Whitworth has enjoyed steady improvement in several areas over the past 13 years.

• More than $67 million in campus improvements have been made over the past decade, including Weyerhaeuser Hall, a landmark academic building funded by Whitworth’s successful $60.3 million Faith in the Future Campaign, two new residence halls, and a new center for the visual arts currently under construction.
• Whitworth has risen as high as #5 in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of best colleges and #2 for best values among master’s level universities in the West. In the 2008 rankings, Whitworth repeated at #3 on the best-values rankings and was #9 in the best-colleges ranking.
• The number of freshman applications has increased 447 percent from 1,132 in 1993 to 5,060 for fall 2007. Overall and undergraduate headcount enrollment has grown 56 percent (2,607 in 2007) and 78 percent (2,331 in 2007) respectively. Full-time undergraduate matriculated day enrollment has grown 57 percent to 1,927in 2007.
• The freshman-sophomore retention rate has risen steadily to a record high of 89 percent in 2006 and is 86.8 percent in 2007. The six-year graduate rate reached an all-time high of 76.1 percent in 2005 and is 74.2 percent in 2007. Both are double-digit improvements over the past decade and are well above national averages.
• The average of annual unrestricted gifts and total gifts received by the college nearly doubled in the five years ending in 2003 compared with the five years ending in 1993. In 2006-07 the university received $2,149,294 in unrestricted gifts/income and $10,577,254 overall. The endowment has grown 468 percent from $18.6 million in 1993 to $87.2 million in 2007.
• Salaries have risen annually by an average of 4.6 percent for faculty and 4.5 percent for staff, about twice the rate of increase in the consumer price index over the past 13 years; the compounded increases have been 97 percent for faculty and 92 percent for staff. These increases do not include special salary adjustments.
• Whitworth’s visibility and reputation have grown stronger through significant regional and national media placements and numerous awards and recognitions.
  

Annual Unrestricted Gifts Received
(Fiscal Year: July 1-June 30)

Annual Total Gifts Received
(Fiscal Year: July 1-June 30)

Endowment

Faculty/Staff Salary Raises
-- Not Including Special Salary Adjustments

National Media Placements

USA Today — Dec. 17, 1999
Boston Herald — Dec. 19, 1999
Washington Times — Dec. 25, 1999
Wilmington (Del.) News-Journal — Dec. 31, 1999
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel —Jan. 12, 2000
World Magazine — Feb. 26, 2000
The Chicago Reporter — April 2000
College Bound Magazine — September 2000
The Chicago Tribune — Dec. 31, 2000
Down Beat Magazine — May 2001
Teacher Magazine — October 2001
Salon.com — April 21, 2002
American Philanthropy News — April 26, 2002
Ethix Magazine — January 2003
Christianity Today — April 2003, May 2004
Chronicle of Higher Education — April 4, 2003
Alaska Airlines Magazine — October 2003
The Philadelphia Inquirer — May 2004
University Business Magazine — August 2005
Newsday — January 2006
Christian Management Report— February 2006
Seattle Post-Intelligencer —May 2006
Washington Post — July 2006
Los Angeles Times — July 2006
Science & Theology News — August 2006
SI.com – November 2006
USA Today — February 2007
CBS SportsLine.com — April 2007
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine — April 2007
Chronicle of Higher Education — October 2007
Dow Jones Newswire — December 2007

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• Whitworth moved up two spots, to No. 30, in Kiplinger’s 2008 rankings of the 50 best private university values – a list that includes some of the most prestigious schools in the country.

• Whitworth President Bill Robinson received the 2008 Charles Foreman Award for Innovation in Private Higher Education.

• The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities honored Whitworth University and Crichton College (Memphis, Tenn.) with its 2008 Robert and Susan Andringa Award for Advancing Racial Harmony.

• The Whitworth Jazz Ensemble took top honors at the 2008 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, its sixth top finish since 1996.
  
  
• Whitworth Psychology Professor Jim Waller received the First Voice Humanitarian Award in 2007 from the Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture for his groundbreaking Prejudice Across America off-campus study program. Waller’s book “Becoming Evil” was named a finalist for the 2002-03 Raphael Lemkin Award for best book in genocide studies.
  
  
• Jordan Sand, ’06, received a $300,000 Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship to complete an M.D. and a master’s in public health at the University of Washington.
  
  
• Whitworth students were awarded Goldwater Scholarships for math and science excellence in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
  
  
• Whitworth’s athletics program won the Northwest Conference All-Sports Trophy for overall excellence across all fields of competition in 2005.
  
  
• Whitworth was named Best Christian Workplace among large colleges/seminaries in the 2003 and 2004 Best Christian Places to Work survey, sponsored by "Christianity Today" magazine.
  

• President Bill Robinson received the 2001 CASE District VIII Distinguished Leadership Award.

• Whitworth received the 2001 CASE National Circle of Excellence bronze award for its website re-design.

• Whitworth English Professor Laurie Lamon received a 2001 Pushcart Prize, a 2002-2003 Graves Award in the Humanities and a 2007 Witter Bynner Fellowship for her poetry.
  
  
• Six Whitworth students and four Whitworth faculty members were selected as Fulbright scholars or fellows between 2000 and 2007.
  
  
• Scott McQuilkin was named 2002 Athletics Director of the Year for NCAA DIII west region.
  
  
• Whitworth Professor of Education Doris Liebert received the 2002 Presbyterian Educator of the Year Award.
  
  
• Whitworth Art Professor Scott Kolbo’s print Naaman Dirty was named “Best of Show” in printmaking at the 28th annual Bradley National Print and Drawing Exhibition in 2002.
  
  
• The Council of Independent College presented its 2003 Heuer Award of Achievement to the Whitworth Physics Department.
  
  
• Whitworth Professor of Education Betty Williams was selected for a 2004 Washington Award for Excellence in Teacher Preparation, following Doris Liebert in 2001 and Dennis Sterner in 1998.
  
  
• Students in Whitworth’s MIM program were chosen for selective U.N. graduate study program in Geneva in four consecutive years (2003-2006).