Even when the current managing editor of The Pioneer and ASWC senator balked at the slope ahead of her, Bob Carson was unafraid. Granted he had years more of experience with sledding down sand dunes, but it’s also doubtful that someone would deduct awesome points for such a badass habit.

After a half-hour hike through desolate sand dunes, Bob had stopped our ragtag little group (some of us who had pulled on an approximation of “snow” clothes two minutes after jumping out of an alcohol-fueled slumber –– the managing editor, certainly not this trusty reporter) at a high point in the rolling humps ‘n’ bumps of Juniper Dunes. He threw down a sled.

“So, who wants to go first?”

The pause was more awkward than those that occur during Friday morning Encounters. All of us eyed the slope, which was way steeper than the word “sand dune” implied, with trepidation.

Just as someone was about to burst from the paused-ness of it all, Bob sat down on the sled and pushed off, raising what I had previously would have described as “wizened” hands into the air as he hollered with childlike abandon.

That was my first experience with Bob Carson –– watching him going shooting down what I assumed to be a dangerously steep sand dune, fully expecting to stumble down to find his bones and guts scattered in a 10-foot radius from the crash site.

Obviously he didn’t die that day; instead, he will be retiring from Whitman College this May after working at the school since 1975 as a professor of geology and environmental studies.
He moved to Walla Walla upon accepting what was then the one and only geology position at Whitman with his wife, Clare (who comes up in almost every conversation you have with or about Bob ––apparently they come together like peanut butter and jelly), and his nascent family. They knew that Whitman was the place for them when a squirrel fell out of a tree right in between their two dogs.

“We knew it was paradise,” said Bob.

According to Bob, the reason they hired him in 1975 was because he was already a member of the American Alpine Club, a whitewater boater at a time when the Outing Program was just beginning, and because he was the most enthusiastic of the candidates.

According to students of Bob, the reason he has been such a lasting and impressionable figure on campus is also because of his enthusiasm and the care he has for each individual student.

“Bob was always so encouraging and proud of his students. He wanted us to be critical thinkers and to not just take information at face value, but to understand the basis for different positions and question what we didn’t think was right. He was always up for adventure and loved to explore new places with his students and family,” said Ellie Leonard, a student and mentee of Bob’s who graduated in 1999, in an email.

Environmental studies-geology senior Shannon Blair reveals that Bob’s reputation has spread beyond the confines of our squirrel-paradise campus.

“Before coming to Whitman I worked with a guy from Walla Walla in New Mexico, and he said I had to take a class with Bob Carson,” she said.

Following advice from the faraway lands of the Southwest, Shannon managed to get into Environmental Studies 120 with Bob the spring of her first year.

“[Bob] was really friendly in office hours, which I appreciated as a freshman. He was interested in what I was doing, and by the end of freshman year I knew that I wanted to do ES and Geo and that Bob would be my advisor for both,” said Blair. “[During my time here] Bob has had a very positive influence for my academic life, but also he gives me advice on personal things when I’m stressed.”

While Ellie only majored in one of Bob’s fields of study (environmental studies), she said that Bob’s love for geology sticks with her to this day.

“The classes and trips that Bob led piqued my interest in geology and, although it wasn’t my major, I will always have a great appreciation for the geological sciences thanks to Bob,” she said. “When going on road trips with my family, I always smile when we drive by road cuts remembering all of the field trips with Bon and the number of times we pulled over for a quick roadside geology lecture. He could tell the story of Washington geology in a way that could make anyone want to become a geologist. Just ask him to tell you the story of the Missoula Floods and you’ll see what I mean.”

Apparently road trips with Bob are quite the experience, as Blair also commented on what they can be like.

“Bob knows everything along the road; you drive along and there’s continuous commentary,” she said.

“It’s funny to watch [Bob and Clare’s] relationship because Bob is so full of energy and Clare kind of has to calm him down. When they’re driving together Bob gets so talkative, and then all of a sudden Clare will say, ‘Bob, Bob! We have to turn here!’”

It’s a good thing that Bob is fun to travel with because that is perhaps where students get to interact with him the most. My pen could not move quickly enough to scrawl down the myriad countries and places that Bob has taken students too –– everywhere from nearby Juniper Dunes for sand-dune sledding to Nepal and the Caribbean. Students have gone with Bob to assist with research, as well as just for the sake of travel. He looks forward to more travel in his retirement.

“I’m not going to stop traveling, I’m just going with older people!” he said.

“Bob’s spirit of adventure and curiosity were contagious and led me to join two of his international field trips. These trips were hands down my best experiences at Whitman. He taught me to not be afraid to ask questions, to push myself and to take the time to really understand the world around me and the people in it,” said Leonard.

Bob has helped students to question and push boundaries in the context of travel and also to be aware of the state of their environment in the Pacific Northwest and its deterioration. He has been an influential force in the growth of the Environmental Studies Department since his arrival on campus in 1975, just five years after the first Earth Day and what is considered the beginning of environmental awareness.

Indeed, Bob’s final words at the end of the interview urged for Whitman students to push towards change.

“My generation has screwed up badly, and we have to fix it,” he said. “There are all sorts of problems in the world, but I believe climate change is the worst. The poor are going to be the ones that suffer the most, and so it has to be on the top of everyone’s agenda.”

As the exclusively American “Greek” system is shunned by woefully unrespected celebrities such as Will Ferrell, Whitman has once again proven that everything about it goes above and beyond when Whitman’s chapter of Phi Delta Theta won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I mean, check out my hair,” said Chapter president Brandon Paris.

“Only peaceful people have hair this long. The guys chose me to represent them because they think my hair goes a long way towards making a stand for peace and chillin, and that’s what we are, really, a bunch of chillers.”

The head of the Nobel Prize search committee, Mary Jane, remarked on how fully the chapter has embraced the notions of passive non-violence.

“It’s almost like you can smell it when you walk in the house. It pervades every aspect of their chapter. When you are in the house, you won’t see people fighting. You either see them sitting around in circles engaging in meaningful conversation, or listening to interesting music, or going down to the kitchen for huge bowls of cereal and plates piled with quesadillas.”

Sophomore Parker Silverman remarked that when he became a Phi, the chill “vibe” the chapter gave off attracted him and has since influenced him in a positive way.

“All my bros are just so, so relaxed. Before joining Phi I was…shall I say outspoken? I dunno, my mom called me obnoxious sometimes but my pull ratio was off the charts. Anyway….uh…yeah, I would say Phi has definitely made me a lot more relaxed. I spend a lot of time around the house just hanging out with my dudes.”

Phi Delta Theta was actually kicked off campus somewhere in the 1980’s because of how unpeaceful they were.

“Yeah, I’ve heard alumni tell stories about how they threw kegs off the roof–actually, that’s the dent in the sidewalk that they said was caused by that incident, right there,” said Paris.

Jane said that part of the reason for the bestowal of the award was because of the progress the chapter has managed to make since then.

“For instance, look at Brandon’s hair. I think just the fact that he now has long hair evidences the fact that the chapter has put some serious work into becoming more peaceful, and that work is what this award recognizes.”

[It is unclear whether or not Jane realizes that the Paris was not in fact a part of the chapter during the eighties.]

Newly initiated member Daniel Whalen has thoroughly enjoyed what he calls the “opportunities for chilling” that joining Phi have afforded him.

“In high school, I was pretty worried about being cool. But like in Phi, that’s not even an issue. If you’re chill, you’re chill. No one even gives a f*** what you wear. Plus [Chef] Bob’s salad bar…I love that everyone in Phi eats so much salad. Everyone knows salad is good for you.”

Salad is indeed healthy, late-night conversations while sitting in circles is indeed chill, and long hair certainly indicates a desire for a peaceful world. Congratulations, Phi Delta Theta, for your deserved recognition.

This article is written based on the observations of three individuals and is not in any way meant to represent the views of the individual institutions. 

Walla Walla University. Photo by Rachael Barton.

On a typical Whitman student’s path to the rows of wholesale granola in Andy’s supermarket in College Place, an intersection feels uncannily familiar if passed at the right time of day. Within the distance of a couple blocks are two crosswalks, and both are often full of young students with backpacks. Cars stop to let the first pedestrian pass and then find that there are 10 more to take the place of that first pedestrian. Woe to the person late to work who has to pass both this intersection and the one on Isaacs between Jewett and the fraternity houses, watching students from the two private colleges in Walla Walla cross in droves in front of their bumper.

Yet while the scenes are almost exactly the same, there is very little interaction between the student populations at Whitman College and Walla Walla University on a daily basis. Occasionally there are special events collaborated between the two institutions, such as the Tri-College Service Day in April and the Etiquette Dinner. But outside of such programs there seems to be a surprising lack of connection between WWU and Whitman.

Whitman senior Haley Friel, who interacts with WWU students through the LGBTQ communities at both schools, finds that some of the reason for this lies in the oft-referenced Whitman bubble.

“The bubble is so severe it’s kind of scary. Whitman students don’t really know what’s outside of it,” she said.

WWU Business Administration student David Maier says that the extent to which he interacts with Whitman students is limited to glimpses at Bright’s or other downtown stores. He pictures a Whitman student as “a fairly white person playing Ultimate Frisbee and being social.”

There are a few legends that manage to permeate the lack of connections between the two schools. For instance, Maier emphasized twice the social aspects of life at Whitman. WWU students have heard tell about the beer mile. WWU senior biology major Leah Dann said that the immediate preconceptions she has of Whitman students are those of wealth.

WWU student Leah Dann ’15. Photo by Rachael Barton.

“The stereotype I have in my head is of rich, preppy people, probably because of the sororities and frats and the amazingly nice campus,” said Dann.

Rachelle Lebold, a speech pathology student at WWU, surmised in an email that she thought open-mindedness might be a dominant trait in Whitman students.

“When I picture a Whitman student I see a person who is open-minded and has a wide variety of hobbies,” said Lebold. “I feel … free to talk about certain subjects with Whitman students and be able to have an open dialogue about it.”

Some Whitman students, too, have preconceived ideas about WWU. When asked about an underlying notion at Whitman that WWU students are not allowed to dance, Dann replied that WWU’s guidelines around dancing are more to prevent close contact.

“We have an associated students organization that plans events most weekends, things like a Barn Party where there’s line dancing and Battle of the Bands,” she said.

Dann explained that these programs are the focal point of the social life of the college. Whitman senior Evan Griffis, who is friends with WWU students, described a few other non-school-sanctioned gatherings he attended a few years ago.

“The first one I went to was in the basement of a girl’s parents’ house, and the parents were upstairs,” said Griffis. “It was a situation where the parents were kind of subversively letting kids in through the backdoor because it was against the policy of the administration.”

He added that the lack of alcohol at parties creates a different dynamic.

“All the parties I went to had the most incredible light and sound systems because that’s what their parties are,” he said. “My friend said that they don’t need alcohol to have fun, plus having parties like this is risky enough with the administration. It seemed like not having alcohol was just because they didn’t want to exacerbate the risk.”

Perhaps in social contexts as well as in academic contexts, the biggest differences between the student populations at both schools lies in their attitudes towards religion. WWU is a Seventh Day Adventist University, meaning that the administration enforces policy that follows Adventist doctrine, which includes the avoidance of close contact while dancing and the forbiddenness of alcohol. In Dann’s biology classes, she was taught both evolution theory as well as creation, but she says she was not told which to believe.

“The professors are dedicated to giving us different perspectives — facts about everything, including science and other religions in religious classes, which are not just the university pushing beliefs,” she said. “The professors have a wide range of what they believe as well.”

Dann also enjoys the religious aspects of WWU in her social life.

“I like that there are lots of worship opportunities and the social aspect of there being a lot of people around you that share your beliefs,” said Dann.

WWU students have the option of attending the Seventh Day Adventist church on campus that holds services every Saturday. Saturday is considered the Sabbath in Adventist doctrine, which is why Andy’s Market is closed on Saturdays (it is owned by Adventists). The church also offers youth programming and valuable counseling services for students.

The Adventist aspects of WWU’s campus, while not ubiquitous, can influence lifestyles that students choose to adopt. Griffis observed this in his visits to meetings of the LGBTQ club that formed two years ago on campus.

“It was a little weird for me because I didn’t have a life history that they shared. The questions they were asking were more like, is it morally O.K. to be gay,” said Griffis. “That isn’t a discussion at Whitman so much … It seems tricky for them because their identity is rooted in being Adventist, whereas for me at Whitman, my identity is rooted in being gay — it’s a much more closeted culture.”

Griffis said that the way some of his friends and acquaintances have transcended the oftentimes paradoxical nature of those two identities is by having different goals in life than many gay students at Whitman.

“My equally gay and Adventist friend has the perspective of yearning for a normative lifestyle,” said Griffis. “He is very skeptical of Whitman and the ‘promiscuous’ hook-up culture and ‘outlandish’ gender expression that sometimes happens on campus. That’s not important. What’s important for him is to have a husband and family.”

Friel, who is also involved with LGBTQ connections between the schools (as well as with Walla Walla Community College) also found value in observing the different challenges students from other schools face.

“It frustrates me because there are so many potential positive things that Whitman students could gain from hearing about their life experiences,” said Friel. “It’s a rich community we could benefit from, but there’s a stigma about the religion … plus the physicality of [Whitman’s] campus — it’s so small and it’s such a closed community at Whitman.”

Griffis expressed gratitude both for the experience of observing the LGBTQ community at WWU as well as for the fact that he does not face the challenges that many of his peers do.

“They have really different struggles. Things that we take for granted are huge struggles for them,” he said. “[Whitman students] need to recognize that religion is actually a really guiding life force for students at the university, not in a monolithic way, but in that the campus community is guided by it.”

Whitman students rarely have the occasion to gussy themselves up, but the evening of Feb. 5 was one of those nights for Whitman seniors. They strode self-confidently through Reid Campus Center, ignoring the students in sweats eating from Café 66. Some adjusted their ties, others tugged down their pencil skirts. Before entering the Reid ballroom, they paused to pick up their name tag and proceeded through the doors, taking two steps before pausing in confusion.

It wasn’t just Whitman students.

There were other, unrecognizable people milling around in suits and pencil skirts. Young people whose faces didn’t look familiar. Students stood in clusters, some clutching plastic water glasses as if they were the most interesting objects in the world, some attempting to catch the rotating appetizer trays at every opportunity, some taking surreptitious peeks at the faces outside of their clusters.

They were all attending the Etiquette Dinner, an event organized by the three colleges together.

Whitman students are so accustomed to recognizing the faces that they see every day as they walk to class that it prevents them from remembering that there are two other institutions of higher education in Walla Walla, both serving Whitman-aged students.

Walla Walla University is a private university affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Walla Walla Community College enrolls upwards of 12,000 students and has one of the premiere viticulture programs in the nation.

For many Whitman students, that is the extent of their knowledge of the two other institutions of higher learning in Walla Walla. There have been a few chances to engage with students beyond the Whitman bubble through school-sponsored programming such as the Tri-College Community Service Day hosted every year in April, but these chances are special opportunities.

Recently, career development centers at the three institutions have made intentional efforts to collaborate because of the administrative assets. While there are certainly many benefits to sharing resources to host events such as the Business Etiquette Dinner, three career developers see more subtle benefits as well.

“There’s not a lot of diversity at Whitman, particularly in experience. All three [institutions] have students with different experiences to learn from,” said Kimberly Rolfe, Director for Business Engagement at Whitman.

Walla Walla Community College’s Dean of Business, Entrepreneurial Programs and Extended Learning, Jessica Gilmore, echoed this sentiment in an email.

“All students, no matter which institution [they are from], benefit from collaborating with other students,” she said. “Each person brings a unique set of experiences, educational background and goals to the table. Creating opportunities for the students to share their unique qualities with others significantly enriches the educational experience for all.”

One such opportunity was the Business Etiquette Dinner on Feb. 5. Students from Whitman, Walla Walla University and Walla Walla Community College were strategically assigned table placements to encourage students to meet new people.

“We very intentionally assigned places at tables so that they would be mixed. However, a big piece [of being in a professional setting] is how to walk up to someone you don’t know and introduce yourself, and the SEC is trying to help students feel comfortable doing that,” said Rolfe. “We see the opportunity afforded by doing events with the other schools because Whitman students don’t know them, and we hope that Whitman students use that space to learn.”

Walla Walla University’s David Lindstrom, director of the Career Development Center, saw students at the Business Etiquette Dinner embracing the ambiance created in the Reid Ballroom.

“Coming together with the other schools inspired, and I think would inspire the students at future events to be even more professional than they would if they were in a familiar environment with only people they knew,” he said in an email.

The impetus and inspiration for the Business Etiquette Dinner and the subsequent collaboration came when Lindstrom saw Enterprise Holdings talent acquisition Manager Crystal Stanfield speak in a different context and thought that it would be a good experience for students of Walla Walla University to see her present. He approached Rolfe and Gilmore for collaboration because Stanfield would present for no charge if there were 150 students or more in attendance. All three administrators felt that their individual institutions would not have been able to muster up enough attendees, but with all three collaborating there were more than enough.

“There are differences in terms of resources and the students at the three schools often have different aspirations, but we all have one goal: to help young people become thoughtful, well-spoken individuals that are career-ready,” said Rolfe.

One of the resources Whitman has to offer to the equation is oftentimes locations such as the Reid Ballroom for collaborative events.

“It’s easy to use the space here in Reid because it’s centrally located and we have great unique spaces [at Whitman],” said Rolfe.

Lindstrom found the space at Reid to be an integral part of the success of the Business Etiquette Dinner.

“The Reid Center at Whitman is a classy environment, and I think it raised the level of excitement and the feeling of professionalism for the students who were able to be there,” he said.

That could change, however, which could give Whitman students a chance to venture off campus.

“The Business Club was so excited about the turnout and results of the Business Etiquette Dinner that they are hoping to plan and host the event themselves on the WWCC campus next year,” said Gilmore.

Rolfe said that the SEC would love to encourage an event with the other schools in a location other than the Whitman campus and stated that transportation would of course be organized for students without cars.

All three administrators echoed the desire to repeat the event next year, citing its usefulness for learning skills applicable to a professional environment, as well as the enrichment that participants got from discussing etiquette with students from different backgrounds and experiences.

While Rolfe, Lindstrom and Gilmore would be interested in organizing a career fair in order to create the critical mass necessary to attract recruiters from companies. One of the challenges is finding employers that overlap the interests of the students from all three institutions. Walla Walla University and Walla Walla Community College both have programs that are more technical than those at Whitman, plus the different backgrounds that students come from often lead them to have different goals for their careers.

Rolfe emphasized the potential she sees for the coming years.

“At the SEC we are making a real concerted effort to help all Whitman students develop into who they want to be and do what they want to do,” she said. “We love hearing thoughts and ideas from students because we want to innovate, iterate and change.”

As the SEC and its counterparts at Walla Walla University and Walla Walla Community College grow to share resources and ideas at events like the Business Etiquette Dinner, there are sure to be more instances where Whitman students’ eyes widen in surprise when they enter the Reid Ballroom. These are chances to learn about different experiences within this small town of Walla Walla, and it is time to seize these opportunities to connect.

Editor’s note: The version of this article published in the March 5 edition of The Pioneer incorrectly identified Walla Walla University and Walla Walla Community College as “subsidiaries” of Whitman College. All three institutions are unaffiliated with one another.

If one is to leave Whitman College to be a salmon fisher, why write an extensive thesis utilizing current theory to analyze sociological phenomena? It is not unheard of for Whitman students to go from being grilled by a panel of experts in the field of geology in April to foaming milk for the perfect mocha at the Colville Street Patisserie in June.

Whitman students embark on thousands of different paths after leaving evergreen Ankeny Field behind, but before they go, every Whitman fourth-year goes through what senior Aislyn Booth calls a rite of passage: senior requirements, which can include any combination of a thesis, oral and written exams.

“It’s like an academic brain workout,” said Booth. “I heard all the seniors complain about it [when I was an underclassman], and now I’m still hearing all the seniors complain about it.”

Both Whitman students and professors attest to the fact that senior requirements are not simply for the complaining of a harried, stressed senior class beset by an unfair amount of fog in January and February.

Rather, senior requirements culminate Whitman academic experiences as well as giving students the life skills, if not the practical knowledge, to embark past the fireplace in the Quiet Room. Associate Professor of Mathematics Barry Balof addresses how the exams that math seniors take are beneficial after graduating.

“If students go on to grad school, they will have broad-based written examinations similar to what we do here. But for jobs, too, it’s valuable to have the experience of having to field questions that aren’t set ahead of time,” said Balof.

Senior exams, theses and projects vary from department to department and are constructed to utilize and test the skills students learned during their time in the department. In some departments, this means designing and researching a project or topic of your choice. In other departments, students are tested on their comprehensive knowledge of their chosen major(s).

Oftentimes, senior requirements are a combination of the two methods of evaluation. In the Department of Mathematics, students take written and oral exams with  problems for which they are quizzed on math problems for which they ostensibly have learned the correct methods of solving. They also have a chosen project second semester for which they do extensive research and cooperation with an advisor and the department.

“This introduces more long-term planning, goal-setting and the challenge of explaining concepts to colleagues who aren’t necessarily versed in [the specifics of] your project,” said Balof.

The requirements for each department are very specifically geared towards what would best address what students learned while majoring in that discipline.

“I like the idea of having orals where you defend your thesis because Sociology is discussion-based around concepts. In class we synthesize readings in discussion, that’s how we’ve learned it, and so it makes sense that that’s what our orals are,” said senior environmental studies-sociology major Perry Anderson. “Plus, sociology is so broad that [doing a thesis] gives you a chance to focus on something you’re interested in.”

On the other side of Ankeny, the Department of Mathematics systematically tests students on concepts that they learned during each course required for the math major as soon as they return from summer break in September.

“It is a hard test, and we do it in September because college code requires [a certain amount of time between failing and attempting a retake.] The vast majority of students pass by the third try. Occasionally, a student might need a fourth chance, which wouldn’t be possible if we did the first round any later,” said Balof.

Each department structures its exams differently and at different points in the senior year. Associate Professor of English Scott Elliott believes that even though very few English majors continue on to study English or American literature, the work that students do during their time at Whitman, especially in preparing for written and oral examinations, gives them a strong basis for any paths they may take after graduation.

“It is our devout belief, bordering on certainty and bolstered by our majors’ success in many fields, that the knowledge and skills English majors gain by reading the best works of literary art human beings have produced in the English language … might teach us about what it means to be a human being on this planet,” said Elliott.

There are departments that use standardized tests, such as the Department of Psychology, which uses the MFT. Then there are less traditionally academic majors in which testing of this type would not be appropriate. Theatre majors do a project that takes a variety of forms: acting, light design, set design, directing or self-designed projects such as writing, directing and starring in a solo performance piece. After the project is complete, theatre students write a 20-page paper about the experience (the research they did for the role/design or the performances). They also sit for an oral exam with three committee members.

“[Our oral exams are] pretty not stressful and the vast majority get distinction. [The faculty’s] goal in an oral defense is to ensure that we can articulate our process as theatre artists, and not to judge our performance alone too strictly … though they also can and do criticize our work. They are looking for us to grow throughout the process [of creating and evaluating our senior project], employ what we’ve learned in the theatre department,” said senior theatre major Tory Davidson.

Though senior requirements have been carefully sculpted over the years to best address what has been learned at Whitman and what may come next, occasionally departments realize that the examinations and projects are not measuring student’s capabilities appropriately. Many departments calibrate how effectively requirements are addressing the academic  goals of the department regularly.

“We hold a departmental discussion about comprehensive exam results every spring when the results are still fresh in our minds,” said Elliott. “We do this with an eye to our stated learning goals and to see if students are responding to the challenge of the exams, as we hope they will, and to see how we might better prepare students for the exams in their preparatory coursework leading up to the exams.”

Occasionally discussions such as these lead to major changes in the structures of exams or requirements. Six years ago, mathematics written exams were just 12 questions graded pass or fail.

“We were seeing an increasing portion of students that were competent in some areas and hurting in other areas, and it didn’t make sense for them to have to take the whole test over again,” said Balof.

Thus, the Department of Mathematics made a cooperative effort to change the exam. Now there are four sections to the written exam, and students can pass sections individually. If they fail any one section, they only have to retake that section and not other sections that they passed.

The Department of Psychology has very recently made fundamental changes to its requirements for graduation during the years leading up to senior year. These changes are reflected in a major change in the senior requirements for psychology majors: A senior thesis project is no longer required.

The written test for psychology is standardized and very similar to the Psychology GRE Subject Test.

“I ended up teaching myself a lot of things from a GRE review textbook that hadn’t been covered in my Whitman psych classes,” said Booth.

In order to cover more of the topics in the senior written examination, next year the Department of Psychology will require its majors to take three of six classes that directly cover material that will be in the examination. Because this means more classes are required for psych majors, the department decided to make the senior thesis class optional. Additionally, this removed pressure from the department to provide thesis advisors for the rapidly growing department and gave more flexibility to double majors who might have thesis projects for their other major.

Booth feels that the change was appropriate, especially because students still have the option to do a thesis, an option which she decided to take.

“It’s not as hard as people think it is. It’s a self-directed project where you get to focus in on what you’ve been most interested in, and it’s really satisfying.” said Booth.

Though the whines of seniors may echo through the walls of every building on campus, and though underclassmen may anticipate the days when they can complain with such abandon and still be respected, senior requirements have their place at Whitman. They represent a rite of passage, a culmination and a crowning success to cap off the challenging loveliness of the Whitman College experience.

Adopting a family sounds like a difficult task, but it doesn’t take much to provide a family with a more cheerful holiday season.

Abby Juhasz, the community service coordinator in the Student Engagement Center, facilitates the Adopt-a-Family program every winter. Whitman students, faculty and staff can group together (like the Biology department, the Admissions Office, and Marcus House) to “adopt” a family. Groups donate funds necessary to ensure that their family has enough food, necessities and small gifts to make their holidays special.

“We delineate between Wants and Needs … [that way] people get the things that are clearly essential, but also in the spirit of the holidays, when you get things you wouldn’t normally get for yourself,” said Juhasz.

Covering both the wants and needs of an individual costs about thirty dollars. Ten of those dollars are for gift certificates to a local grocery store and the other twenty dollars goes towards buying gifts. This year there were forty-three families available for adoption, a modest increase from last year, when there were thirty-nine.

“[The families] are identified by Blue Mountain Heart to Heart and the Health Center … they are currently living at or below the poverty line,” said Juhaz.

While it is useful to use the poverty line as a distinguisher of need, Juhasz said that there are many families living just above the poverty line that are still very much in need and clearly deserving of aid. Some of these families go to the warming center, which is newly located at the First Congregational Church.

“Many people are asking for thermal underwear,” said Juhasz. She said the warming center is currently looking for toiletry donations.

Toiletries and thermal underwear may seem like necessities in the cold winter months in Walla Walla, but unfortunately those often end up in the “Wants” column.

Juhasz emphasized how impressed she is by the Whitman community’s response to the needs in Walla Walla.

“Whitman students have a dedication to serving … throughout the year, but especially during the holidays,” she said. “This morning I came in to a whole bunch of emails, and I am pretty sure that every family will be covered now.”

Whitman’s service programming during the holidays does not end with Adopt-a-Family.

Students and staff are making additional efforts, including making cards for the Adopt-a-Grandparent and Mentor programs next week.

“A card is a form of recognition of the significant relationship [between Whitman student and mentee or adopted grandparent]. It’s something they can hold onto during Whitman’s long winter break,” Juhasz said.

Between the two programs, the Whitman community produces about five hundred cards during the holiday season.

“Whitman students have an ethic of service and dedication to the local community,” said Juhasz.

The in-kind donation through the Adopt-a-Family program last year was $3,180 from the Whitman Community. An in-kind donation is a non-monetary donation like time or energy that is still assigned a monetary value to address it’s relative impact or significance.

“Service is a quiet effort at Whitman,” said Juhasz. “People don’t know the magnitude, the incredible in-kind donation that Whitman makes to the community every year. When you put all the efforts of Whitman students together, it’s incredible.”

Update: The spelling of Abby Juhasz’s name has been corrected.

Though it looks like a box and is equivalent in size to perhaps the crate of a large Beagle, it is much more sophisticated than a home for a dog. It has a clear lid and, inside, a grid that looks somewhat like a cookie cooling-rack.

To those not trained in the arts of Photoshop and the latest technology crazes in the art world, the new laser cutter that lives in the printmaking room of the Fouts Center for the Visual Arts is merely an unintelligible object. Yet to students who attended visiting artist Lari Gibbons’ workshop last weekend, it is a marvelous tool for creating art more efficiently and effectively.

The laser cutter is just one of the new tools available to students in the Art Building. The Art Department also recently acquired a 3D printer and CNC router. New technologies are available all over campus, however, as tools to enhance both the research of professors and the experience of Whitman students.

Technological Theory

Assistant Professor of Art Justin Lincoln deeply involves technology as a medium in his own artwork and in the material that he teaches in his classes. He is deeply versed in the theories surrounding technology and cites Marshall McLewin as a particularly profound media theorist from the 1950s and ’60s.

“Anything that extends the abilities of our bodies is a technology … any tool is a technology in the sense of we’ve introduced a kind of mediation,” said Lincoln, quoting McLewin.

Photo By Nikki Antenucci.

Lincoln explains that there are two ways of viewing technology. The first is called technological determinism, in which technology controls everything and is thought of as either the best or the worst thing that has happened to man.

The second viewpoint is called technological neutrality. Those with this view don’t believe technology is inherently positive or negative, but the way in which people use the technology is.

Lincoln in not satisfied with these simplified explanations.

“I don’t agree with either … Technology is neither good, nor bad, nor is it neutral. We need to think of it creatively and critically … We should try to balance our critical views of it with technology’s creative possibilities,” he said.

Technology in Academic Research

There are many creative ways to apply technology as a tool. Technologies are being used across disciplines on the Whitman campus, both as tools in professors’ research and as aids for enhancing undergraduate learning.

Oftentimes student use of advanced research technologies occurs during student-professor collaboration projects, such as that of Associate Professor of Psychology Matthew Prull.

“This summer I had [my student assistants] learn how to use [Qualtrics] and then put the survey together,” said Prull.

Qualtrics is a software that can be utilized for survey data collection. Prull just started using it in his research this summer. Previously he used a similar software called PsyScope, which he learned about 20 years ago.

“[These programs] record precise millisecond response times that are necessary for data collection in standard cognitive experiments about solving problems and learning,” said Prull.

He also points out that technology has been used in psychology research since the field was founded in the late 1880s. Then, psychology researchers used brass instruments called chronoscopes to record time in between events.

Chronoscopes were very expensive and very few researchers were able to use them. Today, however, technologies are more accessible. PsyScope is free, and Whitman has a Qualtrics site license that is shared across departments.

Benjamin H. Brown Professor of Physics Mark Beck, who was recently selected to be tenure-track, uses less accessible technologies in his research. Along with a team of physicists in Hanford, Wash. at the LIGO Hanford Observatory, he is trying to prove a part of Einstein’s theory of relativity by measuring gravity waves as they reflect off of a special mirror built expressly for that purpose.

“Conceptually, how it can be understood is that a black hole is a heavy ball on top of a sheet of black rubber or something,” said Beck. “Everything else on the sheet is in the field of gravity of the sun. When the sun wobbles or anything, the field of gravity wobbles too. The waves that come because of the gravitational connection is what we are trying to measure.”

In order to do this, Beck and his team must use meticulously constructed mirrors that reflect 99.999 percent of all light. A regular bathroom mirror reflects about 80 percent of all light.

“The mirrors are built from sheets of infinitely thin slices of material being layered on top of each other,” said Beck.

Right now he is researching the effect of certain temperatures on certain materials in order to better understand how to build the mirrors most effectively. This is where students can come in.

“This summer I had a couple students researching for me. They used computer modeling programs to find approximations of what we can expect to find in the real experiment,” said Beck. “What the computer tells us tells us what to look for.”

Beck says that this student-led work is a priority for him as a professor.

“I really want to work with students. That’s the reason I looked for positions at small liberal arts schools, and that’s partly how I sold myself to Whitman, by saying that I wanted to involve students in my research process as much as possible.” he said.

Beck said that now that he is tenure-track, Whitman provides him with a start-up grant to pay for the materials and technologies he needs to conduct his research. Next summer, instead of just modeling the experiment on a computer, students will be able to run experiments with lasers and mirrors. This is very exciting, Beck says, as he believes that LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave), the group he works with in Hanford, is about one or two years away from making a breakthrough in this important project.

Photo by Nikki Antenucci.

He explained that physicists have been waiting for the culmination of this project since the 1980s. At that time, it was impossible to observe the minute waves caused by the gravitational pull of black holes. As every other part of Einstein’s relativity theory was proved correct, the science world was forced to take this part as true as well.

However, a group of forward-thinking young physicists realized that in about 20 years, the technology might be sophisticated enough to see and measure the waves, and so they formed LIGO to anticipate the benefits the new technologies could potentially allow. The main observatory is in Hanford.

“Students should watch for big, exciting news coming from Hanford in the next couple years,” said Beck. “Right in our own backyard!”

Technology As A Tool

As Prull also pointed out, Beck sees technology not as the source of the research, but merely a method of getting to the heart of the matter. Lincoln likens fluency in new technologies to a “toolkit.”

“Students … have to always be playing with tools in the toolkit again and again, and the tools could be techniques,” said Lincoln.

Within the context of making art, Lincoln posits that consistent use of tools means constant creation, not just working towards a finished artwork for a critique or a deadline. It means becoming accustomed to the “tools” already in your possession and building new tools. For instance, a screen-printer has the tool of knowing how to use the technology of screens to print an image on paper, but over time he can also build the tool of screen-printing on fabric.

The way film studies major senior Nicholas Roberts talks about film technology reflects ideas about technology as tools that are similar to those of Lincoln. Through his work in the Film Studies Department he has been able to build what Lincoln would call a toolkit of fluencies with filming and editing software. Previously he used a program called Final Cut Pro 7, but this summer Whitman switched to Adobe Photoshop Premiere.

“It’s hard getting used to having to figure it out on your own … but eventually you figure out how to make it work for what you need it to,” said Roberts.

Whitman’s Film Studies Department trains students in basic camera use, but Roberts says it would be nice to have workshops to learn how to use specific cameras really well. For now, he improves his mechanical knowledge by simply trying things out.

“It helps to jump in, then find forums online. That way it’s tailored towards what you want to use it for,” said Roberts.

Prull said that similarly, psychology students have specific purposes for the technology they use.

“[The use of software] is not natural for students. If they use it, it’s driven by a need,” he said. “The programs are used as a means to an end. Like, if they design a survey where they need to know how fast subjects respond, that drives their need to learn Qualtrics.”

Lincoln observes that by delegating tasks to machines, students and artists can then put energy into something else. Instead of trying to come up with a way to consistently measure response times, psychology students can delegate that to Qualtrics, and instead expend energy on other parts of the survey. Instead of meticulously carving out wood blocks by hand, a graduate student of visiting artist Lari Gibbons uses a laser cutter and then is able to have many more blocks and rearrange them in different ways when printing.

New Ways of Thinking

New technologies make the work of many departments at Whitman more efficient, freeing up time and energy to complete questions or surveys. They also can help make visible intensely complicated theorized concepts thought up decades ago by, say, Einstein, in the case of Beck’s mirrors.

However, new technologies are also influencing how individuals in society think about things on a day-to-day basis. Lincoln points out that the way teaching and learning takes place today is different from how it ever was before.

“Especially because of mass communication, we have an excess — not shortage — of information. This only happened recently. But it’s all dispersed. We need to learn how to take atomized information and put it together in meaningful ways, to make an argument based on several different sources”  said Lincoln.

Lincoln’s own artwork explores how internet technology has changed the way we read, at least on the internet.

“It came from spending time on Tumblr,” said Lincoln. “I record what was on the blog and turn it into videos … [My artwork] looks creatively and critically at the experience of being online.”

He realized that he was seeing patterns in what was coming up on his Tumblr and other social media newsfeeds. As he follows three or four thousand people on Tumblr, he wasn’t looking at each entry specifically, but scanning.

“I don’t think it’s just me that reads in a more cursory way online. I don’t read in a linear manner, but my eyes are jumping around the screen,” said Lincoln. “Content becomes data, what jumps out and means something amidst all the noise.”

Illustration by Sophie Cooper-Ellis.

It’s the people, not the perks, that are important to Whitman students when it comes to religious holidays. Celebrating with the people they know is what is important to Whitman students, not decadent meals and days off of school, especially when their holidays don’t line up with a school-wide break.

Adam Kirtley works as the Coordinator of Religious and Spiritual Life on the top floor of Reid. He started working at Whitman in the Counseling Center, talking with students who had questions or doubts about their religious life or spirituality. Though he still has similar conversations with many students as the Coordinator of Religious and Spiritual Life, there is a now more of a programming aspect to his job.

Kirtley himself is an ordained minister for the United Church of Christ, a liberal doctrine that recognizes many different ways of practicing spirituality. He does not lead services on campus but sees his role as mostly administrative, and says he most often is asked to come forth in times of tragedy.

One of his primary roles is to “create opportunities for students to deepen their spiritual faith,” and to facilitate interfaith dialogues, he said. These facilitated conversations in the Glover Alston Center some Fridays at noon. Each meeting has a topical theme, such as the intersection of faith and politics, or sexuality and faith.

He also helps students plug into religious communities while at Whitman. Sometimes this means connecting students with the broader religious community in Walla Walla. The students that practice religions that are not widely represented in the Whitman community oftentimes can celebrate holidays or services with groups from Walla Walla. Sometimes it’s not even necessary to leave campus, as Whitman buildings provide space for religious groups to meet.

“For a while, Walla Walla Muslims were coming to the spirituality room almost every week,” said Kirtley. He added that there is also a Quaker group that meets on campus.

Kirtley orchestrates an email that is sent every year to the student body and faculty detailing which religious celebrations Whitman recognizes. Kirtley chooses the celebrations from a list on interfaith.org, a website that provides information on world religions, alternative spirituality and ancient mythology. There is even a link to a forum on green policy on the main page.

“There are crazy amounts of holidays listed. I sort through them to find the major holy days,” said Kirtley. He culls some of the more obscure, less widely observed holidays, such as some Catholic feast days, of which there are many. However, the email he sends out “is more a guide.”

“Whitman’s policy for religious holidays is that the professor and the student need to decide together,” said Kirtley. Whitman respects religious diversity, but each student needs to initiate a conversation about their observance of religious holidays with their professor far enough ahead of time for both student and professor to negotiate conflicts between the syllabus and religious observance.

Senior Maya Abramson went home to the Bay Area to celebrate Rosh Hashanah this year and to perform music for the service at the Jewish summer camp that she has worked at over the last three summers. The fun part, Abramson said, was being in “a community that I know,” and she valued being at her home synagogue to play her violin for the Rosh Hashanah services.

Senior Umair Meredia echoed Abramson’s sentiments, saying that one of the most important things he will look for after college is a tight-knit community.

“I was raised to value the close community feeling,” he said. “I’m not necessarily attached to it being a religious community, though oftentimes they are linked.”

Meredia said he can tell his parents are thinking of him on important Islamic holidays when they send him texts on the days of the celebrations.

“They send me texts wishing me ‘happy so-and-so!’ and that’s when I can tell that they wish I was able to come home,” he said.

Abramson says that she has been raised with a strong sense of Jewish identity and that her parents understand that she is developing that identity for herself in college.

“Having a Jewish identity is very important,” she said. “[I’m] figuring out what being Jewish means to me, creating my own experiences, which are meaningful with or without services.”

Abramson’s experiences have included going to Fridays and Five, a short weekly Shabbat celebration in Prentiss Hall, and Yom Kippur services here at Whitman. Celebrating with students does not give Abramson the same sense of community, however, that she has when she is celebrating with people she has grown up with.

“Celebrating Yom Kippur is different when you don’t know the people; it’s more important that you know the people there,” she said. “It’s comforting [with people from home] to know that it’s always going to be this way.”

Meredia doesn’t have the same options when it comes to celebrating Muslim holidays, as there aren’t many Muslim students on campus. It has always been this way for him, since he went to a Christian high school.

“I can see the benefit of having a large group [to celebrate with], but I’ve never had that luxury,” he said. “Since Islam was originally born among nomadic groups, having a large group celebrating together meant that you would prosper.”

He knew when coming to Whitman that there wasn’t a strong Islamic community.

“My parents were concerned that there wasn’t a place of prayer nearby,” he said. “But I knew that my religious values would still be there, a part of the path.”

Though he doesn’t have the opportunity to go to regular services, it is evident that his faith plays a large part in his life.

“I often feel that I have two lives, my academic life and my religious life … The viewpoints I get on life, how to conduct myself, and helping people that Islam has taught me shape my academic goals and big ideas,” said Meredia.

For Abramson, religion and academic goals are more directly intertwined. She has enjoyed working at the Jewish summer camp in the last years and hopes to find more experiences similar to that.

“I like creating communities, playing music with young people … plus it’s what I have previous exposure to,” she said.

Kirtley said that 70 percent of first-years entering Whitman say that spirituality is important to them. Forty percent of first-years have a religious heritage, a number that he said is low for the United States but not for the Pacific Northwest. Kirtley explained that he finds spirituality as a tool for “meaning-making,” or a way to answer the big questions about identity and meaning in life.

“I don’t want to make Whitman more religious, but encourage a discussion on the endeavor of why we’re here [at Whitman],” he said.  “Religious identity is an important facet of identity.”

Kirtley said he is frustrated that, despite these high percentages, students often don’t recognize the presence of the Religious and Spiritual Life office.

“[They] are surprised that this office exists,” said Kirtley. “There is a kind of ethos that Whitman is hostile toward religion, which isn’t exactly true because there is more religious activity every week than most Whitman students realize.”

Moreover, students sometimes feel that their religions and the students that follow them are misunderstood. Abramson feels that Jewish people can sometimes be “commoditized” in a sense at Whitman. She wishes that Whitman students better understood Jewish students’ relationship with their religion.

“Every Jewish person does celebrations differently, but celebrations are a time to come together and talk about those traditions,” she said.

Meredia is a part of SASA, the South Asian Student Association, and he says that students often assume everyone in SASA is of the same religious backgrounds.

“Islam is confusing,” said Meredia. “I have spent most of my life learning about it.”

He wishes that Whitman students would ask him about what he has been learning.

“It’s okay if you are wrong about something,” said Meredia. “I would much rather have a conversation [about what’s confusing you.]”

Kirtley also encourages discussion, saying that he sees Whitman as “super affirming of diversity of everything, except of religious and political diversity.”

To help bridge this gap, he hopes to bring more “faith leaders” to campus. In the past, he brought David James Duncan to Whitman, the author of “The Brothers K and The River Why.” Kirtley explained that Duncan is an avid fly-fisherman, and that the way Duncan talked about nature and environmentalism appealed to many Whitman students who were skeptical of organized religion.

Though there are opportunities for students to celebrate religious holidays in Walla Walla, lack of community and awareness on campus and locally can make it difficult for students away from home and family.