OP-ED: The Board is Coming! Get to Know How Whitman College Works

November 4, 2018

What is the Whitman Board of Trustees? The Board of Trustees is the legal governing board of Whitman College, whose primary purpose is to ensure that the college is fulfilling  its Mission Statement.   Who are the Trustees? The Trustees are a group of (currently) twenty-one individuals. Most...

OP-ED: Why was it so difficult to get funding for a students of color conference from ASWC?

Ye Rim Cho, Senior

October 12, 2018

I went to two ASWC meetings last week – one with the finance committee and one with the senate. A few students of color and I volunteered since we had to justify our request of $3,000 for transportation and lodging for the upcoming students of color conference. For those who aren’t familiar, Whitman ...

OP-ED: A Letter on Sustainability

Vivian Voth

October 8, 2018

Dear Whitman, I attended Whitman College last year and although I loved many parts of the school I was even more disappointed with my time spent there. I’m writing to you to explain my decision to take a leave of absence for a year and then transfer to another college in the hope that it will p...

Op-ed: A Meditation on Racism & Desire

Devon Yee

May 3, 2018

Inspired by Alondra Contreras, Zuhra Amini, Kendra Winchester, Chanel Knight, Bonnette Ishimwe,  Samarah Uribe Mendez & Mickey Shin & their Power & Privilege panel, The Racist Rom-Com at Whitman. [Note: All the examples I use in this piece are either things I’ve heard first hand or st...

Op-ed: Re: Defacement of Marcus & Narcissa Whitman’s Images

Beth Call

May 3, 2018

As a lifelong Walla Wallan, I understand the anger motivating the defacement of images of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman.  The stealing of the Native American's homeland in WA,OR, ID, the US failure to keep treaties & the ensuing cruel wars, the consideration of Native Americans as inferior to “whites”,...

Op-Ed: Whitman’s Commitment to the Community

Ethan Graham '17

April 19, 2018

The disparity in demographics between students at Whitman College and those living in Walla Walla is striking. Whitman’s most recent Fall 2017 Class is comprised of just 9 percent self-identifying Hispanic/Latinos and 64 percent self-identifying White/Caucasian students. Meanwhile, 38 percent of Wal...

Op-ed: Outreach

Reza Darvish

April 12, 2018

Two weeks ago, I came back from the Utah Canyonlands in the southern deserts of Utah, with a group of 10 other people on a hiking trip that lasted one week. We lugged 50 lb. backpacks, climbed and descended canyons and navigated off-trail with our eyes, maps and persistence. This is new for me; I...

Op-ed: Recommitting to Whitman’s Academic Freedom

Ben Freedman

April 10, 2018

Consider Bret Weinstein. He was a biology professor at Evergreen College who sent an email on March 15, 2017 criticizing the new “Day of Absence.” In the past, one day each year students of color at Evergreen would choose to not show up to campus. But, in 2017, organizers of the event asked white memb...

Op-Ed: The Trustees Don’t Care About You, So Get Pissed

Chris Meabe

March 8, 2018

The members of the Board of Trustees don’t care about you. If you ask them, they will sincerely insist otherwise because they truly believe they care about you. The problem is, they have no clue who you are. In fact, they don’t know a thing about you, and the best thing we can do about it is get piss...

Letter to the Editor: Catonsville Nine

Pat Henry, Cushing Eells Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Literature

March 8, 2018

Dear Editors: I brought Daniel Berrigan to the Whitman campus twice, once in the mid-1970s and again in the early 1980s. I had already brought him to Willamette University in 1975. In each case, I watched him direct a dramatic reading of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine. He would spend a couple...

Letter to the Editor: Re: Sexual Assault Dashboard Article

Hailey Powers, Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Campus Advocate

March 1, 2018

A few weeks ago, there was a Whitman Wire article in which I responded to questions about campus sexual assault statistics. While the article didn’t include the full context of the conversation, I now realize using jargon specific to my professional work was a mistake given the likelihood of my ...

Op-Ed: Reading Inclusively in Encounters

Elyse Semerdjian, Associate Professor of Islamic World/Middle East History

February 8, 2018

I would like to thank Mr. Jordon Crawford for publishing his opinion in “Considering the Western Canon in Encounters.” His courage prompted me to break my own silence as an Encounters professor, who was also once a liberal arts student.  As a faculty member at Whitman since 2003, I criticized the...