Undergraduate Conference: Great foundation for the future

With hundreds and hundreds of hours of work and preparation behind them, about 150 students will take center-stage at the 2008 Whitman Undergraduate Conference, Tuesday, April 15. Nearly 130 scholarly talks, 19 poster presentations, and musical performances by six individuals, two jazz ensembles and two string quartets comprise this year’s program. Tom Callister, associate dean of the faculty and conference chair, encourages all staff and faculty to attend. “It’s so rewarding for students to have opportunities to share the great work they do with a broader audience,” Callister said. “More importantly, many of our students go on to grad school, and this event gives them exposure to what academic conferences are like. It’s a great foundation for what they’ll be expected to do later on in their academic pursuits.”

Check out the schedule of events online, and be sure to attend the all-campus luncheon from noon to 1 p.m. on the Reid lawn (weather permitting; inside Reid if needed).

Staff, students to participate in Tour of Walla Walla cycling event

The Whitman Cycling Team will race with the elite ranks of the Tour of Walla Walla 2008 competitors this year on April 18, 19 and 20. The nationally ranked Whitman team will compete in the tour for the first time — thanks in large part to the fund-raising efforts of tour marketing director Beth Swanson — but Whitman has had a presence at the race since its inception.

The following staff will participate:

Sherrie Kamara, IMS administrative assistant, may be the most deeply involved, as her husband, Steve Rapp, is the event organizer. She says she takes on the “usual mundane tasks of stuffing registration packets, working registration, helping at the first aid station — which can be rather exciting! — and helping with cleanup, including sacking the overfilled trash barrels on Main Street.”

Bryan Lubbers, IT services consultant, competed in the inaugural tour, when it was called the Walla Walla Road Race. He has volunteered ever since in such roles as flagger coordinator, race official, follow car driver and road sign coordinator. This year he’s responsible for a team of six that will place about 200 traffic control and race direction signs. “It’s not very glamorous, but without the signs, placed according to a variety of state regulations, the race could not go on,” he says.

Walter Froese, controller, will help with signage for the Saturday road race, help direct road and pedestrian traffic downtown Sunday morning and host a team. “This will be the third time I've hosted this same team. They won the tour last year; it’s lots of fun.”

Barbara Barlow, WCTS senior programmer/analyst, will compete for the first time; she will race in the time trial, road race and criterium. A serious cyclist for about three years, Barbara is a distance rider and has competed in the Frozen Flatlands race in Spokane.

Students stretch Earth Day to days of activities open to all

Earth Day at Whitman this year is more like Earth Week, with events starting Wednesday, April 16, and running through Tuesday, April 22. The opening event, a Web broadcast of “Chill Out,” will start at 7 p.m. in Kimball Theatre, Hunter Conservatory. A variety of films, including “The Price of Sugar” and “Uranium,” will be shown throughout the week.

A festive public celebration of the earth’s environment will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 20, on Ankeny Field, said Karlis Rokpelnis ’09, Whitman Earth Day organizer and a member of Campus Greens. Campus and community groups will present entertaining activities and opportunities that will allow people to get involved. “There will be music and food and fun activities, including tie-dying,” said Rokpelnis, and campus and off-campus groups will set up informational tables and activities as part of this celebrate/educate event. In addition, an exhibition of “Green Art” will be open in the Olin Hall breezeway.

More complete information of Earth Week activities is available here. The Campus Greens events calendar can be viewed at the Campus Greens site.

Staff and Faculty Accomplishments

Mike Osterman ’96, middleware analyst in Technology Services, has received a $12,980 grant from the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education to conduct a workshop on “Integrating Library Resources and Sakai.” Established in 2001, NITLE (pronounced “nightly”) is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to promoting liberal education. The institute provides opportunities for teachers in liberal arts settings to create transformative learning experiences through emerging technologies. It is largely funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Karyl Dennis, administrator for the Summer Dance Laboratory (SDL), with help from Director of Foundations and Corporate Relations Rachna Sinnott ’93, wrote a proposal that earned a $2,500 grant from the Yancey P. Winans Trust. The award will support Summer Dance Lab scholarships for regional students to attend the Whitman summer dance program.

Staff Profile: Lindsey “Lina” Menard ’05
Center for Community Service Coordinator

• Office: Center for Community Service
• Birthplace: Seattle, Wash.
• Education: Whitman College, Class of 2005
• Years at Whitman: Four as a student, three as a staff member.
• Favorite movies: “Usual Suspects,” “The Prestige,” and anything I want to watch again as soon as it's over. (I rarely watch a movie more than once.)
• Favorite Books: Harry Potter, Phillip Pullman's novels.
• Favorite sculpture on campus: The spinning spiral near Prentiss.
• Best travel experience: Eating strawberries I bought from an unattended roadside stand while bicycling along the coast of the island of Aero during a 10-day solo trip in Denmark last summer.
• Interests/pleasures: Dinner with friends, gardening, playing board games, exploring new places, hiking, reading a book in my hammock.
• Recent accomplishment: Getting four of my five sisters to Walla Walla to visit my new home over spring break.
• What people don’t know about me: I love movies about heists and the mafia, and my driver's license is incorrect because my height was overestimated — I'm only 5 feet tall
• A day in the life/on the job: Visit with students about their volunteer interests, talk with community partners about current volunteer opportunities, update Web site, check in with interns about the programs we run, respond to a plethora of emails, repeat.
• Favorite aspect of Whitman: Whitties are passionate about making the world a better place.
• What I’ve learned here: How to appreciate four distinct seasons.
• Quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

Team “W³” walks with purpose

A team of Whitman faculty and staff completed the April 6 “Race for the Roses Half Marathon Walk.” The event, which took place in Portland, was a benefit for Albertina Kerr Centers. The program works with children who have emotional or mental health challenges, individuals with developmental disabilities, and their families. The participants were (pictured, l-r) Sherrie Kamara, administrative assistant for IMS; Mary Anne O’Neil, professor of French; Pat Henry, professor emeritus of French; Celia Weller, professor of Spanish, retired; and Keiko Pitter, chief technology officer. Pitter organized and trained the team, and designed the “W³” logo — Walla Walla Walkers. She reports that while none of the team members have a direct connection to the Kerr Centers, they are “always looking for causes that raise funds for various health organizations.” The team trained for 12 weeks, covering 200 miles in all kinds of weather including the Jan. 4 wind storm. Malcolm Dunn, instructor of sport studies, gave the team walking techniques and nutrition tips at the beginning of training. “It all was just exhilarating. We all feel like we are ready for anything in life,” Pitter said, adding “I will continue to do more of these events and get more ‘older’ people involved in walking.”

Coming Events
All events free unless otherwise noted

Monday, April 14
Lecture: “Markets and the Economy: Friends or Foes?” will be presented by the Classical Liberalism Visiting Speaker, Terry Anderson. He is the John and Jean DeNault Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute and the executive director of the Property and Environment Research Center, a think tank in Bozeman, Mont., that focuses on market solutions to environmental problems. Anderson’s work helped launch the idea of free market environmentalism and has prompted public debate over the balance between markets and government in managing natural resources. 7 p.m., Olin 130.

Thursday, April 17
Lecture: “Body Language: On Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’” by Stanley Corngold, professor of comparative literature and German, Princeton University. 4 p.m., Maxey Auditorium.

Thursday, April 17
Concert: Wind Ensemble Spring Concert, Peter Crawford, conductor, 7:30 p.m., Cordiner Hall.

Thursday, April 17
Annual Skotheim Lecture: Intersection of Humanity and Infectious Disease” presented by Albert Crosby. 7:30 p.m., Olin 130.

Friday, April 18
Recital: Fridays@Four presents Rhea Edelmann, violin, and Jackie Wood, piano. 4 p.m., Kimball Theatre, Hunter Conservatory.

Friday, April 18
Gallery Opening: Sheehan Gallery presents the Senior Art Thesis Exhibition, Perry Award Lecture and Opening Reception in Olin 130 and the Sheehan Gallery. Lecture, 5 p.m., Olin 130; reception, 6 to 8 p.m., gallery.

Saturday, April 19
Community Festival: Imagine Celebration, an annual celebration of diversity in the Whitman and Walla Walla communities, on the side lawn of Reid Campus Center from noon to 5 p.m. The event includes dance, music and performances by members of Whitman and Walla Walla communities and booths and activities for all ages. Featured performance by Andy-O, a Seattle musician whose work combines reggae with Caribbean Calypso.

Sunday, April 20
Recital: The Music Department presents a piano recital with Jonathan Spatoloa-Knoll, Rachel Wishkoski and Joanna Swan. 3 p.m., Kimball Theatre, Hunter Conservatory.

Looking ahead

Tuesday, April 22
Award Presentation: Dublin Award presentation. 5 p.m., Olin Hall 157. Gaurav Majumdar, assistant professor of English, and Nani Gilkerson ’08, will present the results of their research project, for which they received the college’s Adam Dublin Award for the Study of Global Multiculturalism. The presentation will consist of a lecture followed by a discussion. Majumdar will introduce the project, and Gilkerson will explore the ways in which “Foe,” “Wide Sargasso Sea” and “Beloved” make an ethical demand upon the reader to engage with issues of multiculturalism.

Thursday, April 24
Lecture: The 2008 William M. Allen-Boeing Lecture, featuring Sandy McDade '74, senior vice president and general counsel of the Weyerhaeuser Company, discussing “The Potential of Trees.” 7 p.m., Gaiser Auditorium, Hall of Science.

The Fountain is published by the Office of Communications. Send news to Editor Lenel Parish at thefountain@whitman.edu. Photos are accepted. Submissions are due by Tuesday at 5 p.m. for the following week's issue. Editorial Assistant: Marcy Manker ’10. Managing editor: Lana Brown. Director of Communications: Ruth Wardwell. Online: www.whitman.edu/fountain