Of Mind & Heart Newsletter: Summer 1999

An update from Whitworth University President Bill Robinson

Warm greetings to you on a warm day. The end of July presents Spokane with daytime temperatures in the mid-80s and nighttime temps that drop into the 50s. The campus is at its best. Lush green grass covers the interior, with a huge chorus of petunias, marigolds, geraniums, roses and tiger lilies (new this year) flanking the entrance. Incidentally, parents, tell your students that The Loop is just now recovering from the trauma of ultimate Frisbee. By the time school starts, each blade will be standing tall, waiting to be trampled (in the name of education, of course).

Welcome to those of you parents who are new recipients of this newsletter. I write Mind and Heart every month during the school year and once over the summer. My objective is to keep alumni, friends and parents of current students aware of various campus activities. I write you as a friend, which means I indulge in occasional bragging, whining, smart-mouthing and preaching. My wife thinks this is why I have no friends. Whatever. Should you find yourself actually reading these letters, there is one thing you will observe for sure: I love this college. And I am but one of many here who feel this way. It is a joy to work with our students, their professors and our great staff. Thank you for your interest in Whitworth College. More than ever, the world needs people of high intellectual character and deep moral strength. Of such are the students of Whitworth College.

Academics

Diana Trotter, associate professor of theatre at Whitworth, has been honored with the American Association of Community Theatres' Best Director Award for 1999. Diana took top national honors at the "Tony Awards of civic theatre" for a play she directed at the Spokane Civic Theatre this season. The production of Steven Dietz's Lonely Planet was ranked best in the nation at the AACT's annual festival in Memphis, Tenn. In addition to Diana's accomplishment and the overall achievement award, the play's two leads shared best-actor honors. Congratulations to Diana for her award-winning direction of this important play about AIDS and friendship.

Education professors Betty Williams and Debbie Tully received a grant from the Foundation for Exceptional Children. They will use these funds to contract with parents of special-needs children. The goal is to facilitate home visits for our students who are majoring in special education so that they can meet and talk with parents of special-needs kids.

With sadness and gratitude, we said farewell in May to three professors who served Whitworth for a total of 86 years. Spike Grosvenor, with 31 years of service to our Art Department; Bob Lacerte, who served in the library for 21 years; and George Weber, with 34 years in economics and business, retired. All three will still be based in Spokane, and all three plan to do some heavy travelling. If you get this in time, Aug. 14 will be the unveiling of the stained-glass window Spike is crafting for the new dining hall. (Contact the Alumni Office - 509-777-3799 or 800-532-4668 - for details.) At this same event, Spike will be honored for his service. We wish each of these Whitworthians a rewarding retirement and we thank them for their many great contributions to Whitworth College.

Political Science Professor Julia Stronks' book, Christian Teachers in Public Schools: A Guide for Teachers, Administrators and Parents, was published in July by Baker Book House. The book, which Julia co-authored with her mother, Doris Stronks, has already been selected as a text at several Christian and state universities for the next academic year. This important contribution will be helpful to those of our alums who serve in public education. Julia says the book is available either through the publisher (at www.bakerbooks.com) or through amazon.com. It should be noted that the authors have a special perspective on this topic: Julia practiced law before earning her Ph.D. in political science, and her mother is a professor of education at Calvin College in Michigan.

About a month ago, I received an e-mail from Bret Stephenson, a history major from the Class of 1997, informing me that he's been accepted at the University of Edinburgh's School of Divinity, where he'll study ecotheology for his M.A. in philosophy. Earlier this year, Bret took second place in the American Academy of Religion's Pacific Northwest regional student paper competition, with his paper on Martin Luther's concept of sin's impact on nature. The paper, done as part of his environmental studies minor, was supervised by Susan Bratton, our Lindaman Chair of Science, Technology and Society. Congratulations to both of them. I must say, with all due respect to Bret, that both his sister, Tracy, '95, and I found his academic prowess, well, "yet-to-be-discovered" when he arrived at Whitworth his freshman year. So, double kudos, Bret.

Susan Bratton has also secured a $29,980 National Science Foundation grant to support one of her ongoing research areas: environmental policy and the ethics of commercial fishing. The grant is part of an NSF program designed to "increase the prominence, visibility and influence of women in all fields of academic science and engineering supported by NSF." Susan will make three visits to institutions with relevant library collections and spend three weeks at the Graduate Theological Union and the University of California, Berkeley.

Here's the final word on our Y2K schedule. Jan Term is a "go" for 2000, but we'll start classes on Monday, Jan. 10, rather than around the fourth, when we'd usually begin. We also have a couple of unusual Jan Term options for our Hawaii students, many of whom found air travel completely booked months ago. Our Y2K Task Force has put together a very comprehensive plan with specific guidelines and contingency strategies. We'd be happy to share this with you if you'd like.

This fall, students will be pleased to discover a few significant upgrades in Harriet Cheney Cowles Library. Library Director Hans Bynagle reports that we've greatly expanded the number of licensed databases to which we have access. Some are primarily bibliographic, and others are full-text services. If you want to see what's available, says Hans, go to www.whitworth.edu/library/index.htm and click on Periodical Databases. "You'll find a handy categorization by broad subject fields," he says. Because of licensing requirements, however, most of the resources are available only to current students, faculty and staff. (I tell stories to my kids about how, when I was a kid, we hiked 200, sometimes 300 yards to the library, then physically fetched our books and checked them out. We boomers were rugged; none of this "click, click" jazz.)

Enrollment

Generally, I use this section to report items related to admissions and financial aid, but summer's a bit dull in this area. We've met our admissions goals, and few changes occur between May and September. We're still looking at a very full college this fall. This year, history has had some fun with us. We closed admissions when we'd accepted the number of applicants that typically would yield the number of new students we want. But history was wrong, so we have a few extra students this year. I'm sure we'll be fine, but it's going to be rather tight until things settle a bit.

Student Life

Besides looking for a few good beds for incoming freshmen, Student Activities is busy planning for the fall. Whitworth does new-student orientation as well as any college in the country, but it takes much planning. One of this year's orientation features will be the opportunity to hear the Christian band Acappella play on campus Sunday, Sept. 5. Additional events to start the year will include a concert featuring Five O'Clock People, the infamous Stewart Lawn Dance, a sand volleyball tournament, and our annual Trash-for-Cash Tournament where, if one is good at meaningless trivia, he/she could win a lot of MONEY! "The Weekend" and Community Building Day will follow all of this fun at the end of September, so we'll hit the ground running for the 1999-2000 school year.

Resources

Our deepest appreciation goes out to so many of you who have supported Whitworth financially. Largely because of your generosity, preliminary June 30 statements indicate that we closed 1998-99 in good shape. We balanced our budget while continuing to make programmatic, payroll and plant improvements across the college. Our endowment continues to grow through new gifts and bequests, along with solid gains in the financial markets. We feel both thrilled and blessed. Thanks to the help of3,020 generous donors, The Whitworth Fund collected $1,426,642 this year, surpassing its $1.35-million goal. Contributing to the success of The Whitworth Fund was your amazing response to our great Phonathon students. They blew past their goal of $175,000 and raised more than $203,000 for their college. We extend thanks to you, and to them.

Overall, the number of gifts from our generous donors increased by 13 percent this year. That represents a 9-percent increase in the number of actual donors. Categories that were particularly strong included businesses, giving 53 percent more than they did in FY98; alumni, up 18 percent; and Presbyterian churches, contributing 11 percent more than last year. We're especially pleased that 41 supporters became new donors to the President's Club by making annual contributions in excess of $1,000. We have also been gratified to see a sharp rise in the number of planned gifts facilitated by our very skilled Whitworth Foundation team.

Every summer we rotate residence halls for a sprucing up. Stewart is getting the most attention this year, with new showers, carpet and paint throughout. We have also been remodeling two new satellite homes that will house junior and senior students in a residential style. The grounds crew has done some cosmetic work in front of Arend, and it looks much better (a modest claim!). And two of the units in The Village have had a makeover with new carpet, paint, bath upgrades and some window and door replacements.

Many of you remember that last year we purchased the defunct Whitworth Elementary School (at the northwest corner of Hawthorne and Division). Our good friend and volunteer contractor Ron McClosky and his crew are busy preparing a portion of the school (eight classrooms and several offices) for use this fall. We will house the Master in Teaching faculty and staff in the building for this school year as we prepare for the major remodeling of Dixon. When Dixon closes in January, the Whitworth Elementary classrooms will become a teaching location for a variety of classes in several disciplines. The Psychology Department faculty and staff, also housed in Dixon, got a jump on things and moved recently to their temporary location in the remodeled Hendrick Hall (the old Student Life building).

Athletics

I'll give a good athletics report in September rather than here because a) I'm running out of space, b) I haven't been able to talk with the coaches, and c) we'll have a better picture of our potential after school starts. But let me say now that football looks great, with 18 returning starters, eight of whom were first- or second-team All-NWC; cross-country has huge numbers and several freshman flyers ready to go; volleyball welcomes a couple of impact freshmen and returns a number of excellent players to a new coach; and soccer (both men's and women's) is always strong.

The softball/soccer fields project on Waikiki looks good. Our contractor has completed the concrete dugouts for the softball field, installed the irrigation system, finish-graded the infield surface, set the fence posts and is ready to plant the grass. Soon we will see the beautiful green outfield of our women's softball field. We also just witnessed the first testing of the sprinkler system on the new soccer field, and it was a veritable Buckingham Fountain. More work on the features of the soccer field will be completed over the next weeks before seeding in late August.

Alumni

More than 200 alumni were on campus for four different cluster reunions on June 25-27. Next year, from June 23-25, the classes of 1979-1981, 1969-1971, 1959-1961, and 1949-1951 (with the Class of '50 being honored) will gather for their 20-, 30-, 40-, and 50-year reunions. Make plans now to attend. Call the Alumni Office (509-777-3799 or 800-532-4668) if you would like to assist with the planning for your reunion.

Homecoming 1999 is Oct. 2! All Whitworth alumni and friends are invited to come to campus for a day of fun and activities culminating in the annual Homecoming football game (this year against University of Puget Sound) at 1:30 p.m. And members of the Class of 1989, plan on joining your classmates, including Whitworth Alumni Director Tad Wisenor, for your 10-year reunion. Call or e-mail Tad (509-777-4401, 800-532-4668, twisenor@whitworth.edu) for more information.

The new Alumni Directory is on its way. Surveys for the 2000 Alumni Directory are in the mail. If you haven't yet received one, wait a few more weeks, then call the Alumni Office and they will make sure you get one. The new directory will arrive in spring 2000 and will be more user-friendly than ever before.

Dates to Remember

Closing Thoughts

Last night a current student, a faculty member, an alum and I met at the home of a Whitworth professor who'd asked us to review a book he's finishing up. One of the points made in this book is the glory and joy to be found in the present moment. When we were well into the second hour of discussing how this book would be received in the future, the resident teenagers bounded into the room and announced, "Enough talk; it's time for pie and ice cream." They were right. And we enjoyed a wonderful, rich moment. The college years are big on preparation, as they should be. But I think nothing short of exhilaration awaits the student who seizes the poignancy, hilarity and depth of college-life moments. In that spirit, Jesus told his disciples to "take no thought for tomorrow…." Admittedly, Jesus used hyperbole to make his point, but we at Whitworth have tried to design a college experience that encourages our students to hear the voice of Jesus when he says, "Enough talk; it's time for pie and ice cream." A great year awaits us (after a great "now"), and we thank each of you for your interest, prayers and support.