"Rock, Rock, Rock and Roll Jesuit School"

It’s funny to think of all the students at USF diligently studying the day away, while in a non-descript bottom floor room in McLaren Hall, some of the most radical noise around is being broadcasted to the world. The culprit of this rebellious activity as you may have already guessed is our very own KUSF.

KUSF is widely known for its radical and diverse programming but it came from very humble beginnings. KUSF originally started as an AM station with a very narrow broadcast spectrum. In 1977, under the guidance of current station manager Steve Runyon, KUSF moved over to 90.3 FM to expand their reach in the Bay Area. Initially KUSF focused solely on community programming and fine arts and it was broadcasted for only five hours a day in the evenings.

The station continued to grow eventually incorporating pop and rock music into its programming and extending its airtime to 24 hours a day. KUSF quickly became one of the best sources for new music. Heavily supportive of the local scene, KUSF broke San Francisco icons like Metallica and Primus before they were signed to major record deals. The station has been rewarded with numerous gold and platinum records from appreciative bands like R.E.M., The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The B-52’s. Amid all this popular success KUSF has never lost its sights on providing, “unique and distinctive programming as a service to San Francisco and the Bay Area.”

Today, along with the vast selection of independent and experimental music you can find longstanding cultural and fine arts programs from Chinese Star Radio and the Turkish Cultural Program to the Metropolitan Opera. KUSF has garnered a wide array of awards recognizing their quality programming including the 2005 SF Weekly Readers Poll, Gavin’s College Station of the Year (1988,1989,1990,1994), and in 1998, April 25th was named "KUSF 90.3 FM Stereo Day In San Francisco" by Mayor Willie Brown.

USF's Ghostly Past

One might never have guessed that the grounds upon which we devoutly study and pursue our developing futures were once catacombs of tombstones and a myriad of skeletons. During the visit with USF’S archivist Father Kotlanger, the haunted past of the University slowly began to unravel, revealing the somewhat startling truth that our University is built on top of very old and large burial grounds dating back to the 1800's.

In the 1800’s four massive cemeteries spanned over the entire distance of what is now the campus of USF. They were called Calvary, Masonic, Lauryl Hill, and Odd Fellows cemeteries. Nearing the 1900’s all four fell into tremendous disrepair, creeping ivy and shrubbery slowly consumed grave plots and homeless inhabitants haunted the tombs, looking for a warm place to sleep. The Jesuits bought these cemeteries in the mid 1800’s and in 1855 St. Ignatius Academy became the first building to be established for the University. However, the cemeteries continued to lie near by and the founding fathers of USF began to evaluate the grounds during a time where the University and city itself needed expansion.

In 1900 the Board of Supervisors prohibited further burials in any of the four cemeteries and just twelve years later, the board ordered a mandate to have them vacated.

But according to Father Kotlinger, “these bodies stayed on and on and finally the fathers ordered that they be removed by the state.”

The final resting grounds of the adventurous souls and skeletons of Lauryl, Masonic, Calvary, and Odd Fellows cemeteries came to be Colma (a small city located just miles out of San Francisco). Colma, also referred to as “The City of The Dead” does the ancient bodies justice with its beautiful white marble and 18th century setting. The tombstones were broken up and reused as founding stones for some of San Francisco’s sea walls. Today one can still go down to Sloat on Ocean Beach and when the tide is sucked out, grave stone debris become visible, allowing a brief glimpse of our past.

Roughly forty years later, the growth of USF became imminent and in 1940, excavations for further buildings began to occur. In that time, just a young ROTC student, Kotlanger can recall the day a memorabilia was dug up from the past by construction workers who were forging Gillson Hall. “They suddenly threw down their shovels and picks,” reminisced Kotlanger, “they walked straight up to the foreman and said, “we’ll work for you anywhere and anytime but we don’t do cemeteries.”
You see, the workers had stumbled across an old corpse, one that had perhaps rotted through its wooden casket, swallowed by the earth until recently.
Supposedly, all the bodies from the four cemeteries were successfully extracted from USF’s land years ago. But there is still a chance that to this day, we walk on the final resting grounds of many dead who were left behind. Who knows, perhaps in the digging for Kalmanovitz hall there remains a corpse or two to be turned over and maybe, just maybe we will be lucky enough to find yet another departed.

Gleeson Library - A Storied Journey

The University of San Francisco has a long history of scholarship dating back to the 1800s, but its library, traditionally thought of as the heart of the school, was only built in 1950. The first site occupied by the school that would come to be known as USF was at Market and 5th Street, now occupied by the Westfield Shopping Center. During this early period, the school had no formal library, as the entire institute centered on one school room. The school stayed for five years, after which it moved because of the tax burden imposed on schools and churches.

The new school at Hayes St and Van Ness grew from humble beginnings to become one of the premier centers of learning on the West Coast, said library archivist Father Michael Kotlanger. Kotlanger explained that the old library consisted in large part of donated books, most of which were either science related or spiritual in nature. The books were not located in one central library, but rather in many individual collections organized by subject matter and scattered around the university. At that time, the books were strictly for use at the school, and could not be checked out by students.

As with the rest of the city, 1906 marked a turning point for USF. The massive quake and fire on April 18th, 1906 gutted the school and obliterated nearly everything in it, including all the books collected over the previous half century. The few records that survive from before 1906 were housed in separate locations downtown and in Los Gatos, said Kotlanger. After the tragic events of that day, the school moved to a location near the present day southern entrance to St. Mary's hospital at Hayes and Shrader, a few blocks from its present day location. School officials tried to build up the library's collection after the devastating loss of all its books, but at that time they had to rely on the generosity of donors. The law school opened in 1912, necessitating further book acquisitions, all of which were donated by jurists and legal scholars who had an interest in helping future legal minds.

In 1927, the school moved to its current address at Fulton and Parker. The burgeoning library collection was housed on the fourth floor of Campion Hall, the original university building that served as the entire university for many years. Finally, in 1950, the collection became large enough that university officials agreed a separate library would be both necessary and good for the school. The library is named after Father Richard Gleeson, who spent 46 years in service to the university. Kotlanger said Gleeson died the day it was announced that the library would bare his name.

Under the direction of Father William Monihan, the new library initially housed the relatively small collection from Campion Hall, and had administrative offices and classrooms on the upper floors. This condition was not to last, as Monihan aggressively sought out books for the new library, including many rare books now housed in the Donihue Rare Book Room. These include a fragment of the Gutenberg Bible dating from the 1450s, medieval illuminated manuscripts, the works of Sir Thomas Moore and a collection of letters from the English Catholic novelist and film-writer, Graham Greene. Kotlanger stumbled upon these letters when looking through files in the university's possession. The letters were appraised for $250,000.

As Monihan and his successors continued to build the library's collection, classroom and office space had to move to other locations on campus. In addition to its own collection, Kotlanger said the library once held the extensive personal collection of Adolph Sutro, who was mayor of San Francisco from 1895 until 1897. Space was leased in the library's basement by the Sutro estate until Gleeson library's own collection could no longer be housed solely in the upper floors. The lease was allowed to expire for a nominal rate, and Sutro's collection moved to its current location at San Francisco State University.

In 1997, the library opened the Geschke Learning Resource Center, named after Charles and Nancy Geschke, two university patrons and parents of a former student. The Geschke Center houses the circulation desk, reference stacks, and dozens of computers, both Apple and PC. The center also includes Thacher Gallery, an art exhibition room with rotating exhibits throughout the year. On the east wing of Geschke Center is the Monihan Atrium, a large study area named after the aforementioned Jesuit priest and library director.

The library's collection continues to grow at the rate of 13,000 volumes per year, according to its website, in an effort to maintain its status as a world class center for learning and scholarship. Located at the geographic heart of the university, Gleeson Library truly is at the heart of the school's dedication to learning and service.

My Campus Space

One of the greatest aspects of USF is its beauty. Set on a hill in San Francisco, the campus is uniquely beautiful on a day to day basis. The mixture of foggy to sunny weather patterns, hills that seem to climb for miles, and the skyscrapers of downtown are all parts of a remarkable campus setting. Unfortunately, studying a lot is a major part of college life, but we are lucky enough to have many study areas in which to choose. The Lone Mountain Library is one of my favorite places to get my work done.

USF bought Lone Mountain in the 1970’s for 5 million dollars when the San Francisco College for Women closed down. That was quite a bargain considering the use we get out of that campus, not mention its incredible views of the city. The library located on the second floor in the east wing, has become a place for studying and is so quiet even pulling out a chair seems to create a racket.

The Joseph A. Gleason (of no relation to Gleeson whom the library on main campus was named) library was originally part of the women’s college. This was a place the wealthy families from around Northern California would send their daughters to get only the best education. According to Father Kotlanger in charge of the USF archives, everything was top of the line. All the woodwork that is in the room now is original and was hand painted and artists were brought from all over the world to contribute. Even the light fixtures had special sheep skin covers, the chairs were hand carved in Europe, and the flooring was brought in from all over the world.

There is a storage room in the far right of the library, under the floor. It goes down three stories. In the late 1980’s, someone was cleaning it out when they came upon some Salvador Dahli prints. They were original lithographs.

When the school closed down, all the books, 100,000 of them brought in from all over Europe, were sold and sent to other libraries. The books in there now are old encyclopedias, simply there to fill in the space.

Gleason Library boasts a regal and classy setting unlike anywhere else on campus. It has hosted many students and their books over the years and I have enjoyed being part of its history.

early adventures in geomapping

ira glass on storytelling

ira glass on having good taste, overcoming the gap between your own good taste and your own not so good output, and doing lots and lots of work. five minutes and nineteen seconds of smart advice. [crossposted from usf journalism blog]

In Memoriam Paula Gmelch

On March 1st, 2007, Paula Gmelch’s life was tragically cut short in an accident on Turk and Chabot at the University of San Francisco. We at USFblogtastic, have reported on and shared our stories and thoughts about this accident that has shocked and saddened our entire community.

USFblogtastic would like to provide the entire USF community, family and friends of Paula Gmelch, and anyone else who knew her with a place to reflect. Although, none of the students in our class personally knew Paula, this tragedy has opened our eyes to just how delicate life can be.

A memorial service for Paula Gmelch is being held on Friday, March 9, at 2:00 p.m. in Saint Ignatius Church, at the University of San Francisco. There will also be a reception following the service in Fromm Hall.

In light of this tragedy, donations can be made to the Paula Gmelch Scholarship Fund. So far there has been tremendous support for the fund. Checks can be made payable to the University of San Francisco, noting the Gmelch scholarship and can be mailed to the School of education. For more information please contact Jim Brennan, the School of Education director of budget and planning.

Please use this space to add your thoughts, tell your stories, and share your memories of Paula.