“He has this delightful quirkiness about him.”

There is very little about Hashimoto’s teaching style that one would consider conventional.

“The first day of class, he threw bouncy balls all over the classroom. He was trying to give them to people, but it turns out people aren’t very good at catching bouncy balls,” said junior Nathan Sany, who is currently in Hashimoto’s expository writing class.

Sany also has a gold bookend in the shape of a duck head that he got from Hashimoto.

Associate Professor of English and General Studies Sharon Alker once sat in on his class and he taught an entire class on the semicolon.

“By the time I got out of there, I was passionate about the semicolon,” she said.

Via email, junior John Masla recalls “writing about Apple Pie recipes” and “bartering for a toy whistle” among the more unusual moments in Hashimoto’s class.

“He’s really original and creative,” said Alker. “He has this delightful quirkiness about him while bringing such academic rigor.”

This is a sentiment echoed almost verbatim by fellow Professor of English Roberta Davidson.

“I think that for Hash, the line between expository and creative writing doesn’t exist. He sees that all writing has a creative component, and all teaching has a creative component as well,” she said.

Seeing the world

After this laundry list of anecdotes and quotes, Hashimoto sounds like an eccentric genius, and he may be; he has a rare ability to combine creativity and substance. Here’s another important duality with Hash: He is both very successful at what he does and very humble. He has won a number of awards, including the 1986 Burlington Northern Award for Faculty Achievement, but talking to him, you would never know.

“He is the most modest person I know,” said Alker. “I think he is one of the most accomplished and modest people I have ever met. And that is quite the remarkable combination.”

This is very apparent when talking to Hashimoto, who is nothing like the bombastic presence one might expect after hearing of his classroom exploits. Reclining in his chair, he gives quiet, thoughtful answers often punctuated with a quick laugh that sounds like a cough. After teaching at Northern Colorado Laboratory School, Idaho State University and University of Michigan, Hash came to Whitman in 1983, where he has taught and directed the Writing Center.

“I like the students here,” said Hashimoto. “And I like the freedom that Whitman gave me to do the things I wanted to do here.”

“I have a lot of fun. I like to challenge people to do things better, to think in ways that they aren’t comfortable thinking,” said Hashimoto when asked about his unique teaching approach.

This concept of challenging students and getting them out of their comfort zones is the reason Hashimoto does things like give seemingly random essay prompts, such as on apple pie recipes.

“It’s easy to write about something you know, rather than something you have to go out and learn about, explore and think about. I want to make writing a more active endeavor than just thinking about what you’d say,” he explained.

This is because Hashimoto sees his writing courses as more than just about becoming a better writer. Most of his students are not English majors, but the class is valuable in a broader sense.

“It’s about seeing the world better and seeing issues. I think writing courses are about that, working on what they see and what they think about,” he said.

Sany, an anthropology major, sees how Hashimoto’s teaching has extended beyond his class.

“I’m more in touch with my writing. I’ve really fine-tuned my skills and how my prose flows, but it has also helped reading articles for anthropology. It’s easier to break down how different genres work and critique what the authors are saying,” he said.

Hashimoto is certainly teaching writing, but more than that, he is teaching life skills and the ability for his students to develop new perspectives. In this way, Hashimoto is the liberal arts ideal; he is helping his students become well-rounded individuals through his English classes.

Alker remembered a time in which she asked Hashimoto for advice on what she should look for in hiring a new English professor for the department.

He said simply, “They need to know how to fish.”

What he meant was that the professor needed to have skills other than writing to be an interesting teacher. Hashimoto sees writing in a holistic manner: The other aspects of one’s life will guide the way one writes.

“I think that to be a good writer, you have to be an interesting person,” Hashimoto said.

Mastery

Talking to Hashimoto about his banjo playing, he said, “Mastery is not just about how much you practice, but it’s about what you do and how you live, what you see. It all affects the way you become better.”

While he was talking about playing the banjo, Hashimoto could have easily been talking about any craft. By his own standards, Hashimoto has achieved mastery of his own craft: teaching. He is interesting and has an original way of seeing the world that challenges his students. Perhaps this mastery is why he sounds so at ease with retiring and moving on to the next phase in his life. It is also probably why when Alker and Davidson were asked about replacing Hashimoto, they both quickly replied that he is irreplaceable.

Hashimoto wants to continue teaching in some capacity and is looking forward to having more time to play banjo, travel with his wife Marianne, visit his children and grandchildren and tend to his yard at his home in Milton-Freewater.

“I want more time to sit in my backyard and watch the things grow,” he said.

After a career of helping students grow in unique and exciting ways, this seems to be the perfect picture of Hashimoto in retirement: leaning back in his chair, hands clasped over his stomach, watching the things grow.

Among these passionate people is an incredibly strong culture of creative writers. This culture is fostered through student organizations devoted to the pursuit of literary arts, including blue moon, quarterlife and slam poetry team Almighty Ink. Each year, many Whitman writers submit poetry and prose to campus publications so that they can share their work with other Whitman students. Some of these talented literary artists even work beyond the scope of these campus groups. Creative writing culture may be somewhat of an underground movement, but its members and followers are more active than ever.

One of these creative minds is senior Jonas Myers. Myers is arguably one of the most well-known faces on campus: His involvement in the music department, membership in student band Humans Being and participation in Mr. Whitman have made him and his Buddy Holly glasses a recognizable presence. Writing is one of his many passions. He is currently pursuing writing by completing a novel for his creative thesis in the English department.

Only a small number of students choose to write creative theses each year, and this year Myers is one of five. He has worked on perfecting his style by taking a number of classes fostering fictional writing in the department.

“I signed up for Intro to Creative Writing with [Associate Professor of English] Scott Elliott, who’s now my adviser. I was thrilled to get a chance to finally write what I wanted to write. And then I realized, wait, this is really, really hard. And that only made me want to do it more,” he said.

Courses like the creative writing offerings in the English department allow students like Myers to explore something they weren’t always able to in high school. Many students find opportunities to express themselves creatively only in English classes in elementary and middle school. Ironically enough, when many high school students are overwhelmed with angst and ever-changing emotions, there are rarely any concrete opportunities within a high school curriculum to foster creative expression. Preparing students for Advanced Placement tests and placing emphasis on the perfect essay limits teenage writers in a really important time of development.

Myers recalls some of the difficulties he faced in high school.

“I loved creative writing in elementary and middle school. I would try to write the funniest thing I could to make my friends laugh,” he said. “In high school everything was so focused on working up to the AP tests and writing the formula essay, which, you know, is such crap.”

Having the opportunity to take structured courses about writing and to work with an adviser who has written and published his own novels has helped Myers to become more confident in his own writing. He might even pursue publishing his thesis novel after graduation.

“I really like the idea [of] having guidance from a published novelist … I also recognize that this is my first attempt at a novel. This might have to be a throw-away novel. Like the first waffle.”

Myers is not the first Whitman student to work on a novel while attending school. Alumna Maggie Allen ’12 had two books published before she even graduated. Allen, an environmental studies-sociology major, began work on her first novel after being inspired by a particularly memorable dream in high school. She went on to extend this dream into the creation of a young adult fiction trilogy.

“I actually wrote the first [book] my senior year of high school. It just came from a couple cool dreams I had at night and I wrote them down. I would do that growing up, but these were interesting enough that I was able to write a really long story, long enough to be turned into a short novel,” she said.

Her series revolves around a teenage girl who travels to Africa and is simultaneously caught up in a supernatural world. A boy gets involved, and together they try to figure out how to escape it.

The second novel in the trilogy was released while Allen was a sophomore at Whitman. For Allen, balancing school and writing was often a difficult task. Whitties with many passions sometimes have trouble juggling them between classes and extracurricular activities.  Writing was a way for Allen to procrastinate and release her emotions whenever she felt the urge to jot down a plot twist.

“In college, writing often happened when I was avoiding work. Sometimes you get a random inspiration and sneak in a couple paragraphs during class. Really, most of my writing came during the summer and on breaks,” she said.

Her books, “The Return” and “The Revival: Book Two of the Totoboan Trilogy,” are available in the Whitman Bookstore. She is making progress on the third installment, while simultaneously working as an Americorps volunteer in Oregon.

Many Whitties also devote their talents to poetry. Junior Noah Orgish is one of these poets, and he plans to finish a poetry compilation for his thesis in the English Department.

Orgish, a resident assistant in Jewett Hall, has his fair share of excitement. We met in the Jewett main lounge amidst the cries of the men’s lacrosse team outside and the knocking sounds made by lost projectiles against the glass. Because of his RA responsibilities, it is sometimes hard for him to find time to write, but that doesn’t stop him. He explores a variety of interesting and offbeat themes in his work, including that of language as an inefficient means of expression.

“I’ve become very interested in language itself as a tool to express things, and how inadequate it is. But it’s the tool that I still use and feel the most comfortable using,” he said.

His work also fosters his own sense of self. He uses poetry as a medium to explore and enhance his religious background. For Orgish, writing is almost as a religious exercise in itself.

“Judaism also comes into poetry as well, and experiences I’ve had, and thoughts … Poetry has kind of become connected to my Judaism. The act of creative writing feels very Jewish to me. Sometimes I’ll write something that has more explicitly to do with Judaism, but the act of expressing those things feels very Jewish. Sometimes I’ll use Hebrew in my poems,” he said.

Like Myers, Orgish described the creative process as a challenging experience. For him, emotions in a poem are often difficult to convey, especially when words don’t seem adequate.

“It’s definitely hard. I need to work on the revising process, and that is what’s hardest for to me. Getting it to be what I want it to be is sometimes the most frustrating. But that’s also the part that’s the most rewarding.”

Orgish feels that Whitman writers are often fairly quiet about their work, and he’d like to see more discussion and collaboration between them. Viewing Whitman’s writing culture as “underground” is not uncommon. When a new edition of a campus publication is released, many students are surprised to see their peers’ work in print. Just as many Whitties are modest about their academic and personal achievements, many writers don’t speak openly about their creative pursuits, particularly when these pursuits are as personal as poetry.

“Outside of my poetry class, writing isn’t talked about. You see people published in blue moon, and [say], ‘Oh, I didn’t know you wrote.’ I think it would be cool to talk about it more, to work together with someone on your work outside of class,” he said.

Later this year, Orgish’s work will be published in Spillway, a poetry magazine based in Orange County, Calif. After he graduates from Whitman, he plans to continue writing and possibly to explore a career in teaching, but he’s ready to do anything that comes his way.

“I really have no idea what I don’t want to do with my life,” he said.

“Page poetry” like Orgish’s is certainly not the only poetry showcased at Whitman. About a dozen committed students participate in Almighty Ink, Whitman’s renowned slam poetry group.

Sophomore Devyani Gupta is the Almighty Ink president and a poet herself. Although slam poetry is distinct from traditional poetry, she feels that it is important to remember that it’s part of writing culture. She felt impassioned to represent her team, a group of people she obviously cares about.

“I feel like there’s this expectation that poets should all be English majors, or slam poetry is rap, or the reason why it’s not page poetry is that it’s too boisterous. Just because it’s not page poetry, that doesn’t mean it’s not creative writing,” she said.

Many people believe slam poetry is all about hardship and suffering one has endured, presented in a form using the same techniques and vocal patterns and rhythms. Almighty Ink tries to get people to think beyond those classifications by recruiting poets with an incredibly diverse body of work.

“Last year’s president, [alumnus] Elijah Singer ['12], said something I’ll never forget about slam. He said, ‘You stand up on stage, you unload your own personal baggage or the baggage of someone else, [and] then you leave,’” said Gupta.

Because slam poems are performed in front of an audience, the medium makes it difficult for writers to distance themselves from the experiences described in their work. Poets remove all barriers in what can be an extremely emotional and powerful performance on sensitive social and personal issues.

“You don’t have anonymity. Even if I’ve done a poem about a friend, people ask if it’s me,” Gupta said.

At team meetings, the group will use a number of different writing techniques to get thoughts flowing. These can include timed freewrites and team critiques following the presentation of poems. Members try their best to make everyone perform the best work they can perform.

“A lot of times we’ll try to write poems in our meetings where we invent a story that didn’t happen to [us]. It’s easy to write about the baggage. We walk this fine line between nurturing and pestering each other. If you start to disclaim your poem, we’ll scream at you. We’re making each other better, more as a team rather than a club,” said Gupta.

Because other writers on campus rarely do in-person readings of their work, members of Almighty Ink often feel that they are the most visible aspect of writing culture on campus, and there is an element of vulnerability that comes with that feeling. There’s a divide in the page and slam poetry communities, which is unsurprising because poets in each group have vastly different methods of execution. Slam poets often garner more attention from their work because they share it in person with an audience, unlike a writer who is published in blue moon or quarterlife.

“Because the slam poets are there, they become a spectacle. We feel like a spectacle sometimes. There’s a lack of understanding for both sides [at] Whitman as a whole, how they understand page poetry versus slam poetry. It’s like in your face versus underground,” said Gupta.

Still, the slam team has grown significantly in recent years. Almighty Ink has performed not only at campus events, but also at community events, like open microphone nights at the Patisserie and a Planned Parenthood event.

Gupta feels there is something really powerful about watching your peers and friends break away a barrier of civility and politeness to release raw energy and feeling, and that high student attendance at campus events speaks to this. Slam has become a way for creative writing culture to push the boundaries of poetry into the realm of performance art, and it has caught students’ attention.

“We’re really excited the campus has accepted us so much,” she said.

Zoe Ingerson ’13. Photo by Skye Vander Laan.

This column was contributed by senior Zoe Ingerson ’13.

Like every single one of the millions of college grads that have come before me, I find myself thinking more and more the quintessential question of “Where did the time go?” When did this whole senior graduation thing happen, and how is it that we’re standing here, 31 days from graduation? (Although, personally, I like to think of it as 2.7 million seconds—it makes it sound at least a little bit longer.)

Here at Whitman, and especially as seniors, we love to measure our time in terms of “productivity”: how many pages of our thesis we wrote, how many hours we spent in the library or how many days it’s been since we last showered. Don’t get me wrong, these numbers are useful; but, being here, we become time management fiends, calculating how many credits we can take while at the same time making time to volunteer 8.2 hours a week, apply for those 22 internships, be president of the club we founded and still be able to “be productive” when we know we’ve spread ourselves far too thin. Part of the reason we’re so good at this is that we’ve been trained exceptionally well—it’s become a game, calculating our odds of success at “using our time responsibly” in order to reach our peak efficiency.

But I also think that we like it simply because it’s just easier to think in terms of something tangible. When you start thinking about all the other stuff, the memories, the friends, our own quality of life, not to mention our favorite “what are you doing after graduation?” question, the waters get murkier, and things get scarier. We can’t express it in terms of facts and figures and productivity, so we shy away from talking about the possibilities, about that which we cannot comprehend. Even those who do know what their next, cautious steps are can’t help but feel somewhat terrified of what lies beyond. So we end up talking about what we do know, the easily measurable facts: where we are going, for how long, or how much it will pay (if we’re lucky). However, these facts simply cannot do justice to the excitement and magic that these entail.

Our times at Whitman have been marked by incredible opportunities: to take challenging, often bizarre classes; to study abroad in otherworldly places; to direct our own learning; to meet people who are passionate about literally anything and everything. Yes, we know how to write a paper in the span of one evening, but let’s not allow ourselves to only come away with this sense of “productivity.” Though capitalism may tell us otherwise, we are more than just “productive members of society.”

If Whitman has taught us anything, it’s that there is an infinite number of opportunities out there, and that it’s okay to say that we don’t know, to acknowledge and embrace the unknown. Measuring all this in terms of time isn’t going to cut it. Let’s measure in terms of opportunity, in terms of happiness—What’s that? You can’t come up with a definite parameter? That’s okay. That’s the point. Maybe sometimes there is no measurement.

To quote one of my favorite teachers of all time, Ms. Frizzle, now is the perfect time to “take chances, make mistakes and get messy.” Clichéd? Perhaps. Accurate? You bet. The truth is that life is messy, and if we spend most of the little time we have worrying about the fact that we have little time, we risk losing the beauty of the intangible, the spontaneous and the unknown.

So, for our last few weeks, let’s please not talk about what we’re getting done, for a change. Let’s talk about getting started. The possibilities are endless.

Marcial Diaz ’13. Photo by Skye Vander Laan.

This column was contributed by Marcial Díaz Mejía ’13.

My first year, I had a pro-Palestine picture on my wall. Someone in my section saw it and asked me why I had it up. I explained my position. Later, that same person told that I should probably remove it from my wall, as another section-mate could get offended. I refused, explaining that this was one of the reasons why I put it up, to start a conversation about the issue.

Except for him, no one else made a comment about it, even after visibly being surprised. This was my welcoming to politics at Whitman. Soon I would discover that a majority of Whitties are scared of offending others, or that we believe that everyone has an opinion similar to ours. Thus, we fail to question them. Often this translates into apathy and a lack of engagement in political affairs.

I feel privileged for being able to attend this institution. Whitman has pushed my boundaries, encouraging me to ask “why?” During my four years here, I’ve met smart and engaging people who have questioned my beliefs and pushed me to another intellectual level. There’s a reduced group of students who organize and participate in activism, political organizing, educational outreach and student politics.

However, on a large scale our campus lacks any major political discussion outside of the classroom. Although Whitman is and should be a place for intellectual curiosity, in my experience, most Whitman students are afraid of conflict, afraid of disrupting peace, afraid of questioning their own beliefs.

Eventually, we will all leave this place. Outside of the bubble, the world showcases an array of perspectives and opinions, and we will have to make decisions on what we stand for and justify our way of thinking. Even if we delay, the time will come.

Whitman is a safer environment to experiment with who you are and what you think and to just be different. To those staying, I urge you to take advantage of the bright people around you, the most valuable resource we are offered here. Ask questions. Engage in meaningful conversations. We might not find the answers, but it can take us down other paths that might. Rest assured that conflict is all right, as it is part of our daily lives. Inform yourself. Read. Challenge your own beliefs, the reasoning behind your thinking.

Most importantly, be ready to feel uncomfortable. You don’t have to agree with everyone. At times you can be on completely different sides of an issue … and still be friends. Encourage public discussions amongst your friends, even outside of a frat on a Saturday night.

To those graduating, don’t forget what you have learned here as we disperse around the world. Continue to ask the tough questions. Engage with your community. Be ready to feel uncomfortable.

I leave Whitman knowing that it transformed me. Almost four years later, I had a conversation with my (now) friend on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the TKE kitchen. Soon after, more people joined in, and our topic morphed into consent and sexual relations. Many had honest questions, while others answered passionately, speaking from personal experiences and their academic expertise.

It was not only a moment of exchange, curiosity and education. It was one of my favorite moments of my time at Whitman, which I will treasure. I just hope that many more create this kind of memories. The kind that makes you who you are outside of the bubble.

Heather Domonoske ’13. Photo by Skye Vander Laan.

I arrived at Whitman looking for a fresh start and the ability to find myself. I pictured smiles, new friends, excursions, dynamic classes, falling in love with four seasons and more. Instead, I was bombarded with a multitude of moments where I struggled to find the light at the end of the tunnel—where were the promised 300 days of sunshine?

As my time at Whitman passed, I learned where to find the sunshine. I got my first A on an Encounters paper. I was accepted to live in Tamarac. Thirty-one boys sang to me in the Jewett Dining Hall on Valentine’s Day. I stood with 12 others and held up my grand-slammer scramble swag. I passed my oral defense and many, many more. Those are all YOLO moments I could add to my Facebook album called “Whitman.” But, at the end of the day when I look back at my Whitman experience, the moments I will remember the most are often attached to those hard, unexpected challenges I faced.

Hard and unexpected experiences are the building blocks for the good times. They are the reason why going out on Friday night feels so good, or why late-night conversations freshman year on your way to brush your teeth lead to lifelong friendships. When we are pushed to our limits, when we have spent hours upon hours on our thesis and just want to scream, we open up the doors to moments we never imagined. Grades are important, but learning … learning is what will get us where we want to go, or maybe where we don’t. And that’s okay too.

Today we are faced with the terrifyingly awesome experience of moving away from Whitman. In some ways we are more prepared for the hard moments to come thanks to our Whitman experience. However, by leaving Whitman we are leaving behind the support group we have created to get us through challenges. What we have to remember is that the Whitman community is going nowhere and we created friendships upon a foundation that is hard to break.

We have lived with each other for four years. We have seen each other at our best and at our worst and we are finishing together. I am constantly amazed by the power of relationships formed at Whitman. Let those relationships and the lessons we learned at Whitman be the foundation of our future. Do not cast shadows on them because they are the past, but also be aware not to paint them too green. The YOLO days in the photos, they had their hard parts; the difference is that now we can see the beauty in those moments. We have learned from them.

But even knowing the Whitman community is not gone, there will still be the moments we feel totally alone, lost and confused, just like so many of us have felt at one point or another during these last four years. In these moments, know that they provide a learning opportunity the brighter moments do not. Know that by pushing through, we will end up with stories we never imagined and before we know it, we will be back in Walla Walla for our 10-year reunion, and those hard moments may be the most influential on our journey after Whitman.

Whitman has been an exceptional experience. We have paid the price and received a plethora of rewards, many intangible and some of which we will not reap for many years to come. We are moving on, which is scary as hell but also exhilarating. The rush of adrenaline that comes with the next chapter can be at times too much to handle, but we have to remember that just because we are leaving Whitman campus, that does not mean we are not taking a lot of Whitman with us and that the learning stops.

We are entering a phase in which we may be more aware of the challenges to come, but we must remember to embrace them, to learn from them and to know that in one way or another, they too will lead to moments of joy and fulfillment. And remember, don’t stop learning and pick more daisies.

Lisa Beneman ’13. Photos by Devika Doowa.

“After graduation, I am immediately heading out on the U.S.-Mexico border trip with [Associate Professor of Politics] Aaron Bobrow-Strain and 10 other awesome Whitman students. It is an amazing program that I am excited to be a part of and learn from. After the trip I am moving to Siena, Italy for the summer to work at Tenuta di Spannocchia, a diversified organic farm in rural Tuscany. I will be working in the vegetable gardens, in the olive orchard and with farm animals as a first step towards my dream of one day having my own farm. The farm is part of a larger 1,100-acre estate run by the Spannocchia Foundation. Present-day life at Spannocchia attempts to show in a very fundamental way how the past of this historic rural agricultural community can be preserved and its traditions maintained in a manner that affords a viable existence within the modern world … After the summer I plan to travel for a little while overseas and then return home to Maine to figure out the next adventure.”

Erin Kiskaddon ’13

“In the future, I have hopes to go to graduate school in marine biology, and I don’t know yet if I want to be a researcher or a teacher or some combination of the two. But what I really hope to do is to save the oceans one way or another. I think that there is [worth] in teaching people about the oceans and protecting it with research . . .  [Next year] I am helping a writer do research for his book on the ecology and behavior of marine mammals. He wanted a student with a strong scientific basis and a liberal arts perspective to help him sort out the North American species. The book is sort of a behind-the-scenes guide to what these critters do beyond just existing and looking the way they do. I will be building a bank of scientific references and composing the details for each chapter, then he will go in and do all the nice writing . . . I will also be volunteering at the America’s Cup Sailing Competition in San Francisco and finding work at a marine lab to get experience before grad school.”

Julia Bowman

Julia Bowman ’12

“I did my thesis on Lincoln High School, and through that process it was interesting to see how they perceive Whitman students and to see how the whole community supports the high school. And it’s been compelling seeing the connections there … I probably want to ultimately work with at-risk youth. Next year I will be the manager of an ice cream shop in Malibu, Calif . . . I have been working at Malibu Yogurt during breaks for the past four years. It is an old school surf friendly ice cream shop where you can sit in the courtyard and smell the beach air. When I was offered the position of store manager in charge of the shop and its 15 employees, I thought it would be a good experience while I work on my yoga teaching certificate and decide on graduate school plans.”

Lauren Kutler ’13. Photos by Devika Doowa.

Lauren Kutler will travel to Boston University next year to take classes and student-teach as a part of the Math for America program. Math for America is a private nonprofit organization that will allow Kutler to take math and education classes at Boston University for a year to receive her master’s degree, and then will aid her in finding a four-year teaching job at a high school around the area. “I really liked this program because of how it prepares you to be a teacher. One of the aims of the program is to improve the quality of math teaching in the country by attracting students to become teachers who are good at math.” With her double major of philosophy and math from Whitman, Kutler will apply her passion towards a new kind of educational process. “A lot of people are drawn to math or hate it because they think that there is one right answer, and I think unpacking what that means and why we think that will lead to understanding of how mathematical knowledge is understood.”

Lian Caspi ’13

Before psychology major Lian Caspi takes on her Watson Fellowship, she will also do work with the Davis Fellowship for Peace with senior Alex Brott in Israel, with a focus on conflict resolution. “[We will focus on] music as a way of conflict resolution, working with Arab and Jewish populations. [I will be] trying to bring some groups that already do this together in certain events, to share resources and also get to know each other, and involve the community in music and speaking about conflict.” In August, Caspi will study music therapy in five different African countries with the Watson Fellowship. “[It's an] exploration of music therapy and how culture and the music from a place interacts within the therapy, how they use it with different populations in different places, to get a more holistic understanding of music therapy. When I started thinking about the project, I got really excited about the process of creating a project … to design my own, where I’m motivated by myself. I’m excited about therapy, but what kind of therapy is a different question. This is a way to merge two of my biggest passions and see if this is the right way to combine them.”

Cory Rand ’13

In the fall, politics major Cory Rand will head to St. Louis for the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs, which is “a nine-month long leadership training program as well as an introduction to the public affairs arena. Throughout the course, I’ll have field placements with an NGO, labor organization, electoral campaign and the state or federal government. I decided to apply for the fellowship because it seems designed for people like me: I want to be part a larger effort to achieve political and socioeconomic equality in the United States, but I have no idea where or how to do this. The Coro Fellowship will give me an opportunity to explore the many different channels through which change can occur. I think my experiences at Whitman were instrumental in my decision to apply for Coro, as well as my ultimate acceptance into the program. The leadership opportunities I’ve had at Whitman, including leading Scrambles, OP Trips, teaching climbing classes and being a captain on Whitman’s cross country team, helped me develop the communication and leadership skills that Coro values. Keith Raether worked closely with me throughout the Coro application process; I could not have gotten the position without his help. Varsity Nordic … helped me pretend I was carefree and relaxed.”

Calvin Atkins ’13. Photos by Devika Doowa.

Thesis Title: Insulin Signaling in the Ketogenic Diet: An Exploration of the Role of Insulin in the Anticonvulsant Effects of the Ketogenic Diet

[Our thesis deals with] the influence of a high-fat diet on insulin receptor expression in key output regions of the hippocampus. [We] researched with Professor Leena Knight for two years analyzing the effect of the Ketogenic diet on insulin receptor expression with the brain. The Ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that has been used to treat difficult cases of epilepsy for almost 100 years. Although the diet has been around for so long, no one knows how it works. We hypothesized that the diet’s efficacy is linked to insulin signaling. [We] decided to focus [our] analysis of insulin receptor expression on one particular brain region that is heavily implicated with seizure generation. If insulin is the link between the Ketogenic diet and its use as an anti-epileptic treatment, then we would expect some change in the expression of the insulin receptor in that brain region. We administered the Ketogenic diet to rats, then harvested and sectioned their brains … [we] found that administration of the Ketogenic diet results in decreased expression of the insulin receptor in the brain.

Rebecca Helgeson and Jazzmyne Ross

Rebecca Helgeson ’13

Thesis Title: Colorblind Racial Ideology and Responses to Racism in Public and Private Contexts: Type of Colorblind Ideology Matters

We partially replicated a previous study that looked at students’ public responses to race-themed parties. This study found that people who scored higher on colorblind ideology were more likely to not respond to the racism that they saw. We hypothesized that while this was likely, other factors led into it such as in what context you were asking them and what type of colorblind ideology people endorsed … a type that believes that racism doesn’t exist, and therefore doesn’t respond to the racism [or] a type that believes racism exists, but can’t talk about race. We thought that the first type wouldn’t respond to racism in private or public, but the second type would respond in private. We found a significant effect of context (so people were more likely to respond more positively in public than in private) and a marginally significant interaction between category of colorblindness and context (so people scored differently in public and private based on which category they were in).

It was pretty eye-opening seeing these results even at Whitman. I’m not sure if I will continue doing research about racial issues, but I hope that it both inspires me and maybe anyone else who reads it to keep in mind that speaking out about issues of inequality is really important. If we are teaching kids not to talk about race, this study kind of indicates that kids won’t speak up about racism when it really matters and with people that they should be able to talk to about it.

Eric Niehaus

Eric Niehaus ’13

Thesis Title:  A Twang and a Pluck: Southern Folk Music and American Identity

Folk music of the South, specifically old-time music in the Appalachian Mountains and slave songs in the cotton states, is a literature of place, a self-identification of southerners with the South as a region. It is the music of a defiant people. There has been a lot of research done on slave music, which comes from styles that originated in Africa, about how it is a social commentary on slavery. And so using that, I’m looking more at white backcountry music, which is derived from British styles, to see how that is also a form of self-identification, especially in response to Northern aggression during the Civil War and industrialization. Even though what I found was that the music is a base for everything that came afterwards, especially blues and jazz, all this distinctly American music came out of this coming together of British and African influences in America that had never happened before. Out of that came the first truly American art forms. Looking at that, you can see how in the South with slaves and poor white people together, they went on to influence everything after them. The music reflects the way we respond to government, our political and social philosophies, and our values. I did a lot of research into historical records of the old antebellum South by people like Frederick Law Olmstead and other travelers. The cornerstone was Alan Lomax, who was a folklorist working in the South. In addition to huge archives of music that are recorded, he also wrote several books and many books have been written about him. He definitely did the bulk of the work in terms of recording and documenting American folk music. So, everything that came after was largely thanks to him; he was where I started. I plan to take [what I learned] and keep playing the music and try to learn more and hopefully go spend more time in the South.

Molly Blust ’13. Photos by Devika Doowa.

“After college I’m going to take a year or two off before going to graduate school. I definitely plan to continue being heavily involved in the sport of cycling. I plan to continue road racing through the summers and cyclocross racing in the fall. I got hooked on track racing recently as well, so I’ll likely continue that. I’m actually really looking forward to having some more time to ride/train and not feel guilty about cutting down my time to do homework because of it. I cannot even begin to describe the huge impact that sports at Whitman have contributed to my experience. I have gained so many helpful skills from the administrative positions I’ve been in on the team. I have gained leadership skills; can plan travel for a large number of people; am really good at sending emails, if I do say so myself; can talk professionally with sponsors/potential sponsors/alumni/parents/supporters/clothing companies; and [have] learned how to use blogs, Twitter and Facebook to keep all of the people mentioned earlier informed on our results and progress. I have also learned that sometimes winning and results are not the most important thing in the world. I have learned so much from all of my teammates about teamwork, perseverance, character, spirit and confidence. I have met amazing people that I would have never had the chance to meet if I weren’t riding my bike. Through our sponsorship with Allegro Cyclery in downtown Walla Walla, I’ve gained a second family, and having a strong community connection has influenced me in my time at Whitman so much. I could go on for pages about my experiences and how this sport has impacted my experience at both Whitman and my life in general.”

Emilie Gilbert

Emilie Gilbert ’13

“My time at Whitman has been truly amazing. I was so fortunate to be a part of women’s cross country and basketball, representing Whitman College at the NCAA National Championships in both sports. However, the best experience was the journey every season provided, and the support I felt from my teammates and the athletic department. Every season was memorable because of my wonderful teammates, and I truly value the friendships I have built these past four years. After graduating Whitman with a degree in economics, I am hoping to get a job in business, and possibly pursue a MBA. My participation and accomplishments in Whitman athletics have caused me to grow as a person, perfect my time management skills and develop lifelong friendships. Whatever my future holds, both my academic and athletic experiences will help me succeed.”

Ryan Gilkey

“Some highlights for me were making it to two conference championship games—that was obviously a blast—and beating the number one team in the nation (and at that time undefeated) was also a blast. I mainly just value the people you meet and who slowly become family to you. Absolutely, I learned some lessons; that is by far the best personal gain anyone can get from athletics, unless you’re David Beckham and marry a Spice Girl. Probably the most important skill I learned is the mental willpower. Athletics teaches you the willpower necessary to grind through tough situations like nothing else can. Everyone experiences tough mental situations, but athletes are also forced to face physical strain on top of that. A well-taught athlete is a tough person to beat, in any environment. I have become an avid hunter and fisher. I will also continue lifting, as that is now a habit of mine.  There is a reason why college athletes are given preference (if all else equal) while searching for jobs. The combination of teamwork, leadership and what I call mental willpower training is driven into you every day for four or more years. At the end of the road, they are habits. I came to school my senior year already having signed a contract for my job because of these skills. To give you a specific example, athletics teaches people the mental willpower and ambition it takes to drive 10 hours overnight in the middle of finals week and sleep in your car just so you can interview in person rather than over Skype. However, those are the kinds of things and the kind of people that get things done and put themselves in opportunities to achieve great things. When opportunity knocks, you better break down the door before someone else beats you to it. Athletics teaches you that not everyone can win, and it teaches you to take the necessary steps beforehand so that you can put yourself in the best situation possible when opportunities are presented to you.”

Here are three outgoing seniors: summaries of their thesis work, their post-graduate plans and what they’re going to miss most about being a Whittie.

Ethan Maier, Music/Biology

Ethan Maier ’13

“Musically, my thesis was embodied in my senior recital. I composed … a set of seven pieces, which are reflections of my musical development up to this point. To guide the compositional process for each piece, I chose one musical influence and used that influence to guide the stylistic way I’d write a piece. I’m actually going to finish my [biology] thesis in the fall … The research I was doing in biology was really exciting because it’s never been done before. It’s kind of strange when you first hear it, but what I’m doing is I’m measuring the sexual fitness of male bees, and how their food intake affects their sexual fitness. I’m basically doing sperm counts on male bees … What I have to do is raise the male bees in a certain way, and mate each male with a female, and then I extract the sperm from the female. I became a double major so I wouldn’t have to decide … Right now, music is forefront in my life, but this summer, I’ll be doing a lot of biology stuff. However, I could easily see myself doing both at the same time … One of my post-graduate dreams is to finish out my thesis next fall, spend a lot of time working to earn money, and then go down to Latin America and try to find a beekeeper in South or Latin America and learn Spanish. I love bees. They’re beautiful. They’re so wonderful and they produce such a delectable elixir … I wouldn’t mind becoming a beekeeper. The biggest thing I’d miss [about Whitman] is actually having a community that will read or listen to my academic, intellectual ideas and thoughts … just people who are actively searching out knowledge alongside me and who are willing to share that with me.”

William Newman-Wise, Art

“I worked in ceramics, sculpture and video for my thesis. I included three sculptures and three videos. The work looks at lingering desire and intuitive play. I was inspired by materials, queer history and weightlessness. Flighty lines stretch across and compress inflated materials. Constraint infects the work. Cheap, plastic and fragile materials swell into one another. I worked closely with a few professors whom I trust and respect to develop ideas and curate my thesis. I am attending a residency at the Contemporary Artists Center in Troy, N.Y. this summer. I’ll work on more immersive sculpture/video projects. After that I’m moving to Philadelphia. A few years down [the road] I might apply to MFA programs. I’ll miss the art facilities and professors with whom I’ve worked closely. Also, Ming Court!”

Jeremy Howell, Theatre

Jeremy Howell ’13

“The inspiration for my senior project came from a need to come to terms with the struggle inherent to continually portraying an elderly character in theatrical productions … Introspectively, I wanted to understand the boundaries of my abilities as an actor and explore my appeal as a candidate for numerous elderly characters. Essentially, I did not fully understand why I was particularly skilled at understanding the psychology and physicality of someone decades apart from my age. Furthermore, the idiosyncrasies involved in a relationship between two people of differing ages fascinates me. The largest source of inspiration came from my love of old British stage actors in classic films such as ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel.’ My plans following graduation involve a relocation to Brooklyn to pursue the creation of ensemble-driven theatre that offers accessibility to any specific audience. I will be hard pressed to recreate Whitman’s ability to foster the organization of events and people. The design and layout of the Whitman experience offers a unique opportunity to rally fellow peers behind a cause, whether it is a theatrical event, a sport, social gathering or even a simple idea taken seriously. Ultimately, I will miss the sense of community and the ability to have an identity and a voice.”

Editor-in-Chief Rachel Alexander. Photo by Susie Krikava.

I’ve sat down to write this letter half a dozen times, but it’s always seemed like an impossible task. My predecessors, sitting where I am today, have reflected elegantly on their time at Whitman and spoken about how much running The Pioneer and producing The Circuit have shaped their college experiences. These sentiments are no less true for me—without a doubt, The Pio has been the defining aspect of my college life. During my time here, I’ve gotten to interview the likes of Dan Savage and Rigoberta Menchú, received a national college journalism award and used my experience to get a real job at a daily newspaper. I’ve also had days where work kept me busy from 7 a.m. until midnight, nights spent curled up in a ball crying from sheer exhaustion and weeks where I relied on the promise of hugs and home-cooked meals from my friends to find the strength to get out of bed.

At Whitman as in the rest of the world, people with long lists of impressive accomplishments or leadership titles are held up as examples. But if there’s one thing my work on this campus has taught me, it’s that we’re only as good as the community that holds us up. During my time here, friends, classmates, professors and colleagues have supported me in more ways than I can count, by listening, caring, distracting, feeding, encouraging and inspiring. And while my experiences aren’t universal, I’m willing to bet that all leaders on this campus, whether they’re running ASWC, editing a publication or doing groundbreaking research, have only been able to achieve what they have with the love and support of others.

Support work isn’t often acknowledged. It doesn’t raise your GPA and it can’t be put on a resume, but it’s absolutely vital for the structural integrity of a campus built on achievement. I’m immensely grateful to everyone who has allowed me to accomplish what I have while at Whitman, and I hope that someday, we can recognize how many friends cooking dinner or offering a shoulder to cry on are contained within a groundbreaking newspaper article.

Eric Idle and his daughter Lily Idle ’13. Photos by Halley McCormick.

The Pioneer: Do you ever sign body parts?

Eric Idle: Only if they’re dead. I don’t like to sign living body parts … What made you say that?

Pio: To me, it seems that celebrities are always signing body parts.

Eric: I’m not really a celebrity; I’m just vestigially left over from doing stuff from before. (Laughs.) I try to not to be a celebrity as much as possible.

Pio: Do you want to give us an idea for what your commencement speech is going to be about?

Eric: No! (Laughs.) I’ll write it next week. I’m finding out the logistics and see[ing] what’s going on. After that I’ll concentrate on it. I’ve never written one before, I’ve never been to one. I have no idea what they’re about…

Pio: Neither have I.

Eric: At least you’re American.

Pio: They don’t have those in England?

Eric: At Cambridge, you have to kiss the vice-chancellor’s fingers. But I missed out on that, ’cause I was doing a matinee. I don’t want to kiss a strange man’s fingers anyway. Only graduations I’ve been to [are Lily’s] kindergarten, junior school and high school. I gave the same speech at all three.

Pio: What was that speech?

Eric: Avoid strange body parts. (Laughs.)

Pio: Perhaps I should talk about cricket.

Eric: I get a degree for this, you know. It’s rather nice of them to do that.

Pio: What are your favorite memories growing up with each other?

Lily Idle: I think that I have a lot of fun memories of the pirate filming.

Eric: She was about this high and we were filming with Leslie Nielsen. We were filming it for Sea World and Busch Gardens; I believe it was called “Pirates 4D.”

Lily: We pranked this guy at the amusement park, too. They were taking volunteers at the amusement park as sort of this interactive thing, volunteer to throw confetti on. We had practiced our timing, so we would count “one, two, three” and I would duck. [And it would go into the audience.]

Eric: Filming a pirate film is always good fun, with ships and indecent clothing.

Pio: What’s your favorite piece of clothing to wear on film?

Eric: Nightgown, toga. Something Roman or Greek.

Lily: You’ve worn a lot of costumes.

Eric: There’s nothing that I haven’t worn. It’s insane. My life has been wasted getting into other people’s clothing.

Pio: What do you think about modern comedy? “South Park” is said to be influenced by Monty Python.

Eric: I don’t like animation. I hate animation, actually. I interviewed Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker], actually, and I got to ask them questions. I love them deeply because they appeared dressed as J-Lo and someone else [who had worn the same scandalous dresses the year before at the Oscars]. They confessed they were on acid. (Laughs.) They said it was so funny until they got to the Academy Awards. Then they realized they were in full drag. It took them a half an hour to get out of the car. (Laughs.) They’re very good; I like those boys a lot.

I don’t necessarily know much about comedy, I don’t spend a lot of time watching it. Mainly because all my life for about 50 years I’ve had comedy. When we’re here, I like to go see the boys and girls. What are they called?

Lily: Varsity Nordic.

Pio: Did you do a lot of writing early on in your career?

Eric: I still do. It’s about writing for me. Not very fond of improv.

Pio: What advice would you give for writing comedy?

Eric: It’s fun writing, but the secret of writing is rewriting. Throw away and refine, get it down. Then, of course, you have to try it out on people. It’s about the audience and people reading it. Even if you’ve written something for print, I think it’s good to try [it] out on someone because it changes. You can think it’s hilarious and they can tell you it’s not. (Laughs.) And it’s better to find that out sooner rather than later. That would be my only tip.

I got locked into a tradition [at Cambridge] of doing comedy. When we graduated, we were grabbed right into television. I was grabbed straight into the practice of writing comedy. It was all writing and performing. You wrote something in order for you to perform it. There’s no gap between the writer and the performer, which is what I think makes [Monty] Python unique. Five or six people who write Python and five or six who act it. That’s what makes it unique.

Pio: Lily, how do you feel about your dad giving your commencement speech?

Lily: I’m really excited. My friend Tasha, her dad was the speaker at her graduation; I was always very envious. I didn’t know how to go about it: “Hi, we should have my dad be the speaker.” Way better than past years.

Eric: I said I would, but I had to ask her first, because it’s not my day, it’s her day. I didn’t want to be big Mr. Ego walking around. But then they said, “You know, you could give her her diploma,” and I said, “Aw, well, that would be a lifetime experience. I’ll ask Lily and then I’ll get back to you.” I’ve never been to a commencement. Her friend Tasha is Tasha Goldthwait, and her dad is Bobcat Goldthwait and he did a particularly brilliant thing. He just did Oprah’s commencement speech word for word.

Lily: Why, is that [why] you wanted to go to Wellesley-Hampshire college?

Pio: What’s it been like having Eric Idle be your dad? Has it changed from childhood to Whitman?

Lily: It’s been interesting, to say the least. Family gatherings and things were strange. (Laughs.) During the teen panic years I felt a little overshadowed. Then I realized my friends were friends for me, and if anyone has any ulterior motives then they’re not really worth my time. It’s been fun, an adventure. High school with “Spamalot” was a unique experience. I would go hang out backstage.

Eric: One of the reasons we moved to L.A. in the first place [was] so that it was no big deal that I was in show business. We decided if we move[d] to L.A., then everyone in one way or another was involved in it.

It worked out, it wasn’t a big deal. Don’t want to turn into mini-me.

Lily: All he said my entire life was, “Don’t act, don’t act, stay away from show business. It’s the worst.”

Eric: It’s good advice.

Lily: Going to a set, I would be like, “This is so cool, maybe I should do this.” He would say, “No, no.”

Pio: When was the last time you were interviewed by a college newspaper?

Eric: I don’t know, you get interviewed when you’re out promoting something. So, I guess … We went on tour in 2003, so that’s when we talk[ed] to them.

Pio: What was your favorite Monty Python film to work on?

Eric: I don’t think there was one.

Lily: If it was a movie, he probably didn’t like it.

Eric: I hate movies. They’re so boring. So tedious.

Pio: You preferred “Flying Circus”?

Eric: I liked doing live things, and with the Circus we had a live audience. I like doing live things and plays. You can perfect the laugh or extend the laugh, you can get them on a roll. Versus improv, which I hate. Put it all together. They’re more vignettes. Improv makes me slightly anxious because I feel for them.

Pio: Final thoughts?

Eric: I get to be the first doctor in the family [because of the honorary degree they’re giving me].

Lily: I think “always look on the bright side of life” is a good motto.

This semester, with the Now is the Time campaign to divest from fossil fuels, environmental issues have taken center stage. However, wherever there are young activists, there are claims that their activism stems directly from their youth—that their desire to defend their beliefs will die out as they get older and are forced to deal with the “real world.”

The Circuit was curious if this was true and decided to track down alumni who had been involved in environmentalism during their time at Whitman. Camila Thorndike, who graduated in 2010 with a degree in environmental humanities, says that she initially got involved with the Campus Climate Challenge (CCC) because she is “a humanist.”

“I work on climate change because in its full realization, it threatens the human species and its well-being as much as that of any other,” said Thorndike.

In addition to being part of CCC for four years and serving as president for one, Thorndike worked for an indirect sustainability effort called Network for Young Walla Walla, which got local students involved in environmental initiatives. She described this as one of her first encounters with community organizing, and had particularly fond memories of a three-day summit at Walla Walla Community College.

“It was an incredible networking experience, getting to know each other and bridging socioeconomic divides,” said Thorndike. “It reflected my evolution towards community development that creates the links to place—if you have a strong ‘sense of place,’ you are less likely to abuse it.”

Though the Network is now defunct, Thorndike’s experience led her into a series of environmental jobs that encompass a broad cross-section of the green movement. Among other things, she has worked in Tuscon, Ariz., as an urban planner, and in Vermont, connecting racially diverse conservation movements. Currently she serves as director of engagement for “Coal: The Musical and Movement,” a musical storytelling project.

In one way or another, all of Thorndike’s post-college jobs connected with the human side of the environmental movement. As she has grown professionally, she has begun to think of organizing people as something that must be positive, not reactive.

“It’s not assuming people don’t care, it’s assuming that they do,” she said. “If you want to build the chorus of voices that will sing us in the direction of sustainability, you don’t start with the world. You start with them as individual[s].”

Elena Gustafson ’10 and Lisa Curtis ’10, who graduated with Thorndike, also attended the three-day WWCC summit. Though they shared some of her ideals in college, their differing conceptions of environmentalism led their paths to diverge. However, they have had some similar experiences—particularly in discovering that changing the world does not need to begin with resistance or accusation.

Since college, Gustafson has believed in the potential of outdoor leadership to educate the next generation that will inherit the Earth.

“I was definitely active in climate and went to Powershift one year, but my main passion was environmental education,” she said. “If we don’t set up the next generation to care for the earth, we won’t have the next generation of environmentalists in place.”

While in Walla Walla, Gustafson founded the Youth Adventure Program to lead day trips with local schools and organizations such as the YWCA. Since then, she has worked several other outdoor leadership jobs. Recently, she has been working with youth again as the director of the children’s program at a domestic violence shelter in Alaska. She said that the things she has seen there have run contrary to the way she saw the world as a college activist.

“I’m working right now with families and kids who are in such difficult situations that if someone tries to talk to them about climate change or recycling, they won’t care,” she said. “Families are dealing with such internal trauma that there’s no extra energy for them to engage in an environmental ideal.”

Though Gustafson is no longer working an environmentalist job, she shares Thorndike’s belief that the green movement is ultimately about individuals. She said that she now has a better understanding of something which frustrated her in college—the reason why not everyone cared about her cause as much as she did.

“I think it’s important to be able to step back and think about the issues that might be going on in these people’s lives,” she said. “As environmentalists, it’s important to meet them at their level.”

Curtis, who served as sustainibility coordinator in her senior year, had a successful career as an activist while at Whitman. As a member of CCC and a Pioneer journalist all four years, she was able to secure funding for five separate green projects, as well as attend a United Nations conference as an environmental lobbyist.

Curtis (left) during her Peace Corps service in Niger. All photos contributed by interviewees.

“You can’t go to a U.N. conference and not be frustrated by how little our policymakers are doing to address this issue,” said Curtis. “You also can’t not be awed by all these people around the world who are working so intently on making our planet a better place. Talking to people from Africa or small islands like the Maldives inspired me to remember why I was doing what I was doing.”

After graduation, Curtis joined the Peace Corps, which sent her to Niger. Unfortunately, a terrorist attack forced her to evacuate only seven months into her service, and she went to India instead. There, she took a job at an impact investing firm, which inspired her to put her trust in market forces to save the world’s ecology.

Curtis organizes a display of her Kuli Kuli products.

Upon returning to the United States, Curtis settled in the Bay Area and turned her attention towards the malnutrition she had witnessed in Africa. Her startup company, Kuli Kuli, aims to promote a nutrient-rich grain to fight hunger while funding its effort by selling bars made of the same grain in the United States.

“Starting a company is way harder than I imagined,” she said. “We’ve been working on it for two years, and we’re starting to see some progress. One thing that was hard for me to learn was that to maintain a sustainable business model, we had to create a product in the U.S. before working in West Africa.”

Unlike Curtis, Thorndike and Gustafson, Sarah Gilman ’04 did not consider herself an environmentalist in college. A double major in art and biology, Gilman developed an interest in nature writing after participating in Semester in the West. Rather than an activist, she considers herself a journalist telling the stories of people.

“I’m not an environmental activist,” said Gilman. “I am not out there putting pressure on the government to, for example, not approve Keystone XL. My sort of environmentalism is more philosophical. My personal brand of environmentalism is to be involved in the processes that exist and to examine people’s relationship with energy resource use and the landscape itself.”

Gilman’s senior art thesis

Gilman is the associate editor of High Country News magazine, based out of Montana. At Whitman, she used her artistic ability to inspire people to think of themselves and the landscape they inhabited as unified rather than dichotomous. For her art thesis, she created a quilt that doubled as a topographic map of eastern Montana.

“I was trying to convey how the landscape and the body were the same thing,” she said. “I didn’t have an action in mind for people to take. I wanted a sense of the world as one thing changing form.”

As a journalist, Gilman still writes to inspire her readers to think differently about issues of the land, resources and humanity. While her attitude towards environmentalism—that we should consider the best information available to us, rather than rushing to blame others or ourselves—remains consistent, she said she has become more literal in the way she approaches it. She recalled one instance in which she found herself disagreeing with the mainstream environmental movement in her home lands.

“I wrote for HCN about a lease proposal for 30,000 acres of land for oil and gas development,” she said. “I [ran] across the argument from environmentalists that it wasn’t about resource extraction being bad; it was about it not being the right place to drill, or not responsible development. I’ve always wondered, where, then? If you acknowlege the necessity to your own life, what is to be done? You have to look at yourself and ask how much you are willing to give up.”

Since college, Curtis has stood firm in her commitment to her causes of clean energy and an end to malnutrition; however, she has also reevaluated her approach to these causes in a way that might make Gilman proud. Instead of fighting against the system, Curtis now takes control of it to effect positive change.

“[At Whitman] I felt very anti-government, anti-business—more of an activist in the stereotypical sense than I am now,” said Curtis. “I was almost an econ major—I switched to politics at the last minute—but I’ve always been interested in the potential for the markets to make change on a broader scale than you can do with just donations and grants.”

Kuli Kuli, Curtis’ energy bar company, is operating a campaign on finance website Kickstarter to get its product into American grocery stores. Curtis has used her economics-based approach to solving world issues to great effect, gathering investors for the project.

“It’s amazing to see how much more people like that plan when there’s something in it for them,” she said. “That has reinforced my idea that to make gains on a broader scale, we have to show people what’s in it for them.”

While working on “Coal: The Musical and Movement,” Thorndike also organized an artistic action near Medford, Ore., in the Willamette Valley along with Colorado College graduate Hannah Sohl. More than 13,000 participants came together to create a giant painted salmon on which they answered the question of why they love their home in the valley.

Thorndike helped organize this art project.

Using the concept of a sense of place, Thorndike united a diverse group of people in defense of the home they shared. Her explanation recalled Curtis’ idea that people will help the planet if there is something in it for them; however, that something need not necessarily be money—it could be health, family or a place to call home.

“We’re taking that big salmon up to the capital and convening a statewide day of citizen-driven climate action,” she said. “The region is actually quite conservative and diverse in terms of culture. One of the best practices in organizing work is to meet people where they are.”

Thorndike characterized herself as far more of a psychologist, therapist and community organizer than she once was, and said that the change is in line with her humanist way of thinking. Like Gustafson, she discovered since graduating that people will never unite behind an environmental cause if activists only tell them what they are doing wrong.

“You try to elevate people to the level of consciousness and of care and of integrity in actions that align with their values,” she said. “It’s about listening to what they care about and about how to make the link that we both care about the same thing. If you are driven to increase your family’s welfare, well, you can’t do that without clean air, water that your kids can drink and biodiversity on the planet.”

As Gustafson progressed in her professional life, she too gained a greater understanding of the psychology that determines whether or not a person will care about the state of the planet. She said that she too has learned that environmentalism won’t succeed if its activists draw too distinct lines between right and wrong.

“Psychologically, it’s difficult to get people to engage outside their local level just because we can’t understand the numbers that are being thrown around,” said Gustafson. “There’s only a handful of people who will work on a national campaign, but you can get a lot of people involved in a local campaign—even people who initially wouldn’t support environmental work.”

At her job in Alaska, Gustafson has seen firsthand the power of a community issue to bring people together who will work in the best interests of their home. She cautioned the environmental movement not to lose sight of this power, reminding us that even people who might disagree politically will unite to defend something they all care about.

“I can still support the national campaigns in limited ways, but I can’t forget the importance of diving into local issues and not thinking they’re too small to matter,” she said.

Whitman College’s divestment campaign is building momentum, heading into further meetings with the Associated Students of Whitman College and administration about where the school’s endowment can go from here. The collective sentiment of the people to whom The Circuit spoke—insofar as their diverse stories and viewpoints agreed—seemed to indicate that the 350 effort will not succeed without focusing on positivity, demonstrating specifically how we can use the college’s money for good instead of harm.

Gilman, the environmental journalist, asked us all to consider our true contribution to what Thorndike called “an absolute explosion of problems.” For her part, Gilman puts her faith as she always has in the constancy of the planet Earth. Her artistic quilt, which included bones made out of sheeting material, was intended to make death less scary by placing it as part of a cycle. In the same way, Gilman’s brand of environmentalism teaches that the Earth will not be destroyed if we can’t win every battle.

“The goal is to inform more than anything else, but I do still write essays. I still express those ideas pretty regularly,” said Gilman. “I wrote an essay about the beauty of a blasted place in Montana—it’s beautiful because it’s not destroyed. The world is not a breakable thing … it will persist no matter what we do to it.”

Illustration by Kelsey Lund

Come June, the Whitman campus can start to look a bit deserted. However, as anyone who’s stayed on campus over a break can attest, Walla Walla doesn’t actually shut down just because Whitman’s not in session. If you’re a grad who’s sticking around for a few months, or a student who has summer plans in Walla Walla, don’t fear: There’s plenty to do once classes let out. Here are our picks for having a fun-filled summer, with or without a car.

Arts & Music

If you’re a music lover, the Downtown Walla Walla Foundation hosts a summer concert series every Saturday and Sunday from 4-7 p.m. at the Land Title Plaza on 1st and Main. Sure, it’s not Sasquatch, but you can listen to local bands and enjoy the cooler summer evenings, all for free. A listing of concerts can be found at the Foundation’s website, downtownwallawalla.com.

Summer blockbusters are always fun, but if you want something a bit different, try checking out a live show or indie film. The Liberty Theater in Dayton brings in a mix of current movies and more obscure indie and foreign films, with a different movie screening each week, listed on their website. It’s about half an hour east on Highway 12—the highway will turn into Main Street once you get into Dayton, and the theater is on the right just across from the courthouse.

You can also check out live theater within walking distance of campus. The Little Theatre is hosting “The Foreigner,” a play involving the unlikely escapades of two strangers who meet in a rural Georgia fishing lodge. Shows run May 31-June 15. If you’d rather hear music, the Powerhouse Theatre is bringing the IV Tenors in to sing hits from Broadway, country, classical, pop and rock from May 30-June 9. Tickets can be ordered via their website and are available for as little as $12.

Recreation & Sports

Fans of watching people crash into each other have a lot to look forward to this summer. Walla Walla’s own rollergirls, the Sweets, will have two home bouts on June 1 and 29. Tickets are available on their website, wallawallasweetsrollergirls.com, and can be purchased at the door. If women on roller skates isn’t your thing, the county fairgrounds is also hosting a demolition derby Sunday, June 9 at 1 p.m. You can check out the other special events on the Walla Walla Fairgrounds website. (There’s a goat tying clinic in late July you won’t want to miss.)

If you’re a baseball fan (or have ever thought of becoming one), the Walla Walla Sweets will be playing home games all summer. Tickets are a steal—$8 if you preorder online or $9 at the game. Casual fans of the sport might appreciate the annual Battle of the Badges, where Walla Walla’s police and fire departments face off to earn money for charity. The event takes place Saturday, June 1 with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Tickets can be purchased from the police station, the fire department or the Sweets shop on Main St.

Of course, you can always get involved in your own athletic activities. Walla Walla’s Parks and Recreation department offers a variety of programs throughout the summer, including adult sports leagues. Check out the city’s website and head to Parks and Recreation for a full course catalog, including art and ukelele classes and opportunities to coach or referee youth soccer.

The area around Walla Walla is also home to world-class hiking opportunities. Whitman’s Outdoor Program Rental Shop will be open during the summer and offers gear, as well as plenty of hiking maps and guidebooks to help you select the perfect hike. For a day hike, try Juniper Canyon. To get there, head west on Highway 12, continue into Oregon on Highway 730/395 and look for the canyon across the road to your left. The Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness, just past Dayton, has many day hike options as well. If you’re up for a longer weekend or have more time to spend driving, be sure to check out Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. It’s about a three-hour drive, but worth it for the gorgeous scenery and chance to check out the towns of Joseph and Enterprise. 

Other suggestions

These are jut a few special events, but there’s plenty more happening here during the summer. If you’re short on ideas, you can grab a free copy of the Union-Bulletin downstairs in Reid. There’s a daily events calendar, and the Thursday paper includes a Marquee section with listings for the entire week. There’s also a summer listserv for Whitman students sticking around for the summer, which people use to plan events and find other to carpool or hang out with. It’s summerwhitties2013@lists.whitman.edu, so email summer2013-subscribe@lists.whitman.edu to be added to it. Finally, The Pioneer has a guide section on our website with listings for hikes, suggestions for traveling to nearby towns and other ideas for entertainment around campus. Check it out at whitmanpioneer.com/category/guide-2.

Even the seasons here are backwards. I’m going to “summer” school in the middle of January. That’s messed up. Someone told me that they were considering going to the States in the fall. I think that’s awesome and want to know if I’ll be back home around the time that they’re visiting. Now I have to start doing some complicated math-y crap in my head and then I start to confuse myself even more and I get all twitchy and stare at them imploringly – “Your fall or mine?” – and receive an uncomprehending look in return. Please. Just give me the name of a month that we all know. Also, Christmas here is hot and sunny. I didn’t get any present this year because Santa had heatstroke. Dude should’ve stripped off a few layers. Maybe ditched the reindeer for some Kiwi birds – equally flightless animals who probably feel themselves more entitled than deer to the gift of flight.

In the dead of winter

Another backwards quality: friendliness precedes friendship. People here are genuinely kind to strangers; kind to an extent that I have never before experienced. I have no problem smiling at passerby on the street or striking up conversation with shopkeepers, I have yet to hear a cruel word from anybody, and in my short time here even my anti-social little self has managed to make friends. Furthermore, Kiwis know how to laugh and, even within the abysmal and red-taped confines of bureaucracy, one can find an infectious sense of humor. At least on the surface, few things are taken too seriously. Road signs and readerboards contain jokes and dangerous, death-defying activity runners approach their tasks with an unusual (some people might say inappropriate, but those people are also probably busy trying to get the stick out of their arse) light-heartedness (e.g. canyon jumpers who guffaw as they karate-kick you off a cliff). I wish that America were filled with this amount of laughter. Laughter keeps the soul young. Scientists have proven that laughing increases life expectancy. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the amount of chuckles in a society is inversely proportional to the proliferation of murderers, litigious ninnies, etc. Disney got it wrong: New Zealand is the happiest place on earth.

Happy definitely, but in the South we are also cold. In fact, the indoors are usually colder than the outdoors. And I don’t mean, “I’m gettin’ my sweat on outside, thank God there’s air-conditioning indoors.” No. It is cold outside. And colder inside. That is backwards. New Zealand doesn’t really do insulation or double-pane windows. Houses have a problem with condensation, so people are constantly forced to open their windows in order to combat the “mould” problem (‘Merica seems to take issue with u’s – we like our “flavor” but not Europe’s “flavour,” etc. Speaking of America trying to be all different in a world that could benefit from some more forms of standardization – and this is coming from a whipster (wannabe hipster): Why haven’t we gotten on the metric/Celsius train? Ok, so maybe it’s not New Zealand that’s backwards. Maybe the US is backwards). Energy is quite expensive and there’s not an overabundance of indoor heating. I’m buying an electric blanket as soon as I can rally the energy to carry said blanket to my flat from K-mart. I refuse to lick any metal in the house. This makes eating with silverware considerably difficult. I’m also getting a lot of use out of my SmartWool socks – without these lovelies my feet would have sorely and hypothermically suffered.

Want to know something else that’s strange and weird? People seem to like film majors. Say what?! Back home, when someone asks me what I’m majoring in and I say “film and media,” I usually get an “oh, that’s nice” and now pasted-on look of interest. Behind that face I just see the wheels turning, thinking “Wow, that girl must be pretty stupid and unambitious, watching TV all day, failing to contribute to society….” Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but sometimes I swear that’s what people think (although, granted, the watching TV all day part is sometimes true). I’d reached a point where I almost started to tell people I was studying “cineology.” What’s that? Oh, just a relatively neoteric and revolutionary topic that synthesizes art, history, theory, sociology, gender studies, and more in its analysis of culture and shaping of global societal perceptions. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. But I don’t need to spew this nonsense to Kiwis; I tell them my major and they are intrigued and not at all patronizing. Very forward-thinking these people are.

New Zealand also seems a bit backwards in terms of time. Kiwis exhibit a beautiful appreciation of antiquity. Retro lamps, old TVs, and ancient radios decorate various establishments, and classic rock and other oldies music often plays over loudspeakers. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a giant antique store. I love it! For your enjoyment, some sample tunes: Higher Love and The River of Dreams….

random mounted deer head

To accomplish this goal, club members will be posting fliers with photos of workers and notes of thanks all around campus the night before May 1, which is International Workers’ Day. They hope that these fliers will remind students to remember the individuals who work hard to keep campus clean.

FGWC President sophomore Ashley Hansack was inspired to organize a May Day campaign by her memories of May Day celebrations in her hometown.

“One thing that they do in Los Angeles is having May Day, where many Hispanic people don’t go to work and protest downtown. We wanted to bring a sense of that to campus, but we didn’t want people to protest and [we wanted] to have more of a celebration. This year our focus was the Bon App employees and the custodians, and the May Day on campus is just to feature these workers and make Whitman students think about who cooks their meals and cleans after them more.”

Having grown up with a working class mother, Hansack felt it was important to acknowledge the individuals who have a huge impact on the community, yet still sometimes feel unappreciated.

“One inspiration that came to this campaign was my mother. She has been a cleaner for wealthy families in L.A. and I feel like she is really invisible, and I feel that it’s definitely prevalent to these workers on Whitman campus. This feels normal and we never think twice about who cleans.”

Campus workers noticed the fliers around campus and believed the gesture was thoughtful.

“It was very nice and I appreciated that. It lets us know that students see what it takes to keep this building clean and they appreciate it,” custodian Tamara Anderson said.

Club members hope to continue to celebrate May Day in the future. Sophomore FGWC member Eduardo Vazquez hopes that next year’s fliers will draw even more attention to campus employees.

“We will probably make flyers that are more eye-catching because it looked minimalistic. My goal is to make something that is more derivative and riveting. When she came up to me, I didn’t have much time to work on them and so next time I could do a lot better on making better fliers,” he said.

Jarvis Jones (LB Georgia) #17 Overall Pittsburg Steelers—I have always been a huge fan of the Jones’s while he was at Georgia for the ferocity he played the game with.  Jones doesn’t appear to just want to make a tackle, he wants to embarrass anyone who thinks they can block him and punish the ball carrier when he finds them.  He has impressive speed off the edge and could become a great pass rusher is put in the right position schematically. He looks to me like a younger, faster, stronger version of James Harrison was when he won the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2008. Jones will provide the fire and tenacity that the aging Pitt defense has been missing and will take control of games.

Robert Woods (WR USC) #41 Overall Buffalo Bills—In the pre-draft process I was always surprised how little noise there was about USC WR Roberts Woods. He was a total stud while in college, but got overshadowed by Marquise Lee and Matt Barkley. That combined with the disappointing season as a team Woods saw his stock drop dramatically.  Luckily for Buffalo they now have a potential pro-bowl receiver to pair with Stevie Johnson outside and also open up the box for C.J Spiller to go to work.  New quarterback E.J. Manuel will need all the weapons he can get if he is going to try and start from Day 1, which at this point is pretty likely.

Tyrann Mathieu (CB/S LSU) #69 Overall Arizona Cardinals—This pick was one of the most controversial in the draft by far.  A lot of scouts and draft experts didn’t have Mathieu going in the third round because of his size and discipline issues ON the field, much less before he got kicked off LSU for failing more drug tests than he could count. However I am a believer that production is production no matter how you slice it and Mathieu is an animal on the field. He also goes to Arizona where they have his old teammate Kevin Minter and former LSU corner Patrick Peterson who Mathieu worked with while in football exile.  If anyone can get Mathieu in line and maximize he potential it’s Peterson, who has already become a top corner in the NFL.

Barret Jones (C Alabama) #113 Overall St. Louis Rams- The former center for Saban’s Crimson Tide was one of my favorite players coming into the draft. He has outstanding versatility, playing guards, tackle, and center for the Crimson Tide.  Not only that, but he was a 4 time Academic All American and is a concert level pianist. Beyond that he doesn’t take crap from anyone.  In Alabama’s thumping of Notre Dame in the National Championship game Bama QB A.J. McCarron gave Jones and earful for not snapping the ball on time, Jones subsequently stood up and pushed McCarron aside like a rag doll. Its that kind of attitude that will make him a great center and leader for the Rams for years to come.

Junior Sean Mulloy, a current member of the debate team, said no real reason has been given for the sudden change, prompting many team members to question the reasons behind it.

“Many members of the team feel very frustrated and disillusioned with this sudden announcement,” said Mulloy. “We have no idea [why he's stepping down]. The administration has told us that for privacy reasons, they cannot comment. I think it’s only fair that some sort of justification be given to us.”

Hanson declined to give a reason for his departure from debate when contacted by The Pioneer, and referred back to his email to the team, which states, “Given the recent creation of a new Department of Rhetoric Studies and my role as chair in building this program from the ground up, I will be stepping aside from my debate responsibilities in order to devote my full time and attention to this new effort.” He would neither confirm nor deny that his decision to step down was entirely voluntary and had no further comment on that topic.

“I’m hoping that the program will move forward and they’ll hire a good director and the program will maintain its quality,” said Hanson.

President George Bridges was unable to comment specifically on the reasons for the change due to federal laws and college policies which keep personnel issues confidential.

Associate Dean of Students Clare Carson also declined to give specific details about the reasons for the change.

“There’s a lot of speculation and false rumors going around. I think they should respect what Jim said and go with that,” she said.

Carson said that the new director of forensics position would be full-time, allowing the college to focus more resources on debate. Hanson currently splits a full-time position between the debate team and the Department of Rhetoric.

Still, debaters are frustrated by what they perceive as a lack of clarity and transparency in the change. A “Support Jim Hanson” Facebook group created by alumni had 249 members as of press time, and several alumni have contacted the college, as well as The Pioneer, to express their support for Hanson and the debate program, and their disappointment with the sudden change of coach. A group of 28 debate alumni also wrote an open letter on Wednesday to the Board of Trustees and members of the administration expressing their disappointment for the way the decision has been handled. A full PDF of the letter can be viewed at the bottom of this article.

Alumnus Kristofer Peterson ’97, who was on the debate team for four years, said he will be withdrawing $5000 of planned gifts to the college in response to the decision, as well as cutting off contact with the alumni association if the matter is not resolved.

“I think it is not a voluntary decision because knowing Jim as I do, he would have insisted on a transition period,” said Peterson. Peterson served as a judge for one of the team’s tournaments earlier this spring and said he spoke to Hanson, who was making plans for next season at the time.

Peterson and Mulloy were both disappointed by the lack of student involvement or consultation in the decision prior to Monday’s announcement. The last switch in debate coach, from Bob Withycombe to Hanson, included a transition year from 1993-94 before Hanson took over. Peterson felt that the current time frame left the college almost no chance of finding a coach as accomplished in both parliamentary and policy debate.

“The pool for his successor is very limited. I don’t think the college is going to be able to find someone of his caliber,” said Peterson.

Whitman’s parliamentary team has been ranked first in the country by the National Parliamentary Debate Association for four years in a row. In part due to this success, the team enjoys generous alumni support, including three endowments and funds specifically dedicated to the team. Debate alumni expressed concern in their letter that mismanagement of the team could cause this funding to dry up.

Vice President for Development and College Relations John Bogley said he was concerned about alumni support, but viewed their concerns as a chance to move forward.

“The opportunity is in trying to engage them in moving forward in a way that shows the college’s continued support for the success of the debate team,” he said.

As a result of Hanson’s change of position, the Whitman National Debate Institute, a summer program for high school students which is taught by Whitman debaters, will not be held this summer. Carson said the college is working to find alternate employment for students who were slated to teach over the summer.

Bridges, Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland, Carson and Provost and Dean of Faculty Tim Kaufman-Osborn are planning to meet with debate students on Wednesday, May 8 to address their concerns and discuss moving forward for the team.

The Pioneer will publish more information as it becomes available.

“I think it will be educational for the Whitman college students to understand the kind of disadvantages that people in different communities around the world have to suffer, have to go through, and that in turn might give them a better perspective on all of the blessings that they enjoy in their lives,” said Karma Tensum, of the Tibetan Children’s Education Foundation.

The sand mandala creation began on Monday. Photos by Faith Bernstein.

WEB sponsored a four-day, multifaceted visit by two representatives of the Tibetan Children’s Education Foundation. It began on Monday at 10 a.m. with a prayer. Over the course of the next four days a monk dressed conspicuously in traditional orange and red quietly constructed a sand mandala on the Reid landing between Coffeehouse and the main floor.

“The mandala is basically a pictorial representation of a celestial palace, the palace of a Buddha. This mandala that we’re creating at Whitman is the mandala of compassion. So we can say that this mandala is a depiction of the realm of the Buddha of compassion,” said Tensum.

On the first day, the artist started at the very center of the piece slowly adding layer after layer. This particular art form has existed for millennia.

“Part of their organization’s goal is cultural preservation, and raising awareness of cultural traditions so their unique Tibetan culture doesn’t get erased,” said senior and WEB cultural events director Osta Davis. “And so part of their work is, you know, going to universities and leading trips to keep that part of the culture alive.”

An artistic meditation, sand mandalas are a uniquely Tibetan practice. Monks carefully construct these detailed pieces of art from colored sand. Yet, after the days of focused work, the practice ends with the mandala’s ritualistic destruction.

“They erase it all at the end which I think is supposed to speak to the impermanence of life, everything,” said sophomore and co-organizer of the Namaste meditation club Theo Ciszewski.

The artwork focuses on the insight of impermanence, but the organizational goal of the foundation is quite different.

“The Tibetan children’s education foundation works on the premise that the Tibetan culture is ancient, it is sacred, and that it is something worth preserving,” said Tensum. “The second fact that we deal with is this that Tibet itself, under the Chinese communist rule, our culture is not doing that well. So what do you do as a small non-profit here in the United States to help preserve that culture? We believe that one way we can do that is by informing, educating people in the west about what a wonderful culture it is.”

Under Chinese rule Tibetans are not allowed religious freedom, their traditional lifestyles have been made impossible by social displacement and they receive little benefit from China’s booming economy.

“Tibetans on all accounts have become like second-class citizens in their own country,” said Tensum.

Tensum and the Tibetan Children’s Education Foundation work on multiple fronts to preserve the Tibetan culture. They have constructed dozens of mandalas throughout the United States trying to bring the Tibetan lifestyle, beliefs and political challenges into the public consciousness.

In addition to constructing the spiritual sand mandala, the visitors gave Whitman students a view into the cultural past and present of Tibetan Buddhists. They presented a film on Tuesday, April 30, and Tensum delivered a lecture on his experience during the Tibetan Diaspora on Wednesday, May 1. In his presentation he recounted and reflected on his escape across the Himalayas as a child.

The Tibetan Children’s Foundation gave the Whitman community a window into the struggles of a people, and a meditation on the themes of impermanence and compassion, perhaps the perfect reality check at this late hour in the semester. “We hope that we can keep Tibet in the hearts and minds of people in the west,” said Tensum.

“This year we had quite a few team meetings and I personally am so glad we have those. We do things as close to a democracy as possible and we realized that yeah, we want to win every game, but we specifically did not set the goal to make nationals,” said junior Nathan Sany about this season.

Men’s Frisbee. Photos by Brennan Johnson.

That mentality was a shift from the previous season, where the ultimate goal was to go to nationals for a second year in a row. Sany went on to note that in past years, a significant reliance was put on a few exceptional players whose incredible individual ability took the pressure off the rest of the team.

Nathan Sany ’14

This season, the emphasis was shifted to better, more fluid team play by integrating every player’s talents into a system where reliance was spread across each player’s shoulders.

“We played the best Ultimate I’ve ever seen the Sweets play this Sunday; it was incredible. And to see us so focused and having such a great time doing it, not making nationals is not as big a deal to me because we wanted to play as one team and it took us the entire season, but at regionals we did it. We were one team and we trusted every single person and that’s why I play the game, so we can have everybody do big things and I was thankful to see that, even though it means not going to Wisconsin,” added Sany.

This is especially impressive given the doubts floating around the Ultimate world prior to this season.

“Many teams thought we were not going anywhere this season,” said junior Walker Larson “[But] actions such as beating UNC Wilmington, the school who did not invite us to Easterns because we were not considered ‘elite enough of a team,’ 13-7 at the Stanford Invite, might give such skeptics a reason to second guess themselves.”

The Sweets will likely assume a similar role next season, but look forward to continuing to shock the Ultimate world.

“I think the expectations will be lower next year because we are losing players and we are losing some leadership, but I think that we’ll still get wins. We still have a ton of returning players,” said Sany.

This skepticism will remain as the Sweets are again losing some key seniors, namely Jacob Janin, who was the team captain, coach and role model in a lot of ways, according to Sany.

“He’s going to be a huge loss. I’ve played with him over the past couple summers and it’s crazy to think about him not being around,” said Sany.

Nonetheless, this season proved to me more successful than everyone but the Sweets expected, and hopes are just as high for next season.

“While the season as a whole went well, many would consider our two performances at California highlights. We won the Stanford Open, guaranteeing us a spot at the Stanford Invite, where we would go on to beat the number one seeded team in the nation, the Wisconsin Hodags, in pool play,” said Larson.

Sany saw the season’s successes as growth that will help the team down the road as they continue to build the program.

Pete O’Rourke ’15

“We grew a ton as a team this year and I can foresee us doing that next year, too, especially with some new players,” said Sany, looking ahead to next season.

If the regional tournament revealed one thing about the Sweets, it has to be that they remain loyal to their team in failure and success.

“I don’t think I can pick out a single moment that I consider to be the best of this season. It’s hard to choose what to define as a particular highlight when spending so much time with such a talented group of individuals,” said Larson.

Nick Cross ’13 lays out for a disc during practice.

Illustration by Eduardo Vazquez

As students are wrapping up the end of the year, some things are winding down, but for the annual David Nord Award recipients, things are starting to really pick up.

Junior Maikor Pereira Azuaje and senior Diana Boesch were selected to receive this award for work with faculty advisers on projects addressing critical issues currently facing the queer community.

The award was established in honor of alumnus David Nord ’83, who created its endowment three years before he died in 1999.

For her project, Boesch has been conducting thesis research about queer law.

“I knew I was going to write my thesis of something related to LGBTQ studies because it’s been my passion for the past couple of years to write my thesis on queer politics. I was very lucky and got the David Nord Award, and what my thesis is about is the Lawrence v. Texas case [in] 2003 which decriminalized sodomy.”

This important case at the time effectively criminalized gay and lesbian people’s identity.

“Their identity was really wrapped up in their sexuality; society tended to perceive them as criminals themselves, not just the act as criminal. As a result, they were denied other societal benefits such as child custody [and] marital rights,” said Boesch.

She focused on the effects of the work of Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization working for the civil rights of lesbians, gay men and individuals with HIV/AIDS. She wanted to look at the development of a gay legal identity.

Boesch’s advisor, Assistant Professor of Politics Melisa Casumbal, has been working closely with Boesch on her thesis.

“I am so proud of her,” said Casumbal. “My hope is that she is able to continue doing whatever work she wants to do, whether in law or in anything else.”

Boesch presented her research in a lecture on Monday, April 29 at 5 p.m. in Kimball Theatre.

Pereira Azuaje has been working on a more creative approach to understanding queer issues.

For his project, he choreographed an original dance performance called “I Love You, Man: Friendship and Brotherhood Across Sexual Orientations.” His production will be performed on Saturday, May 4 at 2 p.m. in Cordiner Hall.

“My way of approaching my topic was through dance, because I think through movement you can express more, and the topic is friendship and brotherhood across sexual orientations,” said Pereira Azujae.

Personal experiences led him to this project idea.

“I was afraid to come out to my all-male section. But there was this one guy who was very affectionate and when we were going to room together the following year, I came out to him. I was very nervous, but he was very accepting and he didn’t change the way that he related to me,” said Pereira Azuaje.

Pereira Azuaje will be focusing on how gay and straight men interact and how gay men often act more “straight” to be accepted.

Visiting Dance Instructor Peter de Grasse has been very impressed with Pereira Azuaje’s choreography.

“Most of my work with Maikor in the studio actually happened first semester. He was in the dance production class; my experience of him is that he is gifted as a choreographer and the way that he works [is] interesting for someone of his experience, because he is working semantically and with his imagination,” he said.

He describes Pereira Azuaje’s methods as slightly unconventional.

“One of the things that he told me that he is working on right now is that he is working from his dreams, dreaming of movement and then taking notes or trying to remember his dreams … that is a really unusual way of working and it is so imaginative that I think it has given him some work that wouldn’t be achieved in an orthodox manner,” said de Grasse.

Sophomore Evan Griffis, one of this year’s two LGBTQ interns, helped to organize the selection process and is pleased with its results.

“Every year, it’s really cool seeing who is going to win. The hardest part is that there are always so many good applicants with great ideas, but I’m really excited about this year’s winners,” he said.

Because I was once one of these players, I can attest to the giddy thrills of brushing shoulders with major college coaches walking out of a gym and watching games of nationally ranked prospects.

These tournaments are jam-packed full of hope. Coaches are hoping to find the player to round out their recruiting class, and players are hoping to land a coveted scholarship. Unfortunately, this hope is accompanied by the reality that the style of AAU basketball does not  reflect the structured sphere of college basketball. Not at all.

While certainly not in all cases, the majority of upper-tier AAU basketball teams are made up of players who are from different high schools, cities and sometimes even states. They practice a handful of times a week depending on the varying availability of the players on the team.

With such little practice time, one can guess the style of basketball that ensues. The games turn into isolation-based, unorganized frenzies that can best be described by my Dad’s favorite phrase, “helter-skelter.” With no team defense, highlight plays like alley-oops, ankle-breaking crossovers and shots that are swatted into the fifth row of the stands garner the oohs and ahhs that young players all want. The current basketball culture encourages these feats of athleticism, so players keep mastering those particular plays.

I know that I probably sound like a “Hoosiers”-worshipping basketball aficionado, but I can assure you that I am not. I enjoy watching posterizing dunks and slick dribbling as much as the next fan. As much as it pains me to admit, watching high-flying, athletic basketball is hard not to appreciate.

The problem is that there is a disconnect between what AAU breeds and how college basketball is actually played. The majority of successful college basketball programs are predicated on good shot selection and team defense. Passing, screening and cutting are a part of college basketball as are defenses that move as a unit and work together.

While outstanding one-on-one play has its place in college basketball, especially in late game situations, a good portion of players who try what worked for them in AAU likely find themselves on the bench in a hurry once they get to college.

Coaches, on the other hand, go into these AAU tournaments knowing they must mold these undoubtedly talented young players into college basketball players who can produce consistent results in a structured system. The hard part is knowing which players are coachable and which ones are not.

In a perfect basketball world, AAU would properly prepare players for their potential futures in college basketball, and coaches would have the opportunity to effectively evaluate talent. Since AAU falls terribly short of both, we are left with a system whose goal is to send high school basketball players to college, yet simultaneously complicates the process for both players and coaches involved.

If AAU basketball really wants to be the primary facilitator for tournaments that showcase prospective college players, the coaches of AAU teams must take it upon themselves to put their players in a system that at least partially mirrors a constructive team atmosphere. Otherwise, players are left with rough transitions into the college game that is rooted in a system that will continue to be unorganized until conscious effort is put into actually preparing these young basketball players for the next level.

Illustration by Luke Hampton

Sun’s out, shorts on, jacket ditched, finals looming and summer vacation with lots of time for movies is just around the corner. New releases coming out this summer thankfully seem interesting and filled with huge explosions and a few laughs. Here’s a brief list of the movies that have caught my eye to see this summer.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: With the premiere of “Iron Man 3” this week and the “Star Trek” sequel coming out over Camp Whitman (and I CANNOT WAIT to see both), I am not seeing much in the way of originality at the start of summer. Some of the biggest upcoming summer blockbusters include “Fast and Furious 6” (guilty pleasure; I loved the fifth installment),  “The Hangover Part III” (really, aren’t they all married yet?), “Man of Steel,” “Monsters University” (I’m a sucker for animated movies), “Despicable Me 2,” “Grown Ups 2” (REALLY???), “Red 2,” “The Wolverine,” “The Lone Ranger,” “Smurfs 2” (not going to happen), “300: Rise of an Empire” and “Kick Ass 2.”  With the exception of “Smurfs” and “Grown Ups,” I’m excited to see all of these movies.  That being said, the sheer number of these sequels, prequels or reboots raises a question: Has Hollywood become unoriginal? Sadly, the answer is obvious.

Mystery: Leaving the retreads, a more innovative movie coming out is “Now You See Me,” which is about a group of the world’s best magicians who pull off impossible heists and give the money to the audiences of their show. The movie sports an intriguing cast with Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, just to name a few. And of course, who doesn’t love magic?

Eclectic and not totally made for money: For those who like movies that are offbeat and a bit out of the box, Joss Whedon’s (“The Avengers,” “Firefly” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) new movie “Much Ado About Nothing” looks promising. Apparently a contemporary take on Shakespeare’s play, the movie is shot in black and white and looks to be smart comedy. The question is whether Whedon can pull off Shakespeare without his superhero gadgets and without any visual effects—I vote a hopeful yes! Another eclectic movie that shows promise is “The Way, Way Back,” a movie along the same lines as “Juno” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” “The Way, Way Back” is about the spring break trip of a 14-year-old and his unusual family. I think the movie looked cute, but I also enjoyed Chevy Chase in his vacation movies!

Although this summer’s flicks are not original or groundbreaking, they promise to be very entertaining. While I’ve only highlighted my personal favorites, there are many, MANY more action movies and comedies such as “World War Z,” “The Internship,” “Elysium” and several more indie movies coming out. Looks like I’ll be a mole for many hours this summer. Enjoy the movies!

Whitman’s campus isn’t exactly ideal for the sport. For skateboarding you mainly just need an open, rarely frequented area with various obstacles and terrain. If there is a skatepark nearby, obviously that is a large draw, but for Whitman students, the nearest park is in College Place. On campus, skaters use the small area outside of Olin Hall or can be seen behind North Hall practicing tricks.

Quinn Lincoln ’16 longboards down a hill behind North Hall. Photos by Halley McCormick.

As for longboarding, all one really needs is a hilly area that is hopefully nicely paved, ideally with not much traffic.  In Walla Walla, serious elevation change is something of a rarity, so most long boarders on campus mainly direct their hobby toward getting to class. However, there are students who do manage to find places off campus to longboard from time to time, like first-year Connor Hood, who likens his hobby to other extreme sports.

“It’s a bit like snowboarding for summer. I enjoy going fast and sliding around. I get a rush out of it, I guess,” said Hood.

Skateboarding on and around campus provides a similar release for the skaters.

“[Skating] allows me to take a break from the externally legislated tasks an individual has to do at school and … do something that is purely for me; it simply allows me to have a release and get out excess energy,” said Zach Gordy, a sophomore skateboarder.

Tom Shellum, another sophomore skateboarder, also explained his love for the sport.

Tom Shellum ’15 skateboards outside of Olin Hall.

“Skating is a lot of fun. Like any sport it’s a good way to be active and get exercise, but it also has an element of creative expression that I don’t think you can find in most other sports. I think the combination of athletic activity and creativity that skateboarding offers makes it a great stress reliever, so it’s been a good hobby to have at school. It’s also been a good way to meet people outside of the Whitman bubble. I’m friends with a lot of skaters in Walla Walla just because we see each other at the park so often.”

Although Whitman is not an ideal skating location for the skating community, there are several places they frequent.

“If I’m skating on campus, my favorite place would be the weird banks that are behind the green fence on the Ankeny side of Olin. They are pretty small but very steep which makes them challenging enough to be really fun to skate, but if I can find a ride I always prefer to skate at one of [the parks]. There is just a lot more you can do at a skatepark than on flat ground,” said Shellum.

Although the skateboarding community is small, their unique interests have drawn them together.

“Everyone I’ve met who boards is really fun to hang out with, some really good people—guys and girls too, which is really fun,” said Hood.

Even campus security seems to get along with the skateboarders, even if they don’t approve of turning every part of the campus into a skate spot.

“Despite the stereotypes of skaters not getting along with cops, we actually have a pretty good relationship with Whitman Security. They let us skate pretty much anywhere, and if there is a spot that they don’t want us skating, they are really nice about telling us to leave,” said Shellum.

The rest of the student body seems to be ambivalent to the skaters, making the community even more isolated from the mainstream.

“I don’t think people really care about skaters one way or another at Whitman. Everyone does their own thing here so I think seeing someone skate is not really a novelty people pay much attention to. People are always surprised when they find out I skate, even though I frequently skate at spots around campus,” said Gordy.

Illustration by Emily Jones

What defines the perfect summer? It’s carefree. Upbeat. Fun and energetic and full of color. Summer is road trips and wind in your hair and fresh watermelon and bare feet and barbecue smoke and laughing with friends and blasting music.

And what’s a summer without music?

So without further ado, here’s a playlist of fresh songs that embody the sunny spirit of summer, full of upbeat tempos, catchy melodies and happy lyrics:

1. “Get Lucky” (feat. Pharrell Williams) by Daft Punk

Daft Punk’s long-awaited return doesn’t disappoint. “Get Lucky” is the first single from their new album Random Access Memories that’s scheduled for release in mid-May. It’s a really, really groovy song and it’s perfect for funky summer dance parties.

2. “Entertainment” by Phoenix

This song is pure energy. The spazzy tempo and uplifting falsetto vocals will undoubtedly put you in a good mood.

3. “All the Time” by The Strokes

This is the best song on this list to drive fast with the volume loud and your windows down to. “All the Time” is quintessential Strokes: 100 percent pure angsty rock-and-roll greatness.

4. “Needle” by Born Ruffians

Summer isn’t always fast-paced and full of energy. There are days of lounging in the sun, times where the mellow wins out over the excitement. “Needle” is a slower tune with a beachy feel, included here to represent those calmer days.

6. “My Number” by Foals

“My Number” rails against being tied down; it sings of moving beyond complications, of freedom, of not letting anything or anyone bring you down.

7. “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads

“Once in a Lifetime” speaks of the ephemeral, fast-paced nature of life—a topic relevant for the short-lived summer. It reminds us to soak up the summer while it lasts!

8. “Solid Gold” by Eagles of Death Metal

This song is another entry with a quick beat and really upbeat melody. The first few lines of lyrics are “Sweat! When it’s hot, baby, ooh! When it’s hot, baby, sweat!” Couldn’t be more relevant to summer.

9. “Default” by Django Django

Another song that you can’t help but get up and dance to. Probably the catchiest tune on this whole list.

10. “Hang Me Out to Dry” by Cold War Kids

This song induces the mood of a long, hot, dry, heavy day. The slow, deliberate bass plucking and unhurried lyrics drag their feet, but in the best way possible.

11. “Boy with the Arab Strap” by Belle & Sebastian

Along with “Needle,” “Boy with the Arab Strap” falls into the more mellow side of the spectrum. Nonetheless, it’s a happy, toe-tapping good song, and a perfect note to end the playlist on.

Happy listening, and have a great summer!

But affirmative action is not to blame for a white student’s rejection, nor is it to commend for a student of color’s admittance. First off, before a student’s race is even taken into account, the student in question is already in the top 10 percent of the applicant pool, meaning that any student accepted due to affirmative action policies is already highly qualified. From the surface, affirmative action policies give students of color an advantage; but if you dig deeper, you will notice that these policies do nothing to deconstruct the actual discrimination that those students have faced because of their race.

Whitman College is not an affirmative action institution. Rather, as its policy states, it is a non-discriminatory one. In other words, Whitman does not accept any student or employ any faculty or staff based on factors such as race. It is important to continue with the aims of affirmative action and to understand that non-discrimination policies can still empower students of color without antagonizing white students into feeling they are being cheated. Non-discrimination as an ideology that is practiced by both college admission officers and employers is better than affirmative action policies that only tokenize and objectify students of color.

The issue with affirmative action is that it sets a quota that colleges specifically have to abide by. This does not enable students of color, but rather turns us into a number that a college is required to fill. In contrast, a non-discrimination policy takes into consideration a student’s background as it affects his or her position in society. It is not that students of color deserve preferential treatment simply because of the color of their skin, but rather it is because students of color, regardless of socioeconomic status, face the challenge of overcoming stereotype threat that makes their application impressive.

When a student of color is as strong an applicant as a white student, the student of color should be accepted as a response to the years of oppression and discrimination that people of color have had to face in this country. The difference here is that this is a case-by-case basis and the reason for admitting the student of color would not be in order to fulfill a quota, but instead because the student of color has a perspective that is underrepresented in most college institutions today.

Some would refer to the previous as reverse discrimination, but if you look at the figures specific to Whitman, 76 percent of the newly admitted class is white, while only 2.9 percent is black and 7.4 percent is Hispanic. It is clear, then, that white students are still in the vast majority. So if students do not get into a school, it is not because of the color of their skin, but rather due to what experiences they may bring. Affirmative action policies are very limiting in that they target race as a factor that should determine admission, whereas non-discrimination policies take into account the plethora of experiences that a student may contribute.

Race is not as important as background is. That being said, because the majority of college students of color are first-generation, working class while the majority of white college students are middle to upper-middle class, race does seem to correlate to a specific background. Of course that is not a formula, which is why non-discrimination policies are more encompassing and fair than affirmative action policies that only look at physical characteristics such as race to make final admission decisions.

This is not to say that white students here at Whitman have not struggled at some point in their lives. But for students of color, statistics already show that we should expect to be the minority even though, combined, we are in fact the majority. Until this changes, we will need to rely on informed non-discriminatory policies to ensure that the undervalued and underprivileged have the same opportunities as those that have been privileged.

First, I have to thank production manager Sean McNulty, for his willingness to step into the hardest job on the paper last-minute and his dedication to improving the quality of design, issue after issue. His willingness to collaborate on last-minute infographics has made our front page truly standout. I also owe so much to fall managing editor Libby Arnosti, who kept work fun and editors engaged during stressful and at times exhausting nights of layout.

Each and every one of my section editors has helped the paper build on its success and innovate this year. I’m grateful to News Editor Emily Lin-Jones for her leadership in the newsroom and her inspiring reporting skills; Karah Kemmerly for her high standards; A&E Editor Aleida Fernandez for her creativity and vision; Sports Editor Tristan Gavin for his quality writing; Feature Editor Adam Brayton for his popcorn skills and levity; Opinion Editor Alex Brott for his attention to detail and Backpage Editor Kyle Seasly for keeping things light around the newsroom. Photo Editor Marie von Hafften has taken her staff to amazing levels and mentored an incredible group of talented artists, and Illustration Editor Julie Peterson has shown gusto and cheer in even the most last-minute of infographic brainstorming sessions.

I’m also deeply indebted to Chief Copy Editor Marisa Ikert for catching so many of our late-night mistakes before they went to print, Webmaster Ben Schaefer for his interest in helping the website and the paper grow, Web Editor Blair Hanley Frank for having my back on all occasions, Advertising Manager Hannah Bauer for bringing a refreshing dose of sass and Italian sodas to production night and Business Manager Vincent Peterson for making sure I never had to deal with the U.S. Postal Service.

Finally, I have to acknowledge Web Content Editor and next year’s Editor-in-Chief Shelly Le. Shelly, you’ve been such a reliable, helpful presence on the paper for all the years we’ve worked together, and your love of The Pio and care for its continued success is inspiring to watch. I can’t wait to see what you and everyone else do next year.

And to everyone else in the Whitman community: Thank you for allowing me to have the most rewarding, challenging and educational experience of my life in our newsroom.

Gabe Keifel is a security guard with a unique perspective: He went to Whitman and graduated in 2009.

“Having been a student I have a bit of insight into what the pressures are that students are going through,” said Keifel. “Almost every interaction I try to remember how it feels to be a student.”

Keifel was a biology major and originally thought he wanted to become either an occupational or physical therapist. While he was at Whitman and after graduation, Keifel worked as a rehab technician at various rehab facilities in the area. But Keifel quickly realized that he did not want to pursue therapy of any sort.

He had connections with the security office during his time at Whitman because he worked as an escort. When a job opened up for a night security guard, Terry Thompson, the director of the security office, encouraged Keifel to apply. Keifer, looking for a change in scenery and a pay raise to support his growing family, took the job and stated working at Whitman as a nighttime security guard in October of 2010, just over a year after he graduated.

“There is a change in point of view, [but] ultimately my personality has stayed the same. I still feel like a student of sorts, despite having a different role,” he said. “I think starting out as a security officer I might have been more assertive because I wanted to define that I was a staff member rather than a student and at that time there were students I had had classes with and played sports with and interacted with. I don’t think I wrote anybody up more frequently but I tried to be more business at that time.”

Keifel found the transition from student to staff fairly smooth because he feels that he had a very unconventional Whitman experience.

Keifel transferred to Whitman from the community college his junior year through a program called Running Start. Although Keifel was involved in rugby, intramural sports and Greek life on campus, he didn’t have a traditional college experience.

“Despite having gone to school here and wanting the semblance of a college experience, I guess I’ve always kind of been an outsider looking in,” he said.

He came to Whitman with a very different perspective from most other students. Keifel was born and raised in Waitsburg and attended Walla Walla Community College for two years. After the end of his junior year at Whitman he married his high school girlfriend, and he only lived on campus for one semester and spent a lot of time off campus.

Keifel believes that the fact that he was married and that he transferred from the community college changed the dynamic of his Whitman experience. His short time at Whitman was a whirlwind, and he spent his first year feeling like a freshman all over again and his second writing his thesis and trying to fulfill all of the biology requirements in two years.

“I think I would have liked more time here seeing as I only had two years, but realistically, since I graduated I haven’t gone anywhere, so I’ve kind of had that non-traditional college experience without the same stress of having classes here,” he said.

For Keifel, who loves talking and interacting with people, interactions and conversations with the students are what make his job and Whitman in general so interesting. When he first transferred to Whitman he says he was “inspired by the caliber of students I interacted with here.”

He often initiates conversations with students in order to foster a positive relationship between security and students and make his job more interesting. Keifel, although in a position of authority, seems to prefer to be on the same level as students, just having a good conversation, person to person, instead of security guard to student. Yet Keifel still has the responsibility to enforce the college’s policy, and often that entails calling people out for breaking the rules.

“I will talk to anybody, in fact I do talk to anybody; it’s just something I learned at an early age. Sometimes the problem at hand gets in the way of positive interactions with people that I’m happy to be around,” he said. “Despite trying to approach it in a positive way, there is always the potential of it turning negative and just that potential is difficult and stressful because my personality is more positive.”

Although the job can be difficult at times, Keifel looks at it from the perspective that it’s the school’s policy, and it is just his job to enforce it. By taking the approach of saying that he is just doing his job, Keifel has found that he can successfully distance himself from feeling like the bad guy all the time for calling students out.

“If students or anybody else can acknowledge that it’s not me, it’s them really, then it’s a little bit helpful,” he said. “It’s an interesting disposition because whether or not someone has a personal opinion about whether it’s right or wrong is irrelevant. There’s a policy that the college has and if we didn’t enforce that policy it would become a major problem.”

While he remains an outsider looking in, Keifel has found that even though he had an unconventional Whitman experience he can still empathize with students.

“When I was a senior writing my thesis that was the most stressful time in my life,” he said. “I try not to add more stress to [students'] lives while still doing my job.”

Getting a sneak peak at rehearsal, The Pioneer reports.

The best word one can use to describe “Floyd Collins” is “acrobatics.” Looking up this word for a specific definition, the term “athletic floor exercises” immediately pops up. But let it be clarified, when talking about “Floyd Collins” in relation to “acrobatics,” the sense inferred is not linked to somersaults or gymnastics, but to the challenge of balancing the difficult demands of the show, and the audience’s awe of the success of such stunts.

Randy Brooks as Floyd Collins. Photos by Faith Bernstein.

To start, “Floyd Collins” is vocal acrobatics epitomized.

“It’s super good music, but the orchestration from top to bottom is just so difficult,” said first-year Randy Brooks, who plays the role of Floyd Collins.

Junior Zoe Randol agrees.

“The music was definitely the most challenging aspect. It can be very deceiving when you hear it, but the score is incredibly difficult,” she said. “It’s a mix between bluegrass and opera, which is a very strange mix, and it sounds amazing, but it’s extremely difficult to do, especially for some of the men for this show and the actress who plays Nellie. It’s really, really difficult stuff. But they’re doing very well. We’re all doing very well, I think.”

Junior Russell Sperberg, playing Floyd’s brother Homer, also discussed the difficulties of the show.

“The music has been really difficult. I’m usually a baritone, but the music for Homer is for a tenor. So I can hit all of them except one note, which we had to drop down. But, now that we’ve been through the process, it’s just a lot easier; it’s just so much more fun.”

And even during a pre-dress rehearsal performance, success and fun in the face of vocal challenge was very apparent, the cast pulling off vocal stunt after vocal stunt.

Taking place both above and underground in a cave, the show also includes a dynamic and elaborate set. Wooden lattices, arranged in a geometric pattern giving the impression of layered rock, are pushed around stage to draw a distinction between the action that occurs in the cave and the action that occurs above. But interestingly enough, the two sets are always connected.

“I’m onstage the entire show,” said Brooks.

Just as Floyd Collins’ fate lurks in the back of our minds throughout the show, the character of Collins literally lurks on stage the entire time. Making for yet another challenge, the main character, doing a miraculous amount of singing, has no water onstage.

But this is not to say the other characters get off easy; climbing, hanging and jumping from the wooden lattices, characters are constantly maneuvering the elaborate set.

“If you’ve seen a musical, don’t come with any ideas of what a musical should be, because this is not like that at all,” said Brooks.

Illustration by Eduardo Vazquez

Whitman students and Walla Walla police officers aren’t often at odds with each other, but when the police do get called in, students are not usually in their best form.

While the majority of students see the police as helpful and well-meaning, weekend interactions with law enforcement may provide police officers with a less-than-favorable view of Whitman students. Through the interactions he has had with students while working as a city policeman, Officer Tim Hollingsworth has a nuanced perspective on Whitman College students.

“Unfortunately the only contact we get with the students as patrol men is at the frat houses where we deal with the drunk and disorderly,” said Hollingsworth. “We don’t get regular interactions with the normal students, so most of the time our only interaction with the students is negative.”

This soured relationship does not lead to a positive and cooperative relationship between students and law enforcement. The majority of calls the police receives are from citizens from the surrounding area of the frat houses. Some instances in which they might be called are issues of disruptions of the community, such as public urination or disruptively loud noise.

“Police are generally pretty aware of the culture at Whitman and know that the school puts a lot of faith in us to make wise decisions in party situations,” said Tau Kappa Epsilon President Chris Perkins in an email. “Occasionally they’ll stop by a function and make sure everything is okay but it never goes beyond that.”

When dealing with the students, which can occur multiple times a week in the warmer seasons, the police keep in mind the personal character they perceive of the Whitman community. Most of the interactions the police have with students involve turning a drunk student over to a sober friend.

Hollingsworth notes that he has never issued an underage drinking or drug possession ticket to a Whitman student.

“Just realize that we understand that you are students, and this is a great college, and we’re very lenient with the students as long as we don’t get that attitude,” said Hollingsworth. “This isn’t an easy college to get into and to have it all thrown down the drain just for something stupid; I don’t want to be that guy. I want to try to correct it on a one-to-one level.”

Police not only have to deal with the bad mouthing from the students, but they have also had eggs thrown at cop cars and debris thrown in the road. Officer Hollingsworth has only issued one arrest to a Whitman student, which occurred last summer.

Hollingsworth arrived at the Tau Kappa Epsilon house to find a student urinating outside the house. He found the student’s sober girlfriend and turned the drunk urinator over to her. However, when Hollingsworth and his above-six-foot-tall sergeant turned to leave, a student threw a pie at the sergeant’s face.

“We get done being pretty lenient with the students when we get a pie to the face,” said Hollingsworth. “It doesn’t make us think too much of the students, but that’s the only kind of contact we get.”

One student that has had a different sort of run-in with the law is junior Logan Emlet. Last August, Emlet and another Whitman student were arrested and charged with public nuisance for streaking through Borleski stadium during the first Sweets game.

As a result of this, Emlet spent a night in the Walla Walla jail. He perceived that the police officers during the arrest were “jovial,” but it was the employers of Burleski Stadium that encouraged the arrest and subsequent charges in order to make an example out of Emlet and his classmate.

“Because we go to Whitman there are some benefits that some students think that they should get, and I just wasn’t privy to those privileges,” said Emlet.

The charges will ultimately be dropped this August, but that was only after a year of charges for lawyers, fines and a tainted record. Ultimately, Emlet has come to a personal realization that the Walla Walla Police Department was “nice enough,” and it was due to other factors that he Negareceived his sentence.

Overall, students appear to have a similar apathetic or positive view of the police based on a Pioneer survey of 47 students. Of the 27 students who said they had had an encounter with the police, 76 percent described it as positive.

Similarly, students appreciate the WWPD’s quick response and attentiveness to helping those in need.

“I was assaulted last year and the police responded fast enough to catch the guy before he could hurt anyone else. They’re good people and they’re good at what they do,” said one anonymous student on the survey.

However, a minority of students believe that Whitman students are not perceived in a positive light by the police.

“It’s pretty obvious that WWPD does not like the Whitman student body. I think part of that is that they feel a pressure to treat us differently, whether explicitly from the school or not, and … resent that—and to some extent, rightfully so,” said another respondent.

Another student described an encounter with the police while out partying in similar terms.

“Police called Whitman students spoiled. [They] think we are above ‘the rules,’” said the student.

Most security threats and issues related to the law are kept under the jurisdiction of Whitman’s own campus security, where perceptions of students are more positive.

“Primarily I interact with students and a vast majority of those interactions are positive,” said Security Guard Gabe Kiefel.

The security office is the only office on campus that is kept open 24/7, so security receives a fair amount of non-emergency calls from students. In this way, most situations in which students feel uncomfortable are kept within the security office.

“We call the police with anything involving a crime of any kind, like assault, burglary or theft. For police infractions we prefer to keep that within Whitman,” said Kiefel. “Really we call the police with anything in which someone feels uncomfortable.”

The only time that the security office feels the need to call the police is when there is a disturbance by a non-Whitman citizen. Security is not trained to involve itself in physical altercations, so the police department is a safeguard for any possible emergency situations.

“They’re very quick to respond. I’ve never had a negative interaction with the Walla Walla police department and if I call reporting something they’re very receptive,” said Kiefel.

The inharmonious interaction between students, police and security is one that creates a disconnect and an increase in tensions between Whitman and the law. The police feel an improvement can be made by solidifying a mutual understanding of respectability.

“It’s hard to have a positive mindset about the students when all we have is a negative,”  said Hollingsworth. “Let the students know that we are approachable and, we feel, more than fair with the students.”

Illustration by Luke Hampton

Dear Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association:

Earlier this year, the Chicago Board of Education voted to overhaul its public schools’ sex education curriculum and begin teaching age-appropriate sexual health lessons in kindergarten. You, in response, criticized the board as “pushing an extreme agenda across the board, both to normalize sex and begin the conversation earlier.”

I’ll admit that, as a leftist atheist sex columnist from the Pacific Northwest who enjoys premarital sex on a rather regular basis, I’m probably not your target audience. But still, I’m having one hell of a time trying to wrap my mind around how your two points, “normalizing sex” and “beginning the conversation earlier” are bad things.

We’re both adults here, so let’s be frank: People fuck. They make love. They have sex. The vast majority of people will have sex during their lives, and most will do it more than once! And contrary to what some people seem to think, sex isn’t some new development in human history. I’m not a historian, but I feel it’s pretty safe to say that, broadly speaking, sex has been a favorite pastime of humans for, well, ever.

I bring this up because you seem to be under the perplexing impression that sex is not “normal.” It’s as if you want us to teach our children that sex is like pink eye—a weird, disgusting rarity that only happens to the miscreants who don’t wash their hands. But sex isn’t pink eye. It isn’t a rarity. And as long as we keep our children in the dark about this fact, we’re setting them up to feel shame and guilt when they begin to develop their sexualities, as they almost inevitably will.

After all, classrooms are where we forge the culture of our future. Today’s teachers shape tomorrow’s society. The lessons we teach our children about their bodies—both what we say (or don’t) and how we say it—will follow them for much of their lives. For generations, sex education has saddled our children with incomplete information and shame. We can do better than this.

You’re worried that we’re trying to “begin the conversation earlier.” But that’s what we need, because we’ve spent too long saying nothing about sex at all. In every other subject, we expect our schools to teach our children fundamental, age-appropriate, evidence-based facts. This, after all, is how we empower our children to become informed, intelligent teenagers and adults. Yet when it comes to sex, we hold an entirely different set of standards, as if we’d rather keep our children ignorant. This is not the purpose of education.

I know you’re afraid of the potential consequences of early sex ed. Supporters of abstinence-only sex ed often fear that giving students information about sex will make them more likely to have it. But the evidence shows the contrary: Comprehensive sex ed makes students more likely to delay first sex. Similarly, teenagers who receive comprehensive sex ed are 50 percent less likely than abstinence-only students to experience pregnancy. Comprehensive sex education is the best way to help our youth stay healthy.

Instead of consequences, think of the potential benefits. The next generation of Chicago’s schoolchildren will grow up unafraid, unashamed and unapologetic. When they choose to become sexually active, either as teenagers or as adults, they will do so from an empowered, knowledgeable position. Comprehensive sex ed, after all, doesn’t tell students they should have sex; rather, it gives them information and encourages them to make decisions in line with their personal values.

They will have the skills to build healthy relationships founded on mutual respect and consent. They will be healthier, more responsible, less likely to get pregnant—and, god forbid, comfortable with their sexualities.

This should not scare you the way I know it does.

-Spencer Wharton

Illustration by Kelsey Lund and Julie Peterson

For many Whitman students looking for a relationship, or even just looking for a casual hook-up on a Friday night, Whitman’s small size can feel overwhelmingly claustrophobic. There are moments when it feels as if you know every face on campus, when you despair that none of them are viable dating options, and when even the girl who used to make eyes with you in the library is taken.

Fortunately, though, these moments usually pass. Even if there are only approximately 1,500 students on this campus, and even if the girl is the library is otherwise occupied, there is another girl in your economics class who is actually quite cute.

This isn’t always true for members of the queer community.

Queer individuals at Whitman make up a tiny, almost familial community within an already small student body, which often makes the challenge of on-campus dating exponentially more difficult.

Junior Phoebe Horvath discussed this size issue.

“I think it’s hard to have a dating culture here because the school is small. There are only a certain amount of students, and within that subset there are only a certain amount who identify with or are open to a non-straight relationship,” she said.

GLBTQ intern sophomore Evan Griffis spoke to the same frustrations, adding that the community atmosphere on campus discourages individuals from pursuing casual hook-ups.

“At bigger schools, I think it would be even more of a hook-up culture. But I think here, just because we do have a small community, it kind of forces a little bit of the anonymity away from that, and it kind of puts some pressure on actual long-term relationships. With that being said, I think the frustration is definitely from the [small size of the community].”

Because the queer community is so small, queer couples are often very visible for the rest of campus. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that entering into a relationship could be incredibly stressful for someone who has not yet come out of the closet.

Senior Kate Kight commented on her personal difficulties with this issue.

“If one partner doesn’t want to be out, there’s not a lot of hiding at Whitman. And [my girlfriend and I] got sick of trying to hide it, because it got in the way of the amount of time we could spend together,” she said. “I also think that it’s a myth that it’s easy to come out at Whitman … it’s a very personal issue, and you can have all the support and love in the world and it still can be utterly terrifying.”

GLBTQ intern junior Sean Mulloy also pointed out that how comfortable one feels about being out of the closet, and to whom they are ready to reveal that information, affects the relationship possibilities on campus.

“I think that there [are] folks that are interested in the queer community, but still don’t necessarily feel comfortable being out. I think it’s even harder for them, because they have to be out in order to date or hook up with someone,” said Mulloy.

Horvath spoke to this, emphasizing that this dynamic differs for men and women. From her experience, it’s more socially acceptable for women to leave their sexuality undefined, whereas for men, there is pressure to define themselves according to more rigid structures.

“I think a lot of people have come to terms with their sexuality being somewhere on that spectrum, and I think in general, women are a lot more comfortable with that idea … Most of the men who I know are out are out as either gay or bi. It’s more definite; you don’t see as much of the spectrum,” Horvath said.

Fortunately, the community has formed itself to deal with the issue of limited options. Most significantly, because the dating pool is so small, queer students at Whitman have encouraged developing friendships with off-campus queer communities.

Several students at Walla Walla University and Walla Walla Community College have turned to Whitman as a source of community because they feel that their colleges lack a clear support system for queer students.

WWCC sophomore Justin Hallowell spoke about why students at his school have made acquaintances within the Whitman queer community.

“As a school, Whitman is a lot more liberal, and so the students here are a lot more knowledgeable about issues. They tend to do things that are directly related to the population here, and they seem to actually make a difference,” Hallowell said. “Here there is a larger majority [of a gay population], so you aren’t quite as much of a minority. And again, it is a lot easier to be gay here [at Whitman] than it is to be gay [at WWCC].”

WWCC students attend parties like Queer Beverage and participate in GLBTQ group activities, which allows these students to experience the support of a larger community while simultaneously expanding the dating options for Whitman students. According to Mulloy, Whitman has come to be a refuge for some WWU and WWCC students who are willing to look off campus for support.

“This year we’ve been able to form much more intricate relationships with the other colleges’ communities. So like yesterday at Queer Beverage there were a lot of folks that came from Walla Walla University, and we have a few really good friends from [Walla Walla Community College],” said Mulloy.

In addition to encouraging more students to attend functions, queer students at Whitman have expanded their notion of what a relationship entails. Both Griffis and Horvath spoke to the opinion that the societal ideal of a monogamous, two-people-together-forever relationship can be quite stifling.

“A lot of times, people find alternate ways to define a relationship that works for them better. And that’s really worked for me, and I know that’s worked for other people on campus … It’s been kind of neat to figure out that there are other ways to be in a relationship besides two people together forever,” Horvath said.

Griffis conveyed the same sentiment, arguing against the assumption that a monogamous, traditional relationship between two people is best for everyone.

“There is kind of this other pressure for us to want to reject that notion, or reject the idea that we have to assimilate into that kind of relationship. So there’s also this kind of counter-pressure to rebel against that system, and kind of explore alternative relationship structures,” he said.

College students from all over the Pacific Northwest gathered at the Whitman College Climbing Center for the Sweet Onion Crank climbing festival last weekend. Photos by Catie Bergman.

Last Saturday, climbers from all over the Pacific Northwest arrived at Whitman for the annual Sweet Onion Crank climbing competition. The Crank allows climbers of all skills to participate in the competition against fellow climbers of a similar skill rank at Whitman’s own climbing wall.

“The Sweet Onion Crank is the final climbing competition of the NC3 series, and it is the primary competition circuit for the region. So the Crank is a pretty big event for the climbing community. The competition consists of tiers of climbers: beginner, intermediate, advanced and open. Climbers compete against people in the same bracket, so experience doesn’t really matter,” said event organizer junior Matt Sellick.

All climbers are given a time period to rack up as many points as possible

“The climbers are allotted two and a half hours to rack up points by successfully climbing boulder problems without falling. The points are assigned based on the difficulty of the problem, and climbers record their points on a scorecard. After two heats of climbing, and a round of silly speed bouldering, the winners are announced and prizes are distributed,” said Sellick.

The environment of the entire competition was laid-back, as everyone enjoyed using the climbing wall.

“It was awesome to see climbers from all over the region enjoying our facility and the problems that Whitman’s climbing community worked hard on putting up,” said Sellick.

This huge event took a lot of preparation, but it ran smoothly with no difficulties.

“For me, the Crank was a culmination of eight months of preparation. It was a bit hectic and stressful running the event, but it is always fun to be part of a climbing community event. The community is very laid-back and talented, so the Crank did not feel overly competitive,” said Sellick.

For the event organizers, one of the best parts of the day was seeing how all of their hard work paid off, as they saw everyone having a great time.

“I think that my favorite part of the Crank was seeing how excited people were to climb the problems that my friends and I spent time setting. It is always satisfying to see folks enjoying something you created, but the Crank brings a ton of great climbers to the wall so it is interesting to see how people solve the movement of your puzzles,” said Sellick, who is part of a climbing staff that completely redid the gym’s bouldering problems.

For all of the climbers, the experience of the Crank was just as great as they were able to compete in a very friendly environment.

“The crank was really fun. It was packed; it took so long that they were registering people constantly for 45 minutes. It has a really nice atmosphere where everyone tries to help each other with the problems and the people were all really accepting of any skill level,” said sophomore Quinn Piibe.

When the event finally began, Whitman climbers were eager to begin after watching the event being set up for the past few weeks.

“I was excited to finally get to try all of the boulder problems I had been watching people set up for weeks in the gym,” said Piibe.

Each climber enjoyed climbing and pushing themselves to beat their previous records.

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

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

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

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

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

Bill McKibben. Photos by cade beck.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bill McKibben spoke in Cordiner on Monday night.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Campus Cartoon by Katherine Emory

Illustration by Asa Mease

Due to health and safety concerns, as of April 28, 2013, Whitman College has placed a ban on Birkenstocks. Many students have raised up their fists in retaliation while other students, for many reasons, see the change as needed.

The health and safety issues with Birkenstock shoes began decades ago in the ’60s when a marked increase of foot fungus and ankle injury made its way to campus. Additionally, recent studies have proven that Birkenstocks have joined the list of newer addictions, such as computer gaming, Facebook and cell phone usage.
Similar to how Ugg boots act as house slippers in Australia, Birkenstocks act as house slippers in their home country, Germany. Indeed, by taking both of these types of house slippers out and into their working day lives, Americans have set themselves up for injury. Would you ride a bike wearing fluffy pink cat slippers? Would you run experiments in chemistry with hydrochloric acid in Spongebob slippers? Would you scale a mountain in zebra print slippers? Not if safety were a concern. Part of the issue with Birkenstocks is in how students use them improperly.

In fact, some students have begun a campaign saying that it’s the student culture of the shoe that makes them dangerous, and not the shoes themselves. They want students allowed to wear Birkenstocks and educated on the proper usage of a pair of Birkenstocks. Around campus this group can be spotted in purple shirts that say: “Birkenstocks don’t give people toe fungus and break their ankles: People who wear them improperly do.”

“Birkenstocks aren’t for climbing mountains; that’s a common misconception here at Whitman. We think that because our footwear is ‘earthy,’ that it can hold up to our active pursuits,” said one Birkenstock educator. “Another problem is that we think the shoes last forever, that the greener the brown or tan pair gets, the more ‘street cred’ we have. Frankly, keeping shoes for that long is unsanitary. While having your mom’s Birkenstocks with a hole in the heel and a broken strap may seem cool, it’s dangerous.”

Some students are celebrating the end of Birkenstocks.

“I’m tired of going out for a nice dinner and seeing girls made up with their hair, makeup, a beautiful dress and then Birkenstocks. Same with guys in suits. Maybe [Birkenstocks] are comfortable, but they are an outfit killer. If we went off what was comfortable all of the time, some of us wouldn’t ever wear clothes while the majority of students would live in yoga pants and pajamas. The line has to be drawn somewhere, and if the shoes are a health and safety hazard, nix them,” said sophomore Ciara Bartbrett.

A Facebook group has since been formed to “Save the Birks: Whitman College” and posts indicate that a protest took place on May 1. Students are instructed by the group to wear their Birkenstocks and go about their normal day, and accept disciplinary action if the college is capable of dispensing that many citations.

“I don’t even know what that means,” commented sophomore Tabor Martinsen, “and I certainly can’t make a top three list about it.”

Tensions grew as Alexander refused to buy members of the Backpage pizza and beer whenever they wanted. That’s when rumors began to circulate that Alexander was a dirty commie bastard. She denied these claims almost instantly.

“Yes, I am a communist. I am a feminist politics major at a small liberal arts school. Is that weird or something? Half this campus is communist.” Backpage editor sophomore Kyle Seasly began to collaborate with members of the CIA and informed them that a leftover KGB agent could be posing as a 22-year-old woman. The CIA informed Seasly that was impossible, but decided to help overthrow Alexander anyway. At midnight on May 1, the coup began.

Unfortunately, Seasly was run over by a tractor in the crossfire.

“It was certainly a tragedy, what happened to Kyle,” commented Backpage writer junior Tristan Gavin. “That’s why I’m going to be writing a comedy about it in the fall.”

The reasons behind the coup became clear in an exclusive Skype interview with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden stated, “Alexander was a communist, plain and simple. Le, Le will be good. She’s much more stable, and simply not a communist.”

The head of the CIA assistance operation to overthrow Alexander was a man whose codename was “Brett Lerooo.” He declined to comment.