Of Mind & Heart Newsletter: December 2001

An update from Whitworth University President Bill Robinson

I have no idea how I am going stuff everything into this newsletter. So much is going on. At the moment, I stand (sit, actually) in solidarity with the men's basketball team and 30 alumni/friends mourning the departure of the tropical heat we just left behind in Honolulu. We are returning from a wonderful Thanksgiving excursion, complete with a tournament championship. I wish I could write well enough to express the strong goodness I see in Whitworth students whenever I have a chance like this to spend time with them. In a sense, the quality of our students was symbolized after last night's game. Cutting short their celebration, 13 sweaty players interrupted our standing ovation by drifting up into the stands to thank each one of us for making the trip and supporting them. Their warmth and authenticity reminded me of the scholarship dinner two weeks ago when students and their scholarship benefactors embraced in mutual gratitude. I report these episodes hoping you will realize that our students do not take for granted all of you who stand in applause. Whether your applause takes the form of cheering, financial generosity, prayer or moral support, Whitworth students are so grateful to you for "making the trip." Speaking of trips, I hope this advent season brings you the peace of Christ as you follow Mary and Joseph's redemptive trip to Bethlehem.

Academics

We are pleased to announce that we've received a $2-million grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. This grant will be significant in knitting Whitworth's mission into the vocational futures of our students. In particular, it will enable us to strengthen our longstanding commitment to preparing people for the kind of lay and professional church leadership that responds to the deepest needs of our culture. The five-year project - "Discerning Vocation: Community, Context and Commitments" - is aimed at encouraging all students to explore the theological implications of their life commitments and vocational choices. We are one of 28 colleges and universities in the country to receive Lilly Endowment grants totaling $55.3 million. Lilly's desire with this program is to enable young people to draw upon resources of religious wisdom as they consider their vocational choices. Thanks to Dale Soden (History/Weyerhaeuser Center) and Campus Pastor Terry McGonigal for their leadership in applying for this grant.

It's not every day that I can report a $2-million grant, but grantwriter Lynn Noland reports that this has also been a good month for other academic awards.

• In another Lilly-funded program, our association with the Lilly Fellows Network, a national group of Protestant and Catholic colleges and universities that examines the meaning of being faith-based institutions, has led to the announcement from the organization's board that Whitworth has been awarded $56,000 to host the network's summer seminar for college teachers. Under the leadership of Jim Waller (Psychology), we will bring to campus faculty from 12 other institutions for a seminar, "Deliver Us from Evil: Genocide and the Christian World."
• Richard Stevens (Physics) has received a $28,000 grant - "Testing and Validation of a Spectroscopic Method to Analyze Carbon Grid Erosion in Ion Thrusters" - from NASA. This will be very helpful to those of us plagued by carbon grid erosion. Whitworth is the only non-doctoral institution to receive a NASA grant of this kind.
• Bryan Priddy (Music) has received a $15,000 grant from Spokane's Wasmer Foundation for his spring choral concert, Reflections. The foundation has also made a special gift of $25,000 to the Music Department. The Wasmer Foundation, a great friend of Whitworth over the years, is ending its operation and turning over the management of its funds to Foundation Northwest.
• Randy Michaelis and Barb Sanders (School of Education) have received a $5,200 grant from the State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for further collaboration with secondary-methods teachers and with Spokane-area teachers and principals in the School of Education's new extended placement program.

Anyone who has heard James Edwards teach from the book of Mark has thought, "This man KNOWS Mark, LOVES Mark, and MUST write a commentary on Mark." Now, Jim's sabbatical research, done last year at Cambridge, culminates his years of careful study with the commentary The Gospel According to Mark, published by William B. Eerdmans as part of its Pillar New Testament Commentary series. Jim reports that this commentary "represents a lieblingsarbeit in my scholarly life - a work dear to my heart." Like Jim's other publications, this commentary will be scholarly, engaging and inspiring.

Many of us have delighted at the performances of senior theatre major Julia Marsh over the past few years, but she wasn't acting last month when she hung up on an angel. Quite understandably, Julia went slightly nuts when she received word that she'd been awarded a prestigious $18,750 Woodrow Foundation Scholarship. "When I heard, I dropped the phone and hung up on the trustee. I promptly called him back, totally dumbfounded and embarrassed," she says. Julia's scholarship is a full-tuition-and-books award for the 2001-2002 academic year, made possible through the generosity of the Leon Woodrow estate. Congratulations, Julia!

In other scholarship news, a few weeks ago I attended a reception for seven of our freshmen who were named Gates Foundation Scholars during their senior year of high school. The 13-year, $100-million scholarship program is part of the Washington State Achievers Program, a decade-long initiative established in 2001 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda. The Washington Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that evolved from Governor Gary Locke's 2020 Commission, administers the program. Gates Foundation Scholars include Jennifer Miner, Seth Sather, Angela Akre, Shawnna Midland, Gregory Annis, Sheila Sutherland and Ernestcarl Policarpio.

The Seattle-Tacoma Christmas concerts were glorious. Christ's coming was proclaimed majestically, both in program and performance. More than 100 wonderful students were led by director Bryan Priddy, with great help from Debbie Hansen leading the Chamber Singers, Pat Stien doing the narration, and Bonnie Robinson (who received heroic domestic support from her husband) playing the organ and piano.

Enrollment

We hosted 175 prospective students at our annual Great Escape campus visit program Nov. 11-12. It was great. I was reminded of how much I love spending time with the students' parents. I see an interesting twist on the emotions I witnessed doing church nursery duty 20 years ago. Back then, we'd get an exhaustive list of instructions from first-time parents, while veteran parents would execute a quarterback handoff without even breaking stride. I was always sort of ready for a lateral, just in case. But parents have pretty sticky fingers when it comes to handing off that last child to college. I can relate; we have a 12th grader ourselves. Just last month I groaned to her math teacher, "Mr. Nord, flunk her. I want her for one more year."

Campus Close-up for interested high-school seniors and parents will be held Feb. 17-18. Online registration is available through the prospective-student section of our website.

News flash: Congress recently revised the tax laws to provide more benefits to students and their parents, creating a new "above the line" deduction for qualified higher-education expenses and updating the student-loan interest-deduction benefit and the Education Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA). For more information, refer to IRS Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Higher Education, or visit www.ed.gov/inits/hope. The 2001 version of the IRS publication should be posted there soon.

Student Life

November concluded with a hip-hop performance by the ASWC club "Hulkamaniacs."These dudes have spun on their heads a few too many times, but they're great. They had planned to breakdance their way to Colorado for several performances, claiming their fame was exploding all over the world. Unfortunately, the weather killed the trip. December will be filled with Christmas cheer. "Jubilation" will perform their winter dance show; the Christmas concerts come to Spokane; and ASWC will present their annual Evening in December, featuring music, Christmas readings by staff and faculty, and plenty of frivolity and food. Paying the price for all this fun, students will conclude the semester by engaging in huge study marathons before they say fast good-byes and head off to get some serious sleep.

Resources

I hope those of you who read this newsletter regularly have noticed that I use it far more to say "thank you" than to make requests. I do, however, try to keep you apprised of our financial condition. In that vein, you should know that we are facing some pretty fierce challenges. Several big, unpredictable spikes in our costs (energy, health care, and insurance) have coupled with our own version of the national, post-September 11 decline in contributions to charities that are not directly related to the terrorist attacks. We are steeply behind in our annual gifts to The Whitworth Fund. Also, we're a little worried about December, by far our biggest giving month each year, because we don't expect the normal number of appreciated stock gifts, since nobody seems to have any of that stuff. What this means is that there is less money out there and there are fewer tax advantages for those who give it away. So we are hoping that the people who believe in what we are doing, and who are able to give, will step forward and really help us this year. It would be great if you can join many of us who will be giving more from less because we love this place. Thanks.

Two factors have influenced our decision to close the campus between Christmas and New Year's Day this year. First, the calendar minimizes the number of lost days. Second, steep price increases in electricity and natural gas make it economically attractive to turn off the lights and lower the temperatures of all campus buildings. However, and this is a big "however," we will keep our Advancement Office open for those making year-end gifts to the college (509-777-3243 or 800-532-4668). Also, some of our athletics facilities will remain open for practices.

We extend great thanks to Congressman Nethercutt and Senators Murray and Cantwell for helping us secure federal funds for a regional resource center in our new academic building. Congressman Nethercutt put a ton of energy into this effort, and we are committed to making the people of his district the beneficiaries.

Athletics

We just completed what surely is the most successful fall sports season in Whitworth history. These reports take up a lot of space, but I have to mention these achievements.

The football team (7-2 overall, 4-1 NWC) concluded its best season in 40 years when the Pirates lost a heartbreaking 27-26 overtime decision to PLU in the first round of the NCAA tournament in the Pine Bowl. Showing the kind of heart that led to five come-from-behind wins this season, the Bucs rallied from a 20-3 halftime deficit to force an exciting overtime. Whitworth took home all three of the most coveted conference awards. John Tully was named Northwest Conference Coach of the Year, quarterback Scott Biglin was picked as the NWC Offensive Player of the Year and linebacker Doug Edmonson was chosen as the NWC Defensive Player of the Year. In all, 20 Pirates were selected as first-team, second-team or honorable mention All-NWC.

The volleyball team (19-6 overall, 14-2 NWC) earned its first NWC title since 1991, advancing to the NCAA West Region playoffs, where Whitworth unfortunately met the eventual national champion, the University of LaVerne (Calif.). The Bucs had to win a courageous match at UPS to tie the Loggers for the NWC title. Down two games in a hostile gym, the Bucs rallied to win three straight games to pull out the victory. Steve Rupe was picked by his colleagues around the NWC as the Coach of the Year. Julie Weatherred earned NWC Player of the Year kudos and was also named first-team AVCA All-America, becoming only the second athlete in Whitworth history to be so honored. Kristen Turner and Lindsey Wagstaff were both first-team All-NWC, while setter Nicole Weedman was selected to the second team. What a great year!

The Whitworth men's soccer team (14-5-2 overall, 10-3-1 NWC) won its first NWC title since 1992, and advanced to the NCAA West Region finals, where the Bucs lost a heartbreaking 1-0 overtime decision to the University of Redlands (which went on to the NCAA championship game). The Bucs' defense was incredible this season, allowing only 13 goals in 21 total matches and recording 13 shutouts. The key to that defense was a pair of first-team All-Northwest Conference honorees, defender Matt Stueckle and goalie Doug Lupton. Brandon Carlson, Rawley Doggett and Scott Kerwien were second-team selections for the Pirates. And, you guessed it, Sean Bushey was named NWC Coach of the Year.

And cross-country was represented in the post-season tournament by sophomore Leslie Nelson, who became the first Whitworth runner to qualify for the NCAA Division III championships. She finished 120th (out of 215 finishers) at the meet, which was hosted by Augustana College in Illinois. She led the Pirate women to a 4th-place finish at the NCAA West regional championships, tying for the highest-ever team finish by the Pirates.

Winter sports also look great, but all of this fall sports NCAA action has eaten up my space. I'll give a thorough report in January. Let me just say that as of this writing, senior Erica Ewart has led women's basketball to a 4-1 mark, with Head Coach Helen Higgs having notched her 100th victory, securing her place as the winningest women's basketball coach in Whitworth history. Our men's team has racked up lopsided victories on the way to a 3-1 record, with Head Coach Jim Hayford ringing up his first victory and winning the championship of the first-ever Whitworth Hawaiian Invitational. Bryan Depew, Gunner Olsen and Chase Williams were named to the all-tournament team. Finally, our swim teams, whom I had a chance to see compete last Saturday at the Husky Invitational in Federal Way, are going to contend again this year for conference championships. Brent Rice, Kevin Wang, Ryan Freeman, Cory Bergman, Serena Fadel and Emily Brandler have already posted times that could send them to nationals.

Alumni

Core 650 is coming to Southern California. Enjoy an interactive lecture from Professor Jim Waller (Psychology) on Jan. 26 at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana as he discusses "Children of Cain: How Ordinary People Commit Extraordinary Evil." Register online at www.whitworth.edu/calendar/alumnicalendar.htm.

Join us for Alumni Night at the Fieldhouse, as Whitworth takes on Lewis & Clark on Feb. 2. Free admission for basketball and ice cream!

Closing Thoughts

Well, I have more to say, but I am flat out of space. So let me conclude by encouraging you to find the joy in anticipation. I guess it's easier to be agitated by not having what we want than to find that strange pleasure in aching with expectation. So this year as we add our heralds of "Come quickly, Lord Jesus" to voices of saints throughout the ages, may we know the joy of hearts that long for our Redeemer.