President's Report
Message from the President
Inspiration and challenge. The 2008-09 academic year provided a wealth of both, starting with my opportunity to visit and study with Semester in the West students in the Chiricahua Mountains of southern Arizona.
Science labs, classrooms to get $350,000 upgrade through Murdock grant
The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust provided significant support for Whitman’s faculty and academic program with a $350,000 grant to modernize classrooms in the Hall of Science and upgrade teaching and faculty research labs.
Music lectureship honors 75th birthday and Whitman experiences of Nancy Bell Evans ’54
What in the world do you give your wife of 50 years on her 75th birthday? Dan Evans Sr. spent a lot of time pondering this question. He was determined that the gift “be lasting and reflect what Nancy really loves, and that’s music.” Finally, he hit upon just the right thing: a gift to honor both his wife’s love of music and her devotion to Whitman College. He created the Nancy Bell Evans Distinguished Lecturer in Music Endowment.
Alumni gifts create new, welcoming space for students
Kari Glover ’72: It’s for and about “all kinds of people working together, learning to be together”
Michael Flannery ’76: Promoting diversity, promoting education
Parents endow scholarship, support collaborative research
Parents Fund participants — parents of current Whitman students or graduates — know the value of the Whitman education and experience. To help other young people benefit from the same opportunity, the Parents Fund 2008-09 and its chairman, George Logan chose to support two projects that directly fund core Whitman priorities.
Family without previous ties to Whitman selects the college as focus of philanthropy
Why did four family members who had no connection to Whitman College choose to create two endowments here? Because a quality liberal arts education is everything, said Janet Pitts Beckmann, the daughter who has made the family’s plan to fund study abroad and library acquisitions a reality. The importance of a liberal arts education is the thread that runs through the life stories of her mother and father, Jack Coleman Pitts and Dorothy De Simone Pitts, as well as her own story and that of her late husband, George Beckmann.
Vision for Sherwood Center Realized
After 18 months of construction and remodeling, Sherwood Athletic Center reopened to an appreciative Whitman community in September. The $15.5 million renovation upgraded the interior and exterior of the facility and added square footage for fitness areas and offices.
Couple creates scholarship to help first-generation students experience Whitman
Theirs is a marriage made in the kitchen. Of Jewett Hall. Where Carla Ashby ’69, a sophomore cheerleader and “hasher” in the dining room, met Dean Nichols ’70, a first-year student, football player and part-time dishwasher “specializing in large pots.”
Solar Panel Project Spans Generations
A Pacific Power Blue Sky renewable energy grant drew multigenerational support from Whitman students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends for a project to install solar panels on the roof of Bratton Tennis Center. The $165,000 project, completed in September, reduces both the carbon footprint of the college and energy costs, and provides a way for students to study solar energy production.
Welty, Young to Co-Chair Penrose Society
The Stephen B.L. Penrose Society was established last year to recognize those who have given to Whitman College cumulative gifts of $1 million or more over their lifetimes. Their leadership and commitment have helped transform the college from a small, but committed, college of Western renown to a top-tier liberal arts institution of national prominence.
W Club Advances Athletics
“We are striving toward the model where excellent students also are outstanding athletes, and they compete with the best that the NCAA Div. III has to offer. The W Club is helping make that happen,” said Dean Snider, athletics director.
Annual Fund honors volunteer Carolyn Young Treneer ’43
Carolyn Young Treneer ’43 has earned this year’s top spot on the Annual Fund’s roster of volunteers for outstanding achievement. She served as a class representative briefly in the late 1960s and returned last year as the chief volunteer for her class.