Of Mind & Heart Newsletter: April 2003

An update from Whitworth University President Bill Robinson

As you might expect, discussions related to war, and to "The War," dominate the campus these days. Our faculty have engaged the issue by setting aside time in their classes, visiting residence halls at night, and participating in issue-related lunchtime discussions. ASWC compiles and sends weekly updates to keep students informed of wartime developments. The chapel has continuous prayer times available for all students, as well. In fact, last week I turned on a news broadcast only to be greeted by our own Michael Le Roy (Political Studies) "live from Washington, D.C.," offering analysis for a local network affiliate. With this war always before them, our students need to find space where they are engaged but not overwhelmed and where they are protected but not immune. As is so often the case, this is a situation when leading students well requires us to listen to students carefully. One of the verses my dad quoted often in my childhood is from Isaiah 52: "How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of those who bring good tidings, who proclaim peace..." Evidently, the heralds of old kicked up a good bit of dust when returning from the battlefields with news of peace restored. May we soon hear those glad tidings of peace.

Academics

You may have noticed from my past reports that this has been a year in which we've hosted many outside speakers. Importing expertise and differing perspectives has proven to be a wonderful way for us to stay current and eclectic in our thinking. Below are some of this month's visitors.

Artist and author Sabrina Ward Harrison shared her creative work through collages and journal-writing. Her visit led us to create a HUB exhibit featuring some of our students' journals along with Harrison's photographs of the writers.
Maria Beebe, a consultant with USAID, gave one of our Great Decisions lectures, on Current Issues in Nigeria.
Also as part of this series, we heard from David Domke, a mass-media expert and communication professor at the University of Washington. His topic was The New Patriotism: Political Communication, Protest and the Price of Democracy.
Melvin L. Oliver, Jr., vice president of the Asset Building and Community Development Program at the Ford Foundation, lectured on Alleviating Poverty, Building Assets for World-Class Cities. His presentation was the first of a three-part series we're hosting along with Bethel A.M.E. Church to examine community-development issues in Spokane.
Nathan Brown, managing partner of the Morgan Leigh Group, was the third of our five Entrepreneur Series speakers this spring. The series, established recently with a grant from the Seattle-based Herbert Jones Foundation, supports our School of Global Commerce and Management.
Bernard Kuiten, a representative of the World Trade Organization, was the Fosseen Distinguished Speaker of International Management. Bernard surprised me by saying that he has attempted, with some success, to enter into dialogue with some WTO protesters, hoping that he and they might learn from each other in a non-volatile environment.
Nationally known speaker August Taurek spoke about Spirituality, Vocation and Business. He came to help us address issues of vocation as part of our Lilly Foundation grant.
Finally, in a joint venture with our colleagues at Gonzaga, we are right in the midst of a series of four lectures on our campuses as part of our Physics and the God of Abraham conference. This year's program, which focused on God and the concept of time, features William Lane Craig, research professor of philosophy at the Talbot School of Theology, and Gonzaga President Robert Spitzer, S.J.

If you get this publication in time and are in the Spokane area, we're hosting some great speakers in April.
In the midst of his second term as U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins is Whitworth's 2002-03 Endowed English Reader. He will read from his works on Friday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m. in Cowles Auditorium. For more information, please call (509) 777-3253. I'll report in May on this poet whom The New York Times describes as "... a charming public reader who can pack auditoriums."
As part of the Faith and Work Conference April 9-11 sponsored by the Weyerhaeuser Center, Laura Nash, senior research fellow in entrepreneurship and service management at Harvard Business School, will speak on Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenge of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life; Jack Fortin, director of lifelong learning at Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., will speak on The Congregation as a Catalyst for Taking One's Faith into the Workplace; and Gregory Pierce, author of Spirituality @ Work: Ten Ways to Balance Your Life On-the-Job, will address Spirituality of Work: An Oxymoron?

Picture this: My wife (accompanist for our chamber singers) calls from California, gushing over the Whitworth Choir tour performances being beautiful beyond belief, the students being a blast, and the weather being exquisite. Meanwhile, I'm in Fairbanks, where every car in the hotel parking lot is tethered to an electric hitching post by an extension cord that keeps the vehicle from turning into a chunk of ice. Well, the choir's spring tour was a huge success. After performances in Vancouver, Wash., and Medford, Ore., the group's California stops included Davis, San Francisco, Saratoga, Lafayette and Yuba City. Led by Interim Director of Choral Activities Deborah Hansen, the choir and chamber singers performed works by such composers as Duruflè, Rachmaninoff, Finzi and Bernstein, as well as spirituals arranged by Keith Hampton and Moses Hogan. And Fairbanks turned out to be great in every respect. Even the weather was good. I spoke at the University of Alaska and at First Presbyterian Church. Great people!

Enrollment

High-school juniors interested in Whitworth should be sure to check out Sneak Preview, April 27-28. Students and their parents are invited to visit campus for this opportunity to see Whitworth up-close and personally, not to mention nocturnally. Call (509) 777-4331 for information. We have great prices for parents at nearby hotels. Trust me, you'll be ready for the hotel.

The Financial Aid Office has sent out awards to all new first-year and transfer students who applied by the priority deadline of March 1. If you know a student who is planning to start at Whitworth this fall who filed the FAFSA form by the deadline and has not yet heard from the Financial Aid Office, please have him/her give the financial-aid folks a call at 800-533-4668. The deadline for renewing students is still May 1, so you can get your taxes done first.

Our endowed scholarship application deadline has come and gone, and now we begin reviewing these applications. Because of the large number of applications, the Financial Aid Office will be able to notify only the recipients. Thanks to all who provide funds for these special scholarships. They make a huge difference in our students' lives.

Student Life

In student life, April means elections. And after an incredible Spring Break, our students are ready! Several Whitworth groups took off during the break; trips included the Hulkamaniacs 2003 World Road Tour, Outdoor Rec's trip to the Oregon Coast and SERVE's Habitat for Humanity work trip. Athletics teams and music groups that toured involved a very large number of students. I'm sure there were other activities of the wackier sort. On my way back from Fairbanks, I was in the Seattle airport with one student who'd found a $106 plane ticket to Amsterdam on the Net (sounds like a mistake that an airline honored) and another student who thought it wise to spend the night in a covered wagon that stood in ornamental tribute to a Perkins Pancake House in Ellensburg, Wash. There's a life achievement for you.

Resources

We are busy preparing for the April arrival of one of Whitworth's most valuable resources - the board of trustees. The biggest issue for the trustees is whether to start construction on Weyerhaeuser Hall. The construction-bid market in Spokane is soft, so we're working feverishly to find the funds that will enable us to move forward now and take advantage of this while we can.

With the world in great pain, it almost seems profane to ask for financial gifts. I'm reminded of a cartoon I saw of a scruffy panhandler who pleaded, "Hey buddy, can you spare 35 dimes for a double-shot hazelnut latté--skinny?" But that is absolutely not our situation. We are hard at work preparing the most important antidotes to injustice and evil-- our students. In both our annual fund and our Weyerhaeuser Hall contributions, we have been hit hard by this economy. So thank you for what you have done and for anything you are able to do now. It is both humbling and energizing to know that you stand with us.

We are fortunate that estate-based gifts seem immune to the economy. They become life-savers when annual-gift dollars recede. This interest-rate environment is attracting a lot of attention from our more senior alumni and friends, because whenever you can convert a low-interest-yielding asset into one paying up to 12 percent, a gift becomes a good investment. If you'd like to leave a legacy to Whitworth through your estate plans, contact Kristi Burns (Institutional Advancement) or Joe Dinnison (The Whitworth Foundation) at 800-532-4668.

Athletics

Nobody outworks Kevin Wang, and it shows. Kevin highlighted Whitworth swimming's turn at the NCAA championships by setting an NCAA Division III record and defending his national title in the 400 individual medley. His time of 3:54.45 broke the previous national record by three one-hundredths of a second. He also finished third in the 1,650 freestyle and 7th in the 500 freestyle to lead the Pirates to a 7th-place team finish - the best by any Whitworth team to date in NCAA competition. Ryan Freeman had an outstanding meet as well, earning a third-, a fourth-, and a 12th-place finish in his races. Serena Fadel finished 5th in the 200 breaststroke and 7th in the 400 I.M., and the Pirate women's medley relays finished 7th (200) and 9th (400). The Whitworth women finished 19th at their meet, the highest women's showing ever.

After a confusing decision by the NCAA to grant hosting privileges to the lower-ranked team, Whitworth's men's basketball team traveled to Minnesota, where the Bucs were handed a close first-round loss by Gustavus Adolphus, a team that ended up losing the Division III national championship game on a last-second basket. But we hung two Northwest Conference banners for one basketball season, and no NWC school has done that before. Also, a couple more individual basketball awards came in. Tiffany Speer was selected First Team All-West Region and Third Team All-America, and Bryan Depew was selected Second Team All-Region.

The Whitworth baseball team has battled injury (our main stopper, Kurt Reese and All-NWC DH Marques Molett) and persistent weekend rains to post a 7-12-1 (5-6 in conference) record through the midpoint of the season. Josh Taylor and the Gebbers brothers (John and Daniel) have been hitting a ton, while Dan Lundeberg has been great on the mound. This is a good team, and if they finish strong, as they did last year, they still have a shot at the playoff chase.

Our softball team is storming back into contention. After a killer beginning against some very tough competition, the Bucs got their first season win against perennial national power PLU in the fourth and final game of their series against the Lutes. Aubri Azzarito drove in Amanda Norwood from second base with two out in the bottom of the seventh to give the Bucs the 4-3 victory. Since that time, Whitworth is 5-5 and showing daily signs of improvement. Freshman Jo Sonnett has been outstanding on the mound, keeping the Pirates in nearly every game she pitches.

Whitworth's track-and-field teams appear capable of returning to the top of the NWC standings in 2003. Two Pirates have already provisionally qualified for the NCAA championships. They are Kristen Shields in the 100 and 200 meters and Jessica Austin in the 3,000 steeplechase. On Saturday at Boppell Track, Shields broke the school and track records by winning the 200-meter dash in 25.10 at the Whitworth Invitational. At nearly 100 athletes, this is the largest track-and-field team in Whitworth history.

The women's tennis team is 5-3 overall and 4-0 in the NWC at the halfway point of the season. The Pirates could make a run at defending champion Linfield for the conference title. At the schools' first meeting, Linfield led 4-3 with two matches still under way when play was suspended. The teams will meet again on April 12 in Oregon. The Jills (Vaughan and Huibregtse) lead a senior-dominated Whitworth squad.

Men's tennis is 4-6 overall and 1-4 in the conference, but the team heads into the second half of the season on the momentum of a 3-1 trip to California. If this young group can pull things together, they have a chance for their first upper-division finish at the conference tournament in many years. Chad Dierickx and Tyler Van Horn play at the top of the ladder for the Pirates.

Alumni

Plan now to join English Professor Leonard Oakland and Director of Alumni and Parent Relations Tad Wisenor on Saturday, May 24, at First Presbyterian Church in Anchorage, Alaska, for an evening discussion about life, movies and Whitworth. Brochures and online registration will be available soon. You lower-48 folks should think about making the trip. The date is just one month short of the summer solstice, so you'll have quiet white nights and pre-mosquito-season days.

Online registration is now available for Alumni Family Weekend, to be held on campus June 20-22. If you haven't yet received a copy of the Alumni Family Weekend brochure, please contact the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations at 800-532-4668.

Closing Thoughts

Sometimes I think my nickname should be "Sadim." That's not the Arabic plural of Saddam; it is "Midas" spelled backwards. I've been on a little roll lately where whatever I touch turns to dross. It started just after my first post-surgery trip. I got home from Texas, Los Angeles, Olympia, Bellevue and Yakima and was greeted with an e-mail message that included the headlines Whitworth President in Olympia and Revenue Forecast Drops Another $200 Million. Fortunately, there was no identifiable connection between the two items, but it felt like a bad omen. Lately, it seems the harder I work on finding money for our academic building, the tougher it gets. We have even lost some pledges to the economy. So, in my prayers these days I'm asking for a cosmic perspective. I need to stand back, trust God, work hard, and accept the setbacks. There is so much for which we can be thankful. Whoa: This very moment, sunshine split the rainy skies. It's probably just the law of averages, but I'll take it as a sign. Glad tidings and peace to all of you good friends.