Of Mind & Heart Newsletter: February 2002

An update from Whitworth University President Bill Robinson

I'm on the way back from my 16th annual Washington, D.C., conference of college presidents. For the first time, my schedule was so tight that I wasn't able to end the political briefing sessions by spending a few hours at the National Gallery of Art. I'll never make that mistake again. I feel like I forgot to wash my hands. Actually, I'm very grateful for our public servants, but it's best if my last picture of D.C. is one painted in 16th-century Italy rather than one spun by a poll-driven speechwriter. Speaking of speechwriters, while I was at the conference I heard a story that makes a case for everyone having a liberal-arts education. Historian Michael Beschloss told of a speech prepared for Lyndon Johnson in which Aristotle was quoted. LBJ, reviewing the speech, read the quote and remarked something along the lines of, "I like the quote, but nobody's heard of Aristotle. Tell 'em my daddy said that." Eek. Well, we've begun our second semester this academic year of educating Whitworth students. If one of them becomes president, you can listen for a word from Aristotle. Thanks for your great support of the Whitworth mission.

Academics

It would be hard to read this newsletter regularly and not notice that several of our faculty are building reputations that go far beyond Whitworth's borders. One such scholar, Laurie Lamon, '78 (English), has received the prestigious Graves Award in the Humanities. The award is given biennially to 8-10 faculty from private liberal arts colleges in Washington, California, and Oregon. The stipend will allow Laurie to spend the summer and part of the fall writing poetry and researching the "Poetry of Witness" in order to develop a course. Congratulations, Laurie.

Spring Convocation will be especially joyous this year. We will celebrate Founder's Day and honor Floyd Daniel, a wonderful photographer who has enriched Whitworth significantly and has been of particular help to our Art Department. Also, Dale Soden (History) will provide a glimpse of an amazing group that brought great honor to Whitworth only 18 years after our founding - the 1908 football team. Send Dale (dsoden@whitworth.edu) a note if you'd like a copy of his remarks or if you have information that we should have in our archives.

We have a new professor in our School of Global Commerce and Management. Jake Semeijn will teach and serve as director of our Master of International Management Program. He comes to us from a similar position at the University of Maastricht, in the Netherlands. Jake received his M.I.M. degree from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management, completed his doctoral work at Arizona State University, and has considerable work experience in international business. Incidentally, we've also hired two great new professors for the fall. In a very short time this new school will take its place among the best business programs in the Northwest.

Cathy Kroeger, a former board member at Whitworth who teaches Greek at Gordon Conwell Seminary, joined the Whitworth community during Jan Term to offer students a fascinating study of women in Christianity. Her course description refers to the historical, biblical, and theological foundations for perspectives on the roles of women in expressing their faith, exercising their gifts, and exploring their sense of calling. It is really exciting for us to witness the number of women who hear God's call to ministry while at Whitworth. In December, Bonnie and I had an opportunity to hear a recent alum give her first sermon. We listened with wet eyes as we heard our daughter tell of being held in God's loving hands.

Scott Kolbo (Art) recently displayed his prints in the Koehler Gallery. The enticing title of the exhibit was Sequential Narratives About Street Preachers, Homeless Women, Slapstick Comedy, Stinky Feet and a Very Large Trojan Horse. Although my pen is drooling to make some smart remark about the title, I'll just say that Scott is a gifted artist and I really enjoyed his work.

Arlin Migliazzo (History) has just published a book, Lands of True and Certain Bounty: The Geographical Theories and Colonization Strategies of Jean Pierre Purry (Susquehanna Press, 2002). One critic writes, "This book is the most thorough and comprehensive treatment to date of a very early and important movement of Europeans to the southern colonial frontier. [The book is] a fascinating window into the mind of an ambitious, adventuresome and influential European expansionist." Congratulations to Arlin.

Enrollment

The Financial Aid Office is beginning to review files for the 2002-2003 academic year.New students who have applied by the March 1 deadline will begin to receive their financial aid award notices in the mail in early April. Continuing students who meet the May 1 deadline for submitting their FAFSAs will receive their notices during May and June. If continuing students need summer aid (which is very limited), their renewal deadline is March 1. Merit scholarships are automatically renewed. Also, the Financial Aid Office would like to remind parents and students that we have updated the scholarship information pages on our website (www.whitworth.edu/financialaid). Please check it out for more information.

Applications for fall 2002 continue to be very strong. With so many applicants, it is really important for students to complete their admissions files by March 1. Also, April 14 and 15 is Sneak Preview weekend for high school juniors.

As Spring Term begins, we are especially enthusiastic in welcoming eight new students from Sweden, Korea, Mexico, Ukraine, and Nigeria. We're glad to have you at Whitworth!

Student Life

As Spring Term begins, we are especially enthusiastic in welcoming eight new students from Sweden, Korea, Mexico, Ukraine, and Nigeria. We're glad to have you at Whitworth!

Resources

If she'd been strutting around our fieldhouse, Chicken Little might have gotten doinked by way more than an acorn. But C.L. is safe now. As we were planning to replace the building's 40-year-old roof, officials informed us that the existing structure did not meet current code requirements. So Randy Ramey, a great Bucs fan and supporter, mobilized a crew that inserted large steel "X" bars across the interior roof of the facility. It was a pretty big project, but the crews worked during the night so the disruption was minimal. We will be replacing the roof and skylights this spring and adding two inches of insulation so that we can keep our expensive heat on the inside of the building.

Our summer energy conservation projects and the efforts of our students, faculty and staff are starting to bear fruit. Consumption levels are down 5 to 10 percent from last year, even after the addition of Boppell Hall. Though natural gas costs are starting to come back to earth, the rapid rise in electric rates means that we need to continue to be diligent in this area.

I want to express again my appreciation for your financial support in December. I didn't have the final tally for my December newsletter. As it turns out, when I wrote you in November about us being behind in giving it was worse than I thought, and when I wrote in January that it looked like you'd made up the difference it was better than I thought. (I usually write this in the first week of the month, and we don't get our monthly financials until the second week.) We ended November $96,000 behind the 2000 year-to-date, and we ended December $3,000 ahead. Thank you so much! I know some of you really stretched. Again, I really prefer using this piece to inform you, thank you, and brag to you, so I hope it's a long time before I have to use it again to ask you to help us with our annual giving.

Sometime in the next month, all of our alumni and donors will be receiving information about our next big building project, Weyerhaeuser Hall. I was surprised to discover that Whitworth has never invited the entire alumni base to participate in supporting a capital project. So I think you'll enjoy seeing the plans for this exciting project.

Athletics

I loved watching the Whitworth swim teams conclude the dual-meet portion of their season by defeating Whitman. The men finish with a dual-meet record of 7-2 overall, 6-0 in the Northwest Conference, while the women finish 5-4, 5-1. The next step is the conference championship meet Feb. 15-17 at the Whitworth Aquatics Center. Whitworth's men are defending NWC champions, while the women are defending runners-up. I'll give you all the stats next month.

What was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the women's basketball team could be a "re-playoff" year in the NWC. The Pirates (15-8 overall, 10-4 NWC) are currently tied for second place in the standings. Senior guard Erica Ewart just set the Whitworth career three-point record. She now has 110 treys and counting, and she broke the record of 108 set by Annette Sweeney from 1991-95. Three freshmen are part of the reason the team is challenging for an NWC playoff spot. These three, whose names I've mentioned before and will undoubtedly mention again, are Tiffany Speer, Sarah Shogren and Dani Bielec. All have played huge roles in the Pirates' success.

Whitworth's men are also in the chase for an NWC playoff spot. The Pirates (17-6, 10-4) defeated pre-season NWC favorite Lewis & Clark for the second time last Saturday. After thumping Whitman last Tuesday and beating Linfield on Friday, Whitworth is in third place and still has a chance at the conference title - but the Pirates must win their final two road games and hope they get some help. Junior Kyle Jensen and senior Travis Meserve have stepped up big during this end-of-the-season push. And sophomore forward Bryan Depew, who earned All-Northwest Conference first-team honors as a freshman, is picking up where he left off last season. He is currently 4th in the NWC in both scoring average and rebounding, he's been named NWC Player of the Week twice this season, and his six double-doubles are the third-highest total in the conference.

Alumni

Alumni Night produced the largest fieldhouse crowd of the season, turning up the volume for a terrific night of basketball as the Pirates defeated the Lewis & Clark Pioneers in men's and women's action. The crowd liked the new bleachers and championship banners, and nearly 500 alumni and friends enjoyed the post-game ice cream social.

Looking for an old roommate? Wondering where your old teammates are working now? Copies of the 2000 Alumni Directory are available free of charge to all alumni. If you have not yet received one, please e-mail khabbestad@whitworth.edu or call the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations at 800-533-4668.

Our award-winning wind and jazz ensembles will be all over the West this spring. Here's the schedule: March 16, First Presbyterian, Bend, Ore; March 17, Bidwell Pres., Chico, Calif.; March 18, Carmichael Pres., Sacramento; March 19-20, the Bay Area; March 21, Reno, Nev.; and March 23, Boise. If you're in one of those last three areas you'll be receiving information soon about venues for the March 19-23 dates. We hope you can hear our very talented students on this whirlwind tour. For additional info, contact Fine Arts Tour Coordinator Kevin Benson, '00, at 800-532-4668 or kbenson@whitworth.edu.

Whitworth's great staff does incredible behind-the-scenes work. Public Information Specialist Julie Riddle, '92, won a Bronze Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education for a press release she wrote about Whitworth's fall theatre production, God's Country. Julie demonstrated great skill and sensitivity in promoting a play that was intended to be thought-provoking but faced a significantly different audience in light of the Sept. 11 attacks. Her award will be presented later this month at CASE's annual District VIII conference in Portland, where I will give the closing plenary speech to the faithful few who remain.

Closing Thoughts

When I taught statistics I always made a big deal out of a principle known as "regression toward the mean." Its power and predictability fascinated me. The principle claims that extremes naturally retract back toward the average. In the past month I've covered more than 30,000 miles and I'm in the process of knocking off another 3,000 as I fly home right now. So I've been doing some serious people-watching, wondering how the world is returning from the horror of Sept. 11 to a more normal existence. Do we hang on to the lessons learned in a time of crisis? After a couple of intense days in Washington, D.C., I get the sense that the bipartisanship Congress displayed during those post-attack days is regressing toward the mean (which is often mean). Travelers are also getting cranky again. I need to challenge myself and our students to recall what we were learning and feeling during last September's crisis. Have we forgotten to take those lessons with us as we trudge back toward normal? Do we value the relationships of those dear to us as much now as we did then? Do we hear Jesus saying, "Take courage. It is I; don't be afraid " as clearly as we heard him then? What I do know is that when I get home tonight, I'm going to do hugs like I did in September. God's blessings to all of you. Thanks for standing with us as we try to make "normal" a little better than it used to be.

Signed, Bill