by WILLIAM VALLADARES
They say home is where the heart is, even if it's clear across the country.
"The Montclair State community embraced me during a time of great
personal difficulty," said California resident Katherine McAuvic
Dunlap '76, who recently visited campus for the first time in 25 years.
More than two decades, a successful career in business and a master's
degree from Stanford never erased the memories of the impact Montclair
State made on her life. When Dunlap's parents divorced during her freshman
year, Montclair State became her haven.
"I was essentially homeless and lived on campus year round. I met
people who saw something in me that I didn't. They provided shelter and
support and I will never forget that."
As
a student, Dunlap was a resident assistant, a bookkeeper in the Housing
Office and held clerical jobs off campus. Despite her hectic schedule,
she managed to make time for one extracurricular activity--cheerleading.
And though it's been a quarter century since she hung up her pompons,
she still leads cheers for her alma mater.
"The number one role of alumni is to be proud of your school,"
she said. "Talk highly of it. Montclair State is a magnificent place,
and we shouldn't hide our candle under a bushel. It's also important to
financially support your alma mater at whatever level is comfortable,
and matching gifts can make small gifts significant."
Dunlap reconnected with the University when she visited in May. It was
the first time she had been back since she left for the west coast to
build a career and a family. What she found was a campus that had undergone
drastic changes, but the touchstone places for her--the Drop-In Center,
College Hall and Bohn Hall--invoked fond memories.
"I'm indebted to so many fine people from Montclair State. Dr. Reed
of English was a strong positive role model for me. I had Dr. Alan Oppenheim
for statistics and ever since, I've considered probabilities as very reliable
friends for helping me make decisions. Dr. Irene Douma was my auditing
professor, and it's not an overstatement to say she was a pioneer among
women CPAs in large firms."
Even though she's forgotten the names of some of her mentors, Dunlap has
never forgotten their lessons. "By the time I found my way over to
business, a professor from the School of Business had the most profound
influence on me. He urged me to pursue public accounting and gave me a
vision of a career that would be full of opportunities for someone who
would work hard and was unafraid."
Dunlap began her college career as a French major, but later switched
to business administration with a concentration in accounting hoping the
practicality of a business major would present more career opportunities.
Dunlap was offered an internship with Ernst & Young (then Arthur Young)
and later accepted a permanent position with the firm.
"I had interesting, diverse clients, from a convent to a manufacturing
plant in Virginia," said Dunlap. "These were tricky times for
women in what was then a man's profession, but I was brash, which most
of the time served me well. After four years at Ernst & Young I was
offered a two-year internship in the National Education Center in Reston,
Va. I focused on accounting for income taxes as a specialty and spent
so much time writing education materials and teaching classes that I emerged
as sort of an expert. Since San Jose, Calif. was our West Coast teaching
location, I brought a proactive approach to their earnings-sensitive clients,
and they asked me to join their burgeoning practice."
Dunlap's largest client was Intel, through which she met her husband,
F. Thomas Dunlap Jr., who retired in January after 30 years of service.
Mr. Dunlap was senior vice president and general counsel, responsible
for Government Affairs and was politically active on Intel's behalf. Under
the then-existing independence rules, a tax partner who was married
to an officer of an audit client could not remain in the firm.
"I had to trade my accounting partnership for another kind of partnership,"
said Dunlap. "Since I was able to start my own practice, it fortunately
turned out to be a good career move as well as a very happy personal one.
Tom put himself through college and went to law school at night, so we
have similar backgrounds."
The
couple, avid golfers and marathon runners, ran the 100th Boston Marathon,
and Dunlap plans to run the L.A. Marathon on her last day as a 49-year-old
this year with her daughter to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society. Together they've raised $4,000.
The Dunlaps have two daughters. Bridgette, 24, who lives in New York in
the East Village, is a theatrical director and a graduate of the Tisch
School at NYU. Katie, 22, is a "bean-counter" like her mom.
She graduated from UCLA in June with an economics degree, and is an intern
with PwC in San Jose.
In 2003 Dunlap earned a master's degree in liberal arts from Stanford
University. Her master's thesis in political science, "A Rising Tide--California
Education Finance Reform," suggested that it was time for a "rising
tide" to raise all levels of public education spending in California,
a conclusion she said many within the state are reaching.
"Earning a master's degree was a proud moment for me, but it made
my undergraduate degree more important and I appreciated it more because
my years at Montclair State molded me as a person," said Dunlap.
"Stanford is a pedigree school, but MSU's value is just as important.
I earned an M.B.A. in another phase of my life, when I was a more mature
person, but Montclair State was there for me when I needed it."
Oppenheim, dean of Montclair State's School of Business, met with his
former student during her campus visit.
"I believe that what we do at Montclair State is more important than
what they do at Harvard or Stanford because what we do makes a greater
difference in people's lives," he said. "They're both great
institutions and their students are bred for success. Our students very
often are the first in their families to go to college, so we play a major
role in people's lives. Kathy was an 'A' student when I began teaching
here. I'm pleased that she had a positive experience with us and it's
great to see her enjoying success."
Dunlap would like to take an active role in helping alumni reconnect with
the University. With her husband retired, she plans to get back east more
often to participate in alumni functions, and she's looking to host a
gathering of alumni on the west coast. "I would also love to be in
touch with my old Bohn Hall buddies, the Beats," she said.
She also plans to open dialogue with the University about the possibility
of a master of liberal arts program that would be designed for people
in their mid-30s and up who yearn to spend time with great books that
either age or pressures of finding a career didn't allow them to enjoy
as undergrads.
"It's important for students, especially first-generation college
students, to convert their education to job skills to contribute to the
community," said Dunlap. "We all come to grips with the idea
that we have to make a living. A lot of kids flounder before discovering
a major and they soon settle into what they need to do in a career. In
the floundering process, they never get a chance to luxuriate in those
subjects like political science that make us a better community and better
people.
"As alumni we should have an opportunity to round ourselves as people
by pursuing studies in literature, the arts and sciences, which are difficult
to appreciate when we're 18-22. A businessperson at my stage in life wants
to fill in gaps personally, not professionally, in a degree program that
is both rewarding and that reconnects us to our alma mater."