Garrett Jones, Staff Reporter
There is a debate raging within the ranks of faculty at CSU Monterey Bay.
On Sept. 26, an e-mail was sent out to the faculty at CSUMB in search of volunteers to help out at the Pioneer Alumni Reunion that was held on Oct. 13. The volunteers were called to act as dealers for the Reunion’s theme: Las Vegas Casino Night, complete with several Vegas style games including Poker, Blackjack, Craps and Roulette as well as a buffet and a hosted bar.
The reaction to such a request was not as amiable as the Alumni Association was hoping for.
There were several responses in opposition to the request that was made.
Gerald Shenk, a professor in the Social Behavior and Global Studies (SBGS) department was one of the first to respond.
“Las Vegas is an overstatement of everything I find offensive in American culture,” he said. “If you look down the [Vegas] Strip, the casinos look like rip-offs of world cultures… the values of Las Vegas are not compatible with the values of CSUMB,” continued Shenk.
In an e-mailed response to the original faculty notice put out by Marsha Moroh, Dean of the Science, Media Arts and Technology department, and Chris Hasegawa, Dean of Extended Education and International Studies, Shenk submitted the university’s academic goals and values in a bulleted list and compared them to what he felt were the goals and values of Las Vegas.
“Las Vegas promotes gambling, overeating, and overdrinking and all three of those are addictive,” Shenk added in an interview. “If we care about our students, then we wouldn’t promote such unhealthy lifestyles.”
Shenk’s protests did not fall on deaf ears.
“I… am sorry that our invitation caused such a disturbance,” Dr. Hasegawa wrote in an e-mail corresponding to the opposition that he and other members of the Alumni Association faced. “Marsha and I sent out the invitation from a very different place in our hearts and minds.”
The theme for the Reunion was not wavered, nor were the positions of the opposing faculty members.
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