Of Mind & Heart Newsletter: September 2000
An update from Whitworth University President Bill Robinson
They're back. Last weekend a full complement of students hit campus on what is, without a doubt, my favorite weekend of the year. The Saturday invasion of new students and their families stirs up all of Whitworth's best instincts. Welcoming new students and reuniting with returning students gives life to our sense of mission. Each of us feels a renewed awareness that "This is what I am meant to do." Of course, every year at the Saturday-night orientation gathering I am also visited by a screaming awareness that "This is not what I'm meant to do." This year's version of "Bill's humiliation" found me in a toga. One of the ways I tried to con myself into believing it wouldn't be so bad was to reflect on how good Victor Mature looked in all of those old Bible movies. He gave me hope. On Saturday, however, I found myself looking little like Victor and more like an unmade bed in loafers. I was also a bit anxious knowing, when my wife pinned that toga (bedsheet) to my shorts, that if I lost the toga I would also lose my shorts and therefore my job. Alas, I survived. You will read below that we are very excited about this class and the school year in general. Thank you for supporting Whitworth. It's going to be a great year.
Academics
If you had asked me on August 23 whether Dixon Hall (our largest classroom building) would be ready for business a week later, I would have given you a firm no. Wrong. It was not only ready, but the transformation was staggering. As I walked through the building, there was no point at which I would have known it was Dixon. The classrooms are beautiful, comfortable, and totally high-tech (thanks to the great work of Director of Instructional Resources Ken Pecka and his staff). The offices give faculty members in the School of Education and the Psychology Department great work environments and the rest of us incurable envy. We're thrilled with the outcome of this project and excited at the prospect of escorting members of the Dixon family through the building after Convocation. I'm confident that within three years all Whitworth classrooms will be furnished and equipped as Dixon is.
Thanks to support from the Boeing Corporation, we'll be able to help our faculty become better acquainted with their new teaching tools. Boeing's grant to the Independent Colleges of Washington, of which Whitworth's share is $13,596, will help get our faculty the training they need to take advantage of our new high-tech teaching stations.
Our spirit of internationalism has been enriched by the arrival of several wonderful visitors. We welcome Nicholas Sironka, a Fulbright scholar-in-residence from Kenya who will teach art classes for us this year. From Keimyung University, in South Korea, we have Dr. Woo Sung Oh, a New Testament scholar who is spending half of his sabbatical year here. Also, Kathy Cantrell is joining us as a permanent half-time faculty member. Kathy, who spent three years in the Peace Corps in Bolivia, has taught for a decade in Modern Languages. These folks will be very valuable in maintaining Whitworth's historical emphasis on global awareness.
John Yoder (Political Studies) will head back to Africa next summer as the recipient of a new Fulbright grant. John, who heads our Peace Studies program, spent one year in Kenya and another in Liberia as a Fulbrighter, and the new grant will allow him to spend two months next summer teaching conflict resolution at Daystar University, a Christian institution just outside Nairobi. He will also collaborate with several Daystar faculty to offer two extension seminars in regions of Kenya that have experienced serious ethnic conflict. Finally, he will work with Daystar faculty to develop an electronic journal featuring case studies in conflict resolution in Africa and will plan for a distance-learning course to be offered through Daystar and Whitworth. John deserves special congratulations: I received a letter from Fulbright informing me that the foundation was funding only 21 applicants from a prestigious pool of 500. I know John will enjoy returning to Daystar, where Jerry Sittser (Religion) had a great teaching experience this past summer and where Roger and Dottie Mohrlang (Religion) are teaching this semester.
Ginny Whitehouse (Communication Studies) recently presented a daylong workshop, Corporate Communication Across Cultures, for Spokane's business community. Drawing upon her own experiences in South Korea and her academic expertise in multicultural issues, Ginny covered cultural differences between West and East, issues related to negotiation, and pitfalls to avoid when using widely differing communication styles. I think she should repeat the workshop for Baldwin and Jenkins.
Enrollment
I keep hearing that our new students show signs of being an extraordinary group. They have even impressed our returning students, and it's almost impossible to impress a sophomore. We've enrolled 405 new freshmen and 80 transfer students, and more than 10 percent of the freshmen come to us as valedictorians or salutatorians (average high school GPA: 3.6). We're also pleased that 40 students have at least one alumni parent. The total number of freshmen is slightly higher than our ideal, due to a 40-percent yield (percentage of admitted students that enrolled) rate. All of these numbers are fine, but we are pleased most by the intangible "feel" of this class. I'm expecting great things from these students.
Student Life
A talented and committed group of 120 student leaders arrived in mid-August to prepare for their yearlong duties and for new student arrivals. Orientation week went well, with freshmen learning about academic expectations, residence hall traditions, diversity issues and group problem-solving. Sunday night was a formal dinner for the frosh, and the folks at Sodexo-Marriott outdid themselves with a wonderful meal, ice sculpture, roses and Martinelli's! And speaking of outdoing themselves, the BJ contingent marched in to the glorious strains of bagpipes played by their kilted resident, Stephen Badke.
September places a ton of social opportunities before the students, but their most important activity is putting their noses about 18 inches in front of their books. We do, however, provide a short break this month when we suspend classes for ASWC's Community Building Day on Tuesday, Sept. 26. Roughly 500 students, staff and faculty members will converge upon Spokane in many half-day service projects. It's a wonderful moment in the life of our college and our city. This year I chair the board of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, so I'll be in good position to brag publicly about the labors of our great students.
Resources
The wedding guests at Cana could not have been much more impressed with water being turned into wine than we were when our great Physical Plant staff turned a health center into a beautiful residence hall. A summer idea of how to accommodate more on-campus students led to the rapid conversion of the Schumacher office/clinic into a very functional and attractive home for 23 women. It looks great, and early responses from the women are very positive.
To relocate the displaced Health Center, we imported a modular building, placed it on the old Grieve Hall site, and had it retrofitted to meet the exact design requests of the center. Though smaller in size, it contains exam rooms, counseling space and support areas to meet the needs of our staff and students.
Awaiting our incoming freshmen and parents was a newly paved, lighted and landscaped parking lot for Baldwin-Jenkins Hall. This might be the Mona Lisa of parking lots, and its users don't even know what a dust bowl it used to be.
Finance V.P. Tom Johnson reports that we ended the fiscal year with another balanced budget - our 24th consecutive year in the black. The auditors are completing their work now for presentation of our annual statements. Early figures indicate that we realized a return of just under 15 percent on our endowment assets (for the fiscal year ending June 30) in spite of a challenging market in recent months.
As of the end of August we reached the $40-million mark in our Faith in the Future Campaign! With $10 million to go, our big push the next two years will be the academic building, the endowed chairs and the technology initiatives. I want to express special appreciation to the parents of students who are making some wonderful gifts to the college. It is so encouraging to see you join us in raising the quality of your children's education. Further, your gifts, along with those given by other contributors, keep enhancing the reputation of the degrees held by Whitworth alumni through the ages. God bless you for backing up the big tuition dollars you pay with gifts from your hearts. By the way, 43 percent of our alumni constituency has contributed to the Faith in the Future Campaign!
When the home-improvement telemarketers call and ask, "Do you own your house?" I say no. Then they ask if I rent it. "No," I reply. I know I should explain that the college owns the place, but I just can't seem to pass up whispering that I'm in the process of burglarizing it. So my message to you is this: When the Whitworth Fund Phonathon kicks off September 17th, don't be a jerk like me. Our students will be telephoning for 10 weeks in an effort to raise $225,000 for financial aid and faculty resources. They love to talk to you, so take a few minutes to enjoy their enthusiasm. And, of course, we will be very grateful for your pledges.
Thanks to the donors who supported the Michael Young commission. Michael (Music) was delighted and surprised to learn that he'd been commissioned to write a special composition to commemorate his retirement. The piece is coming along nicely. It is titled Visions from the Apocalypse, Opus 94, for Choir and Wind Ensemble. The Whitworth Choir and Wind Ensemble will present the premiere performance of Michael's composition on May 5, 2001.
Athletics
Every now and then my great Mind and Heart editor, Terry Mitchell, helps me out by writing the late-breaking athletics news. I'm on my way home from L.A. and in desperate need of time to prepare for Convocation, so I'll prevail upon her to report the weekend outcomes.
The football Bucs lost their opening game 20-7 at the University of Redlands. Senior defensive end Sky Blake was all over the field, recording 21 primary tackles (an unheard-of number), a couple for losses, and two pass deflections. California's Chapman College comes to Spokane for this week's game, and then it's national champion PLU in the Pine Bowl for the conference opener. Not exactly a cream-puff schedule.
Volleyball is 5-4 after a pair of early-season tournaments. Senior hitter Gretchen Smith was named to the Whitworth Invitational All-Tournament Team after leading the Pirates to a tie for second place here in Spokane, and sophomore middle blocker Kristen Turner was selected to the Colorado College Invitational All-Tournament team after the Pirates went 2-2 in Colorado Springs.
Men's soccer is 2-1 after defeating NCAA Division II Montana State (Billings) this past weekend, 1-0. Senior forward Herbert Barbosa scored the winning goal in the second half.
Women's soccer raised its record to 2-1-1 with a pair of wins in Montana. The Pirates defeated Billings 2-1 and Rocky Mountain 6-0, and freshman forward Heather Sale scored three goals and added three assists.
In cross-country, the men finished third and the women fourth at the University of Idaho Invitational, where five of the nine competing teams were from NCAA Division I. Sophomore Josh Sherven, who red-shirted last year, was the top individual men's finisher, in 16th place. Freshman Leslie Nelson led the women with a 19th-place finish.
We were incredibly proud to hear that our 1999-2000 women's basketball team topped the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association Division III Honor Roll by posting a team grade point average of 3.683. The team's GPA was the nation's best at the DIII level, ahead of runner-up Central College (Iowa), whose mark was 3.581. "This achievement tells about the kind of students who choose to attend Whitworth," says head coach Helen Higgs. "They are the kind of complete, well-rounded individuals that every college would love to have." Amen to that and congratulations to our talented, smart women hoopsters.
Alumni
Alumni Director Tad Wisenor reports that next year's Core 650 tour to Munich (July 2-12) will be led by Richard "Doc" Evans (Music). Participants will learn about the region's rich Renaissance history. Contact the Alumni Office (509-777-3799, 800-532-4668, atomson@whitworth.edu) to add your name to the mailing list for this exciting trip.
Tad and I would also like to invite local alumni to Spokane's Whitworth Church on Oct. 8 and Northwood Church on Oct. 22. I'll be preaching both those days, and we'd love to see you.
Homecoming is Oct. 14. Come tour Dixon, see the Bucs in action, connect with old friends and attend the 10-year reunion banquet Saturday evening!
Join us for the pre-play dessert for alumni and friends before the Friday-night performance of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Oct. 27. More details to follow.
On Sept. 1 we introduced a new college logo. As Whitworth's visibility has increased, we recognized the need to have a visual image that reflects our unique identity and mission and clearly communicates our academic strength and rich heritage. Look for the logo on college mailings and on the beautifully re-designed Whitworth website at www.whitworth.edu.
The U.S. News & World Report college rankings smiled on us again this year. We were ranked in the top 10 best colleges and best values in the West. It's hard for me to make a big deal of these rankings because they're based on a blend of objective and subjective criteria that seems to move around. When you get right down to it, there are excellent schools ranked above us and below us, and the rankings have little to do with which school is best for a particular student. That said, it's always nice to draw attention to the excellent education Whitworth provides its students year in and year out.
Closing Thoughts
Whenever I write one of these letters I'm always worried it comes across as self-congratulatory. Admittedly, we feel this to be a good period in Whitworth's history, but certainly many challenges, as well as our own frailties, abound. We never doubt that this work is not just about us. Much of Whitworth's success draws upon strength that lies outside its gates. Friends and alumni of this college provide astonishing support in the form of service, finances, promotion and prayer. So to all of you many friends who stand with us, we salute you in anticipation of a good year. We also believe that ultimately our success comes from above our gates. And for this reason, we dedicate this year to the glory of God.
