Of Mind & Heart Newsletter: May 1998

An update from Whitworth University President Bill Robinson

The campus seems artificially quiet in these days immediately following commencement. It reminds me of a novel in which the entire story is packed with rising action, then the climax is reached in the final sentence. Of course, there is an epilogue for those of us who are still around, which comes in the form of submitting final grades, cleaning everything up and facing the piles of postponed work on our desks. But our students are gone and there is a part of us that feels empty. We thank you for your role in a great year. Your students, your prayers and your gifts made the difference. Because I always wait until after commencement to write the May-June Mind & Heart, this is the last issue of the academic year. I'll write again in August, and until then I wish you Godspeed for a wonderful summer.

Academics

We had a great Commencement Weekend, but before I give you the highlights, let me apologize to any of you who were unable to get into the Opera House on Sunday. By holding a separate commencement for our graduate students on Saturday in Cowles Auditorium, we freed up 800 seats -- which we thought would eliminate the possibility of Sunday's attendance exceeding the 2,700-seat capacity of the Opera House. Next year we will again hold the Graduate Commencement on campus and we will either issue tickets or move to the Spokane Arena for Sunday's exercises. Here are the highlights:

* Friday night's Senior Commissioning Service featured three pairs of students and faculty members who engaged in moving dialogues, followed by a communion service in which the seniors were commissioned and anointed with oil to go forth in service.

* A gorgeous day on Saturday contributed to overflow attendance at all of that day's events. Bonnie and I hosted the Honors Breakfast, to which our senior honors graduates brought their parents, grandparents, distant relatives and, as near as we can tell, people off the street who looked hungry, bringing the total attendance to almost 300 people. That's a lot of Pop Tarts and oatmeal.

* We held our first Graduate Commencement Ceremony in Cowles Auditorium.Separating the commencements gave us the opportunity to focus the graduate ceremony on those who are at a different point in their lives than our bachelor's degree candidates. We heard three of the master's degree recipients give very interesting and relevant speeches right before they and their colleagues were handed their degrees and cloaked in their masters' hoods. I was asked to give the commencement address and chose "Listening" as my topic. Of course, after the ceremony, all the comedians in the crowd came up and said they couldn't remember what I had spoken about because they hadn't been listening. This only goes to prove that in some respects, graduates are alike regardless of what degree they are receiving. It was a wonderful event and will become a tradition.

* At Senior Reflections on Saturday night, all of us moved back and forth between watery eyes and uncontrollable laughter. Kate Hancock and Steve Lewis emceed the event and gave a special award to senior Sarah Rice, whose work on behalf of the Class of '98 in preparing for graduation was nothing short of spectacular.

* Baccalaureate, our final time of worship together, was made especially meaningful when Assistant Chaplain C. W. Andrews, who would receive an honorary doctor of divinity degree later that day for his contributions to Whitworth and the African-American church in Spokane, delivered a powerful message on "Taking the High Road."

* Our 108th Commencement on Sunday afternoon featured excellent student speeches by Julie Correll and Travis Torco and a stirring commencement address by Whitworth Philosophy Professor Forrest Baird on "What Really Matters."

* A great 50-year reunion of the Class of 1948 took place during the weekend, culminating in class members marching at commencement with the Class of 1998. It was great to have these alums back on a campus that has changed a bit over the past 50 years.

* Many students received academic awards at Honors Forum. The 99 awards distributed are too numerous to list, but during the ceremony, the senior class named Philosophy Professor (and Undergraduate Commencement speaker) Forrest Baird most influential professor of 1998. Forrest has had a profound influence on the intellectual and spiritual development of Whitworth College students for 20 years, and has been especially close to the Class of '98.

I thought you might be interested in a short sample of recent scholarly activities on the part of our faculty:

* Assistant Professors of Modern Languages Carol Smucker and 'BioDun Ogundayoreceived a curriculum revision grant from the Northwest International Education Association to develop a course about Francophone culture.

* Associate Professor of Education and Director of the Master in Teaching Program David Cherry presented "Building Assessment Literacy in Pre-Service Teachers" at Washington's Fifth Annual Commission on Student Learning conference.

* Education Professor Doris Liebert wrote "Case Study Teaching: The Modern Parable" as a chapter in Nurturing Christians As Reflective Educators, published by the Coalition For Christian Colleges and Universities.

* Assistant Professor of Education Gordon Watanabe presented "Overcoming Resistance: The Use of Specific Kinesthetic Metaphor" to the National Association of Multicultural Education.

* Education Instructor Barb Sanders presented "Cross National Comparison of China and U.S. Fourth Grade Mathematics Instruction" at the American Educational Research Association in San Diego.

Not to be outdone by their professors, four of our English students presented papers in April at the National Undergraduate Literary Conference in Utah. Whitney Baird presented a paper on the images of women in American literature; Cindy Turner's presentation explored the medieval poem, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"; Jessica Wentworth read some of her original poems; and Rebecca Burbank read one of her short stories. These four students came home and announced that we have a great English Department, which we already knew.

I am pleased to announce that Professor Gordon Jackson of our Communication Studies Department has been named associate dean of academic affairs. Gordon will do a great job. He is bright, witty, hard-working and well organized. To this list of attributes I am sure he will soon add a high tolerance for advice.

Congratulations to Dean of the School of Education Dennis Sterner. Academic Vice President Tammy Reid just received a letter from the Washington State Board of Education announcing that Dennis has been selected to receive the 1998 Washington Award for Excellence in Teacher Preparation. He will be honored in Olympia and will also receive a handsome grant, which will come to our Professional Education Advisory Committee. Again, congratulations, Dennis.

The spring choir concert at St. John's Cathedral was exquisite. To mention any particular work would be unfair to the others (except perhaps Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, in which the choir and symphony were absolutely epic). So you'll definitely want to order a CD of the recording, made possible through a grant from the Jewett Foundation. I'll let you know when they're ready.

Enrollment

Because this year's freshman class was so large and retention looks so strong, we have room this fall for only 350 new freshmen, down 50 from last year. As I've mentioned in earlier issues of Mind & Heart, inquiries for this fall were up but applications were down. Through the superb work of our Admissions Office and the extra efforts of many faculty and staff members, it looks as though we will be just over our target of 350 for this fall. We are especially excited at the many top scholars in this class. Commencement was only three days ago, and we are already getting fired up about the new freshmen we will welcome in a few months.

The Financial Aid Office has sent out hundreds of awards. If any of you parents who have filed a FAFSA form have not received an award by mid-June, please call the Financial Aid Office at 509-777-3215. We are confident that we are up to date on awards, but a computer conversion at the end of this month could cause a blip or two.

Resources

As usual, June will be the most critical month of the year for our fund-raising. Because the fiscal year ends June 30, we are starting to feel anxious. Right now we are about $100,000 short of our $1.25-million Whitworth Fund goal for 1997-98. If our friends give during the month of June the way they have in the past, we should be fine. But I hope you will assume that your gift is crucial, because it really will make a difference in some student's life, regardless of where we are in our totals. Thank you so much for all you have done this year and in years past. We'll send you a little more information about our current situation in the next couple of weeks.

We want to give special thanks to members of the Whitworth College family who have made financial gifts this year. Employee participation in giving is up significantly this year, not only as the result of excellent work done by our Institutional Advancement staff, but as a demonstration of our employees' commitment to Whitworth. The fact that so many choose to give additional gifts beyond their daily service says volumes about the people who work at Whitworth College.

The Johnston Science Center renovation fund-raising is coming along well. You might recall that this project was triggered by a $660,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. We just received word that PACCAR Inc. has committed $50,000 to the project. We're grateful to them for this and other faithful support they have provided to Whitworth through the years.

Student Life

Our final month of the academic year was warm in every respect. Beautiful weather seemed to lift student and faculty spirits alike. Classes and study sessions around The Loop were the norm over the last month. Except for the professor who got tattooed by a frisbee while giving a lecture, folks seemed pretty happy about meeting outside.

Resident Director Jim Page was honored as Volunteer of the Year at Spokane's West Side YMCA. He and a number of Whitworth students have been involved this year in service projects sponsored by the "Y." Congratulations to Jim and to the students who took time out of their busy lives to help others.

Milestones

Much tragedy has visited Whitworth employees in the past two weeks. Just before commencement, Copier Operator/Bindery Assistant Barb Grigsby's 22-year-old son, Larry, succumbed to cancer after a six-year battle. Three days after graduation, Jim and Linda Hunt (professor of history and associate professor of English, respectively) lost their 25-year-old daughter, Krista Ausland, to a bus accident in Bolivia, where she and her husband, Aaron, were serving on a Mennonite mission. And today, Executive Secretary for Business Affairs Judy Gaza's 6-year-old grandson, Dustin Drake, died of spinal meningitis. Please keep these dear families in your prayers as they deal with unspeakable grief.

Athletics

The track-and-field team sent eight Bucs to NAIA nationals. After finishing strong in the NCIC conference championships (fifth for the men, seventh for the women), the Pirates headed off to Tulsa, where senior Miranda Thygesen posted a third-place finish in the 800 and senior Betsy Slemp finished fifth in the hammer throw. Both Miranda and Betsy received All-America honors, and Jeremy Whelham, who finished eighth in the javelin, was named to the Academic All-America team.

Men's baseball finished up the season with a win against NCIC champion Willamette. The Pirates finished with a 13-24 record overall, 9-14 in the NCIC, and four Whitworthians received NCIC honorable mention: Tim Bishop, Chad Ripke, Jason Francek and Jason Tracy, all seniors, walked away with post-season honors. Though their season record was a disappointment for the Pirates and new Head Coach Keith Ward, there's good reason for optimism about our prospects for next year.

The women's softball team just missed the playoffs in its inaugural season. After finishing their first campaign with a conference record of 6-16 and an overall record of 10-29, Head Coach Gary Blake and his players want to be in a position to determine their own fate when playoff bids are handed out next season. With juniors Heather Hedum (NCIC honorable mention), Katie Werner and Michelle Condon returning, along with a host of other fine players, things look good for the Bucs' future.

Women's and men's tennis both finished fifth in the NCIC. Coach Jo Wagstaff is losing two of her best players this year, as seniors Tara Bonelli and Dawn Eliassen finish up their careers at Whitworth. Up-and-comers for next season include proven winner junior Joelle Staudinger and freshman Kasey Shibao, who played well at the NCIC championships. On the men's side, senior Yosef Durr, freshman Mark Rice and junior Mark Bradford have helped to lead the team this season. With Yosef graduating, Head Coach Sean Bushey is looking to the Marks and their teammates to step up the pace and compete at an even higher level next season.

Dates to Remember

Closing Thoughts

I hope that all of you have a wonderful summer. For those of us in administration, the pace doesn't change all that much, but the nature differs some from when we're in full session. On a personal note, our daughter Brenna, a Whitworth sophomore, has spent this semester on the France Study Tour led by Pierrette Christianne-Lovrien, Gordon Wilson and Leonard Oakland. Seeing no reason to break our one-year tradition of picking her up and bringing her home from college (an admittedly short trip, though crossing Hawthorne Road often taxes my navigational skills), we are leaving later this week to fetch Brenna and do a little sightseeing in France. Thanks again for participating in a great year at Whitworth College. You really do make a difference in our efforts to fulfill the Whitworth mission of honoring God, following Christ, and serving others.