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| Whitworth University | |
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| Motto: | An Education of Mind and Heart |
| Established: | 1890 |
| Type: | Private liberal arts college |
| President: | William P. Robinson |
| Faculty: | 125 (full-time) |
| Staff: | 300 |
| Students: | 2,504 |
| Undergraduates: | 2,256 |
| Postgraduates: | 248 |
| Location: | Spokane, Washington, USA |
| Campus: | Suburban 200 acres |
| Colors: | Crimson and Black |
| Mascot: | Pirates |
| Website: | www.whitworth.edu |
Whitworth University is a private Christian liberal arts college located in Spokane, Washington in the United States that offers bachelor's and master's degrees in a variety of academic disciplines. It is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).
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Brief history
Founded in 1883 in Sumner, Washington by George Whitworth as the Sumner Academy, it became Whitworth College in 1890. In 1899, Whitworth moved from Sumner to Tacoma, and in 1914, it moved from Tacoma to Spokane.
Whitworth's board of trustees voted to change the institution's official name to Whitworth University effective July 1, 2007[1].
Student life
Whitworth offers students many opportunities to enjoy college life. Every Thursday at 9:30 p.m., ASWU offers free entertainment, known as "Half Past 9."citation needed Recent Half Past 9s have included concerts, film showings, and comedy shows. ASWU also offers campus-wide programs each year such as Pirate Idol and Relay for Life.
The over-arching goal of Whitworth Student Life is to build a warm and supportive residential community where students have multiple points of contact – with roommates and other residents, with their student leaders and with the resident directors.
The editor of Reslife.net, an online magazine serving student-life professionals nationwide, heard about Whitworth’s approach to residence hall staffing and programming and asked the college's associate dean of students to write an article outlining his philosophy. The article recently was re-printed for the Association of College and University Housing Officers International.
The article points out the fact that Whitworth’s leadership program, developed in the mid-1980s, employs a greater number and variety of student leaders than is typical at most colleges and universities. In addition to the traditional slate of resident assistants, each Whitworth residence hall has ministry coordinators, health coordinators, and cultural diversity advocates – positions quite unique in nature[2].
Having these additional positions means that more students with more diverse skills and interests are able to take advantage of Whitworth’s student-leadership opportunities and to benefit from the personal growth and vocational experiences that they provide. Additionally, the time commitment is relatively low for most positions, so student leaders also can be involved in other extracurricular activities.
Hiring additional student leaders also results in a ratio of residents to leaders in Whitworth’s residence halls of about ten to one, compared to the 20-to-one ratio at many other institutionscitation needed, including private liberal-arts colleges.
Dorm life
Whitworth offers 10 residence halls for undergraduate students:
- Arend Hall
- Baldwin-Jenkins Hall
- Ballard Hall
- Boppell Hall
- Duvall Hall
- McMillan Hall
- Schumacher Hall
- Stewart Hall
- The Village
- Warren Hall
Students are strongly encouraged to live on campus for at least two years, and many opt to stay longer to be part of student leadership teams or to live in one of the newer buildings. In addition to the 10 residence halls, Whitworth sponsors several 'theme houses' each year. Some recurring themes include Cross-Country, Swimming, Women's Health and Wellness, and Simplicity in Living.
Athletics
Whitworth's athletics teams are the Pirates (or, unofficially, the Bucs). The university offers 20 varsity sports and competes in the Northwest Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. Men can compete in cross-country, football, basketball, swimming, track and field (indoor and outdoor), golf, tennis, soccer and baseball; women can compete in soccer, volleyball, basketball, swimming, track and field (indoor and outdoor), golf, tennis, and softball.
In the last eight years, 20 Whitworth athletes have been named Academic All-Americans and more than 42 have received All-America recognition. Since 2000, five Pirate teams have achieved the highest average GPA in NCAA Division III for their respective sports, and 28 teams have captured Northwest Conference championships. The Pirates won the Northwest Conference McIlroy-Lewis Trophy for the best combined standings across all sports in 2008 and 2005, and Whitworth has placed among the top three conference programs for four consecutive years [3].
In 2007, the Pirates won six NWC titles and added four runner-up finishes, winning the trophy for the second time in the past three years. Also in 2007, the women's soccer team made it to the second round of the DIII tourney while their coach, Sean Bushey, received a national Coach of the Year honor. [4].
In 2006, swimmer Samantha Kephart won two national championships – in the 100- and 200-yard (180 m) butterfly events, respectively – at the 2006 NCAA Division III swim tournament, setting a Division III record in the 200 butterfly. In addition, the Whitworth Men's Swim Team has won six consecutive conference championshipswhen?. The 2006 Pirate football team had an 11-1 record, its best evercitation needed, finished the season ranked 9th in the nation, and made it to the second round of the NCAA Div. III playoffs. Tight end Michael Allan, a 2005 AFCA DIII All-American and a pre-season 2006 All-America pick, was invited to participate in the 2006 NFL Combine and to play in both the Hula Bowl and the Shrine East-West All-Star Game. He was the only NCAA DIII football athlete invited to all three events. Among his many postseason honors, Allan was named to the Associated Press Little All-America Team and the D3football.com All-America First Team. On May 8, 2007 he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 7th round of the NFL Draft.
In 2005, men's soccer went to the DIII Final Four and finished third in the nationcitation needed. In that same year, the women's volleyball team set home attendance records while winning the Northwest Conference championship and going on to compete in the regional finals. And the college won the Northwest Conference's McIlroy-Lewis All-Sports Trophy, which measures athletic excellence across all competitive fields.
In 2004, track-and-field star Kristen Shields was named U.S. College-Division Academic All-American of the Year (along with the University of Connecticut's Emeka Okafor).
The men's 1996 basketball team finished second in the nation in the NAIA. In 2007, the men's basketball team won another NWC title, defeating Lewis and Clark 69-62[5].
Whitworth won a national championship as an NAIA school in 1960, when the baseball team defeated Georgia Southern University, 4-0citation needed.
Recent faculty highlights
- Associate Professor of English Laurie Lamon, '78, was chosen by U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall as one of two new voices in poetry to receive 2007 Witter Bynner Fellowships. Newspaperman David Tucker was the other honoree. Hall awarded the prizes to Lamon and Tucker in March 2007 at the Library of Congress, and the two poets read from their works during the awards ceremony. Each received a $10,000 fellowship provided by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Lamon, whom Hall characterizes as "an exquisite writer of lyrics, writing a musical poetry that is delicate and pure," recently published her debut poetry collection, The Fork Without Hunger (CavanKerryPress, 2005).
- Associate Professor of Kinesiology & Athletics Russ Richardson, who also directs Whitworth’s Athletic Training Education Program, received the Washington State Athletic Trainers Association 2007 Excellence in Service Award, as well as the Northwest Athletic Trainers Association Outstanding Service Award. Richardson received the first award in recognition of his co-authoring a bill that would regulate the practice of athletic training and moving that bill through the Washington State Legislature. He was also recognized for his efforts to develop the Alaska Athletic Trainers Association and for his service to NATA District 10 through various leadership roles.
- Math and Computer Science Professor Susan Mabry has been awarded two National Science Foundation grants to research and develop intelligent software agents for complex medical environments and recently published a book titled Intelligent Agents for Patient Monitoring and Diagnostics.
- Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Eerdmans, 2005), by Whitworth Theology Professor James Edwards, '67, was selected Best Book of 2006 in the "Apologetics/Evangelism" category by Christianity Today magazine. Edwards, who serves as chair of the Whitworth Theology Department, is also an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the author of The Divine Intruder (NavPress, 2000) and commentaries on the biblical books of Hebrews, Romans, and the Gospel of Mark.
- The second edition of Whitworth Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Alan Mikkelson's book about the relationship between biology and communication was published by Thomson Learning in April 2007. Mikkelson co-authored the second edition of The Biology of Human Communication: Issues and Applications with Kory Floyd, of Arizona State University, and 2003 Whitworth alumnus and communication-studies major Colin Hesse, who is now a first-year Ph.D. student at Arizona State University.
- Associate Professor of Theology Keith Beebe received a 2006 Graves Award in the Humanities from the American Council of Learned Societies. The award, presented for exemplary skill and enthusiasm in the classroom and for faculty research that enhances students' educational experience, allowed Beebe to travel to Scotland to work on the McCullough Manuscripts (1742), comprising 108 first-person conversion narratives from the Scottish Great Awakening.
- A recent $115,000 National Science Foundation grant is the ninth external grant that Associate Professor of Physics Richard Stevens has received to fund his research using laser spectroscopy to examine physical phenomenon related to spacecraft propulsion. Stevens is among a select group contracted under NASA's electric propulsion research program to study the new thruster technology.
- Whitworth Professor of Political Science Julia Stronks directs Whitworth's initiative to serve homeless youth in Spokane and the Lives of Commitment Program, funded by a $1 million grant from the M. J. Murdock Foundation. She is the author of the books Law, Religion and Public Policy: A Commentary on First Amendment Jurisprudence (Lexington Books, 2002) and Christian Teachers in Public Schools (Baker Books, 2000).
- Professor of Theology Gerald Sittser was named 2005 Gold Medallion Book Award winner for his book When God Doesn't Answer Your Prayer. The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association awards the prize in recognition of Christian books that meet the association's highest criteria for excellence in content, literary, quality, design and significance. Sittser is the author of a number of popular Christian books, including The Will of God as a Way of Life, Loving Across Our Differences, and A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss.
Notable alumni
- Michael Allan (2007), tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs
- Ross H. Anderson (1969), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
- Charles Boppell (1965), retired president and CEO of Worldwide Restaurant Concepts, Inc.
- Major General Richard Carr (1949), served as Chief of Chaplains in the United States Air Force (1978-1982)
- Saisuree Chutikul (1956), secretary-general of Thailand's National Youth Bureau
- Philip W. Eaton (1965), president of Seattle Pacific University
- Sia Figiel, Samoan novelist
- Frank Hernandez (1993), award-winning opera singer
- Peter Hunner (1976), internationally acclaimed artist and glassblower
- Jena Lee (2004), executive director of Blood:Water Mission
- Ron Leighton (1973), U.S. District Court judge
- Steve Miller (1983), scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory named Battelle Inventor of the Year for 2002
- David Myers, social psychologist and author
- Jen Pifer, senior producer, CNN Investigative Unit
- Mike Riley (Master's Degree), Oregon State football coach
- Marvin Sather (1967), named Washington State's Teacher of the Year for 1999
- Anna Schowengerdt (1993), leader of humanitarian relief programs for Catholic Relief Services
- Ray Washburn (1961), pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals (1961-1969) and the Cincinnati Reds (1970)
References
- ^ Whitworth residence halls: http://www.whitworth.edu/administration/studentlife/residencelife&housing/livingoncampus/residencehalls/index.htm
- ^ Why Whitworth?: http://www.whitworth.edu/generalInformation/whywhitworth/7.htm
- ^ Additional Whitworth Facts: http://www.whitworth.edu/GeneralInformation/WhitworthFacts/AdditionalFacts.htm#Athletics
- ^ Additional Whitworth Facts: http://www.whitworth.edu/GeneralInformation/WhitworthFacts/AdditionalFacts.htm#Faculty
- ^ Additional Whitworth Facts: http://www.whitworth.edu/GeneralInformation/WhitworthFacts/AdditionalFacts.htm#Alumni
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