Westmont News

The Westmont Observatory will host an informal gathering to view the lunar eclipse on Sunday, Sept. 27, beginning at 6:30 p.m. However, the blood moon will be too low in the evening sky to use Westmont’s telescopes.

Franciscan Friar Junípero Serra, joined by a Native American companion, walked from San Diego to Mexico City for an unannounced visit with Viceroy Antonio Maria Bucareli y Ursúa in 1773. Another friar had told him of a soldier who had raped two native women. Father Serra, nearly 60, was so outraged he decided he was going to do something about it, according to archeologist Ruben Mendoza.

The Westmont Music Department jumps into a new season with a free faculty recital featuring original music on Friday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. in Deane Chapel. For more information about the Fall Faculty Recital, please contact Michelle Starrh at (805) 565-6040.

Westmont jumped three spots and is ranked in the top 100 best liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report for the seventh straight year. “America’s Best Colleges, 2016 Edition” lists Westmont as tied for No. 93 out of the nation’s 245 liberal arts colleges.

Four new talented professors joined the Westmont faculty this fall. Donald Patterson (computer science), Ronald See (psychology), Amanda Silberstein (chemistry) and Sameer Yadav (religious studies) arrived in August and have begun teaching.

The memorial service for Westmont President Emeritus David K. Winter, who died Aug. 15, 2015, at the age of 84, will occur Saturday, Aug. 29, at 10 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church on the corner of State and Constance Streets in Santa Barbara.

Click here to view David Winter's memorial service.

David K. Winter, Westmont’s longest-serving president to date, died Saturday, August 15, at the age of 84. He was born Sept. 15, 1930.

Westmont ranks as No. 10 on Forbes’ 2015 list of the 50 most entrepreneurial colleges in the nation. The magazine evaluated the country’s most entrepreneurial schools based on entrepreneurial ratios: the total number of alumni and students who have identified themselves as founders and business owners on LinkedIn divided by the school’s student body (undergraduate and graduate combined). This year they separated research universities and smaller colleges.

One hundred Special Olympics athletes arrive July 21 for a four-day visit to Santa Barbara, one of 100 Host Towns in California, before competing in the 2015 Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles July 25–August 2. The largest sporting event in Southern California since the 1984 Olympics, the 25-sport competition includes 7,000 athletes and 3,000 coaches from 177 countries.

Jupiter, Venus and a small crescent moon come into alignment this month, but it may be views of Saturn that steal the show at a free public viewing of the stars Friday, June 19, beginning at 8 p.m. and lasting several hours at the Westmont Observatory. Jupiter and Venus and the moon form a skewed triangle that will be easily visible after sunset in the western sky.

Westmont hosts a 5K run/walk to benefit Save the Mothers, an organization working to improve the lives of women in Uganda, on Saturday, May 16, at 9 a.m. Registration, which costs $15 for students; $25 for adults (free kids fun run), begins at the Westmont track at 8:30 a.m.

Commencement speaker David Brooks demonstrated his talent as a humorist while offering the class of 2015 advice about commitment, love and taking chances in their careers May 9 at Westmont. Brooks’ opening, witty monologue shone a ray of sunshine on an otherwise overcast day.