Westmont News

The Westmont Orchestra, back from its tour of China in May, opens its seventh season, performing the Fall Orchestra Concert on Friday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m. in the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall and Sunday, Oct. 21, at 3 p.m. in First Presbyterian Church, 21 E. Constance Ave.

Westmont hosted a special dinner to honor Montecito resident and philanthropist Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree on Sept. 29 at the Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel.

The Ring Nebula, M57, will be the star attraction at a free, public viewing with Westmont’s powerful Keck Telescope Friday, Sept. 21. The monthly viewing, held in conjunction with the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit, begins after 7:45 p.m. and lasts several hours.

Westmont alumnus Jerry H. Gill ’56, adjunct professor of philosophy, religious studies and humanities at Pima Community College in Tucson, Ariz., explores the relationship between faith and reason in a free, public lecture, “Faith and/or Reason,” Friday, Sept. 14, at 3:30 p.m. in Adams Center 216.

Carmel Gabriel Saad, who joins Westmont this fall as an assistant professor of psychology, is an Egyptian-American whose research focuses on bicultural identities and is interested in studying dual non-cultural identities and creativity.

Westmont is ranked in the top 100 for the fourth straight year in this year’s listings of the best liberal arts colleges according to U.S.

Members of the music faculty at Westmont present a recital featuring the works of Mendelssohn, Bach and Stephen Sondheim on Friday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. in Deane Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

Westmont and Sodexo, the college’s dining service, open the doors to an enhanced Dining Commons as students arrive for the fall semester Monday, Aug. 27.

Workers are busy modernizing the lobby of Westmont’s Murchison Gym, upgrading the lighting, ceilings and walls, and installing two, 70-inch monitors to show video and photos of Westmont Hall of Fame athletes and other information. Maple hardwood flooring, dating back to the construction of the gym in the late 1960s, was removed during a 2008 renovation and has been recycled for use on the lobby walls.

Twenty first-year Westmont students met on campus Aug. 9 before trekking through the Sierra backcountry north of Yosemite. Inoculum is a unique, 12-day orientation program that introduces students to Westmont and earns them two units of academic and physical education credit.

David Newton, who has taught entrepreneurial finance at Westmont for 22 years, has been appointed provost at King’s College in New York City, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1981. He begins the position Jan. 1, 2013.

Family and friends will celebrate the life of Alex Moore at a memorial service Tuesday,
May 15, at 4 p.m. at Santa Barbara Community Church, 1002 Cieneguitas Road in Santa
Barbara. A reception at the church will follow the service.

Moore, an assistant professor of kinesiology at Westmont, died May 9 from complications following surgery for Crohn’s disease. He was 31.