' for a miracle to happen. He's expectin' people to
change all of a sudden. Well, you're wrong. It's no
miracle. It's no miracle because I see it happen once
every year. And and so do you -- at Christmas time.
There's somethin' swell about the spirit of Christmas,
to see what it does to people, all kinds of people.
Now, why can't that spirit, that same, warm Christmas
spirit last the whole year around? Gosh, if it ever did,
if each and every John Doe would make that spirit last
365 days out of the year, we'd develop such strength,
we'd create such a tidal wave of good will that no human
force could stand against it. Yes sir, my friends, the
meek can only inherit the earth when the John Doe's
start lovin' their neighbors.
You better start right now. Don't wait till the game is
called on account of darkness.
Wake up, John Doe. You're the hope of the world.
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