Tour of Whitman

Jewett Residence Hall

You will stay at the Jewett Residence Hall while at WNDI.

Jewett is a comfortable, modern styled residence hall and houses all of our participants. Each room has two sections that you can use as two bedrooms or as a living room and a bedroom. There are spacious bathrooms on each floor and you shower alone in private. In each room, you will find beautiful beachwood furniture including desks, hutches, and cabinets for your clothing. There’s a phone in each room too.

The layout of most of the Jewett rooms. Plenty of space with closets, chest drawers, and desks. The beds can quickly be made into sofas for sitting and talking.

Jewett’s main floor lounge is a great place to hang out. It features comfortable chairs, sofas, piano, and plenty of space to stretch out. Students typically cut cards, talk, play games, and relax in the Jewett main lounge.

There’s also a downstairs lounge with a television, VCR and DVD player, ping-pong table, and pool table. A laundry room downstairs is available to all institute participants throughout the camp. You can view the room layout and see more information on Jewett Hall at: http://www.whitman.edu/content/residence_life/residence-halls/jewett-hall

Penrose Library

You will find Whitman’s web research resources to be outstanding. Whitman has Proquest for online academic journals, Lexis-Universe which now has full text searching provides online access to hundreds of periodicals, newspapers, law reviews, and medical journals, Alternative Press Index for sources with more critical perspectives, and Inter-library loan to provide access to materials at 19 Northwest libraries. When you visit the library facilities, you will find the staff to be very helpful.

You will research in Penrose Library. Penrose is one of the finest small libraries in the country. Policy debaters will be impressed with the outstanding collections of materials on this year’s topic. Lincoln-Douglas debaters will be amazed at the collection of philosophical and rhetorical materials directly useful to value argumentation. Public Forum debaters will enjoy the many current events and politics magazines. You’ll enjoy researching in this beautiful facility. It has a two story reading room with fireplace, spacious desks with computers throughout, and a warm, inviting interior with a full windowed view of Ankeny Field and many of the academic buildings.

Hunter Conservatory (Check-in, Jim’s Office, Policy Scholars)

Everyone checks-in at Hunter and the Policy Scholars debaters will have labs and practice debates in the Hunter Conservatory. The Hunter building is home to the Whitman Debate Program and is one of the most inspired and beautiful buildings on campus. Originally built for the music department, the building was refurbished in the late 1990s as a communication and technology center. It has served that purpose and our debate institute well.

The foyer of Hunter is a dramatic three-story atrium with wood lattice railings wrapping each floor. The setting provides inspiration for the hard work that Policy Scholars will engage in while at the Whitman National Debate Institute. We have 12 computers available for the Policy Scholars (although many bring their personal laptops and enjoy Whitman’s campus wide wireless internet access).

Olin Hall (Policy, LD, Public Forum)

Policy, LD, and Public Forum debaters will find Olin Hall to be a beautiful, modern building with an excellent computer lab with excellent resources for their research. Whitman has very fast internet access; designed for 2,000+ people, it provides very rapid page downloading during the summer. New Dell and Mac computers will make your research effortless. You can use your own laptop and connect to the internet wirelessly and you can e-mail and instant message friends and family too.

As you walk from Jewett and Olin to the Prentiss dining hall, you’re likely to walk by “Lake Duckem” (above), a restful place, and you’ll definitely cross the creek that runs through campus.

Bon Apetit does a good job with food providing a full salad bar, soups, vegan, vegetarian, and meat entrees, full beverage options, and desserts. It’s all you can eat as well, so enjoy!

Whitman’s beautiful campus offers great opportunities for group discussions outside. To the left, debaters discuss argument strategies outside. Students can play Frisbee and volleyball on Ankeny field. To the right, students enjoy a great picnic at the nearby Wildwood Park.