Copley Connects Fall 2025 / Spring 2026

Copley Celebrates the 3rd Annual Filipino American History Month Event By Dr. Regina Gong , Associate Dean for Student Success and Strategic Initiatives

Over 100 people, including USD students, faculty, and staff, as well as members of the San Diego Filipino American community, attended this annual event held on October 1, 2025. Now in its third year, this gathering celebrated the accomplishments and contributions of Filipino Americans in the United States. This year’s keynote speaker was San Diego Superior Court Judge Rohanee Zapanta, a double alumna of USD. Judge Zapanta earned her bachelor’s degree in 1998 and her law degree in 2002 from

L to R: Dr. Gong, Judge Zapanta, and Dean Byrd

USD. She is the second Filipina American to serve on the San Diego Superior Court. She was appointed by former California governor Jerry Brown in 2018 and elected to a six-year term in 2020. Attendees were inspired by Judge Zapanta’s insights into representation and by how Filipino values of connection (“kapwa”), community (“bayanihan”), and compassion (“malasakit”) guided her legal career. Many students resonated with her story, including first-year student Lauren Urquico, who said, “It’s really inspiring, especially because I have a similar background as her, like being born here but have immigrant parents from the Philippines.” Attendees also enjoyed a cultural dance performance by Filipino Ugnayan Student Organization (FUSO) students and a sumptuous Filipino dinner buffet from Porky’s Lechon. Overall, it was a tremendous success and a great kick-off to Filipino American History Month events across San Diego. Banned Books Week By Catherine Paolillo , Head of Access and Outreach Services Librarian Banned Books Week is an annual event where libraries across the country celebrate the right to read, to

promote intellectual freedom, and to bring awareness to challenged and banned books. This year, Copley Library hosted several events throughout the week to engage with the campus community. Our Access Services department organized “Blind Date with a Banned Book,” a display that invited patrons to borrow a banned or challenged book from our collection. The books are

wrapped in paper to obscure their title and author, and are instead labeled with the most common reasons cited for their banned status such as sexually explicit content, violence, politics, religion, racism, and LGBTQ themes. Most patrons are surprised to unwrap their “blind dates” to titles such as Harry Potter , Lord of the Flies , and The Color Purple . On Tuesday, October 7, we hosted an inaugural “Right to Read, Read Out” event on the front steps of Copley. Over 20 USD students, faculty, staff, and administrators gathered to read aloud from their favorite banned or challenged book to passersby during Torero Hour. Our signature event, “Censorship & Academia” took place on Wednesday, October 8 to a standing-room-only audience in our Journals Reading Room. College of Arts and Sciences Dean Noelle Norton presented “A Dean’s Perspective on Censorship and Her Own Banned Book,” where she discussed her banned book, Creating Gender , and

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