Of Mind & Heart Newsletter: April 2007

An update from Whitworth University President Bill Robinson

Along with some other Presbyterian college presidents, I had a chance last week to attend the Disney Institute. I got some good ideas. The Disney presenters held up their company as the consummate workplace. What's not to like when you're working alongside Snow White and Goofy? I have to admit, however, that at times the Disney workplace sounded like a cross between Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and North Korea; the work culture seemed to be one of fiercely programmed employee happiness -- a little too utopian to be true. As I sat down to write this, it struck me that if everything you knew about Whitworth came from the M&H, you wouldn't have the whole picture, either. Sometimes Whitworth is hard. Sometimes growth is hard. Allowing space for both good and bad decisions gets you...well, good and bad decisions. For many of us on campus, March was painful. In this climate where we prize community, we had more than our share of interpersonal tension. And it hurt. In a sermon I gave on the fourth Sunday of Lent, I referred to the zealous Bible teacher who volunteered to follow Jesus. Basically, Jesus said, "Slow down; following is hard." It's true, most good things are hard. I think Whitworth is a great place -- better than it would be if we tried to take "hard" out of it. We all fail, we seek forgiveness, and we grow. We believe in redemption. We believe in Easter. I hope your Easter is filled with resurrection joy.

Academics

Many of our students are mentors because they take seriously their membership in the "to whom much is given" group. This year, students have been involved in a service-learning course that takes them into the Spokane community to serve at-risk children and youth. Betty Williams (Education/Academic Affairs) has facilitated student mentoring through Project Move, which involves guiding teenagers with disabilities through the transition from high school to work, and Homework Helpers, which provides tutoring to low-income children. Deanna Ojennus and Drew Budner (Chemistry) and student mentors have hosted chemistry students from local high schools on campus, and have presented a chemistry magic show at a local elementary school.

Laurie Lamon (English) received the high honor of being one of only two poets selected by U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall for the $10,000 Witter Bynner Fellowship.Laurie was invited to read her poems at the Library of Congress on March 29. Hall said, "Lamon is an exquisite writer of lyrics, writing a musical poetry that is delicate and pure."

As a part of our emphasis on helping students understand vocation, faculty members Benjamin Brody (Music), Bendi Schrambach (Modern Languages), and Jolene Fisher (Kinesiology) attended the Vocations of the Christian Professor workshop and presented, at the teaching roundtable, some ways in which they integrate faith and learning in their classrooms. Freshmen in Ben's seminar discussed the vocation of the Christian musician, using J. S. Bach as an example; Bendi's students read scripture in French and taught French at a local elementary school; and Jolene's students examined the impact of their worldview on their response in emergency situations. Ben was in a good mood, having just defended his dissertation, "The Choral Music of George Frederick McKay (1899-1970)," at the University of Washington. Good job, Dr. Brody!

And congratulations, too, to Dr. Nadine Chapman (English), who successfully defended her dissertation last month at Gonzaga University!

The Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture has selected Jim Waller (Psychology/Lindaman Chair) as the recipient of a First Voice Humanitarian Award. Jim collaborates with the center on his Prejudice Across America study program, which gives Whitworth students first-hand exposure to the sites and influences of racism along with efforts to bring about racial reconciliation.

Great Decisions features speakers who focus on current political, cultural and economic topics. Last month, Shahrzad Saderi, a native of Iran, presented "The New, Modern Iran." Saderi leads communication training, facilitates strategic planning, and assists governments and businesses in maximizing working relationships between staff and management. And Ruth Callanta spoke on "Christian Micro-Enterprise: The New Model for Aid in Developing Countries -- A Philippine Perspective."  In 1992, Callanta founded the Center for Community Transformation, a Christian development organization in the Philippines that serves the poor through holistic, integrated, sustainable community- and church-based interventions.

The fifth annual Spokane Intercollegiate Research Conference will be held April 27-28,with more than 100 Whitworth scholars, as well as students from Gonzaga and E.W.U., presenting. The number of participants has doubled since the conference began in 2003. Janis McLarren Caldwell, '80, faculty member at U.C. Santa Barbara, will provide the keynote address. I love this conference. Students reach amazing levels of scholarly sophistication.

The Whitworth Summer Jazz Camp will take place June 17-21 on our campus. High-school-age students can swing with the kings (and queens) as they learn from our faculty and improve their jazz playing (big band, improvisation, combos, history, and jazz theory). You'll find the camp brochure and application online at www.whitworth.edu/jazzensemble.

The always-superb Whitworth Choir's spring home concert will be held Sunday, April 15, at 3 p.m., at St. Augustine Catholic Church, 428 W. 19th Ave.

Enrollment

I'm always banging on rankings, so it is with immense hypocrisy that I report the fact that Whitworth is recognized in the April issue of Kiplinger's Personal Financemagazine as one of the country's top 50 best values in private universities. And now that I've sold out, let me also mention that we're one place above my hometown school -- The University of Chicago. Oh sure, they're not a bad university, what with a couple hundred Nobel Laureates on their faculty. But who am I to argue with those fine magazine rankings? So check the April issue of Kiplinger's; the rankings are also available online at www.kiplinger.com/tools/privatecolleges.

Whitworth's enrollment-deposit deadline for fall 2007 entering freshmen is May 1. This $350 deposit reserves a place in the freshman class and also initiates the choice of residence halls and dining-hall meal plans. In recent years we've had some students who were very disappointed because they missed the deadline.

Because we've received more than 5,000 fall 2007 applications for a class of 485 freshmen, we have not been able to offer admission to every qualified applicant. We will, however, have some room on campus after fall term (due to a spring-semester study-abroad program and the fact that some students graduate after fall). So we have offered spring admission to a select number of promising fall 2007 freshman applicants.

The Whitworth Financial Aid Office has sent out awards to all NEW freshmen and transfer students who applied by March 1. If you know a student who is planning to start at Whitworth this fall and has filed a FAFSA but has not yet heard from the financial-aid office, please have him or her give the office a call at 800.533.4668. Also, the financial-aid office will send out renewal-award notifications for 2007-08 to current students via e-mail in May and June. The priority deadline for filing the FAFSA is May 1. Merit scholarships will automatically be renewed for students who continue to qualify for them.

Student Life

March began with a week-long missions fair that included lectures and workshops designed to help students understand how they might answer God's call in the mission field. Then there was some weird version of the dating game that sounded like fun, at least the part I heard. And, of course, March means Arend Hall's annual Green with Envy Dance, where roommates set each other up with surprise dates. Maybe we should combine these three events into a Green with Envy Missions Dating Game, in which  roommates fix each other up with surprise missions trips. Probably not. Everyone enjoyed the "Whitworth's Got Talent" competition, where students had a chance to reveal their hidden talents in order to win a cash prize of $250. There were also several first-time events this month. Intramurals put on The Triathlite, a mini-triathlon competition, and ASWC sponsored the first-ever faculty-vs.-seniors dodgeball game. (There seems to be some dispute over who won.)  Finally, the month ended with Spring Break, which included the SERVE missions trip to Mexico and Outdoor Rec's whitewater-rafting trip in Utah.

The Whitworthian won third place for best overall non-daily student newspaper in the Society of Professional Journalists' Mark of Excellence Awards for region 10. Jessica Davis, Luis Lopez and Jessica Kauhi won a second-place award for in-depth reporting for their series of articles about students who do not come to Whitworth.

Please check out our students' Relay For Life website, www.acsevents.org/relay/wa/whitworth. This great event, on April 20-21, brings our community together to help support the American Cancer Society and its lifesaving mission. Whitworth Relay for Life raised more than $7,000 in its first year and $12,500 in its second. Our goal this year is $15,000.

Resources

Due to the extraordinary generosity of two wonderful people and the help of many others, this past weekend we cut the ribbon on our new tennis bubble. It covers three of the six new courts, and everything about it is just amazing. I have played in quite a few bubbles, but this is by far the best I've seen. We are so grateful. We also sold a bunch of dirt from the lower 40, and that left us level space we can convert into a huge all-purpose field. Ed Kelly and Ray Peron have worked hard, creatively and well on these two projects.

Athletics

The Whitworth golf teams are preparing for the 2007 NWC championships. The Pirate men are two-time defending champs, and Andrew Parrott returns as the NWC championship medalist with Jordan Carter as an All-NWC selection. Whitworth will compete at the Spring Classic, which counts for one-quarter of the total championship, before teeing off at the NWC men's tournament later this month. The women's team has shown great improvement this spring. Alicia Bratlien, Rachel Dubes, Krystal Pitkonen and Mariesa Stombaugh have finished second in their last two tournaments. The Pirates will also play in the Spring Classic prior to competing in the NWC women's tournament.

The track & field teams are off to a great start. Before getting into full-on outdoor mode, Brandon Howell and Cody Stelzer went back to Indiana to compete at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships. Cody tied a lifetime best mark to finish sixth in the high jump and to become Whitworth's first indoor All-American. Brandon suffered a collision with another runner during his heat in the 800 and did not advance to the final. Ben Spaun has already qualified provisionally for the DIII outdoor championships in the decathlon, and Kristen Dormaier is very close to qualifying in the heptathlon.

Tennis returned from Spring Break in Hilton Head, S.C., in time for the men to beat George Fox 8-1 in the inaugural match in the bubble. The NWC championships are April 20-21 in Yakima. The Pirate women looked strong during the break, with Betsy Johnson going 8-4 in singles matches, while on the men's side Ed Anegon and Scott Donnell posted a string of doubles wins.

The softball team is ranked nationally for the first time in its 10-year history. The Pirates are 13-3 and ranked 23rd after their trip to California to play five games against teams that appeared in last year's NCAA tournament. Heather Case leads the team in batting average (.404) and doubles (5). Jessie LaPlante is off to an 8-0 record as a starting pitcher, with a 1.69 ERA.

The baseball team stands at 7-14 overall and 5-7 in the NWC. Van Lierman leads the team in batting average (.333), runs scored (20) and stolen bases (10-11). Ryan Snell has been named NWC Pitcher of the Week twice this season. The Pirates have a chance during April to build a winning streak to get back above .500.

Finally,  a trio of Whitworth swimmers went to the NCAA championships in Texas.Samantha Kephart battled through a back injury this season to post another strong showing. Though she could not quite defend her national titles in the butterfly races, she did finish second in the 100 and third in the 200. She also scored in the 50 freestyle. Natalie Turner was an All-American in the 200 and 1,650 freestyles and just missed in the 500 free. The pair combined to score 69 points, giving Whitworth a 14th-place finish in the meet. David Dolphay competed for the Whitworth men, but did not score in his three events.

Alumni

If you haven't seen Arena Football (or even if you have), now's the time. Join us at the arena April 21 at 5 p. m. for Alumni Night at the Spokane Shock. We have a block of seats in the upper deck for $5 each; order tickets at  www.whitworth.edu/alumnievents.

Enjoy fellow alums, memorable campus activities and great food at Alumni Family Weekend June 22-24. Brochures are in the mail and online registration is available at www.whitworth.edu/familyweekend.

Miscellaneous

The Whitworth Hawaiian Club will share Hawaiian-style food and culture during the club's 37th annual lu'au, on Saturday, April 14. This year's theme is Changes in Music. The menu includes kalua pork, macaroni salad, poi, chicken long rice and pineapple. The entertainment will feature 11 dances, including hula accompanied by both old and new music styles. Join us in the fieldhouse for dinner at 5 p.m. and entertainment at 7 p.m. Admission is $15 ($13 for Whitworth students with ID; free for children 5 and under). Tickets can be purchased at the information desk in the HUB. For information, call 509.777.3796.

After a one-year retooling hiatus, the Pirate Night Dinner and Auction will return Friday, Sept. 28. The event benefits Whitworth Athletics and allows us to fulfill the equipment and facility needs of our teams. If you could contribute an item to the auction (part of a vacation package, art, a service, sports collectibles), we would be thrilled. Please contact Pirate Night Procurement Chair Tia Rupe atrupesters@comcast.net.

Whitworth students will display their works in the junior art exhibit, NOX, April 3-20 in the Koehler Gallery, Whitworth Fine Arts Building. The gallery is open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission is free. For more information, please call 509.777.3258.

Whitworth invites you to its 32nd annual Institute of Ministry, July 9-13. Speakers include acclaimed theologians and educators Eugene Peterson, Roberta Hestenes, and Earl Palmer. You may learn more about the institute and register online at www.whitworth.edu/wim or by phone at 509.777.4345. (Register before May 1 and receive a discount!)

Closing Thoughts

This past Saturday we had softball, tennis, baseball and track all playing on campus. This meant, of course, that I cruised around in our luxury stretch golf cart (thank you, Frank Knott). Okay, I had a few small mishaps: ran over a couple folks, banged into this and that -- but I didn't activate the airbag. Anyway, it was a full day of watching students...and those are the best days at Whitworth. Thank you for enabling us to be coaches and front-row admirers of the extraordinary growth we see in the lives of our students.