UC Santa Cruz Review Summer/Fall 1995

Alumni News: Celebrating Oakes College's legacy for the 21st century

Described as a man who "awakened the imaginations of untold numbers of people," founding provost J. Herman Blake, 200 Oakes alumni, and former and current faculty and staff returned to Oakes College to celebrate its twentieth anniversary in April during Banana Slug Spring Fair weekend.

In a keynote speech, Blake traced the history of the college and its success as a functioning multicultural community. "An important part of what Oakes did and continues to do is to reaffirm our humanity," he said. "It's not that we are only Chicano or African American or anything else, but we are part of a larger collectivity that rises above either/or" and brings about "a creative tension which ought to motivate us all."

Blake's comments were followed by a panel discussion. Alumni councilor G. Chris Brown described his journey from Watts to Oakes to his current position as chair of the criminal justice program at Chapman University in southern California. Oakes "changed my life," Brown said. "Who I am today is very much a part of the whole Oakes experience."

Gini Matute-Bianchi, then provost, described the Oakes Serves program she established to place students in community-based agencies throughout Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Matute- Bianchi hopes to expand the program with a permanent endowment. The college was fortunate to receive a $50,000 gift from David Jonson in memory of the late Oakes alumnus Don Catalano and his longtime companion, Fred Smith. A committee of alumni and friends is leading a campaign to match the gift by June 1997. Funds will be used to support Oakes Serves. Donations are welcome and may be forwarded to University Advancement, UCSC, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064. Checks should be made payable to the UCSC Foundation with the notation "Oakes Community Service Fund."

"None of us build or accomplish by ourselves," said former provost Blake. With financial assistance from Oakes alumni and other supporters of the college, the multiculturalism, humanism, and spirit of service that are so central to the Oakes identity will be alive and well in the 21st century.