1982-1983

The team in the 1982-1983 Yearbook.

The Faculty Bob Withycombe, Director of Forensics

Whitman News

A. An overriding concern was that there were very few women on Whitman’s faculty.

B. Power shortages left half of the campus without power intermittently from September 27-30.

C. The school considered demolishing the Old Music Building (now the Hunter Conservatory) in order to build a new music building on the site. However opposition to the plan prevailed and the New Music Building was designed for an alternate site.

1982-1983

1. Large beverage price hike at the Sub is attributed to increased syrup costs.

2. Laundry fees were increased to .75 a wash.

3. Nicholas Nickleby opened at HJT.

4. Registration is computerized.

5. Whitman Soccer team defeats alumni in annual match 5-0.

6. Only 11 of 86 professors at Whitman were women.

7. Whitman Held their first Ultimate Frisbee tournament.

8. The school was considering demolishing Hunter Conservatory, then a music building, for the creation of a new music hall, an alternate site was used instead.

Speech Courses

The Seminar on Western Rhetorical Theory was added in the catalogue as a course.

Speech Department Description: Courses treat public speaking as a liberal art, proposing that such speaking is not a skill learned by rule but an exercise of judgment that can be no better than the speaker's understanding of the nature of the communicative acts.

SPEECH 11. Fundamentals of Speech, 3 hours.

SPEECH 36. Argumentation and Persuasion, 3 hours.

SPEECH 45, 46. Principles and Practice of Forensics, 1 hours (individual events), 2 hours (debate).

SPEECH 51. Seminar: Western Rhetorical Thinking, 3 hours.

World News

A. Karen Carpenter died in February.

B. The U.S. pursued a military buildup in the Middle East in order to counter the Soviet threat.

November 28 – Representatives from 88 countries gather in Geneva to discuss world trade and ways to work toward aspects of free trade.

December 1 – Michael Jackson's #1 album Thriller is released, to become the biggest selling album of all time in entertainment history.

December 7 – The first U.S. execution by lethal injection is carried out in Texas.

December 26 – Time Magazine's Man of the Year is given for the first time to a non-human, the computer.

February 13 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims 1983 "The Year of the Bible".

March 8 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire."

April 18 - The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, killing 241 people.

November 17 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded.

Team Awards

A. Speech courses were offered in Fundamentals of Speech, Argumentation and Persuasion, Principles and Practice of Forensics, and a seminar on Western Rhetorical Thinking.

B. In a joke issue of the Pioneer, the debate team was reported to have received its own air transportation funded by Boeing.

C. Intercollegiate debate season

1. Gonzaga Tournament

a. Whitman was first in sweepstakes out of 26 schools.

b. Fifteen of Whitman’s 24 competitors received recognition and/or awards.

2. Pacific Lutheran University and the University of Puget Sound Tournaments

a. Whitman won sweepstakes at both tournaments.

b. David Bansmer and Todd Brown, and Steve McConnell and John Watrons closed out finals of CEDA debate at PLU.

c. Brown and Watrons won the top two places in senior impromptu speaking.

d. Kevin Loomer was first in prose at PLU and UPS.

e. Patrick Page was first in expository speaking at PLU and UPS. Page also won a special plaque honoring the single most outstanding speaker at both tournaments.

D. By the end of the season, Whitman was first in the Northwest while second place Gonzaga lagged behind by over 100 points.

E. Whitman won all six Northwest tournament, four sweepstakes competitions, took second at CEDA Nationals, and won fifth at the National Forensics Tournament.

F. Whitman was asked by the Northwest Forensics Conference to hold the conference’s first college tournament set for November 1983.

G. Bansmer, Susan Bonner, John Bunnell, Kevin Gunning, Loomer, Rob Morea, Page, and Watrons all attended the National Forensics Tournament in Ogden, Utah.