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WHITMAN NEWS, DELIVERED

Walla Walla, WAwhitmanpioneer.com

ISSUE 8

VOLUME CXXVIII

Music Department in Flux

PAGE 3

Four professors have or will leave Whit-man, resulting in many changes to the program.

LOOK AT OUR JACK

ISSUE!

MAR

312011

Changes aim to increase bike usage

Whitman has recently taken initiatives to ad-dress student usage o!

bikes and the number o! bikes on campus. The initiatives are an ef-fort o! both Whitman faculty and students to make biking more con-venient for students on and of! campus. A new proposal to create a bicycle policy at Whitman, ef-fective at the end o! spring break 2011, is clearing up old and aban-doned bicycles locked to bicycle racks, and a new bicycle rental pro-gram is anticipated to be in place by Fall 2011 to provide bicycles to all Whitman students at low cost.

Whitman’s bicycle co-op in-terns are developing a bicy-cle rental program on campus to address student desire for ac-cess to bikes. According to Cam-pus Sustainability Coordinator, senior Nat Clarke, about 53 per-cent o! students at Whitman, would want to rent a bicycle i! a bike rental program was availa-ble. The rental program will al-low students to pay a !lat rate fee to rent a bike on a semester basis, aiming to provide students with a low cost means o! transportation for both on and of! campus needs.

“The majority o! use for the bikes is for of! campus trav-el people who want to go to the store downtown, much more so than cars or buses,” Clarke said. “The idea is that renting a bike for the course o! all four years will cheaper than buying a bike.”

Although bicycles are al-ready in widespread use on cam-pus, even low-end bicycles can cost students one hundred or more dollars. Senior Ari Frink,

by SHELLY LEStaff Reporter

You’re at a party, and you see someone slip a drug into your friend’s drink. That’s a red dot. You confront the

person who tried to drug your friend, and then you make sure your friend gets home safely. That’s a green dot. Since the Green Dot program has existed at Whitman Col-lege, Sexual Misconduct Prevention Co-ordinator Barbara Maxwell has been run-ning training sessions for student to learn how to make the Whitman campus a saf-er place. Her goal is to create active by-standers who intervene to prevent poten-tially dangerous situations from occur-ring. Ultimately, the Green Dot program seeks to prevent power-based personal vio-lence through the use o! these active tactics.

When Green Dot started at Whit-man two years ago, most students had nev-er heard o! it. The incoming !irst-year class heard a speech about Green Dot dur-ing Orientation Week. Students joked with their friends about the posters around cam-pus, but gradually, green dot buttons start-ed showing up on backpacks and bulletin boards. Now, two years since the program’s inception, Maxwell believes the program has become a part o! Whitman culture.

“It’s part o! the lingo,” she said. “I think by and large, students get it.”

Maxwell is hoping to expand on this success by introducing Green Dot pro-grams in Walla Walla schools. Her as-pirations have become part o! the new-ly-formed Walla Walla Violence Preven-tion Coalition (WWVPC), which is bring-ing a broad spectrum o! Walla Walla or-ganizations together to address various forms o! violence in the community. As part o! this effort, the WWVPC hosted their !irst annual Community Violence Preven-tion Conference on Wednesday, March 30.

“There are a great many organizations who want to work to prevent violence in the Walla Walla community,” said Chetna Chopra, a member o! the coali-tion’s Steering Committee. “It was very im-portant to bring these people together.”

The conference began Tuesday night with a keynote speech from Dr. Jennifer Sayre, who is the Director o! Training and Development for the national Green Dot or-ganization. Sayre spoke about the impor-tance o! active bystanders in preventing vi-olence, and discussed strategies for inter-vening in potentially dangerous situations.

The rest o! the conference was bro-ken into sessions which highlighted speci!ic forms o! violence in the Walla Walla com-munity. Presenters from a variety o! com-munity organizations addressed issues rang-ing from addressing gang violence to pre-venting cyber-bullying. A theme through-out the conference was the importance o! cooperation between organizations. For ex-ample, the Walla Walla Police Department employs a Domestic Violence Services Of-!icer — a social worker who assists victims o! domestic violence in navigating the le-gal system. According to Stacey Martin, di-rector o! client services for the YWCA, this program has been very successful.

“I think it helps victims be less scared o! law enforcement,” she said.

The Green Dot bystander intervention framework has inspired much o! this ac-tion, but members o! the WWVPC Steering Committee hope to expand violence preven-tion efforts beyond bystander intervention.

“It started with Green Dot, but it’s big-ger than that,” said Kevin Bayne, a po-lice of!icer and member o! the Committee.

by RACHEL ALEXANDERNews Editor

GREEN DOT , PAGE 2BIKES, PAGE 2

ASWC Curriculum Committee Decision

Postponed

Cyclists post podium finishes at annual Whitman Bike Race

The faculty originally planned to make a deci-sion about having student

representation on next year’s cur-riculum committee at their meet-ing on Wed., March 30. Howev-er, discussion o! other proposals prevented them from doing so.

Prior to the meeting, ASWC was informed that several old proposals regarding inter-fac-ulty business had made their way onto the meeting’s agen-da. These items, which had al-ready been pushed back since No-vember, needed to be addressed.

The vote about student rep-resentation on the curriculum committee has been post-poned until the next facul-ty meeting on April 13.

ASWC vice presi-dent John Loranger says that ASWC members are slightly disappoint-ed by the delay, but not overly concerned.

“We were pumped up to have the vote to-day and we would have liked to know the re-sults o! a vote for clo-sure’s sake, but we under-stand. Since the curric-ulum committee doesn’t meet until next year, an extra two weeks won’t

really hurt us,” he said.Loranger believes that there

might be something bene!i-cial about the postponement.

“This gives ASWC senators the chance to meet personally with those faculty members we know are opposed to having student representatives on the commit-tee and talk with them about why we think these representatives are something positive,” he said.

Loranger hopes that by April 13, ASWC might able to get a few more votes in their favor.

They may not be Team US Postal o! the Tour de France, but the Whit-

man cycling team boast-ed plenty o! its own competi-tion at the annual Whitman Bike Race this past weekend.

Led by senior President Roxy Pierson and Vice Presidents Si-mon Pendleton and Chelsea Momany, also seniors, the Whit-man cycling team is comprised o! a number o! students who are united by a love o! riding. The team was established in 2002 as a way “to bring together cycling enthu- siasts on t h e W h i t

man campus,” as stat-ed on the team’s web site.

Since cycling is a club sport, the cyclists are responsible for all aspects o! the team, from sched-uling practices and meetings to organizing travel to races. This is all in addition to the long hours spent training, which can be up-wards o! 15 hours a week be-tween riding and weight lifting.

Cycling can be considered an individual sport, but for the Whitman riders it’s just as much a t e a m sport,

making teamwork and cohesion keys to success. The

riders get to know each other ex-tremely well during training, and that pays of! during races.

“As for between members on the team, cycling is a very team-oriented sport,” said Moma-ny. “When someone wins a cy-cling race, it is certainly due to their own strength, but very of-ten what you don’t see is that they have one or more teammates in

the pack who have been working very hard during the race

in order to help that person win.”

by PAMELA LONDONStaff Reporter

CYCLISTS, PAGE 4

All kinds o! shits and giggles for April Fools Day. Enjoy the

issue!

WALLA WALLA GOES GREEN DOT

Inspired by the success of the Whitman Green Dot program,

the Walla Walla Violence Prevention Coalition seeks to coordinate and expand

prevention efforts.

by KARAH KEMMERLYStaff Reporter

PHOTO BY LERCHIN

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EDITORIAL POLICYThe Whitman College Pioneer is a weekly student-run newspaper published under the auspices o! the Associated Students o! Whitman College. The purpose o! The Pioneer is to provide pertinent, timely news and commentary for Whitman students, alumni, faculty, staf! and parents, as well as the Walla Walla community. The Pioneer is dedicated to expanding open discussion on campus about the issues with which students are most concerned. We provide coverage o! Whitman-related news as well as featured local and regional events, and strive to maintain a standard o! utmost fairness, quality, and journalistic integrity while promoting freedom o! the press. In addition, the Pioneer strives to be a learning tool for students who are interested in journal-ism. The Pioneer welcomes all feedback and publishes weekly Letters to the Editor in print and online.

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NUMBERS IN THE NEWS

9.0Magnitude o! the Japanese earthquake on the Richter scale

11,000Current death toll (approxi-mate)

20,000 Probably !inal death toll, as estimated by the Japanese government

244,339Number o! people in refugee centers in Japan

0.05 SvMaximum number o! sieverts (a unit o! radiation) per year that US workers can legally be exposed to

0.25 SvMaximum yearly radiation dose allowed for Daiichi work-ers during clean-up

3Number o! workers who were hospitalized with radiation burns while trying to !ix reac-tor 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant

2-­6 SvAmount o! radiation present in the cooling water at reactor 3, where the workers were

by RACHEL ALEXANDERNews Editor

MAR

312011

Astronaut Dottie Metcalf-­Lindenburger ‘97 visits campus to talk about life in outer space

Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger ’97 came back down to earth on April 20, 2010 after a mis-

sion on the Space Shuttle Discov-ery, and made time to come back up to Walla Walla on Monday, March 28 to talk about her experience and the importance o! space explora-tion. Students, professors and oth-er community members gathered in Maxey Auditorium to hear her pres-entation, entitled “The Road from Walla Walla to Low Earth Orbit”.

“Space exploration is incredi-bly important,” she said. “We are on the trail o! Lewis and Clark. They were sent out, went over budg-et, didn’t !ind the Northwest Pas-sage and accomplish the main goal o! their mission, yet here we are today [in the West] and we have expanded and learned more than we could have imagined.”

Hers was the penultimate trip on Discovery, which retired ear-lier this month. Metcalf-Lin-denburger and two o! her crew-mates were the last rookie astro-nauts in the space shuttle program.

She said that she’d like to go back into space again i! she gets the chance.

“I will stay with NASA for a while and keep taking Russian,” she said. “I! I could launch again I’d really love it, but i! not, my other plan is to go back to school and become a professor.”

During her presentation, Met-calf-Lindenburger answered au-dience members’ curiosities about space. One such question was about how well astronauts sleep in space.

“You sleep really well in space. You’re pretty relaxed because you don’t have a bed pressing upon your body,” she said. “We sleep with pil-lows, but I don’t even know why we

do; maybe to remind us o! home.”She also showed the audi-

ence video o! her time in space.

“Even adult astronauts play with their food,” she said joking-

ly as she shared clips o! her crew eating M&M’s and cherry blos-soms captured in blobs o! wa-ter in zero-gravity. She also proud-ly announced that she and her crew were the !irst to eat sushi in space.

But perhaps most inspiring were the views from space. Dur-ing her time in low orbit, the crew would see 45 minutes o! day fol-lowed by 45 minutes o! night, with plenty o! opportunities to see light-ning storms, city lights and sunrises.

“It was pretty awesome to come across the Northwest. I could see Crater Lake and then I could point out everything else from these. The Northwest looks pretty distinct [from space].”

The view was familiar territo-ry for Metcalf-Lindenburger, who majored in geology at Whitman and later taught earth science classes at a high school in Vancouver, Wash.

She continues to teach kids, though not necessarily in the class-room. Prior to her lecture on Mon-day, Metcalf-Lindenburger was the keynote speaker for “Great Explo-rations: A Science, Technology, En-gineering and Math Adventure for 5th through 8th Grade Girls” in Cor-diner Hall on Saturday, March 26.

This is the second time Metcalf-Lindenburger has returned to Whit-man to speak about her experience in space — she was also the Baccalau-reate speaker on May 22, 2010. But to Professor o! Geology Bob Car-son, her adviser at Whitman, that sounds like the Dottie he knows.

“As an astronaut, part o! her job is educating the public, and she likes to do her job well,” he said. “She is just so eager to make peo-ple happy and to inspire people. As-tronauts are so magical, and Dot-tie is captivating all on her own.”

by ALYSSA GOARDStaff Reporter

dollars. Senior Ari Frink, Whit-man’s other campus sustain-ability coordinator, believes that providing bicycles to all students is an important is-sue for the college to address.

“I think it’s really important for this campus to have a rental program so that bicycles are avail-able to all members o! this com-munity and particularly to stu-dents who don’t have disposa-ble incomes to purchase quali-ty, long-lasting bikes,” Frink said.

Junior Bryant Fong, who along with junior Emily Rhoad-es is a bicycle co-op intern, said students are relieved that Whitman has begun to fo-cus on this transportation issue.

“It’s important to raise mobil-ity, there’s always talk about be-ing stuck in the Whitman bub-ble, and i! you have a bike your distance coverage is a lot larger,” he said. “I’ve already had students come up to me who say they don’t want to buy a bike on campus.”

The popularity o! biking at Whitman has led to some is-sues, though: bicycle racks are of-ten crowded with students who choose to leave their bike out-side rather than in their resi-dence hall or house, and there are some abandoned and in-complete bikes that have been locked to racks for months.

A recent movement to cre-ate a bike policy at Whitman is making an effort to clear up bi-cycle racks for easier student us-age. Starting this week, aban-doned bikes and lone bicycle parts--a wheel attached to a bike

rack, for instance--will have a no-ti!ication placed on them and lat-er removed to be put in storage i! the noti!ication is ignored. Aban-doned bikes are de!ined as van-dalized or in a nonfunctional state. The development comes af-ter a roundtable meeting between members ranging from Whitman faculty to ASWC President Car-son Burns aiming to make bicy-cling less o! a hassle for students.

“The policy enables the college to act about bicycles while still protecting students,” said Clarke.

Before the meeting, Whit-man had done little to enforce its bike policy, leaving handicap handrails unusable because o! the number o! bikes locked to them and trees and sculptures used as bike racks. Heidi Dob-son, professor o! biology and co-chair o! Whitman’s Tree and Landscaping Committee, facil-itated the effort to create Whit-man’s bike policy. According to Dobson, the Tree and Landscap-ing Committee was encouraged to create the policy because aban-doned bicycles have been a con-tinual problem on campus.

“We’re one o! the few colleges that doesn’t have a de!ined policy,” she said. “There are a lot o! prob-lems with bicycles that are abandoned and nev-er picked up. This causes problems for the grounds people and it also takes up spaces in the bicycle racks.”

After Whitman’s ground crew identi!ies a deserted bike, Whitman security will be noti-!ied to photograph and tag the

bike. I! the bike has not been moved within two weeks, securi-ty will remove the bike and store it for eight months in the col-lege warehouse located on Reese street – allow- i n g enough time for students who go abroad to c l a i m

their bikes. The only exception to

this rule will be during winter and spring breaks when remov-

al o! bikes will take place two weeks after the break has ended. Lone locks and bicycle parts will be treated in the same manner.

Starting in Fall o! 2011, any type o! bikes or bicycle parts that are locked to handicap handrails

or locations that are deemed to impair safety will be re-

moved immediately – without warning, and

will be also be stored up to eight months. How-ever, the Spring 2011 semester will serve as an interim period;

bicycles and bicy-cle parts that are lo-cated in these are-

as will be tagged and given two weeks time to be moved before re-

moval for storage.Although Whit-

man is already con-sidered a bike-friendly campus,

the creation o! Whit-man’s bicycle policy

and the proposal for a bike rental pro-

gram are pro-viding stu-dents a more convenient and hassle-free way to use bicycles.

“ I t ’ s about creat-

ing access to what is already

an important part o! our community”,” Frink said.

from BIKES, PAGE 1

NASA Astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger ‘97 visits Whitman. PHOTO BY VON HAFFTEN

New bike policy, proposed share program would increase biking on campus

ILLUSTRATION BY JOHANSON

Community anti-­violence efforts expand

Kari Tupper, also a member o! the Committee, said that by-stander intervention works well in some contexts, but is limited in the scope o! problems it can ad-dress. Many problems o! violence are related to social issues, and won’t be !ixed by active bystanders.

“You need a systemic safe-ty net,” she said, adding that by-standers still have an important role to play in the community.

“A sense o! responsibility for each other is tremendously pow-erful,” she said. “It can spur the commitment to coordinating so-cial services to deal with prob-lems like poverty and drug abuse.”

Whitman students who have been trained as Green Dot bystand-ers also participated in the confer-ence. They shared stories o! look-ing out for friends and strangers at parties, and discussed the impor-tance o! being an active bystander.

For sophomore Joey Got-tleib, Green Dot has been a way to raise awareness about violence prevention.

“It’s a really cool social ef-fort,” he said. “It’s very acces-sible. It’s easy to be involved.”

Members o! the Steering Com-mittee said that they hoped to pur-sue further coordination efforts between Walla Walla organiza-tions while acquiring new resourc-es to !ight and prevent violence.

Ultimately, Maxwell said the goal is to keep violence a prom-inent issue in the communi-ty and pursue effective, pro-active preventative solutions.

“We’re trying to change the culture,” she said.

from GREEN DOT, PAGE 1

3MAR

312011

Spring is !inally arriving in Wal-la Walla, announced by sunbathing on Ankeny and the return o! Katy Perry music on the outdoor tennis courts. Spring means the beginning o! some relationships and the re-birth o! others — as long as the sun is out. Here are a few ways to cele-brate spring with someone special:

1.Get a shake from Iceburg and

bike around town.

2. Nap on Ankeny, or really any-

where outside.

3. Go on an OP moonlight pad-

dle trip.

4.

Bring sandwiches to Pioneer Park and visit the aviary.

5. Eat outside, frequently.

6. Find a building to watch the

sunset from.

7. Get out o! town and go on a

day hike.

Season of

love

ILLUSTRATION BY SONG

Primavera from garden to table

Lent to benefit environment

Whitman fashion: Rather predictable

I! you’re feeling vitamin de!icient, never fear; spring is a great time for fresh produce in Walla Walla.

Fruits and vegetables in season for April and May in Washington in-clude broccoli, lettuce, spring peas, kale, artichokes, asparagus and rhu-barb. Visit Whitman’s Organic Gar-den (on the corner o! Paci!ic and Penrose) where volunteer garden-ers will be busy planting in prepara-tion for the late summer harvest and enjoy a study break in the gazebo.

“We would absolutely love more hands at open gardens, which will be consistent after break on Mondays from 3-5 p.m., Wednesdays from 4-6 p.m. and Fridays from 2-4 p.m. Whitties should also keep their eyes out for posters and e-mails advertis-ing Saturday workshops,” said soph-omore Lisa Beneman in an e-mail.

Also check out the Wal-la Walla Farmers Market’s Face-book page to get excited for this springtime town staple open-ing May 1, and start research-ing recipes for rhubarb pie to wow your house and dorm mates with.

‘Lent’ is an Old English word meaning ‘lengthen’, referring to its observance in spring-

time when the days begin to get longer. During these 40 days before Easter, some decide to give up habits or addictions. Students who observe Lent commonly choose to give up things like watching online TV or certain foods like chocolate and meat.

Lent, a time o! self-restric-

tion, goes hand in hand with move-ments to curb consumption and lead a more environmentally-sustaina-ble life. The Natural Resources De-fense Council suggests making an-nual Lenten resolutions like giv-ing up plastic and paper bags, re-fraining from buying bottled wa-ter, opting for plant-based, con-centrated and biodegradable laun-dry detergents, using recycled toilet paper brands and reducing house-hold energy use (by setting your thermostat two degrees colder).

According to various sourc-es such as Glamour, New York Magazine and Harp-

er’s Bazaar, this spring fashion sea-son is the time and place for mix-and-match prints and a !lashback to the 70s — think peasant blous-es and high-waisted, wide-legged pants. As Whitties head back from spring break, some o! these trends are bound to make an appearance on Ankeny. However, for the most part, the vernal equinox and subse-quent rise in temperature are more conducive to a !loral-printed land-scape than wardrobe. And let’s

face it — we’ve been wearing peas-ant tops regardless o! their pres-ence on the runway (besides, ours are authentic, coming from Mom’s closet or a favorite thrift store).

Here are The Pioneer’s top Whitman fashion trends for the spring 2011 season:

1. Birkenstocks, Tevas, Chacos, !lip-!lops (whatever your fashion-backward footwear o! choice may be)

2. Zipped-of! cargo pants and/or cut-of! jeans

3. Flannel shirts with rolled-up sleeves

4. Athletic shorts for all occasions (for an “always ready for that pick-up Ultimate game” look)

by KELSEY KENNEDYStaff Reporter

by HANNA KAHLStaff Reporter

by CARA LOWRYFeature Editor

feature:SPRING andOTHER DRUGS

by MAREN SCHIFFERStaff Reporter

The ubiquitous hammering o! the construction crew, while previously a minor nuisance

to theatre students and professors, has now become a present obsta-cle. The current Harper Joy The-atre renovations, which will pro-vide updated space for classes and performances, also have the un-fortunate side effect o! making the Friemann “Black Box” Stage una-vailable for the rest o! the semester.

The “Black Box”, for many the-atre majors and students invested in theatre, provides nearly around-the-clock performance space, which other spaces on campus lack.

“While there are a lot o! plac-es on campus with stage-like are-as ... there’s no place like the Black Box because it’s ... small, readi-ly available to students, and yet it has a backstage. It’s de!inite-ly a loss,” said junior Theo Pratt, who relied on the space for his play “Moments Before Death”.

Student shows like Pratt’s, dubbed “Lunchboxes”, provide an extra creative outlet for students in-terested in theatre outside o! Harp-er Joy’s seasonal shows. Lunchbox-es are typically hal! an hour long and vary from “Waiting for Go-dot” scenes to the student-writ-ten skit “Facebook: The Lunch-box”. These plays take place dur-

ing the noon lunch hour, and stu-dents on a meal plan can sign up to have a brown lunch bag deliv-ered to them prior to the show.

Senior Elizabeth Berg, one o! the Drama Club’s Lunchbox co-ordinators, describes some o! the perks o! lunchbox shows.

“A lunchbox can be any-thing you want it to be ... you don’t have to worry about logis-tical issues like lights and sound,” said Berg. “This gives people to chance to focus on the show it-sel! and hone their skills. You also get the opportunity to see varie-ty and student-produced, student-worked shows, which is exciting.”

Both Berg and Pratt said the Black Box’s intimacy and adaptability o! its stage en-hance Lunchbox shows.

“The action takes place right in front o! the audi-ence, which is not true for a main stage show,” said Pratt.

“It’s a very !lexible space be-cause there is no real ‘stage’, no big backdrops or curtains. You can make it into anything you want it to be, and there’s a lot o! freedom in that,” said Berg.

Unfortunately, Lunchbox shows will now have to work with a new space. Berg states that though she will help students !ind available spaces, there are some limitations.

“We’re going to have to [sched-ule shows] on a case-by-case ba-

sis. We’ll have to !ind another space on campus, [but] a non-the-atre building is on its own sched-ule and may not be able to !ind time or have the suitable space for a student production,” said Berg.

While Kimball Theatre and Maxey Auditorium can support some productions, such as the an-nual “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and Varsity Nordic shows, Pratt believes that the availability o! the Black Box space is hard to replace.

“One o! the main things it has that people can bene!it from is kind o! more impromptu, last-minute shows. It’s simple, it’s right there

and available. You can’t do [those shows] in other spaces as well.”

Nevertheless, Berg encour-ages students to attend Lunch-box performances or, i! they have an idea, large-scale or small, to sign up for a Lunchbox slot.

“It’s a great way to go,” said Berg. “A year ago I directed a Lunchbox scene and it helped me hone my skills as a director, which can help people take on more am-bitious projects later. It’s a great way for students to get their feet wet without the tremendous pressure o! a main stage show.”

Harper Joy renovation impedes ‘lunchbox theatre’

Music program undergoes large-­scale changes Tragedy transformed into ballet

Vincent Nemesis (Henry Nolan ‘13) threatens Justice Dikë (Minnie Cluff ‘12) during the production of Theo Pratt’s (‘12) play “Moments Before Death.” PHOTO BY FENNELL

by C.J. WISLERA&E Editor

by WILL WITWERStaff Reporter

Following this year’s up-coming !inal performanc-es, Whitman College’s mu-

sic department will undergo sev-eral major changes. In the past two years, four tenured profes-sors have retired, are set to retire or have left for another job. Com-bined with last year’s shift to a 3-2 teaching load, the department has been forced to make some cuts, though many will be temporary.

“It’d been a long time since there had been any change in the mu-sic faculty at large,” said Profes-sor o! Music Lee Thompson, who is retiring at the end o! the year af-ter 25 years at Whitman. “We’re all pretty much the same age, so we’re eligible for retirement or sal-ary continuation programs. That’s why all the change at once. Cou-ple that with the move to a 3-2 and it was just sort o! a perfect storm.”

Whitman Chamber Sing-ers have been cut (at least for next year) because, as Thompson ex-plained, the faculty must maintain certain courses to maintain the mu-sic major, while other courses are more expendable. In an e-mail, Ca-tharine Gould Chism Chair o! Mu-sic Susan Pickett called the absence

“a big loss for our students, our de-partment and our community.”

Other cuts to course offerings include but are not limited to Dic-tion for Singers, Cello Choir and Jazz Bass. Many classes will now be of-fered in alternating years. The sec-ond jazz band was cut as a conse-quence o! 3-2, but Professor o! Mu-sic David Glenn organized anoth-er non-performance class called Jazz Workshop to make up for it. Glenn, who is retiring at the end o! this school year, will remain in Walla Walla with his wife and focus on his work as a musician and composer.

“It’s not really like I’m retir-ing ... I’m only retiring from teach-ing full-time,” said Glenn. “You don’t retire as a musician. [Music] is something you just do the same way that you breathe and eat ... the more you do it the more you real-ize you don’t know, so it’s a lifelong journey without a real end to it.”

The search committee has picked three !inalists for Glenn’s position who will come to campus with-in the next few weeks. As for actu-ally leaving the school, Glenn says he will miss the students but re-mains con!ident that Whitman will not neglect its music program.

“I’m very grateful for the gig, but it’s time to move on,” said Glenn.

“The school bene!its [from] this too — it’s good for the students to get somebody younger, new ... and have them develop the program the way they want to develop it.”

Another search is underway to !ill Associate Professor o! Music His-tory Ed Dixon’s position following his retirement. Thompson’s posi-tion will be !illed by Melissa Loeh-nig, graduate teaching assistant at the Dean’s Of!ice o! College o! Mu-sic at Florida State University, with a tenure-track search occurring some-time in the next two years. Pick-ett, however, stated that there is no guarantee that his tenure track line will stay with the music department.

Thompson, for his part, is con-vinced that Whitman’s music pro-gram will remain an important part o! campus, though he himsel! is not entirely happy about leaving.

“I think, by and large, the music program has been such an integral part o! the Whitman experience and the Whitman education, so I think there is certainly a lot o! support from students and alums. I just hope that the administration will be likewise supportive,” said Thompson. “[Re-tiring] is quite bittersweet, actually. I am through and through a teach-er, you know, that is what I really love to do, but it’s time for a change.”

Freeman wanted to allow the indi-vidual styles o! the dancers to come out. The music and choreography not only allows for a variety o! dance, but also provides !lexibility for less experienced dancers. First-year Flor-ence LeBas, who auditioned after her !irst semester o! beginning ballet with Ida Hutson-Fish, described the production as a positive experience despite the rigorous 10 days spent working while Freeman was in town.

“Dance has always been some-thing that’s been a fear in a way, and I feel [that] by doing a produc-tion I’ve realized I can break through that,” said LeBas. “It’s okay that I’m not good, as long as I’m working on it. Because before I’ve always been like, ‘Oh, I’m just not good at danc-ing.’ But now it’s very different.”

Like LeBas, !irst-year danc-er Galen McIsaac-Davidson found the production process enjoyable.

“It’s been really amaz-ing to see the level o! commit-ment, and just how positive every-one is throughout the whole pro-cess, even when it’s all happening in 10 days,” said McIsaac-Davidson.

Although he is new to dance, get-ting involved was one o! his goals for coming to Whitman. McIsaac-Davidson, who plays Mercutio,

has a background in gymnastics, which helped him in his !ight scenes.

“There’s a culture in ballet that’s so different than [gymnastics],” McIsaac-Davidson said. “It’s kind o! ‘fend for yourself’ and it’s a lit-tle bit intense ... you have to set your own boundaries in terms o! what you can do with your body and what feels right and what doesn’t.”

All three dancers noted that the energy and modern mu-sic o! the production would ap-peal to the Whitman audience.

“I think it’s a high energy, fun show; the choreography is awe-some. Nate’s a beautiful danc-er [and] so is Tillie,” said McIsaac.

Besides “Romeo and Juliet”, the show will include a piece choreo-graphed by instructor Ida Hutson-Fish called “Impressions o! Igor”. Finney described the piece as a more lyrical, classical ballet. There will also be two pieces performed by the Co-riolis Dance collective: “Lumen” and “Inference”. Coriolis is a profession-al dance group started in 2008 by Natascha Greenwalt-Murphy and Christin Call. Greenwalt-Murphy is originally from Walla Walla, and she studied with Ida Hutson-Fish.

The production will take place on April 1 and 2 in Cordiner Hall from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is free.

PIO PICKSEach Thursday, The Pioneer

highlights several events happening on campus or in Walla Walla

during the weekend. Here are this week’s picks:

C"#$%& N$'()WEB invites students to a night o! poker, blackjack and prizes. Students can play against professors who will act as ‘house’ dealers. Prizes include, among other things, a Wii and digital camera. Sat-

urday, April 2 at 9-11 p.m. Reid

Ballroom.

M&*$+ N$'(), ‘R+"- W$%.&/’Students looking for big screen entertainment without the price o! concessions are invited to attend WEB’s showing o! Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Win-dow”. The 1954 !ilm tells the story o! a wheelchair-bound photographer who begins to suspect his neighbor o! mur-der. Thursday, March 31 at 7:30

p.m. Kimball Auditorium.

F-$."0# ") F&1-,, K")(+-$%+ G&+2.%+-The Whitman Music Depart-ment presents mezzo-soprano Katherine Goeldner. A favorite o! the New York City Opera, she recently played the title role &! “Carmen” at the Lyric Opera o! Chicago. Friday, April

1 at 4 p.m. Chism Recital Hall.

from ROMEO + JULIET, PAGE 1

4MAR

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The Whitman College men’s and women’s club alpine ski team *inished in the top 10 in

each event they participated in dur-ing United States Collegiate Ski-ing and Snowboarding Associa-tion (USCSA) National Champi-onships, held in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Whitman’s alpine team made it to the USCSA National Champi-onships last year, but neither team had as good o* a showing. Over the weekend, the women’s team placed *ifth in combined rank-ing, while the men’s *inished tenth.

“I think everyone is pretty satis-*ied with the performances. [Cap-tain junior] Chris [Machesney] and

Brad [West] were bummed that they fell [on the last day],” said *irst-year Patrick Finnegan. “On Saturday, 30 people fell [in the slalom race]. The course was really dif*icult.”

Whitman was strongly represented at nationals for both teams. Machesney, Finnegan, West, junior Nathan Ord and senior Tim Bak were the men. Jun-ior Captain Torey Anderson, *irst-year Jazz Campbell, and junior Lexie Drech-sel represented the

women’s team. Hal* o* each team quali*ied for nationals, in which 105 men and 109 women repre-senting over 20 schools compete.

“Both teams qualifying for na-tionals was a pretty big deal,” said Finnegan. “There are 17 teams in

our region and we needed to place top *ive to qualify

for nationals.”Each al-

pine team competed in slalom and gi-ant slalom, where a ski-er attempts to go around poles known as gates as

quickly as they can. While giant sla-lom has between 33 and 45 gates, the slalom run has between 40 and 75 (depending on the track and on the gender o* the racer or the slope).

Whitman’s best individu-al men’s performances came in the giant slalom where Machesney and Ord *inished 18th and 19th, respectively. For the women’s team, the best individual run was Campbell, who *inished 17th.

Each o* the women that com-peted placed in the top 30 for slalom, and their team rank-ing was sixth for the race.

“I think all and all it was suc-cessful and fun. It was both Chris’s and my birthday so this was a great way to celebrate,” said Finnegan.

“We always play of* each other and challenge each other in order to get better and earn the team more points,” said junior Rachel Hoar. “Some o* us are sprinters, some are climbers, some are time-trial-ists or all-around riders. Each per-son puts their natural talents to use and we all take advantage o* this.”

Thanks to the strategy and hard work o* her teammates, Hoar claimed the Conference Leader jer-sey for the week o* March 19. This indicates that Hoar is the lead-er in the overall time standings for all the riders she competes with.

Sophomore Katie Chapman joined the cycling team at the be-ginning o* March, after complet-ing an extremely successful varsi-ty swim season. Her *irst of*icial competition was Whitman’s colle-

giate home race, held last weekend.“I’ll be a little nervous, es-

pecially since I don’t have very much experience riding in big groups,” said Chapman prior to the race. “But I think I’ll be ex-cited more than anything else. I’m a huge sucker for competi-tion and the adrenaline o* racing.”

The Whitman Bike Race — fea-turing a road race, team time tri-al and combine criterium — was a smashing success for the Mission-ary riders. In the overall conference team standings, Whitman moved from third to second place, behind only the University o* Washington. In addition, 12 different Whitties earned top 10 *inishes. First-years Luke Ogden and Chase Martin, sophomores Chapman and Molly Blust, juniors Hoar and David Han-cock and seniors Momany and Car-

rie Reinhart were all multiple-po-dium winners in the two-day event.

For many o* the riders, the op-portunity to ride on their home course was something they had been looking forward to. Rid-ing at the Whitman race is a mat-ter o* pride, and the cyclists wanted to show of* and pro-tect home course advantage.“Racing our home course is much better than racing other courses. First, because our course is sim-ply better and second, because we know the course in extreme detail” said Hoar, who lost the conference leader jersey but remains in second place among individual riders. “On other weekends we often learn the course as we ride it, since we often ride a particular loop a couple times … But here, we can make moves and play earlier in the race because

w e ’ v e ridden it so many times before.”

Whitman may be a school o* less than 2,000 students, yet the cycling team has experi-enced the support and dedica-tion from students around cam-pus that comes with success. For our riders, that success has come on a national level. Whitman has won team nationals in 2005-2006 and 2009-2010, and looks to repeat that success this season.

“It’s amazing, the dedication and support o* so many students, especially considering our rela-tively small campus,” said Hoar. “We hold our own and more.”

Interested in the Whit-man cycling team? For more in-formation visit http://whit-mancollegecycling.terapad.com.

Imagine spending spring break boating, tanning and hang-ing out with 10 o* your clos-

est friends in Southern California while also playing tennis against some o* the strongest competi-tion in the country. This is exactly what the women’s tennis team did .

This very tight-knit group o* women traveled to Southern Cal-ifornia during the second hal* o* spring break, from March 20 to 26, and got the chance to play against strong teams from out-side o* the Northwest Conference.

After beating Salisbury Univer-sity, Whitman College lost match-es to Chapman University, Univer-sity o* Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. These three losses came against nationally-ranked re-gional opponents. The Missionar-ies now have an 8-7 overall record.

Head Coach John Hein feels that this trip is crucial to his team’s season.

“It is one o* the most impor-tant parts o* the year,” Hein said. “We get to train and be away from campus so we can focus on tennis.”

This trip has a large impact on the season for several reasons. Go-ing down to California gives the team the opportunity to gain ex-perience against the sorts o* op-ponents that it would have to face in the regional tournament, which would happen i* the team wins the conference tournament.

Sophomore Kate Kunkel-Pat-terson feels that despite losing to the in-region teams, the match-es were still very worthwhile.

“We didn’t win, but it is al-ways good experience to play teams that are better than you,” she said.

The trip is also immensely crit-ical in strengthening the bonds within the team. Kunkel-Pat-terson attributes a lot o* the im-portance o* the trip to the time that the team spends together.

“The spring break trip, be-cause we are with each oth-er for a solid week, is very im-portant for the team dynam-ic,” Kunkel-Patterson said. “After spring break we just really click.”

Hein is very pleased with the energy that the team gives to one another.

“They really feed of* o* one another at matches,” Hein said.

To achieve the team’s goal o* making it into the regional and na-tional picture, the team will have to *irst make the conference tour-nament, which is virtually al-ready locked in with the team cur-rently sitting in third place. Once at the conference championships, the team will have to battle against two teams that have already hand-ed Whitman defeats: Lin*ield Col-lege and Whitworth University.

While Whitman did lose earlier in the season to those two teams, the team has been getting better and the conference title is not out o* reach.

“We are going to need to improve i* we want to win and we are seeing that im-provement,” Hein said.

The Missionaries next face Pa-ci*ic University on Saturday, April 2 at home starting at 10 a.m. be-fore traveling to Spokane to face Whitworth on Sunday, April 3.

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Women’s tennis finds fun, focus in California

Baseball wins, players snag student-athlete recognition

by TYLER HURLBURT

Staff Reporter

by ANDREW HAWKINS

Staff Reporter

Club skiing exceeds expectations at nationals

Small school cyclists find big success in teamwork

Posting its *irst conference victories o* the season, Whitman base-ball defeated Lewis & Clark College 9-3 and 6-1 in their home double-header on Saturday, March 12. The next day, Whitman dropped a 2-1 lead in the *inal inning to fall 5-3 to the visiting Pios. After going six for nine at the plate and playing an errorless second base, Jay Richard ‘11 was awarded NWC Student-Athlete o* the Week. Teammate Jake Nel-son ‘12 shared NWC honors for pitching Saturday’s three-hit victory.

from CYCLING, PAGE 1

Planning to be in the South Puget Sound area

summer 2011?

Take courses at PLU to transfer back to

Whitman.

PHOTO BY FENNELL

ILLUSTRATION BY SLOANE