Westmont News

Political scientist Jesse Covington joins Westmont’s faculty this fall as an assistant professor after completing his doctorate at the University of Notre Dame.

Covington, a Southern California native, holds master’s degrees from Notre Dame and Westminster Theological Seminary. He has taught at Wheaton College in Illinois for the past two years. At Westmont, he will focus on political theory and constitutional law.

Westmont remains in the top tier among the nation's top liberal arts
colleges in the 2008 edition of U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best
Colleges" released today. Westmont tied with 10 other colleges with a
ranking of 106. This is the third straight year the college has been in the
top tier.

Reynolds Gallery will host Georges Rouault’s Miserere et Guerre: This Anguished
World of Shadows, a cycle of prints that explores the connections between war,
suffering and mercy, Aug. 23 through Oct. 18. There will be an opening reception
Thursday, Aug. 23, 4-6 p.m.

Westmont alumnus Rick Ifland has joined the board of trustees, which oversees the operations of the college. He has worked as a successful private equity investor and entrepreneur for the past two decades.

“I am thrilled to work closely with a campus that’s filled with tomorrow’s leaders and to help create an optimal environment where they can learn deeply,” Ifland says.

Gayle Beebe assumed leadership of Westmont as the college’s eighth president July 1. He, his wife, Pam, and their three children (Anna, 14, Elizabeth, 12, and Ricky, 8)moved into the president’s house above the college in June. The family came from Spring Arbor, Mich., where Beebe served as president of Spring Arbor University for seven years.

One of the area's leading violinists will perform a free midday concert this month in Ventura. Philip Ficsor, Westmont professor of violin, will play classical music Thursday, July 26, at 12:15 p.m. at the Ventura Avenue Adult Center, 550 N. Ventura Ave.

Does the natural world provide rational evidence for an intelligent designer? Is the question itself a scientific one or is it religion masquerading as science? Are there ways to affirm solid science and genuine religious faith or do they necessarily conflict when it comes to evolution?

President George W. Bush announced that Jedd Medefind, a 1997 Westmont graduate, will become special assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Prior to this, Medefind served as director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the Department of Labor.

Westmont’s student life office has given 12 outstanding Westmont students awards for their involvement in student leadership during the last school year. The David K. Winter Servant Leadership Award is given each spring to honor students who show exemplary service as leaders at Westmont and in the community.

Each student receives $2,000 toward tuition during the next school year.

College's Closest Neighbor Focuses Gift on Scholarships, Arts
Montecito neighbors Harold and Annette Simmons have surprised Westmont College with a $1 million gift. Half the gift has been designated for student scholarships. The remainder will go toward funding an endowed chair in art that will bolster the program of the soon to be constructed visual arts center and gallery.

The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has selected Dr. Susan Penksa, Westmont associate professor of political science, as a Fulbright Scholar grantee to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During the last 10 years Penksa, an international security and development consultant, has built an extensive consulting practice with national governments, the European Union, NATO, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations.

Five Westmont students will fly out of Los Angeles today to spend a month serving people in Indonesia in one of four student-led Emmaus Road trips. Twenty-five students will participate this summer.

A service project to Nigeria had to be cancelled this week due to a surge in criminal activity in the country and extensive travel warnings. College officials hope to redirect the group to another African country.

Westmont has created a scholarship honoring husband and wife Drs. Gayle and Ruth Tucker who have taught in the college’s education department for 31 years. Jenny Deetz, the first recipient of the Tucker Scholarship, graduated this month with her teaching credential.

More than two dozen local teachers attended a recent reception at Westmont recognizing Westmont’s student teachers, master teachers and the Tuckers.

The Westmont College Choir, Chamber Singers, and New Sounds will join voices with the Chamber Orchestra on their annual musical tour, this year through the Southwest. The group of more than 75 students will travel though Southern California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona from Sunday, May 6, through May16.

Traditional and contemporary art work will be on display at Reynolds Gallery’s final exhibition of the season, “Views and Visions: The Still Life.” The exhibit, which features paintings and photographs, will be held from Thursday, May 10, through June 22. There will be an opening reception Thursday, May 10, at 4 p.m.

A huge crane lowered a 24-inch reflector telescope into Westmont’s Carroll Observatory Tuesday, April 24. The new high-tech telescope will be the most powerful on California's Central Coast.

Physics Professors Ken Kihlstrom, Warren Rogers and Michael Sommermann have been anxiously waiting for the telescope while DFM Engineering in Colorado spent a year fine tuning the powerful F/8 Cassegrain instrument with Ritchey-Chretien optics.

Chancellor and Interim President David K. Winter will welcome President Designate Gayle Beebe during graduation ceremonies, Saturday, May 5, at 10 a.m. on the Russell Carr Athletic Field. It will be Beebe’s first public introduction at Westmont since he was named president Feb. 14. Beebe will take over the presidency July 1.

Robert S. Bryant, owner of Bryant and Sons Ltd. Jewelers, will receive the Westmont Medal during Commencement.

Thirty students in a marketing class are hoping to use what they’ve learned this semester to raise money to fund a school for AIDS orphans in South Africa. The second annual charity auction will benefit Bridges of Hope International and will be held Friday, April 20, at 7 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum.

Allan Nishimura, professor of chemistry, will be installed in the Kathleen Smith chair of natural and behavioral sciences, the first endowed faculty chair in the sciences. There will be a reception Wednesday, April 11, at the President’s Patio outside Kerrwood at 4 p.m., and a ceremony in Hieronymus Lounge will follow at 4:30 p.m.

The Westmont Men’s Club Polo Team came up just short in its unexpected quest for a national championship Saturday night. Westmont lost 12-8 to Texas A&M in the finals in the U.S. Polo Association National Intercollegiate Championship at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky.

Team members are Ryan Cronin-Prather, a senior from Modesto, Collin White, a freshman from Napa, and Alex de La Torre Bueno, a freshman from Ojai.

The Citadel, Westmont’s yearbook, won a prestigious Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crown Award at the 29th annual College Media Convention in March for its 2005-2006 volume. Of the 1,860 CSPA members eligible to enter the Crown Awards, just five earned a Gold Crown in the collegiate yearbook category.

The Reynolds Gallery showcases the independent projects of 16 talented Westmont seniors at an art exhibit Thursday, April 12, through Saturday, May 5. There will be an opening reception and awards presentation for the Senior Art Major Show Thursday, April 12, from 4-6 p.m. The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public.

Cultural Struggles of Britain's South Asian Immigrants

Internationally recognized speaker Thema Bryant-Davis will explore the many influences affecting recovery from traumatic experiences in “The Cultural Context of Trauma Recovery” Friday, April 13, at 3:30 p.m. in Westmont’s Hieronymus Lounge. Refreshments will be served prior to the free lecture.The talk will examine traumatic experiences including child abuse, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, medical trauma, war, community violence, and school traumas. Dr.

Seventeen Westmont students spent their spring break in Mississippi and Alabama engaging and responding to issues relating to racism and social justice.

The Racial Equality and Justice (REJ) group worked with the John M. Perkins Foundation in Jackson, Miss., which purchases and renovates houses and makes them available to single mothers and Katrina survivors. The students painted, cleaned and completed other renovations to several homes.

Ensenada Mayor César Mancillas and his wife, Beatriz, presented Westmont with the key to the city during last week’s 30th annual student-led spring break service trip there. The city-wide celebration of Potter’s Clay included flamenco dancers and a large dinner.

Members of the music faculty at Westmont will present a free recital featuring music from Buxtehude to Debussy on Tuesday, March 20, at 8 p.m. at Westmont’s Porter Theatre.

Voiceless Communication Wins at Entrepreneurial Forum

A student venture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign won top honors at the Fourth Annual Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (S.E.E.D.) Collegiate Venture Forum at the Andalucia Hotel March 2-3. A panel of experienced judges chose Ambient Corporation as Best Emerging Venture Investment Opportunity for the biotechnology firm’s development of a new form of voiceless communication.

More than 220 Westmont students and three dozen community volunteers are spending their spring break building homes, running medical/dental clinics, competing with local sports teams and leading vacation Bible schools. This is the 30th year for Potter’s Clay, the student-organized service trip to Ensenada, Mexico. The week-long trip begins Friday, March 9, and the volunteers return Friday, March 16.

Nine student ventures from across the country will take part in the Fourth Annual Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (S.E.E.D.) Collegiate Venture Forum at the Andalucia Hotel March 2-3. The opening luncheon, Friday, March 2, at 11:30 a.m., features keynote speaker Dr. Yulun Wang, founder and CEO of InTouch Health. Tickets are $50, and reservations are required.

Westmont student musicians will perform two concerts in March. The first is an Instrumental Chamber Concert March 2 at 8 p.m. in Westmont’s Deane Chapel. Chamber musicians will also present a recital featuring vocal and instrumental chamber groups March 6 at 8 p.m. in Porter Theatre. The concerts are free and open to the public.

Eighth President Wins Unanimous Support from Trustees

The Westmont Board of Trustees named Gayle D. Beebe as the college’s eighth president. Beebe has served as president of Spring Arbor University in Michigan for the past seven years and will take over the Montecito college at the beginning of the next academic year, July 1, 2007.

Jeff Schloss, professor of biology at Westmont, will discuss “Evolutionary Theory, Biblical Faith, and the Mystery of Altruism,” in a Phi Kappa Phi lecture, Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Schloss explores whether the New Testament’s command to selflessly love one another is biologically possible under evolution’s survival of the fittest.

Westmont is putting a new spin on a classic Greek comedy in hopes of staging an entertaining play with a moral edge. John Blondell, Westmont professor of theatre arts, directs the 14-student cast performing “The Clouds,” by Aristophanes, Feb. 23-24 and March 1-3, all at 8 p.m. in Westmont's Porter Theater. There will also be a performance at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 3. Admission is $15; $7 for students.

The Westmont Chamber Orchestra in partnership with the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra will perform in the opening event of the Santa Barbara International Guitar Festival, Friday, Feb. 9, at 8 p.m. in Victoria Hall Theatre.

A second performance will be held at El Montecito Presbyterian Church, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for general admission; students are free.

The performance by Westmont’s 40-member orchestra will include a cameo appearance by the 50-member College Choir, along with guest faculty soloist Patrick Anderson on guitar.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker and author James Ault will show his latest film and lecture on “Toward a New Christianity: The Rise of African Christianity and Its World Significance,” Thursday, Feb. 8, at 3:30 p.m., in Founders Dining Room at Westmont.

Four Santa Barbara college professors will participate in a panel discussion on Thomas Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century,” as part of Westmont Downtown: Conversations About Things that Matter. The event is free and open to the public, Thursday, Feb. 15, at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara St., at 5:30 p.m. Seating is limited.

A day of events at Westmont, Wednesday, Feb. 7, will focus on ending slavery and human trafficking. Westmont alum David Batstone, University of San Francisco professor of ethics, will speak in chapel at 10:30 a.m.

  The Westmont trustees welcomed two new members to the board who are both parents of Westmont graduates. Peter Thorrington and Bruce Bickel join 29 other members who oversee the operation of the college.

The Westmont theatre arts department’s popular student production, “The Car Play Project,” which had an overwhelmingly successful run in November and December, will be pulling into downtown Santa Barbara, Thursday, Feb. 1, at 6 p.m., in the plaza directly behind the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The production is free, though seating is expected to be limited.

The Westmont College Choir will perform the 1970s rock musical “Godspell,” Friday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 3, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Montecito Covenant Church.

The show is co-directed by alumna Sharon Williams and student Jessica Weber. The cast includes 10 students and two recent Westmont alumni.

Westmont Brings One-Woman Play on Apartheid to Santa Barbara

A deeply personal story about apartheid in South Africa in the early 1960s comes to the stage in Santa Barbara next month. Gin Hammond performs “The Syringa Tree” at the Marjorie Luke Theatre, Friday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m.

Thomas L. Friedman, one of the world’s most highly respected commentators on international affairs, will speak at Westmont’s second annual President’s Breakfast, Wednesday, Feb. 28. He will discuss “The World is Flat: Speaking on the Next Phase of Globalization,” at 7 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort. Tickets went on sale Friday, Jan. 26, and sold out in three hours.

A public poetry reading in the Los Padres National Forest will honor the life and work of William Stafford, former U.S. poet laureate. The gathering will be Saturday, Jan. 27, at 2 p.m. in the First Crossing Day Use Area on Paradise Road off of Highway 154 in Santa Barbara County.

One of California’s premier figurative realist painters and draftsman will exhibit his work at Westmont’s Reynolds Gallery this spring. Harry Carmean will show his figurative drawings, Thursday, Jan. 18, through March 9. An opening reception with Carmean will be held Thursday, Jan. 18, at 4 p.m. at the gallery.

An assistant professor of philosophy from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., will come to Westmont to talk about how cultural myths of female and male eating relate in important ways to how men and women generally react to desire. Christina Van Dyke’s lecture “‘I’ll Have a Salad and Diet Coke’: Eating as a Gendered Act,” will be at Kerrwood Hall in Hieronymus Lounge, Friday, Jan. 12, at 3:30 p.m. The free talk is open to the public.