The New York Times Best Seller and subsequent non-profit Colleges That Change Lives (CTCL) describes Whitman College as a place which, well, changes lives. The CTCL’s entry on Whitman College reads:...
A letter began circulating among faculty in January to show solidarity with the adjunct faculty members who will lose their jobs with the termination of the Encounters program. As of Tuesday, Feb. 18,...
All first-years at Whitman are required to take Encounters and meet distribution requirements, but considering the current society we are part of, I believe that all students should also be required to...
Ann Karneus, Rejected Mathlete
• September 28, 2018
Whitman first year Tom Jones, who recently finished three chapters of “The Communist Manifesto” in Encounters, thinks that he’s ready to take a stab at what exactly this Marx guy is all about. After...
A whirlwind of hate hit the Encounters program in the face this year, bringing the controversial program under fire yet again. Criticisms included the classic “I don’t know how to write still and...
Review documents, as well as interviews with numerous faculty, show the philosophical and political stakes of the debates around the future of Whitman College’s “signature program.”
As a first-year student, one is obligated to take “General Studies 145-146: The First-Year Experience,” otherwise known as Encounters. The two-semester-long course is intended as an “introduction...
Dear Mom,
Last weekend, I hooked up with someone from my Encounters class at the 80s dance. It was really chill, but now I think I have feelings for them. I’m trying to play it cool, since I’m worried...
Taking on Shakespeare is a daunting task for anyone; but Harper Joy's production of "The Twelfth Night" kept the crowd on the edge of their seats with live music, palpable energy and an active engagement with the audience.
The Whitman College Indigenous Peoples Education and Culture Club (IPECC) has put forth a petition calling for a critical examination of Whitman’s past and its relationship to colonialism.
A new Encounters syllabus has been approved for the 2015–16 academic year, with Encounters faculty voting in favor of the new curriculum by an approximate 2-1 ratio during a meeting on April 21. The syllabus, which will remove five texts and add four new works, was created by the Encounters Curriculum Subcommittee with the aim of reducing reading and providing more time for discussion of the materials in the syllabus.
I also know that the decisions to remove the Quran, the "Gospel of Luke" and "The Book of the City of Ladies" was more complicated in context than a declaration that the individual texts are not valuable for the course. That said, I hope to see the Quran’s re-inclusion soon.
