A Whitman College fun run: President Tom Cronin and coaches (l-r) Keith Jensen,
Tom Olson and Lee Coleman.
Whitman College is preeminently a place for learning. Yet we strongly believe that the life of
the mind and the adventure of intellectual learning need the balance of fitness and wellness
programs.Whitman is committed to the education of the whole person. Part of that mission is to encourage students to develop the habits of an active, healthy lifestyle. Fitness and athletics play an important part in achieving this goal.
Sports at their best encourage qualities of discipline, leadership, confidence, and team-play collaboration. These attributes have lifelong importance.
Athletics at Whitman enrich our campus life and contribute to a sense of community. At Whitman, we encourge students to excel in all areas, whether in biochemistry, theater, or the study of foreign languages and cultures. The athletics and wellness programs offer yet another opportunity for our students to achieve excellence.
We are proud at Whitman to have a wide array of athletic and fitness opportunities. In fact, Whitman has a more diversified range of fitness activities than most alumni and parents appreciate. (Click here for a list of Athletic, Fitness Activities at Whitman.)
In April we dedicated the Walter A. Bratton Tennis Center which has four splendid indoor courts with state of the art indirect lighting and the highest quality surfaces. This facility has been in regular use since early February and has received rave notices from experts and amateurs alike.
Whitman does need additional playing fields, and we are actively looking for land in the nearby area that could provide for this.
We are fortunate in having one of the West's best outing programs. Whitman's program offers dozens of wilderness trips and wilderness skills classes.
All of us here encourage students, faculty, and staff to build recreational and fitness activities into personal schedules. Personal growth, health, and self-reliance are vital for the learner at any age.
Entering students are regularly advised to take especially good care of themselves. Whitman encourages them to develop what one physician calls positive addictions (such as jogging, cycling, dancing, swimming, martial arts, and meditation). We encourage each student to develop habits that promote emotional wellness and physical stamina and to discipline herself or himself to avoid practices destructive of those ends.
The best of drugs is life, I tell entering students, and living life as fully and as awake and as alive as possible.
A Whitman College fun run: President Tom Cronin and coaches (l-r)
Keith Jensen,
Tom Olson and Lee Coleman.