The members of the senior delegation ponder their roles on ASWC, their impending graduations, and their olfactory preferences.

Tim Reed

Major: Philosophy

Favorite Smell: Lodgepole pines in the Sierra Nevada

Dream spring break location: Skiing in Canada

What he hopes to accomplish with ASWC this year: Reforming campaign election by-laws, advocating for more transparency in the financial aid process and working on ways to facilitate student-to-student academic collaboration.

The best class he’s taken at Whitman: Political Economy of Women

What he looks forward to about graduating: Living in New York City!

Corinne Vandagriff

Major: Gender Studies (Politics minor)

Favorite Smell: Lavender or rose

Dream spring break location: Being back in the Bay

What she hopes to accomplish with ASWC this year: My number one goal is to create a resource book for students who are having a crisis that is affecting them academically, so they can have those resources laid out from a student perspective. For example, this would include getting classes excused if you need to leave campus, how to take an incomplete, tips for talking to professors about these things, etc.

The best class she’s taken at Whitman: Necropower and the Politics of Violence because it gave me thinking tools that I use almost every day to try and understand all the violence in our world. For example, I felt like I had a lot more analytical tools to think about Ferguson this summer because of it.

What she looks forward to about graduating: Ideally, less homework and being in a city.

Serena Runyan

Major: History (Chinese minor)

Favorite Smell: Tomato plants after it’s rained in the summer

Dream spring break location: Well, I’m going on the Urban Education Spring Break Service trip to Portland this spring break, so right now that’s my dream location. Not only do I love Portland but I’m really excited to get in different classrooms and gain skills that I can bring back to Edison Elementary, where I work. I’ve also heard Indonesia is pretty wonderful. 

What she hopes to accomplish with ASWC this year: Since this is my first year on ASWC,  I’ve spent a lot of my time just figuring out what exactly my role is… my platform was based on increased student representation/tenure input, more experiential learning opportunities for campus groups, and sustainable commitment to campus diversity, largely focusing on pan-African/Middle Eastern presence. In light of that, I think I’d like to focus on strengthening the Middle Eastern presence on campus, whether that’s guest speakers or somehow increasing the availability of Middle East studies classes. There’s a weird lack of options there, and especially after studying abroad in Israel, I feel that dearth. There is so much going on in the Middle East that people are not necessarily aware of or have a very limited background about them. Being on Finance Committee allows me to allocate funds to student groups for the experiential learning I hope to increase.

The best class she’s taken at Whitman: Professor Schmitz’s 1960s seminar because Schmitz is a really good educator, and I’ve just really enjoyed the topic. Learning about the different social movements of the 1960’s and about American history in general, allows me to better understand the society I live in today. It’s really cool to be able to look from your class reading to your own life and see very direct connections, reverberations and consequences.

What she looks forward to about graduating: …Yikes. Well, I’m looking forward to being self-sustaining, as in living on what I earn. That’s definitely appealing. I’m also excited about having a million possibilities to choose from, though that’s also really stressful. Mostly I think I’m ready to start acting on the education and training I’ve received at Whitman. I’m ready to put myself to use and see what I can give.

Nate Higby

Major: Sociology

Favorite Smell: Yankee Candle’s “Under the Palms” scent

Dream spring break location: Enchantment Lake in the Cascades

What he hopes to accomplish with ASWC this year: To use my position as senior senator to increase transparency between the EC and the senate body as well as to minimize any division between the two. I also hope to work on improving the care at the health center.

The best class he’s taken at Whitman: The Rhetoric of Civil Rights with Heather Hayes because the professor was awesome and the subject material was very relevant to our current lives.

What he looks forward to about graduating: Having time to read a book for fun.