Alumni Magazine Fall 2005 Whitworth University
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Whitworth Digital Commons Whitworth University Whitworth Alumni Magazine University Archives 2005 Alumni Magazine Fall 2005 Whitworth University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/alumnimagazine Recommended Citation Whitworth University , "Alumni Magazine Fall 2005" Whitworth University (2005). Whitworth Alumni Magazine. Paper 401. https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/alumnimagazine/401 This Text is brought to you for free and open access by the University Archives at Whitworth University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Whitworth Alumni Magazine by an authorized administrator of Whitworth University. ORTHFall 2005 mon the '4Yk Whitworth ctiarts ambitious course for 2010 40, • • 'Isy• A Writer's Life Yoder in Liberia Whitworth University Outstanding Alums A Message from President Bill Robinson I've been hearing a lot from my Midwestern undergraduate, liberal-arts focus; our union of friends lately. Larry, in particular, called every Christ-centeredness and a spirit of open inquiry; White Sox, day last week. He moved in across the street and our conviction that a nurturing community from me whenI was in kindergarten. We lived enables the kind of holistic learning we prize. Whitworthians in suburban Chicago's DuPage County, where, Why, then, having come so far, would we if you weren't a Cubs fan, you were going to embark on such an ambitious strategic plan amaze and grow up persecuted. Larry didn't know this at that will rely on a giant infusion of financial age 6. So I lied to him. I told him that being resources? I'm reminded of another letter I inspire a White Sox fan put you on the fast track to received from a Midwesterner, in which he North School's social register. He bought it, and enclosed a cartoon of a Washington state thus began 50 years of him taking guff. We hung panhandler wheedling, "Say buddy, can on every pitch in the 1959 World Series, but you spare $3.75 for a double-shot hazelnut the Sox lost. A couple of nights ago, 46 years cappuccino?" Are we being greedy when we seek of waiting for another chance came to a joyous to attract almost $100 million? Absolutely not! close. This has nothing to do with anything in The quality of Whitworth's faculty, students Whitworth Today, butI had to write it. Sorry for and curriculum has banged its head on the this blatant abuse of my office. resource ceiling. In the past six or seven years, This Whitworth Today features our new for example, we have attracted superb scientists strategic plan. And for the third time since and artists to our faculty. Correspondingly, we I've been at Whitworth I'm introducing a five- have watched the number of majors in these two year plan with the refrain, "Whitworth will be areas rise by more than 50 percent, accompanied stronger, not different." The chart below begs by an equally impressive rise in their predicted the question, "At what point does stronger grade points. If we hope to maintain, not to become different?" mention improve, our current levels of quality, By the numbers, we look different. But we need more and better space. Aggressively and in three fundamental areas we are the same with great excitement, we must tap every source school freshmen found in the fall of 1990: our of support. And we will. Ihope that as you read about our future you will take great pride in enabling our past. Quite A few facts about the Class of 2009 simply, we had no chance of pulling off the 1990 2005 accomplishments of the last 15 years without Freshman Applications 724 2,147 you. What you have done, dare I say it, is even Freshman Admitted 643 1,367 more amazing than what those White Sox Freshman Admit Rate 88.8 63.8 just pulled off. And with your help we hope Freshman Enrolled 256 455 to repeat our success over the next five years. Freshman Yield Rate 39.8 33.2 We thank God for you and for this wonderful Mean Entering GPA 3.2 3.67 school. Please keep us in your prayers. We Mean Freshman SAT 1037 1204 believe with the psalmist that "Unless the Frosh/Sophomore Retention 70.3 87.0 Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who Full-Time Undergraduates 1,164 2,060 build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps vigil in vain." 2 \V Fall 2005, Vol. 74, No. 2 Editor Terry Rayburn Mitchell, '93 Assistant Editor Julie Riddle, '92 Art Director Tamara McIntosh ORTH Contributors Al Borman Allison Carr, '06 Karen Habbestad, '62 Kirk Hirota Robert Huggins, '04 Greg Orwig, '91 Garrett Riddle Leah Silvieus, '07 Peter Williams 4 Tad Wisenor, '89 Editorial Board Marty Erb Marianne Hansen, '97 Rick Hornor, '70 John Larkin Michael Le Roy, '89 Jim McPherson Terry Rayburn Mitchell, '93 Greg Orwig, '91 Garrett Riddle Julie Riddle, '92 Features Andrea Saccoccio Tad Wisenor, '89 6 A Whitworth Story Follow a "typical" Whitworthian from admission to graduation Administration to see how a student's experience might be shaped by the President 2005-2010 strategic plan. William P Robinson 10 On the Map Vice President Artist Rolf Goetzinger's rendering of the Whitworth campus includes for Institutional Advancement exciting changes since 2000 — and Whitworth Today shows you Kristi Burns the college's ambitious building list for the next five years. Director of Communications 12 Half a World Away Greg Orwig, '91 Political Studies Professor John Yoder answers the Carter Center's Managing Editor of College call to help monitor Liberia's first national elections since 1989. Communications Garrett Riddle 14 A Writer's Life Associate Professor of English Laurie Lamon, '78, reflects on her www.whitworth.edu/whitworthtoday journey as a writer and shares poems from her new collection. Whitworth Today magazine is Departments published twice annually by On the cover: Associate Profes- sor of Physics Richard Stevens Whitworth College, Spokane, 2 President's Message (right) works with two students Washington. 4 Editor's Note on a telescope installed last year in a new observatory atop the Send address changes to: 16 Whitworth News Eric Johnston Science Center. Whitworth College, MS 1903 22 Class Notes The Celestron 14-inch Schmidt- 300 West Hawthorne Road Cassegrain telescope is capable 30 AfterWord Spokane, WA 99251 or of viewing objects in our solar [email protected] system during daylight hours. www.whitworth.edu/whitworthtoday WT 3 EDITOR'Snote I love the White Sox component in Bill Robinson's We're also pleased with the content in this issue. You'll notice message, and because he's included the Pale Hose in his that we moved the President's Message to its rightful place piece, I'm going to sneak in an even more personal piece on the inside front cover ("rightful" since our research shows of news: Ibecame a grandma in June, and my heart is that it's one of the most popular features in the magazine), and now owned by a tiny girl named Kylie Marie Mitchell. Bill has — you should pardon my references to his references Grandmotherhood is wonderful — and sometimes more knocked one out of the park as our leadoff batter. difficult than one might think. It certainly involves heartfelt, Our features in this issue cover quite a bit of ground: sometimes frighteningly vulnerable love, a willingness to • Whitworth's 2005-2010 strategic plan (stop yawning, please; put all of one's eggs into a fragile little basket, and a deep Greg Orwig has written a delightful first-person-fictitious knowledge that if a train were to make its way through account of what it will be like to be a student at Whitworth Grammy's living room, she would unhesitatingly throw as the college's ambitious plan comes to fruition); herself in front of it to save the baby. But it also involves • the newest campus map, created by illustrator-par- submerging one's ego through self-reminder ("If Kylie's excellence Rolf Goetzinger, that includes photos of the parents want your advice, they'll ask for it"); tamping down end products of Whitworth's recent building boom, along again and again an overactive imagination ("What's that with a list of what's to come; little bump on the side of her head? How long has it been • the first-person-for-real story of Political Studies Professor there? Have they had it checked?"), and working very, John Yoder's two trips to Liberia this fall, at the behest very hard to learn that one's son and daughter-in-law are of the Carter Center, to monitor the voting process in now, officially, grownups, with all the rights, privileges and that country's long-awaited and much-anticipated responsibilities appertaining thereto. national election; I won't go too far with this comparison, making it seem as • words of wisdom about writing and what it means to be if a redesigned alumni magazine is the equivalent of a new a writer from Laurie Lamon, '78, Whitworth associate human life. There are big differences: With Whitworth Today professor of English and author of the recently released we got to choose how our creation would look and what collection of poetry, The Fork Without Hunger. it would include, and we worked hard to make it bright, In addition, we have art from our faculty; news that includes interesting, occasionally funny, and a welcome addition to stories about inspiring alums, a momentous announcement about the stack of reading material that most of us harbor these Whitworth's future, and a faculty member who's pals with the days.