95 things I love about Whitworth.
December 5, 2007 | Contributed by Daniel Walters
I do a lot of criticizing of Whitworth. I think the school is full of a variety of deep-seeded problems, and I express that opinion regularly. Part of that’s because, well, complaining about what’s wrong often forces changes. Going on and on about good things may make people feel fuzzy inside but usually doesn’t get much done.
But some people look at my screeds against various Whitworth problems and assume that I hate Whitworth. That’s incorrect.
If anything, it’s the opposite. I care deeply about Whitworth. I want it to be successful. That’s why I get so upset when I feel that things are changing for the worse.
It’s just like people criticize the colorization of black and white movies, not because they hate old movies, but because they love them.
But sometimes what I like about Whitworth is lost in the flurry of writings about what I hate about Whitworth.
Hopefully this post will help rectify that situation. I’ve given around 100 things, some huge and overarching and others very small, that I love about Whitworth. Some of these may seem slightly backhanded. Some of the things that I love about Whitworth, you may hate. That’s fine. The comments section has been left wide open for such commentary.
I hereby present, in the tradition of other, similarly-numbered lists, 95 things I love about Whitworth.
1. Teachers that actually teach. At other schools professors often foist off their “pedagogical drudgery on their TAs.” Not so at Whitworth. You’ll never find teachers more engaged and enthusiastic than at Whitworth.
2. The fact that Whitworth’s professors are there for the small school and the personalized environment, not for the cold hard cash and the world prestige. Their commitment, their reason for being there, shows.
3. Whitworth’s small enough that every student, guy or girl, can be a “Big Man on campus.”
4. The way the Whitworth’s lampposts glow in the fog.
5. The twin lunch lady powers of Loretta and Dee.
6. The Sodexho Hot Chocolate machine, which is somehow blessed with the perfect mixture of cocoa and hot water. This isn’t Starbucks hot chocolate sludge, people. This is pure delicious goodness. Now, if they’d only stop taunting me with “Out of Order” signs and just fix the darn thing.
7. The “Angry Pasta” international dish. More like Angry if the cafeteria doesn’t have it pasta.
8. That so many students can feel free to leave their doors unlocked and backpacks unattended. For the most part, Whitworth is a very safe place.
9. Warren Peace.
10. Compared to many Christian colleges, the campus newspaper is free to print stories on any topic. As a result, we get far more engaging discussion. And the occasional story on !!!—->SEX<—!!!
11. Chapel isn’t mandatory. The college doesn’t force religion down your throat. It lightly encourages you to swallow it, but there’s no throat stuffing.
12. The scuffed, scraped, splotched, cracked crappiness of the current art building. Even without any of the art, it’s the most unique, creatively inspiring, thought-provoking building on campus. May it rest in peace.
13. The Mac-BJ rivalry. Sadly, it’s not as big as it used to be. But nothing brings your dorm together like a (sometimes) friendly rivalry with an opposing (totally evil) dorm.
14. The potstickers at the President’s Christmas Reception. I swear, I eat enough of those things to kill a decent-sized horse.
15. Up-to-date programs like Photoshop and Illustrator freely available for use in the library. Bring a flash drive and your password, and you can essentially create anything.
16. That oh-so-catchy, albeit clichéd, chime of the Campanile. It gentle ringing lets you know “Crap, you’re late for your 12:00 class”
17. The Whitworthian archives. I know, I know, I talk about this all the time. But to have 100 years of college history on my laptop, in a searchable format, is an information nerd’s dream. (Our dreams aren’t nearly as exciting as yours.) At any moment, I’m a few keystrokes away from, say, finding what former ASWC president Moses Pulei thought about initiation.
18. Sliding on the icy Hello Walk during the slushy winter months.
19. Mock Rock, even in this year’s garbled, watered-down format.
20. Warren Hall always winning Mock Rock. It’s always fun to mention this and see students from other dorms turn visibly angry, often launching into a slew of profanities.
21. Traditiation. When I was a freshman, the administration had finally fine-tuned the initiation process. At least the
22. Alan Mikkelson’s eager youthful enthusiasm. The man really loves comm research. No. Really really really.
23. The reverberating baritone of Leonard Oakland’s voice. He should have an NPR show or something.
24. President Bill Robinson’s casual e-mails he speedily hacks out moments before going on some recruiting trip. “Hey, g’s. How’s it crackin in the Whit?. Mind. Heart. Truth. Grace. Rock and Roll. Catchya on the flip-side, suckas.”
25. The rickety bike Forrest Baird zips around with on campus. He just needs playing cards in the spokes.
26. The way Corliss Slack laughs as her biting sarcasm tears your point to shreds. It softens the blow.
27. The serene expression of confidence students get when — if rather–they finally get an ‘A’ on an essay in Dr. Sugano’s class.
28. Coming to the obvious realization that Dr. Ron Pyle is perhaps the nicest man in the history of the world.
29. The dusty cross-country course in the Back 40. The hill will haunt your dreams. And your lungs.
30. The secret passageways under MacMillan.
31. The way the scariest part of the Mac Haunted house, every year, is those cursed black tarps.
32. The giant plywood
33. The tradition of catching virgin pinecones. To truly come of age at Whitworth, we don’t have to slaughter a lion or grip burning coal without flinching. We just have to have the reflexes and blind luck to catch a plummeting pinecone before it hits terra firma. Sure, it sticks in your flesh a bit, but that’s just the pinecone’s way of letting you know you’re alive.
34. The furious applause that erupts in the dining hall whenever some fool drops their tray. The applause carries not a trace of mocking or sneering. It’s downright admiration.
35. That so many people meet some comely lad or lass at Whitworth, fall in love with him or her, and then get married. At least for a little bit.
36. Unlike so many schools beset with a raging carnival of random hookups and crazy sex, relationships at Whitworth seem to actually matter. You know you go to a unique school when you hear girls complain that guys just don’t play the field enough.
37. No cohab allowed. That means you can’t be legally “sexiled” from your room. Of course, that also means you can’t sexile your roommate, so there are downsides.
38. Whitworth is a dry campus. Statistically, wet campuses have three times more disruption than dry campuses. True, it doesn’t entirely eliminate spontaneous vomiting, but it helps.
39. We have 24-hour visitation rights. Guys can visit girl’s dorms and girls can visit guy’s dorms whenever they want. Do you know how rare that is on a Christian campus? Not even Notre Dame has 24-hour visitation.
40. The late night talks in the dorm lounge. There’s always a part of you that knows you need to go to sleep and you’ll totally regret staying up late when you drag your frail self to your 9:20 class the next morning. But you also know that you may never get another chance at such a conversation again. And you never know what new joke or fact or morsel of gossip you might discover around the next conversational bend.
41. The comparative beauty of Core 250. It’s a large scale lecture class that’s actually interesting. Hell’s temperature is plummeting as we speak.
42. The remodeling of the Coffee Shop. I was skeptical of the plan, because of the high cost and the way Whitworth was treating Stan. But when I saw the change–how students actually hung out there, I became an instant convert. The new coffeeshop is like a dorm lounge for the entire university. And no, I will not call it “Mind and Hearth” It sounds like an overeager Whitworth promotional brochure with a lisp.
43. Fanatics playing no-holds-barred Ultimate Frisbee in the loop. Despite the fact that I am perhaps the World’s Worst Frisbee Player, (I capitalize the letters because that’s how official my title is) that was the reason I decided to come to Whitworth. Seeing the way they played Frisbee implied intensity in recreation, a casual pick-up spirit. This was Community before it became a burned-out catchphrase.
44. It’s been 21 years since the corporation “Saga” went out of business. Saga Going Out of Business is now old enough to drink. Yet Whitworth students still insist on calling the dining hall, the cafeteria, and the food service “Saga.” We like our traditions.
45. The magical way that you can always cram one more person at a Saga table. And then one more. Ad infinitum.
46. Over the past four years, Sodexho has genuinely attempted to improve the food quality on campus. Maybe it’s just that I get a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach when a corporation acts human. It’s like seeing Frankenstein smile.
47. Over four years, the various weird performances you see enacted in the Dining Hall. My favorite: A male student, dressed in stereotypical nerd plaids and glasses, approaches an unsuspecting girl asking her to dance. Suddenly six tables move back to form a dancing floor, a musician starts playing on the piano while another begins to sing. After his stellar dancing, the entire cafeteria, most of whom knew about it beforehand, erupts into applause.
48. Seeing other people play the water pistol game “Assassins.” Playing it yourself is a miserable experience of fear, paranoia, cold sweat, and temporary insanity. But watching other people experience those same emotions is a gleeful adventure in Schandenfreude.
49. The bright and brilliant flowers that briefly festoon the Whitworth sign after Spring break.
50. Because of its early start time, Whitworth ends earlier in the year. A blessing to anyone seeking a summer job.
51. Teachers that call your room phone to notify you that you are currently sleeping through your Spanish final.
52. The free copies of the Spokesman-Review, New York Times, and the Inlander for taking in the HUB. We also have USA Today, which is okay, I guess.
53. It may not be a school where everybody knows your name, but it is a school where the president knows everybody’s name. And major. And life goal. And what girl you like. As has been said before, Whitworth is a school about personalities, not procedures or programs. This has both advantages and disadvantages, obviously, but for the most part a President like Bill Robinson makes Whitworth worth attending.
54. The zaniness, creativity, and downright absurdity of the Intramural team names. The Inlander once sponsored a contest to find the best Hoopfest team name. From the “Happy Raptors” to “We’re kinda a big deal” reading the new batch of intramural team names is always a joy.
55. We have a stunningly beautiful campus. We don’t have the advantage of overlooking the sea that a school like Pepperdine has, but our quality architecture, soaring pine trees, and fields of dark green grass put other nearby school’s — even with their bigger endowments — to shame.
56. Our sports teams consistently make nationals. Yet, because we are division III, athletes don’t get the kind of special treatment that athletes at other schools get. No free cars or study guides or school-sponsored prostitutes. Whitworth athletes are just like us. Except, you know, they can catch things that are thrown at them, instead of just covering their faces and ducking into the fetal positions.
57. Girls that, for no reason other than “they like doing it,” bake cookies and cake in the dorm kitchens and then insist — insist! — on you having some.
58. The fact that the two most talked-about pranks in the last two years took place with no property damage or theft. We’re a pretty harmless lot.
59. Going through the three stages of getting back an essay in an Arlin Migliazzo or John Yoder class. 1) Shock at how far down the alphabet the grade is. 2) Amazement at the pure volume of corrections 3) Astounded wonder at the fact that every single remark, every single piece of criticism, is dead on. These classes will improve your writing skills by refining them through the fire and flames. You’ll come out rugged and scarred, but a stronger human being because of it.
60. The little bowl of candy in the office in
61. Free printing in the computer labs. I know, I know, we pay for it with our tuition dollars. But it feels free.
62. The chess set in the coffee shop. I don’t play (I don’t like the chance that I could lose), but chess represents a kind of cultured intellectual elitism that Whitworth could use more of.
63. The Faculty Scholarship competition. Not only is it a genius move for snagging qualified pre-frosh, it establishes an atmosphere of intellectual competition before students even start their first semester. The only thing I would love more about the scholarship competition is if I ended up having a scholarship to show for it, rather than a dark cloud of student loans.
64. The fact that most students’ idea of a rebellious night involves scaling buildings and avoiding security, rather than alcohol poisoning.
65. RAs being required to be on Prime Time from 8 to 11 every night. It’s not about the stupid games or activities they plan that night. It’s about giving bored, lonely, or friendless students a place to sit down, hang out, and talk. Prime Time got me through my freshman year, and still remains a joy to attend when I have a chance.
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67. The preservation of historic dorms, like McMillan and Ballard Hall. They have a unique architectural mystique to them.
68. The professors have office hours. You can walk in at that time, and they’ll be glad to sit down with you and discuss whatever’s on your mind. They’ll help you brainstorm a topic for your paper. They’ll recommend sources. They’ll even e-mail other teachers to connect you with them. It’s really that amazing.
69. Though gradually, Whitworth has created more and more Wireless hotspots. Hopefully, someday the entire campus will be wired. Then, as you perch on top of the campanile, you will be able to watch Hampsters dance on your laptop.
70. The cheerful people at the Info desk, always ready to search for your flash drives, answer your events questions, and catch you trying to steal the plastic plants from the dining hall.
71. Good ol’ Stalkernet. It has saved many a Whitworthian from a grievous name misspelling. It is also key in the early months to be able to find a number to ask a class related question. Many is the freshman who spent hours combing through Stalkernet’s storied halls in an attempt to find that girl he swears he had a connection with during Traditiation wooing.
72. The
73. Just before the Back 40, you’ll find a dumping ground of a few dozen tons of crap. If you’re luck y or creative you’ll be able to find a new piece of furniture, a fire hydrant, or at least an old toilet. Either way, it’s like Whitworth’s own little redneck lawn. It brings character.
74. The Print Shop. A full color 11 x 17 for just 33 cents. If you’re nice enough they might even cut off the edges for you. Beat that Kinko’s.
75. Stage II really is a wonderful place. Any panicked thespian who has spent hours trying to memorize a scene, gnashing their teeth in Stage II’s black surroundings carries a certain sentiment for this iconic location. My hall practiced our choreographed Mock Rock moves in front of the mirrors. And so every time I look into the mirrors of Stage II, I see my eager freshmen self staring back.
76. The annual Secret project. These are the best when they aren’t trying to push any particular lesson about “racism,” and just let students showcase their creativity. Students anonymously turn in cards with some deep dark secret they ostensibly have. Usually this amounts to a whole lot of “I love Michael Carlson” cards. Either way, it’s fun for the whole family.
77. When guys (and occasionally women) compete to see how fast they can get to the top of the dorm from the bottom of the dorm and back without touching the floor. It’s even better if some type of lava monster gets involved.
78. The really, really, old foosball tables that are scattered throughout the luckier dorms. Old foosball tables have a weight to them. You, like the Pinball Wizard of yore, could almost play on these blindfolded –only using the sounds of “thunks” and the tactile feel of the wooden foosman hitting the heavy foosball. Bonus points if multiple foos “mans” are missing or jury-rigged on with ducttape.
79. Righteous ball. Someday I’m going to be lying on my deathbed, take the frail hand of my crying wife, and — with the last words of my raspy voice — tell her I regret not playing enough Righteous ball.
80. Frisbee Golf. I’m not necessarily a fan of playing Frisbee golf, especially after I found out that my friends were asking me to go Frisbee golfing with them for purely comic relief purposes. And not because of my commentary on social and philosophical absurdities. Because of my propensity to direct my disc to all sorts of inconvenient locations. But the fact remains: Frisbee golfing is the best way to tour the campus. I would have never known about the little metal eagle sculpture outside the Art building had I not been tasked to hit it with a little flying disc.
81.
82. Midnight Madness. And no, not for the baseball game or hockey exhibition or whatever sporting event we are supposed to be mad at midnight about. Rather, it is glorious for two words: Free. T-Shirt. We can’t always count on iMye showing up randomly and bestowing generous swag upon us. But Midnight Madness means a predictable, certain T-shirt. Why isn’t at midnight? Some mysteries are best left unsolved.
83. The magical glory in the dining hall on Sundays. There’s donuts, of all shapes, sizes, and creeds, for breakfast. Chili con queso or
84. Jan Term. January would be a cold, desolate month in
85. The fact that so many buildings are open for student use after hours. It can be difficult to concentrate in your dorm room, what with the gunfire of Metroid Prime, the curiously animate laundry piles, and the pervasive smell. That’s why I type this right now, at 1:19 AM in the Media office. Whitworthian editors can stay slaving away late hours in the Media office. Music majors can practice all manners of instruments when everyone else has gone to bed. Thespians run lines into the wee hours of the night in Stage II. Art majors — well, art majors can be jealous of the other majors. Hopefully they can enjoy living vicariously. Still, the fact that students are allowed to be in these other buildings are a major advantage. The Whitworthian could not be published if we weren’t allowed to stay late into the night. Thank goodness for that.
86. Not only are intramural events epic struggles as controversial as any bowl game, super or not, they are attended by numerous screaming fans. The fact that a little Ultimate Frisbee game’s final match could bring out more than a hundred fans shows how Whitworth students are willing to go crazy about little things. That’s a good thing.
87. ProQuest. EBSCOhost. Lexis-Nexis. These are the kinds of words that make even an amateur researcher tingle. There’s a wealth of knowledge behind the gates of these search engines, and Whitworth provides the key. Subscribing to such search engines makes it far easier to find that perfect scholarly source to prove, once and for all, that Hegel was a woman.
88. And then there’s the classic Whitworth “date.” The caravan to the Dockside in
89. There’s also a classic date spot a little less advertised. In the hills above Holmberg park, there’s a Water Tower. The ladder is locked off, but even a vaguely agile person will be able to make his way up to the rung and climb the ladder. From the top, he has a great view of the city below and the stars above. An especially clever person will use a rope to bring up a table, some chairs, and a fancy dinner. Many a Whitworth proposal has happened on the top of that particular perch.
90. The Weight room at the bottom of
91. The Big Ugly. When I was a pre-frosh, I thought the massive hunk of metal in front of the library was the stupidest thing I’d ever seen. It looked like more like a giant petrified cup of noodle, than anything that could be called art. That was before I realized all it was. It wasn’t just an Big Ugly sculpture. It was a Frisbee golf hole. It was God’s gift to humor columnists. Not only that, but it had a built in saddle. You could ride it. Yee. Haw.
92. The Mac Smiley. It has an almost impish grin. Those innocent black eyes tell stories of pranks, shower parties, wacky hijiinks, and of course, streaking. No other dorm has that kind of iconographic resonance. The Mac Smiley is Mac. And simply seeing it makes me smile. No other image on campus, especially one that simple, can communicate so much.
93. The sparkling bathrooms. This is something only a former Janitor can understand and appreciate. Cleaning a bathroom is an annoying time consuming process. It’s easy to, after you’ve cleaned a few hundred urinals, to start slacking. Yet, our custodial staff consistently keeps the porcelain pure, the sinks shining, and the mirrors spotless. I raise my plunger to you, good sir.
94. The Whitworth music show trends that Thomas Ruble started. I don’t go to a lot of Whitworth shows. But I do read the Whitworthian, the Spokesman, and the Inlander. Ruble started bringing bands to Whitworth that could be best described as, well, weird. But it was interesting. Suddenly, Whitworth went from lagging behind music trends, often languishing in the slough of light Christian acoustic, to hitting bands on their way up in the industry. Ruble gave us a chance to be exposed to broad variety of radically different–and sometimes discordant–sounds. In doing so, he gave Whitworth great press. The Spokesman and the Inlander began raving about the Whitworth scene, often contrasting it with Gonzaga’s “blow all the money on one giant act” tactics. This year, Vi has continued to attempt to continue this trend. Either way, I may not go to the concerts, but I can still enjoy the accolades we receive.
95. The small class sizes. It doesn’t take an education major to note the differences in quality between burgeoning large group Core lectures versus discussions in upper-division classes that only have 15 people in them. Whitworth combines the professional knowledge of the college professor with the personal pedagogical advantages of a well-funded high school teacher. Most of the strengths that Whitworth has comes from the fact that they are small school. They are a personal school. They care about you. Hopefully, as more and more numbers flood into new dorms as they are built, Whitworth will be able to maintain this advantage. Size matters. But, with colleges, like horse jockeys, bigger is not necessarily better.
Comments
17 Responses to “95 things I love about Whitworth.”
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After hearing multiple people complain about whitworth or some aspect of whitworth (oh wait…dang, I have to include myself now. Stupid Core 350 article…) it always makes me want to ask “look, you came to Whitworth for a reason right? This wasn’t your punishment for not getting into your first choice of Eastern Oregon University?” So, thanks for giving the opposite side.
I would like to add a few things: 96) Late night trips to Applebees and/or Sharis which are organized 2 minutes before actually leaving. 97)The small-school ability to sign up for classes in 15 minutes. Freshman, trust me, it gets better. And 98) Having a heated argument on campus with someone whom I disagree completely with, yet internally rocking with the personal admission of “dangit, they’re making good points!”
99) It’s 1:15 AM, and I’m starting to write a paper. Procrastination? Probably. Poor study skills? Quite possibly. The norm at Whitworth? Why, yes!
100) The Big Three. Seriously, it’s a Christian school with only three rules? And those three rules are reasonable? Sign me up!
(I may be adding more… I love a lot of things about Whitworth)
101) That we can call our college president by the nickname “B-Rob” — and he doesn’t mind at all.
102) My neighbor: KellyThorpe. What’s the likelihood at any other school that your randomly assigned roommate and hallmates would become your closest friends imaginable?
103) The Harry Potter room (closet under the stairs) in BJ.
(104) Free storage in your residence hall (or former residence hall) for about as long as you can get away with it.
To add some support for one and two up there: I found out around mid-semester that one of my professors in a class that’s team-taught is teaching the class *for free*. He took it on as unpaid overload because he thinks the material is great, and he likes to teach, and he learns a lot from the other professor and the students. Isn’t that amazing? This is like the opposite of pushing things off on your T.A.s. Vic Bobb, you are incredible.
105) Christmas time at Whitworth. I spent 13 years in public schools, hearing about “Winter Break” and wishing people “Happy Holidays.” Whitworth says, “screw it! We’re a Christian school, and we are celebrating Christmas through and through!”
106) The decent amount of soundproofing in dorm rooms. Of course we hear some noise from people romping up and down the halls, but our doors actually block a whole lot of it. The walls aren’t paper thin either, which is quite a blessing.
Where do YOU live? Every dorm I’ve lived in (BJ, Mac, Stewart, Arend) has had walls that were essentially paper-thin.
BJ and Duvall, have testimony from Arend and Warren that the walls aren’t that bad there either. Maybe it’s the difference between girls’ and guys’ floors.
But still, I’ve been in dorms, apartments, and houses that really give paper thin its meaning. Is every conversations whispered next door completely audible in Mac? We may hear our neighbors sometimes, but it just isn’t that bad here. I’m thankful for the people who built our walls.
Oh! That spam comment makes me think of another one!
107) Whitworth’s email filter is very very good compared to other school’s filters (or lack thereof). I only get three or four aggrivating pharmeceutical emails a week instead of thirty or forty a day!
108) Having a meal with professors where the conversation goes from how to improve the school to what America’s greatest contribution to the world has been to which episode of the Simpson’s was the best.
That would be “Marge vs. the Monorail,” Cory. That’s works for both “best episode of the Simpsons” and “America’s greatest contribution to the world.”
I completely agree and wish to add to # 73. Last year, I ambled forth from the baldwin basement to take a stroll through the back forty. Skirting over a hill I descended upon The Back 40 Trash Heap. My walk had turned into an archeological dig, as I pulled a vintage 1960’s office chair from the junk around it. I admit this chair is missing a wheel and badly bent, but the sheer glory of THE BACK 40 TRASH HEEP was something to behold. if you didn’t know, it has been replaced this year with a pile of leaves, but the legend will live on, at least as long as I have the chair.
@Dan: It’s also proof of Conan O’Brien’s continued reign of awesome over the rest of us lowly mortals — he wrote that one! Good Ole Coney.
FUN FACTS: The Simpsons also trained Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille) as an executive producer, as well as Greg Daniels, who transmuted possible fail into definite win with the NBC version of The Office. While we’re talking about The America’s contributions to the world.
“The America”? No. Just regular America.
[...] easy to criticize our situations; however, I think that it’s very important to take stock of what we love about the people and things around us. That’s what I’m doing here. This is a list of things that have given me a little bit [...]