Between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, Americans produce 25% more waste than they do normally. This amounts to 25 million pounds of waste total during the holiday season. Since we like to think of ourselves as environmentally conscientious here at Whitman, here are a few ways you might keep yourself from contributing to these numbers [...]

California: Yosemite
Admit it: as beautiful as Yosemite National Park is during the summer and spring seasons, it’s fun to see what it looks like when its snowed over. Although Yosemite is most commonly known for its waterfalls, it also has valleys, meadows, ancient giant sequoias and a immense area of wildlife. During the winter, however, [...]

Class is about to start as a Whitman student walks in on the first day. The classroom looks new and fancy and when he sits down at his desk instead of finding some old wooden writing surface there is a laptop waiting for his personal use.
This dream of the future is now coming to reality [...]

After a successful first semester, with such triumphs as Power Vote and an Anderson blackout, the Campus Climate Challenge is ready to tackle solar panels on top of Jewett.
Because of Jewett’s very large flat roof, 130 solar panel “modules” will hopefully be installed on top of the freshman dorm. Each module is 1,984 [...]

If there’s anything impressive about The 88, a Los Angeles-based pop-rock band, it’s the fact that their third album—“Not Only…But Also”—was financed on the licensing of their music to film and TV. From “The OC” to the new (re: awful) “90210,” the band’s already made their name just being the background music for ‘tween [...]

Harper Joy Theatre’s upcoming play “The Shadow” had its beginnings as a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1847. Jewish author Yevgheny Shvarts, living in Soviet Russia, politicized the content of Anderson’s tale and turned it into a full length play in 1940. In a climate of political repression, Shvarts’ play balanced classic [...]

The minutes after the last performance of Whitman Dance Theater’s “TREE-SPEAK” were over-the-top.
Dancers in fairy-like costumes and street clothes lavished one another with hugs.
A few proud parents showed up with the requisite bunches of flowers and friends snapped picture after picture of the dancers in their colorful clown-meets-prostitute stage make up.
The photos, flowers and hugs [...]

Six records that I failed to cover in 500 words or less:
Beach House – Devotion (Carpark)
I didn’t much care for Beach House’s self-titled debut. I couldn’t find anything worth digging into in their songs, and I couldn’t find something that made them more compelling than oft-compared-to Mazzy Star and Galaxie 500. “Devotion,” however, won me [...]

This year, instead of throwing their familiar release parties, Quarterlife is holding open mic nights to celebrate the issuing of their publication. 
Though the release parties were popular and widely successful, the Quarterlife staff decided to go in a different direction after Associated Students of Whitman College (ASWC) changed the student group alcohol policy to discourage [...]

As I left the theater, I found myself incapable of controlling my emotions.  
Director Mark Herman’s “The Boy in Striped Pajamas” is a rough movie to watch: not rough in the sense that it shows graphic scenes or builds a vivid attachment to a suffering character, but rough in that it stirs up emotions that [...]

How did you wind up working as a custodian for Whitman? 
I was born here in Walla Walla, moved when I was 9, and proceeded to go to 12 different schools in the next five years all over California and Idaho. I went to a culinary arts school in Spokane and got an AA degree in [...]

It’s hard to find time to cook at this point in the semester.  Lunches and dinners become hastily assembled sandwiches, bowls of cereal or quesadillas.  We’re supposed to be gearing up for finals and when we’re not doing that we want to relax and not toil in the kitchen for hours.  Frankly, we are tired, [...]

Laura Ealy, a custodian in Maxey Hall with 18 years of service to the Whitman community, passed away suddenly on Nov. 25. The cause of her death is not known.
Laura’s vibrant personality and lively spirit will not be forgotten.
Friends and family members flooded Maxey Auditorium on Tuesday, Dec. 2, for a [...]

As all Whitman students know, “I’m so stressed out!” is one of the most overheard phrases on campus. When Whitman lost happiness points from the Princeton Review this past year—dropping from #1 to #17 on its annual list of Happiest Students—many speculated that Whitman students may be experiencing more stress, begging the question: Which students [...]

Thirty-five years ago, Jim McGuinn opened a record shop on Main Street with the goal of eventually starting a preschool. McGuinn, who has an associate degree in child development, never expected to continue in the record business for long, let alone become the owner of the oldest independent record shop in Washington.
With the striking [...]