{"id":30770,"date":"2014-05-19T16:18:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T23:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=30770"},"modified":"2014-07-25T16:26:53","modified_gmt":"2014-07-25T23:26:53","slug":"naming-calderon-learning-community-honors-alumnus-staunch-supporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/naming-calderon-learning-community-honors-alumnus-staunch-supporter\/","title":{"rendered":"Naming of Calder\u00f3n Learning Community honors alumnus and staunch supporter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ernest
Ernest Calder\u00f3n stands in front of the residence hall and learning community now named in his honor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ernest Calder\u00f3n<\/strong> called the moment \u201csurreal,\u201d yet he was in the midst of being celebrated and acknowledged because of his tangible impact on Northern Arizona University.<\/p>\n

Praise and gratitude rose from a packed courtyard on campus Friday afternoon as the NAU alumnus and president emeritus of the Arizona Board of Regents was honored with the renaming of the Aspen Crossing residence hall to Ernest Calder\u00f3n Learning Community. A crowd of friends, family and the campus community gathered to hear about Calder\u00f3n\u2019s commitment to NAU as a regent and his origins as a student from the mining town of Morenci.<\/p>\n

\u201cNAU changed my life,\u201d Calder\u00f3n said before the event. \u201cWhen I arrived here, I met wonderful people who told me I could make a difference in the world. They helped me and encouraged me.\u201d<\/p>\n

NAU President John Haeger<\/strong> opened his remarks by reading excerpts of a letter from Robert C. Dickeson, who was vice president for student affairs when Calder\u00f3n first came to campus. In the letter, Dickeson declared, \u201cThis naming is not only in recognition of his accomplishments, which are many. It is primarily because he symbolizes what we at NAU have been doing exceptionally well for over 120 years, and that is actualizing the potential of the students who come to Flagstaff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haeger credited Calder\u00f3n for being a steady source of support during eight and a half years serving as a regent, during which time a physical transformation of campus took place and the Pledge Program launched, giving each class of incoming first-year students eight semesters of unchanging tuition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose changes occurred because of the partnership of Regent Calder\u00f3n and me,\u201d Haeger said. \u201cThe buildings came because we experienced the most rapid enrollment growth in our history, and the reason is the Pledge Program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The renamed residence hall opened in 2008 as part of the building boom and today houses upper-class honor students in a 24-hour quiet zone.<\/p>\n

Flagstaff Mayor Jerry Nabours described Calder\u00f3n as \u201cone of those who believes the city of Flagstaff and NAU are closely interwoven and interdependent.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an emotional, wide-ranging presentation, Calder\u00f3n offered a narrative of thanks to family, faculty, classified employees, the Board of Regents and to students. \u201cIt\u2019s all about them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNAU is my home,\u201d Calder\u00f3n said. \u201cTo have something here named after my family means a great deal, and I truly appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calder\u00f3n became Arizona\u2019s first Harry S. Truman Scholar in 1977 and served as president of the Associated Students of NAU his senior year prior to receiving the President\u2019s Award and the Gold Axe Award. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in political science with a minor in business administration from NAU in 1979 and a juris doctorate from the University of Arizona College of Law in 1982. Calder\u00f3n earned a graduate certificate from Northwestern University\u2019s Kellogg School of Management in 2009.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Calder\u00f3n received an honorary doctorate from NAU. He serves on the NAU Foundation Board and is an adjunct faculty member at NAU. He was appointed to the Arizona Board of Regents in 2004 by then-Gov. Napolitano (a fellow Truman Scholar).<\/p>\n

Calder\u00f3n is the founder of Calder\u00f3n Law Offices and maintains an active practice focusing on civil law.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ernest Calder\u00f3n called the moment \u201csurreal,\u201d yet he was in the midst of being celebrated and acknowledged because of his tangible impact on Northern Arizona University. Praise and gratitude rose from a packed courtyard on campus Friday afternoon as the NAU alumnus and president emeritus of the Arizona Board of Regents was honored with the…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":30786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[186,802,240,803,804,41,38,24],"class_list":["post-30770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-arizona-board-of-regents","tag-aspen-crossing","tag-ernest-calderon","tag-ernest-calderon-learning-community","tag-jerry-nabours","tag-john-haeger","tag-nau","tag-northern-arizona-university"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}