Whitman Stories

In this issue of Whitman Magazine, we’re highlighting members of the Whitman community who are supporting each other and their communities during the current COVID-19 crisis. Whitties are too creative to let a global pandemic keep us from building community and doing important work.

Whitman College is famed for its challenging academics, deep community engagement and the way it uniquely empowers students to create their best life. Last spring, when COVID-19 forced the college to move to online learning, professors had to ask: How do we translate Whitman’s robust academic programming, community-building and close connections to a virtual format?

This is the first academic theme that Whitman has taken on, and its development has been spearheaded by Shampa Biswas, Professor of Politics and Judge & Mrs. Timothy A. Paul Chair of Political Science. In May, when people across the country took to the streets to condemn police brutality and racism—in the wake of the death of George Floyd—Biswas knew that Whitman needed to be ready to do something when students returned in the fall.

In the spring of 2020, elaborate equipment, extra sterilization, and multiple layers of masks and gloves became the new normal for hospitals and health care workers around the globe as the novel coronavirus, commonly known as COVID-19, spread and surged. For Whitman alumni working in health care, each day brought new challenges.

As the nation grapples with social and racial unrest, Whitman College stands committed to providing an equitable and diverse learning and working environment for all. "Our community, like our nation, is imperfect. But we will continue to work to make it better," Murray said. The Whitman Inclusion Task Force's mission: Develop an action plan that would create meaningful and measurable improvements in the campus climate.

This fall, new students are exploring these questions and more while they sharpen their writing, reading and discussion skills in Whitman College's new First Year Seminars program. The program—which replaces the Encounters curriculum for first-year students—has been built by faculty over the past two years, with the goal of preparing students to make the most of a liberal arts education.

It was a spring semester dramatically disrupted, which led to the college's first virtual send-off for graduates. Faculty, family and friends logged on and followed along for Whitman College's 134th Commencement on May 24, 2020.

Although musicians have to deal with a variety of limitations, many students are still enjoying making music from home or the Whitman practice rooms.

The Princeton Review has ranked Whitman No. 9 among the 2021 Top 50 Green Colleges. Whitman ranked highest among schools from the Pacific Northwest. This ranking acknowledges the college’s efforts to promote sustainability and environmental responsibility on and off campus. The Princeton Review determines a school’s rating based on comprehensive measures of being an “environmentally aware and prepared institution.”

As the election nears, Whitman’s virtual campus has been abuzz with voter registration events, presidential debate watch parties, guest lectures and more. Whitman College faculty, students, staff and alumni have incorporated crucial voter education, activism and involvement into their busy schedules. In 2016, the last presidential election year, nearly 74 percent of eligible Whitman students voted according to campus voting data from the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education.

"Our moment of crisis, which should be both welcomed and deepened, calls for the rendering of judgment on the following question: will the majority of the country allow an anti-constitutional minority, empowered by an anti-democratic constitution, to rule in perpetuity?"

“Disgust likely evolved to keep us away from sources of pathogens,” said Tom Armstrong, assistant professor of psychology at Whitman College in Washington State. “Creepy crawly insects could be repellent because they tend to live in dark, damp places where bacteria thrive. Some may be human parasites, whereas others could transmit disease. While worms or maggots in food may not be harmful in themselves, they could indicate that food has been compromised by pathogens.”