The economic crisis has finally hit home. Last night, Wednesday, March 11, 300 Whitman students, faculty, staff and concerned community members filed into Maxey Auditorium to discuss the controversial decision to convert the varsity Alpine and Nordic ski team to a club sport. President George Bridges, Athletic Director Dean Snider and other top administrators were on hand to answer questions from the audience about the decision which was announced to the community on March 10.
After being notified that both the varsity Alpine and Nordic programs would be cut, Whitman skiers are left with a decision to make: what to do now.
The timing of the decision makes student choices...
At 11:19 a.m. President George Bridges released a letter to the community explaining the rationale behind the administration's decision to cut the varsity Alpine and Nordic ski teams for the coming academic year.
While acknowledging the ski teams' strong history at Whitman and recent national success, Bridges sites the student experience and available funding as the reasons behind the decision.
“Over many years, Whitman skiing has experienced the greatest success when competing with other teams in the Northwest Conference and in national championships of the USCSA," Bridges wrote. “By withdrawing from NCAA sponsored competition and shifting solely to USCSA competition, I believe our students will experience more success athletically and, by virtue of limiting their travel to competitions with Northwest colleges and universities, more opportunities to participate in on-campus programs at Whitman."
Throughout this semester, Whitties have benefitted from a Saturday morning ski bus to the Bluewood ski area, a service made possible by left over ASWC funds from previous years. To take advantage of this opportunity, all one has to do is find the sign-up list in the OP office, write their name down, and show up at 8:30 am on Saturday. This seemingly simple task, however, has proven difficult for many.
Many students sign up for the ski bus and then fail to attend. Whether this is a result of late Friday nights, poor memory, or plain apathy, one thing is clear: signing up for the ski bus does not entail a lot of commitment.
Perspectives takes a look at Whitman College life from changing angles. The photos below originally appeared as part of the February 12th, 2009 edition of the Whitman Pioneer. Click for larger images.
The Alpine and Nordic Ski teams both raced to an awesome finish last weekend (Feb. 19-21) in their respective West Regional Championship races. The Alpine team competed at the Mt. Rose Ski Resort near Reno, Nevada and the Nordic team competed at the Auburn Ski Club near Truckee, California.
It all started in Norway about 7,000 years ago.
What Assistant OP Director Salmon Norgaard-Stroich calls a “granola," “hippie" and “retro" sport has been around long before the cavemen were replaced by sophisticated counterparts. This little piece of history—telemark skiing—was celebrated at Bluewood Mountain last weekend.
Originally called “free heel skiing," telemark skiing was at one point the only way to ski. In the mid-1800's, skiing pioneer Sondre Norheim, a resident of Telemark, Norway, invented the “telemark turn." In the Winter Olympics, skiers are required to land in the Telemark position. The “Carrying of the Torch" still begins in Norheim's hometown.
