Photo Credit : Bullion

After dancing in the strobe-lighted darkness, the crowd gathered in a horseshoe for the drag competition to begin. Roxanne von Cummings, reigning Miss Gay Washington, instructed the contestants to pick out good drag names. Since many had based their costumes on characters, the competitors included Wolverine and the Goblin King on the drag king side, and Hannah Montana and Cruella de Ville—the eventual winner—on the drag queen side. Cummings introduced one competitor as “The Bitch of the Ball,” and one student married both a pun and Disney reference by performing under the name “Twinkerbelle.” The competition ended with a performance from Cummings.

Every year, Whitman’s Coalition Against Homophobia plans the Day of Drag, which encourage students to wear gender-nonconforming clothes all day, and Dragfest, a themed dance party. This year, the theme of Dragfest was Disney. The coalition’s goal is to introduce students to a part of gay culture and get them to question their ideas about gender norms, promoting a more diverse understanding of gender and gender performance.

According to sophomore Emma O’Rourke-Powell, co-president of coalition, Whitman is generally a friendly place for lesbian and gay students. She said she knows quite a few friends who came out when they came to college because of the good atmosphere.

“It’s a liberal arts school in the best sense of the word,” she said.

However, the aim of Dragfest is also to increase support and understanding for people who are transgender or do not fit into typical gender norms.

“It’s about the support and acknowledgment of more than two genders,” said sophomore Mehera Nori, another co-president of coalition.

While being transgender or genderqueer is not the same as drag, the presidents of coalition hope that Dragfest will get students thinking about the definition of gender, and where it breaks down.

“Drag shows that the gender lines are consistently blurred, and we’re the ones who decide where they get drawn,” said Cummings.

However, good intentions are not a guarantee of success. The leaders of the coalition are not sure that their message comes across, or if students only come and dance and socialize and have fun.

“It can get lost. It often gets lost,” said junior Liam Mina.

Photo Credit : Bullion

Some students don’t see drag as undermining gender roles, but as a chance to poke fun at the other gender.

First-year Erika Horwege claimed that drag was a chance to parody, but not mock, the opposite gender.

“We’re not mocking them; we love them,” she said.

First-year Eric Nickeson-Mendheim wore a dress reminiscent of Disney princesses and introduced his character as “Bella the Bitch,” though he performed as the “Bitch of the Ball.” He enjoys drag’s connection to gay culture.

“I love this opportunity to express myself, and make out with my boyfriend in drag,” he said.

Drag can also change gendered notions of beauty and body type.

“It certainly forces people to think about what we consider feminine, and how we relate it to body type. The fact that a man can make himself look what we call feminine reveals that gender constructs are a sham,” said Cummings.

The challenge drag poses to the idea of gendered beauty was not completely lost.

“Boys can look really hot as girls,” said junior Hanna Kahl.

Credit: O. Johnson

Remember the awful mint green linoleum floors, the banging lockers, the crowded hallways of public high school? Or maybe high school meant something completely different: It recalls a private school denoted by emblazoned polos and dorm curfews? Students coming to Whitman from public or private high schools encounter a set of challenges that is unique in many ways, and these differences often lead to varied attitudes towards both the high school and college experience.

Due to Whitman’s rigorous academic standards during the admission process, the majority of Whitman students find themselves prepared for college-level academics when they arrive on campus. Senior Julie Grimm, who attended Derryfield, a private high school in Manchester, N.H., recalls that her private education adequately prepared her for Whitman.

“Academically, I think [private school] really helped,” Grimm said. “My GPA here is at least a grade above high school, and especially freshman year, it was a lot easier than I expected in terms of preparation for Whitman.”

However, public school students who satisfied admission requirements found themselves equally successful despite the unfamiliar environment. Senior Matt Kelly, who came to Whitman from Inglemoor Senior High School, a public school in Kenmore, Wash., remembered that coming to Whitman was “a pretty smooth and straightforward transition.”

“[Public school] academically prepared me very well, in terms of hard skills. I went to a school that offered a lot of upper level classes,” said junior Abby McCoy, who attended Garfield High School in Seattle.

Yet public school students did meet new challenges, especially in terms of class size and expectations.

“The smaller class size at Whitman College definitely surprised me, because I felt at public school you could get by with not preparing that well for class. But at Whitman you have to spend a lot of time preparing for discussions,” said Kelly.

In contrast, many private school students have found that the expectations at Whitman and their private schools have been similar, making the transition less dramatic. Junior Max Appleton, who attended the private high school The United World College of South East Asia located in Singapore, believes that, while many of the differences between high school and college are the same regardless of the high school attended, the attitude towards college is different.

“Most of the changes I noticed were because I was going from high school to college, and I think I would have felt those changes regardless of whether the high school I attended was public or private,” he said. However, coming from a private high school, he said, “I was better prepared in the sense that I always knew I was going to college and all my friends were, so it was something I never really questioned and therefore might have been more confident going into college as I knew I had been prepared as best I could.”

For many public school students, the plethora of resources that Whitman makes available to new students served as crucial tools during the transition from public high schools to a private college.

“Whitman provided the necessary resources for a successful transition from high school to college, such as the student academic adviser in the dorm and the writing center,” said Kelly. “I remember that I talked to my student academic adviser a couple of times about Core papers and scheduling advice.”

However, despite the wealth of resources available, other students coming from public schools felt that the different atmosphere of large public schools made it difficult for them to understand how or when to use these resources effectively.

“In terms of transitioning, the thing I found most difficult and still do is understanding and accepting the resources that are freely given,” said McCoy. “You were lucky to get anything to work with [in high school], and I felt like I was way more creative than I am here in getting what I want.”

This sense of independence highlights a larger difference between how public and private students regard their high school experiences. Some students noted that at Whitman, public school students are more vocal about their high school background.

“[Former private school students are] self-conscious of it, and feel embarrassed because it seems so privileged and almost unnecessary. They’re not as open about it as public school kids, who seem more proud,” Grimm said.

McCoy agreed.

“There is a pride I take coming from a public school and being successful in that place,” she said.

However, said McCoy, this sense of pride sometimes goes even further.

“Going to a public school I can say, ‘Look I was denied so many resources but look how successful I am in coming to private school.’ There is some arrogance there,” said McCoy.

Yet Grimm also noted the variety of options and freedom of decision-making made more available to public school students.

“I sometimes wish I had gone to public school, especially with the AP classes and early start programs they can offer . . . A small private school can’t offer that variety,” she said. “Also, deciding to go to a small liberal arts college after a small private school is kind of the natural progression, but making the switch from public to private may involve more of a decision-making process on the student’s part. They’re really choosing it rather than just falling into that path.”

“People always ask me, ‘Where’s your accent?’ And there have been a lot of really funny questions—’What kinds of rodents have you had for dinner?’, ‘Do you have a bunch of broken down cars in your yard?’” said Lutken. “And it gets even more intense when they ask, ‘How do you feel about abortion?’”

Although applicants from the Pacific Northwest are most common at Whitman, the campus is made up of students from 45 different states and 30 countries. Adjusting can be difficult, as both domestic and international students must adapt to a different way of life, including new regional mannerisms or educational styles.

For Lutken, leaving the South has led to an increased awareness of the negative image of Southerners that persists throughout the United States.

“If someone’s going to tell a joke about a stupid person, they’ll give them a Southern accent, almost without fail. And I try to call people on it,” said Lutken. “It’s something that I have definitely come to realize way more since I’ve been out here. I think that Southerners are some of the only people that you can still make fun of and have no one get mad at you for it.”

Lutken has tried to be vocal about her Southern upbringing, hoping to make people aware of the prejudices that remain.

“I think what needs to happen is that there need to be a lot of intelligent people who don’t hide their accent,” said Lutken.

Coming from Massachusetts, first-year Roseanna Loring has adapted to a different set of cultural issues.

“At the beginning of the year, I was drawn to other kids from the Northeast, and now I have a lot more friends from the West Coast. I didn’t even know where people were from, but they were just the people I connected to originally,” Loring said.

Loring has also discovered that people in the Northwest are generally friendlier than those in the east.

“I think that making the jump from west to east would be a lot more difficult because when you walk by someone, you probably say ‘hi’ at Whitman, and I don’t think that would happen at a lot of East Coast colleges,” said Loring.

Moving from a large city to Walla Walla can pose its own problems. For first-year Hayley Beckett, who came to Whitman from Berkley, Calif., this was originally a big concern.

“I realized that I could never live in an isolated area coming from such a diverse, vibrant city, so I got really nervous about living in Walla Walla,” said Beckett in an e-mail.

However, after seeing the campus, Beckett realized that she didn’t need to worry about being stifled at Whitman.

“Walla Walla is small, but after visiting, I realized that it has enough character and Whitman has so much to offer that it would be a wonderful place to live as a college student,” said Beckett.

Beckett, like many other students, has a unique perspective on Whitman because of her home city, and has learned to turn regional differences into an advantage.

International students attending Whitman experience many similar adjustment issues, although cross-cultural differences often make the transition a much tougher one.

As the International Student Adviser at the Intercultural Center, Kris Barry understands many of these challenges.

“Sometimes it’s the little things,” she said. “Because you’re kind of mentally prepared—you’ve read about the big things. It’s the little irritating things that can be important, and they’re very individual but you know they’re there.”

The support provided by the Intercultural Center includes an orientation for international students, as well as programs like Friendship Families, which matches participating international students with a local family, and the Buddy Program, which pairs a sophomore with an incoming international student.

“We have many different levels of support, and whichever one students relate to is great,” said Barry. “We just want to provide as many options as we can, because everybody’s so different.”

For junior Elena Zheglova, these programs have helped enrich her time at Whitman, although many aspects of  life in Walla Walla remain difficult. Zheglova came to Whitman from Bulgaria as a first-year student.

“It’s great to have a friendship family because it’s really nice to have dinners with them and see the way people live,” said Zheglova. “At Whitman, and in college in general, you’re kind of out of everyday life.”

Zheglova has not adjusted to some aspects of academic life, however.

“It’s the type of studying that you have to do—I can’t get used to it,” she said. “You can’t focus on anything specifically important for you. It’s very broad and vague and it burns me out.”

This summer, Zheglova hopes to get an internship in Walla Walla where she can slow down and focus on her environmental studies interests.

For some students, like Ayana Hatsuda, a sophomore from Japan on a yearlong program, English has posed the greatest obstacle. Hatsuda participated in the international students’ orientation, yet adjusting was difficult because she felt behind in her language abilities.

“Other international students already spoke English pretty well,” said Hatsuda.

Despite this challenge, Hatsuda has enjoyed living in Prentiss Hall and has gotten to know some of her section mates well. She has noticed some differences between Japan and America, but enjoys these changes.

“In Japan, people like group harmony, and here people are more independent. But I like that,” she said.

For Tumisang Mothei, a junior from Botswana, academic challenges have not been as noticeable as cultural differences. During his time at Whitman, Mothei has learned to focus more on commonalities.

“Some of the nuances are difficult for me to digest simply because I’m from a different culture and social environment,” said Mothei. “I’m just trying to relate on some of the common things we can share. Like ideas, we can talk about ideas—we might not have the same material resources, but we can share ideas and there’s common ground in that.”

Mothei has heard many misconceptions about his country during his time in the United States, and, like Lutken when faced with stereotypes about the South, he tries to use those moments to educate others and to learn himself. At Whitman, Mothei has found that people are generally excited to listen and discuss.

“Here there is this open feeling towards other cultures and countries,” he said. “There’s an effort that you can actually see to know where you’re from and what your culture’s all about.”

Credit: Song

Across the street from the College Place Walmart, there are four separate recruitment offices for the United States Armed Forces. Though the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force each recruit in this area, they don’t see much interest from Whitman students.

“When I came here, I said I’d probably never put anyone from Whitman in the Navy,” said Navy Recruiter-in-Charge Mathew Haney.

Ironically, his first recruit ended up being a Whitman graduate, but his overall perception of Whitman students was correct: Few go into the military.

Economic reasons could be behind this lack of interest. According to Not Your Soldier—an advocacy group working to end recruitment practices targeted at low-income students—71 percent of black recruits, 65 percent of Latino recruits and 58 percent of white recruits come from below median-income households. While Whitman offers financial aid to its students, the majority don’t come from low-income backgrounds.

Haney believes the lack of interested Whitman students has more to do with students’ political leanings.

“Whitman has always been known as a predominantly liberal college,” he said.

In addition, he said many students attending four-year colleges already have career plans. Although interest is higher at Walla Walla University, Haney said this is because many students there are planning to go to medical school, and the Navy will pay for these classes in exchange for six years of service.

The Student Engagement Center allows the military to post job opportunities for students. However, Director Susan Buchanan says she tries to dissuade recruiters from attending career fairs.

“I don’t disallow them,” she said. “I’ve just explained to them that it probably wouldn’t be a positive experience.”

She too attributes Whitman’s lack of interest in military service to the liberal beliefs held by most of the student body.

In spite of the relative lack of recruiter presence at Whitman, ASWC adopted a resolution in 2005 stating that they were opposed to recruitment on campus. The opposition was based on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prohibits openly gay and lesbian people from serving. This policy was passed in 1993 during the Clinton Administration in an attempt to provide a compromise between a 1982 ban on gays and lesbians in the military and demands from civil rights groups to allow anyone to serve.

ASWC’s resolution also protested against the Solomon Amendment, a 1995 law which states that any school not allowing recruiters access to campus must forfeit federal funding. Although the Solomon Amendment was challenged by many law schools in 2002, a Supreme Court ruling upheld the law in 2006.

Whitman alumnus Sam Tate ‘09, who recently completed Officer Candidate School, believes that the ASWC resolution is unfair to the military.

“If you choose not to join the military because of a policy like ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ you can make that choice,” he said. “I think it’s a [resolution] that kind of insults the student.”

Tate personally believes that “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” should be repealed, but he says that it doesn’t effect his overall opinion of the military.

First-year Kathryn Collins agreed that the ASWC resolution was unnecessary. She came to Whitman from a high school where many students entered the armed forces after graduating.

“We should respect other people’s decisions about whether or not the military is correct for them,” she said. “The military is a good, viable education option for people.”

However, some Whitman students are very opposed to recruitment on campus. A recent e-mail sent out by the Student Engagement Center listing a Navy job prompted junior Lissa Erickson to ask the Center to stop advertising for the military. She cited the military’s “unethical practices at home and across the globe” and the No Child Left Behind Act’s requirement that schools release student contact information to the military as reasons for her objection.

In spite of the debate surrounding the military’s level of involvement at Whitman, the bottom line is that most students are not interested in joining.

“We’re not going out [to Whitman] and trying to find lots of people,” said Haney.

Whether or not “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is repealed, that fact is unlikely to change.

Credit: Song

As the second semester continues, seniors at Whitman find themselves asking, “What next?”

When planning for life after college, there are many factors to consider. What do you want to do? What are you qualified to do? And how are you going to support yourself? These are a few of the questions running through the minds of the class of 2010.

When asked about their plans for life after Whitman, many seniors seem to sigh and shake their heads. Math-economics major Karina Kidd met the question head-on.

“I think there is an aura of emotional energy about senior year that continually heightens as the year goes on,” she said in an e-mail. “It’s all about the pressure to find a meaningful career right away, to find a way to support yourself and to come to terms with the fact that you will have to deal with all these major life changes without tolerant, loving, fun Whitties surrounding you.”

Although there are seniors who do have their lives figured out, the planning process can be scary and extremely stressful. Moving from Whitman into the world beyond the “bubble” is a huge step. In undergraduate school, students are given a place to live, food to eat, people to spend time with and activities to participate in—everything is pre-planned. After college, that structure disappears, and the responsibility becomes your own as you trade meal plans for grocery lists and dining halls for tiny kitchens.

The transition from Whitman to the real world starts at the planning process, which can be tough because of its unfamiliarity. Spenser Meeks, a chemistry-environmental studies major, understands the difficulties of this switch.

“It’s hard to get your mind out of homework mode into planning ahead,” said Meeks.

BBMB major Kendra Vandree has a different perspective on the planning process.

“I applied early to [Teach for America] and Peace Corps, and the [Resident Director] application only just became available so I’ve not been too overwhelmed with applications during the school year,” she said in an e-mail. “If none of those things work out, it would give me complete freedom to pursue some of my other more random interests for a while.”

Now that the senior class is finishing with oral and written examinations, the focus has begun to shift to the question that still lingers: “What happens next?” In today’s society and especially today’s economy there is an emphasis on finding a job that is lucrative rather than simply enjoyable. However, sacrificing passion for paychecks is something Whitties seem reluctant to do.

Meeks, an avid member of the drama club, understands this struggle between loving what you do and making a living.

“I love theater, but science is the best way for me to make a change in the world,” he said.

Meeks’ decision to pursue science over drama was motivated financially as well as by his desire to impact society.

“I do want to have a job where I don’t have to worry about making the rent . . . money is a concern,” he said.

Spenser expressed his concern over making money. He did not, however, seem to think that reconciling making money and being happy were completely incompatible. Both Kidd and Vandree echoed this faith.

“I believe that if you find something you truly love to do and you are wildly passionate and determined about it, you can find people who will want to fund that or you will figure out how to make it work,” said Kidd.

Courtesy of Ryan Finnegan

This past summer, senior Ryan Finnegan enrolled in a 10-week program at an Officer Candidate School for the Marines in Quantico, Va.

One day, he and the students took a very difficult hike during which one of the officers would periodically shout “grenade” to keep the future soldiers on their toes. The first time the officer called out, Finnegan crouched and the officer berated him, explaining that if there actually was a grenade, he should dive to the ground to protect himself.

Later, when his group was not marching fast enough in another drill, the same officer yelled “grenade” to speed them up and Finnegan dove to the ground.

He was the only one to do so—the other trainees just laughed. Finnegan still had a lot to learn, but he made it through training and is now ready to take the next step in his military career.

Finishing up a stint student-teaching pupils who needed extra reading assistance, Finnegan decided that teaching—his career plan up until that point—was not for him. After making this decision, Finnegan wanted to find something else to do, something that would still allow him to serve others.

“I spent a semester looking at other service jobs,” he said.

Finnegan looked at working for the state department, the National Park Service and other government jobs. He finally settled on joining the military—the only recent member of his family to do so—against what he perceived to be the feelings of many of his peers.

“It wasn’t as bad as people said,” he said. ”I really liked the program. I could be a regular student, spend a summer training and back out if I needed,” he said.

But Finnegan did not decide to back out. He will be officially sworn into the military in June and will go on to the two other stages of training: basic and job school. Finnegan wants to go into intelligence, but personal preference is far down on the military’s list of priorities when assigning jobs—aptitude and military needs are more important.

Finnegan said that the Officer Candidate School he attended was more of a screening process, to see if the candidates were worth more investment of the military’s time and money.

However, Finnegan is not sure that he wants to be a career Marine.

“I could get financial assistance, but I chose not to, because it adds time to my contract. I want to keep my options open,” said Finnegan.

Finnegan is planning to go to graduate school, although not immediately after graduating from Whitman. For now, he’s going to be a soldier.

Photo Credit : Fennell

Seniors interested in service after Whitman began the process of applying for programs months ago, yet for many, choosing between options is the most difficult step. Service programs like Peace Corps, AmeriCorps and Teach for America all strive to make a difference, but they vary in many key ways. This year’s seniors have found that each organization has its triumphs and pitfalls, and finding the right fit can be a challenge.

For many, the philosophy of each organization is the major decisive factor. Senior William Maier was driven to apply for a position with Peace Corps by both the opportunity to serve abroad and its less strict organizational structure.

“They emphasize serving a community’s needs rather than the needs of an overarching organization, and that’s something that I identify strongly with,” said Maier. “Instead of telling [communities] how to fix their problems, we should be asking them, ‘How do you want to fix your problems?’”

Peace Corps regional recruiter Matthew Hogue agrees that the focus of Peace Corps is more flexible than many other programs.

“Peace Corps has less structure, a greater opportunity for creativity, and in many teaching situations there is less emphasis on test scores and more on finding ways to reach students. There’s an opportunity to really get to the heart of teaching, with more flexibility,” said Hogue.

Along with the positive things she had heard about Peace Corps, its recruitment strategies were another contributing factor in senior Kendra Vandree’s decision. For Vandree, Peace Corps staff seemed more supportive during the application process.

“In my experience I found Peace Corps to be much more accessible. In going through the application process with them, it cemented my decision that if given the choice, I wanted to do Peace Corps more,” said Vandree.

For senior Matthew Beckett, however, Teach for America’s recruitment strategies led to a personal relationship with Teach for America Recruitment Director Nathan Fitzpatrick, a 2006 Whitman alumnus. This connection ultimately became a motivating force.

“Nathan Fitzpatrick was a huge selling point for me,” said Beckett. “I knew that if I didn’t go directly into business school I wanted to do something service-oriented, and I didn’t know what was out there or what I really wanted to do. When Nathan visited he was so high on Teach For America that it got me excited.”

Beyond an organization’s philosophy and the recruitment process, the factors that affect each student’s decision vary widely.

Senior Autumn McCartan was motivated to join AmeriCorps not only by her desire to serve, but also by its location close to home and by positive feedback she has heard.

“AmeriCorps offers so many diverse programs in the Seattle area that I couldn’t pass it up,” said McCartan in an e-mail. “I have several friends who participate in education-based programs who could not stop raving about it. They all claim that they feel like they are really making a difference in the communities they are in.”

As students go through the selection process, weighing these options, they often hear criticism of the organization they have chosen and must learn to deal with these accusations.

McCartan has heard claims that AmeriCorps participants are sometimes self-serving and unproductive. While she worries about this problem, McCartan keeps a positive outlook.

“AmeriCorps has so many programs that not every single one can be equally constructive,” said McCartan. “I just have to trust that I can make my AmeriCorps experience positive and productive.”

Beckett agrees that the best approach is to be realistic with expectations and goals when going into a program like Teach for America.

“I feel like my education here has prepared me to be an educator, but I don’t feel that the Whitman experience as a whole has prepared me in any way for what I’m going to face when I get down to Phoenix,” said Beckett. “The Whitman ‘bubble’ is drastically different than the low income communities that corps members will be teaching in. You just kind of have to jump in, from what I’ve heard. It’s definitely not supposed to be anything that I have experienced before.”

Ultimately, the decision-making process is a highly personal one that varies according to the needs and ideologies of each student. While interviews are important for the organization itself, they are just as vital for applicants trying to find the right fit.

Although Matthew Hogue represents the Peace Corps, he stressed the importance of getting to know any organization well before committing.

“There are a lot of options; people just need to weigh them all out,” Hogue said.

Located on Spokane Street, a few doors down from the Cookie Tree Café and Bakery, Thai Bon Appétit was nearly empty when I arrived at 5:30 p.m. on a Friday. The front counter is wedged into a small café space that is reminiscent of a food court and adjoining it is a larger dining room with tables and softer lighting. At the front counter was a sweet woman who took our order and assured us that she’d bring our pot stickers out when they were ready. She yelled back into the kitchen, where her husband was cooking our dinner.

The à la carte options include pad Thai, Thai chicken and fantail shrimp. But for the most part, the dishes seem to fit under the title “Asian Fusion” rather than strictly Thai. Pad Thai was the only particularly Thai option on the menu. Even the Thai chicken on the menu is named “Thai (Teriyaki) Chicken.” You could find just about everything on Thai Bon Appétit’s menu on the menu at a Chinese restaurant.

Thai Bon Appétit may not be the best bet for vegetarians, as most of the à la carte options are meat entrees. The fried rice is made with chicken, but there are vegetarian egg rolls as well as fish options. Besides the à la carte options, other meal choices are available on the full menu, some of which are more vegetarian friendly. Anything on the menu, which is not currently out as an à la carte option, can be cooked upon request.

All orders come with a heaping pile of fried rice as well as chow mein. The Thai chicken comes as one large piece on a skewer and is essentially the same as teriyaki chicken. Their sweet and sour chicken is deep friend chicken sticks with the sauce on the side. All of the different dishes were light and flavorful, but not overwhelming. The egg rolls were made with cabbage, carrots and chicken with a slightly sweet flavor. The pot stickers were freshly made, hot and extremely good.  They came with a tangy ginger soy sauce that was particularly delicious.

While Thai Bon Appétit is not the most delicious or authentic Thai food I’ve ever had, it was not terrible. For under $20 I could order enough food for two hungry people as well as free refills on soda. The service was extremely friendly, relatively fast and there were lots of options, although my vegetarian and vegan friends may have trouble finding enough entrees to fill their plate. I would highly recommend the pot stickers, which were delicious. The sweet and sour chicken, however, left me wondering if the chicken had come in a freezer box and if the sauce was a Thai version of marinara. Overall, I walked out full and quite satisfied with my dinner.

And these cookies are really easy. They’re the perfect combination of oatmeal, chocolate and peanut butter, and you don’t even have to bake them—just boil the mixture on the stove, drop them onto cookie sheets, and wait for them to cool. To make a batch, you only need a few ingredients, and although you probably can’t steal them from a dining hall, they’re all easy to find at the store or pilfer from a friend’s off-campus house.

Perfect for any late-night chocolate cravings or study breaks, this recipe can be adapted easily to fit the ingredients you have on hand. Chopped nuts, coconut or almond extract can add a lot to the flavor and extra chocolate chips make for an extra-rich, gooey cookie. For peanut butter, you can go with smooth or crunchy, sugary or organic, according to your preference.

Only one warning: I would recommend using butter instead of margarine, although both will work. This helps the cookies to set faster and firm up better—and the hardest part of making this recipe is waiting while the cookies cool. Other, messier eating options include scooping the warm cookies straight off the cookie sheet with a spoon or eating them as a topping on vanilla ice cream.

If you’re looking for convenience, a high chocolate content and perfect chewy texture, you won’t find a better cookie option than this. And the oatmeal makes them healthy, right?

Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies

2 cups granulated sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

½ cup milk

¼ cup butter (or margarine)

3 cups quick-cooking oats

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup peanut butter

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the sugar, unsweetened cocoa, milk and butter to a boil.
2. Remove from heat and immediately add the oats, vanilla extract and peanut butter.
3. Drop the hot mixture onto greased cookie sheets or wax paper, about a spoonful at a time.
4. Let stand for one half-hour (if you can!) or pop them in the freezer for a few minutes to speed up the process.

Photo Credit : Cornelius

As the only food service provider at Whitman, Bon Appétit has a big effect on the health and happiness of students, especially first-years and sophomores. Although it may seem as if food just appears in the dining halls and in Reid, the options provided by Bon Appétit are a result of careful decisions as the company navigates between factors such as health, student preferences and environmental concerns.

“We try to teach people to eat properly,” said Christian Chemin, executive chef.

Bon Appétit attempts to offer a variety of healthy, environmentally-friendly food choices, but that doesn’t mean students have to take them. For example, there are always hamburgers and pizzas available in Reid.

“We want to make sure we satisfy everyone,” said Chemin.

One way the company attempts to cater to all tastes is through diversity; besides the grilled burgers and pizza in Reid, the two larger dining halls have different focuses. The Prentiss dining hall focuses on vegetarian options, while the Jewett dining hall focuses on more meat-heavy meals.

“The demographics of the two halls are different,” said Roger Edens, the general manager of Bon Appétit at Whitman. “There are more first years over near Jewett, and more women near Prentiss. There are far more vegetarians and vegans [who eat in Prentiss] than in Jewett. I think the first-year male students you find at Jewett are looking for more meat. As they become second years, some rethink what they eat and some don’t.”

Chemin said that he worked with a group of vegan students to craft a plan for vegan options the first year he worked at Whitman. Chemin is in charge of the menu in Prentiss dining hall, creating all the recipes from scratch before cooking.

“We don’t use corporate recipes, so it’s not going to be the same every time,” said Edens.

Sophomore Carolyn Hart, however, feels that Bon Appétit could design more meals that are filling, yet also healthy. She doesn’t always enjoy the taste of the strictly healthy meal options.

“Here I tend to go between the extremes. There’s opportunity to eat healthy food, but at the same time it’s easy to eat unhealthily,” she said.

Photo Credit : Cornelius

Whether the chicken served by Bon Appétit is fried or roasted, it must pass rigorous requirements. Bon Appétit has strict rules regarding chicken, beef and eggs, and attempts to buy locally-grown foods as often as possible. The poultry and beef served were raised without the use of antibiotics, while eggs come from free-range chicken.

Bon Appétit also limits the purchase of tropical fruit, like bananas, because of the carbon emitted when the fruit is transported up to temperate Walla Walla and because many types of fruit, like bananas, have an inedible peel that increases food waste. While bananas can sometimes be found in the dining halls, they are not sold in Reid.

Bon Appétit refuses to buy any food that has been air-freighted, as transporting food by airplane also causes a larger volume of carbon emissions.

“In addition to that we’re looking at sustainability and local purchasing,” said Edens.

While Walla Walla is in an agricultural area, not everything can be gained locally. Even the local apples from Milton-Freewater run out in January, according to Edens. On the other hand, the local strawberries used in smoothies and on waffles can be used all year because they are frozen. Bon Appétit continues to develop their local purchasing program, while attempting to serve a wide variety of foods. After all, more than half the Whitman student body relies on a meal plan—the challenge  lies in satisfying the needs and desires of as many students as possible.

Credit: E. Johnson

Contributed by Mimi Cook

Cooking Club co-founder

It’s Friday night and you are dreaming of pizza: crisp, chewy crust, melted cheese and all your favorite toppings. But Sweet Basil seems so far away, Brasserie Four is too dressy and dining hall pizza just isn’t cutting it. The good news is that delicious, rustic pizza isn’t that hard to attain and is pretty cheap to make. It just takes a little forethought and few pizza-making secrets to get the almost charred edges, bubbling cheese and perfectly cooked toppings that make the best pizzeria pizza so good.

Interested? Rewind a day and imagine that you took five minutes to stir together some warm water, flour, and yeast before you went to bed. All night, while you slumbered gently, and all morning, while you were in your classes, the dough rose. Then imagine you spent just 20 minutes after lunch stirring in more yeast, flour and salt, and kneading the dough into a ball, before letting it rise again. During the afternoon, the dough rested in the refrigerator, and you checked in on it a few times. Then, just when you are beginning to feel the first pangs of those pizza cravings, you find you have beautiful, stretchy dough. Rustic pizza is just a few steps away.

Toppings, of course, are key. Tomato sauce and cheese are a classic combination. I use fresh mozzarella. You can add almost anything on top of this, but I like to keep it simple: some salami, olives, maybe some vegetables. Another addictive combination is olive oil, potato slices, bleu cheese and rosemary.

The secret, though—to pizza that tastes like it came straight from a wood-burning oven—is heat. Real, New York style pizzeria ovens run at about 800ºF. So what are we doing cooking pizzas at 350ºF? Drying out the crust is what. My advice is to cook your pizzas as hot as you can. Regular kitchen ovens top out at about 550ºF, so turn up the heat and crank open a couple of windows in case things get a little smoky. You can also cook your pizzas on the back of a super-heated cast iron skillet under the oven’s broiler on high (I tried this—it’s awesome and only takes about two minutes per pizza).

So, trust me on this one. Take the time before you go to bed to start this slow-rise pizza dough and tomorrow, as you bite into a hot, fragrant piece of homemade pizza, you’ll be thanking yourself.

Overnight Pizza Dough (for the college student)

Adapted from Bon Appétit Magazine April 2009. How to read this recipe: Read through the entire thing, noting what ingredients you’ll need and how long each step needs to rise. Then go back to the beginning and start cooking.

STEP 1

1 cup lukewarm water

1 teaspoon of 1 envelope active dry yeast (save the rest for the next step)

1 cup all purpose flour

Place water in a large bowl. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of yeast and ¼ cup of flour over the water. Let stand for 4 minutes. Add remaining flour and whisk until smooth. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rest at room temperature in a draft-free place overnight (about 12 hours).

STEP 2

1 ½ cups lukewarm water

2 teaspoons salt

1 envelope active dry yeast plus remaining yeast from step 1

6 cups all purpose flour

Olive oil

To the mixture in the bowl, add 1 ½ cups water, salt and 1 envelope yeast plus remaining yeast. Stir, then add 6 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, stirring thoroughly after each addition. When all the flour is incorporated, turn out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and only slightly sticky. Shape into a ball.

Wash and dry your bowl. Rub inside of the bowl with oil. Add dough and turn to coat with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; chill 6 hours, punching dough down when doubled (by this I mean gently, but firmly shove your fist into the dough a couple of times to deflate it).

STEP 3

About 1 ½ hours before baking, turn dough out onto floured surface and knead into a 16 inch log. Cut into 8 equal pieces. Knead each piece into a smooth ball. Arrange on two baking sheets dusted with flour, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise 1 to 1 ½ hours.

STEP 4

Stretch into 9-inch rounds. Oil or sprinkle cornmeal on a cookie sheet and place pizza on top. Top as you like. Bake as hot as you can until the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbling. Eat. Enjoy!

Photo Credit : Bowman

While the Whitman Historical Society may sound like it’s stuck in the past, the student-run club is committed to connecting history to the present. The Historical Society was formed last semester by junior David Friedman, who serves as the club’s president. Friedman was inspired by the work of a similar group at the University of Washington campus, where he spent a summer doing historical research.

“They do the coolest stuff . . . there were all these landmarks around campus that explain the history of the college—the history of UW in the context of the northwest history,” said Friedman, “And I thought, well, Whitman should have something like that.”

Friedman created the club to serve many purposes in the Whitman community. Within the history department, Friedman hopes that the club will help to keep students involved in decisions within the department, like the hiring of new professors.

“I wanted to create a group that was going to be a cipher for that kind of activity and that would make students feel more connected with their department, and it would be easier for them to connect with their professors,” said Friedman.

Junior Reed Ferris, the club’s secretary, joined in part because of his friendship with Friedman, but also in order to gain this type of connection with members of the history department. Ferris also became involved to support a greater student voice within the department.

“I see the society primarily as a vehicle for bringing history majors on campus together, and also as a student voice in helping choose Whitman-sponsored speakers on campus,” said Ferris in an e-mail.

Bringing guest lecturers to campus is another important aspect of the Historical Society’s goals. The club plans to bring speakers to campus that will appeal not just to history majors, but also to students from many different academic backgrounds. As a long-term goal, Friedman hopes to organize a joint seminar between faculty from the history and economics departments.

Although Friedman acknowledges that these plans may be far in the future, he believes that they could provide an important link between the past and current events that most students don’t get in the classroom.

“There are so many historical precedents for what’s going on today,” said Friedman, “I mean, that’s my philosophy of history—it’s not just about learning what happened in 1830-whatever, but it’s so relevant; if you understand American history in the 20th century, you totally understand why we’re in Iraq. It’s not separate; current events and history really are interconnected.”

Lynn Sharp, associate professor of history and department chair, sees the club not only as a method of fostering communication between professors and students, but also as a more formal way to enjoy history.

“The point is to give students a venue to share their love of history,” she said.

She believes that the club can help get students more involved in history, especially those outside of the major.

“It’s really exciting for students in other majors, who like history but wouldn’t normally take more than one history class, to have an avenue for learning more,” said Sharp.

Although the Historical Society has not been directly involved in the planning for Founder’s Day, members of the group volunteered to help with set-up for the event. Friedman realizes that learning about Whitman’s history may not be most students’ priority, or even the club’s, but he acknowledges that Founder’s Day serves an important purpose in the Whitman community.

“[Founder’s Day is] a day to celebrate the college and the founding of the college, making students aware that they’re in a place that has a history . . . it’s supposed to cultivate a love for Whitman and an appreciation for the school,” said Friedman.

Gaining an understanding of Whitman’s history and its relationship to Walla Walla is important for students, said Friedman. Ferris agreed that understanding the inner workings of Whitman, and of any organization, is vital.

“I think it is invaluable to know and understand the history of any organization in which you are involved,” said Ferris.

Through increased involvement in the history department and campus speakers, the group hopes to continue to increase its presence on campus in the coming year, thus heightening appreciation of history within the Whitman community.

1. Who was Cushing Eells?

Cushing Eells was the founder of Whitman College. He was born on Feb. 16, 1810 and died Feb. 16, 1893.

2. These four acres are special. Why?

These four acres were the first gift of property and the original site of the Whitman College campus.

3. Who was Penrose?

Stephen B.L. Penrose was president of Whitman College from 1894-1934.

4. Who was Harper Joy?

Harper Joy graduated from Whitman in 1922. A successful business man, he also performed as a clown. You can find a copy of his biography, “Harper Joy: Let the Show Begin,” by Doris Woodward, in the Whitman College bookstore.

5. Why is this green space called Ankeny Field?

In 1904, this field was named for U.S. Senator Levi Ankeny. The 1902 President’s Annual Report stated, “By the kindness of Mr. Ankeny funds have been given for the laying out of a fine athletic field on the grounds north of Billings Hall, and under the supervision of Professor Allen (Charles W.), a quarter mile track has been laid out, inside of which is ample room for a baseball field and a separate football field.”

6. Why is this pond called Lakum Duckum?

Each fall before World War II, a “rite of passage” took place at Lakum Duckum. First-year men were required to wear green dinks (beanies) until they challenged sophomore men to a tug of war over Lakum Duckum; if the first-years won they no longer had to wear green dinks. If they lost, they had to continue wearing the dinks until the homecoming football game. The “rite of passage” ended when men began returning from the war—combat vets weren’t about to wear green beanies.

7. Where were graduation ceremonies held from 1917-1982?

Graduation ceremonies were held in the Whitman College amphitheater. Once the crowds grew beyond capacity, ceremonies were moved to the lawn of Memorial Building.

8. During World War II, what military group was housed on campus and conducted calisthenics on Ankeny Field?

The Navy V-12 training program readied men for war; the college designed an accelerated program to allow for graduation in three years. Of Whitman’s 399 male students, 327 were enrolled, so that the war left student programs virtually absent of men. Most yearbook pictures from the period were filled with women.

9. Boyer House was formerly the home to what business?

Groseclose Funeral Home.

10. Can you name a famous Whitman College alumna/alumnus?

Batman (Adam West aka Bill Anderson ’51); “Face” (Dirk Benedict a.k.a. Dirk Niewoehner ‘67) from the A-Team, best known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Starbuck on the television series Battlestar Galactica; Ryan Crocker ’71 (former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq); Walter H. Brattain ’24 (inventor of the transistor and recipient of a Nobel); William O. Douglas ’20 (Supreme Court Justice; deceased). Douglas Hall is named in his honor.

11. When were co-ed dormitories introduced to the Whitman campus?

In 1974, Jewett Hall, Anderson Hall, Lyman House and New Dorm (Douglas Hall) were all co-educational. While in 1964 Whitman required all students to live on campus, by 1974 students had to remain on campus for only two years.

12. What building was removed from this spot in 1972 to make way for Maxey Hall?

Billings Hall, which stood from 1899-1972. At one time or another the building served as a men’s dormitory, classrooms and the science building.

13. Who was D.K. Pearsons and why is he important to Whitman’s history?

Dr. Daniel K. Pearsons, a Chicago philanthropist, gave Whitman College $50,000 to build Memorial Hall in 1899 in order to honor Dr. Marcus Whitman. In 1909, Pearsons gave another $50,000 for the construction of the music conservatory; the building was restored and renovated into the Hunter Conservatory and Center for Communication Arts and Technology in 1997.

14. What building stood on this spot from 1902-1987?

Reynolds Hall. It was initially used as a women’s dormitory, but from 1934-1957 it was used as the library. The building was razed to make room for the west wing of Olin Hall.

15. When was Whitman’s debate program started?

First speech contest: 1897. First debate competition: 1898. To read more about the history of Whitman’s debate program see: http://www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/history/.

16. Where on the Whitman campus will you find the desk of Napoleon’s physician?

In the Stuart-Napoleon Room located on the ground level of Penrose Library.

17. What organization gave money to build the building erected in 1921?

The Whitman College Alumni Association raised money in commemoration of Stephen B.L. Penrose’s 25th year as president of Whitman College.

18. Where on campus can you find the first bell that hung in Memorial’s clock tower?

On the ground level of Penrose Library at the entrance to the Archives.

Martie Schilling and Laura Maier, two Walla Walla residents, stopped by Reid Campus Center while running errands and instead ended up talking to “Cushing Eells,” founder of Whitman College, and perusing old yearbooks and copies of The Pioneer.

Tuesday, Feb. 16, students and community members gathered for birthday cake in Reid to honor Whitman’s founder, Cushing Eells, who would have turned 200 years old. Though Eells himself could not show up, Rogers Miles, senior adjunct assistant professor of religion and general studies, was on hand in costume, portraying Eells and answering students’ questions. Miles plays Eells for the Living History Troop of Fort Walla Walla in the summers as well as during Founder’s Day.

“Originally I got some help with my costume from Harper Joy. I also think I look a lot more snazzy than Cushing Eells. Cushing Eells lived simply,” said Miles.

Besides the birthday cake and Cushing Eells double, this year Whitman celebrated Founder’s Day by posting trivia questions about Whitman’s history around campus. The answers to the questions can be found in this week’s Feature section.

“It’s good that they recognize those who went before,” said Schilling.

The Founder’s Day celebration also included a display of old photos of student life, old copies of The Pioneer and yearbooks.

“We decided we wanted something fun and interactive that would get current students thinking about the Whitman that was,” said Nancy Mitchell, associate director of alumni relations.

Photo Credit : Cornelius

The point of the celebration, however, was not just to eat cake and learn about Whitman’s history—it was to inspire Whitman students to participate in the historical records. The idea for Founder’s Day came from an alumni board program called Documenting the Past, which is designed to convince both alumni and current students to donate Whitman-related documents to the archives so that future Whitman historians have a better understanding of the past. The documents would also be available for students returning for reunions, so that there are records of their college days.

“In 2005, the Alumni Association Board of Directors put together a five-year plan, and from that a committee was formed, called Documenting the Past. One of our goals is to document what is happening on campus now and to educate the students about Whitman’s history,” said Mitchell.

The committee has spoken with Greek system officials as well as ASWC about collecting documents. Currently, they are discussing a plan with ASWC officials to get records of meeting minutes from ASWC-funded clubs for the archives.

“It started as a result of not having yearbooks. We are looking for a way for students of the future to have a way of looking back at what they were doing, at the everyday student life,” said Cathy Williams, chair of the Documenting the Past committee for the Alumni Association.

Williams found a cache of photographs from her aunt’s days at Whitman, and those photos became part of the display on Founder’s Day, but she worries that future students won’t have that experience.

Both Williams and Mitchell stress that their goal for Founder’s Day was to inspire a sense of connection to history in current Whitman Students. Mitchell believes that the Founder’s Day event was a big success.

“It’s been great; we’ve talked with a lot of students,” said Mitchell, “I just think there’s not normally much of an outlet for this type of information, so this has been a fun way to do it.”

The Documenting the Past committee hopes that life at Whitman will continue to be well-documented, and that students will participate in the effort.

“We want students to be aware of Whitman’s rich history and know that they are also a part of it,” said Mitchell.

Photo Credit : Cornelius

Rogers Miles, senior adjunct assistant professor of religion & general studies, has a second identity. He doubles as Cushing Eells, the founder of Whitman Seminary at Fort Walla Walla, and made an appearance as Eells in the Reid Campus Center on Founder’s Day, Tuesday, Feb. 16.

In the spirit of Founder’s Day, The Pioneer asked Rogers Miles some questions about Cushing Eells and Whitman’s history.

Pioneer: What is Founder’s Day?

Miles: As far as I know, Founder’s Day hasn’t been celebrated in recent years. This is the attempt to revive it. Cushing Eells was born in 1810; Founder’s Day is his 200th birthday.

P: Why do you think Founder’s Day is important?

M: It’s good to be reminded that the college isn’t named after Walt Whitman. While going to a college that has missionary connections may make some students uneasy, missionaries are very important as ambiguous figures. For instance, we have a high percentage of students that serve in the Peace Corps, which is similar to being a missionary.

P: When did you start impersonating Cushing Eells?

M: I started doing this maybe 10 years ago. I sort of volunteered at Fort Walla Walla as a living history program. They asked me if I might do Cushing Eells. I had never heard about him. He turned out to be quite an interesting character.

P: Who is Cushing Eells? What did he accomplish?

M: I think of him as a person that didn’t enjoy much success for much of his life. He spent nine years in a mission station about 25 miles to the northwest of the city of Spokane called Tshimakin. All those nine years, he never made a convert.

They had to leave their mission station when the Whitmans met their untimely end. They were escorted out of the upper Columbia by the Oregon militia. They spent their next 10 years in the Willamette Valley.

Then, in 1859, the upper Columbia opened again after the Indian wars ended. Eells went to check on the Whitman mission. He had a religious experience and as a result of that, he decided he wanted to found an institution of higher education. The first Whitman was a high school called the Whitman Seminary.

P: What are your students’ reactions when you appear in costume?

M: I’ve only dressed up for the students in my Religion in America course. I used the Whitmans (and Cushing Eells) as the culmination of a religious phenomenon called the Second Great Awakening. Every spring, when I’m offering the course, I usually appear in costume.

P: How long does it take to prepare for your role as Cushing Eells?

M: It’s surprising. You have to go back and review. I’m always surprised how much I forget. I find that every presentation you learn something new. I don’t have a script; I usually have a feeling of what my path may be. There’s a lot of spontaneity in the performance.

P: What do you do as Cushing Eells?

M: Every Saturday and sometimes on Sundays during the summertime at Fort Walla Walla, a historical personage will appear and talk about their lives, as a result of time travel. They have a pioneer village, which is another interesting place to go. I’ve performed at the Whitman mission once and I’ve performed for local groups. I’ve walked in parades downtown with other living history people.

P: Do you feel like Whitman students are becoming disconnected from their history?

M: Well, yes to a certain extent. It may be because the history of the college is embarrassing. I would just say that missionaries are interesting figures in their own right. They’re full of good intentions.

P: What should students take away from Founder’s Day?

M: If they realize that missionaries were altruistic people, but they ended up doing a lot of damage despite their altruism, I think that’s a good thing to remember in this day and age. This is one reason that it’s important to get an education so you don’t run amuck with your good intentions. You’ve developed a kind of openness and humility, which education does.

P: What do you think about Whitman’s mascot, the missionary?

M: Missionaries could be cautionary figures, in part because we’re more like them than we like to think.

Photo Credit : Bowman

North Hall, located on Estrella Ave., past the fraternity houses and several residential houses, is one of Whitman’s lesser-known residence halls. The blue light security system and long lines of bike parking proclaim its status as a Whitman building. However, above the painted North Hall sign lies an engraved reminder of the building’s past as the Walla Walla Valley General Hospital.

Whitman purchased the hospital in 1978, after it had been replaced by another hospital, when the enrollment of a large class required more housing, according Nancy Tavelli, associate dean of students and director of Residence Life. A similar event occurred in fall 2008, when a large incoming class motivated the creation of a first-year section in North.

Today, North Hall is a cross between on- and off-campus living. It lies in a residential neighborhood, not directly on campus, giving it the potential to be isolating.

“I was a little bit afraid [to live in North] because I felt like it would be harder to integrate myself with the Whitman community because, (a), we’re off campus, and (b), there’s not a lot of us,” said Shane Young, a first-year North Hall resident.

However, Young believes that there is a strong community among the second floor of North Hall residents, who are all either first-year or transfer students.

Currently, there are many empty rooms in North Hall, and many of the rooms consist of singles with attached bathrooms or sinks due to the hall’s history as a hospital. The result is that North Hall is much less dense, population-wise, than the other halls. Young claims that this makes North Hall a good choice for students who like a lot of space and privacy.

“I feel like if Whitman puts you in North, they put you there for a reason. I feel we definitely have something in common in that we’re much lower key than other halls,” said Young.

North Hall straddles the line between on-campus dorm living and off-campus housing because it has fewer people—and more space—than most residence halls, but more people than a rented house.

The neighborhood around North Hall also has a residential feel, segregating it less from Walla Walla than other residence halls.

“When you are on campus all the time, you gain a perspective that’s only in that little area,” said sophomore Mazie Ashe, the RA for the second floor of North.

However, North isn’t that far off campus—although neither are many houses rented by Whitman students. In fact, one of the houses closest to North Hall is a home rented by Whitman students, according to Anjuli Martin, the resident director of North.

“There’s a walk to class, but it will take you five minutes to get to Olin, the same as it would from Anderson,” said Ashe.

Unlike a rental home, however, North Hall has the organization of a residential hall, with its own listserv and residence life staff, which keep North Hall residents more connected to events on campus than their off-campus neighbors.

“We still have the bulletin boards that tell them what’s going on campus.We still have the listservs that we send out e-mails about all the different events going on on campus. They still have that resource there that people living off-campus don’t necessarily have. They have to search it out more than people who are living in a residence hall,” said Martin, who lived off-campus for part of her time at Whitman.

One thing North Hall residents are two blocks away from is food—North has no dining hall of its own. The closest is in Jewett, while Prentiss and Reid dining are farther still. No other residence hall is as far away from a dining facility. That’s likely why many North Hall residents cook for themselves, according to Martin, like in an off-campus house. However, North Hall residents are still required to be on a meal plan, like most others who live in residential halls. Although it may combine many of the perks of both on and off-campus life, when it comes to food options, North Hall does not offer the same freedom.

Overall, North Hall is a good choice for those who want the quiet of living off-campus, the privacy of a single or just more space than in an average dorm. However, it is a residence hall, with all the structure and restrictions that entails.

The Palace

Photo Credit : von Hafften

At first sight, the Palace does not appear particularly royal. However, when the six residents welcomed me in for a tour, I discovered that although it lacks a drawbridge, the Palace possesses a unique palatial charm in the lavish chandelier, ivory bathtub and a party basement known as “the dungeon.”

The first part of the tour was the second story, where there is a large bathroom, complete with a gorgeous bathtub. The bathtub is pink and ivory with little clawed legs. Everyone, myself included, heaped praise upon it.

One of the large upstairs bedrooms features two adjoining closets, which have been converted into small, Harry Potter-style bedrooms, each with one bed. The main bedroom is used as a shared space.

Continuing on a quest for the best feature of the house, we ventured outside and down to the dungeon. The party basement features two ping pong tables, a table for a DJ, speakers, Christmas lights and a stand for a keg.

In the front, the girls described the porch as both a positive and negative aspect of the house.

“Our porch is crooked. It’s so great. We sit out there a lot,” said junior Emily Lorente.

Sadly, some negative aspects of a palace come along with the house.

“My room is really cold because it doesn’t have a heating vent,” said junior Julia Light.

Lorente summed up the opinion of the residents of the Palace: “Mostly just an awesome location and a pretty cool house and a good rent,” she said.

The Shipwreck

Photo Credit : von Hafften

Junior Teresa Hughes welcomed me to the Shipwreck and explained that the house earned its name because it is messy and dark, with narrow hallways, much like its namesake.

From their experiences in the Shipwreck, Hughes and her housemates have learned the ups and downs of off-campus life. Before taking me on a tour, Hughes and her housemates offered some background information on off-campus living.

“To some extent we’re distant from campus,” said Hughes.

However, there is definitely a positive side to living in an off campus house.

“It’s really affordable,” said junior Yvan Trinh.

Seven people live in the Shipwreck due to a kind oversight by the landlord.

“This is a six-person house, but we made it seven people. Andrew [the landlord] was chill about it,” said Hughes.

On the tour, we uncovered several of the Shipwreck’s amazing features, starting with the cramped but funky living spaces. A sofa sits directly at the top of the narrow staircase to the second floor. The house is characterized by these fun, random spaces, said Hughes.

Hughes decided that, in good weather, the back patio is the house’s best feature.

“It’s the best venue for barbeques,” she said.

Down in the basement is the throne bathroom, which is a bathroom with a raised surface that the toilet and bathtub sit on.

“It is almost like you’re on a throne when you sit on it,” said Hughes.

And of course, the house has some negative aspects as well.  Most noticeably, it has small awkward spaces, a tiny kitchen and a dark living room.

However, the true gem of the house is found in the kitchen. For the Shipwreck residents, one of the proudest features is the house quesadilla maker.

The 905

Photo Credit : von Hafften

Upon entering the 905, it is immediately evident that it is a theater-themed house.

“A number of drama club events happen here,” said junior Erin Terrall. The decorations are old theater sets from past productions. Five residents, all involved in theater, live in this two-story, six-bedroom house right on the edge of campus.

The 905 has fantastic decorations including a sparkling pink disco ceiling in the living room. The house also has two kitchens, one on each level. Both are fully equipped with a full-sized refrigerator, table and cook top.

The champagne room, loved by all residents, is a five-foot by five-foot square room lit by a black light and covered in posters and pillows.

“The champagne room is a very quirky room that we hang out in,” said Terrall.

An incredibly creepy and narrow staircase leads off of the champagne room, which also serves as a secret entrance to the upstairs portion of the house, adding to the house’s unique nature.

The 905 also has some negative aspects.

“One of the bedrooms is falling off the house. We use it for storage,” said Terrall. The bedroom is at a significant slant.

In addition, the house has been through some bad times. Recently, a toilet backed up on the second floor and blasted a hole through the kitchen ceiling with the built up water pressure.

“This house is rather amazingly flimsy,” said Terrall, as he jumped and caused the entire second floor to shake. “But we love it just the same.”

This concludes the top-down tour of Whitman’s classiest cribs and their weirdest quirks. Although the houses have their share of issues, the freedom of life off-campus can make any home worthy of MTV airtime.

Photo Credit : Fennell

Break-ins may be on the rise in Walla Walla this year, but students living off-campus don’t have to feel powerless or isolated. Seniors Julie Grimm and Cadence Ellington took action after their house was burglarized twice this year, inviting Walla Walla Crime Prevention Coordinator Vicki Ruley and Crime Prevention Officer Robert Reed into their home for a safety inspection. This free service is available to anyone in the community and provides practical information about home security to homeowners, landlords and renters alike.

Ruley and Reed arrived at the students’ house and immediately began to notice safety hazards, from a hole in the front porch to a back window that could easily be opened from the outside. Many of these problems, Reed said, should be discussed with the landlord.

“Landlords and tenants both have rights and responsibilities,” Reed said. He explained that renters, as well as landlords, can be held accountable for injuries on the property caused by a hazard. No matter what is included in the lease, Ruley added, renters are guaranteed rights under the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act.

“You shouldn’t be taken advantage of just because you’re students,” said Ruley.

After the burglaries, Grimm, Ellington and their housemates have learned all about these rights. When an intruder broke their glass front door in October, their landlord initially refused to fix the damage or invest in safer doors and locks.

“We’ve had a lot of issues where we’ve literally had to print up our tenant rights and have them on the table and be like, these are our rights, you’re not doing this . . . and we can leave,” said Ellington.

Nancy Tavelli, associate dean of students and director of residence life, said that most Whitman students are more hesitant to talk to their landlords about potential hazards. Students need to be more involved in their own safety, even before signing a lease and moving in.

“When you’re looking for a house, ask a lot of questions. One problem is that some Whitman students don’t ask for what they need. Look carefully at houses before moving in and think about the neighborhood as well,” Tavelli said.

During the home inspection, Ruley and Reed also described physical improvements that students can make themselves, without involving a landlord. They examined windows in the home, pointing out vulnerable places that should be braced with a wooden dowel to prevent an intruder from opening them. Even an easy improvement, Ruley said, can make a big difference.

“The criminal’s going to look for the easy target. He or she’s going to walk around until they see the vulnerable window and if you have a stick or something there, they may think twice,” said Ruley.

Reed and Ruley described other simple but effective changes, including new deadbolts, outdoor lighting and timers for light bulbs or stereos that give the illusion that someone is home. Students keep predictable schedules, making them more vulnerable to burglary, Reed explained. During vacations, it is often obvious that a student house is empty.

“I know when you guys are there and when you’re not because of the cars. And if I can tell, everybody else can too, especially people who are looking,” said Reed.

Although physical changes to windows, lighting and locks are important, changes in student behavior are even more vital to increasing safety. Students, Reed explains, often forget to be aware of their surroundings.

“Always, I don’t care if you’re on campus, pay attention to what’s going on around you . . . we get focused on the goal of whatever we’re doing and lose track of what’s going on around us,” Reed said.

Ruley also stressed that students should keep track of activity in their neighborhood, calling the police if something doesn’t feel right. Many students see suspicious activity but hesitate to call the police because they don’t want to bother them.

“They’re not bothering anybody,” Ruley said. “It’s not like the cops aren’t out on the street doing it anyway. They’re not at the firehouse, waiting for the call to come in. They’re patrolling. And they’re looking for something to do.”

Communication within the neighborhood is another key to improving the safety of a home. Ruley advises students to get to know their neighbors and tell them when the home will be empty during breaks. Students should also help educate each other about all aspects of home safety, from physical improvements to behavioral changes and renters’ rights.

“Anything that someone does, improving lighting, doors, windows . . . it goes a long way in making a difference, but our most important thing is getting the word out,” said Ruley.

Through their break-in experiences, Grimm and Ellington have learned that educating themselves and others is important because students are not the only ones affected by crime.

“These are things that are applicable to Walla Walla, as a city,” said Grimm. “It makes you feel like it’s not just a campus thing.”

Meeting with community members and participating in the home security inspection have helped Grimm and Ellington feel less isolated since their break-ins.

“It feels good to have people in the community say that college students shouldn’t be taken advantage of. I think that’s a really important message,” said Ellington. “It definitely makes you feel less helpless.”

For information about tenants’ rights and responsibilities, visit Access Washington at access.wa.gov or washingtonlawhelp.org. To report a suspicious but non-emergency situation in Walla Walla, call 509-527-1960.

For most students, moving off-campus means ending a two-year dependency on Bon Appétit, and this can be a difficult process. Whether you’re still on a meal plan or you’re fending for yourself, it’s a good idea to know the best and worst of the grocery stores in Walla Walla. To make shopping a little easier, we’ve reviewed three of Walla Walla’s best groceries, including Super 1, Grocery Outlet and Safeway, and included tips on what to look for at each store.

Super 1 Foods
710 S. 9th Ave.
Open 24 hours daily

Although you need transportation to reach Super 1, the selection and prices are worth the drive away from campus. When you walk in the door, Super 1 greets you with cheap, day-old baked goods near the door, a wall of holiday items on one side and special sale items on the other. Once you move past these temptations, the store offers a consistently low-priced selection of produce and meat, and the bakery section has almost everything you could want. Super 1 has an extensive wine selection and great specialty foods, including vegan, vegetarian, organic and gluten-free foods. Keep your ears open for one-day “blowout” sales that focus on a theme, from wine and cheese to breakfast items. These sales usually fall on a Thursday, and are worth the trip if you can brave the crowds. Super 1 is also one of the few groceries in Walla Walla open 24 hours a day.

What to buy: Produce, blowout sale items, regular sale food like Yogi tea and addictive La Calandria corn chips, made in Milton Freewater, Ore.—sometimes they’re still warm when they get to Super 1.

Grocery Outlet
910 S. 9th Ave.
Open 8 a.m.- 9 p.m. M-F; 8 a.m.- 8 p.m. Sat.; 9 a.m.- 7 p.m. Sun.

Just down the street from Super 1, the Grocery Outlet can be a frustrating, yet ultimately addicting place to shop. The store is relatively small, with produce, dairy and wine crammed next to each other, giving it the atmosphere of the grocery equivalent of a yard sale. However, these layout issues are all forgiven when you see the prices—the Grocery Outlet buys surplus products from manufactures, and the result is a selection that is always cheap and always changing. The store’s Web site claims that, since its arrival in Walla Walla, it has saved customers almost $30,000—and it’s not hard to believe. When you check out at the Grocery Outlet, your receipt includes the amount of money you’ve saved, so you leave feeling victorious. Because they mainly stock surplus items, shop at the Grocery Outlet first, before moving on to another store to find products unavailable at the Outlet.

What to buy: Whatever you can find! Deals are particularly good in wine, frozen foods and even some organics.

Safeway
215 E. Rose St.
Open 5 a.m.- 1 a.m. daily

As the closest grocery store to campus and the most common chain in the Pacific Northwest, Safeway is likely a familiar place for Whitman students, especially those without transportation. Because of its proximity to campus, Safeway is supreme for late-night sugar cravings or last-minute dinner fixes. The Safeway close to Whitman is on the small side, however, and it lacks a bakery and an organic section, so the overall variety of food is much lower than other markets. When not on sale, items at Safeway are generally more expensive than at larger stores, especially produce. Safeway does, however, offer some great “buy 10 for $10” deals if you have a Safeway card. Just remember that you don’t always have to buy the number on the label to get the sale price—check carefully before buying twenty candy bars or ten tubs of ice cream.

What to buy: Whatever’s on sale, especially items that aren’t often discounted at other stores, like brand-name cereal and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

credit: Wolff

Looking for service-related spring break adventures? Here are a few options within the United States and abroad that offer new experiences and a chance to help others.

Student Conservation Association Alternative Spring Break 2010

Dates: March 14-20

Where: Grand Canyon National Park

What: The organization provides environmental service projects for college students, training them to be conservation leaders. This trip involves camping on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, daily hiking trips, vegetation projects and removing graffiti throughout the park.

Web site: http://www.thesca.org/serve/internships/special-programs/alternative-spring-break

Global Volunteers: Renovate Homes or Tutor Youth in Appalachia

Dates: Year round, 0ne- to two-week-long trips

Where: West Virginia

What: Students will work to create safer housing for low-income families and will learn first-hand about day-to-day life in Appalachia. Outdoor trips are offered and some tutoring opportunities are available as well.

Web site: http://www.volunteerabroad.com/listingsp3.cfm/listing/3855

Build Homes in Costa Rica

Dates: March 21-29

Where: San Ramon, Costa Rica

What: Students will work with the community to improve housing conditions in San Ramon. This trip involves a homestay, training and manual labor as well as immersion in the local community.

Web site: http://www.i-to-i.com/volunteer-projects/build-homes-in-costa-rica.html

Photo Credit : Bowman

We may be caught in the grips of winter, but it is time to plan ahead for the sunny days to come. For some of us, summer may entail returning to that summer job or even facing the daunting task of applying for one. For a refreshing change of pace, make this summer the best one yet by applying for an internship.

This prompts the question: When is the best time to start looking for an internship?

“All of the hard-core applying and interviewing happens in the period between winter and spring break,” said Ali Barlow, assistant director of the Student Engagement Center.

There are several steps to applying for an internship. The best resource for perfecting a resume or finding an internship is our very own Student Engagement Center. Just take the trek up the stairs in Reid and the friendly staff will be glad to guide you toward the future of your dreams.

The following four steps will help illuminate the path to the perfect summer internship.

1. Scout it out

“The web is a great resource—our site is a great place to start,” said Barlow.

The Student Engagement Center has purchased memberships for Whitman students to National Internships Consortium and www.internships.com. See the Student Engagement Center Web site for information and instructions on using these databases as well as other links to internship sites.

Barlow recommends www.idealist.org, a database of 93,000 nonprofits across the globe, which offers volunteer opportunities or jobs in every imaginable field.

“Often, students are overwhelmed by the availability of information,” said Barlow.

2. Network

“It’s valuable to spend half an hour each day making networking connections. Write emails, make phone calls, do research,” said Barlow.

The first step in networking, said Barlow, may be asking family friends and professors if they know of any internship opportunities.

“In general, I think just having conversations with Whitman professors about personal and academic interests is a good way to find out about opportunities that one, as a student, might not be aware of,” said senior English major Christine Texeira. Texeira and senior Mimi Cook interned this past summer with Assistant Professor of English Scott Elliott.

In order to obtain an internship, it is important to invest in a relationship with your networking contact. Have coffee with that person. Get to know them on a personal level. An internship is often a huge time investment for an employer, said Barlow, so the student must be convincing and committed to the company or professor.

Lacking in network connections? Take a stroll down to the Student Engagement Center, where there is a database of 1,500 Whitman alums who can help connect students to organizations that offer internships.

“We get emails from them all the time asking, ‘Why hasn’t anyone contacted me?’” said Barlow.

3. Make sure your resume and cover letter is up to date

Think of a resume as a self-advertisement. You can be your own best promoter by purging all grammatical errors and providing information that represents your skill set. For example, if you worked at Starbucks, instead of writing, “I learned how to make coffee,” write, “I learned how to be efficient, manage money and communicate with a variety of different people when I worked at Starbucks.”

The Student Engagement Center website offers a PowerPoint with tips on how to format a cover letter as well as a resume. Barlow encourages all students who need a few pointers on their resume to stop by for a conversation; this can often help to flush out various skills that you never knew you had.

4. Apply early and often

“If you find a job that you’re not sure that you’re qualified for or would completely love, just apply,” said Barlow.

There is no rule of averages regarding how many internships to which you should apply. Keep researching for unique opportunities until you get an internship.

Additionally, apply early. Start perfecting your resume and researching opportunities during winter break. Apply in January and February and during spring break interview and confirm your internship.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Problems?

If you’re not qualified for an opportunity—Often this is the case for underclassmen with little or no experience in their field of interest. A good recommendation is to take a volunteer job or work at a summer camp for to gain work experience toward your dream internship. Be patient; work towards your future in small steps.

If you can’t afford to stop working for a summer in order to take on an internship—Some internships are paid while some reward in experience. Whitman offers an internship grant, which funds 24 students every year to do a 10-week unpaid internship in the area of their major. Although the grant process is highly competitive, students are encouraged to apply. The deadline for applicants is March 31. See the Student Engagement Center for more information.

Although the road to finding that perfect internship may seem long and winding, the rewards are worth the effort.

“One thing that makes Whitman students so great is that they go out and enhance what they learn in class with an internship,” said Barlow.

Last spring, senior Jonathan Goldenberg helped organize a student trip to the Mexico-Arizona border sponsored by the student club Justice Beyond Borders. The students worked with the advocacy group No More Deaths to provide humanitarian aid to individuals in need of medical assistance in the Sonoran Desert, learning about critical immigration issues in the process.

“The combination of service and education has been really valuable,” said Goldenberg. “Learning about these issues is important because it helps focus future advocacy work.”

Goldenberg also helped organize and lead a 2008 spring break trip focused on immigration issues in the Pacific Northwest.

Senior Susannah Lowe spent her sophomore year spring break living for a week in a monastery. The trip was organized as part of an alternative break led by Whitman students. Life at the monastery was strictly organized; Mornings began early at 4:30 a.m. and included three to four hours of meditation, time spent doing outdoor chores and ritual meals, all led by the monk in residence.

“At first it was kind of a culture shock,” said Lowe, “but after a while I didn’t want to leave. The trip gave me the chance to really get to know the group of students and form a spiritual connection.”

Sophomore Kiley Wolff canoed on the Green River during a spring break trip to Southern Utah last year. The week-long trip was sponsored by the Whitman Outdoor Program and was student-planned and led. Going on a trip with the OP has its advantages, Wolff said.

“I didn’t have to do any work for it, planning-wise. All the planning was done, all the arrangements were made, which was really nice. I didn’t have to worry about any of that,” said Wolff.

Although the trip focused on canoeing, the students found time to hike, read and relax.

“It was pretty idyllic,” said Wolff.

credit: Wolff

This year, spring break trips sponsored by Whitman offer a twist on the classic, bikini-clad Cancún vacation. The Outdoor Program and the Center for Community Service have planned trips for students who want to get away from campus, learn something new and have fun in the process. All trips are organized and led by Whitman students.

The Outdoor Program will offer two trips this year. The first option is a sea kayaking excursion to Baja, Mexico, led by ‘09 alumna Kate Ceronsky and OP Assistant Director Salmon Norgaard-Stroich. The students plan to fly to La Paz, Mexico, rent kayaks and kayak to the remote Isla San José. There they can spend the days paddling and swimming, and the nights fishing and relaxing.

This year’s program is unique, Ceronsky said, because it offers students the opportunity to focus on kayak leadership skills and learn about the conservation issues of Baja. The trip will cost from $1100-$1200 per kayaker, including airfare, kayak rentals and food—relatively cheap, said Ceronsky, compared to similar commercial trips. Students can sign up in the OP Rental Shop in the basement of Reid Campus Center until the trip is filled, and no prior kayak experience is required.

The second Outdoor Program group is headed to the warmth of Southern California’s Death Valley National Park for 10 days of hiking, camping and hot springs. Senior Lilly Dethier and ‘09 alumnus Ranger Sciacca chose the location for its natural beauty, location and predictable weather—usually in the 70s this time of year, said Dethier. Hikers will have the chance to cook trail food, stargaze and admire the wildflowers that bloom in March. Students of all experience levels can sign up at the OP Rental Shop until the remaining spots are filled.

The Center for Community Service has designed and planned service-oriented trips for spring break. This is the first year that the Center has organized its own excursions. Junior intern Kelsie Butts spent the fall semester researching organizations, building contacts and organizing logistics for each of the four trips planned for this March.

The students will mainly stay within the Pacific Northwest, with the exception of one group heading to New Orleans. Each group will work with local nonprofits to learn about an issue affecting their area and participate in service projects, including community building in Issaquah, sustainable building in Portland, homelessness in Seattle and disaster relief in New Orleans. Butts said that each trip will include awareness, as well as service.

“Service is important, but the trips will also focus on reflection and education. We want to teach students to take what they’re learning and bring it back to campus,” said Butts.

Although spots for these trips have already been filled, students still have the opportunity to research and plan their own service-oriented trips.

“We might do something in between the tournaments. The policy debaters get a day or two off, and the parliamentary debaters I think get three days off,” said Hansen.

He is not alone—for many professors, spring break is a chance to do work that’s not feasible while classes are in session.

“We don’t get a break, really. It’s just a time to get some research done,” said Nathan Lien, visiting assistant professor of chemistry.

Lien, like Hanson, will spend the first half of his break working with students on research projects in chemistry, and the second half traveling.

He is going to San Francisco for the American Chemical Society’s National Meeting and Exposition, a bi-annual chemistry conference that, according to Lien, just happens to usually occur in the last week of of Whitman’s spring break.

“It’s four days of nonstop presentations,” Lien said.

Both men agreed that summer is vacation time for faculty. However, just because they’re working doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy themselves.

“I like interacting with the students on our team. We just have a lot of fun talking. I also really like the growth and challenge that the students experience when they’re at these tournaments,” said Hanson.

One professor who is not working this spring break is Noah Leavitt, adjunct assistant professor of sociology and general studies. Leavitt plans to travel to Trenton, N.J. for the unveiling of his grandfather’s tombstone. The unveiling is the end of a year-long mourning tradition in Judaism.

“The one-year cycle is the psychological insight that Judaism offers, which is that when there’s been a death or some sort of really significant trauma in a family or in a relationship, you need to ease out of that trauma. You can’t just suddenly return to life the next week and think every thing’s fine,” said Leavitt.

However, in past years, Leavitt has also used spring break to conduct academic research. He and his wife traveled for a sociological study, interviewing couples in which one spouse was Jewish and the other Asian.

“Spring break is a time that we are able to do some of the research that liberal arts college professors are supposed to do in conjunction with teaching all of our classes,” he said.

All three professors, however, are traveling, even if not for a traditional vacation. Spring break gives professors an opportunity to travel without having to take time away from teaching.

Of course, spring break isn’t a vacation for all college students, either. The debate team will travel with Hanson, and two students plan to research with Lien over break. For these students and professors, spring break offers a chance to work together outside of Whitman classes.

The people were there to watch Whitman’s new Quiz Bowl team compete against faculty as one of the activities for Family Weekend in October. Each team tried to answer the questions, which ranged in topic from history to pop culture to science, before the other team, and in many cases before the announcer had finished reading the question.

“My favorite thing in Quiz Bowl, or any game show, is trying get the answer before they finish the question,” said Carson.

The faculty won, having held a strong lead throughout most of the competition.

“I think the students had a real disadvantage because the faculty are the people who make up those questions,” said Gunsul.

The team, which was organized last spring but was only recognized by the school this fall, has attended one competition besides the exhibition with the faculty, where it tied for fourth among six teams. The Competition took place at Gonzaga University and five other colleges and universities, including University of Washington, attended.

At Quiz Bowl tournaments, individual teams can contain up to four students, though they may have as few as one person. Schools can send as many teams as they can fill. Whitman sent one three-person team to the fall competition.

Ian Williams, sophomore and founder of the team, wanted to do a faculty-student competition because his high school team held a similar event against their teachers, which usually ended in a win for the student team.

“We’re planning on attending more competitions in the spring and maybe even hosting a regional competition,” said Williams.

Williams and junior Jonathan Spatola-Knoll, another core team member, both competed in Quiz Bowl in high school.

According to Williams, the current Quiz Bowl team consists of four core members who show up frequently and and a few other members who show up periodically. None of the core members, and only one of the other members, is female. This gender discrepancy is more or less endemic to the Quiz Bowl program as a whole.

The Quiz Bowl team replaced the College Bowl team that disbanded some years ago and used College Bowl questions for the faculty-student competition to increase the entertainment value of the debate.

“The questions used at tournaments are really specific and really hard, so I think if we’d used those the teachers would have answered five questions and we would have gotten three,” said Spatola-Knoll.

Whitman’s Quiz Bowl team is less competitive than others in the sport, preferring to keep the focus on fun. Spatola-Knoll said some teams would go through hundreds of questions in a practice session, while Whitman usually only goes through 20.

“There’s definitely stuff we could do if we wanted to be really competitive,” said Williams.

The team is still accepting new members. They meet at 8 p.m. on Mondays in Reid 207.

Members of the Meditation Club practice mindfulness and meditation on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. in the Prentiss spirituality room. Courtesy of Sunn Kim.

Namaste Meditation Club promotes mindfulness in everyday life.

The co-president, junior Yvan Trinh, says the club teaches students how to incorporate mediation into everyday life.

“It is more than just sitting on a cushion and being quiet . . . for example, we do a lot of walking meditation. It’s all about mindfulness and focusing on the activities that you’re doing rather than the thoughts that are running through your mind.”

In the fall of 2008 Trinh and junior Alicia LeClair wanted to create a place at Whitman where students could meditate on a regular basis. Working with Sonja Aikens, the administrative assistant for the Intercultural Center, the two decided to head up the Meditation Club.

“Meditation is a great way to be at peace and be in the present. At times I felt frustrated with my self because of my self-centered and unhappy thoughts throughout the day. Meditation helped that,” Trinh said.

Although the club does not have formal meetings on a regular basis, Aikens leads meditations for the club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8 to 8:30 p.m. in the Spirituality Room, located in the basement of Prentiss Hall.

“It’s a way for people to get together and meditate and learn about meditation if they are new to the practice,” despite the brevity of the meetings, said Trinh.

Participation in the group tends to fluctuate as students get busier throughout the semester, but a core group of members attends meditation every week and plans other events. For example, the club sponsored a daylong meditation retreat last year and hopes to host a Winterim program about meditation through eating, as one of the primary teaching goals of the club is to expand how people view meditation.

Although she admitted that meditation can be difficult at times, Trinh said that its benefits make it well worth the effort.

“Meditation takes time to learn but if you try for a little bit everyday you will see results. It gives you the skills to cope with life and gives you ways to get away from the everyday suffering in life,” said Trinh.

The mindfulness and calm that meditation brings could certainly be beneficial to most students, especially during this busy time of year.

Students of all levels are welcome at the weekly Tuesday and Wednesday meditation sessions.

Aikido Club

The Whitman Aikido Club practices and offers training in this Japanese martial art. It is not only a practice that provides great exercise and teaches “effective conflict resolution” but it is also ties in meditative breathing. For more information, contact senior Cody Clifton at cliftoce@whitman.edu.

Anime Club

The Anime Club encourages anime fans to share their favorite anime shows with each other and hosts weekly Anime Nights every Saturday. Every year the club travels to the Sakura Con Anime Convention in Seattle. For more information, contact senior Rebecca Levy at levyrr@whitman.edu.

Backcountry Ski Club

This club shares their love for backcountry skiing and plans skiing trips. They also teach ski safety skills. For more information, contact senior Allie Rood at roodam@whitman.edu.

Fly Fishing Club

The Whitman Fly Fishing Club focuses on bettering the connection between Whitman students and the environment while bonding over the shared interest of fly fishing. For more information, contact the club’s faculty advisor, Jeff Northam, at northajw@whitman.edu.

Whitman Medieval Society

This student organization promotes interest in the history and culture of medieval Europe. The club plans activities which hark back to medieval times and also read medieval texts as a group. Regular meetings are Thursdays at noon in the Lyman lounge. For more information, contact senior Jackson Cahn at cahnjk@whitman.edu.

From L to R: Finn Straley '11, Allie Kerr '13, Justis James Phillips '12, Kevin Klein '11, Simi Singh '12, Cory Rand '13, Kate Potter '12. Second Row: Sam Alden '12. The Varsity Nordic improv group performs. Credit: Bullion

Varsity Nordic is like most college improv groups, except different.

“We don’t follow a script,” said first-year member Ailie Kerr. “We’re like instant mashed potatoes.”

Varsity Nordic has undergone some focused changes in recent times, including its infamous name change. The group shifted to long form improvisational comedy two years ago, which builds characters, stories and themes in it’s scenes. Varsity Nordic has performed regular biweekly shows this year, along with some improv workshops to help newcomers.

“We’re consistent now,” said senior member Alex Kerr.

According to Alex Kerr and other senior members, Varsity Nordic did a very limited number of performances in previous years. Being consistent with biweekly shows has allowed the group to develop a great relationship with their audience.

“We love our audience; we love you guys,” said Ailie Kerr.

And their audience has grown, partially helped by being consistent and partially because of promotion on social media like Facebook. Now that Varsity Nordic does long form improv, they feel that the audience gets more out of it, as do they.

“Short form is harder to engage in,” said Alex Kerr.

“[Short form is] a lot more limiting in what you can do in the performance,” said junior member Finn Straley. “And it’s built more about punch lines and jokes, whereas long form is really based on creating a narrative and characters and a world. It’s just a lot more interesting and a lot more fun to do.”

The performers really like the depth that long form can reach, with Alex Kerr going as far as to compare long form to “a whole improvised play.”

The group does not have major alterations planned for its future, just goals.

“I would like to see in the future branching out of the Whitman campus and doing more other campus shows and bringing in other improv groups to perform,” said sophomore member Justis James Phillips. “That way we can all learn from each other and the Whitman campus can see all the different forms of improv that we don’t necessarily do.”

However, Phillips’s goal falls more in the “it’d be nice” category rather than the “we are making this happen” category. Alex Kerr also mentioned that they are trying to get a professional improv group from Chicago to come to Whitman, but did not go into detail.

At this point, the group will continue to perform at the level expected of Whitman’s premier improv group, and not take themselves too seriously while they’re at it.

“We just want to do the best performances we possibly can,” said Straley.

“WDA is a student-run, student-led group,” said junior member Jojo Robertson. “It’s basically like a nonprofit in that students will propose projects and will discuss everything as a group and come up with a project and then try and implement it as best we can.”

In its mission statement, the student group pledges to help marginalized people through “economically and environmentally sustainable community development,” and they are sticking to it.

“We actually do try and stick to this mission statement pretty closely in our ideals,” said Robertson. “We really want our projects to be long term and not just a one-time charity sort of thing. So we do try all the time to strive for sustainability both economically and environmentally.”

Whitman Direct Action became an official campus group in 2005. Every year since its inception, members propose a number of projects and pick one to complete. Past projects have included building a house in Nicaraugua for a family left destitute by an accident; this past summer Whitman Direct Action attempted to unite immigrant groups known as Home Town Associations.

“We started out with wanting to create a network of Home Town Associations in the United States so they could all work together to help Oaxaca as a state,” said junior member Guari Mirashi. “We had to sort of tone down our efforts and actually get to know them.”

Home Town Associations are established by Oaxacan immigrants—who come in large numbers to the Pacific Northwest for work—that try to help their communities. However, the individual immigrant groups do not work together, and Whitman Direct Action hoped to create a network of these organizations. They soon discovered that they lacked the experience and connections to accomplish this goal.

“One of the challenges has been getting in contact with the [immigrant groups],” said Mirashi. “A lot of them don’t use e-mails as regularly and we’re just so used to that. Last weekend . . . it was more like 15 people got together and started talking to us. They do have a structure of some sort, but it’s way more informal. It’s like: ‘You can call me, and if my phone doesn’t work, you can call—I think, him.’”

Contact was eventually established, and over winter break students will visit some of the communities in Oaxaca that the immigrant groups represent. The student group faces many more challenges beyond unorganized immigrant groups, though.

“Getting funding is always hard, and in terms of membership it just depends on people’s schedules and how much time they can commit,” said Robertson.

They do have to commit a significant portion of time to work. Robertson and Mirashi emphasized how much work the club requires, an average of five to six hours per week. However, the work they do allows them to enjoy their Whitman education a lot more.

“You should not leave out how exciting actually doing stuff is compared to what you might find just going to classes,” said Robertson. “To come out of classes and apply what you’re learning and try and make it function in the real world is a very different kind of thing. And it’s super exciting—it makes everything that you are learning in classes that much more interesting.”

InkSlam is a slam poetry contest where teams from around the nation come to battle it out. Eight teams were at Ink Slam, with four teams competing against each other at a time. There were four rounds, and the order of which team goes first is decided by drawing a letter out of a hat.

Then either an individual from the team can read a poem, or the team can perform a group poem. The poems are judged on a scale of one to 10 by five random audience members, and the lowest and highest scores are dropped.

The club’s co-founders, sophomores Dorian Zimmerman and Eli Singer, said that some of the most famous slam poets around were there.

“We were competing against our mentors,” Zimmerman said.

Both Singer and Zimmerman agreed that it was a great learning experience.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Singer said. Whitman placed seventh, beating a team from New York and losing to the sixth-place team by a very close margin.

In addition to going to Los Angeles, the Slam Poetry Club also hosted a Writers Colony workshop the Thursday before Thanksgiving Break and, more recently, had their first Open Mic on Wednesday Dec. 2. About 30 people attended, Singer estimated, and they plan to continue having similar events in the spring.

Ultimately, in the next school year or later, Zimmerman and Singer hope to organize a poetry slam competition at Whitman, and invite people from schools in the Washington area. In the meantime, though, they seek more members.

Zimmerman, Singer and sophomore Dujie Tahat, the third co-founder, meet every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the Olin second floor lounge, and encourage anyone to come, regardless of level of experience.

At the meetings, they read their poetry and then give each other feedback. Zimmerman said it’s not even necessary to bring a full poem; just a draft of a poem would suffice.

“We’re not going to be judgmental; we’re going to be constructive,” Zimmerman said.

Singer said that it’s okay even if you haven’t written poetry before.

“We’ll help you get started,” he said.

They have from three to six regulars who come to the meetings now. Zimmerman said that people have expressed a lot of interest, but one of the reasons he thinks Slam Poetry Club still doesn’t have too many members is because of the performance aspect of slam poetry.

“It’s kind of intimidating because it’s performance poetry,” Zimmerman said.

At the meetings, though, they give each other constructive criticism on the delivery of the poem, as well as the writing itself. A huge part of slam poetry, Zimmerman says, is how you sell it to the audience, which they can help you with, especially after their experience at InkSlam.

“[Slam poetry is] not that hard,” Singer said. “Anybody can do it. It’s just your own story.”

Credit: Bullion

Since Whitman’s inception as a college in 1882, a liberal arts education has been central to the college’s academic philosophy. A liberal arts philosophy offers a holistic and broad approach to higher education. Whitman upholds these values by focusing on the standards of an interdisciplinary curriculum, a passion for rigorous scholarship and experiences that connect students to the real world.

Translated into curriculum, this means required participation of all students in all distribution areas, the core program, an emphasis on writing and class discussion and encouraging students to take advantage of real world experiences, especially studying abroad.

Many other liberal arts colleges, however, choose to achieve these same unifying values through different practices. Whitman itself has gone through two separate phases of overarching curriculum changes and the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee is currently planning a move into the third phase, which would aim to increase interdisciplinary, cross-cultural perspectives. Controversy has arisen, however, as to how these changes would be implemented and whether or not students will be involved in the decision making process.

The Pioneer examines the past, present and future of a liberal arts philosophy at Whitman, including a comparison of how the implementation of Whitman’s philosophy differs from other liberal arts colleges.

“Core has gone through a massive evolution to become Encounters,” said Elyse Semerdjian, associate professor of history and encounters representative for the general studies committee.

The biggest change was the removal of the word “western” in the description, which opens up the course to texts from other parts of the world. This can be seen in the addition of texts such as “The Bhagavad-Gita” and “The Qur’an.”

“We had taught it for so long that we felt the need for some change and we all acknowledged that it was exclusively western,” said Margo Scribner, senior adjunct assistant professor of English and general studies, who has taught Core for 26 years.

“This is a very different syllabus than what we had before,” Semerdjian said.

While a lot of the texts are the same, some are completely new. This is also the first year of Core that includes film; “City Lights” was included this semester.

There are also now two plenary lectures, which are new additions to the syllabus. For the most recent one on Wednesday, Dec. 2, all first-years went to Cordiner Hall for class to hear Associate Professor of Foreign Languages and Literature Zahi Zalloua lecture about the current reading, “Selected Writings” of Karl Marx.

There has also been a more general change, which is the addition of a theme. This year’s theme is “Encounters Ancient and Modern” but it can change from year to year.

“With the new course description, we can change the entire theme of the course from period to period,” Semerdjian said. New themes can be introduced and voted in, as often as every year.

“I think the new course offers a diverse range of perspectives. With each new text our eyes are opened more to how we’ve been shaped by our upbringing and culture and [we are invited] to engage and think about others,” said first-year Emily Berg.

First-year Heather Domonoske agreed that the texts are well-chosen.

“People here tend to like them,” she said. She added that Whitman students would probably not read these texts on their own, making them good choices for the class.

However, first-year Shannon McCarty said that she thinks the transitions between the texts could be clearer.

“The sequence of texts lacks some continuity,” she said.

First-year Claire Ostwald said that the units help focus the syllabus and help relate the texts to each other. She believes, though, that with the exception of “The Odyssey,” the texts seem glanced over.

“While I think it’s interesting to be exposed to so many different, diverse texts, the amount of time we spend on each one seems too short,” Ostwald said.

Semerdjian said that Core teachers have looked at many different kinds of freshman seminar models, such as one in which each section would have a different theme, but decided to stick with Core as it is.

“Ideally, the course is meant to be a conversation piece on campus. We hope that students discuss the texts over lunch as well as professors in the halls,” she said.

The idea is that all first-years read the same text at the same time, enabling them to discuss it beyond the classroom.

“Part of it is to give you some unity as an entering class,” Scribner said. She added that it can also make it so other professors a year or two down the line can take it for granted that their students have read certain works.

Having all the first-years take the same class at the same time means that many professors teach it. While there are some professors on contract just to teach Core, there are also math and science professors teaching. Semerdjian said that this is good for several reasons, one because it shows that these texts have interdisciplinary value. It also sometimes forces professors to teach outside of their subject area.

“It may be a challenge, but it’s meant to keep us on our toes as much as the students,” Semerdjian said.

Scribner agreed that it is an intellectual challenge.

“I had never read some of these works before,” Scribner said. “It’s really good for everybody.”

Although students are reading the same texts at the same time, not all agree that the conversation does successfully move outside of the classroom.

“I haven’t found that the conversation moves out of the classroom much, but I’ve found that just the discussion in class has been interesting and at times eye-opening for many,” said Berg.

Even though everyone is reading the same texts, Domonoske said that classroom experiences vary.

“Everyone has a very different Encounters experience,” she said. Domonoske pointed out that not only do different classes focus on different aspects of the text, but also that some classes are more discussion-based than others. Ostwald agreed.

“I’ve heard first-years say that their class is lecture-based, with discussion interspersed, but my class is all discussion-based,” Ostwald said.

Although it may be hard to make the classes uniform enough to create a campus conversation, Berg loves the class discussion.

“The in-class discussion has been nothing less than I expected. We really roll with the ideas and apply them to our own lives,” she said.

College—especially first and sophomore years—is a good chance to explore fields of knowledge to which most students  have little exposure in high school, and many students find their major, like Stearns did, through such early exploration. While Stearns explored because of necessity, Whitman’s distribution requirements are designed to act as an incentive for students, even those who have decided on a major and can take the classes they desire, to sample different fields because they know that they are required for graduation.

According to the 2009-2010 academic catalog, “Distribution requirements are the primary means of achieving breadth and perspective; the student is required to sample disparate areas of knowledge and ways of knowing.”

The distribution requirements demand completion of six credits in each of the areas of social science, humanities, fine arts, science and alternative voices, and three credits in quantitative analysis. The system was revised in 2000.

“[Distribution classes] are really important in encouraging well-rounded educations,” said Stearns. “You can’t just take math and science classes, or you can’t just take psychology classes.”

The general form of a distribution requirement is six credits in a broad field with multiple departments in which most of the classes qualify, and where one class cannot fulfill two distribution requirements. The two exceptions are quantitative analysis, which requires fewer credits and can fulfill two requirements at once, and alternative voices, which describes a set of classes in many departments which are decided upon by the General Studies Committee.

“There are no classes that are automatically alternative voices; all alternative voices classes have been approved by the General Studies Committee,” said Elizabeth Vandiver, associate professor of classics and chair of the General Studies Committee.

Most of the serious complaints she had heard about the requirements came as complaints about registration and scheduling, like the unavailability of desired courses, according to Vandiver. Many courses fill before first year students and sophomores have a chance at them, including some popular courses for distribution requirements, like Chemistry of Art, a popular science class specific to non-science majors. While the unavailability of desired courses may lead some students to taking courses they wouldn’t otherwise, like a distribution requirement, as it did for Stearns, it may also prevent some students from getting the most out of the requirements by blocking the desired out-of-major courses.

Some students, particularly science majors who have to take certain courses in order and have multiple afternoon labs, may have a hard time fitting in the classes, especially afternoon classes. However, according to Stearns, most seniors have their distribution requirements finished or nearly finished, so it seems like it is not a major hurdle for most students.

Stearns has completed all the distribution requirements with the exception of fine arts. She plans to take a photography course in spring 2010 to fulfill that requirement.

“Some students ask ‘Why do I have to take this stuff I’m not interested in?’, but presumably one reason you chose to come to a liberal arts college was for the breadth of education, and the distribution requirements contribute to that,” said Professor Vandiver.

Many liberal arts colleges have distribution requirements similar to Whitman’s, including Reed College, Pomona College and Willamette University, often including some requirement similar to “Alternative Voices.” It’s a common cornerstone in the philosophy of a liberal arts education.

Stearns had no complaints about the distribution requirements.

“It gives you a much better perspective, not just in general knowledge but in how your major applies to other fields,” said Stearns.

The student representative on that committee, senior ASWC senator Will Canine, is frustrated by what he perceives as a lack of student involvement in such academic decisions.

“The faculty has a very complicated governance structure that involves a chair and tons of committee and various oversight and policy-determining bodies,” said Canine. “And many of the faculty see it as their 100-percent right to control all decisions involving the academic program at Whitman.”

Andrea Valenzuela, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures–Spanish, stressed the voice students have regarding Whitman’s academic philosophy.

“My voice probably . . . has as much weight as [that of] the student body,” she said.

Regardless of differences in the perceived influence of students voices, according to Article V, Section 2 of the Constitution of the College, the faculty does have the power to arrange the courses of study and make academic decisions independent of student concern.

In Canine’s view, the current discussion surrounding the development of Whitman’s academic philosophy does nothing to alleviate the fact that students don’t have a voice in academic programming.

A three-year ASWC senator, Canine feels that Whitman discourages students from offering their perspectives on academic issues. He cited as an example the letter sent by ASWC to the faculty directly before they decided to switch to a 3-2 class schedule.

“We got professors sending us e-mails saying, ‘We are disappointed that you as students have seen fit to try and meddle’ . . . The faculty told me I was butting in. Faculty told me I don’t have a right to talk about academic issues because they’re not a student issue.”

Bill Bogard, professor of sociology and division chair of social sciences and education, believes that though communication between students and faculty could be improved, faculty control over academic decisions is necessary.

“I agree that students might be better informed about the process . . . but I also strongly support the long tradition of faculty control over curricular matters. It has served Whitman well and is responsible for the quality of education
here,” he said.

First-year Olivia Nielson also agrees that it should be in the power of the faculty to make decisions about academic
structure and programs, but believes students’ opinions should be taken into account.

“I feel like if a student has a problem they can go talk to a teacher about it, and they would be open to suggestion,” she said.

Canine said that the majority of the faculty are great at listening to student concerns, but a small minority have been unpleasant regarding student involvement.

“Faculty are the experts, and they should absolutely be determining curriculum and they should absolutely have discussions about what an American education means, because they are the ones qualified to have them,” he said. “However, they cannot take away opportunities for an education that Whitman has been offering without talking to students.”

Bogard does not see himself or his colleagues in this way.

“I don’t think that in this process faculty members see themselves entirely in the narrow role of ‘experts,’ but as professionals dedicated to teaching and acting in the interests of their students,” he said.

Valenzuela believes the faculty does act in the best interest of students by listening to their concerns. She said while
students have a voice, that does not mean they have ultimate control over some decisions, such as the decision to move to a 3-2 schedule.

“Students do have a voice in this—they absolutely do have a voice,” said Valenzuela. “I mean, the fact that what students
expressed. . . was not the end result of that 3-2 vote does not mean it wasn’t taken into account. It was very seriously taken into account.”

She cited as evidence for such consideration the ASWC letter Canine mentioned, noting that the faculty listserv “went crazy” with discussion of its contents.

According to ASWC President Nadim Damluji, these discussions have been helpful in establishing a precedent for dialogue between students and faculty.

“The result of [the letter] has been really productive conversations that will hopefully include ASWC in the future,” he said.

Recognizing that there is great progress to be made, Bogard hopes that students can see the faculty’s decisions as made in their best interest.

“Despite flaws in the process and the need for better communication, I hope students can see this as a move that benefits them, too,” he said.

Be sure to spend some quality time with the family, catch up with old friends, sleep in and relax. Try whipping up some of our recipes with your family, sure to be a hit at any of your holiday celebrations. For a calm night in with friends we offer some classic cinematic choices, and finally, for the much anticipated “you” time, curl up with a blanket and a book from our recommended book list. For those of you staying on campus this break, check out our top 5 list for some fun events happening around Walla Walla this week.

Whatever you decide to do this break, we hope that you find it enjoyable and relaxing.

Happy holidays!

Credit: Song

Top 5 Things to do in Walla Walla over break

1. Thanksgiving dinner with George Bridges

Each year President Bridges hosts a Thanksgiving dinner for students staying in Walla Walla over the holiday break. Come to Baker Faculty Center at 5 p.m. (date/time not confirmed!!) on Nov. 26 for your favorite holiday treats, a chance to mingle with the president and an opportunity to meet other students staying on campus.

2. Be the first to witness snowfall in Walla Walla

The ten-day weather forecast predicts highs in the mid-thirties next week, with a fair chance of snow. It may be your lucky day if you are the first to witness campus under a white blanket of untainted snow—it won’t stay that way for long. Be sure to bring a camera and brag to your friends!

3. Run the Turkey Trot

Don’t head off to dinner with George Bridges just yet—before packing on the pie and stuffing, attend this fun 5k race downtown. Starting on 1st and Main Street at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 26, this Thanksgiving-themed 5k run and 1 mile walk is a fundraiser for the Blue Mountain Chapter of the American Red Cross. Registration is $15 on race day.

4. Attend “The Miracle Worker” at the Little Theatre of Walla Walla

Take a break from the Whitman scene and attend a play at the volunteer-based Little Theatre of Walla Walla. Performed at 8 p.m. on Nov. 20-21 and 27-29, “The Miracle Worker” is a biographical play based on the life of Helen Keller. The Little Theatre of Walla Walla is located at 1130 Sumach St.

5. Sleep, relax and catch up on some of our recommended movies and books!

Take advantage of the painfully silent dorms—they won’t stay that way for long. Sleep in until noon, spend a lazy day in bed and check out a book or movie or two.

Credit: Gold

Winter Squash Soup with Gruyere Croutons from Bon Appétit

This colorful, velvety soup is perfect on a chilly winter afternoon and the Gruyere croutons add a nice, little crunch. Serves 8.

Soup

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

4 large garlic cloves, chopped

3 14 1/2-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth

4 cup 1-inch pieces peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)

4 cup 1-inch pieces peeled acorn squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 1/4 tsp minced fresh thyme

1 1/4 tsp minced fresh sage

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/8 cup whipping cream

Croutons

2 tbsp (1/4 stick) butter

24 1/4-inch-thick baguette bread slices

1 cup grated Gruyere cheese

1 tsp minced fresh thyme

1 tsp minced fresh sage

For soup:

Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add broth, all squash and herbs; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is very tender, about 20 minutes.

Working in batches, puree soup in blender. Return soup to same pot. Stir in cream and sugar; bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made one day ahead. Chill. Re-warm over medium heat before serving.)

For croutons:

Preheat broiler. Butter one side of each bread slice. Arrange bread, buttered side up, on baking sheet. Broil until golden, about one minute. Turn over. Sprinkle cheese, then thyme and sage over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil until cheese melts, about one minute. Ladle soup into bowls. Top each with croutons and serve.

Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake from Smitten Kitchen

A delicious combination of flavors baked into each other in a warm, custardy cake. Bring this dessert to a holiday party or gathering and it’s sure to be a big hit.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs, at room-temperature

1 stick unsalted butter

¾ cup sugar

3 pears, peeled, in a small dice

3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and dust with breadcrumbs or flour.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on high speed until pale and very thick, approximately 9 minutes.

While the eggs are whipping, brown the butter. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan (because it will foam a lot) and cook it until the butter browns and smells nutty (about six to eight minutes). It helps to frequently scrape the solids off the bottom of the pan in the last couple minutes to ensure even browning. Remove from the flame but keep in a warm spot.

Add the sugar to the eggs and whip a few minutes more.

Just as the egg-sugar mixture is starting to lose volume, turn the mixture down to stir and add the flour mixture and brown butter. Add one third of the flour mixture, then half of the butter, a third of the flour, the remaining butter and the rest of flour. Whisk until just barely combined—no more than a minute from when the flour is first added—and then use a spatula to gently fold the batter until the ingredients are combined. It is very important not to over-whisk or fold the batter or it will lose volume.

Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the pear and chocolate chunks over the top and bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back to the touch, about 40 to 50 minutes, or a tester comes out clean.

Lemon-Chamomile Shortbread from Real Simple

Perfect with tea or at brunch, these tasty little cookies take very little prep time and come out of the oven looking and smelling beautiful. Yields 18 cookies.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Grated zest from 1 lemon

1 tsp loose chamomile tea

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square cake pan.

In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar and salt. Beat until light and fluffy. Blend in the lemon zest, loose tea and flour until smooth. Press into pan.

Bake 30 minutes or just until the shortbread begins to turn golden. Cut into nine squares, then cut each square into two triangles.

Cool completely on a wire rack. Remove cookies from pan.

- Jonas Myers, first-year

When my mom and my uncles were little, they would get very distracted waiting for Santa to come. In order to keep them busy, my grandma decided to have beef fondue for dinner on Christmas Eve. Because it involves cooking your own food, it kept them from tearing the house down. Now, on the night before Christmas, my whole family goes to my Grandma’s for fondue.

- Robyn Metcalfe, first-year

Decorating and placing presents under the traditional Hanukkah bush, which is similar to a Christmas tree but different in several subtle ways . . . (it’s shorter and rounder).

- Cory Rand, first-year

We always have pumpkin soup served out of an actual hollowed out pumpkin before Thanksgiving dinner.

- Allison Armstrong, senior

My mom has these Martha Stuart butter molds so all of our Thanksgiving butter is in the shape of acorns or leaves. We are only allowed to eat that butter during the meal.

- Claire Ostwald, first-year

Dancing ’round the Festivus pole.

-Nick Cross, first-year

My family likes to go for hikes on Thanksgiving. It’s a good way to get out of the house, enjoy the fall air and work off the food we just ate.

- Dena Wessel, first-year

One of my favorite holiday traditions is making eggrolls with my family at Christmas. Everyone sits together and rolls them and then we all help my dad fry them up in a wok and then eat them with miso soup.

- Isabella Lowery, first-year

Every year around Christmas my family and I go into downtown Seattle to shop and ride the merry-go-round and it’s probably one of my favorite days of the year!

-Mollee Huisinga, first-year

1.  Anything by Wes Anderson. Anything.
While it might just be the indie kid soul in me, I love Wes Anderson in his entirety; every movie is great, in my opinion. The most accessible is probably “The Royal Tenebaums,” a quirky family drama featuring a terrific ensemble cast. It’s hilarious; it’s sad; it’s amazing. Like every Wes Anderson movie. Watch it and be liberated.

2.  “The Graduate”
As college students, “The Graduate” is a terrifying, electrifying movie. It’s also extremely funny and well acted, as well as revolutionary for cinema in general. And the ending, oh! the ending! The moment at the end defines the entire movie; it’s gorgeously subtle and wonderful. It’s a great, great movie that is almost universally beloved. Watch it and be terrified.

3.  “District 9″
Science fiction, in it’s purest form, is about ideas. And giant battle scenes. “District 9″ has both, with a social commentary on South Africa packed seamlessly into its neat structure. The main actor, Sharlto Copley, has never been seen on screen before, and he carries the movie! If you love great movies, see this one. It doesn’t disappoint. Watch it and be awesome.

4.  “Die Hard”
The movie that made Bruce Willis into an action star is unquestionably one of the best of its genre. If you have seen it before, watch it again. It is is incredibly entertaining, violent and fun.

5.  “Pulp Fiction”
Quentin Tarantino is a master at transforming humorless things into hilariously disturbing black comedy. I laughed at drug overdose, rape and random killing. But the real reason to see this movie, aside from it’s Academy Award-winning screenplay and great cast, can be summed up with one name: Samuel L. Jackson. Watch it else I lay my vengeance upon thee.

6.  “(500) Days of Summer”
A nontraditional romantic comedy with a nonlinear narrative, this movie is funny and a joy to watch. Surprisingly, this movie tested better with men than with women in screenings, although each gender was fairly enthusiastic. It comes out on DVD on Dec. 22, just in time for the holidays. Watch it and fall in love with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (or admire Zooey Deschanel).

7.  “Up”
Pixar seems to know just how to make animated movies without many of the frustratingly irritating characters present in other animations (like talking squirrels, for example). “Up” is no exception; in fact, the beginning is actually very sad, though the film itself is lighthearted. It just came out on DVD Nov. 10, so watch it and be uplifted.

8.  “Star Trek”
It’s rare that adaptation movies strike a balance between appealing to fans of the original source material and trying to reach broader demographics, but “Star Trek” did that. With cameos from Leonard Nemoy, the original Spock, as well as a hilarious (but minor) role by Simon Pegg, this movie has it all.

9.  “Moon”
An independent science fiction movie without any epicocity, Moon is a tricky but fascinating movie that is extremely well-acted and well-shot. Plus, Kevin Spacey is the voice of a creepy robot named Gerty. What’s not to like?

10.  “Drag Me To Hell”
Before Sam Raimi directed all three “Spider-Man” movies, he got famous directing low-budget cult horror movies. He returned to his roots with “Drag Me To Hell,” a horror thriller with about a curse put on a loan officer. Plus, it has Justin Long, which is always an added bonus. Watch it and go to hell.