Attention is turned to the Board of Trustees this week as the group convenes for its annual Spring overseers meeting. We looked into the educational backgrounds of the board and found that it is dramatically skewed towards the social sciences in general, and economics in particular.

Of the 16 trustees on Whitman’s board, all but two majored in the social sciences during their undergraduate studies. However, campus leadership dismissed the notion that the disproportionately of undergraduate majors among the trustees has any real-world significance.

New trustees are recruited by the board’s governance committee, which evaluates and recruits individuals to be elected by the whole board.

Chairman of the Board Brad McMurchie, who studied history at Whitman, said the sensibilities of individual board members couldn’t be understood or defined in terms of their undergraduate major.

“Trustees have an extraordinary wealth of personal and professional experiences that they bring to their service at the college,” he wrote in an email to The Wire. “In the grand scheme of things, I think their undergraduate majors are not terribly impactful. The best evidence of this is the breadth of the commitments to the academic program made with support of the board over the years–the new art building, the upgraded theater, the addition of three positions in Computer Science, the renovation of Maxey and Olin, etc.”

Topics likely to be discussed at the Trustees’ meetings are wide-ranging. One hot-button issue in particular involves administration’s recommendation to eliminate at least five tenured positions next year, as faculty currently in those positions retire. The recommendation comes as part of an effort to increase the faculty-student ratio, so that funds can be reallocated elsewhere.

Most students would agree that economics and English majors at this school tend to have a distinct interests or priorities. However, both McMurchie and Whitman president Kathy Murray said they didn’t know the majors of most board members until The Wire inquired.

Murray wrote in an email that the board is selected according to “several broad criteria: passion for Whitman and the liberal arts, intellectual ‘horsepower’ and thought leadership, diversity in all dimensions, a track record of accomplishment, willingness to consider Whitman a top personal philanthropic priority, and time and desire to engage at the Trustee level.”

Six of the 18 current trustees majored in economics or finance. The lone trustee who majored in the hard sciences is Stephen E. Hammond, who studied geology and worked in Natural Hazards for the U.S. Geological Survey. The lone trustee in the arts or humanities is William G. Way, who studied art at Whitman, and is the Director and Executive of MCE Social Capital, a nonprofit investment firm that offers loans to “generate economic opportunities,” particularly for women in the developing world.

Whitman Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations John Bogley wrote in an email to The Wire that the school seeks breath when selecting new board members. The board operates as a collective; “Each new member of the board need not be someone who contributes in all areas,” wrote Bogley.

“We seek gender balance,” he continued. “We seek to increase ethnic diversity … We seek candidates who offer philanthropic leadership experience with nonprofits; prominence in their profession, community or region; a commitment to Whitman; time available for service to Whitman; financial understanding/experience in finance; marketing savvy; technical savvy and financial capacity to support the college philanthropically.”

Members of Whitman’s board are involved in modest range of fields–law, consulting, tech, activism, banking, lumber and logistics among them. Akshay Anand Shetty, who studied economics here at Whitman, is the Co-CEO of Combe, which produces Vagisil and Just for Men, among other personal care products. 

Murray wrote that, “When we look for Trustees and other leaders for the college, we look for the people most qualified to do the work. Whitman currently has a Provost who is a scholar of English and a President who is a pianist, so some people might worry that we could be too narrowly focused on the humanities and arts, but we both know that our jobs require us to consider the best interests of the entire institution.”

Last March, Whitman president Kathy Murray announced that the school would, yet again, raise tuition for the upcoming year. This is standard practice among private liberal arts institutions like Whitman, and in higher education generally. Inflation churns, wages rise and the school develops; expanding into new arenas and deepening current programs. Most years, Whitman raises tuition between 3 and 7 percent. The school’s budget–roughly $84 million this school year–rises at a comparable rate. 

In 1996, you could get a Whitman education for $18,650 a year (all tuition numbers in this article account for tuition only, not room and board expenses or the Associated Students of Whitman College fee), or roughly $28,533 in September of 2016, according to inflation numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tuition for the 2016-2017 school year, on the other hand, was $47,490, and it will be $49,390 for the 2017-2018 school year. The rise of tuition far beyond that of inflation is a well documented phenomena in higher education. But what accounts for these shifts at Whitman in particular?

Whitman CFO and Vice President of Finances Peter Harvey [’84] says that, to begin with, considering Whitman tuition in terms of inflation is misleading for a number of reasons.  

“There’s no one single answer, but first of all, if you compare a education institution to a for-profit business, for-profit business grow their volume–produce more widgets, if you will–every year as a way to generate more revenue, as a way to help keep cost-per-widget down,” Harvey said. “Education, we don’t do that. We keep our size roughly the same because we believe the critical nature of our education is similar sized classes and hands-on personal service. We don’t outsource the classroom experience to a contractor, nor frankly, do it online. There are colleges that do that and that’s fine for certain types of knowledge acquisition if you’re just memorizing things, but for what we’re trying to teach–critical thinking, communications skills, inquiry–it doesn’t work.”

Harvey added that Whitman’s big driver is paying people, not products, meaning the school’s finances are subject to financial forces that inflation alone won’t account for. In general, American wages have risen in the last 20 years beyond the rate of inflation, but not by enough to totally account for tuition increases. Harvey stressed that Whitman makes a point of offering regular raises to retain and attract good people.

And then there’s the argument that Whitman is simply a better product then it was in say, 1996. Better facilities, more programs, etc.

Harvey cited the climbing wall–a roughly $500,000 capital expense–as a prime example of the sort of thinking for which Whitman’s budget is criticized.

“A lot of people would say that’s case number one of the arms race and frivolous spending,” Harvey said. “I don’t think it is. I thought it really connected with the Whitman student body.”

He continued that the “critical thinking that went into assessing whether to put that into Sherwood Center was, ‘We’re in the Pacific Northwest, it takes advantage of the interests of our students and it’ll make us competitive in recruiting and retaining students. Plus it’s a good healthy activity to develop the whole student, and it creates leadership opportunities.’”

Every year, the President’s budget advisory committee, chaired by Harvey and composed of students faculty and staff, convenes to recommend a budget to the official Board of Trustees budget committee, composed mainly of trustees and overseers.

Mitchell Cutter, ASWC Finance Chair, who manages ASWC’s budget of over $500,000, sits on both committees. Not surprisingly, he said the role of ASWC and the role of student representatives on these committees tends to be “let’s not radically raise tuition.” He anticipated a three way struggle between raising tuition and salary pools for staff and faculty, but “at times,” he said, “the staff were actually more against raising the tuition that we have then the students were … From my perspective, I saw the necessity of raising tuition in the way we did, and there were ideas of raising it higher than we did, and I pushed against that, but the staff [did] even more.”

According to Director of Institutional Research Neal Christopherson, Whitman doled out over $25 million in financial aid this school year. This number,which tends to increase with rising tuition, is composed of roughly 82 percent need-based aid. Total aid tends to be around 36 percent of tuition itself, meaning that the average student paid around $30,000 this year in tuition. According to the official budget, this year’s net tuition, $46 million, covered roughly 60 percent of the school’s expenses, and the endowment that grew significantly under the presidency of George Bridges, covered the majority of the rest of the school’s expenses.

Whitman’s budget is, of course, a balancing act. Everyone wants something for their department and salaries are always increasing. New issues, like under-enrollment or minimum wage increases, emerge. The Physical Plant budget alone has increased over 55 percent since 2008, last year pushing over $9 million. Instructional Spending, that mostly comprises faculty salaries, has risen 40 percent in the same span. The school is currently pushing to get its faculty-to-student ratio up, but the proposed elimination of tenure-track positions is making waves.

“We stop doing things, we get a lot of complaints, especially from students,” Harvey said. “We’ve stopped things over the years, and people don’t like it. There’s always 5 or 10 percent of the student body that’s actively benefiting from anything we do at least. And even if it’s only 5 or 10 percent, it’s important to them, and they’re paying their $45,000 in tuition … There’s more pressure to add things and improve things than there is to become more lean.”

The Louis C.K. stand-up comedy story about the man cursing with righteous anger upon learning that the newly-installed airplane WI-FI temporarily broke down exemplifies the psychology at work that makes the the collegiate arms race so potent. Cutter and Harvey both refrained to the need for Whitman to remain competitive, and this largely involves constantly comparing itself to other schools.

Cutter said he has “some philosophical issues” with the comparative arms race logic that is at work. “I think that the liberal arts are going to reach a decision point at which that sort of structure is no longer possible. But in the meantime … in order to stay competitive … without undertaking a big philosophical shift, I am appreciative of the reality.”

Administration officials and concerned students met this week after reports of another drugging at an all-campus Greek party last weekend. At a forum at Harper Joy Theater on Sunday, following a “Timely Warning” sent out by Dean of Student Chuck Cleveland on the topic that morning, students voiced concern over a campus culture that they say facilitates such crimes, and alleged that the administration was not being sufficiently forthcoming with information, nor proactive in providing resources for support.

Kenzie Spooner is among the students who organized the gathering, and those that followed this week.

“We understand the administration is walking a fine line between revealing personal information … and giving the rest of the student body the information they need to stay safe,” she said.

Spooner continued that the sort of information reported in the next morning’s Union-Bulletin regarding, for example, the fraternity where the incident occurred, or other information such as the drugs in question, the status of the police or administrative investigations into the druggings from last fall, would go a long way towards keeping the student body safe and in the loop, without revealing personal details about the victims.

On Monday morning, roughly 80 students gathered on the third floor of Memorial to air such grievances, and Dean Cleveland greeted them outside his office to answer questions. After this, Dean Cleveland and President Kathy Murray met with a smaller group of students to set out concrete goals to address student concerns.

On Wednesday, the wording of a pamphlet on these topics was discussed among a select group of students, Dean Cleveland, Associate Dean Barbara Maxwell and Associate Dean Juli Dunn. The document will be disseminated at Thursday’s “Take Back the Night” event.

Additionally, a meeting has been planned to discuss changing the language of the office’s “Timely Warning Emails,” often sent out following or in anticipation of dangers to campus. Students complained that the language of these emails was too tame and bureaucratic, and didn’t express sufficient outrage at the actions they described.

The administration also agreed to plan a meeting with students to form a task force around the drugging issues, and contact the Walla Walla Police Department to see if they can come speak directly to students and answer questions.

The still-nameless student group that is responsible for all three meetings this week looks to build trust and serve as a liaison between the student body and administration, as the school works through this year’s party-druggings and other related issues.

Their next meeting will be in the Harper Joy lobby at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Slideshow • 7 Photos

Tywen Kelly

Chuck Cleveland, current Dean of Students, listening to student’s concerns. 50-60 students gathered in the Dean of Students office to meet with him about the recent drugging.

Carrie Goldberg runs a legal practice in Brooklyn that specializes in sexual abuse and privacy, or going after “assholes,” as she recently put it at a lunch with Whitman students interested in law. Her star has risen in past years, as she has become a prominent and successful advocate for victims and legal reform at the tricky intersection of technology and personal privacy, a realm that is becoming more and more problematic as the internet and its offspring creep deeper into American culture. She sat down with The Wire last week during her visit to campus, which was arranged by Student Engagement Center. Content has been edited for concision and clarity.

You talked in this lunch about this period of floundering that you think it’s good to go through in general, and that you said you went through after college in determining your own legal identity. Can you dig into that a little more and explain why for a graduating college student, that’s not such a bad thing?

CG: I think I owe my career to the fact that I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do when I graduated from college. I wasn’t a star student who had her pick of jobs after college, or even after law school, and it forced me to explore jobs and areas of the law that I never would have found had I gotten the ideal job I was looking for.

I think so many students, particularly in this day and age, are so judgmental of themselves because so many people are asking them, ‘What are you gonna do after college? Where are you gonna work?’ It’s so hard to find jobs. And yet, it actually can be a gift not to know exactly what you want to do.

Presumably you founded your firm with a vision, a set of expectations. Is there anything in particular that has surprised you?

CG: Well, when I started the firm I kind of just expected to be a solo practitioner and just to have a small little shop. I was blown away by how much attention I immediately received because the field that I’m in–there are just so few attorneys doing this kind of law. So it ended up being something to report on. It itself was a story, that there are now attorneys that just focus on sexual privacy, or just focus on victims, and so it meant that I got tons and tons of cases and needed to grow, and I’m delighted by that. I want to keep growing, but the velocity that we’ve grown is overwhelming. And I certainly wasn’t expecting to get all the other opportunities that I’ve gotten. Like to get to be involved in state and federal legislation, and to get to testifying front of congress and get invited to the White House-

And presumably that was not part of the initial vision?

CG: No, I wasn’t thinking as big. Now, Sony is developing a fictional TV show about me and Penguin just paid me a lot of money to write a book. I’m consulting on this Netflix show. Like all these crazy–these amazing opportunities have come because there is a value to the kind of work we’re doing at the firm.

Did you go into it thinking in terms of, I’m gonna be an advocate, or maybe for you there’s a lot of crossover being a lawyer and advocate?

CG: It’s very interchangeable, yeah. We’re councilors.

I’m not quite sure of the timeline of all these opportunities. Would you accredit the New Yorker profile as the thing that got you big in that sense?

CG: Well, I think even earlier than that there was a shift where suddenly the media felt comfortable writing about revenge porn, writing about sexual privacy. That shift happened in 2015,  which was around when we got a lot of our tech companies to create anti-revenge porn bans. And so, those were being reported on. Suddenly, journalists wanted to hear about victim’s stories. Then some very high profile victims, like Jennifer Lawrence, came forward and it all kind of happened at the same time where there was this perfect storm of attention to the issue, and a recognition that, ‘Oh my god, there’s so much work to be done here, and there are some of these misfits lawyers who are trying to do it.’

Going forward, has your personal vision and the vision of your firm changed?

CG: Our newest mission is to expand to also work on certain specifically targeted populations who are being trolled on the internet and harassed online, like abortion providers and advocates. I mean, at the end of the day, I’m just gonna stay a lawyer and I’m just gonna keep focusing on using the law to change the reality.

This March, Whitman chemistry professor Frank Dunnivant published a book on success stories in the environmental movement since the 1970s. It is the most recent book published by a Whitman faculty member, and the second in 2017.

“Environmental Success Stories: Solving Major Ecological Problems and Confronting Climate Change” looks into a number of cases in which an environmental problem, such as anthropogenic lead or unsafe drinking water, was identified and addressed. One common denominator: governmental regulation.

Dunnivant recalled a hallways conversation in 2004 about the failures of the Bush administration in attempts to truly dismantle the environmental regulatory structure. He was struck by the distance the environmental movement has come, the battles it has won, despite the “doom and gloom” rhetoric that pervades the contemporary environmental movement in regards to major challenges like climate change.

Dunnivant said the original plan was to emulate the structure of “The Botany of Desire,” by Michael Pollan, that tells its story via the cases of four plants. But as his research developed, Dunnivant said he “was amazed at how many more chapters there were. How many more stories there were to tell … it turned into six or eight really quickly. And there’s more.”

The book is intended both for the classroom and the popular science reader. The introduction says that the “book shows, case by case, what can be accomplished when citizens, governments and industry work together.” “Environmental Success Stories” is, of course, rooted in scientific research, but the emerging message is political: “if your politicians cannot be educated or do not believe in science, then vote them out of office.”

Despite the uplifting title, the idea, said Dunnivant, is not that the rhetoric of “doom and gloom” is wrong, but that it’s unproductively fatalistic despite the fact that we have a tries and true method of success.

“The only way we’re gonna solve climate change,” Dunnivant said, “is global regulation, which everybody in the world agrees with except us, except our GOP politicians … The GOP doesn’t like to believe in science. And the reason is, if you believe in science you have to regulate. If the free market solves this, all of those doom and gloom books are gonna come true.”

Dunnivant has been outlining this book since that hallways conversation, and he began writing in earnest four years ago. His last sabbatical was largely dedicated to the writing of the book.

Dean of Faculty Alzada Tipton wrote in an email to The Wire that Whitman’s unusually generous sabbatical program (faculty at Whitman may go on sabbatical every two and a half years) allows for a “higher degree of scholarly activity here than at many liberal arts colleges … I would say that one hallmark of Whitman faculty’s emphasis on scholarship is how much they involve students in their scholarship.”

Numerous faculty books have been published in the last year. Heather Hayes wrote “Violent Subjects and Rhetorical Cartography in the Age of the Terror.” Alyssa Cordner wrote “Toxic Safety: Flame Retardants, Chemical Controversies, and Environmental Health.” Nicole Simek wrote “Hunger and Irony in the French Caribbean: Literature, Theory, and Public Life.” In all eight, Whitman faculty have published books between the beginning of 2016 and now. French Literature professor Zahi Zalloua’s “Continental Philosophy and the Palestinian Question: Beyond the Jew and the Greek,” was the first of 2017 (scholarly articles are not counted).

The academy, particularly in the scientific realm, is notorious for its distance from public life.

“Scientists sit in their lab and do their research,and you know I think my most prominent paper, 150 people read,” Dunnivant said. “We don’t touch a lot of people with our research in our lab. The people that influenced me to be a scientist were Rachel Carson, [Louis] Leakey, as a child reading this and thinking, ‘Wow I would love to do something like that.’

“And that,” Dunnivant continued, “is a … void right now in popular science. Scientists need to be more involved with the population. Otherwise we’re these geeks in our ivory towers that nobody can understand.”

Graphic by Peter Eberle.

The Whitman Ethics Bowl team returned from Nationals in Dallas last week with the “Spirit of Ethics Bowl” award. It was the second consecutive year that the burgeoning group has won the award, which goes to the team that, through civility and thoughtfulness, best exemplifies the spirit of the Ethics Bowl.

“Our team cares much more about having engaging and interesting discussions than about ‘winning’ rounds and/or getting first place,” said senior team-member Gillian Gray in an email. “So when we received the spirit award … we were very excited and extremely honored. It represents everything that we strive for when we participate, and it feels great to be recognized for that.”

The award is determined by a vote by other teams.

Sophomore Erick Franklund, who was on the national team last year as well, said that the Spirit Award “goes to team that best exemplifies what Ethics Bowl is … The team that wins it is usually very friendly. Other teams like them and that’s how they win it, and so I’m really glad we’re on a team that is liked.”

Ethics Bowl is similar to debate, but the end lies not in argumentation, but rather consensus on an ethical issue. Often these are topical or real-world problems. For example, Franklund said that the Whitman team faced off against Villanova to determine whether or not Kenya’s policy of symbolically burning seized Ivory from elephant poachers was ethical (they determined that it was).

The Whitman Ethics Bowl team has developed significantly over the past few years, from what Gray described as an “informal, ragtag group of people who were interested in ethics and had no real idea of what an Ethics Bowl was to a fairly formal, rigorous and distinguished team.”

Last year the team won the regional Ethics Bowl at Seattle Pacific University, which Gray described as a “shock,” and “one of the greatest days of [her] college career.” It was a far cry from the year previous, in which Gray wrote that the fledgling team “didn’t understand how the whole thing was going to go until we got there.”

This year, the team came in second place in regionals, and so was again able to attend Nationals.

Nationals attendees were Franklund, Gray, Mira Skladany, Josh Ward, Lauren Wilson, Peggy Li (of The Wire) and Philosophy Professor Patrick Frierson, who is the coach.

Since the election of Donald Trump, activists in the Whitman community have described a flood of political energy in search of outlet. Groups are mobilizing to build relationships and organize a community anxious to engage with a presidential administration embroiled in controversy unprecedented in modern American history. Some of these local activists have been involved with social action-oriented clubs their entire time here at Whitman. But for many, the election marks a watershed moment in their own political confidence and consciousness: the apolitical pay attention; the attentive engage.

This week, numerous demonstrations throughout the world were organized in opposition to President Trump’s recent immigration ban. One of them gathered last Monday at Walla Walla airport. Among the primary organizers was Maia Watkins.

Unlike most Whitman students, Senior Maia Watkins matriculated on the scene with some down-home experience in grassroots activism. Eugene, “one world,” etc. Mama showed her how to do it in the Bush years. And yet, early on in her time here at Whitman, she was reluctant to spearhead social or political causes. Didn’t think she knew the community well enough: “I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing.”

After the order was issued, Watkins and Whitman senior Dessie Weigel attended a meeting of the Walla Walla Progressives, and expressed interest in a solidarity rally. They were told to “make it happen.” In just over a day, via Facebook and community outreach, they did just that.

In an email to the Wire, Norman Osterman of the Walla Walla Progressives wrote that the group was “amazed at the excellent organization of the demonstration on short notice and the number of participants. We know that it will take ongoing commitment from  [young people] to overturn the present nightmare we find ourselves in.  [Young] folks will be a key factor because you can’t buy youth and enthusiasm.“

The success of the demonstration affirmed an appreciation Watkins has developed that “in most situations no one knows what they’re doing. But someone needs to do something if anything is to happen.”

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The early days of the Trump’s administration at Whitman college have included one letter-writing party at an off-campus house and another organized by Divest Whitman. On Wednesday, the Intercultural Center hosted an interfaith gathering in solidarity with Muslims who are “feeling under assault.” Last week’s Women’s march was among the largest demonstrations in Walla Walla history. Many students reported that it was their first-ever public act of civic engagement.

Organization leaders describe a push to give an outlet to people in the Whitman community who want to take action, but don’t know how.

Megumi Rierson is on the Planned Parenthood generation action team on campus, which, under the direction of Walla Walla Planned Parenthood, has organized events from sign making parties to sex education in local high schools. She said that “people… feel a little wayward in terms of their political activism. In terms of knowing the severity of the issues at hand and not knowing how to get involved. And we’re trying to bridge that gap.”

Garrett Atkinson, co-president of the Whitman College Republican club, sees the club as giving voice to dissident opinions on campus, so that all sides of a debate might be considered on their merits. His concern is in distinguishing between rhetoric and the ideas they represent. He wants the complexity and legitimacy of the issues better-acknowledged in on-campus discourse.

Cassandra Otero, who helped organize last week’s screening of the documentary “Jornaleros,” said that, as she’s gained experience, her “conception of activism has changed a lot. I thought it was doing things until you’re almost or at or past your breaking point, just organizing things, emailing all the time, making those networks, but realizing with this event … it’s not just about providing resources to people. It’s not just about having that space. It’s creating those relationships where people would want to go to that space.”

Last Sunday, Politics Professor Aaron Bobrow-Strain, who advises the Borders as Method club (of which Otero is a member), dispatched the first of what will be weekly Immigration Action Bulletins. In an email to The Wire, Bobrow-Strain wrote that he “was overwhelmed by trying to keep track of all the fronts people of conscience have to fight on right now.” So he decided to focus on his area of relative expertise: immigration policy.

“The idea,” he wrote, “is to provide a brief overview of what’s happening in immigration politics every week, a list of concrete actions people can take and background information and talking points to help make taking those actions as easy as possible. It’s aimed at people who want to make our communities safe and welcoming for immigrants, but don’t feel like they have the information or tools to do that.” 

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This week, Whitman president Kathy Murray circulated an email condemning the executive order. She wrote that, “Now more than ever it is important to communicate directly with our elected officials. I have reached out to our own representatives to make our stance on this issue known and want to encourage all of you to make your views known.”

Whitman graduate Sarah Koenigsberg 02’, a local documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on artistic and social causes, hosted “pretty much the worst party I’ve ever thrown” on election night. As the stomachs of her and her friends twisted in a hollow despair well-characterized throughout the Whitman community, they came across “Indivisible,” a how-to Google Document created by liberally-minded congressional staffers, offering a step-by-step blueprint for grassroots political action dedicated to resisting the edicts of the Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress. This was perfect for Koenigsberg and friends: “We’re all busy and we didn’t know how to be activists.”

She said, somewhat in jest, that the election results tossed her into a “major identity crisis … I’ve liked to think my work has this impact. But if [enter the plights of numerous institutions and causes for which she has worked to promote], then what the fuck is the point?!”

Since then, Koenigsberg has been involved in the founding and early development of Walla Walla Indivisible, which works to organize and channel energy formerly dedicated to the “the Facebook downward spiral of doom,” to things like calling up your representative. She said she’s found that, “we’re a lot closer to our representatives than we think.”

She invites interested students to connect with Walla Walla Indivisible, to compartmentalize time and find that hour or two a week to focus on concretely supporting an issue you care about. “We want to pace ourselves with the idea that we’re gonna be doing this for the next four years at least,” she said. “This is what it means to be an American now.”

Feet crunching through the snow. Two friends, wrapped in blankets, cheerily huddled with their dog below an awning at the corner of 2nd and Main Street, shouted in support as the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march solemnly passed. Augie – both declined to give their last names – said that it was his first day homeless in months. The other, Noka, said that Martin Luther King and Barack Obama are his heroes. The former “knew that the only thing that differed between us is skin color;” the latter gave him health insurance.

The procession they watched began at Whitman’s Reid Campus Center at 4pm on Monday, January 16 and was attended by members of the Whitman, Walla Walla University, and greater Walla Walla community. Organized by Adam Kirtley and Maggi Banderas of the Whitman Intercultural Center, it ended at the Gesa Power House Theater, where Whitman Associate Dean for Intercultural Affairs Kazi Joshua told attendees from the stage that “this is no ordinary MLK day.”

“King offers a vision of what America can become,” Joshua said as he introduced a video of King’s “I have a dream” speech. “There will be a peaceful transition of power from one president to another, and another vision of what America can become is going to be offered. Which vision,” Joshua asked, “will capture the moral imagination of this country?”

After the event, Joshua referenced president-elect Donald Trump’s tweet about congressman John Lewis, who is widely regarded as a civil rights legend due to his work with King during the Civil Rights Movement. Trump Wrote: “All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!” 

Photo by Caroline Ashford Arya.

Kirtley wrote in an email to The Wire that he chose to show the “I Have a Dream” speech in its entirety because he thought that, on a day in which we frequently talk about King, “hearing him in his own words, in a speech from beginning to end, is especially powerful.”

The Power House Theater component, combined with the active participation of WWU, made the event larger, longer, and more diverse than in the past. In recent years the march only went as far as the brick plaza at First and Main Street, and it had been thought of as more of a “Whitman thing,” wrote Kirtley.

Among those in attendance was Whitman junior Robin Rounthwaite, who came out looking for a refresher on the larger meaning of Dr. King’s work.

“I can go home and I can study something that [King wrote] and think about what does that mean to me, but sometimes that doesn’t make as much of a difference as talking to somebody does, as seeing somebody who really cares about something trying to do something, even if it’s just walking down the street like we are,” he said.

As he marched down Main Street, ASWC president and senior Arthur Shemitz said that he was driven by King’s idea, espoused in his letter from a Birmingham jail, “that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Shemitz cited Whitman College’s summer fly-in program for incoming first generation and low-income students as an “example of the college’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.” He acknowledged that the school, of course, has a long way to go. Kazi Joshua, he said, was leading the way.

“The words I’ve heard from Kazi that have really stuck with me are me are ‘leadership is not having a position; leadership is working for justice,’” Shemitz said.“He’s one of the greatest inspirations for my work in ASWC.”

A gospel-style choir, composed of WWU and Whitman students, was organized over winter break by Whitman senior Faith Nyakudi. The crowd rose as they finished with Lift Every Voice. As Joshua greeted departing attendees at the back, he reflected on the good: an active consciousness within the Whitman community of its shortcomings in regards to inclusivity, and the challenges: creating conditions for “meaningful interactions” between the campus and the community.

“It’s not enough,” Joshua said, “to just bring people who have different opinions together.”

“As King himself said, the goals of these types of gatherings shouldn’t be to placate us – to check a box – meaningless ritual,” Kirtley wrote in an email.

“I think the event restores hope that there are so many people who share a passion for the work of justice…Yesterday’s turnout was pretty remarkable. I think, in some ways, that is [a] testament to how people are feeling right now. These feel like uncertain times for those who have been disenfranchised and pushed to the margins. King’s refrain in that speech was “Now is the time.”  Maybe what people were saying yesterday is, “‘Now is STILL the time. Let’s get to work,’” Kirtley wrote.