This week Whitman College released the results of the 2015 Lifestyle Choices survey. Completed only once every three years, the Lifestyle Survey has assessed six categories of student behaviors since 2002.

The Lifestyle Choices survey was created in 2002 to improve Whitman students’ understanding of certain health and lifestyle behaviors. It also includes a section about sleep and diet habits. Director of Institutional Research Neal Christopherson put together the survey alongside Institutional Research Analyst Kristen Erskine.

“The operating theory behind the survey is the social norms theory. It is about educating students how much drinking is actually going on campus. If we can essentially tell [the students] how much drinking is going on in campus, then students can make better decisions about their own drinking habits,” said Christopherson.

According to the survey, there is a perception on campus that students drink a lot more alcohol than they actually do. Posters around campus notifying students of their peers’ drinking and sleeping habits, which use statistics from the Lifestyle Survey, are intended to encourage students to make healthier choices by showing them that their peers generally have more moderate lifestyles than they assume.

“We do the survey out of professional development and curiosity to look at longitudinal trends. The primary way we use the results is through various posters placed on campus. The most misperceived group of people on campus is first-year students. People think they drink twice as much as they actually do,” said Associate Dean of Students Barbara Maxwell.

This fall, the survey was sent out to 1,348 Whitman students who were on campus and planned to attend in the spring. The response rate was 52 percent, with only 705 students responding, a far lower number than in previous years.

The 2015 Lifestyle Survey found that 29 percent of Whitman students did not drink on an average Friday night and that 30 percent drank on an average Saturday night. Maxwell noted that the vast majority of Whitman students are very responsible in drinking choices.

Greek membership is a very large factor in assessing drinking among various campus groups. Forty-six percent of fraternity members drank seven or more drinks when they party; only 10 percent of independent men drank as much. Thirty-three percent of women’s fraternity women drank seven or more drinks while partying; only 14 percent of independent women did the same.

The survey also gives a complex breakdown of which drugs students use. A little over half of the student body smoke marijuana at least once a year. Around 16 percent use the drug once a week or more. On average, fraternity men use tobacco, marijuana, hallucinogens and other drugs much more frequently than other students. The most popular hard drugs on campus are hallucinogens, which 15.8 percent of students have used.

“I think drugs and alcohol are very visible on campus. There is easy access, but with that being said most of my peers are responsible about their use,” said first-year Bryce Benson.

The Walla Walla Valley has more girls who want to be Girl Scouts than they have troop leaders. To fill the gap and give local girls the chance to be scouts, four Whitman students have stepped up to lead a Girl Scouts troop for local children.

Sarah Krawczak ’16, Nicole Hodgkinson ’16 and Nina Henelsmith ’16 lead a Girl Scouts troop in Walla Walla. Photo by Hannah Bashevkin.

Juniors Brooke Bessen, Nicole Hodgkinson, Nina Henelsmith and Sarah Krawczak saw an email when they were first-years on the Whitman College volunteer listserv about starting a troop. There was an overflow of girls in the Walla Walla Valley on waiting lists to join Girl Scouts troops. A way to help solve this problem was to recruit Whitman students and get them involved in this organization.

“We started when the girls were Daisies in kindergarten, and now they are now seven to eight years old. There are many great places on Whitman’s campus to explore with the girls. We took them to one of the astronomy labs one time and have reached out to professors who have kids in the program. We are trying to take them camping soon, but they are a little young to do much,” said Bessen.

The troop has meetings every other week at the Glover Alston Center (GAC). The girls have been really impressed with the troops growth over the last year. There were four girls when the Whitman students were sophomores, and now there are 10. The general consensus among the leaders is that this has been a terrific experience for not only the scouts but for everyone involved in the program.

“My experience has been great and I have really enjoyed getting involved in the community. I have met many very nice families through the troop that I probably would not have been exposed to as a Whitman student,” said Hodgkinson.

Leading a Girl Scouts troop anywhere is a big undertaking for four busy college students. Planning the troops activities takes a lot of time. The Whitman students create different lesson plans at every meeting and try to cater to what the girls want.

“We always do a welcome activity to get the girls moving around. The main activity depends on what patch the girls are earning for that given week. We try to incorporate STEM elements into each lesson because that is what most of us study at Whitman. After the main activity, we have snack time and then close the meeting,” said Henelsmith.

Whitman professors who are aware of the troop have been very impressed with these four girls’ commitment. The current leaders want to keep the troop going after they graduate.

“We are hoping since we are upperclassmen to recruit some underclassmen to get involved now with the troop. We want them to get to know the girls and take over the troop when we graduate Whitman,” said Bessen.

There is still a shortage of Girl Scouts troops in Walla Walla, and Whitman students who want to get involved may have the chance to create a troop of their own or take over for one of the current Whitman scout leaders when they graduate.

“The girls are great. We try to coordinate with the larger Girl Scouts organization as much as possible. There are 700 girl scouts in this area. There is a lot of want for troops and a lot of girls that are interested,” said Hodgkinson.

Full-time employment is a challenge for many students, but a few lucky seniors in this year’s graduating class have already secured prestigious jobs.

Most Whitman graduates move to Seattle, Portland or the San Francisco Bay Area regardless of employment status. Finding full-time employment can be a challenge, so having a job lined up directly after college can provide security and direction.

Riley Foreman is graduating with a combined major in math and economics and will be moving to Bristol, Conn. to work at ESPN in production research.

“I have always wanted to work for ESPN. As a kid it was a dream of mine. I interned at ESPN last summer in production research and the previous summer with Major League Baseball (MLB) in New York City. Working at [MLB] helped me learn that I did not want to be in business side of sports but the creative side. [MLB] was a really valuable experience in that regard,” said Foreman.

At the end of last summer, Foreman received an offer from ESPN to return to work for them after graduation. This was a huge weight off her shoulders, as she knew she wouldn’t have to go through the stressful job search most seniors endure.

Several seniors are going into government work after graduation. Politics major Katie Myers will be moving to Washington, D.C. right after commencement, where she will work as a staff assistant for Senator Michael Crapo (R-ID).

“On [Capitol] Hill the job structure is pretty hierarchical. Hopefully I will move from an intern to staff assistant to legislative correspondent. I worked for Senator Crapo in his district office [last summer as an intern], which was a slower-paced environment,” said Myers.

Myers has seen a general pattern in how Whitman students spend time right after graduating.

“The most common trend for Whitman students the summer after graduation is to work at a camp, traveling or an internship. It is not too common for someone to jump right into career,” said Myers.

Joe Heegaard is majoring in environmental studies and politics and has two separate jobs lined up after graduation.

“I will be working as backpacking guide for three months after graduating. I will be going on a 50-day trip in Alaska. After the summer I will work for a year at Green Corps in Boston as a campaign manager for them,” said Heegaard.

Green Corps is a post-graduate environmental program which lasts for one year. Students work on three to four campaigns while they work at Green Corps. Heegaard, whose specialty is renewable energy, will likely be working on a variety of energy campaigns. After students fulfill their contracts, Green Corps helps them find jobs.

“Weirdly enough, Green Corps actually called me. There was an article written in The Pioneer about a project I did installing solar panels on the Phi Delta Theta fraternity [house]. I looked into them very thoroughly. A friend recommended them to me. It felt like the right fit,” said Heegaard.

Heegaard agreed that most classmates are excited or nervous about their plans for after college.

The Student Engagement Center (SEC) can be a valuable resource for any student trying to secure a prestigious job or internship after college. Myers used the SEC to find past internships but not for her job after college. Heegaard used the SEC at the beginning of the year for assistance with his resumé.

Today it is very competitive to get a secure job in any industry. Any Whitman student is very lucky if they can get a full-time job with a decent salary right after graduating.

The Office of Admission at Whitman College has closed the application period for the 2015–2016 school year. The college experienced a spike in the number of first-year and transfer applications in the last two years. The college is committed to improving diversity and expanding the number of international applicants. The school had an overall three to four percent growth in applications from last year.

The deadline for applications is Jan. 15 for first-years and March 1 for transfer students. The overall admission numbers combine both.

Last year the school established a new record of 3,807 applicants. This year, well over 3,900 applied, including approximately 3,800 first-year applicants and around 120 transfer applicants.

The biggest reason Whitman has gotten many more applicants is a huge jump in international applications. This year the school had a 33 percent jump in international applicants, with 560 international students applying  from over 80 countries. Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Tony Cabasco talked about the growing numbers of international applicants.

“China, Nepal, Korea, Vietnam and Pakistan are the main international countries,” said Cabasco. “Our admissions recruiters travel and recruit in China, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan extensively with other northwest colleges.”

Traveling and word of mouth both play a part in recruiting a larger pool of applicants. First-year Zeyu “Ted” Liu from Changchun, China talked about why Whitman appeals to international students.

“Whitman’s admission policy is definitely getting more internationalized. A lot of international students are not familiar [with] liberal arts college [on] the West Coast, especially Washington,” said Liu. “Whitman went to my high school last year for the first time and … recruited more international students.”

In terms of diversity at Whitman, Cabasco is optimistic for the future. Students of color represent 24 year of this year’s applicants, and international students constitute an additional 15 percent.

“This applicant pool is more diverse than we have ever had,” said Cabasco. “There has also been growth in the amount of first-generation students applying to college.”

California and Washington have always been the states that get the most Whitman applicants. Now a higher proportion of applicants come from all over the country instead of these two nearby states.

There is a committee of faculty, staff and students who have been convening this spring. They have been looking at research and data to come up with recommendations for a test-optional policy. The Office of Admission needs some time to implement such drastic changes. Cabasco estimates that a switch to test-optional admissions would require 12 to 18 months at least.

The possibility of test-free admissions is also on the horizon for Whitman. Even with record numbers of applicants, becoming a test optional school would boost Whitman’s applications dramatically.

“ASWC passed a resolution in the fall in regards to a test-free admissions policy. The college has previously looked at the impact the ACT/SAT have on things like graduation rates. A few years ago I proposed something, but we did not get a chance to look at it. There is a lot of interest from our staff and many circles around school. We are just getting started,” said Cabasco.

Such a change would be welcome to first-year Riley Worthington, who is optimistic about increased application numbers.

“It is exciting for the school to have a larger applicant pool because it means more diverse experiences from students. We can all become enriched by others stories,” he said.

ASWC representatives are preparing a resolution to create an advisory committee for the Welty Health Center. The resolution, written by junior ASWC Senators Olivia Hagel and Nick Hochfeld, is expected to come before the Senate on March 8.

The Welty Health Center is open 24 hours a day and provides many different services to students. The Welty Center provides students 12 overnight beds for if they are sick, physician visits, physical therapy, massage therapy and many other services.

“This year in town halls and in previous years, we have gotten student feedback that they wanted us to look into certain Health Center initiatives. The first-year senators did a poll for all the first-years, and the second most-voted things they wanted was to improve the Health Center,” said Hagel.

Hagel and Hochfeld want the advisory committee to facilitate communication between the Health Center and students. However, student involvement in Health Center policies may prove difficult, as specific individuals’ treatment must remain confidential. Despite this challenge, Health Center Director Claudia Ness would welcome more student feedback.

“We want more information from actual students and what their concerns are rather than what we think their concerns are. Besides just coming in here when you are sick, there are other things we can offer students to stay healthy,” said Ness.

The process of choosing the members of the advisory committee will be an open application for all Whitman students.

“The application will be sent out to entire school and anyone who wants can apply, especially those interested in health or healthcare administration, or those just interested in being liaison for fellow students,” said Hagel.

Applications will then go to the ASWC Nominations Committee, and applicants will undergo the standard interview process. A small group of applicants would be chosen and presented to the ASWC Senate to confirm.

The idea of the Health Center Advisory Board is based partially on the Bon Appétit Advisory Board, a panel of four students who meet with and discuss student input and concerns with the Bon Appétit catering service.

Junior Andrew Reckers acted as a student representative on the Bon Appétit panel for three semesters. According to Reckers, the advisory board proved an effective means to increase students’ voices in decision making.

“Bon [Appétit] was remarkably responsive and it was very surprising since they are a huge company. I expected to not really be able to change offerings, but they were very open to any new popular food choices. There was a lot of potential for students to change how Bon App runs at Whitman, and it was definitely a positive experience,” said Reckers.

The Health Center is enthusiastic about having a committee and wants to keep close contact with its student liaisons. Even though every first-year class comes to the Welty Center with their residence hall sections, Ness believes there needs to be a better connection.

“Having a committee so that students had peers they could go to with questions, concerns [or] suggestions would be less threatening to students than coming in physically. My hope is that this committee would be in a center role, to get everybody’s interest and opinions. It would be very helpful for us,” said Ness.

The Student Engagement Center (SEC) at Whitman College has launched a virtual recruitment program to help get students jobs after college.

The virtual recruitment program was formed in response to representatives from companies in large cities where Whitman alumni move after graduation not wanting to travel to Walla Walla. Virtual recruitment allows students easier opportunities to connect with desirable employers who they may otherwise overlook.

Students are alerted to events by emails to students, and event details are also posted on the SEC’s recruitment blog. Sessions usually take place during the lunch hour, as the recruiters give a remote presentation and answer questions over a conference call.

“We use Skype or Google Hangout to dial the recruiter in. Some recruiters still come on campus, but we do not have the critical mass [of potential applicants] for the Amazons and Facebooks. [But] if they can recruit here at zero cost to them, why wouldn’t they?” said Kim Rolfe.

As the director for business engagement at the SEC, Rolfe led the development the virtual recruitment program. She started developing virtual recruitment opportunities in the spring of 2014 with student senior Bill Landefeld.

“Bill was looking at different recruitment options while working in the SEC. [Virtual recruitment] seemed to be the most accessible. This program creates a lot of opportunity,” said Rolfe.

Since the recession in 2008, most job recruiters have cut back on-campus recruiting, especially in small towns such as Walla Walla. Rolfe’s reasoning for creating the virtual recruitment program was simple.

“These virtual sessions open the door for Whitman students to get connected to employers, which otherwise might not happen because of the awesome but isolated location we are in,” said Rolfe.

Noah Leavitt, the associate dean of student engagement, helped create Rolfe’s position of director for business engagement to increase the SEC’s ability to connect student with future employers. During his time at the SEC, he has found many students want to moves to major cities after college.

“Whitman understands that there are lots of things you can do with a liberal arts education. You can go in almost any direction you want, and so for a long time the college has had a certain slice of the professional world accounted for. Kim [Rolfe’s] position is to expand the range work opportunities for students, so that we can support them in terms of moving forward after graduating,” said Leavitt.

Senior Luke Hedlund has attended multiple virtual recruitment sessions.

“I think it is significant to have someone on the screen instead of in person and is less meaningful. You cannot stand out to the recruiter. These sessions are real good for learning information about a potential company. They are also more convenient for the employers and for us students,” said Hedlund.

The SEC is still refining the virtual recruitment program since it is relatively new, but it will play a big part in future years.

“We are just scratching the surface. We have done seven [events] so far. We will end up with 25 to 28 [recruitment events]. Around a third will come virtually,” said Rolfe.

The lost and found at Whitman College exists in relative obscurity. Where does your water bottle go when it vanishes? What happens to items in the lost and found that no person ever claims?

Every building at Whitman College that has an office has its own lost and found. These offices hang onto the things they accumulate for a little while and then send them over to the director’s office in the Reid Campus Center.

Administrative Assistant for the Reid Campus Center Paul Dennis also serves as a caretaker for the lost and found.

“It varies from building to building,” said Dennis of the campus’s lost and found repositories. “But the library is the most diligent and sends items out once a week.”

Items that arrive at the campus center director’s office go into a box. Once that box fills up, a custodian logs it into the main storage area down the hall. In the resource room this room is filled with organized cabinets of hundreds of lost items, which students claim as theirs.

If no person comes to claim these items, they are kept from April 1 to the following day in April the next year. When the first of May to comes, the items are rounded up and sold.

“Items that have been in there up to a year are sold off in a big yard sale in the Reid Campus Center lobby,” said Dennis. “The money raised at the yard sale is then used to sponsor The Adopt A Family program at Christmas time.”

He has overseen this process for the past 15 years. For Whitman’s small size, there are some interesting, expensive and peculiar things that have ended up in the resource room.

“We’ve got a pair of crutches down there,” said Dennis. “I often wonder how it is you walk into some building someplace on crutches and then left without them and did not realize you weren’t walking with them anymore.”

He has seen everything from guitars, skateboards and graphing calculators to leather jackets. Year after year, the most consistent item the lost and found receives is a couple hundred water bottles. Many Whitman students have reusable water bottles, and they are misplaced frequently.

Gabe Kiefel is a former student and currently a security officer at Whitman. He talked about his role as a security member when he finds lost items.

“Once in a while we use the lost and found listserv, but most things end up being turned into the main lost and found at the Reid Campus Center,” said Kiefel. “The lost and found is not run through security, [but] we often get phone calls since we are here 24/7.”

Kiefel also had a bizarre lost and found experience during a summer high school debate camp that took place at Whitman.

“There was a wallet that was run over by a lawn mower,” said Kiefel. “I was called by a maintenance guy, and we were out there looking for little shreds of information. There was 160 dollars in there, and it was all destroyed. We were able to piece together an ID and located the owner.”

Dianne Clark is the administrative assistant For Division 1 in Maxey Hall, where there is a blue bin for lost items. Anyone can place items in the bin. Items are sent to Reid at least once a semester. She was not sure what the most frequent lost item is. As for the strangest item, Diane had a specific answer.

“The strangest item we have come across was a Fitbit wristband,” she said. “No one has claimed it yet.”

Every year thousands of items get misplaced at Whitman, and most end up in one place. If a person loses a water bottle, they had better have a lot of free time when they go to the resource room. There are hundreds.

Whitman College will host its third-annual Power and Privilege Symposium on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015. All academic classes are cancelled for that day, so that students can attend different lectures and workshops. Here are some insights from some presenters at the upcoming event.

Senior Marga de Jong, a politics major, will  present a research project titled Interrogating Whitman’s Colonial Projects: Past and Present. This presentation is a collaboration with fellow seniors Elana Simon and Sayda Morales alongside Ali Holmes.

What sparked your interest in presenting at the symposium?

“I have attended the past two years and was inspired by what I saw and learned. I have become increasingly aware and disheartened by the politics of this institution. I believe that by learning and discussing how power has functioned from past to present, we can work to challenge institutional norms that create unjust communities.”

Where did you start researching for your project?

“Professor Melisa Casumbal’s class Race, Gender and the Body and Professor Shampa Biswas’s class Critical and Alternative Voices were both involved in developing this workshop. This workshop is very much inspired by Biswas’s class’s presentation at last year’s symposium titled, “Whitman and the Other.” Most of the materials workshop participants will be analyzing come from the Whitman archives. The Pioneer is a great resource to look at the bounds of membership at Whitman to see who has been excluded and othered.”

Does your project come to a conclusion about power and privilege?

“We are working with materials from the archive and collaborating with the workshop participants. We will pass out documents and have small group discussions to analyze this material. We want people to examine how Whitman has constructed and interacted with the ‘other’ through issues of membership, racial profiling and microaggressions.”

Do you see presenting as being proactive with these issues? Do you think it makes an impact in community?

“We need events like the Power and Privilege Symposium because systemic injustice is an ongoing problem. I’m an optimist in that I would like to believe there is not a big distinction between students, faculty and administration learning about and recognizing these unjust institutional norms and then working to change them.”

Does cancelling academic classes make an impact, and do events like the Power and Privilege Symposium improve issues at Whitman?

“Yes, events like the Power and Privilege Symposium make a difference. I think that these projects challenge Whitman by raising consciousness and creating a more justice-oriented student body. I am all for canceling classes to promote the event.”

Arty Kraisitudomsook is a junior biology major from Thailand and is a part of the presentation Internationality and Culture Shock. Arty is moderating a panel of two students from Vietnam and Brazil, a Whitman student who has been abroad in Spain, and Kyle Martz, the interim program advisor for the Intercultural Center.

Why is your group presenting on this particular topic?

“As an international student, there is a huge culture shock associated with moving to the United States. It is something that any international student at Whitman can relate to, even if they have only traveled abroad for one semester. I am real passionate about this topic, and it is something that I can really elaborate on with fellow students.”

Do you think events like the Power and Privilege Symposium are a step in the right direction for improving diversity at Whitman?

“If the college staff, faculty and admission officers come and listen to panels/workshops, it could improve the problems the college currently faces. It will help them understand students concerns. Students are already trying to improve socioeconomic diversity, but we need their help.

What does it mean to you to present in this event?

“This is a very big event, and every member of the Whitman community should have time to attend. The annual symposium can teach people things they can apply to life later on and understand how hard it is to adapt as an international student.”

Why are you presenting?

“Since the majority of Whitman students are American, most do not know what it is like to be abroad. It is a huge learning experience to grow in a new country and connect with others through your experience. I want to share how this new environment has challenged me with others.”

Joel Ponce is a junior music theory major presenting a project titled Year of the Booty: From Nicki Minaj to Iggy Azalea. His project is a collaboration with sophomore Tara McCulloch.

What is your presentation about?

“Our project looks at different popular female figures (Taylor swift, Nicky Minaj, Meghan Trainor, Miley Cyrus) and how different types of women can empower themselves in different ways. We are looking at how people perceive things through different identities and the messages these females send.”

Do you agree with the way these celebrities present themselves in media?

“I agree with some of the messages these women portray, but the way they do it could cause complication. These women are definitely trying to send out a positive message and are huge influences on young women’s perception of their bodies.”

Why did you become interested in giving a presentation at the event?

“I think about social justice everyday. The Power and Privilege Symposium is a way to invite others to think about these issues, since they might not be on every persons mind. Many people are affected every day by these issues, and it feels good to spread awareness.”

Whitman cancels a day of academic classes to have the Symposium. How do you feel about this?

“The commitment and willingness to cancel academic classes acknowledges these issues that are very important to both students and faculty. There are alternative ways students can learn and grow out of the classroom, and I am all for expanding the way we gain knowledge.”

How do you think the Power and Privilege Symposium affects the community? Is it a step in the right direction for improving diversity at Whitman?

“I think that having an open place to talk about all these issues is definitely encouraging it. Events like the symposium will cause admissions to reach out and attract a more diverse community. This event is a way to invite people to be diverse on campus and show how people see power and privilege. We still need to foster and improve on this progress, but it is definitely a step in the right direction.”