Photo Credit : von Hafften

As a high school senior, I was bewildered by the vast number of colleges to choose from. I remember flipping rapidly through a huge Princeton Review book, pausing only when one category, happiness, caught my eye. I wish I could say my decision of where to spend four years of my life involved a complex, logical process, but it didn’t. I came to Whitman largely because at the time it was the ‘happiest school in the country.’

Now I’m about to graduate and I find myself in a familiar state of bafflement regarding my next move. Like many college seniors these days, I am without a definite answer when everyone from the clerks at Safeway to my grandparents ask some version of the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I’ve started answering, “I want to be happy.” This may sound flippant, but allow me to explain.

Studies have shown that the more engaged you are at work, the more satisfaction you have in life, lending more credence to the idea that you should do what makes you happy. Sadly, a Gallup study found that 73 percent of Americans are disengaged with their workplace, meaning that they’re sleepwalking through their workday, putting time—but not energy or passion—into their work. When asked if they had gotten the things in life that were important to them, more than half of engaged workers said they had while only nine percent of actively disengaged workers said they had. More than half of these disengaged workers said that negative feelings at work have caused them to behave poorly with family or friends.

This widespread dissatisfaction might be behind the high rate of turnover in the American workplace. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between the ages of 18 and 42, Americans change workplaces an average of 10 times and spend less than five years at each job. The transiency of younger workers is even higher; among jobs started by workers age 18 to 22, 72 percent end in less than a year.

I would be remiss to overlook the fact that many people, particularly in this economy,  have to take what they can get to pay the bills. But many Americans, and especially graduates of prestigious colleges like Whitman, have a choice. We can choose a job that merely pays the bills or find one that enriches our lives.

So how do we find a job that makes us happy? The growing interdisciplinary field of hedonics (the study of happiness) draws on neuroscience, applied economics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and psychology to answer this widespread conundrum of what makes us happy. Different research has shown different things; everything from engaging in local politics to having a steady income and living in a healthy environment makes us happier. What all of the happiness-index models seem to agree on is that the more control we have over our lives and our environments, the happier we are.

For me, having control means finding a job I truly enjoy without pressure from family or passersby. I don’t want to be someone who suddenly wakes up in medical or law school and realizes that they’re only there because someone told them they should be, not because they truly want to be a doctor or lawyer.

Making happiness my primary criteria for my college search brought me the best four years of my life. I’m hoping that searching for happiness in my career will bring me the next best 50.

“I don’t know why it was,” said Professor of English Scott Elliott, who advised three of the four projects this year. “It may be that more students knew about it and it also may be that we just happened to have more students who were committed and poised to do it.”

Now that seniors Mimi Cook, Jamie Soukup, Christine Texeira and Anastasia Zamkinos have all finished their projects, The Pioneer brings you an exclusive look at what they’ve produced:

From “Worrying Myself Sad” (title story of collection)  by Christine Texeira

“Her stomach stretches taut when she is frightened, elongated across her torso. It is almost unnoticeable, sometimes hiding just behind her liver. Adele’s organs are squeezed close together and in the beginning it was difficult to distinguish which organ was actually throbbing and pulsing or simply reacting to an organ behind or around it. I still have trouble understanding her inner ear. Her cochlea vibrates, but I can hardly tell if she is just hearing or actually listening. The small motions I’ve learned to notice beneath her skin have helped us develop into successful friends. We work perfectly and effortlessly. I feel like a doctor sometimes, but I don’t know anything really true about organs or anyone’s insides. I just know Adele’s. I would know if one of her organs looked different, perhaps, but the way I see it I’m looking at her emotions as they are physically displayed where, normally, no one is able to notice. Sweating and twitching externally give clues about fears or loves, sure. But the ways her eyeball strains and when her kidneys buckle just right I know what she fears and what she loves.”

From “The Exchange” by Anastasia Zamkinos

Slowly at first but then more regularly people came and gave the Artist money for . . . himself, really.  Some people paid him for mundane tasks such as rewriting letters like “Dear Aunt Mabel, Thank you so much for the check.  I really appreciate the help.  -Michael” into more floral language; this note in particular was transformed by the Artist straddling his stand into “Dearest Auntie Mabel, I am eternally grateful for your help.  Your assistance has brightened the gloom that had descended upon my days…” and so forth.  Others paid him to eat grotesque concoctions like hot dogs from the street corner covered in toothpaste instead of ketchup.  Each day, each component of the grand Art, was spontaneous and connective and the Artist felt he was doing something obscurely Significant.

From “The Evolution of Fear” by Jamie Soukup

“Don’t bother them and they won’t bother you,” I remember telling my younger next-door-neighbors. Imagine 7-year-old me, crouching in the backyard with two boys, ages 6 and 4. I can see us on the concrete patio, with the rhododendrons hovering over us. I am holding the hand of the younger boy, Dylan, as he is frozen with terror, eyes focused on a bumblebee.

I remember that moment, my willing concentration and my superiority over another whose fear was unmanageable. “Just leave them alone and you’ll be fine. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

I can hear those words, feel them in my mouth. They taste like a blade of grass, foreign and rough against my tongue. There is something familiar about them, but something that I abandoned long ago, even before my parents put an end to neighborhood picnics.

I recognize those words, but I can’t understand them anymore.

Where did that sense of superiority go?

From “1942-1944″ by Mimi Cook

On the horizon I could see the faint, dark outline of a ship, heading out to sea. If I could get out there, over the edge of the horizon, I would be able to see only water, whichever direction I turned. The world would be blue, sky and water meeting in a line that would run in a circle around me like the equator around the globe. Somewhere out there, over the bend of the earth, was Mr. Cross. I could see him, standing on the wing of his plane, the metal glinting in the sun, his back straight. He would push his hat back on his head and look around him at that infinite line of the horizon, trace it with his eyes, waiting for rescue. I strained my eyes, every part of me wanting to fly out over the water to find him. That is how I remember him now, not as a floating, bloated body engulfed with his airplane by the ocean, but waiting. In my mind he is standing, with one hand resting against the cockpit of the plane, in the afternoon sunlight, looking west towards the sun, towards land, towards rescue.

Yet, I have never seen a worse case of group-think than the Whitman campus. There is something about the Northwest culture of politeness (or just aversion to conflict) and the dominant environmentalist-postmodernist-globalist mindset that combines to make for a rather stifling public intellectual atmosphere.

What is an education if not an intellectual debate? Debate presupposes difference. If I have one great problem with Whitman, it is the incredible homogeneity of belief, and thus a lack of genuine public discussion.

I know of at least two students who left Whitman because they simply could not stand the homogeneously leftist and secular intellectual atmosphere.

Whitman is a less diverse campus than when I came four years ago, despite now boasting an intercultural building. When I came to Whitman, I encountered a handful of people seriously concerned with publicly questioning the dominant mode of thought on campus.

Today, however, I can seriously say that I am the only person who publicly identifies and engages in public debate as a conservative. There are other conservatives, of course, but try getting one to write an article in The Pioneer or start a conservative group and it is quickly a different story. Maybe Whitman, an intellectual and academic institution, should start spending its money to encourage intellectual and academic diversity.

The world of ideas is one of combat. There is no combat at Whitman. There is not even a College Republicans or a College Democrats, let alone an institutionalized system of political discourse like the Yale Political Union. This kind of environment is crippling for Whitman students, who will encounter an America and a world with drastically different values then they have and where high stakes mean taking few prisoners.

The problem isn’t just about conservatism, but also about liberalism on Whitman’s campus. I was at Seattle University over the weekend and saw posters advertising a public discussion about the possibility of (and advocating) socialism in America today. Clearly at least some college students still consider social injustice serious enough to advocate for something more than the bourgeois liberalism of the Democratic Party. The liberalism at Whitman strikes me not as a philosophical or ideological one, but as a cultural one, which arises not from critical thought but from conformity with the dominant discourse of most Whitties’ class and cultural background.

This column is not a prelude to “God and Man at Whitman,” my illusions of Buckley-like grandeur aside (I don’t expect many Whitman students to get that reference). This is, however, my last column in The Pioneer, after years of sporadic writing and editorships. I had high hopes for my columns. I wished to challenge Whitties’ assumptions about politics and hopefully stir debate by taking controversial and conservative positions. I may have challenged, but there was little debate. I got some letters to the editor, some comments online, but largely, there has been little response to my writing. Conservatism at Whitman is such a minority position that it appears ignoring it is far more effective than debating it.

For example, during the presidential primary I put up a Ron Paul sign on campus and the only response was not a competing candidate’s sign, but one calling Ron Paul a white supremacist. Behold the product of a liberal arts education?

Or perhaps last month, when I was asked to sign a thank-you poster in Reid for “National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers,” not merely to celebrate a woman’s right to choose, but to celebrate the actual individuals who physically abort fetuses. I wonder what would have happened if I held a “National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Provider Assassinators” in response. Both glorify what millions of reasonable American citizens consider violent and murderous acts. Yet I probably would have been reprimanded or expelled.

Thankfully, Whitman seems to know it has a problem. There have been a couple very good libertarian speakers this year, which hopefully indicates a trend towards greater intellectual diversity. This year Whitman also offered a politics seminar called Conservative Political Thought, which was an excellent class and puts Whitman at the cutting edge of a growing trend: the academic study of conservatism in political science and sociology.

Whitties seem solely concerned with solving other people’s problems. Yet I look at my four years (or three minus one in Egypt) at Whitman as an incredible lesson in the problems of America’s own elite. Since we will be called upon to solve the immense fiscal, moral and military problems facing our nation soon enough, I find this lesson in self-awareness more important than any.

Photo Credit : Van Neste

As graduating seniors receive their diplomas on Sunday, May 23, they’re not the only ones who have put in a lot of work to get to commencement. Whitman’s administration undertakes in a massive effort to make sure the special day is, well, special.

“Almost every single staff department on campus contributes something to commencement,” said Associate to the President Jed Schwendiman, who organizes the commencement process. “We want to make sure those pieces are lined up in the right direction so we have a nice event.”

Commencement requires an organizational effort like no other Whitman event. While the projected number of guests—3,500 to 4,500—creates unique challenges with accommodations, the administration is busy at work long before the bleachers line Boyer Avenue.

“We have to make sure the diplomas are printed and in the correct order; we want to make sure that the street is closed; we want to make sure that Bon Appétit is ready for all the people that are on campus,” Schwendiman said. “I could go on and on with the various details.”

The registrar’s office comes together in the weeks before commencement to make sure all graduating students receive their diplomas as they walk across the stage, something few schools do; most mail the actual diplomas afterwards. Putting diplomas into their covers will not finish until after final grades are in on Thursday, May 20.

“We will have boxes all over our office of diplomas stuffed into diploma covers in varying degrees of completion,” said Associate Registrar Stacey Giusti. “Anybody who is going to be in the Latin category, we do not stuff their diploma, we await final grades.”

Once all the diplomas are stuffed, they need to be placed in the correct order.

“It’s nerve-wracking because we don’t have any room for error,” Giusti said. “As students walk across the stage, their diploma has to be in the right order, in the right jacket.”

The registrar’s office also must examine the credentials of each student who wishes to graduate, a “never-ending process” of scrutinizing each student’s record, distribution and major requirements and GPA, according to Registrar Ron Urban.

“Some of the things perhaps people don’t see are tracking students who have one or two things outstanding for completion,” Urban said, estimating that there were a couple of such students per year. “It may be something as simple as a faculty member neglecting to sign a major study card. Sometimes that involves a heroic effort—some [faculty] travel right after classes end.”

Once the commencement ceremony ends, the college provides a complimentary light lunch. According to Bon Appétit Catering Director Teresa Maddess, providing for such a large crowd has its challenges for a school that normally feeds fewer people.

“[It’s challenging] to source all the product, because when you’re talking about asparagus for 3,500 people, you’re talking about strawberries, we have to have it shipped in [and] enough time to prep,” she said.

To prepare food for the large crowd, Bon Appétit uses both the Prentiss and Jewett kitchens and prepares certain foods a few days in advance.

Yet Bon Appétit caters more than just the commencement lunch. Throughout commencement weekend, Bon Appétit will cater 27 events, ranging from serving 10 to 3,500 people.

“I love the rush of all the events,” Maddess said. “I love walking through there and seeing all the students and their families . . . That’s why you do catering, to let your guests leave your events with a smile and have a great time.”

Now that most of the pieces are in place, the administration is hoping for good weather. There is no indoor location on campus large enough to hold everybody in the audience.

Even though the ceremony will take place outside in all but the most extreme of weather, even a light drizzle would create problems for the luncheon.

“If it rains, I’ll have to fly by the seat of my pants, because we don’t really have a rain plan for that amount of people,” Maddess said, noting that the buffet lines cannot be outside in the rain.

Giusti said she’ll be looking at the weather before dawn.

“We’re all here really early Sunday morning watching the weather,” she said. “You don’t have to be here, but you’re not going to sleep, so you might as well be here eating donuts and drinking coffee. And the people in the dean’s office [will say] ‘there’s blue in the horizon, it’ll be okay!’”

For Schwendiman, nice weather would be a great finishing touch after a months-long organizational effort.

“What I like is trying to create the best day possible and just knowing that it’s anticipated, people are excited about it, and that we do a really nice job here,” he said. “In some ways, it’s the day of the year we work for all year long.”

Photo Credit : von Hafften

Looking back over four years at Whitman, I am disappointed and frustrated with a system that could be doing so much. I think that there is a severe lack of encouragement and valuation of open knowledge systems at Whitman. While disappointing for my four years here, there is quite a bit that future students can do to force the institution to recognize the value of these learning systems.

These open systems can take many forms but essentially boil down to one key aspect: the ease with which others can view and contribute to the information being produced on campus. The tools should be public-facing, open to public contributions and use standards-based, open source software.

There are some cases of real innovation at Whitman, but, unfortunately, they are few and far between. They are the exceptions that prove the rule of confined learning. There must be a conscious shift toward a more open and collaborative educational environment. Even though this did not happen during my four years on campus I think that there is a tremendous amount of potential for Whitman to change, and to change rapidly, in the coming years.

First, if it wants to maintain its status as an elite liberal arts college that encourages students to address problems in new and critical methods, Whitman must do far more to encourage participation in open systems of knowledge.

Mark Pesce writes that, “The educational field does not recognize the boundaries of the classroom, the institution, or even the nation.” Education in general may not recognize these boundaries, but Whitman solidifies them. Classes here have driven home the idea that the legitimate participants in a discussion are those within the classroom.

In order to effectively address societal issues Whitman must produce knowledge that is open and public. It must create an environment within which students conceptualize knowledge as something that is a public good. It must seek to create databases of knowledge that are available to all online in a searchable, standards-based format.

Finally, it must work to actively create knowledge that is not just the privileged possession of its student body. If everything is kept within a tiny campus of 1,400 students Whitman will not be able to enact the type meaningful change it champions.

Don’t read this as a typical “break out of the Whitman bubble” argument. What I think Whitman can do goes far deeper than that. Whitman has the ability to re-conceptualize how information and knowledge are produced on a college campus.

The tools exist that would allow students to start creating knowledge that will be accessible to them, to their classmates and to the broader public for the coming decades. What is left is for departments on campus to recognize the validity of open learning and incorporate it into their curriculum. By calling for an end to assignments that never leave the walls of Whitman and organizing together outside of class to take part in public-facing discussions about their education, students can spur this change.

If we cordon off the knowledge produced in undergraduate education to a series of inaccessible PDFs and archaic printed copies we lose everything we’ve learned in the four years here. Put knowledge online, make it public, make it accessible. Make assignments carry weight and authority for the years after school.

Whitman needs to reframe knowledge as a collective endeavor instead of an individual possession. If others can see what has come before them then they can truly start working on the problems of tomorrow.

Whitman is a great institution and, because of its size and student body, could be doing really innovative things with its academic programs. Instead, Whitman classes recycle the same types of learning and assessments. This no longer works and, more importantly, is not what Whitties need if we are to go on to positions of leadership in our world. We need a Whitman College that embraces knowledge systems open to all and information that remains accessible beyond the confines and comfort zones of classrooms.

Note: Unfortunately the space constraints of this column prevented me from going into detailed specifics about how some of this could be accomplished. If you are interested in reading those specifics I will be posting them online in the coming weeks.

Joshua Smith ’07, a religion major, said his liberal arts education presented him with new ways to think about his faith and engage in dialogue with the members of his church. Smith attends Journey Church in Walla Walla along with a number of past and present Whitties.

“Whitman is a very different entity than most church organizations comprised mainly of Walla Wallans;  it’s been an interesting road to walk,” said Smith. “Every time there’s a controversial issue brought up, politically, Whitman students and alumni don’t necessarily disagree with the community, but they process things very differently.”

Smith described one way some Journey members have thought about marriage rights.

“Some who have grown up in Walla Walla with Republican backgrounds would say that homosexuality is sinful, therefore we want to uphold marriage between a man and woman, therefore we don’t want same-sex marriage, therefore we’re going to vote with the Republican ticket,” Smith explained. “Or, sometimes being a Republican is first in the line of reasoning; we’re Republican, therefore we want to uphold marriage [between] a man and a woman.”

In contrast, Smith observed that Whitman alumni and students at his church tend to think about this relationship in a different way.

“I think the Christian Whitman students recognize that there shouldn’t be an intrinsic relationship between Republicans and Christians. They realize these need to be separated. To assume that because you’re a Republican, you’re also a Christian or that you’re a Christian because you’re a Republican is not true,” he said.

Martin Wagner ’83, a geology major, noted that the ability to approach an issue from many different angles was one of the most important skills he learned at Whitman, and one he uses every day as an attorney specializing in environmental justice.

“Particularly for being a lawyer, but I think really for being a human being, it’s a bad idea to be too narrowly focused on any particular thing when you’re an undergraduate,” said Wagner. “As a lawyer, you want to be able to understand how things work. It’s useful to have a breadth of knowledge, but it’s important to have that training in analytical thinking, writing and speaking that you can then apply to whatever specific area of law you’re practicing.”

Like Wagner, Caleb Foster ’91 was able to apply the skills he gained during his time at Whitman to his career. Shortly after graduating from Whitman with a degree in English, Foster took a job at a local winery and learned how to make wine on the job from his boss, who hired him solely on the basis of his being a Whitman graduate. Having never received technical training in wine making or attended business school, Foster and his wife Nina, also a Whitman alum, now co-own Buty Winery in Walla Walla and are involved in all aspects of wine making including production, marketing and financing.

“If you had told me graduation day that I would work at a winery—let alone own a winery—I would have laughed out loud,” said Foster. “Now, when I go to work at the winery, Nina and I adapt all the aspects of our learning to what we do. One of the reasons I love the wine business, and the reason my boss was correct in his assessment that a Whitman College student would be the perfect person to bring on board, is because Whitman students have the holistic perspective you need to understand how wine fits into the world and how to communicate that.”

Smith shared Wagner and Foster’s belief that the liberal arts provides students with an ideal education. However, he acknowledges that this perspective on the liberal arts is also idealistic, noting that attending schools like Whitman is not affordable for many students.

“Cost is really prohibitive for the tier of lower-class families,” Smith said. “With the way compound interest works, in 20 years Whitman could cost as much as $100,000 per year. A legitimate concern is: How are we expected to afford this? Luckily, most of those schools give out very healthy financial aid to compensate.”

Another concern is that liberal arts educations may not prepare students well for actually securing a career—an anxiety highlighted by the New York Times in a recent article about the popularity of internships. Wagner said that when he started doing field work after college, he sometimes felt less prepared than some students from larger universities.

“When I graduated from Whitman there’s no doubt I felt a little bit behind some of the students who had gone to less-liberal arts focused schools,” said Wagner. “For example, when I went to do a summer field camp as part of requirement for the geology department, I remember feeling that there were people at that camp from big universities with a lot more exposure to technical geology than I had, and they definitely knew things I didn’t know,” said Wagner. “But I remember feeling very confident of my preparation to continue learning and that I wouldn’t be behind for very long.”

Foster agrees [with Wagner] that liberal arts graduates may need to pursue other types of knowledge, like technical training, in careers that involve specialized areas of operation. However, after eight years of working with a consultant at Buty Winery, he has seen that technical expertise is only useful if incorporated in a broader perspective.

“We did lack something in the wine business and realized that if we wanted to accelerate our company and go to the top, we needed to know more. So we hired a consultant to give us a highly technical analysis of wine making,” said Foster. “But interestingly, nowadays when we meet with her, we don’t talk about technical wine making; we talk about everything from culture to international global trade to finance.”

All three alumni agree that students should not be overly apprehensive about the poor job market.

“I think if you’re coming from Whitman, you’re extremely well-prepared to have a career and a life that’s fulfilling for you,” said Wagner. “The particular situation in the economy may mean it takes a little longer to get there—maybe. But I think it’s important to be patient and not to expect to have your dream job or dream life right out of college.”

Foster agreed, stressing that ultimately, the best asset a student can possess in post-grad life is passion.

“Academia was instilled in me all my life, but that wasn’t where my passion lay. When I turned grapes into wine it was like magic, and ever since then I‘ve been interested in that field. I’ve been able to apply so much of what I learned at Whitman to the wine business.”

PR: We’re going to expand “Francis” from a 45-minute play it was last year into an hour and 15 min long play, and write two new songs for it and revise old songs, and kind of give it a better sense of leitmotif throughout. Then we’re going to have a couple events before the initial one- or two-weekend run of “Francis” in Seattle.

IJ: We’re hoping to do it on the either the middle weekend of August or the third weekend of August, or maybe both of them, but definitely before students are going to be returning back to Whitman if they’re from Seattle, so that you can be able to see it, you can be involved. We’re hoping to use as many Whitman students as are interested and we already have a lot of people interested, which is great, but Whitman will be well-represented.

We’re looking for a warehouse, or just a big room. It’ll be a total theatrical environment—there’ll be no lobby, there’ll be no transition area—you just walk in and you’re in the world of the play.

PR: Preferably the audience would be surrounding the action of the play in a way so that they can at any moment get up and participate in it.

IJ: We’re trying to liberate the audience member. Sitting in a rigid seat tells you where to look, and the most you do is turn your head maybe with a proscenium stage. But with the staging in this theater, people are going to be standing up, people are going to be turning around, people are going to be dancing maybe . . . people are going to be activated in a way that is really appropriate for this play.

PIO: How are you going to fund this project?

IJ: There are arts foundations we’re definitely applying to . . . and we’ll start applying basically once we graduate. There is an umbrella organization that allows us to accept donations under the 501c3 status, which means that people will be able to use donations as tax breaks without us being a 501c3 feeder ourselves. It’s called Fractured Atlas. We’re looking for individual donations on a small scale, and then on a big scale hopefully.

[Fractured Atlas would allow Jagel and Richards to accept tax-deductible donations as a 501c3 organization without actually having 501c3 status, via a system known as Fiscal Sponsorship.]

We’re mostly hoping for just enough money that will let us say we’re producing this in a pretty legitimate way. We’re not looking for tens of thousands of dollars by any means.

We’re also looking into using a lot of the network of theatre performance in the Seattle area, such as schools like UW, Seattle U . . . we want a lot of youth involved. We also want a lot of professionals and established people involved but we don’t want this to be a show for the people who are already doing theater. This is the new theater in Seattle.

PR: We’re not trying to make plays for people who go see plays, we’re trying to make plays for people who don’t go see plays.

We were talking to Cindy Croot, a theater professor here, and she said something that really resonated with both of us. She said, ‘Theater’s like a party, you invite people and they don’t come to be entertained by you, they’re going to come to have their own good time, and everybody at a party has their own good time.’ And I really like that description of theater because it gives everybody there the freedom to play like the actors play, because for me that’s one of the best parts about life, is this play, performance, whatever. But to allow other people to have it without the anxiety associated with performance is a really fun trick. I hope people fall for it.

The Pio: Will this project be the start of something larger?

IJ: We want to use this play as the jumping off point for future works, obviously.

PR: The other projects I’ve been thinking about really push the audience in more uncomfortable ways than this one does.  For instance, live sex onstage, really long duration of drug use onstage . . . These kinds of things that would make it kind of difficult to access in a way, but kind of thrilling in the same respect.

IJ: Nancy Simon, the theater professor here, has said to me that in the ’60s and ’70s it was the vogue to always have nudity, you didn’t do a play without nudity. Of course that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it was such a thing to do that you always did it and then people got over it, and in the theater I’ve seen you don’t see it anymore. We want to re-shake things up a little bit.

PR: I’ve seen a butt like once in the past 22 years I’ve been going to see plays in Seattle; what have I been doing wrong?

The Pio: Basically it sounds like you’re starting your own theater company—what gave you the confidence to attempt such an ambitious goal?

PR: It was Whitman that gave us this kind of confidence . . . to just be able to fail in front of a lot of people really shows you where success is, and I think we’ve seen this and we’ve had ideas about how other audiences are and how we can reach them.

IJ: We’ve been given a lot of tools in our education . . . so in a sense we don’t just have the responsibility, but we are entirely capable of producing interesting theatre of a high caliber. And even more importantly, what we are doing is not being done enough.

The Pio: Are you worried about audiences not being as receptive in “the outside world”?

PR: That’s something that’s really scary, but at the same time I think we’ve managed to convince people so far, so it just seems like, why not just push it and push it and see how far we can go? We’re just out of college you know, there’s nothing lost. It’s not like there’s other stuff we’d rather be doing. I wouldn’t rather get a job; I’d rather make art, and it’s sweet that we have the confidence and entitlement to be able to make art. It feels good, and so I think that’s another big reason, despite all the very real precautions that I’ve been hearing and I’m sure Ian has as well. Those kinds of fears just kind of get in the way of making something as good as it can be.

Photo Credit : Jacobson

From practicing journalism in Cambodia to teaching English in Thailand to fighting for the rights of low-wage workers in rural Washington, Whitties will pursue projects in all corners of the globe next year after receiving a diversity of fellowships, scholarships and grants. Whitman students and alumni received a wider variety of awards this year than in previous years, receiving funding for independent travel and study, teaching assistantships, research grants, placement in non-governmental organizations and graduate study.

“I’m delighted not only that Whitman students received such a great diversity of awards but also that so many class years of students and alumni are represented,” said Keith Raether, director of fellowships and grants.

Senior Seth Bergeson, one of two Whitman recipients of the prestigious Watson Fellowship, plans to study children’s games and childhood experiences in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, India and China. His project will focus on how games reflect societies and childhood experiences, while also examining the effects of gender, class and ethnicity.

As part of the Watson, Bergeson will receive a $25,000 grant for independent travel and study. He is excited that his Watson project fits with his overall career goals.

“I would like to do something internationally with children’s rights and global education, so my Watson will allow me to get to the very core of this—what children experience growing up around the world and how communities understand childhood,” he said in an e-mail.

Senior Nadim Damluji is Whitman’s other Watson recipient this year, whose project “Following Tintin’s Footsteps: Reconciling the Charm of Hergé’s Racism” will lead him to Belgium, France, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and India.

“I will trace the colonial implications of Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin by reconciling how the comic is both beloved and ultimately racist,” Damluji said in an article on the Whitman website. “First, I will study the cultural impact of Tintin as a beloved European icon. Second, I will retrace Tintin’s travels through the ‘Orient’ to see how modern cartoonists in these locations resist Hergé’s Orientalist representation. Through a series of interviews in these five countries I will examine how modern readers make sense of Tintin.”

Senior Dan Will is a recipient of a Fulbright grant, one of the nation’s most competitive awards. He will participate in a teaching assistantship in Germany, where he will help with middle and high school English classes.

Will hopes to pursue a career in international politics and sees the Fulbright grant as a way to gain a new international perspective.

“I am most looking forward to becoming integrated in the German culture and language, and to sharing my language and culture,” he said in an e-mail. “I am always very interested to learn about other people and their worldviews. Germany is also a very exciting place to live and is very well connected to the rest of Europe.”

Senior Jane Lutken will spend a year in Lille, France after receiving a Fullbright grant to participate in a teaching assistantship sponsored by the French Ministry of Education. She looks forward to returning to France after having studied abroad there.

Photo Credit : Jacobson

“I did a teaching internship while I was [abroad],” said Lutken. “I absolutely loved it, so I’m most excited to get to experience teaching English again. I’m also excited to improve my French and live in France again.”

Senior Nicole West, a recipient of the Princeton in Asia fellowship, will be teaching English at a K-6 school in Nan, Thailand. West is interested in a career in global health, and she believes that this fellowship will help her pursue her career goals.

“It’s an opportunity to get some work experience in a developing country (which is especially important for grad school), develop some language skills and live in Thailand,” said West in an e-mail. “Hopefully, I will also be able to find a local health organization to get involved with as well.”

Applying for a fellowship involves a great deal of work for students. According to Raether, seniors who are interested in fellowships often apply to more than one program because the competition is fierce. Typically, applicants need to have a strong academic record, demonstrated leadership experience and lots of involvement in extracurricular activities.

The essays that students write are an especially crucial part of the application; applicants also need strong letters of recommendation from professors or employers. In addition, many fellowships require language experience, a qualification many students fulfill by studying abroad.

The selection process differs depending on the fellowship. Some fellowships involve an internal nomination process, where students’ applications are reviewed by Whitman, before an applicant progresses to the national level.

In the case of the Watson Fellowship, for example, an internal selection committee composed of Raether and faculty members appointed by the dean of the faculty select up to four Whitman students to move to the national Watson selection committee. The same internal competition is true for the Truman, Rhodes and Mitchell scholarships.

Yet other fellowships require that students submit their applications directly to the national selection committee, without having been screened by an internal Whitman selection committee.

Some fellowships are only available to participating schools, which limits the application pool. While the application process is certainly long and complex, it is also very rewarding for the applicants.

“It is a lot of work, but it is the most rewarding kind of work, because the students are doing all this interior thinking that will inform other applications for grad school, cover letters for jobs and essay competitions,” said Raether.

Photo Credit : Bullion

College is the new high school. The emphasis is as much on personal growth and development as on academics; as much about learning to kayak as mastering economics. The Whitman Web site says that students here “find a balance between challenging academics and developing enduring and meaningful personal relationships through an involved campus community.” And it’s true; when I look at the student body I see active, involved students. I applaud the emphasis on exploring a diversity of interests, but I admit that I was done with high school when I graduated in 2006. I was ready to specialize, and that’s not what people do at Whitman.

This move toward holistic learning sounds good on paper—it lured me and all of my close friends to private liberal arts colleges—but many of us found our eyes were bigger than our stomachs; we found that after working so hard in high school to prove ourselves well-rounded enough to gain entrance to an educational institution like Whitman, we absolutely did not want to become rounder.

Staring off into the big unknown, with friends shouldering debt without any employable skills, with friends who value their time at Whitman but recognize they could have just gone and done what they wanted to do, makes me realize that the well-rounded educational model risks erasing all your sharp edges, the edges that hook into areas and make you want to do that thing, that one thing, and do it well enough to get paid for it. In this economy, is it acceptable to educate students in this model and tell them that the requisite investment of time and money is a good one?

In other words: Whitman is not enough about academics, and it is not up-front about what kind of life academics prepares you for. I’d like to see more policy-oriented classes, more classes partnering with local businesses and institutions so that the worth of our classes in the “real world” is palpable; if that worth cannot be traced directly to the “real world,” then those classes, those fields, need to be explicit about the fact that their worth is in academia, that the “Whitman bubble” more or less leads to the bubble of another, higher academic institution. Until Whitman makes this transfer, it is simply another high school, preparing us not for the world but for more academics.

Ralph Nader spoke at Cordiner Hall last week, and though I found his talk mostly scattershot and boring, he articulated something that had been floating around my brain for a while: This is an incredible position we young people are in—we may be wiser in later decades, have fuller lives, but we will likely never again have this freedom, this creativity to shape our lives, this idealism, this ability to move to Washington, DC, for a poverty-line policy job. Instead, where are we? Incurring thousands of dollars of debt for the opportunity to incur more debt.

So, as I leave Whitman, this is what I want to say: Grow up, people. Find something and do it. Whitman, you’re great at aiding us in our search. Help us in the doing, too.

Even though many graduating seniors will have parents and other relatives in town this weekend, and thus the opportunity to experience restaurants that are normally out of reach, The Pioneer wants to highlight several of Walla Walla’s new, lower-cost options spanning a wide range of genres—from bar/lounge to café/marketplace to high-end soup/sandwich place.

Olive Marketplace and Café

Credit: Cornelius

When local restaurant owners Tom Maccarone and Jake Chenshaw decided earlier this year to expand their upscale establishment, T. Maccarone’s, which opened in 2005, one of their main goals may have been to break into the middle tier of the restaurant market. With a dinner menu that hovers in the $20-$30 range, T. Maccarone’s provides top-notch food, but isn’t always accessible to locals, who often can’t afford the prices that out-of-town wine tourists are willing to pay.
Their solution was Olive Marketplace and Café, which opened in January of 2010, offering a selection of excellent lunch and dinner items like their falafel sandwich ($9), their slow roasted pork sandwich ($10) and their vegetarian lasagna. The new lunch and dinner spot took the place of Merchant’s Ltd., a French eatery which Maccarone and Crenshaw purchased to make their expansion, and that offered comparable prices.
While I could get lunch for $5 at a taco truck, Olive offers an attractive step up—both in quality of food and ambiance—for only a slight step up in price.
For a more complete review by The Pioneer’s restaurant reviewer, Bécquer Medak-Seguín, see whitmanpioneer.com/arts/reviews.

21 East Main Street
509-526-0200
Open 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 6 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday & Saturday

Graze

Credit: Cornelius

The perfect lunch spot. With tasty and relatively inexpensive specialty sandwiches like the portabella mushroom panini with aged cheddar, béchamel and provolone, Graze has carved itself a distinct niche in the downtown lunch scene. In addition to their solid line-up of sandwiches—most of which are under $10—they offer variety of salads and daily soup. As an added bonus, it’s located just down the way from the Colville Street Patisserie, which makes an attractive option for dessert.
The premises are tiny but cozy, and regularly fill to capacity during peak lunch hours. The atmosphere may not feel as refined as that of places like Brasserie Four or even Olive, but that’s not what I’m looking for when I go to Graze. This relatively informal sandwich shop really doesn’t pretend to be anything more or less than it is—as the sign out front says, it’s simply “A Place to Eat.”

5 South Colville Street
509-522-9991
Open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday

Red Monkey Downtown Lounge

The first question that springs to mind when I think about Red Monkey is, “What exactly is this place?” Is it a bar? Is it a lounge? Is it a “club?” While it doesn’t fit any of these labels exactly, Red Monkey definitely offers something unique to Walla Walla. My first experience there came during the senior class’s 25 days to graduation celebration, when Whitman seniors were offered no cover charge and special deals on drinks. Given these incentives, I had a great time, but without them, I’m sometimes left wondering whether Walla Walla really needs a club. From a Whitman student’s perspective, at least, on-campus parties can offer just about anything a place like Red Monkey can, and for only a fraction of the cost.
When they opened earlier this school year, Red Monkey had to overcome these sentiments exactly: Many perceived it as overly-expensive and impractical. Even Whitman students, who were most likely one of the main demographics it sought to target, largely stayed away from the place because of its five-dollar cover charge and overall expensive-sounding nature. Yet the longer it’s been around, the more it seems to be attracting patrons. With a variety of moderately-priced menu items—mostly burgers and the like—Red Monkey is building a solid reputation not only for its atmosphere, but for its food as well.

25 West Alder Street
509-522-3865
Open daily 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

When I got home with my diploma, I was about as stressed as I’ve ever been. I’d earned national finalist status in three separate fellowships . . . and been turned down for all three. Everyone at graduation asked me what my plans were, and my shoulders slumped a little more every time I answered that I didn’t know. In a few weeks I was laying on my parent’s couch, jobless, angry that I didn’t have the answers and convinced that I should know what to do with my life.

Believe me, whether you’re setting out for an internship or a job, whether you’re traveling or doing Teach for America, whether you’re unemployed or taking a full ride to graduate school, you’re going to have these “couch moments” eventually. But as a few friends recently pointed out to me, even if you could plot your life out at 23, why would you want to?

Robert Goheen once wrote of leaving college that, “If you feel that you have both feet planted on level ground, then the university has failed you.” The successful graduate, I’ve come to believe, is not the one who leaves with answers, but with the greatest drive to keep exploring. Frankly, “What am I going to do with my life?” isn’t a question we can answer at our age. Rather, the question to ask is, “What do I want to do NOW, and what do I want to try NEXT?”

The world is full of people who think they have life figured out and want to tell you too. Why listen? Right now, most of us have no kids, no mortgage and nothing tying us to a particular place or profession. We have a brief window where we’re truly free to explore.

With no regular job to occupy me, I ended up taking a stand-up comedy class. I was initially terrified (fear is a great compass), but I ended up loving it. That experience gave me the confidence to volunteer to speak at a student libertarian conference. It was nerve wracking, but I ended up meeting and impressing the man who just became my boss. Know what I do now? I just became the director of operations for a non-profit that teaches libertarianism in camps all around the world. At the end of the month I leave for Slovokia and Poland, all thanks to just one chance I would never have taken had I landed a regular job, and surrendered the need to explore.

So my advice to you is this: Fight, for as long as you are able, the desire to seek routine. Explore every odd hobby, every interesting job opportunity and every quirky relationship that you get a chance at. Fail a little, so you can figure out what doesn’t work for you. You’ll discover opportunities and things about yourself that will shock you. Just make your best guess as to what decision or action will most help you flourish, and take it. Repeat as necessary. You’ll find that most of your choices are less about picking paths than about overcoming fear.

So whether it’s days, weeks, months or years before you find yourself in a “couch” situation, remember this: You don’t succeed by knowing more than others. You succeed by being willing to risk living the most, with both the pain and the promise that involves. Someone may ask you that dreaded question at graduation “so what are you going to do now?” When you tell them you’re not sure, stand up straight, look them in the eye, and smile.

By Roman Goerss

Harrison Fulop – Vocal Performance Music major

Credit: Bowman

Building upon the knowledge and experience gained from college is an ideal sought after by many students. For Harrison Fulop, the possibility of furthering the skills and connections he has gained at Whitman is now a reality.

Fulop focused much of his time at Whitman intensively honing his vocal skills, singing in both Chorale and Chamber Singers, performing in student ensembles and bands and competing in Northwest regional vocal competitions. Next fall, Fulop will begin studying at the University of Missouri—Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. In addition to pursuing a Master’s degree in vocal music performance, Fulop hopes to become part of the opera scene.

“I really want to focus on improving theatricality and getting into the zone of opera singing,” said Fulop, mentioning the only operas he has performed in at Whitman, “Cosi Fan Tutte” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” “The two operas that I’ve done here are the only times I’ve really acted since sixth grade.”

In addition to doing opera performance, Fulop hopes to continue studying under his current teacher, Dr. Robert Bode, who by coincidence, is also relocating to UM—KC this fall. Bode formerly served as the head of choral studies at Whitman and Fulop’s voice coach for the past four years.

“I’m simultaneously really excited because I have plans already and really sad because I’ve been incredibly happy for four years,” said Fulop. “I’ll probably be the guy coming back in 25 years who’s wide-eyed and looking at everything that I used to see on a daily basis.”

Katie Higgins – Studio Art/French major

Credit: Cornelius

Art and literature have fascinated Katie Higgins for most of her life—but not without surprises along the way. During her time at Whitman, Higgins came to embrace the idea of working both as an artist and as an advocate of children’s literature.

Higgins explained that her aspirations began during freshman year, while taking a beginning course in book arts and a literature class on children’s folklore and mythology. Higgins said that her book arts class remains one of favorite memories at Whitman, adding that her instructor for that course, Assistant Professor of Art Mare Blocker, inspired her to become a studio art major.

“[Blocker] is also such a wonderful resource, very encouraging, and very knowledgeable in her area,” said Higgins.

Higgins later began working in community service and education programs that focus on children, such as the Whitman Mentor Program, Environmental Education for Kid and the Whitman Story Time Project. Last summer, Higgins created “Summers with Katie,” a series of two-week literature and art camps for children based in her home town of Boise, Idaho.

Higgins is set to marry this summer, and in the fall, she will begin studying at the Harvard Arts in Education Program.

“It’s nerve-racking but also very exciting that I’m entering into this very specialized field,” said Higgins. “I get to follow something I’m very passionate about to a higher level.”

Peter Richards – Theatre/English major

Credit: Bullion

After four years, Peter Richards has both stayed involved in Whitman’s theater department, and maintained his enthusiasm for collaborative projects with fellow student artists—and it has paid off.

As co-creator of the student-based theater troupe, 12 Stones, Richards gained experience in organizing student writers and actors to produce student-led productions on campus. After graduation, Richards will move to Seattle and begin the process of creating a theater production company based on 12 Stones.

“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to continue being an artist,” said Richards, explaining that he will work in partnership with senior Ian Jagel, his friend and collaborator for 12 Stones. “I’m glad that I’ll be in a position to make art and collaborate with people.”

Until then, Richards can look back on his college experience through many landmark memories. Since freshman year, he has been an active member of Varsity Nordic, Whitman’s theatre sports group, and has also participated in at least two Harper Joy productions per semester, working in acting roles and as a sound designer.

“I’m happy that I’m graduating. That being said, I’m going to miss the incredible safety that is Whitman,” he said. “That’s one of the coolest things about this place; there’s safety in the community to just put yourself out there.”

It is fairly easy to gage the ebb and flow of cinematic expression in the popular arena and the last 12 months haven’t dared challenge many cornerstones of Hollywood’s status quo. The daring 3D effects of James Cameron’s “Avatar” predictably revolutionized the technology that goes into making films, offered a visual experience unlike anything we’ve seen since the days of the early “Star Wars” films in the ’70s and became the highest grossing film of all time, earning $2.7 billion so far, ousting the 12-year title holder “Titanic” (Cameron’s previous feature).

But, “Avatar,” predictably, was also a cinematic disaster with its story resembling a pathetic mish-mash of the worst aspects of Disney’s “Pocahontas,” Kevin Costner’s “Dances with Wolves” and “FernGully: The Last Rainforest.” Stereotypes reinforced, narrative ignored and acting left to rot—this should also remind you of “The Blind Side”—Cameron’s monstrous heap of images reminds us of the predictability of Hollywood these days.

This year, we’ve seen the release of two cinematic adaptations of Nicholas Sparks novels (“Dear John” and “The Last Song”) in as many months. We’ve seen an attempted kick-start to several household franchises, namely “Star Trek,” “Halloween,” “Terminator,” “X-Men,” “Friday the 13th” and, most recently, “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” And we’ve seen the release of Pixar’s yearly nonpareil: “Up.”

Cinema gets more unpredictable the further we stray from our blockbuster-acclimated comfort zone. Who would’ve thought that an anti-epic war film from the first female director to win an Oscar could beat out the likes of one of the many dumb behemoths populating the Academy Awards for Best Picture?

Who would’ve thought that another small film from a gay, black director about an obese, illiterate, teenage girl living in Harlem on welfare with an abusive mother and raising a child with Downs Syndrome would’ve raised so many mainstream eyebrows and garnered so much praise from the critical establishment and popular audience alike?

Many critics said, at the end of 2009, that the quality of films released had gone down. This may be true, especially when lots of films are built to follow the action-comedy synthesis paradigm evident in “Kick-Ass,” “The Bounty Hunter” or “Sherlock Holmes,” to name a few. Added to the recent shut-down of independent film distribution branches of many big studios, including Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse, the depreciation of film quality seems unavoidable given its current trajectory.

If there’s one thing to gain from this year, though, it may have been captured by the two films of exceptional quality that did find popular audiences. “The Hurt Locker” and “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” are evidence that good films can be appreciated by many people if they have immediate access to them. You don’t have to be an expert in cinematography or Italian neo-realism to marvel at the realization of a thoughtful story in a sequence of audiovisual moments. All you have to do is be willing to go a little out of your way to find films that might have otherwise gone under your radar.

Photo Credit : Linnea Bullion

Whitman students love to celebrate the merits of a liberal arts education. Unlike many other college students, we brag our educations are well-rounded. English majors must brave the science building at least a few times; physics majors are forced to write papers on Homer’s “Odyssey.” The idea is that Whitman graduates will have a broader base of knowledge upon graduation. The liberal arts education also emphasizes small class sizes, so that students can participate in lively intellectual discussion, rather than enduring lectures in massive auditoriums.

When I was searching for colleges my senior year of high school, small liberal arts schools topped my list. As a college senior about to graduate, what do I think? Has my liberal arts education lived up to the promise it held four years ago?

In many ways, I think it has. But sometimes at Whitman we focus too much on the argument and discussion, allowing some of the basics to get lost along the way. Upper-level politics classes follow the seminar format, in which students usually lead the class. Oftentimes, the discussion is lively, intellectually stimulating and allows students to reach their own meaningful conclusions about the subject at hand.

Occasionally, however, the focus on discussion in small classes becomes stifling. We can discuss the implications of a particular scholarly work or piece of legislation ad infinitum, but if we don’t have the solid foundation of knowledge to build our arguments off of, we won’t get the true benefits of a liberal arts education.

Whitman politics majors graduate with plenty of knowledge about neoliberal economic policies, but perhaps not enough about the basic workings of the political system. Before we politics students discuss the implications of neoliberalism or neocolonial economic enclaves, we need to have a solid foundational knowledge of the way the political system works. We need to be able to define terms like civil society, understand how a bill works its way from congressional subcommittee to the President’s desk, and describe important U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

As an environmental studies-politics combined major, I also think that the environmental studies department could do a better job of informing students about the workings of environmental policy. A certain unnamed chemistry professor prides himself on being the only professor to teach students the basics of important U.S. environmental laws.

Before environmental studies students ponder the meaning of deep ecology, we need to stand on firm intellectual ground. We should be able to explain the history of the environmental movement, expound on the scientific mechanisms behind climate change, and describe how important environmental laws function. All environmental studies students, whether their focus is humanities, politics or biology, should be able to explain the basic provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, know the different forcing potentials of various greenhouse gasses and explain why the environmental movement exploded during the social upheavals of the 1960s.

As Ralph Nader said in his lecture on May 5, colleges do a good job of educating students about the esoteric, but fare worse in preparing students to effectively participate in the political system. Nader suggested a dedicated civics course, but I don’t think Whitman even needs to go that far. Instead, we just need to focus a bit more on instilling the basics. If we do that, Whitman graduates will be better prepared to affect the world in positive ways.

So, four years later, am I happy with my Whitman education? Absolutely. I have learned a great deal and made lifelong friends here. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t make a good thing better.

Photo Credit : Cornelius

Senior Seth Bergeson was chosen by his classmates as this year’s student commencement speaker. A history major from Seattle, Bergeson is notorious for spending as much time in his room studying as socializing with his endless group of friends, which is to say, a lot. During his time at Whitman, Bergeson has maintained his chiseled calves through Whitman cycling, stayed in touch with his first-year roots by serving as an RA of Anderson, and gotten to know Danish prison systems by traveling overseas through a Humanity in Action Fellowship, among many other things. Yet Bergeson also has brought students together; he has mastered the art of fondue parties by ingeniously harmonizing students’ love of chocolate with their love of Hugh Grant movies.
Bergeson’s speech is titled “Pink Shorts and Idealism.”

Pioneer: How did you become commencement speaker?

Bergeson: Last fall, two of my housemates suggested that I should try to become commencement speaker. It was very early, but I was immensely flattered [and] as the time went on they encouraged me. [In April], there were about 10 [seniors] that nominated ourselves to be on a panel of potential speakers. We gave five-minute sample speeches . . . and then the seniors that attended this panel voted. It was also really interesting to see what a lot of my friends decided to speak about . . . I was really impressed by all the speeches. There were pieces about memories at Whitman, and there were also speeches passing on wisdom to current students that we have gained during our four years here. There were also some great Disney allusions.

Pioneer: What aspect of being the student commencement speaker are you looking forward to the most?

Bergeson: I enjoy public speaking and I’ve really enjoyed my Whitman experience and I’ve gotten to get to know a lot of people through the years. I think it will be a really great way for me to get closure on my Whitman experience, and also tie things together for others so they get closure as well. Senior year is a really interesting year, particularly at this time of year, because we are all gearing up for uncertain futures in a lot of ways. Some people know what they are doing next year . . . and a lot of people don’t—but we are leaving Whitman. That is really everything we have known for the last four years. Even when you study abroad, you have Whitman before, and return to Whitman after. I think it’s also a very nice personal touch to commencement, because commencement is mainly about the formalities and giving out the diplomas. I’m very honored to be representing the senior class because I’ve learned a lot from them.

Pioneer: What does your speech focus on?

Bergeson: Well, it’s an interesting speech because you only get five minutes and you are trying to tie together a bunch of threads of your Whitman experience and speak to the future—you’re speaking of the past, present and future. The speech is currently called “Pink Shorts and Idealism,” and the pink shorts are a reference to these very small pink running shorts that I owned in high school and I wore during the first week of school when I was running an ASWC campaign . . . It’s about how these pink shorts are a symbol of this idealism that I came into Whitman with—and am definitely leaving Whitman with. But the speech is a story about what happened to that idealism, and then what else I’ve learned  that you need to complement idealism with. [The] speech is also about the insecurity of moving beyond Whitman, [moving] outside of this really controlled setting of Whitman that we have really come to love.

Pioneer: How has Whitman influenced you during the last four years?

Bergeson: I’ll say that Whitman has been incredibly formative. And as senior year is coming to an end, I think I’ve changed a lot and developed a lot of my character from my time at Whitman . . . I think Whitman has developed a lot of my creativity and imagination and helped me think really critically about many interesting ideas. Along with that it’s complicated a lot of ideas that I used to think were very basic and simple . . . I don’t think Whitman has jaded us but it definitely taught us how to approach all ideas much more critically, and also to weigh a lot of different options. And I think my speech points at that. I do think Whitman teaches us to approach an ever-complex world and involve ourselves . . . I think that the speech will interest and appeal to those at Whitman and beyond our community. It speaks to many questions that people ask about an ever more complex world.

What you should read this summer:

“Inherent Vice,” Thomas Pynchon

Published last summer, Pynchon’s hardboiled detective novel is what’s known as “stoner” or “psychedelic” noir (think a ’70s version of “The Big Lebowski”). Since the protagonist, gum-“sandal” Larry “Doc” Sportello, spends most of his investigation high (and garners valuable clues through hallucinations), that’s not a bad label. Set in 1970 during the Manson trials, this book is an alternately hilarious and sad tribute to the end of an era. Also, it’s definitely easier to get through than most of Pynchon’s other novels.

“The End of Mr. Y,” Scarlett Thomas

Ariel Manto, a graduate student at an unnamed British university, finds the last existing copy of a cursed book called “The End of Mr. Y” in a used bookstore. What follows is part spy adventure, part science fiction, part philosophical rant. Thomas meshes Derrida, time travel, secret government experiments and Victorian scientific romance in a fashion that is at once absurd and thoughtful, though admittedly droning at times, if you’re not one for philosophical ramblings.

“Kafka on the Shore,” Haruki Murakami

Kafka Tamura runs away from home for dark and nebulous reasons. An elderly man named Nakata searches for a lost pet using his strange ability to talk to cats. Somehow, their paths are intertwined. Spiraling, meandering and musing, this novel explores themes of loss, friendship and loneliness without ever becoming trite. Like they said at The Washington Post: Haruki Murakami “writes uncanny, philosophical, postmodern fiction that’s actually fun to read.”

What I will be reading this summer:

“PopCo,” Scarlett Thomas

Alice Butler is smart but slightly bizarre, and she works for the titular British toy company. Along with her colleagues, she is tasked with creating the “ultimate product for the teen girl market” (Booklist). There are mysterious messages and secret codes and, according to Publisher’s Weekly, “a pointed cultural critique that will especially resonate with the ‘No Logo’ crowd.” I’m looking forward to the same familiarity with explaining philosophy that Thomas demonstrated in “The End of Mr. Y.”

“The Rediscovery of Man: The Collected Short Stories of Cordwainer Smith,” Cordwainer Smith

Cordwainer Smith was a pulp science fiction writer in the ’50s and ’60s. His stories are disturbing and lyrical, written as legends of a society thousands of years in our future. Mankind has decayed and grown stagnant, to the point that the “Instrumentality,” humanity’s governing body, must reintroduce old Earth culture in order to keep the species alive. From the Cold War spy thriller-esque “No, No, Not Rogov!” to the deeply creepy “A Planet Named Sheyol,” these stories speak not to a future of star-traveling freedom fighters or shiny ray guns, but to a future where we, as people, are struggling to recapture our own humanity.

“Nobody Move,” Denis Johnson

Originally published as a serial novel in Playboy Magazine (a point no reviewer fails to make), “Nobody Move” is apparently about some skeezy lowlifes and a whole lot of dough (the green kind) in Bakersfield, Calif. Outrageous, funny and gritty, Denis Johnson’s novel is “so noir it’s almost pitch-black,” according to The New Yorker. I’m expecting it to be hilariously filthy.

Photo Credit : von Hafften

In 1836 Marcus Whitman and Henry Spalding founded a mission at the behest of the American Board of Foreign Missions. It was established at Waiilatpu, near present-day Walla Walla. Because of non-payment for property taken by the mission, encroachment on American Indian trade and the constant outbreak of diseases introduced by the mission, a group of Cayuse, Umatilla and Nez Perce banded together and killed the Whitmans, along with others, in 1847. This set the stage for U.S. military engagement to kill American Indians and conquer the Washington and Oregon territories in the so-called “Cayuse War.” After most of the natives were killed or forced onto a reservation, the Reverend Cushing Eells decided to establish a seminary in order to honor the Whitmans. On Nov. 28, 1883, the Washington Territorial Legislature amended Whitman Seminary’s charter, creating the four-year, degree-granting institution Whitman College.

Whitman College was founded to honor and commemorate the genocide on the North American continent—a genocide that continues today. This is a reality that seems to be lost on most current and former Whitman students, but I hope it is not lost on us all that our education here is decidedly political. Whether we wish to engage with this politics or not, we unavoidably participate in it.

I don’t intend merely to decry Whitman College for being an institution of privilege. I want to impart a little bit of my views on my education here in the service of living more fully and justly.

To live more fully and justly does require us to have a sense of what kind of problems we are arrayed against, and some of the problems of the world haven’t yet been teased into easy formulations. Part of the work that we have done here, and part of the work we have yet to do, is to decide what exactly the problems are and how we will go about approaching them.

Posing things we take for granted as problems to be overcome and obstacles to critical thought is just one way of questioning the privilege we inherit. But it is a useful exercise: The problem of Whitman’s history does not mean we are all condemned to blindly repeat genocide. Telling this history is also not to say that we are bad people who deserve to be punished. Far from it.

The problem of Whitman’s history gives us a unique opportunity to question and critique the kinds of thinking that make genocide possible. It gives us a particular framework to view the problem of living in the world, one that changes in myriad ways the paradigms that we brought to the school.

There’s a cliché that a liberal arts education is about learning how to think, and there’s some truth to that, but what I’m struck by lately is that learning how to think doesn’t necessarily privilege one way of thinking over others. Every day and situation is an opportunity to expand possibilities for life and thought. The point is to think about it.

It’s not easy living anywhere and Whitman is no exception. Although it can seem idyllic, all of its students face problems of their own: depression, sleeplessness, laziness, substance abuse, etc. The hardships faced at Whitman, however, are very different from some of the hardships faced by people in other parts of the world, or even right next-door. So whether you’re calling out the asshole in Gucci sneakers or you’re the one sporting them, climbing rocks or mining them, traveling in Europe with your family or working in an airport, I hope you’re giving it serious thought.

“There’s been an upswelling of concern across the country that’s been reflected here at Whitman,” said senior Campus Sustainability Coordinator Lisa Curtis, who believes that Whitman has taken important steps in addressing climate change.

Curtis attributes the number of successful environmental projects on campus in part to the Sustainability Revolving Loan Fund, which provides loans of up to $50,000 for projects that will make Whitman more sustainable and pay back over a five-year period. The fund was established last year and had its first successful round of applicants this year. Funds were used to start Student Agriculture at Whitman, which hopes to expand beyond its current microgreens project on the roof of the science building to produce more campus-grown food. Other projects included purchasing a solvent recycler for the chemistry department and installing more efficient aerators on campus sinks.

Another major project was the installation of solar panels on the roof of the Bratton Indoor Tennis Center. The 21-kilowatt panels were installed last summer and began generating energy in September. Funded by alumni donations and a grant from Pacific Power, the panels have offset 20-25 percent of the tennis center’s electricity use.

Senior Elena Gustafson agrees that Whitman has made a number of important changes. In addition to large projects like the Bratton solar panels, she believes smaller efforts that focus on conservation are an important component of campus sustainability. She cited the GoPrint program, which gives students a $50 printing budget per semester, as an example.

“Freshman and sophomore year, there’d be stacks of paper in the printers that didn’t get picked up,” she said. Since GoPrint was inaugurated last year, paper waste has declined by 15 percent.

Gustafson would like to see the college do more to encourage small acts of conservation, like putting signs by light switches reminding people to turn them off and providing shower timers to residence halls.

“An ethic of conservation is essential for any green issue that you’re working on,” she said.

Jed Schwendiman, associate to the president and co-chair or the Conservation and Recycling Committee, feels that conservation is valued at Whitman.

“Not everyone wears a big badge that screams, ‘I’m an environmentalist’ on their chest, but I think there is an ethic of conservation and sustainability that permeates the institution,” he said.

Several campus environmental leaders said that while Whitman does foster environmentalism, the college needs to do more to encourage sustainable behavior and limit waste.

“I don’t think we push conservation enough,” said Bob Carson, Grace Fransworth Phillips professor of geology and environmental studies. He cited wasteful paper use as an example, saying that he constantly sees people using brand new envelopes for campus mail and only writing on one side of the paper.

“We could save a lot of money and a lot of trees if we were to get serious,” he said.

Senior Camila Thorndike agreed that conservation could be emphasized more.

“I don’t see many visible behavior-changing campaigns,” she said. For her, the question to be asked is, “How can we create a culture where we all hold ourselves accountable?”

For some students, sustainability means finding ways to connect with the community around them. Thorndike co-founded the Network for Young Walla Walla to encourage dialogue with other community members about environmental and social issues.

“A large part of the network was using social links to create a culture of sustainability,” she said. Part of this effort involved considering the economic, environmental and social impacts of a program and looking for solutions that can be environmentally friendly while providing jobs or benefiting people in another way.

Thorndike said another benefit of the network was the ability to share information between Walla Walla’s three colleges, so clubs or individuals trying to start a project could look at similar efforts that have already been made.

Senior Natalie Popovich, meanwhile, has worked to make Walla Walla more sustainable by organizing the distribution of compact fluorescent light bulbs to low-income neighborhoods. This year, the E-Justice group, which is a part of Campus Climate Challenge, distributed about 2,000 light bulbs to Walla Walla homes.

“The most important thing is the interaction between students and community members,” she said. Students who participate in the project have an opportunity to educate community members who might not otherwise know about changes they can make to be more environmentally friendly in their day-to-day lives.

Campus Climate Challenge initially considered pursuing the project as a means to give Whitman credit for carbon offsets, but Popovich said that idea was delayed until they could be sure offsets were a good idea.

“There was a risk of absolving Whitman of its own responsibility to lower carbon emissions,” she said. “We’re still emitting the same amount. It’s better than nothing, but it’s more important to focus on what [the college is] doing.”

Popovich would like to find a way for Whitman to invest in more local projects to reduce carbon emissions. Buying carbon offsets from a large national organization might produce more renewable energy, but it has little local effect. In contrast, she said projects which are community-based reduce emissions by the same amount but also create a domino effect, where community members become more aware of sustainability.

“People will be more conscious of their own actions and their own ability to affect change,” she said.

Many students involved in environmental clubs and efforts on campus feel that better advertising and awareness would benefit their work. For example, residence hall sections can request a compost bin and take their food scraps to the organic garden, but very few people are aware of this. Recyclable items like colored glass and certain types of plastic are often thrown away because of misconceptions about Walla Walla’s recycling program.

Junior Campus Greens President Nat Clarke said he hopes to combat this by providing a “green” orientation session for the incoming class of 2014. In past years, green sessions have been voluntary or completely absent from orientation. This year, for the first time, incoming first-years will have a mandatory presentation about campus sustainability and environmental issues.

“All of the ‘secret’ information that green clubs try to disseminate throughout the year won’t be secret anymore,” said Clarke.
The college could also hire a full-time staff member to be the Sustainability Coordinator. For the past two years, a single student intern has filled the position. For the coming school year, there will be two student interns. Curtis feels that this is a step in the right direction, but still not enough. She said about 300 colleges and universities around the country employ a full-time sustainability coordinator.

“We deserve that sort of support,” she said.

As Whitman continues to look for ways to improve sustainability, student ideas and projects will continue to play a large role. Thorndike said that looking back on her time at Whitman, the efforts she has been involved in outside of class have been the most memorable.

“Passing your classes is important, but the things I’m most proud of here are the projects I’ve taken on of my own initiative,” she said. “[Walla Walla] is a really wonderful place. You’ve got to put yourself out there to figure that out.”

“Whatever it is they are doing . . . they want to be engaged, they want to do something that makes a difference, they want to move ahead with their lives and so they are very eager to do something significant,” said Susan Buchanan, director of the student engagement center.

Many seniors are planning on taking a year off to work with civil service programs that will allow them to continue learning through experiences in a non-academic setting.

“It’s the culture of Whitman College to take a year to explore career options, gain skills or prepare for graduate school,” said Buchanan.

Senior Jacqueline Kamm will be one such graduate; she will work for Teach for America in Denver, Colo. next year.

“I hadn’t planned on being a teacher but I think it’s a really great program that is addressing one of the biggest issues in our country, the education system, and it’s a great way to give back and do something very different from anything I’ve ever done in my life,” she said.

Other seniors are entering programs specific to their major. Senior religion major Michela Corcorran will be working in Washington D.C. this summer as the civil rights intern for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Corcorran expressed a belief that her Whitman education has prepared her for her future career interests.

“Since I’m immersing myself in a different culture and a different lifestyle . . . being able to deal with that appropriately and be self-conscious of my own place in that different culture or situation is important,” she said. “I think Whitman has prepared me a lot for those types of experiences.”

Some seniors plan on going straight to graduate school. Liz Matresse, an English major, will go to Saint Andrews University in Scotland this fall to pursue a Master of Letters in Medieval Literature.

“I wonder if, in some cases, [the writtens and orals at Whitman] are harder then things I’ll have to do there,” Matresse said.

For senior Ryan Finnegan, his Whitman experience helped him decide on his career as an Officer in the Marines. After receiving his diploma on May 23, Finnegan will swear into the military on May 27. Though military enlistment is not a consideration for most Whitman graduates, there is a small but steady tradition of military service.

“Whitman is why I did this route. In high school I wanted to be a teacher; all the opportunities at Whitman let me find out that I didn’t want to, at least not right now,” Finnegan said, noting that he also sought advice from alumni. “If I hadn’t taken [a] practical field experience class I might still be on that track.”

Other students will go straight into the world of work. Senior Maryn Juergens has a job lined up with Microsoft.  Juergens found her position through interviews with alumni arranged by the Student Engagement Center. She will be at Microsoft as a part of their College Hiring program which will train her for further positions and allow her to consider graduate school.

Juergens said that her Whitman education taught her how to think well.

“I think the most important thing about the liberal arts education at Whitman is that I’ve learned how to think, and I know that’s really an amorphous skill but . . . I know how to write, how to research, how to critically analyze a problem and find a solution, and I think that’s . . . a lot of what [Microsoft] wanted,” said Juergens.

Many seniors expressed similar sentiments about their Whitman experience, often agreeing that Whitman cultivates thought, global awareness and an ability analyze.

“I’m really really happy with my Whitman experience,” said senior Seth Bergeson, who was awarded a Watson Fellowship. “I think Whitman has really fostered innovative and creative thought and also thinking outside the box . . . What I’ve really taken away is the power of listening to people and really exchanging ideas.”

Buchanan is proud of the class of 2010 for continuing to excel despite the current job market.

“They fall along the same lines as what our students have done in past years,” said Buchanan. “It’s wonderful to see them moving ahead.”

Whether students are continuing onto graduate school, civil service or internships or are still in the midst of defining future plans, the class of 2010 appears to be off to a multitude of adventures.

“I’m just really excited and really lucky and I realize that and I do think it’s because of Whitman, I mean, it is because of Whitman, that I am where I am both in terms of the skills and the connections,” said Juergens.

Credit: Lerchin

When Los Campesinos! and No Age came to town last week, we sat down with frontman Gareth Campesinos! and No Age’s Randy Randall. The full interviews with both are available online on KWCW‘s station blog.

Williams, who was born in Panama but spent most of his childhood in New York, graduated from Haverford College in 1976 with a degree in philosophy. Since then, he has worked as a journalist for a number of national publications; aside from his 23-year tenure as a correspondent for the Washington Post, Williams has written pieces for the Wall Street Journal, Time, the Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times. He is the author of multiple books that address issues of African American history and contemporary African American leadership.

“Students expect to hear from someone whose ideas will challenge them,” President George Bridges said about the school’s selection of Williams as this year’s commencement speaker. He said that Williams was selected from a list of speakers compiled from names solicited last year from students, faculty and staff.

Bridges added that he was personally drawn to Williams because of the focus of Williams’ work as a journalist and writer and, as a graduate of Haverford, his familiarity with liberal arts colleges.

“Much of my own scholarly work has examined the role of race in American institutions and I was intrigued by some of Williams’ contributions to our understanding of the African Americans experience and the civil rights movement,” said Bridges.
Williams has fallen under criticism for some of this work, especially within the African American community. Some critics maintain that he is too harsh on the contemporary African American leadership. Writing last year in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, columnist Tony Norman summed up the charges in an opinion piece.

“Three years ago, Mr. Williams published ‘Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead End-Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America,’ a jeremiad about black folks that makes Bill Cosby look like Huey Newton,” wrote Norman. Huey Newton was a founding member of the Black Panthers.

Regardless of sentiments like Norman’s, the Whitman community has for the most part responded positively to the selection of Williams as commencement speaker.

“I’ve received far more positive e-mails than negative ones,” Bridges said.

Many students said they were unfamiliar with Williams.

Among the few who were familiar with him, there was satisfaction with the choice. Senior Jackson Cahn said he was looking forward to hearing what Williams had to say.

“I’ve heard him on NPR,” said Cahn. “He’s articulate there, so he should be a good speaker.”

For these students, the controversy surrounding Williams was not an issue. In fact, senior Autumn McCartan, said that in her opinion, Williams’ nontraditional views were a plus.

“We’re going into the world, and we’re breaking the Whitman bubble, and there will be differences of opinion,” said McCartan. “I think it’s important to acknowledge that, and what better day than commencement?”

This cliché is drilled into pop culture by bands like Green Day—bands who drop out of, never enter, or otherwise flee the world of academia and stake their lives in music. Despite this, Whitman harbors an astoundingly vibrant scene of bands and musicians who balance demanding course loads with creativity and intense dedication to their art. As graduation approaches, we caught up with just a few of our campus bands to see what developments the year has brought.

Dude York

The duo, comprised of seniors Andrew Hall on drums and Peter Richards on vocals and guitar, formed this January and has played about seven performances together. The two discussed their formative musical experiences and how the band came to be.

“I was in some bands in high school,” said Richards. “I was kind of in Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head.”

Although he has spent considerably less time learning his instrument, Hall brings an important perspective to the band.

“I started playing drums in October, and then we played for the first time in December. We played that Webber song that I don’t think either of us remember, and two songs that have since gone on to become teen-pop staples,” Hall said with his characteristically dry humor. “I played a lot of really depressing Japanese rhythm games instead of like, having friends or leaving my house. So that gave me a leg up on other people who had only been learning drums for a month.”

Both members are graduating this year, but prize their musical chemistry and intend to keep writing songs together.

“One thing I think is cool about the way we work is we work from a place of agreement,” said Richards. “No matter what song we’re working on—what the ideas are—it’s like [Andrew is] inside my thoughts.”

Richards recalled one particularly groundbreaking performance of the semester.

“We had a show that was really sick—we played with the Tender Hips, which is [seniors] Alex Miller and Todd Wallenius, who are both awesome musicians and awesome dudes,” said Richards. “We were playing first, and there were these kids, who’d met up with Andrew earlier in the day.”

“I was at Hot Poop, the record store, and I got recognized as the drummer of the band, which is a pretty funny thing to have happened—they saw us the previous weekend at Rosaacs, and then when we played our show that night, there were a bunch of kids,” Hall said.

“They were trying to get in, but [senior] Marshall Baker wouldn’t let them in,” Richards remembered.

“There were all these 16-, 17-year-old kids outside the windows, just watching us—it was great,” said Hall.

White Vowels

Meanwhile, Richards debunked the legend of the now-defunct White Vowels.

“White Vowels was another thing I did. But it was also sort of like—when I was interviewed for it, I brought as many people as I could, to make it seem like it was a huge band,” said Richards. “We had all this crazy talk about how it was more like a colonial enterprise than it was a band, and like 25 guitars . . .”

And were the 25 guitars a complete fabrication?

“Yeah. That’s a ridiculous thing,” Richards said laughing. “It was just me making computer music in my room, and Andrew would come up with an idea and I’d steal it, and stuff like that.”

Other bands to break up this semester included The Floyd Webber Project and The Breezes. With the graduation of Riley Clubb ’09, The Floyd Webber Project is now on indefinite hiatus.

Sophomore Breezes violinist Annie Truscott spoke over the uncertain state of the band.

“I have no idea,” she said, remarking that she has been out of touch with another of the band’s key members, junior Evan Fuller, for some months.

Combo Pack

Truscott’s other project, Combo Pack, is still going strong.

“We had a gig two weekends ago, and we’re having two tomorrow [Saturday, May 8],” said Truscott. “We didn’t have much going on for a while, and now with the end of the year, we’ve been asked to play a few places. So it’s still going on.”

Combo Pack operates mostly as a jam band, and is not actively trying to tour or record an album.

“For a while, we tried to get organized practices, once a week going, but everyone was always super busy,” said Truscott. “We decided we’re a better on-the-fly band, so we just play whenever, and not everyone has to be there—it’s a lot more relaxed, and totally just for fun.”

Redlight Bluelight

We caught up with Redlight Bluelight, one of Whitman’s premier campus bands, at their Coffeehouse gig two weeks ago. Frontman and senior Dan Oschrin discussed the band’s birth.

“We started last year—my friend [junior] Charlie [Procknow] is the lead guitarist, and we used to like to play blues together,” said Oschrin. “I’d never been in a band before. We were in the kitchen of the TKE house one day, and just decided, we were both bored and both wanted to do it. His roommate [junior Matt Bachmann] was the bassist. Our drummer had not drummed since high school—we just got a bunch of ragtag musicians together. The first couple practices were really rough, but we ended up opening for this band that came, and that was our first gig. We just kept at it, and it’s been what’s gotten me through college. It’s so fun.”

The band currently comprises Oschrin on guitar and lead vocals, Procknow on lead guitar, junior Ian Coleman on piano, saxophone, and backup vocals, junior Brian Vieth on drums, and Bachmann on bass, and had a Coffeehouse guest appearance from senior Ellie Sterne on violin and vocals. Oschrin handles the majority of all songwriting and composing.

“Basically, when I write songs, I write the lyrics, the melody, usually two guitar parts, and then Matt fills in the bass. I come up with a basic drum beat and Brian embellishes on it,” said Oschrin.

The band is about to release an album under the working title of Firecracker. Redlight Bluelight will not continue after Oschrin’s graduation this year.

“That’s why I want to get this album out, I kind of want it to be our final project,” he said. “I guess it’s theoretically possible we could get together and play again someday, but Matt Bachmann actually has a band called The Dogs that’s kind of blowing up right now, so I think that’s where his project is. I think it’s just been a really fun thing in college.”

Fun for the band, and certainly fun for their audiences.

“I just really want to make people happy and have a good time and enjoy a piece of music,” said Oschrin. “For me, when I love a song, it just really brightens my day up, so to have that effect on other people is kind of the dream.”

Judging by the crowd dancing exuberantly at the end of Redlight Bluelight’s set, that is a dream the band has attained.

Redlight Bluelight bassist Bachmann is also bassist for Chicago band The Dogs, who have experienced a wave of publicity and acclamation following the release of their last album, Free Write. Bachmann spoke humbly about their evolution and their plans for future albums.

“Every time we record an album, we learn about how we can do it better,” said Bachmann. “We learned a lot from last summer and I’m sure it’ll change how we go into this summer.”

Dabbles In Bloom

Although the year has brought many changes to the group, Dabbles In Bloom is still together, and in the midst of some landmark moments as a band.

“We’ve had kind of a crazy year,” said sophomore Adriel Borshansky. “It’s kind of a different group of people than it was at the beginning of the year. Now it’s myself, [sophomore] Rimmy Doowa, [and first-years] Jonas Myers and Robby Seager. It was a lot of luck and lack of luck, and . . . here we are. We’re all really happy to be the four of us, I think it’s as perfect as we could hope for. Our chemistry is really great.”

“For the past five months we’ve been recording an album—that and also troubles with the administration, having strict rules about events and things like that, are part of the reason we haven’t had a lot of big shows,” said Borshansky.

The band’s work and struggles have materialized in the form of their first album, released Tuesday, May 11, at their performance at the Fine Arts House.

Plateau / King Friday

As bandmates and roommates, sophomores Alex Folkerth and Matt Sweeney have come full circle this year, musically—from their album release and campus shows this fall as King Friday with junior Bailey Arango and first-year Bo Sagal, to their spring rebirth as Plateau, upon the return of the Plateau frontman, junior Adrian Tuohy, from his semester in Scotland. Throughout the changes, the two have made the most of the campus bands scene, playing live, touring outside of Whitman and gathering experience.

“We probably had a lot more fun and got tighter, just touring a little bit over the year. We played a lot more shows this year in general,” said Sweeney.

Orange Fight

Orange Fight seems to be single-handedly taking on the stereotypes about rock music and academia—and they come armed with titles and tenure. The band consists of Whitman’s Director of Institutional Research Neal Christopherson on vocals, Associate Professor of Sociology Michelle Janning on keyboard, backing vocals and extra percussion, Peterson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences Keith Farrington on bass, Associate Professor of Psychology Matthew Prull on lead guitar, and ’89 Whitman alum and Detention Manager at Walla Walla’s Juvenile Justice Center Norrie Gregoire on drums.

“We first started playing together in August of ’08,” said Christopherson. “Keith and Norrie and Matt and I had been in a band before that was basically a covers band, and I had a bunch of songs that I wanted to play that I’d written, so we got together and started playing those. In March 2009 we played a Coffeehouse show, and that’s when we released our CD as well.”

Their self-titled album is currently available for purchase in the Whitman bookstore.

Miley Cyrus’s first venture into cinema actually took place several years ago when she played Ruthie in Tim Burton’s “Big Fish,” but “The Last Song” constitutes her first—and certainly not her last—major acting performance. Unfortunately, this umpteenth adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel looks much more like a moping, pouting, let’s-find-Miley-a-boyfriend spectacle than a film.

Because of its origins, you know three things about this movie even before you watch it: two people will fall in love, someone will die, and everyone in between will sniffle and cry. To choose from, you have Ronnie (Cyrus), Will (Liam Hemsworth), Steve (Greg Kinnear), and a random assortment of family members and adolescents that roam the Georgia beach. Can you play matchmaker?

The film wants you to believe that Ronnie, a piano prodigy recruited by Julliard, is a rebellious, gothic-leaning, anti-popular teen that can’t realize her musical potential without her father’s inspiration. The film wants you to believe that Will is a rich surfer guy that has a tender, environmental side to him when he and Ronnie team up to protect a loggerhead sea turtle nest. The film also wants you to believe that it represents plausible situations that produce ethical and emotional dilemmas many of us face every day.

Far from being the cute little romance I expected, “The Last Song” relies on faux melancholic tones merely to rationalize its own forgetful creation while regurgitating the vast and, by now, trite themes of love, tragedy, and fate. Don’t worry, though, two more Sparks adaptations are expected next year.

“A Prophet”

Unflinching drama has its place in cinema. This maxim is precisely what Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet,” a film about a young, illiterate Arab man in a French prison who falls under the sway of the Corsican mafia, sets out to prove in a style that is as critical as De Sica’s 1948 neorealist masterpiece, “The Bicycle Thief,” and as gritty as Meirelles and Lund’s 2002 trauma-inducing film, “City of God.”

Receiving filmic accolades at Cannes last year, where it won the Grand Prix award, “A Prophet” draws strong ties to its predecessor in that category, “Gomorrah,” an equally violent meditation on a branch of the Italian mafia. Audiard’s film, however, doesn’t naturalize violence to the point that the audience feels numb to a gunshot to the chest or to a corrupt system of power exploiting the ignorant and/or less fortunate.

“A Prophet” churns, slowly and methodically, from scene to scene as Malik (Tahar Rahim) gets thrown in prison, is introduced to the sage-like Luciani (Niels Arestrup), and begins carrying out a series of so-called missions for the organized crime group. Like any film of such an exceptional quality, though, Malik eschews the little, if any, empathy the audience can bestow upon him as he climbs the power ranks within the jail’s social hierarchy.

To assert this filmic gem’s place in my top ten films of the year would merely graze the extent of veneration it deserves. Audiard himself said that his film’s intentions lie in “creating icons, images for people who don’t have films in movies, like the Arabs in France.” Taking on the postcolonial project, he has succeeded, not only for Arabs, but for systematically excluded people in general.

Photo Credit : Jacobson

The end of this semester marks the end of the first year of the newly-remodeled Sherwood Athleic Center. With both Baker Ferguson Fitness Center and Sherwood up and running, Whitman now boasts a two-part state of the art athletic facility.

Five years removed from the original planning of the remodeling, Whitman has spent $26.5 million to re-haul Baker Ferguson and transform Sherwood. Baker Ferguson saw renovations to the pool as well as new equipment. While Sherwood received a much more extensive make-over, including the all-new bigger and better 7,000 square-foot indoor climbing wall that offers an array of 55 routes for climbers at all levels. With an emphasis on increased team room space, two full classrooms have been added, not to mention the fully furnished, no-holds-barred video viewing/editing room equipped with software for biomechanical analysis and surround sound. By far the most-used renovation, the multipurpose gymnasium features two drop-down nets that double as batting cages or a pseudo-driving range.

Together, these new spaces, bring the total floor space of the new Sherwood to a whopping 71,000 square feet, an increase of 6,000 square feet. With a retooled athletic training room, space for team strength-and-conditioning, dance/exercise studios, locker rooms, racquetball and squash courts and finally a space for athletic department offices, the new Sherwood has brought Whitman’s athletic facilities up to par with the academic facilities of other similar institutions.

“Having our training room available right next to our gym makes getting treatment much easier [than last year],” commented sophomore basketball player David Michaels. “Also not having to deal with the constant noise, dust and smoke from the construction makes things much more enjoyable for everyone. I’ve had so much fun competing in Sherwood [this year], it is definitely the best gym in the [Northwest] conference to compete in.”

In 2001 Whitman began its campaign to beef up its athletic facilities, with the unveiling of the Whitman Athletic Fields—which boasts a varsity soccer pitch, two practice fields and a softball diamond. Sherwood places the crowning jewel on Whitman’s state-of-the-art athletic facilities including the Walter Bratton Indoor Tennis Center, Borleske Stadium, Baker Ferguson Fitness Center and Harvey Pool.

Barring the men’s tennis team’s prolific success, Whitman is not historically known for its athletic prowess. Since Athletic Director Dean Snider has been at the helm, he has brought about a culture shift that has led to the current early stages of institutionalizing athletic excellence, as evident by the scathe of recent changes.

In the spring of 2008, Snider implemented two of the most influential changes within the athletic department. The first was the creation of the W Club, an alumni-based booster organization and an integral feature of any aspiring or successful athletic program. The W Club serves to make Whitman more accessible, as it raises funds to for the athletic department and recruiting programs.

Within the same month, it was announced that Skip Molitor—then, head coach of the men’s basketball team—would step into the newly-created position of assistant athletics director in charge of development, community relations and club sports, while also serving as the women’s golf coach.

The purpose of the Molitor’s position is to “provide substantive support to [Snider] as Whitman implements strategies toward advancing excellence in athletics.” Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lori Bettison-Varga said in a news release from April 8, 2008. Molitor will work with Snider “to enhance the student-athlete experience through promoting team events, directing club sports and working with volunteer leaders of the newly formed W Club.”

In the last three years, four coaching changes have been made on
the varsity scene with one more looming on the horizon. Jared Holawaty, John Hein and Eric Bridgeland recently coached their first Whitman baseball, women’s tennis and men’s basketball games, respectively. Most recently, Scott Shields—the winningest coach of the Whitman’s women’s soccer program—has filled in as cross-country coach in lieu of Malcolm Dunn’s departure, leaving the women’s soccer coaching job up for grabs.

Bridgeland—who has already had a tremendous impact on both the basketball team and the athletic program in his short time here—is a huge proponent of the new Sherwood Athletic Center.

“[Sherwood houses] beautiful, state of the art facilities that match the rest of the other top notch facilities on campus, showing Whitman’s commitment to equal its [academic] reputation on the court,” said Bridgeland. “Personally, I have always longed to be at an institution that could arguably be the best in academics, as well as athletics, in the nation—I believe Whitman has that opportunity now.”

Bridgeland also commented on how the new Sherwood has helped him sell Whitman College to potential recruits.

After a year without athletic facilities, due to construction, the Whitman community is taking full advantage of the newly available space. Both intramural basketball and dodgeball have made a comeback after a short hiatus. The Sweet Onion Crank, a rock-climbing festival and bouldering competition, returned to the now indoor climbing wall, which has become one of the more popular attractions. The squash and racquetball cultures are thriving. More space allows for more Sports Studies and Recreational Activities classes, one of the more popular courses being an aerobics course taught by senior Maryn Juergens, not to mention the numerous pick-up games constantly going on in the multi-purpose gym.

Varsity athletes have benefited hugely from the renovations to Sherwood. Both the men’s basketball team and the volleyball team had better home records this season, with men’s basketball improving from 4-5 last season to 8-4 on the newly resurfaced ball court.

“I’ve loved competing in Sherwood because it’s a really nice facility that allows us to play to our full potential. I really appreciate all of the time and resources that went into the remodel because it shows that Whitman takes pride in its athletic program,” said first-year volleyball player Rachel Shober.

Photo Credit : Bowman

The end of senior year is tough for just about everyone but the most pragmatic and punctilious of students, but for 14 in the class of 2010 there’s more to consider than finishing a thesis. For Whitman’s international students, graduation poses questions and issues of a different nature than those facing most domestic students, just as the process which led them to campus four years ago took far more paperwork and bureaucratic hurdling.

Most student visas will soon expire, and the decision to go home or stay in the states begs attention in a period where seniors are already feeling short on time. If a student does decide to remain in the United States they’ll have to complete the Optional Practical Training extension, which allows graduates to work for up to a year within the United States in a field related to their studies without need for an additional work visa.

“There’s a $340 fee and the adjudication and approval process is laboriously slow,” said Kris Barry, the International Student and Scholar Advisor on campus. Always an undertaking and generally a hassle, this year and last have been particularly difficult, Barry said, as the jobs simply aren’t there.

With such matters on their minds, a few international students still managed to find time during the last week of classes to discuss their experiences.

For most, coming to Whitman was a major leap of faith. Campus visits are a rather different matter if you’re from Burma or Ecuador, so admission decisions for international students are often based on specific programs and a good deal of Internet research and word of mouth.

“I chose [Whitman] because of the core program. I couldn’t visit campus, so it was stuff that I read online . . . and here I am,” said Nanda Lin, a senior from Burma double majoring in studio art and politics.

Once admitted, international students face a visa process that dwarfs the paperwork domestic students grapple with. Kris Barry fills out an I-20 form and then each student completes the application for a student visa within their home country, a process more difficult for some depending on origin.

“It was very difficult because back home there was the whole issue of terrorism in 2006 when I was first coming here. It was a long process . . . It’s definitely very difficult for a Sri Lankan to get a visa to come here,” said senior Krishani Peiris, an economics major who left home in the midst of civil war.

“For me it was much easier. The relationship between Ecuador and the United States in 2006 was good, and my school helped me a lot . . . The I-20 was basically what I needed to get the visa, and with that I had no problem,” said senior Barbara Mantilla, a biology major from Ecuador.

Photo Credit : Bowman

Adjusting to life in the states can be another process. All far from home, the international students are thrown together from the get go through programs put together by the Intercultural Center, and many opt to be paired with a “friendship family” here in Walla Walla that acts as a stand-in family away from home.

“They make home cooked meals when you’re feeling homesick, and when you’re having finals they make you sweets and stuff like that . . . that was very helpful,” said Peiris.

“And they give you grown-up advice when you need it,” added Mantilla.

“It’s important because the family aspect can feel like it’s missing sometimes,” said senior Neda Ansaari, a psychology major from India. She’s excited to have her friendship family join her mom and dad, who are making the long trip to be here for graduation and will finally get to see where she’s spent the last four years.

While that missing family aspect is certainly difficult, the international students have become a bit of a family group themselves.

“We’re very closely knit together,” said Peiris.

“Especially because we’ve all gone through the same situation,” Mantilla said.

Graduation means that these students will be scattered all over the world, in contrast to the general country-wide dispersal of domestic students, making the close to the last four years particularly bittersweet.

“I’m very happy to be graduating, but we don’t know where we’re all going to be, just that we’ll be in touch,” Mantilla said.

“It’s hard to let go now we’ve found this. We are going to all different countries, and we don’t know when we will see each other,” said Peiris. The group has some fledgling plans to form a communal travel fund to finance future international visits, and there’s talk of standardizing future wedding invitations to include roundtrip airfare.

Photo Credit : Bowman

The students’ plans are widely varied: Peiris will be going home to Sri Lanka and then on to Japan to teach English, while Mantilla will be returning to Ecuador where she’ll pursue a medical degree in Quito. Nanda is heading back to Burma, where he intends to work in the field for a developmental or environmental NGO and has plans to open an art gallery/free expression space in Yangon in the works, before he continues with graduate school. Ansaari has applied for her OPT extension, but isn’t sure whether her plans involve graduate school or a return to India just yet.

Saying goodbye is one thing, while going home is another, especially when you’ve spent four years acclimating to a different culture.

“People change throughout these years—I feel like I have changed. I still feel at home in Ecuador, but I do feel like I have a different view in a way and you do get adapted to the lifestyle here,” said Mantilla.

“We came here when we were still teenagers and that’s the time when your ideas and your perspectives change a lot, so when I go back home sometimes I don’t have the same views as my friends,” said Peiris. “And I have to be very careful not to offend anybody, with the way I dress and the way I talk with people. It’s going to be a challenge.”

Nanda is happy to be heading home, but the transition from Walla Walla, and more specifically the Whitman campus, to Yangon is a pretty dramatic one.

“You see that really stark difference; having to wage your life on your beliefs—and there’s the chance that your life could go very wrong because of certain beliefs you hold—and here it’s a totally different environment. . . not that the States are perfect, but it’s different in college.”

For many soon-to-be graduates, it’s a chilling question. “Taking a year off,” “applying for internships” or “working,” can be quick responses for students who aren’t quite sure where their lives will go next.

Yet for a driven—and relatively small—group within the class of 2010, the choice to attend graduate school soon after finishing at Whitman has eased the stress of the familiar “what next” question. Although the decision, application and acceptance process varies by major and by individual, all graduate school-bound students share one thing: They are lucky enough to have found something they want to spend a large part of their lives pursuing.

Just defining this passion can be a major hurdle. According to senior chemistry major Kristine Smith, who will begin research at the University of Wisconsin—Madison in July, knowing exactly what sub-field of chemistry you want to study is vital to the decision and application process. This can be daunting.

“You have to write a personal statement about what you want to do and your goals for the rest of your life—it’s pretty frightening,” she said.

For Amy Doerner, another senior in the chemistry department, undergraduate research at Whitman and frequent conversations with her advisor were essential to the decision process.

“I was lucky enough to know exactly what I wanted to do at the end of last summer,” she said. Doerner will study biophysical chemistry at Yale University in the fall.

The decision to attend graduate school came even earlier for senior English major Liz Matresse, who had her mind set on a program abroad before arriving at Whitman.

“I’m kind of an obsessive compulsive planner, so I knew that I wanted to do English when I got here and I knew I wanted to go to grad school for it. I also knew that I wanted to go abroad for at least a year,” she said. Matresse will attend the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in September.

Although Matresse knew that she wanted to attend grad school early on, as with Smith and Doerner, the focus of her post-grad studies—Arthurian literature—was illuminated during coursework and research while at Whitman.

Such long-term planning isn’t always necessary, however. Senior Hilary White, a music major, didn’t know that her graduate program existed before last December, when she read about music therapy in a book.

“I hadn’t planned at all, and it just happened . . . it was pretty lucky,” she said.

Although she had only a month before applications were due, White was excited about the opportunity. She had been considering medical school after Whitman, so she had already fulfilled most of the necessary requirements.

“I never thought that I could combine my music and helping others in a way that is scientifically proven, more than just playing in a coffee shop or something like that,” she said.

White plans to graduate from Loyola University in New Orleans with a Master’s degree in music therapy. From there, she will be certified to practice music therapy in hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, and other care centers.

Once students make the tough decision to apply to graduate schools, however, the process itself can be just as challenging.

Senior psychology major Laura Niman planned to go to veterinary school after graduating from Whitman, and had to start her applications last summer to meet October deadlines. Each application required meticulous work, as veterinary school is one of the most competitive graduate options. As a psychology major from a liberal arts school, Niman believes that while her background was not the deciding factor in her early acceptance to Oregon State’s veterinary program, it may have helped her become more visible.

“A lot of people will go to Washington State for undergrad, then go to vet school at Washington State, and going to a liberal arts school and not majoring in animal science makes you stand out a little bit,” she said.

For graduate programs in chemistry, the application includes not only personal statements, letters of recommendation and transcripts, but also visits to each university. While these can be exciting, Doerner and Smith found the process exhausting on top of senior exams, theses and regular homework.

“I don’t think most people realize how much time the visits actually take—because I didn’t,” said Smith. “They give your free food, take you out. . . It would have been more fun without worrying about classes or tests at the same time.”

This process could lead to rivalries within a group of people as close-knit as Whitman’s chemistry department, yet according to Doerner, this is not the case.

“It’s not competitive because we all have different interests. With grad school applications, it’s not personal if you don’t get in; it’s more about your interests and whether they have space in the lab group that you want,” she said.

For Smith, the support of professors and older students made the process more accessible.

“We have so much advice from the upperclassmen; that’s the great thing about being at Whitman and being specifically in the chemistry department at Whitman, is that there’s such a community. Everybody shares their knowledge,” she said.

For some students, however, this intense application process is a big part of the decision to take a year off and apply after finishing undergraduate work. So why did these students choose to head straight to graduate school without a break?

Although the unstable economy was a factor for some, each student agreed that once they knew exactly what they wanted to pursue waiting was unnecessary.

“I know this is what I want to do, so I might as well just do it,” said Niman. “It’s really nice to know what I’m doing for the next four years.”

Matresse initially had reservations about her decision to jump in to graduate school, but has also decided that it’s the right choice.

“I thought about it taking time off more after I got in to grad school just because I didn’t want to burn out,” she said, “but I also think that I’m one of those people who wouldn’t go back if I took a long time off.”

As seniors’ time at Whitman comes to a close, emotions are just as mixed among students bound for graduate school as for those departing without a set plan. For Smith, who is confident in her choice to study physical chemistry, the move is still intimidating.

“I’m excited, but I’ve recently started being totally freaked out,” she said.

White’s decision to pursue music therapy may have been relatively last-minute, but she is also excited by the opportunity to try something completely new, away from Whitman’s familiar reach. She admits that the move to New Orleans might be a gamble.

“But it’s going to be a good gamble,” she said. “I’ve spent my time in this little bubble here—I’m going to get out there.”

The Whitman College 2010 Senior Bucket List

Climb Big Irey, the big tree behind Maxey

Streak Ankeny

Have sex in all the academic buildings

Go to Waitsburg, Wash. and drink at the Jim German bar

Hook up with a freshman

Have coffee at the Walla Walla Roastery

Have a dance party on the top floor of the library

Throw one last great house lock-in

Read a book entirely for pleasure

Have dinner or drinks with a professor

Go to the heron rookery off Highway 12

Play Beirut/other drinking games in a library study room

Munch taco truck while the sun sets over the wheat fields

Bike to Waitsburg and eat at the Whoopemup Café

Go rock climbing

Play drinking kickball on Ankeny

Swim in the fountains

Beer mile!

Hit up El Sombrero Happy Hour one last time

Go to Lat Nappur brewery in Dayton, Wash.

Go on a kayaking trip

Climb Pike’s Peak and enjoy the view of Walla Walla

Compete in trivia night at Red Monkey

Go to the Balloon Stampede

Sleep in the wheat fields

Go cider tasting in Milton-Freewater

Go Frolfing for the first, millionth or last time

Take advantage of student discounts while there’s still time

Have tea with Professor Takemoto in the tea room

Get dirty in the organic garden

Brew your own beer

Have a giant outdoor potluck with all your friends

Watch a movie at the drive-in theater in Milton-Freewater

On October 5, 2006, two Sigma Chi juniors painted their faces black for a themed “Survivor” party. Photos from the party posted on Facebook outraged one senior, who sent her reaction to the Whitman listserv. The long and heated debate that followed indicated that the campus needed a forum for constructive discussion about race.

In response, the administration decided to cancel classes on Thursday, Nov. 9, and implement a campus-wide symposium to discuss issues of race in America. The Race and Race Relations Symposium included film screenings, discussions and panels throughout the day.

Senior Nadim Damluji remembers that the success of that first symposium came from support in the community.

“In the end, the first symposium that came out of the those tense discussions did a great job at resolving those debates, and it was brought on by a coalition of staff, faculty and students. Those meetings were remarkable,” said Damluji in an e-mail.

The following year, ASWC selected a student-staffed Diversity Committee to provide input during planning of the second symposium. The 2008 Symposium on Diversity and Community took place on Martin Luther King Day.

According to Damluji, this second symposium did not succeed as the first had.

“. . . the second symposium did not so much as resolve the remaining problems of diversity as it did sweep them under the rug,” he said.

Despite a much lower turnout from the previous year, senior Will Canine, a member of the 2008 Diversity Committee, remembers the event’s strengths.

“To me, the best part of the symposium was that it was truly a community effort,” he said in an e-mail. “Students, faculty, staff and administrators all came together in a way that hasn’t been replicated since.”

The following year, the one-day symposium disappeared from the Whitman calendar. According to the Symposium Planning Committee, events continued, but were re-organized across many days.

For Damluji, the loss of the symposium and the President’s Advisory Council on Diversity demonstrated the true nature of discussions on diversity at Whitman.

“For the most part, Whitman students don’t want to talk about diversity as much as other issues unless they are forced to because it is so foreign,” Damluji said. “I think today Whitman is a place where those same events won’t be replicated, but the same ignorance of history and the lack of articulation of thoughts and experiences with race will continue.”

Windstorm of ’08

In January of 2008, a huge windstorm swept through campus while the majority of students were still gone for winter break. On the Whitman campus, the 78-mile-per-hour gusts felled trees, threatened structures and demolished the paper clip statue that used to sit near the library.

Senior Lara Goodrich was in Walla Walla for RA training that January, and she and the other RAs weathered the storm in the church where part of their training took place. Goodrich described the hectic scene as “crazy town.”

“The sky was really gray and brown. It looked ominous, but I don’t remember it being super dark—you could see everything clearly flailing around in the wind,” she said.

After the storm, the power was out in the church and on campus, and the damage was evident in the toppled trees, leaves and debris that littered town.

“Luckily power at the movie theater and the local Chinese buffet was on, so we had a night on the town instead,” Goodrich said.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, Walla Walla County sustained $4.9 million worth of damage, four out of every 10 homes were damaged and as many as 18,000 were left without power.

Student Assaults and Break-ins

Late in 2008, the campus was shocked by an increase in thefts and assaults against students on and off campus. Students were alerted of the increase in crime through several campus-wide e-mails from Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland, who warned students to generally be more aware of their surroundings.

During the fall 2009 semester and the following winter break, break-ins in off-campus housing increased once again. Senior Julie Grimm, whose home was burglarized twice in a one-year period, felt the impact of the thefts in an increased sense of insecurity and isolation.

“I realized that the ‘Whitman bubble’ can be penetrated not only by volunteering in the community, but also by burglars and people who wish me harm,” she said in an e-mail. “Furthermore, the lack of a response was unnerving and made me realize that even in a small personal community, it’s hard for people to get riled up about another’s misfortune, even if it . . . could have happened to them.”

Grimm sees room for improvement in the way that students are educated before moving off campus.

“I really believe that Whitman students should be better educated about how to prevent themselves from become targets, and protect themselves when they are,” she said.

The experiences of Grimm, and other students victimized by burglars or unscrupulous landlords, have led ASWC to establish a new off-campus living orientation for next September. For the first time, students moving off campus will have a formal setting in which to learn about tenants’ rights and security issues before a problem arises.

Obama Winning the Election:

Nov. 4, 2008, students from all political backgrounds gathered at private and public viewing parties to watch the election results come in. After President-elect Obama gave his acceptance speech, exuberant Obama supporters gathered in front of Memorial Building and marched from the campus to Main Street, making a stop at the local Democratic headquarters, where they joined with celebrants from the local chapter of the Democratic Party. Eventually, the students made their way back to the library, where they burst into the national anthem. Senior Seth Bergeson remembers the night as a long celebration.

“We rallied in front of Memorial that evening and we had at least a few hundred people. Someone had a megaphone and someone brought a boombox and played Journey. We walked, ran, spun and danced down Main Street, mobbed a subdued election party in the Democratic Office, and then rallied in front of the flagpole at 1st and Main where a few of us gave short speeches,” he said.

Bennington Lake. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, Bennington Lake is about four miles east of Walla Walla. The lake is open year-round for day use and is stocked with rainbow trout in the spring. It gets pretty scuzzy later in the summer, but is a decent body of water all the same.

Palouse Falls. About an hour and half north of Walla Walla. For the best swimming head to the overlook area and then continue along the railroad tracks upstream along a little trail to the right of the train tracks. Keep your eyes peeled for some rapids to your right, called Little Palouse Falls.

“You can swim at the base of the falls, and if you’re very adventuresome, you can find some small concavities behind the falls to relax out of sight,” said Luke Sanford, a Whitman ’09 alum, in an e-mail.

For slower water and cliff jumping, walk from Little Palouse Falls a ways downstream. Decent footwear is recommended as the trail from the railroad tracks down to the river is steep.

Walla Walla River. An excellent swimming hole can be found outside of Milton Freewater: Drive to the south side of town and head towards Harris Country Park, taking a left at the Harris Park sign. After several miles you’ll come to a fork, where you’ll take the South Fork Walla Walla River Road. Continue on this road and you’ll cross two bridges, and the river bends under the second creating a deep swimming hole and sand bar.

There’s another good spot on another fork of the Walla Walla. Head past the Whitman Mission to the Walla Walla River and pull over on the left just after crossing the bridge.

“A short hike through some undergrowth (less than one minute) brings you to a more secluded swimming spot that isn’t very deep, but has a nice gravel bar to lay out on, and the water quality is better at this point than many of the other options,” said Sanford.

The Travel Lodge. Five dollars an hour for non-guests and located a few minutes from campus on East Main St. Also accessible by stealth come the wee hours, though I’m hardly sanctioning that.

Our pool. Ya know, right on campus.

Lakum Duckum. An option for the truly adventurous, or the truly desperate.

“Gross, but it’s been done. People usually tend to opt for floating mattresses and such to minimize contact with the water. Or if you lose a disc,” said Sanford.

The fountain in front of Hunter. A good spot for a quick dip many a summer evening and a sight cleaner than the one behind the library.

Walla Walla Cliffs. The cliffs range from 10 to 30 feet in height, but water depth fluctuates seasonally and spinal injuries are not unheard of, so take it easy. To get there take 12 West and exit to the left just before the 12 crosses the Walla Walla River, then drive for less than a mile and watch for a pull off on the right. Decent shoes are also a good idea, as the climb out of the river is a bit rocky.

“This place almost always has other people from the area on hot afternoons, and they are almost always friendly. I’ve had Bud Lights offered [to me] on multiple occasions,” said Sanford.

Tri-Cities. Headed to the Tri-Cities airport and fancy a pre-flight dip? Then take the last exit before the bridge over the Snake River and you’ll find a little park with a decent swimming area.

Pool Mooching. And you can always make friends with people with pools. Some student’s families get rental houses with pools for graduation, so be sure to be friends with the right seniors, and a couple of the winery families have private pools you might be able to charm your way into.

Lastly, a good kiddie pool can do wonders on a hot day. Something like seven dollars and access to a garden hose, and you’re set.

Credit: Loos-Diallo

Well, it’s that time of the semester again. Finals are right around the corner. Massive papers and tests clogging up your brain? Get some digital palette cleansers, in the form of some of the greatest time wasters the Internet has to offer. How easy is it to waste your time on the Internet? Very easy. For those of you who are mostly uninitiated, or just want to find new ways to fool around, here are some big categories to look for.

1. Web Video. I’m going to assume that my readership is, for the most part, acquainted with the wonders of YouTube. With this supremely time-sucking Web site, you can find everything from cats goofing off to things exploding in microwaves to semi-scholarly discussions of the hand removals in “Star Wars.” But there are also some unsung heroes in the world of video on the Web. Netflix offers a free trial for two weeks that provides users with unlimited streaming, as well as DVDs delivered in the mail. Hulu has hours of content available for free (commercial breaks included). But, in case you want to take a break from your “Buffy” marathon, you can turn to:

2. Flash Games. Again, most long-time denizens of the Internet ought to be familiar with such operations as AddictingGames and Armor Games. But, there are a few newcomers to the Internet gaming scene that are worth a look. The first is Kongregate, a gaming portal akin to many others, but in addition to offering a wide range of different games all in one place, a select group also come with “achievements,” which are point rewards for completing in-game objectives. Of course, points mean nothing, but it provides the player with a sense of accomplishment. There’s also OMGPop, which is built entirely around social gaming. Their (rather small) catalog of games are all designed to be played with multiple people, for multiplayer enjoyment. Of course, it’s entirely possible that moving pictures aren’t your thing. In that case, look no further than:

3. Web Comics. There are a ton of talented artists and writers out there who have found a way to show their stories off to the world via web comics, which are exactly what they sound like—comics, either in a shorter strip form, or a longer more graphic novel-esque approach, distributed via a Web site. Much like the dead-tree comic and graphic novel market these days, there are web comics for everyone. There’s the nerdy standby “XKCD,” which describes itself as “a web comic of romance, sarcasm, math and language,” as well as the gamer-centric “Penny Arcade.” Other paragons of the genre include “Dr. McNinja,” about the exploits of a doctor, who’s also a ninja, and “Questionable Content,” which follows a group of indie/hipster types in their day-to-day exploits. Of course, if you prefer a more textual approach, you should try reading some:

4. Blogs. Yep, the blog is almost as old as the Internet itself, and the blogosphere, like the universe, is constantly expanding. When it comes to finding the blog for you, it’s really a matter of taste. There are blogs for every single topic in the universe, be it robots or debates over cat breeding. Finding something that suits your interest is really a matter of how many Google searches you want to do, but to get on the fast track, there are a few places to check. First, the great crowd-sourced story aggregators Digg and Reddit are good places to start. These sites are powered by user submissions of stories that people think are funny, poignant, interesting or stupid. Each story is tracked by popularity, and the most popular ones make it to the front page. Something on either site’s home page that piques your interest is a good place to start your journey into the blogosphere. But suppose you want a magic button that will find things you like without you having to even lift a finger. Such a thing exists . . . It’s called:

5. StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon gets its own category because it is a time waster all to itself. What you do is either go to the Web site or install the toolbar, input a list of things you’re interested in, and click the “Stumble!” button. The algorithms will do the rest, and take you to a site that StumbleUpon thinks you’ll like. As you give feedback in the form of likes and dislikes, StumbleUpon becomes more finely tuned to your interests, and is more likely to suggest things you might like. Once you’ve sunk enough time into your personal profile, it’s possible for StumbleUpon to become a little too good. I have permanently removed StumbleUpon from my browser because the recommendations knew me too well. Every time I pushed that button, I found something else to put in my own personal Greatest Hits of the Internet collection. Take it from me: A well-tuned StumbleUpon account is your own personal dispenser of e-crack.

So, I hope this short primer has given you some ideas to help with your procrastination in this most stressful of times. I’ll see you on the Internet.

Credit: Alden

Ralph Nader might have run for president twice as a Green Party candidate. He might have played a vital role in the passing of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. But he is not your typical progressively-minded environmentalist.

In 2000, Nader declared that Al Gore and George W. Bush were both dominated by corporate interests, as similar as “Tweedledee and Tweedledum.” Not many environmentalists would equate the political godfather of the climate movement with a Texas cowboy who led his state towards the bottom of national environmental rankings while governor. Even when it became apparent that his place on the ballot was taking desperately needed votes from Gore in key states like Florida and New Hampshire, Nader refused to drop out of the race.

Throughout his career, Nader has shown his inability to settle for the ‘lesser of two evils.’ Whereas many progressive individuals and organizations focus on working within the system by supporting the least-worst candidate and donating small amounts of money in hopes of countering corporate power, Nader is repeatedly in conflict with both business and government for his relentless consumer advocacy.

In 1965, after Nader wrote “Unsafe at Any Speed,” a book detailing resistance of car manufacturers to spend money on basic safety features like seat belts, he was harassed by private detectives hired by General Motors. His four presidential runs were widely criticized by the Democratic party and yet he persevered. He started the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG), a now widespread organization that seeks to protect consumer rights. More recently, he wrote “Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us,” a novel that suggests that if the very wealthy harnessed their power for good, they could fix the world’s problems.

In a sense, Nader is still an idealistic college student. While the trend among environmentalists seems to be partnerships with business—take the recent move of the President of the Sierra Club to consulting for Wal-Mart—Nader continues to hold out for a more radical reformation of the system.

Now, not being the sort of person who relishes in outdoorsy activities, I do indeed agree that these activities provide pleasure for a lot of people. I appreciate their appreciation, to say the least, and I like outdoorsy people in general, otherwise, living on this campus would be damn near unbearable. But, thankfully, Whitman has done an admirable job diversifying its appeal, even if this has been by complete chance.

Now, for those of us Whitman students that do not live in Tamarac, don’t really go on OP trips and can’t particularly stomach granola or its sellout cousin the Kashi bar, there are thankfully still way too many things to be doing on this campus at any given time. In fact, I often find there to be a good two or three things for me to do at any one time and I have had to become adept at ascertaining the value of these things before I attend them. For instance, while the Nader speech is important, Beta-fest (of which the readership will soon be aware) is substantially more important and thankfully these two things do not in fact coincide.

Consider this then a reflection by an indoorsy city-dweller from a combination of Kent, Newark and Jersey City whose idea of a good time is entirely devoid of both granola and campfires. Consider this a testament to the diversity this campus does in fact offer despite the relatively homogeneous mission statement on the Web site that we have read on another hundred or so collegiate homepages nationwide.

The fact is, for new students coming to this school, if for any reason you find yourself reading this article, this place will do its absolute best to accommodate you. You need not sell out to a culture of climbing and rafting and not-showering if those things do not appeal to you, just as you won’t have to sell out to a culture of partying and debauchery if those things do not appeal to you either.

There are any number of things to do at this school for people in either camp, people in both camps, and people in neither camp. There are poetry open mics where people get the chance to have an audience for work they might not have otherwise shared. There are movie nights on the Reid side lawn. There are campus publications, literary magazines, dances, renaissance fairs and, more or less, anything you could possibly want or imagine at reach.

So, I can honestly say I have had no qualms about this school. I have been able to enjoy the kinds of things I enjoy doing and have been able to appreciate people who enjoy the finer things in life that I am too soft and lazy to enjoy. I suppose this is the essence of what diversity is at this school, and I can assert that if outdoorsy people and I can coexist at this school, anyone, ANYONE, can.

Photo Credit : Fennell

Recently, junior David Friedman and his mother bought a house in Walla Walla in order to rent it out. This summer, he plans to live in the house and oversee some remodeling, while working as a research assistant to Chair of History David Schmitz.

“Most of this has been my project. I’ve really wanted to do this since I was a freshman, and I’ve been bugging my parents,” he said.

Friedman is one of many Whitman students who will be staying in Walla Walla over the summer for various reasons, most related to research or work.

Another student who plans to stay in Walla Walla over the summer is first-year Shanglun Wang, who also has a job as a research assistant. He will be researching ways to make companies more likely to buy end-pipe technologies that reduce waste output in factories.

Not all students who are staying in Walla Walla made the decision to stay because of a job, however. Senior Joanna Jungerman plans to do AmeriCorps in the fall. Since she’s already paying for her house in Walla Walla, she feels that she might as well use it.

“My job situation for the summer is kind of up in the air right now; I am waiting on interviews and such,” said Jungerman in an e-mail.

If a summer job doesn’t work out, she plans to volunteer regularly.

Of course, not all the time these students spend in Walla Walla will be spent working, and some students have more planned than others. Many students are concerned about finding activities to occupy their free time, worrying that a long, hot summer in Walla Walla could be stifling.

“I’ll be trying to keep myself from going insane. I hear it gets pretty desolate. Either I’ll find some other job, keep myself busy with research, or I’ll use some of the facilities here that are going to be active,” said Wang.

Mobility is also a concern for Wang, as he does not have a car and his bike was stolen recently.

To fill his free time, Friedman plans to explore the mountains and other natural areas around Walla Walla, as well as socialize with other Whitman students.

“What I’ve heard from people who’ve stayed here over the summer is that there’s usually a small group of Whitman students who stay, and because it’s so small, everybody just wants to get together . . . even if you don’t know people, there’s going to be a community of people who didn’t know each other necessarily, but really want to hang out, because they’re out in Eastern Washington for the entire summer,” he said.

For Jungerman, staying in Walla Walla is not a new experience. She agrees that spending a summer in Walla Walla is not as bad as many students expect.

“I stayed in Walla Walla two summers ago and I actually like it here, although in the summer is really hot,” she said.

Simply put, the Arizona law is unjust, and its passage ignited a firestorm of protest. President Obama declared the legislation “misguided.” On May 1, hundreds of thousands marched in protest at rallies across the country. In California, the Archbishop of Los Angeles led the protesters in chants of “sí, se puede!” Congressman Raúl Grijalva called for a limited boycott of Arizona in protest of the law, marking the first time in recent memory that a politician urged visitors to avoid his home state. White House police arrested U.S. Representative Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois after he and about 35 supporters staged an unauthorized sit-in against the law in front of the White House lawn.

Even Major League Baseball got dragged into the fray, as many baseball players are Latin American immigrants. In Chicago, protesters marched in front of Wrigley Field as the Cubs played the Arizona Diamondbacks. Some critics called on fans to boycott the 2011 All-Star Game, scheduled to be held in Phoenix. Outspoken Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen declared that if Arizona police asked for his immigration documents, he “might say go [expletive] yourself.” Guillen promised to skip the All Star game if the law is not repealed by 2011.

The controversial Arizona law makes passing comprehensive federal immigration reform even more important. Without reform on a national level, states might enact a patchwork of laws in a desperate attempt to address undocumented immigration. As shown by the Arizona law, such legislation could encourage racial profiling and would do little to slow undocumented immigration.

The March murder of rancher Robert Krentz near the U.S.-Mexico border by drug traffickers fueled debate over the Arizona law. Critics argue that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than U.S. citizens and are a threat to public safety. Arizona Senator John McCain made the bizarre claim—on national TV, no less—that undocumented immigrants intentionally ram unsuspecting citizens on his state’s freeways.

But the reality is that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens. The vast majority of “illegal” immigrants are not vicious criminals, but come to the United States in search of jobs and a better life for their families. Their hard labor provides substantial benefits to the U.S. economy. Immigration reform should include a guest worker program that would allow foreign nationals to work in the United States for a specified period of time. A guest worker program would eliminate much of the human smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border. Border Patrol agents would then be able to focus on fighting violent drug trafficking rather than chasing peaceful job-seekers.

Furthermore, immigration reform should include a path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants already in the country. Many undocumented immigrants have been in the United States for years, and their children have often spent more of their lives in the United States than in their home countries. Their only crime is crossing an arbitrary line in search of a better living. It’s a pity that such a trivial crime generates so much animosity, irrationality and hate.

Books to fill the “LOST” void

As graduation approaches, so too does the end of television phenomenon “LOST.” Those that are dedicated to the show will certainly experience a sense of withdrawal that may eventually result in unsafe, obsessive behavior. So, instead of trying to act out all your unfulfilled “LOST” fantasies, read something that will help the process of rehabilitation.

“The Interrogative Mood” by Padgett Powell

If you miss the exhaustion that comes with things left unanswered, you’ll appreciate this book composed entirely of questions.

“Four Past Midnight” by Stephen King

Really, just read the story “The Langoliers,” which involves an airplane, alternate dimensions and a downright eerie airport. As an added bonus, this really short story has more closure than the first five seasons of “LOST” combined.

“Point Omega” by Don DeLillo

Like “LOST,” DeLillo’s work tends to be pretty cryptic, which pisses some readers off and entrances others. In this new work, DeLillo takes a political topic—the war in Iraq—and uses it to muse on some huge, human ideas like the nature of time and death. Also, at only 117 pages, it won’t take you six years to navigate.

“Our Mutual Friend” by Charles Dickens or “Ulysses” by James Joyce

Sure, these are classics, and tough as anything to get through. But by giving them a shot, you can feel at one with the friends you have lost by reading the books they enjoyed. Desmond Hume plans that “Our Mutual Friend” will be the last book he ever reads, and Benjamin Linus peruses “Ulysses” while on the Ajira Airlines flight back to the Island.

Books to impress your significant other’s parents

Do your research beforehand so that you know the parents’ leanings in any direction, then make the appropriate choices from the books below. If necessary, read them all—it’s likely that they’ll disagree with whatever you say, so know all the alternatives.

First, books to please the politico parent, no matter on which side of the aisle they sit.

“The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama” by David Remnick

In this new book about the President’s formative years, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Remnick explores the people and forces that have shaped Obama’s presidency. If the parents still have half-faded McCain/Palin stickers cemented to their car bumpers, keep this one in the closet.

OR:

“Spoken from the Heart” by Laura Bush

Laura Bush’s memoir describes her early years, from growing up in Texas to her marriage to middle-school classmate George W. Bush, to the White House during the days following 9/11. This autobiography was released Tuesday, May 4, so keeping it out will impress visitors not only because of heartwarming content, but also your ability to stay on top of the political memoir scene.

If religion or atheism is important to your significant other’s parents, then chances are they will find it important in you. Just remember not to commit yourself too far one way—you could blow it with a weak attempt to prove God’s existence or a half-remembered witticism about genes or evolution.

“The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins

Since it was released in 2008, this has become something of a classic for readers out to challenge religion. Although it can be a big hit with an appropriately atheist audience, tread with caution when discussing this one with your significant other’s parents.

OR:

“The Dawkins Delusion?” by Alister E. McGrath and Joanna Collicut McGrath

In this answer to Dawkins’ proposal that God cannot exist, the authors use the history of religion, as well as a scientific background—McGrath was first a microbiologist—to refute Dawkins’ arguments point-by-point. If the in-laws ask you to say grace before digging in to a meal, this might be the right choice.

Lastly, a classic:

“Moby Dick, or The Whale” by Herman Melville

Skim, skim, skim . . . read the badass last chapter . . . leave it on your coffee table and answer any question with, “That reminds me of Queequeg’s coffin.”

Jump on the bandwagon books

There has been a general consensus that certain books are good and worth reading. These are some of those. Don’t be ashamed to listen to people who probably know what they’re talking about.

“Tinkers” by Paul Harding

Winner of the 2010 Pullitzer Prize for Fiction.

“Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel

Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize and the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

“Versed” by Rae Armantrout

Winner of the 2010 Pullitzer Prize for Poetry.

Books to read and then tell absolutely no one that you did

Everyone has guilty pleasures, so don’t feel too embarrassed about reading any of these books. But make sure you don’t leave them where people will notice.

“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” by Seth Grahame-Smith

You snub your nose at it, but sometimes a good dose of vampire really is good for the spirit. This book argues that the Civil War had little to do with slavery and everything to do with the supernatural. On a side note, if you type “Abraham Lincoln” into an Amazon search, this is the first option that pops up.

“Dominic: The Lords of Satyr” by Elizabeth Amber

In the “paranormal romance” genre, this one’s a classic. Filled with genuine if nonhuman characters, it is a journey of the heart and mind, as well as . . . other body parts. It’s chock full of sex. This is one of a series concerning brothers who are powerfully potent at ‘Moonful’ and feel compelled by a duty to sire heirs with their Faerie brides.

“Harry Potter” by J.K. Rowling

All seven—for the seventh time. Race your other unemployed friends.

Books of the future

These books do not yet exist. But you’ll probably enjoy them when they do.

“The Pregnant Widow” by Martin Amis (May 11)

The new novel from the British writer focuses on what he does best—sexuality, obsession and class resentment.

“Super Sad True Love Story” by Gary Shteyngart (July 27)

It’s in the name. This love story is set in a near-future America where immortality is available to the rich and books are known as “printed, bound media artifacts.” Indulge in your loneliness this summer, inside and alone with this book.

“The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” by Aimee Bender (June 1)

In this book, a girl discovers that, when eating everyday food items, she can taste the emotions of the cook who made them. Aimee Bender has been called a “spelunker of the human soul.” If you take anything from Aimee Bender, let it be her innate talent to totally spelunk your soul.

Almost 75 percent of those who favor smaller government said they would rather have it than the domestic programs from which spending would be cut. Except not really: “In follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security—the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on ‘waste.’” Well I can tell you one thing right now—a significant cut of Medicare or Social Security would not be payed for by cutting all of the porkbarrel spending in the entire budget.

The waste of government dollars, as frustrating as some of the examples are (see the several Bridges to Nowhere that have been built), is not a large part of what the federal government spends its money on. It is foolish to think 1) that preventing such spending would pay for most of Medicare of Social Security and 2) that we are even capable of stopping it in a large way. While the image of the politician fighting wasteful spending is reassuring and politically viable, the reality is that most politicians do not do this consistently. Come election time, every senator publicly emphasizes how much money they brought directly to his or her home state; every representative brags in commercials about how much bacon he or she brought to his constituents.

So a focus on reducing “waste” is both impractical and unnecessary—plus, what exactly constitutes waste is a subjective determination, as there is not a tremendous amount of blatant Bridge-to-Nowhere type abuse hidden amid the folds of the Congressional Budget. Which leaves these Tea Partiers, who want both to reduce the size of government and to keep the two biggest government programs intact, in a bit of a jam because many of them do not believe in paying taxes. And taxes, however irritating, are how governments pay for things.

While the above statement might seem a bit too obvious, I feel that most of the Tea Party needs to be reminded of this fact. The tax laws are set up so that the rich are taxed at much higher rates, because, duh, they have more to give. Kant would say they have an ethical obligation to pay theses higher rates (at least I think so).

President Obama and the Democrat-controlled legislature have lowered taxes for the average family and raised them for the rich, which makes sense politically and, in my opinion, economically as well. The question of whether or not we should pay taxes should be a moot point—in order to have a government, it needs to be financed. Unfortunately, such a conflict has not faded away—we have a rabid anti-tax movement in this country, helped in many ways by the angry anti-government rhetoric of organizations such as the Tea Party.

Those against paying their taxes are most often those who have more money, and thus reject their taxes not out of principle, but out of selfish want of more resources. From the beginning of the New York Times article displaying the survey’s results states, “Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class.”

So the fight over how to pay for government should move beyond the foolish focus on waste (not to mention the not-so-fringe anti-tax attitude) to a debate about what our tax money should be spent on. If it was me, I would cut defense spending heavily and invest in infrastructure and public institutions: roads, libraries, police stations, fire stations, art museums, etc. Unfortunately, much of the general public forgets that taxes pay for those, too.

As this is our last regular issue of the semester (be on the lookout for our second annual Grad Issue, debuting May 18), it comes time for me to reflect not only on what we’ve accomplished these last few months but to also consider what we can do in the coming year. Although May marks the end of an academic year, it marks the midway point of my yearlong term as editor-in-chief.

This semester has been a learning experience, for nothing could have prepared me for this role. Since The Pioneer is a student newspaper, there is no cut-and-dried way of publishing, no manual telling us exactly what to do. This is both rewarding and incredibly challenging.

To help us with this challenge, we’ve established an Advisory Board, comprised of members of the Whitman and Walla Walla communities who are experienced in the fields of journalism, publishing and writing. The Board consists of Professor of History Julie Charlip, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics Ashley Esarey and Professor of Rhetoric and Film Studies Bob Withycombe; Director of Fellowships and Grants Keith Raether; Associate Director of Communications and Editor of the Whitman Magazine Lana Brown; VP for Development and College Relations John Bogley; and Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Publisher Rob Blethen.

I have also learned an incredible amount from the amazing team of editors I’ve had the pleasure of working with. They have consistently brought new ideas to the table, and they had led me to reconsider many of the newspaper’s previous conventions. I am excited to implement their ideas and suggestions come next semester.

I am also indebted to the entire Pioneer staff. The hard work and dedication of the writers, photographers, illustrators, production associates and business staff makes producing a weekly newspaper possible. This list isn’t complete without mention of my partner in crime, Publisher Derek Thurber. Derek has been influential in not only keeping me sane, but in creating a sustainable business model for The Pioneer and for spearheading the formation of the Advisory Board and the redesign of our Web site, which is set to debut in September.

To the entire Whitman community, I wish you the best of luck on final exams and hope you all have a relaxing, well-deserved summer vacation. And to seniors, best of luck in the years to come.

Until next time,

Molly

In China, one of the first thing people have asked me is what living in America is like. Is it easy to become rich? Not as easy as it sounds. Is the environment cleaner? Yes. Is it more free? Yes, but that depends on what freedom means. Sometimes though, I have to temper their expectations and in that process you come to understand exactly what it is that you’re tempering.

See, America’s a unique place: a nation of immigrants whose identity is continually in flux. Just witness the uproar over the immigration law Arizona recently passed. From what I gather, any police officer can demand to see the immigration papers (such as passports) of people they stop for other offenses like jaywalking, an open container on a street, or a traffic violation. Sounds draconian, and it is, but the debate on illegal immigration not only reflects economic and security anxieties but more fundamentally an anxiety over what it is to be American. I mean, let’s be frank; Arizona’s new immigration law will lead to racial profiling for better or for worse.

So, when I talk to Chinese students, almost all of them want to come to the United States for our world-renowned educational system, for a higher salary and for a more comfortable life. What I also tell them is that it’s challenging to fully integrate oneself into another society, even one as open as America (see the kind of rhetoric emanating from Rush Limbaugh on the immigration debate).  Moreover, these conversations offer a new perspective, a kind of critical self-analysis, because no one in America talks about what America is. It’s assumed there is a consensus.

Well, there’s not. On one hand, I’ve learned that the elderly face a dramatically different situation in America than in China. The whole tradition of valuing family extends, of course, to the elderly. As a consequence, you’ll see hundreds of retired people waltzing together at parks or doing calisthenics to upbeat high school football music at parks (which I saw in the city of Chengdu, home to pandas and spicy food). You won’t see that in America, at least in my experience.

Our privatized communities (a contradiction?) mean that at night, you’re more likely to see teenagers selling drugs, drinking or hanging out than a sea of elderly people lined up waltzing. Now, there are reasons for this cultural difference but what’s interesting to me is the difficulty I had in realizing this difference until I stepped outside and looked back in. And it’s that very act of stepping out and looking in that’s so helpful in watching American politics and culture from afar but not as a stranger.

On the other hand, living in an area with a high urban density makes you realize just how much land there is in America. You won’t see open lots, open fields or just uninhabited places in the middle of a city in China. There’s literally not much room. Almost 1.3 billion people live in 22 percent of China’s landmass despite the fact that China and the United States share a relatively equal portion of the globe. We’re only about 250 years old politically, and while manifest destiny spread Americans (or what constituted Americans in the 19th century) across the continent, it’s not as if there’s no room left in the country.

Moreover, the openness in our lands precisely parallels the openness of our society and hits at the core of American identity. There’s enough room in America for more people. Not all of them are criminals nor are all immigrants illegal. If they are taking American jobs, then what jobs should they get? Why are some jobs fit for Americans to do but not others? These are the questions that proponents of Arizona’s immigration debate should be answering and it would behoove them to ask people who want to immigrate to America why.

Sophomore Lizzy Schiller will be studying in Costa Rica in the cloud forests of Monteverde from June to August. For Schiller, a summer trip offers a study abroad experience without the time commitment away from Whitman.

“I decided to study abroad in Costa Rica for the summer because I knew that I wanted to do some type of study abroad experience but I also knew that I didn’t want to study abroad in the school year and miss out on one of the eight semesters at Whitman,” said Schiller.

Schiller discovered this program during Thanksgiving break when she was looking through study abroad pamphlets and instantly fell in love.

“While it is a summer abroad program for biology majors, and I am not a biology major, I mainly wanted to do it because it sounded like an amazing way to spend most of my summer: studying bio, backpacking and experiencing the Costa Rican culture,” said Schiller.

Schiller will be completing an independent study that is focused on either biology or ecology, taking additional courses, living with a Costa Rican family for a few weeks and backpacking through the rainforests of Costa Rica.

Schiller stresses that although studying abroad has appealed to her, she doesn’t believe that this sort of opportunity is perfect for everyone.

“I feel like there’s this strong push at Whitman centered around studying abroad, and if you don’t study abroad during your college career then you’re missing out on something . . . But really, it’s up to the individual,” said Schiller.

First-year Emma Newton will also be starting an independent study program in Kenya this summer. She will be in Kenya for 20 days working at the Humble Heart School for the Deaf.

For Newton, choosing Kenya as a destination was a no-brainer.

“I love it and I have the opportunity to go so I took it,” she said.

Newton heard of the trip through a family friend who had an extra spot. She will be participating in the program alongside graduate students.

“I’m going to be doing things like working in the classroom, building things, painting, doing construction work but also working with the kids and playing with them,” said Newton.

Last of all, Newton will be going to the Amboseli nature reserve to go on a safari under the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Sophomore Alethea Buchal will also be helping out at a school, but she will be in Mexico City.

“I have been given an amazing opportunity to live in Mexico City for six weeks this summer teaching English to 6-16 year olds and volunteering for World Vision, Amextra and Armonia,” said Buchal.

Buchal will be staying with a family in a poverty-stricken neighborhood in Mexico City. She is not certain that she will have electricity, but this doesn’t dampen her enthusiasm. According to Buchal, World Vision believes in allowing volunteers to experience poverty and grow from it.

”I know that this experience will open my eyes to see the world and my place in it completely differently,” said Buchal.

Buchal has been feeling a strong connection to Mexico and Latin America because Latin American subculture is such an important part of American culture.

“I have been feeling called to Mexico specifically for several years now and it’s amazing that this opportunity presented itself this summer,” said Buchal.

Buchal came across this opportunity through Whitman Christian Fellowship. She is currently in the process of raising funds for her journey.

“If anyone has piles of cash lying around . . . give it to Alethea,” she said.