Westmont News

TechKnowledge Point Corp., founded by David Newton, Westmont professor of entrepreneurial finance, will hold the Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) business plan competition and awards luncheon Feb. 20-21 at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort.

The final competitions, which are free and open to the public, will be 8:30-11:30 a.m. Feb. 21 in the resort conference center.

In a new body of work by Westmont Art Professor Susan Savage, a simple silver bowl provides an interesting yet poignant point of focus. Humble yet elegant, the bowl tells a story that becomes expressively spiritual in its revelations of mystery and truth.

“Bearing Witness: Recent Paintings by Susan Savage” will be on exhibit Feb. 2 through March 5 in Reynolds Gallery. An opening reception and lecture will be 4-7 p.m. Feb. 5. Savage, an arts educator for more than 30 years, serves as associate professor and art department chair.

Representing the best mathematical minds of their schools, approximately 100 students will compete Feb. 7 at Westmont’s 18th annual High School Mathematics Contest.

The keynote speaker for the awards banquet is Paul Zorn, a professor at St. Olaf College and the author of a popular textbook on calculus.

David Batstone, professor of social ethics at the University of San Francisco and a writer on popular culture, and film producer Steven Crisman will speak on “Pop Culture with Values: If You Don't Like the News, Go Out
and Create Your Own” 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4 in the Founders Room in the Kerr Student Center.

The event is free and open to the public.

“Vocation, Vocationalism, and the Liberal Arts” is the theme of the fourth annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts, Feb. 6-7, hosted by the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Westmont.

While the conference is by invitation only, the public is invited to an evening forum and desert reception 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7 at the El Cabrillo Room of the Santa Barbara Radisson Hotel.

Associate Music Professor Steve Butler was honored this year with an ASCAP award for his achievements in the field of concert music.

ASCAP is a performing rights organization dedicated to those who compose music and write lyrics. The organization, which represents every genre of music, is composed of 170, 000 U.S. members and represents a multitude of worldwide artists. Members have included musical creators such as Duke Ellington, Madonna and Garth Brooks.

The Westmont College Choir, the Westmont Chamber Singers and the Vox Lumina Women’s Chorale present “The Singing Season,” the annual Christmas Choral concert, 8 p.m. Dec. 6 and 7 at Trinity Episcopal Church. Admission is free, but a goodwill offering will be taken. Trinity Episcopal is located at 1500 State St., at the corner of State and Micheltorena streets.

Westmont’s choral groups present “A Celtic Christmas” 8 p.m. Dec. 12 and 13 at Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Santa Barbara. Admission is free, although a free-will offering will be requested.

The Westmont College Choir and Westmont Chamber Singers, directed by Steven R. Hodson, and Vox Lumina Women’s Chorale, directed by Laura Brinton, will sing a variety of Celtic holiday songs.

Trinity Episcopal Church is the corner of State and Micheltorena streets.

For more information, call the music department at (805) 565-7040 or the public affairs office at 565-6051.

The James L. Stamps Foundation has awarded Westmont $100,000 to advance the college’s administrative software system and increase support for spiritual formation projects.

These two vastly different systems both work as an integral, albeit unseen, structure for advancing the college’s mission of educating young people equipped to appreciate and contribute to an increasingly complex world.

Westmont Windancers’ fall dance concert, “Random Radiance,” takes abstract expressionism to a new dimension 8 p.m. Dec. 5 and 6 and 2 p.m. Dec. 6 in Porter Theatre.

Weaving together the visual and performing arts in an innovative and intriguing manner, the dances draw inspiration from paintings by Chagall, Kandinsky, Pollock and an original painting by student Ryan Lonac, interpreting and bringing them to life through movement.

Embrace the sounds of Christmas and classical music 8 p.m. Dec. 5 at the Westmont Wind Ensemble and Chamber Orchestra concert in Deane Chapel on Westmont’s lower campus. Admission is free.

“The group has grown in size, morale and quality each semester,” director Ron McCarley said.

The Westmont Chamber Orchestra and Wind Ensembles will present their fall concert 8 p.m. Nov. 22 in Deane Chapel, on Westmont’s lower campus. Admission is free.

The Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Emily Sommermann, will perform Vivaldi’s “D minor Concerto Grosso,” the “Adagio” from the First Organ Sonata by Mendelssohn and the famous “Holberg Suite” by Edvard Grieg.

“It is exciting to work with this ensemble and to watch these musicians grow,” Sommermann said. “It will be a great performance.”

The Westmont jazz band, choir and three combos will perform the best of their work at the Jazz Ensemble Concert, 8 p.m. Nov. 21 in Deane Chapel.

For the first time, professor Ron McCarley is playing lead alto in the 14-member band. This is also the first concert to include a jazz choir. The choir will be directed by music professor Steve Hodson.

Voskuyl Library, in conjunction with Reynolds Gallery’s Christmas show, "Storytellers," is exhibiting the work of Itoko Maeno and Bruce Hale, two Santa Barbara children's book illustrators, through Jan. 17, 2004.
Maeno, a native of Japan, earned her bachelor of arts degree in graphic design from Tama Art University in Tokyo. Now a resident of Santa Barbara, she has illustrated more than 25 children's books. Four of her titles have won national awards, including the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Picture Book in 1989.

Voskuyl Library, in conjunction with Reynolds Gallery’s Christmas show, "Storytellers," is exhibiting the work of Itoko Maeno and Bruce Hale, two Santa Barbara children's book illustrators, through Jan. 17, 2004.

Maeno, a native of Japan, earned her bachelor of arts degree in graphic design from Tama Art University in Tokyo. Now a resident of Santa Barbara, she has illustrated more than 25 children's books. Four of her titles have won national awards, including the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Picture Book in 1989.

Westmont’s first fall dance concert featuring a unique blend of dancing and acting will be 8 p.m. Nov. 15 and 2 and 8 p.m. Nov. 16 in Porter Theatre. Admission is $5 for students and seniors and $8 for general audience.

The performance is centered on our relationship with water and will feature one complete piece of contemporary dance. The concert will also include students acting in a European style of clowning. The piece features six dancers and seven actors.

The 19th-century battle of Abraham v. Abraham and the questions it poses about religious identity and racism will be presented by Assistant History Professor Chandra Mallampalli at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 in Hieronymus Lounge.

"Mallampalli’s talk, “Race, Religion and Law in British India: Abraham v. Abraham (1863),” is the Paul C. Wilt Phi Kappa Phi Lecture for fall semester. Sociology Professor Thomas Jayawardene and History Professor Shirley Mullen will respond.

R. Anthony Askew, Allan Nishimura and Robert Wennberg have received the college’s first distinguished professorship award, an honor that recognizes their exceptional commitment to their students and Christian liberal arts education.

The award, which will be given every two years, includes an additional $2,000 annual stipend to be used for their work at the college until retirement. Professors must have taught at the college for at least 20 years to be considered for the honor.

Kurt Wenner, Italian muralist, frescoe painter and founder of Santa Barbara’s I Madonnari, will join Westmont Professor of Art Tony Askew in the first of a series of “Conversations About Things that Matter” hosted by Westmont Downtown at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 7 at the University Club at 1332 Santa Barbara St. Admission is free.

Santa Barbara architect and art collector Barry Berkus has donated a sculpture by environmental artist Robert Lobe to Westmont.

The piece, displayed on the lawn outside Reynolds Gallery, has been on loan to Westmont for a number of years. Berkus donated four other sculptures to the college last year that also had been on loan from his private collection.

The aluminum sculpture, like many of Lobe’s works, features the shape and texture of a tree.

“Drawn to the Light: Poems on Rembrandt’s Religious Paintings,” English Professor Marilyn Chandler McEntyre’s second volume of poetry on the works of the great masters, was published this week by Eerdmans.
The event, featuring poets from around the West, will also include readings from Westmont, UCSB and Santa Barbara City College students.

A special evening of readings by Chicano and Chicana poets, “El Espíritu de la Raza/The Spirit of the People: Chicano/a Poetry,” will be 7 p.m. Nov. 11 in Hieronymus Lounge.

The event, featuring poets from around the West, will also include readings from Westmont, UCSB and Santa Barbara City College students.

Philosophy Professor Jim Taylor was recently elected to the executive committee of the Society of Christian Philosophers.

The committee of four people represents the entire society and reports to the society's president, Robert Audi of the University of Nebraska. Annual meetings of the committee take place at the Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association each spring.

Chemistry Professor Stanley Edward Anderson has been selected for a National Research Council Senior Research Associateship award, which has allowed him to conduct studies at the University of California Santa Barbara during a sabbatical.

Working with UCSB Chemistry Professor Michael T. Bowers, Anderson is analyzing molecular structures using ion chromatography/mass spectrometry techniques perfected by the Bowers Group.

“Of Sky and Land,” paintings of the New England landscape by Denise Adams, will be on exhibit Oct. 23 through Nov. 2 in Reynolds Gallery. The opening reception will be 4-6 p.m. Oct. 25 in the Westmont Art Center and is free and open to the public.

“The paintings of Denise Adams express a freshness and painterly quality that enhances and magnifies the beauty of nature,” Reynolds Gallery Director Tony Askew said. “There is a poetic strength and simple beauty in content and subject.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy David Vander Laan will speak on “Divine Conservation and Persistence through Time” 7 p.m. Oct. 21 in Hieronymus Lounge in Kerrwood Hall.

Physics Professor Michael Sommerman and Philosophy Professor Jim Taylor will respond.

Vander Laan will explore various views about how God sustains the existence of human persons through time. The issue has important implications for how God will preserve our existence from this life to the afterlife. The lecture is the Paul C. Wilt Phi Kappa Phi presentation for the fall semester.

“The Bourgeois Gentleman,” Moliere’s hilarious comedy that paints a portrait of Monsieur Jourdain, whose obsessive desire to associate with the gentry takes over all reason and moderation, comes to Porter Theatre in November.

In the play, Monsieur Jourdain spends an outrageous amount of money on fashionable clothes, lessons in dance, fencing, music, language and philosophy, and gifts for a countess in order to try and buy himself high social position, but is only deceiving himself.

“A Fall Festival of Choral Music” will be presented by the Westmont choirs 8 p.m. Oct. 24 at San Roque Catholic Church in Santa Barbara.

The festival will feature the Westmont College Choir, directed by Steven R. Hodson, and Vox Lumina Women’s Chorale, directed by Laura Brinton, singing Benjamin Britten’s cantata for choir and soloists: “Rejoice in the Lamb.”

Sophocles’ “Antigone,” the classic dramatic text of a young woman struggling against the law, will be told through music and dance in the Westmont Theatre department’s presentation 8 p.m. Oct. 24, 25 and 31 and Nov. and 2 in Porter Theatre.

There also will be a matinee performance at 2 p.m. Oct. 26 and Nov. 2. Admission is $5 for students and seniors and $10 for the general audience.

The production examines Antigone’s struggle and explores the three types of laws that humans face: laws from religious texts, civil codes and the unwritten law in people’s hearts.

Chemistry professor Nivaldo Tro is the author of a new textbook, “Introductory Chemistry,” published by the nation’s top chemistry textbook publisher, Prentice Hall.

Tro has worked with Prentice Hall for the last two and a half years on the project, which also has a Web site for students and teachers to use along with the book. The book is unique in its approach to developing problem solving skills in chemistry and in its use of molecular graphics to communicate important chemical concepts.

Reynolds Gallery’s Christmas 2003 exhibit, “Storytellers: Children’s Book Illustrators,” featuring the work of three of the nation’s premier children’s book illustrators, opens Nov. 3 and runs through Jan. 17, 2004.

The show, sure to engage and enchant viewers of all ages, will include original paintings and drawings from a broad range of the books by Kadir Nelson, Kinuko Y. Craft and Gary Kelley.

Admission is free; no reservations are required.

Duncan, a leading environmental activist who lives in Montana, is widely recognized for his humorous and beautifully crafted essays and novels. He is a passionate voice for wilderness and wildlife, particularly salmon. His collection of essays, “River Teeth,” inspired an upcoming Oregon film festival and the award-winning literary magazine, River Teeth: A Journal of Narrative Non-fiction.

An exhibit of the emotionally charged and thought-provoking paintings of Chicago artist Tim Lowly, inspired by his severely developmentally disabled daughter, opens the fall season at Westmont’s Reynolds Gallery. “Trouble the Water” runs Aug. 20-Oct. 19.

Lowly will speak about his life and work during a Westmont chapel service 10:30 a.m. Oct. 18 in Murchison Gymnasium. A closing reception will be 4-6 p.m. Oct. 18 in the Westmont Art Center. All events are free and open to the public.

Westmont's student performance of its first original production, “The Mariner,” directed by theater Professor John Blondell, will be reprised Oct. 4 and 5 during the internationally acclaimed Lit Moon Theatre Festival in downtown Santa Barbara.

Two performances are scheduled, 11 p.m. Oct. 4 and 4 p.m. Oct. 5 in the Center Stage Theatre, upstairs in the Paseo Nuevo Mall. Tickets cost $8 for students and $10 for general audience.

San Diego author and physician David Peck will present a slide show and lecture on his book, “Or Perish in the Attempt: Wilderness Medicine in the Lewis and Clark Expedition,” 7 p.m. Oct. 6 in Hieronymus Lounge in Kerrwood Hall on Westmont’s upper campus.

Princeton Professor Albert Raboteau will speak on “Healing the Wounds of Racism: The Role of Memory and Mourning” 4 p.m. Oct. 2 in Hieronymus Lounge in Kerrwood Hall on the upper Westmont campus.
The lecture, sponsored by the Erasmus Society, is free and open to the public.

"Two Westmont employees have been promoted to new jobs in recent
weeks."

Pamela Arneson has been named the new associate director of alumni & parent relations in the Office of College Advancement. She previously worked 10 years as assistant in the Alumni & Parent Relations Office.

In her new position, Arneson will share responsibility for Homecoming, Parents Weekend, Parents Orientation and Westmont’s alumni chapter programs around the country. Event planning, managing volunteers and working with current students are her key tasks.

Westmont has joined nearly 300 other institutions in launching the nation’s first prepaid tuition plan for private colleges and universities: the Independent 529 Plan.

The plan is similar to state-sponsored “529” prepaid tuition plans, but is unique in that it can be used at independent institutions throughout the nation. The program allows families to pay today’s tuition for certificates that will be redeemable years from now at any of the member institutions.

Photographer David Holt, painter Karin Young and art collector Nancy Wood have joined the Westmont Art Council.

As a vital link between the professional art world, the college and the community, Art Council members assist in establishing networks among these groups.

Holt, Young and Wood bring varied backgrounds and experiences to the council.

Dr. Edward Birch, who retired as executive vice president of Westmont in 2001, and Roy Goble of Pleasanton have joined the college’s board of trustees.

“I know the rest of the trustees join me in heartily welcoming Edward Birch and Roy Goble to the board,” Chairman David Eaton said. “We are delighted to have two people with such outstanding backgrounds willing to share their time, expertise and experiences with us.”

Westmont is listed among the nation’s top 100 liberal arts colleges in the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings, which were released today.

The college, which has been on the magazine’s list of top national liberal arts colleges since the late 1980s, moved from the third tier (ranked roughly between 110th and 160th out of 217 colleges) to the second tier (ranked 97th ).

Award-winning filmmaker and professor Elizabeth Morgan will present “Veiled Truth: Reading Assia Djebar from the Outside” 3:30 p.m. Sept. 15 in Hieronymus Lounge in Westmont’s Kerrwood Hall.

The lecture, rescheduled from last spring, is free and open to the public.

Morgan is professor of literature and women in development at Eastern University. She is also a founding member of the Oregon Extension Gender Studies Mayterm and a popular lecturer on her home campus.

An exhibit of the emotionally charged and thought-provoking paintings of Chicago artist Tim Lowly, inspired by his severely developmentally disabled daughter, opens the fall season at Westmont’s Reynolds Gallery. “Trouble the Water” runs Aug. 20-Oct. 19.

Lowly will speak about his life and work during a Westmont chapel service 10:30 a.m. Oct. 18 in Murchison Gymnasium. A closing reception will be 4-6 p.m. Oct. 18 in the Westmont Art Center. All events are free and open to the public.

“Excavating the Image: Biblical Subjects by Wayne Forte,” featuring the powerful, monumental paintings and charcoal drawings of Orange County-based Forte, opens Aug. 18 in Reynolds Gallery.

The show, which runs through Oct. 18, is the first exhibit of the 2003-04 academic year. An opening reception, which is free and open to the public, is 3-5 p.m. Sept. 6 in the Westmont Art Center.

Santa Barbara-based Lit Moon Theatre Company’s production of “Hamlet,” directed by Westmont Professor John Blondell, received the top award for drama at the 13th Montreal Fringe Festival in June.

Called the Centaur Award, the honor is accompanied by an invitation to play at the Centaur Theater, Montreal’s major English-language theater, in October.

Director of Admissions Joyce Luy was honored with the Guidance Professional of the Year Award at the National Association of Christian College Admissions Professionals (NACCAP) annual conference at Seattle Pacific University in June.

Luy received a standing ovation when she was given the award, which is normally given to a high school counselor.

“Joyce was always the champion for the high school counselor,” said Dr. Janet Miranda of Trinity Christian Academy in Dallas. “How much we appreciate her out here in the trenches.”

Westmont has joined the Santa Barbara Book Council, Public Library System and the libraries of UCSB and City College in celebrating reading with “Santa Barbara Reads!”

Throughout August and September, Santa Barbara will be reading T.C. Boyle’s “The Tortilla Curtain,” a novel about the American Dream that deals with themes of illegal immigration, social discrimination, human dignity and racism.

Westmont has received a gift of $420,468 from the Volentine Charitable Remainder Unitrust, established by the late Myatt W. and Mary Genevieve Volentine of Santa Barbara.

The unitrust distribution will fund the Myatt and Mary Genevieve Volentine Endowed Scholarship at the college.

“We are so grateful for the Volentines’ steadfast giving and for their keen foresight in setting up this provision to benefit deserving students,” President Stan D. Gaede said. “Whenever someone provides student scholarships, they provide for the future.”