For nearly a century, Whitman students have attempted to change the school’s controversial mascot: the Missionaries. While past attempts have all fallen short, student representatives and activists have been considering making another attempt to bring about change.

Though never formally adopted by the college, the Missionaries has been the school’s de-facto mascot for over a hundred years. Attempts to change the logo have been made since the 1920s but have generally failed due to opposition from alumni and an inability to unite the opposition in support of another name.

The reasons for wanting to change the mascot have varied greatly over the years. In the first attempts during the 1920s and ‘40s, Missionaries was seen as not fierce enough to accurately represent the college’s athletics. Starting in the 1950s, concerns were regularly raised about having a religious mascot at a non-religious school.

In the last half of the century, the Missionaries has been critiqued for its association with the genocide against Native Americans and cultural imperialism. The prevalent image of a missionary as a white man and the image of Marc holding a gun and a bible has made some students question whether the Missionaries is a name capable of representing a diverse student body. The term Missionaries may also deter students from Native American backgrounds from considering the college.

“Missionaries represent a group of people that perpetuate the subjugation of other communities and indigenous people, and I don’t think that’s an image Whitman would want to represent,” said sophomore Brenna Two Bears. “Having the Missionaries as the mascot is like saying it was OK for the Whitmans to treat the Walla Walla and Cayuse the way they did.”

Recent changes suggest presence of the mascot has been decreasing. Sports teams are no longer referred to as the “Fightin’ Missionaries,” a variation on the name adopted in response to complaints in the first half of the 20th Century that the Missionary mascot was too tame. The caricature of Marc the Missionary and his unnamed female companion served as an unofficial logo for Whitman athletics from 1951 on, but it has now largely disappeared from campus. Marc now only appears on a few pieces of merchandise sold at the bookstore to please older alumni.

“It’s controversial — people love it or hate it. I have both customers coming in saying, ‘Why don’t you have more items with it on it?’ And I have other customers coming in saying, ‘You shouldn’t be using this on anything,’” said Tracy Oberg, the merchandising & marketing specialist at the Whitman Bookstore. “Generally, [supporters of the image are] older alumni, on alumni weekend is when I hear [support] the most.”

Junior Marlee Raible recently created a political poster for an art class featuring Marc the Missionary and his unnamed female companion along with the word “ethnocide,” which she posted around campus and sent to President George Bridges. In an email to Raible, Bridges stated that he found the antiquated logo offensive and would work to put it to rest. However, he was unwilling to pursue a change in the team names.

“George Bridges makes a pretty clear distinction that he thinks the image is very separate from the word. I disagree with that. I think imagery is something that hits people with a different way … [and] this image is paired with this word,” said Raible.

The image of Marc the Missionary was once extremely popular, appearing on clothing and school supplies around campus when it debuted in 1951. Its disappearance in recent years may be partly credited to the official clock tower logo and WC sports logo which debuted in 2010 as part of an attempt to give the college’s marketing and reputation a single, comprehensive brand.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Tony Cabasco and Vice President for Development and College Relations John Bogley helped design the clock tower logo. They contest whether the image of the Missionary should be considered a past logo of the college. Both the mascot and image have never been officially adopted. They also emphasize that the mascot is not central to many students’  image of the college.

“We don’t define ourselves by our mascot the way other colleges do. When you talk to alumni of the University of Oregon [or] University of Washington, they’ll say ‘I’m a duck’ or ‘I’m a Husky’… Here, I’m a Whittie,” said Cabasco. “That’s an identity, that’s who we define ourselves as, not as a mascot.”

ASWC Vice President Sayda Morales hopes to work with other students to raise consciousness about the possibility of changing the mascot. While she finds the mascot offensive, she recognizes that change may be more likely to succeed when the new president arrives on campus next year. In the meantime, she plans to engage in discussions with stakeholders such as the athletics department and bookstore and build consensus around an alternative mascot.

“We need to be critical of what the word ‘missionary’ means and how it can deter students of native backgrounds from attending Whitman,” said Morales. “We need to find something that … brings us together instead of divides us, which is what the current mascot does.”

Due to a failure in communication, the Student Trustee Resolution passed by the student body in a referendum last spring was never communicated to the Board of Trustees.

Last May, students voted to pass the Student Trustee Resolution, marking the first time in recent memory that students have voted directly on an ASWC resolution. The resolution outlined the student body’s formal request that a committee of students and trustees be formed to create and implement a new student-held position on the board.

It was the job of then-ASWC President Tim Reed to send the resolution along to the Board of Trustees, at which point it would be left up to the Board whether or not to respond to the students’ request. In an interview with The Pioneer this fall, Brad McMurchie, chair of the Board of Trustees, claimed he and the board had never received the text of the resolution.

“This [conversation with The Pioneer] is the first I have heard about the resolution. I’m still not entirely sure where it came from or what happened with it after it passed,” said McMurchie in an email to The Pioneer. “Therefore, it is difficult for me to say much of anything about it. I can say that the issue of a student Trustee, as opposed to student participation on Trustee Committees, has not been formally raised with the Board since 2013.”

Reed did not respond to requests for comment before this article went to press. However, no record exists of an email being sent from the official ASWC President email.

Current ASWC President Tatiana Kaehler was not aware that the trustees had not received the resolution. Because the resolution was passed in the final weeks of his term, Reed and Kaehler agreed that she would be in charge of advocating for the resolution in the fall. However, she was under the impression that the resolution was already forwarded to the trustees by Reed, and the trustees had rejected the resolution’s request, as ASWC discussed the issue of a student trustee with the board in a separate instance in 2013. At the time, the two bodies reached a compromise in expanding the role of students on various committees which advise the board, but not allowing students a representative on the board itself.

Kaehler plans to formally communicate the Student Trustee Resolution to the trustees, along with an explanation of the referendum process, should ASWC confirm that the email was never sent. In the long-term, she hopes to review the ASWC by-laws governing the referendum process to ensure the procedures for resolutions passed in referendums are clear.

“Moving forward I’m going to work to ensure this doesn’t prevent the resolution from receiving the full attention that it should,” said Kaehler.

Rallies and protests against racism last year led to a series of changes on campus this fall, as the college follows through on promises made to student protesters. Classes have already been canceled for the Power & Privilege Symposium on Feb. 19, and students are in the early stages of organizing the event. In addition, the first mandatory Race & Equity Workshop for first-years was staged on Sunday, Sept. 28.

While these events are set to take place this year, their future beyond that remains in question. The Power & Privilege Symposium is not officially institutionalized by the college, and every year ASWC must again decide to fund and organize the event, and faculty must vote to cancel classes.

The Race & Equity Workshop is also in a precarious position. The workshop was organized by Residence Life as their own response to issues of racism on campus, building off non-mandatory workshops organized by students and staff in previous years. Residence Life is currently gathering student feedback before deciding whether to repeat it in future years.

“We’re trying to make [the symposium] a tradition and a Whitman institution,” said senior Natalie Shaw, the communications and marketing chair for the symposium. “When I took a tour here they talked about the Whitman Undergrad Conference and how they cancel classes for that and how it’s such a special thing that Whitman has. We want Power & Privilege to be the same thing, that’s it’s something Whitman’s pushing as something special that we do.”

The Power & Privilege Symposium is a student-organized event funded by ASWC, which consists of a keynote speaker and a series of workshop on issues of diversity, started in the spring of 2013. Last year, the faculty voted to cancel classes for the day of the Symposium, and the lowest estimates say that at least 800 members of the campus community attended the event. At the end of last semester, the faculty decided to cancel classes again for this year’s symposium.

“Since this is the second year, we have to [be at the top] of our game to make sure it’s just as good if not better than last year so that the school continues to fund us and continues to cancel classes for this event,” said Shaw.

The Symposium’s organizers are still searching for volunteers to help organize the symposium. Anyone may submit a proposal for a workshop, with applications available online between Oct. 27 and Nov. 10.

“One of our goals this year is to have 100-percent student turnout. That’s a huge goal but also one we really want to work to achieve, and a way to do that is to get as many people involved as possible,” said Shaw.

The creation of a mandatory workshop on racism was one of three key demands listed by protesters in a letter to the Board of Trustees last fall. Although discussion occurred among many offices involved with student affairs, the Race & Equity workshop was the result of initiative being taken by Residence Life.

“We’ve been piloting different forms of the Race & Equity Workshop for two years prior to this,” said Andrew Johnson, the interim assistant director of Residence Life and Housing. “This was an adaptation of what we have been doing for two years previously, to try to reach a broader audience and try to do more meaningful work.”

The Race & Equity Workshop was designed by Residence Life staff, who had resident assistants pilot a version of the workshop this summer and give feedback. The content was then adjusted and presented to first-years.

Because the workshop is not officially part of the college’s policy, it is not guaranteed to be repeated in future years. Residence Life is currently gathering feedback and deliberating over whether to make the workshop an annual event. So far most feedback has been positive.

While concrete progress on racial issues was made in the last several years, the campus still has a ways to go.

“I am hopeful. In … my time at Whitman there’s been a lot changes that have been happening,” said senior Mcebo Maziya, who founded the Power & Privilege Symposium two years ago and helped organize the first iteration of what is now the Race & Equity Workshop. “Be that as it may, there’s also a lot we still need to do not only as a student body [but among the] administrative campus body.”

As the Now Is the Time campaign approaches its conclusion, the sun is setting on one financial era of the college. President Bridges came to the college in 2005  with the intent of strengthening the college’s financial position and increasing the endowment. While the last fifteen years saw a huge increase in the college’s endowment, this increase was accompanied by equally massive increases in spending by the college and skyrocketing tuition. The result is that students continue to pay roughly the same percentage of the college’s ever-expanding budget, with growth in the endowment only managing to keep pace.

A college’s endowment is a large pool of money the college has invested in a various ways and draws on every year to help meet expenses. Colleges with larger endowments are typically able to use the greater annual returns to pay for a higher percentage of the yearly costs, shifting the source of income away from payments by students. While Whitman’s endowment has greatly increased in the past decade, partially due to the Now Is the Time fundraising campaign, the percentage of the college’s annual budget paid by the endowment has not significantly increased, as spending has risen at a similar rate.

“I can’t say I would have expected this [ten years ago],” said Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Peter Harvey. “If we hadn’t had the big drop-off in endowment in ’08-’09—we lost about $100 million in endowment in that two year time-frame [because of the global economic recession]—I would have expected a bit more steady growth [allowing for a shift in finances].”

Liberal arts colleges across the country have engaged in an academic arms race in the past decade to provide more academic programs, greater student services, and appealing amenities to students. Whitman has embraced this pattern, and the substantial increase in its endowment has enabled it to increase its student services such as the SEC and the global studies initiative, and to hire new staff and faculty, but not taken the burden off of students.

Though the Now Is the Time campaign ends this spring, the college expects to continue to see the benefits to the endowment for some time. Some pledges made to the campaign are spread out over a five-year period, and a large percentage of the $150 million pledged in is the form of naming the college in wills, which means the college will see increases in the endowment for years to come. Administrators also hope the increased annual giving seen during the campaign will continue once official efforts and fundraising end, though whether this will be the case remains to be seen.

“A lot of the college’s resources have gone to the Now Is the Time campaign, and I think the hope is that that growth in the endowment will get us to a position where we can use our endowment to help students more,” said ASWC President Tatiana Kaehler, who served two years as a student representative on the President’s Budgetary Advisory Committee.

The Budgetary Advisory Committee provides a formal means for students, staff, and faculty to make recommendations on the college’s budget. Each year members review proposals for various members of the college for new spending, and are asked to determine how much of a priority each item should be for the college.

“When you’re faced with ‘do we do this or that?’ that’s when the crunch comes,” said Associate Professor of Politics Bruce Magnusson, who serves on the committee. “We don’t recommend a lot of major additions to the budget–those are the trade-offs [to trying to limit expenses].”

The committee does not review the college’s entire budget, due to time constraints. In addition, all recommendations made by the committee are non-binding. Final decisions about budgeting are made behind closed doors by the Board of Trustees, and the committee only sees the final budget when it is approved. Often their top recommendations for spending are met, but the Trustees may choose to approve spending not recommended by the committee or not approve items the committee endorsed.

Spending in the last decade has been distributed such that the college spends a similar percentage of its budget in each area year after year.

“There has been growth in all areas…the goal is to try and be excellent in all areas,” said Harvey.

In the past, discussions of tuition increases have often led to the suggestion that without large yearly increases, the school could not afford increases to financial aid and faculty salaries. However, as the college has increased spending across the board without placing a particular emphasis on faculty, this viewpoint has been increasingly called into question.

“When administrators frame budget issues like financial aid as a choice between raising tuition or raises for faculty, they’re presenting a false dichotomy, pitting students and faculty against each other, and closing off the hard discussions we have to have about spending priorities,” said Associate Professor of Politics Aaron Bobrow-Strain in an e-mail.

Employees are the largest source of expenditures for the college, making up over 45 percent of the college’s expenditures in typical years, and over 70 percent of the annual budget (which does not include the cost of financial aid and some long-term investments on construction). However, typically only 25 percent of spending on employees goes to the salaries of full, associate, and assistant faculty. 45 percent goes to the salaries and wages of staff and part-time faculty, while the remaining 30 percent covers top administrators’ salaries, payroll taxes, pension plans and various benefits.

“We spend money on lots of things, from beautiful grounds to critical mental health support for students, from new tennis courts to administrative staff.  The number of assistant and associate deans has exploded during my ten years at Whitman.  All these things may be important and necessary, but they also need to be on the table for discussion when we talk about spending priorities,” said Bobrow-Strain in an e-mail. “Framing a zero-sum trade off between faculty and students feels less like a real conversation about priorities and more like a classic management tactic of divide and conquer.”

New spending on faculty and staff has primarily gone towards hiring new employees rather than giving raises to existing ones. The average salary of faculty has stayed fairly steady over the last decade. While Whitman’s salaries remain competitive to attract new talent, the decade between 2003 and 2013 saw a net increase of only 0.7 percent for fully-tenured faculty. Meanwhile the seven highest-paid administrators saw a net increase of 7.6 percent over the decade between 2002 and 2012. The Board of Trustees sets salaries each year, relying largely on comparisons with salary increases at the college’s peer institutions.

Whitman is currently searching for a new President to take the helm of the college after George Bridges retires at the end of this year. One major challenge the new president will face is whether to form a long-term financial plan for the college, which currently has none.

As middle-class incomes have fallen across the country and tuitions continue to rise, Whitman has found itself at a difficult crossroads. While its peer institutions continue to increase spending and tuition, Whitman has begun to question how much tuition–and by extension, the college’s budget–can increase in coming decades before the cost becomes untenable.

“It’s a key priority being discussed this year. The trustees are bringing in an outside speaker, Sandy Baum, who will be talking about tuition pricing strategies and the challenges for liberal arts colleges,” said Harvey. “What will come out of that I don’t know, other than to say there are many people who share [this] concern.”

*excludes the seven highest-paid administrators

On Monday, April 29, over 200 members of the Whitman and Walla Walla community came together amidst cries of “Now is the time!”

In honor of nationally renowned environmental activist and author Bill McKibben’s campus visit, member of Whitman’s Campus Climate Challenge organized a march around campus and collected petition signatures so that students and locals alike could show their support for the divestment campaign.

“I had never led a march before, and I was astounded that we had that [much] energy on the campus. Not just in the students, but there were professors on that march; there were community members on that march; there were staff members on that march,” said divestment leader sophomore Collin Smith.

At the end of the march, ASWC President Kayvon Behroozian publicly endorsed the divestment movement. ASWC passed a resolution on April 14 encouraging the Board of Trustees to halt all new investments in fossil fuels and to assemble a committee of students, faculty, staff and members of the governing board to investigate the potential financial impacts of divestment, as well as the potential for active shareholding or green investment managers.

“After [McKibben’s] talk I was a lot more persuaded than I was before,” said Behroozian. “The one thing I’d do is try to get everyone to go convince their friends that this is not a radical movement, that it’s a completely conservative [movement].”

Bill McKibben. Photos by cade beck.

McKibben began the day of his visit by giving a plenary speech to Whitman first-years in Cordiner Hall, all of whom read his book “Eaarth” as part of the Trauma and Transformation unit of the Encounters syllabus. This unit also included Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Art Spiegelman’s “Maus.”

“Eaarth” is the first environmental text to be included in the Encounters syllabus, which was revised last year. Professor of Politics Phil Brick recommended “Eaarth” as a new addition to Encounters and arranged McKibben’s visit to campus so that students could gain a deeper understanding of the text.

Professor of Politics and Director of Encounters Paul Apostolidis believes that hearing an author speak is a hugely beneficial opportunity for Encounters students.

“It’s like when students had the opportunity to watch the staging of ‘The Tempest’ rather than just reading Shakespeare’s text. When you have the opportunity to do the really crucial work of reading the written word and handling the text in written form, and then you can have that together with a more live and in-person staging of what that text is all about, it opens up different avenues for interpreting what’s going on,” he said.

McKibben is glad to have been a part of the Encounters experience.

“I feel very honored … [“Beloved” and “Maus”] are classic texts, and about epochal moments in human history,” said McKibben.

Bill McKibben spoke in Cordiner on Monday night.

Then at 7:30 p.m in Cordiner Hall McKibben gave a lecture addressing “Eaarth” and his organization 350.org, a leader in the national movement to divest from fossil fuels.

Brick hopes that McKibben will be an inspiration for students interested in environmental activism.

“I hope [students] come away inspired, but also as a result of conversations we’ve had on campus … they come out of the lecture with a more sophisticated understanding of the scale of the problem, but not let the scale overshadow ways in which climate can help us think of way we could live better lives,” said Brick.

He has certainly made an impact for members of the Whitman divestment campaign. These student activists met with McKibben to discuss campaign strategies in the afternoon. They plan to present the petition signatures they collected to the Board of Trustees at their meeting on May 2.

First-year Erika Longino, a member of the Whitman divestment campaign, hopes that they will inspire other students to work for change.

“I feel like there’s a lot of pent-up frustration behind the climate change issue; it’s something you hear about in the news every day, it’s something that all the freshmen are reading in their classes right now. Having an outlet for that after the event, showing that there are students who are activists who are working to do something, it will be a good statement and a way for it to open up to the rest of campus.”

After listening to a speech by founder of the 350.org organization Bill McKibben, over 200 members of the Whitman community marched around campus chanting slogans in favor of divesting the college’s endowment from fossil fuels.

The largest event held so far by Whitman’s divestment movement, the march energized supporters of the movement and built upon momentum the movement has built over the semester.

“I had never led a march before, and I was astounded that we had that [much] energy on the campus. Not just in the students, but there were professors on that march, there were community members on that march, there were staff members on that march,” said Divestment Leader, sophomore Collin Smith.

McKibben is the leader of the national environmental movement 350.org and the nation-wide divestment movement, which aims to convince institutions to divest from the 200 companies with the largest fossil fuel reserves. The movement believes this divestment will bring public attention to global warming and carbon emissions, as well as strip these fossil fuel companies of their “social license.” According to McKibben, this will limit their ability to influence government policy, and allow politicians to pass legislation against fossil fuels.

Although he is the leader of the national divestment movement, McKibben was originally scheduled to visit campus to speak to first-years about his environmental text Eaarth, which was read in the Encounters course in a unit on trauma and transformation. The divestment movement was launched last fall and began at Whitman in January 2013, while McKibben was scheduled to speak last spring.

“He absolutely laid it down for divestment and he totally stuck it to the man with everything he said, and we didn’t think he was going to do that. We thought that because he’d been invited by the college he had to keep up the formality of not pointing out the hypocrisy of Whitman [not divesting],” said Divestment Leader, sophomore Sierra Dickey. “The remarks he made about Whitman doing the right thing did a lot to fuel the success of the march, which just took off.”

The divestment march, which was organized only a few days before McKibben’s visit, marked a distinct change in the tactics of the divestment movement at Whitman. While previous actions had focused on raising awareness and bringing new members into the movement, the march was a physical manifestation of the support that has been built over the semester.

On the same day as Whitman students marched across the campus, students at the Rhode Island School of Design held a sit-in in their president’s office, in pursuit of the same goals as divestment at Whitman: an immediate end to new investments in the 200 fossil fuel companies targeted by the movement, and a gradual divestment over the next five years.

“If we get a lot of push-back from the trustees we’ll definitely turn to actions styled like this [march] … but we don’t think that’s going to happen. We think it’s going to be a collaborative thing that we don’t need to be [forceful] about,” said Dickey. “People aren’t down with direct action. People want to stay moderate and want to protect their necks and play it cool, and direct action isn’t always cool. I don’t think we’ll need to do it, [but if] we do I hope that we’ll have the campus with us, ready to get over that stigma.”

At the end of the march, ASWC President Kayvon Behroozian publicly endorsed the divestment movement. ASWC passed a resolution on April 14 encouraging the Board of Trustees to halt all new investments in fossil fuels and to assemble a committee of students, faculty, staff, and members of the governing board to investigate the potential financial impacts of divestment, as well as the potential for active shareholding or green investment managers.

“After the talk I was a lot more persuaded than I was before…” said Behroozian. “The one thing I’d do is try to get everyone to go convince their friends that this is not a radical movement, that it’s a completely conservative [movement].”

McKibben spent an hour and a half in the afternoon meeting with leaders of the divestment movement to discuss their strategy for the coming year. He suggested the movement attempt to re-frame the issue of divestment to portray themselves as moderates and their opponents as radical.

“There’s nothing radical about what we’ve been talking about, nothing at all. All we’re asking for is a planet that works more or less the way it was when we were born … that’s not a radical demand, that’s a deeply conservative demand,” McKibben said. “Radicals work at oil companies … Our job is to learn to check that radicalism, not to invest in it. If it’s wrong to wreck the climate, then it’s wrong to profit from the wreckage of the climate.”

While the divestment march united members of the Whitman and Walla Walla community who support divestment, many attendees of McKibben’s speech left rather than attending the event.

“[I worry about] how difficult it will be to convince other people, especially people who are not yet convinced, because it seems to me that a lot of people who will be easy to talk to about this and easy to sway are already on the side of divestment. It will difficult to convince people who are already set in their opinions against it,” said first-year Emrys Dennison.

On Thursday, May 2 divestment leaders will meet with members of the Board of Trustees to try to work out an agreement. While compromise will likely be necessary in the short-term, the divestment movement plans to remain committed to a long-term divestment in all fossil fuels. ASWC members will also meet with members of the Board to discuss the resolution which was passed.

Correction (May 1, 2013): The article, which originally quoted McKibben saying, “Radicals work at all companies…” has been edited to reflect his actual words, “Radicals work at oil companies…”

Illustration by Luke Hampton

Student-taught classes such as yoga, Zumba and salsa have proven increasingly popular on campus, and legislation passed at the Associated Students of Whitman College (ASWC) senate meeting last Sunday, April 14, will allow would-be student-teachers to apply for funding for similar classes with less hassle.

Through the act, ASWC plans to actively seek students with particular skills and interests and to provide a standardized salary and budget for eight courses selected by the Finance Committee and approved by the senate.

“What I wanted to do with the [student-taught classes] act is create a more formal process [to allow] for more students to take advantage of this opportunity, to increase the number of classes we currently have and [to increase] the breadth and scope of what those classes could be,” said ASWC Vice President senior Marcial Diaz Mejia, who penned the act.

ASWC plans to use its communications department to solicit students interested in sharing a skill or interest with the community in hopes of doubling the number of student-taught courses available. In previous years, students wishing to be paid to teach a course had to take the initiative to apply to the Finance Committee themselves during the semester in which they taught. Under the new system, classes will be approved the semester before they begin so teachers have time to prepare and so that teachers are sure about funding before they begin to teach.

“Deciding to take it upon yourself to teach and lead and design a class that’s really successful is a difficult task … Even if [ASWC] can’t always grant every request, there should be a feeling of support and encouragement which I didn’t always feel,” said first-year Gillian Friedman, who teaches salsa classes this semester.

A point of contention in previous years has been how much to pay student-teachers for every class. In the past, each student-teacher’s wage was determined individually, but the new act sets the standard wage for student-teachers at $15 per hour. Though this is less than the $80-per-class wage Friedman would earn for teaching salsa in Seattle, it is still a higher wage than the minimum wage earned by most student workers on campus.

“It’s really important for the campus to be funding these things. Students should value [student-teachers] as professionals in their own sense, because most of us have either a ton of experience or professional training and certification, and that occupation should be valued higher than other occupations on campus,” said Friedman.

In order for a new class to be approved, it must apply for funding from the ASWC Finance Committee. The instructor must prove he or she has sufficient credentials to teach the subject in question, suggest a curriculum and prove that there is interest for such a course among the student body. The full senate can then approve funding with a majority vote.

“This new act is planning to expedite the process [for approving classes] and makes it easier for students to teach their skills to the student body as a whole,” said ASWC Finance Chair senior Sam Sadeghi. “We don’t know how this will end up working, but hopefully it [will make] student-run classes less bureaucratic.”

Salsa, Zumba and yoga, the three classes funded by ASWC in previous years, have all focused on exercise and social opportunities. In coming years ASWC hopes to fund a greater variety of classes.

Any student able to demonstrate interest among their peers and sufficient credentials is eligible to apply for funding.

“Obviously we’re hoping to keep yoga and Zumba, but hopefully we’ll be having [classes on] things like Photoshop skills … [and other] things that will complement the Whitman curriculum,” said Diaz Mejia.

Editors’ Note, April 25, 2013, 9:53 P.M.: This article has been updated to clarify that the decision was an act, not a resolution.

Illustration by Asa Mease

What does it mean to be part of a community? Looking around the Whitman campus, it is easy to recognize students, professors and administrators as Whitties. But there is another group at Whitman, rarely seen but essential to the day-to-day life of the college. The staff of Whitman’s dining halls cook, serve, clean and clear the dishes of hundreds of students three times a day. Behind the counter, these men and women do the work needed to keep the college running.

Though working at Whitman holds many benefits—such as free access to campus facilities and free meals from the dining halls—employees also face several challenges. When school is not in session, most employees are temporarily laid off, and while workers appreciate students interacting with them and thanking them for their effort, the student body can be critical of meals that take hours to prepare.

“I think the students need to know that it actually takes a lot of work preparing the food and the meals, putting it out, cleaning it up, putting it out again,” said Crystal Zumwalt, an employee manager for Bon Appétit. “I wish people would appreciate more what we do, because it’s hard … I don’t think [some students] realize how much thought and effort go into planning some of the meals.”

All in the Family

Many of those who work in the dining halls at Whitman are connected to the college through family and friends. Zumwalt began work at Whitman while in high school, moved away for several years and then returned to the College three years ago. Her mother, Julie Zumwalt, is the executive sous chef in Prentiss Dining Hall, and her boyfriend Eric Romine works in Reid Campus Center.

Romine moved to Cafe ’66 in Reid after budget cuts and his lack of seniority led to his getting laid off in Jewett Dining Hall. Fortunately, with Zumwalt’s help, he was able to find a new position across campus. While he is farther from his girlfriend, he is happy to have found stable employment for the time being.

“We all let each other know what’s going on and feed off each other and get advice,” said Romine. “I think the students should all know that we’re all pretty comfortable with each other, and I think everyone really looks forward to going to work and appreciate[s] good feedback and good vibes from the students and coworkers.”

Romine and Zumwalt are expecting their first child in November, and they are already raising Zumwalt’s five-year-old son, Anthony. When both Romine and Zumwalt are at work, Anthony’s grandparents take care of him, but when their next child arrives, they plan to apply for childcare through the Department of Social Health Services.

“[Childcare]’s really expensive to do. It’s a demanding field, definitely, because when we were paying for Anthony to go four to five times a month I think it was around $15o … But things are looking up for us and I think we’ll be pretty comfortable in the position we’ll be in,” said Romine.

Of all the benefits of working in the dining halls, Zumwalt and Romine take advantage of free meals most often, eating dinner together before their shifts begin. While Romine is occasionally able to take advantage of the athletic facilities and library, Zumwalt finds it difficult to put aside time for these things while trying to parent.

“All my free time is usually at the park [with Anthony], playing with the dog or doing something. We just got signed up for tee-ball, so that takes up a lot of my time on days off,” said Zumwalt. “I work at home too. I work all week, and then I get to go home and catch up on laundry and all the housework.”

Unfortunately, like all employees in the Whitman dining halls, the upcoming summer break presents an especially challenging time for Zumwalt and Romine.

“I like it here; it’s just the breaks are the only thing that really get you. Because bills and rent don’t stop coming in over the summer,” said Zumwalt.

Summer is Coming

Zumwalt and Romine hope to find employment over the summer working temporary jobs. While this can be challenging, it can also provide unexpected opportunities which lead away from Whitman. Only a very small number of staff are able to stay on in Prentiss over the summer, helping provide for events and camps which take place on campus.

One of these people is Prentiss employee Tim Laufer. After working 10 years in the dining halls, Laufer has gained enough seniority to stay and cater events from Prentiss when most other workers are laid off. However, no one starts with seniority, and most staff have to find alternate employment.

“[Before I had seniority] I would leave town. I’d save up for a little bit and go live in Spokane with my mother for a little bit. That was a long time ago. Other times I would do under-the-counter jobs, odd jobs here and there, just to make ends meet, and collect unemployment,” said Laufer.

While many employees travel, work odd jobs or fall back on unemployment benefits over summers and breaks, to others these times present opportunities to focus on different pursuits.

Suann Courson, who works in the dish room in Jewett, spends summers helping run her family’s farm, R&R Produce, which sells produce at the Walla Walla Farmers’ Market and delivers fruits and vegetables to Whitman throughout the year.

On top of working in the dining halls and on the farm, Courson is taking courses at Walla Walla Community College to pursue a two-year degree in agricultural farming.

“I’ve always worked with my dad on the farm … When I start back in September or August, from then until the end of October I work seven days a week. I work both jobs. Soon as I get done here I go work on the farm for a couple hours and then take a break [for] an hour, come back here and go to work,” said Courson.

Across the Great Divide

Students and staff see each other many times a day, but interactions between the two vary widely.

“Most [students] are pretty friendly. I try to be friendly … The only thing that really gets on my nerves is the mess,” said Café ’66 cashier Kathy Soyster. “But it’s expected. You’re always going to have one person who isn’t going to follow the rules.”

Interactions with students are important for many employees.

“[There] are the same people who won’t acknowledge me every day, but I still acknowledge them every day. I can’t see people and not say hi to them … Some people are hit-and-miss; it all depends on what their mood is,” said Laufer.

Henry Baumgartner came to Whitman three years ago after gaining experience in white-collar restaurants, and began work as a dinner chef in Jewet. He arrives at noon every day, begins preparing meals for students hours in advance and always aims to make good food.

“Me and my coworkers, when we cook dinners, we really try to make sure things taste good and are appetizing for the students. Even though it doesn’t seem [that way] sometimes, we really do,” said Baumgartner.

Baumgartner’s experience with students has been generally positive and welcoming, and he enjoys interacting with students both as coworkers and customers.

Baumgartner also knows that Whitman students have a diverse array of diets, ranging from vegan to gluten-free, and he supports students’ choices. He wishes the dining halls could provide even more options for those with special diets, especially during holidays.

“I was raised vegetarian, so I have no problem cooking vegetarian foods. I think it’s a good way to go … When I started working here, I expected it to be a much more vegetarian environment. Through the three years I’ve worked here, there’s been more meat demand from the students [than I expected].”

Some younger employees even find time to develop friendships with students outside of work, practicing intramural sports in the athletic facilities or chatting together in the library. However, long hours at odd times can make forming lasting relationships difficult. And while college students only stay for four years, workers in the dining halls may stay only a few months or for over a decade.

“When I get to be friends with some of the students it’s nice, but then you realize that they’re leaving, and once they’re gone you miss them. After a while you have to toughen up and not get quite so attached or friendly. Which might explain why some of our cooks are a little bit aloof,” said Soyster.

What Makes a Whittie?

Whitman ID cards, commonly known as “swipe cards,” are an integral part of many students’ lives. Dining hall employees have their own versions of swipe cards, which provide them access to the library and athletic buildings. As members of the Whitman community, they are also welcome at lectures and events around campus. While some take advantage of these opportunities, other find it difficult to find time in their schedules.

“I could use [the campus facilities], but I use the YMCA [instead] because my kids are in swim classes and I might as well pay for that family membership. Sometimes I don’t like to work out with the students. It can be somewhat of a distraction,” said cashier Sarah Olson.

Despite spending 40 hours a week at Whitman and having access to many of the same resources as students, the term “Whittie” is not commonly applied to workers. Jayne Fontana began work as a barista at Cafe ’66 in Reid this year. Though she grew up on campus (Fontana’s father was a professor at Whitman for 35 years), she went to school at Washington State University and spent years working as an elementary school teacher and in the wine industry before returning to Whitman.

“I definitely support anything that has to do with Whitman, but I didn’t go to Whitman. It’s a great school,” said Fontana.

Whitties or not, workers in Whitman’s dining halls are integral to the functioning of the college. Their experience at Whitman is vastly different from that of students and faculty, and arguably more difficult, because they face potential layoffs and the challenge of keeping up with off-campus commitments, but they manage to overcome these challenges and still prepare thousands of quality meals every day.

A panel of students knowledgeable about the pros and cons of divestment testified before ASWC last Saturday, April 5 in order to better inform ASWC senators in anticipation of a resolution concerning divestment being brought before the full senate.

Sophomore Ari Ronai-Durning and senior Abby Salzer spoke on behalf of the Campus Climate Challenge (CCC) and 350 Divestment Campaign, and explained the social and economic benefits of divesting the college’s endowment from fossil fuel companies, while junior Jamie Edison and senior Nehali Dave, who is the CEO and Chief Financial Officer for the Whitman Investment Corporation (WIC), explained potential drawbacks to divestment.

The divestment campaign at Whitman aims to convince the college to withdraw its investments in the 200 companies with the largest known fossil fuel reserves. While divestment would not have a direct financial impact on these companies, supporters of divestment believe it would help shift the political climate in the country which would eventually lead to legislation and a wider cultural shift.

“The only time [fossil fuel companies] are going to have an incentive [to not burn carbon reserves] is when legislation is passed,” said Salzer. “This campaign is about creating a political climate that is going to have political ramifications, so politicians can stand up and say ‘The status quo is changing, our culture is changing.’”

Critics of the campaign argue that this shift would not actually occur, and that Whitman could gain lower returns on its endowment, which would lead to higher tuition fees and less financial aid.

“Divestment doesn’t offer any solutions to climate change. It doesn’t offer any immediate results, it only [offers] potential political change, and it therefore is not worth the risk of losing any sum of money,” said Edison.

The potential financial impact of divestment was brought up by all four panelists over the course of the two-hour session. In an unprecedented move, Board of Trustee member, David Nierenberg tasked financial analyst Justin Rodegerdts with reviewing the college’s endowment to find how much is invested in the 200 companies targeted by the divestment campaign. Rodgerdts reviewed 80 percent of the endowment and projected that only 2 percent is directly invested in the fossil fuel companies. Representatives from the CCC shared Rodegerdts’ findings during the panel.

However, Whitman’s endowment is run by 55 separate independent financial managers who invest the endowment without direct guidance from the college. Nine of these managers are currently invested in fossil fuels. These nine managers together control 35 percent of the college’s endowment, all of which may need to be shifted to new managers should the managers not wish to change their practices. Dave explained during the panel that this transfer could endanger the college’s return on its endowment, as there are no colleges of similar caliber which have divested.

“The problem [with divestment] is we don’t know it’s impact unless we do it, or someone else does… You can say it’s a little risk, you can say it’s high risk, but you have to know there’s a risk, and you have to think about whether that risk is worth it,” said Dave.

One of the endowment managers invested in fossil fuels is the Whitman Investment Corporation, a student investment management group which manages a portfolio in order to learn about investment and economics. While members of WIC have varying views on divestment, the organization cannot divest its funds independently due to restrictions put in place by the alumni who donated funds to found the corporation. WIC members’ understanding of financial markets and investment has still proven a valuable resource to the CCC and 350 campaign, who recently started a financial work group to gather data on the economics of divestment and to work with WIC.

A point of agreement between all members of the ASWC panel was the dismissal of active shareholding, in which the college would use its investments to raise environmental concerns at board meetings as a means of affecting fossil fuel companies’ business models. While this strategy may work if Whitman had more investment in fossil-fuel companies, the college does not currently have anywhere near enough invested to have a significant voice in any of the companies’ practices.

“There’s an inherent flaw in shareholder activism for fossil fuels in particular,” said Ronai-Durning. “Active shareholding works to modify a flaw in the business model of a company, but unfortunately in fossil fuel companies the business model is the flaw … You can’t pass a shareholder resolution banning the company from selling the very products which generate its profit.”

Alongside the ASWC senators, dozens of students attended the hearing to learn about divestment, while others participated online through the use of a live-streaming. While the panel format and live-streaming are both new practices for ASWC, the high level of participation by both senators and students has led to the suggestion that more panels may take place in the future.

“I think [the panel] was a great opportunity for the senators to talk with people who know the most about these issues, without the restrictions of parliamentary procedure,” said ASWC President Kayvon Behroozian.

Behroozian plans to utilize live-streaming at the next ASWC senate, which will take place on Sunday, April 14th. At the senate ASWC will likely consider a resolution on whether or not to support divestment. Should ASWC choose to support divestment, Behroozian would likely speak with the faculty board to gather further support, and alert administrators to ASWC’s position. If no resolution is passed, the CCC would have to wait until next academic year before raising the issue with ASWC again.

Whitman’s annual student lifestyle survey has revealed that 17 percent of students have too many drinks on the average weekend to fill out the questionnaire.

Administered by the Whitman Office of Propaganda in Penrose Library between 11 p.m. and midnight last Friday, March 22, the lifestyle survey is used by the college to gather statistics for admissions pamphlets and motivational posters. This year’s results showed that on the average weekend, 30 percent of students have no drinks, 30 percent have one to three drinks, 23 percent have four to five drinks and 17 percent simply cease to exist.

“I can’t really remember much from that night other than that I had 14 shots of vodka in my room. I was planning on taking the survey on my way to the frats, but I woke up in the morning floating in Lakum Duckum,” said first-year Handrew Mildman. “I thought I just hadn’t made it to the library. I’d never have guessed I actually disappeared!”

Since his metaphysical experience, Mildman has embraced his non-being and vowed to experiment with recreating the phenomenon several times a week. However, other students have found it more difficult to accept their condition. The student health center has become overrun with students experiencing existential crises and failures of confidence because they’re struggling to come to terms with the survey’s results.

“Surveys are hard. All the words kept moving, it wasn’t fair. Now no one will like me because I didn’t take the survey. They’re all going to judge me for this. You’re judging right now, aren’t you?” said junior Jane Doe. “Do I exist right now? Am I a Whitman student? I don’t feel comfortable at this school anymore. They made it clear that I’m not wanted.”

While the Whitman administration denies that students who do not exist are unwanted, several changes to campus have been made to ensure Whitman is the best it can be. On the morning before the survey, students in Jewett Hall were confused by the presence of a brick wall on the staircase between the first and third floors. While some residents mistakenly claimed that there used to be another floor between the first and the third, senior resident Lian Brewis assured them they were mistaken.

“It was a strange decision for the architects to make,” said Brewis. “But I think if you look through Whitman’s records, you’ll find that there is not, nor has there ever been, a second floor to Jewett. Any screams or cries for help are simply the building settling in its foundations, and should be ignored.”

Other recent improvements to campus include the installation of new razor-wired fences around the fraternities to ensure greater privacy and protection and the addition of a one-way field trip to Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland as part of the curriculum of alcohol awareness classes mandated to students who have to go to the health center due to alcohol poisoning.

“What we’re doing is best for everyone. By making Whitman more appealing, we will receive more applications and can be more selective with admissions, until we have crafted the perfect student body,” said Propaganda Chairman Truth Lordwell. “When Whitman benefits, we all benefit. We should all do our part to help make this college great.”