Of Mind & Heart Newsletter: April 1999

An update from Whitworth University President Bill Robinson

If this newsletter gets written it will be a miracle. My family and I are in our van headed for Seattle. Our two youngest (on spring break) and their cousin are in the back playing a version of hearts that seems to require wrestling, while Bonnie is dramatically feigning drowsiness in a vain attempt to get one of us to take over driving after her "grueling" 20-minute stint. So we're all laughing pretty hard. I hope the day will trend upward on the same slope as yesterday, when Religion Professor Jerry Sittser and I left home for Olympia at 5:15 a.m. We were called to testify for the defense in an exasperating suit against the state for allowing students to use a state financial aid grant at church-related institutions. Once we got off the stand it was nice to spend some time together as we hustled back to Spokane. The day ended with a magnificent concert featuring baritone Frank Hernandez, '93, his wife, soprano Jan Grissom, and the Spokane Symphony. All three were spectacular. And baby Kent Hernandez, who stopped by a day earlier with his parents, is not only darling, but cries with an exquisite vibrato. So life at Whitworth continues to be good, if a bit hectic. Our students really needed spring break, but they seem in good spirits for the final push. I hope these days find you reminded of the renewing qualities of life as you enjoy the buds and blossoms, and as you continue along with us to celebrate the Easter resurrection.

Academics

Five of our English students had the chance to share their talents at the National Undergraduate Literary Conference early this month. The students selected were Stephanie Lenox, creative non-fiction; Andrea Palpant, fiction; Joshua Robbins and Rebecca Harmon, poetry; and Emily Myers, literary criticism. These students received high praise for their work, and they were generous in their appreciation of the quality of our English faculty.

Psychology Professor Jim Waller learned recently that he's been awarded a highly competitive grant from the Pew Foundation. The $35,000 award will allow him to devote next year to full-time research on the psychology of evil. The grant was one of 16 nationwide, with winners chosen from more than 250 applicants. Jim is the second Whitworth faculty member to receive one of these grants under the Pew Evangelical Scholarship Initiative. The first was History/Political Science Professor John Yoder, who is currently spending a Pew-funded year researching and writing about democracy in several African countries.

Faculty Development Day this spring brought us Barbara Walvoord, a good friend of the college and a nationally known authority on teaching strategies and assessment.Barbara, who helped design our highly successful Writing Across the Curriculum program, made us think carefully about tying in our assessment with the educational goals that we're busy revising.

Our Master in International Management program has been awarded another Title VI-B grant by the U. S. Department of Education. Through the good work of MIM Director Dan Sanford and Whitworth Institute of International Management Director JoAnn Nielsen, $160,000 will be granted to fund "Pathways to the European Union" for a period of two years, beginning Sept. 1. The funds will be used to develop a certificate program for business managers and executives interested in increasing their business in Europe. The grant will also help to link a Whitworth MIM class with a class at one of our partner institutions, Maastricht University, in the Netherlands. Internet links and satellite transmission will enable students at Whitworth and Maastricht to collaborate on projects.

Each semester our faculty members have the chance to share the rich diversity of their scholarly interests in a series of lunchtime presentations. So far this spring we've heard from History Professor Arlin Migliazzo on the dialectical history of higher education; Religion Professor Roger Mohrlang on updating his translation of the New Testament into the language of the Kamwe people of Nigeria; English Professor Pam Corpron Parker on the evangelical roots of 19th-century feminism and philanthropy; Psychology Professor Karol Maybury on her psychobiographical research on aviator Beryl Markham; and Kinesiology Professor Kirk Westre on transformational student leadership.

Just so you know that we're not all Presbyterians, I should note that History Professor Dale Soden (a proud Lutheran who may have been drawn to the denomination by a misunderstanding of Martin Luther's famed "sin boldly" statement) was the featured lecturer, along with William Willimon from Duke University, for approximately 150 Lutheran pastors at a recent three-day event in Seattle. Dale lectured on the challenge of preaching in the context of American popular culture, and on postmodernism and contemporary spirituality. In addition to his teaching duties here at Whitworth, Dale serves as director of the C. Davis and Annette Weyerhaeuser Center for Christian Faith and Learning.

The Whitworth Wind Ensemble will present its spring concert, Alliances, on Tuesday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Met. Director Richard Strauch has done a wonderful job with the ensemble. They will perform a varied program including Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy and Richard Strauss's Serenade in E-flat. The concert will also feature the Spokane Symphony's principal hornist, Margaret Wilds, in a performance of Brad Warnaar's Alliances for Solo Horn and Wind Ensemble. In recognition of Spokane's Japan Week, the ensemble will perform Gloriosa, a symphonic poem by Japanese composer Yasuhide Ito. The ensemble has had a great year, highlighted by an invitation to perform in Portland at the Northwest division of the Music Educators National Conference.

Speaking of music, our award-winning choir, under the very able direction of Brian Priddy, performed during spring break in seven complete concerts, two worship services and a choral exchange at the University of Redlands. The singers traveled by plane to Southern California and drove from San Diego to Palm Desert to Ventura and quite a few points in between. More than 80 alumni made appearances to hear the choir. Cal Moxley, David Martin and Beth Pearson each get the prize for attending two concerts apiece. Bonnie and I look forward to the choir's final concert of the season on Sunday afternoon here in Spokane.

This week I received word of two Whitworthians who have been awarded significant scholarships for this fall. Betsy Broyles Moe, '95, reported that she has received the Presbyterian Leadership Award (tuition, housing, fees, plus stipend) from Princeton Theological Seminary. So Betsy and her husband, Eric, '95, are headed for New Jersey. Also, Phil Harrington, '99, just heard that his excellent undergraduate work in math and philosophy has been rewarded with a huge scholarship to Notre Dame, where he will earn a Ph.D. in math. Phil is interested in both teaching and research, and the Notre Dame program will give him opportunities to do both.

Enrollment

Both freshman and transfer applications are up this year. Freshman deposits continue to run well ahead of last year (up 52 percent as of April 1). These next few weeks are very important, as many students are still in the decision-making process leading up to the May 1 enrollment-deposit deadline. We are very excited at the news that one of our applicants is George Whitworth's great-great-great-grandchild.

This weekend we have 65 of Whitworth's brightest freshman applicants on campus for our Faculty Scholarship Competition. These students will interact with Whitworth faculty in small groups, give individual presentations, design their own web pages in our computer labs, participate in debates on the crisis in Kosovo, and write essays on how college will help them prepare to contribute to positive societal change. They will be competing for two four-year, full-tuition scholarships. Bonnie and I look forward to hosting them for a reception tonight.

Please tell high school juniors you know about Sneak Preview, our overnight campus visit program on April 25-26. We'll have about 150 juniors and their parents on campus for this annual event. Many students begin their journey through Whitworth during Sneak Preview weekend.

Student Life

This week (April 11-18) is a really busy one, beginning with a Sunday afternoon choir performance in Spokane, followed by the Christian drama The Beams Are Creaking, and a Christian concert in the gym: Warren Peace Presents Small Town Poets.

Later this week the spring theatre production, The Playboy of the Western World, begins (Mac Hall Resident Director Gordy Toyama is lining up therapy sessions for his guys, each of whom thinks this is a play about himself), and the week concludes with the legendary Hawaiian Club Lu'au.

On April 24 (following our spring trustee meeting), a three-mile fun run, a CD/video exchange, a 50-yard inflatable obstacle course, a stage full of performers, club and dorm activity booths, food and the annual Mr. Whitworth Contest will highlight this year's Springfest. Because all proceeds go to En Christo and Westminster House, Springfest sponsor ASWC thinks it would be great to have the trustees (I'm included in that group) participate in the three-mile run. We could pledge a dollar for every second we finish over, say, 20 minutes, and then the cardiologists could just wheel those of us they manage to revive over to the bankruptcy court. We do look forward to having the board here for the spring meeting. They are a talented and dedicated group of people who love Whitworth.

Resources

At the April board meeting we will have a ceremony to express our appreciation for the renovations done on the Eric Johnston Science Center and to dedicate the newly refurbished building. We are very grateful to all of you who have contributed to this wonderful project. Reports from our science faculty suggest that the changes are having an extremely positive effect on their teaching. I was in the building this morning, and it is beautiful!

Thanks again to those of you who have given to The Whitworth Fund. We're having a very good year, and we still have some Phonathon pledges outstanding (hint!).

Keep the orders coming for those HUB bricks. Contact Rachelle Kert, assistant director of The Whitworth Fund, at rkert@whitworth.edu or at 509-777-4769 to order your brick before June 30.

Athletics

Well, I saw track, baseball and women's tennis this weekend. Both the men and women took second in their track quadrangular; the baseball team took two out of three from UPS (including a grand slam by captain Jack Arthaud to spark a rally); and the women's tennis team fell to Willamette. It was a beautiful weekend for outdoor athletics. Because I have to leave for Baltimore tomorrow morning, Terry Mitchell will fill in the blanks when she edits this.

After double-digit victories over the UPS Loggers this week, the baseball team stands at 9-6 in the NWC. Junior Nate Lynch is having a triple-crown year. He ranks in the top 10 in the conference in average (.406), and is second in home runs (9) and third in RBIs (34). Wow!

While softball is currently 1-3 in conference, the women are looking to move up.Heather Hedum, a senior from Ephrata, is having the same kind of year for the women as Nate Lynch is having for the men. Heather leads the NWC in average (.493), is second in home runs (5), and ranks fourth in RBIs (21). Heather's great play should help the softballers to make their mark in the NWC.

The tennis teams are playing through the cold, rain, and occasional snow that make the Pacific Northwest a springtime wonderland. The women are currently 3-12 overall, with junior Lisa Benscheidt coming on strong in recent matches, and the men stand at 9-8, with a shot at their second winning season in the '90s. Junior Alan Mikkelson and sophomore Matt Lemberg are the men's current team leaders.

In last weekend's NWC track-and-field quadrangular at Whitworth, junior Danielle Swift (nice name for a track star) bested the rest of the Northwest Conference in the javelin competition with a throw of 133'-11". The week before, in some truly awful weather, the women pulled out close decisions against Community Colleges of Spokane and North Idaho College, and the men defeated NIC but lost to CCS.

Miscellaneous

We offer enthusiastic congratulations to our director of development for community and corporate relations, Elsa Distelhorst, honorably mentioned in this press release from Indianapolis: "Ms. Elsa Distelhorst, a graduate of Leadership Spokane, is one of 74 Distinguished Leadership Award recipients honored by the National Association for Community Leadership and Spirit." The awards go to individuals and organizations that have strengthened and transformed communities through leadership development. Elsa was cited for her great work in helping to make Leadership Spokane a more inclusive effort that better reflects the composition of our community. Great job, Elsa!

Dates to Remember

Closing Thoughts

It is now a glorious Sunday morning. I can't imagine a more beautiful place than the Whitworth campus right now. I hope your travels this summer bring you to visit us. If you haven't been here recently, you'll be surprised at all we've done to the campus. It really looks good and functions well. But the improvements to the campus pale in comparison to the intellectual, social and spiritual growth we're seeing in our students. We had four seniors over for dinner last night, and as they left I was overcome by how much each of them has blossomed in the last four years. Thank you very much for the part you've played in their lives. It couldn't have happened without you.