Zag of the Week!

GB: How did you start working at Gonzaga?

JA: Well, I actually had been going to school. My first semester at Gonzaga was the fall of l968, and I worked all summer to pay for it. Tuition was $550 a semester, believe it or not. It took everything I made during the summer. And, you know, you're kind of young and dumb, and I was paying for the whole thing. So at the end of that first semester, I decided I wanted to quit, so I did. I went to look for a job, and Gonzaga hired me in the IT department. So, that was how I got to Gonzaga. And I spent most of my career in IT here at Gonzaga.

GB: What was IT like then?

JA: Well, you know, so very different. It was IBM punch cards. They sent me to a six-day crash course in key punch when I was first hired. We used to process all of the grades for the Catholic schools around, in Portland, Spokane and in Seattle.

GB: The schools would send in the grades?

JA: Yeah, trays of cards. And we would do the key punching and the processing here and then send it all back.

GB: Then what happened?

JA: Gosh, I don't know. I kind of grew up with the technology, and you know, as tech changed, my job changed, and I guess I was lucky enough to steadily progress. And technology changes all the time so you know you don't get bored. There was always something new and different, and you always had to keep moving and learning or you'd be behind. So in 2007, I decided I needed a change, that I'd taken it as far as I could, and that someone else could do a better job. And I'd given a two-year notice that I'd needed a change. I figured that then I was leaving Gonzaga, but then instead of leaving Gonzaga, Thayne — Dr. McCulloh — created a job for me to work with him. At the time, he was VP of administrative planning. So, I moved into the position with him, but before we really got to work together, he was pulled over into the interim academic VP position. So they asked me to be the interim VP of administration.

GB: What was the biggest change over the years in the IT department?

JA: Well, everything has gone virtual. Everything is on the Web, you know? For me, over the span of my career, because I'm getting up there, you went from punch cards and actually sorting all those cards on a great big machine — that was incredible- — and hand-wiring machines so that they would sort the cards in the right order. And now, it's something you can't really feel and touch anymore, it's virtual, and everything is on the Web. So you had to continue to learn skills. But that's, for me, what made it incredibly interesting and challenging.

GB: So you came back and graduated from Gonzaga?

JA: I did. I went one semester. Over the years as an employee here, I took classes off and on. And it wasn't until many, many years later I got serious and decided to finish. It was so stupid. You look back, and I think why? But I got married, I raised three kids, I started my volunteer work.

GB: Could that same kind of thing happen now?

JA: No. And you know, I would do it so much differently myself. I would have finished my degree way back then. Most definitely. I wouldn't advise it to anyone.

GB: What high school did you go to?

JA: I went to North Central. Actually, people think I'm crazy that I grew up in this neighborhood, in St. Al's neighborhood, eight blocks straight up [from here].

GB: How did you decide to come to GU?

JA: Quite honestly, at the very last minute. I was one of seven kids, and you didn't worry as much back then, at least my family didn't, if you were going to go to college. I kind of just thought I would go to work. And a neighbor of ours was actually an employee; he worked in the controller's office then. And he just suggested one day that I ought go and apply. I could get work-study and pay for it. And so, I was kind of like, "Oh, OK." And so I did, and I worked one summer right after high school graduation in the political science department. It was the most incredibly horrible job I've ever had in my life.

GB: What were you doing?

JA: The guy I worked for was a Nixon nut. And all I did was watch for articles about Nixon, you know, and I would cut them out and put them in a notebook for him. It was so boring. There wasn't enough work for anyone.

GB: What has been the biggest overall change at Gonzaga?

JA: I suppose our growth, you know? I mean, I remember right before Fr. Spitzer came. It seemed like an explosion, and we realized just how many freshmen we had and that they were going to show up. How are we going to get these kids here and where the heck are we going to put them? There were some very intense meetings.

GB: There was a specific span of years where enrollment increased dramatically?

JA: Yeah. I don't remember the exact year, but Fr. Spitzer came in at a time when we had great financial trouble. And his solution was that we needed to grow our way out of it. And there was no other way out. And he was right. And right at the same time, our basketball program started to do really, really good.