News

High School Math Contest Gets Perfect

scraig — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:08:39 +0000

The 25th annual High School Mathematics Contest is Feb. 11.

Eleven high school teams will compete in the 25th annual High School Mathematics Contest at Westmont on Saturday, Feb. 11 in Westmont’s Winter Hall. The contest begins at 1 p.m. with a Chalk Talk Derby, written exams and a fast-paced team competition with buzzers modeled after the once-popular College Bowl TV show. Finals will get under way beginning at 4 p.m. at the Darling Foundation Lecture Hall (Room 210). Dinner and an awards ceremony begin at 5:30 p.m. in Kerr Student Center.

Because the contest is celebrating its 25th year, the chalk-talk topic is perfect squares, which are integers that are the square of the integers (5²= 25)

“The students, we hope, will have lots of fun interacting with similarly gifted students, and be encouraged to continue their excellence in academic pursuits,” says Russell Howell, Westmont professor of mathematics.

Participating this year will be Bishop Diego, Cate, Crescenta Valley, Dos Pueblos, Family Schools, La Cañada, Oaks Christian, Providence Hall, San Marcos, Santa Barbara and Thacher.

A contest itinerary, map, sample questions and photos from past events can be found at www.westmont.edu/mathcontest.

American Double to Feature Works by Brahms

scraig — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:40:10 +0000

Dr. Philip Ficsor

Violinist Philip Ficsor and pianist Constantine Finehouse, a duo named American Double, perform works by Johannes Brahms, Claude Debussy and John Harbison in their second installment of concerts at Westmont Friday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. in Westmont’s Deane Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public.

American Double bookends the concert with Brahms’ Scherzo in C-minor and Sonata in D-minor op. 108. “Brahms wrote three full-fledged sonatas for violin and piano, the last of which is the op. 108 work we will finish the program with,” Ficsor says. “But early in his career, he wrote a movement of a larger sonata, the other movements were written by other composers, among them Robert Schumann. Although Brahms was young when he wrote it, the movement still shows flashes of the depth of expression and harmonic character that would be a signature of Brahms’ style throughout his career.”

American Double, which recorded William Bolcom’s complete works for violin and piano in 2007, will perform Debussy’s Sonata in G-minor. “It’s actually the final piece he completed,” Ficsor says. “It was finished near the end of World War I in Paris, and Debussy’s fierce nationalism emerged in the phrase he wrote on the title page ‘written by Claude Debussy, a French Musician.’ In its transparent textures and delicate harmonic progressions, it shows Debussy both at the height of his compositional mastery and contrasts sharply with Brahms’ more rich harmonic textures.”

The duo will add UC Santa Barbara French horn professor Steven Gross to perform John Harbison’s Twilight Music for Horn, Violin and Piano (1984), which Ficsor says has nothing to do with vampires or the supernatural. “Rather, the piece depicts atmospheric impressions of twilight in musical brushstrokes,” he says. “The inclusion of a horn trio in an otherwise violin-piano exclusive concert is testament to American Double’s continuing partnership with Gross to commission Bolcom for a world premiere Horn Trio in the Fall of 2014.”

Track Stars to Shine on Saturday

scraig — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:24:31 +0000

Decathlete Adam Thompkins

Westmont hosts the Sunshine Multi-Event & Indoor Open on Saturday, Feb. 4, beginning at 11 a.m. with the shot put and long jump. Running events begin at noon with the 60-meter hurdles and conclude with the 1,600-meter relay at 3:15 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Athletes from Azusa Pacific, Biola, Concordia, Vanguard, Fresno Pacific and Cal Baptist are expected to compete.

Russell Smelley, head track-and-field coach, says the Warriors’ men’s and women’s distance medley relay teams will attempt to meet the NAIA indoor national qualifying standards. “Adam Thompkins, a multi-event, season record winner, will begin his quest for national prominence in the decathlon in individual events this weekend before taking on the indoor heptathlon at APU next week,” Smelley says.

Westmont Named eCampus of the Month

scraig — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:20:22 +0000

Westmont's Voskuyl Library

The popular magazine eCampus News has chosen Westmont from nearly 4500 colleges and universities as the eCampus of the month for January. The publication, which boasts a circulation to more than 51,000 higher-education leaders, says Westmont has “implemented predictive modeling and cloud-computing programs to save money and spend budgets efficiently, becoming a model for small schools looking for ways to survive the slumping economy.”

The magazine lauds Westmont for uploading thousands of lectures to iTunes U and refurbishing the library for the modern needs of today’s college students. Reed Sheard, vice president for college advancement and chief information officer, says he’s honored to be in the company of institutions such as the University of North Carolina, the University of Chicago, Seton Hall and Abilene Christian University.

“Westmont has become increasingly effective in a wide range of technological areas,” Sheard says. “Our information technology department has strategically analyzed where the college is heading and positioned it to capitalize on tools that will enable us to fulfill our mission. We’ve also been able to excel in these new areas in interesting ways without increasing the budget or adding personnel — we’ve actually cut the budget.”

In the article, Sheard reveals how systems would go offline for hours or even days. “We’ve had a history of problems in the past, so our current achievements speak of how well the IT team has done.”

In 2009, the college emerged as a leader in wireless technology, becoming one of the first schools in the country to completely move to an 802.11n wireless network that creates a high speed wireless cloud over the entire 111-acre campus. Also in 2009 Westmont was recognized by InfoWorld as having one of the top 100 IT organizations in the United States. Last year, Westmont released a free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that provides easily accessible information about the college and campus events. In addition, a fully interactive Westmont Magazine is now available in a digital format on the iPad.

Talk to Focus on Global Security, Gates

scraig — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:30:14 +0000

Political Science Professors Tom Knecht and Susan Penksa

Westmont political science professors Susan Penksa and Tom Knecht analyze the challenges of national and global security in a free, public lecture Thursday, Feb. 9, at 5:30 p.m. at University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara St. Tickets are not needed, although the limited seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please call 565-6051. The lecture, “National and Global Security in the 21st Century,” is part of Westmont Downtown: Conversations about Things that Matter, which is sponsored by the Westmont Foundation. The talk relates to the Westmont President’s Breakfast that features former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on March 2.

“We hope to provide a thought-provoking discussion of American and global security in the 21st century, highlighting the important legacy of Secretary Gates,” says Penksa, who has an international consulting practice. “I’ll focus my remarks on civil and military cooperation, the relationship between security and development, and the changing nature of power.”

In 2010, the U.S. Department of State awarded Penksa a follow-on Fulbright grant, which allowed her to return to Bosnia and Herzegovina to build on the work of her 2007 fellowship. She has co-authored a book, “The European Union in Global Security: The Politics of Impact,” which will be published in March.

“Robert Gates is one of the most important and influential defense secretaries in American history,” says Knecht, a Stanford graduate who earned a master’s degree and doctorate at UC Santa Barbara. “I will examine Secretary Gates’ appointment in the Bush and Obama administrations, his leadership of the Pentagon and his vision for American foreign policy.”

Knecht, who taught at the University of Denver for five years before arriving at Westmont in 2009, has published a book, “Paying Attention to Foreign Affairs: How Public Opinion Affects Presidential Decision Making.”

Talk to Explore Women, Religion and Media

scraig — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:00:19 +0000

Dr. Marla F. Frederick

Marla F. Frederick, Harvard professor of African and African-American studies and of religion, investigates “Women, Religion and Media” in a free, public lecture Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 3:30 p.m. in Kerrwood Hall’s Hieronymus Lounge. The Westmont Gender Studies Program and Global Christianity Series co-sponsor the talk.

Frederick’s lecture will address concerns related to the rise of prosperity ministries in poor communities as well as the dramatic rise of African American religious broadcasters on television. Her most recent book, “Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith,” is an ethnographic study of the faith commitments of women in rural North Carolina.

“Marla Frederick works in fascinating ways at the intersection of ethnic identity, gender identity and religious identity,” says Cheri Larsen Hoeckley, Westmont professor of English. “She brings to campus experience in field studies with African-American women in Christian communities in the rural South and in contemporary religious media.

“Dr. Frederick’s lecture will offer both students and the larger community a model of bringing faith to bear on scholarship that’s both richly rigorous and deeply engaged in questions people are asking outside the academy and outside the church.”

Frederick also co-authored “Local Democracy Under Siege: Activism, Public Interests and Private Politics,” which won the 2008 Best Book Award from the Society for the Anthropology of North America. She graduated from Spelman College and earned a doctorate in cultural anthropology from Duke University.

Talk Probes the Battle of Science, Religion

scraig — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:16:09 +0000

Dr. Karl Giberson

Physicist Karl Giberson, a leading scholar in America’s creation-evolution debate, explores the question, “Are Science and Religion at War?” Friday, Feb. 10, at 3:30 p.m. in Westmont’s Adams Center, room 216. The Pascal Lecture, which is sponsored by the office of the Westmont provost, is free and open to the public.

Giberson directs Gordon College’s Science and Religion Forum and teaches a special workshop on writing about science and religion. He has authored or coauthored many books on this topic, including his most recent, “The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions,” which was reviewed in January 2012 in the New York Times Sunday Book Review.

He has also written “The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age,” “Species of Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story” and “Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and believe in Evolution.” His book, “The Wonder of the Universe: Hints of God in Our Fine-Tuned World,” will be published in April. He has contributed more than 150 articles, reviews and essays for websites and journals including Salon.com, Books & Culture and the Huffington Post.

Giberson says popular culture contains a metanarrative about science and religion being at war, recounted in pulpits, or National Public Radio, or “The Simpsons.”

“The story goes like this: Science and religion are mortal enemies and always have been,” Giberson says. “The church has opposed every scientific advance and scientists have been persecuted, tortured and even executed for their discoveries. From the flat earthism of the first millennium, to the persecution of Galileo, to widespread rejection of Darwinism today we see a steady battle between the forces of superstition and enlightenment. This popular picture is wrong, however. It’s driven more by propaganda than history.”

Religion Dispatches Magazine listed Giberson among their Top Ten Peacemakers in the Science-Religion Wars in December 2011. He has lectured at the Vatican, Oxford University, London’s Thomas Moore Institute, the Ettore Majorana center in Sicily, the Venice Institute of Arts and Letters and the University of Navarre in Spain.

Giberson earned two bachelor’s degrees from the Eastern Nazarene College, where he taught from 1984 to 2011. He earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in physics at Rice University.

New Ensemble to Perform World Premier

scraig — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:37:58 +0000

The Westmont College Collegium Musicum

The Westmont College Collegium Musicum, a new faculty-student musical ensemble, presents historic church cantatas and the world premiere of a new work by Steve Butler, Westmont professor of music, Sunday, Feb. 5, at 3 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Barbara; Saturday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Arroyo Grande; and Sunday, March 4 at 6 p.m. at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. The performances are open to the public and free with a free-will offering taken during the program.

The ensemble consists of a string quartet, oboe, flute, keyboard (organ, piano and harpsichord), soprano soloist and baritone soloist. The repertoire includes works by German composers Franz Tunder, Dietrich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann and J.S. Bach. Butler’s new composition, “Hymns of Divine Love,” is a cantata based on poetry from Symeon the New Theologian, a 10th century Orthodox monk and poet.

“These are all beautiful and powerful works of the historic faith and will bring much joy and a deep spiritual experience to listeners,” says Michael Shasberger, Adams professor of music and worship.

Shasberger says Butler’s compositions for voice, which are in English, are accessible to modern audiences. “His compositional voice is a fresh blend of expanded tonal and minimalist approaches that retain an alluring melodic character while clearly evoking the spiritual qualities of the text,” he says.

The Collegium Musicum performers are: Nichole Dechaine, soprano; Shasberger, baritone; Steven Hodson, keyboard; Chan Ho Yun, violin; Madison Martin, violin; Sarah Shasberger, viola; Rebecca Shasberger, cello; Anne Anderson, oboe; and Madeline Selby, flute.

‘Parenthood’ Actor Offers Life Lessons

scraig — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:54:17 +0000

Westmont theater arts professor Mitchell Thomas talks with actor Sam Jaeger

Sam Jaeger, who stars as Joel Graham in NBC’s “Parenthood,” stopped by Westmont Jan. 13 to talk about his college education and life as an actor. He graduated from Otterbein University, a small, private, liberal arts college in Westerville, Ohio.

“Virtually everyone I love has come from a liberal arts college,” Jaeger told a crowd of more than 100 in Porter Theatre. “Hopefully, the liberal arts experience and the friendships you develop will create a safe haven, build you up and sustain you through adversity.”

Jaeger discussed his feature directorial debut, “Take Me Home,” which is expected to be released to theaters this spring. Westmont theater arts professor Mitchell Thomas showed a trailer from the film, which Jaeger wrote and stars in. Although the romantic comedy won’t be shown at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, it is expected to be part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival March 7-11.

“It’s really gratifying and different (to make a film),” Jaeger says. “I feel so invested in it, but like parenting, you do your best to raise it and then send it on its way.”

Despite his current success, Jaeger says one acting job hasn’t led to the next one. After ABC canceled “Eli Stone,” he auditioned unsuccessfully for four months. One morning at a coffee shop, he and his wife counted the number of days before they’d be forced to move. The next week he was offered the role in “Parenthood.”

“It’s important to appreciate every step along the way because you can get rooted in the business part of life,” he says “Appreciation is important in any industry — being thankful for every step.”

Beebe Joins NAICU Board of Directors

scraig — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:36:16 +0000

Dr. Gayle Beebe

The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) has elected Westmont President Gayle D. Beebe to a three-year term on its board of directors. Beebe, who will be formally appointed Feb. 1 in Washington, D.C., will represent a region that includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

“At this crucial time for independent higher education, we need to articulate the critical role that colleges like Westmont play in equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to contribute to the global society,” Beebe says.

NAICU is the leading national association representing private higher education, serving as the unified voice of more than 1,000 independent college and university presidents and specialized, state and regional association executives. NAICU member institutions enroll nine out of every 10 students attending a private college or university in the U.S. The 44-member NAICU board works with the federal government to establish policy issues affecting student aid, taxation and government regulation.

“President Beebe was selected by his peers because of his expertise in the field, proven leadership and commitment to America’s college students,” said NAICU President David L. Warren. “He assumes his responsibilities at a time of great challenge and transformation for American higher education.”

Beebe became president of Westmont in 2007 after leading Spring Arbor University in Michigan for seven years. He earned master’s degrees in divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary and in business administration at Claremont Graduate University, where he studied with Peter Drucker. He also completed a master’s degree and a doctorate in philosophy of religion and theology at Claremont. His books include “Longing for God” and “The Shaping of an Effective Leader.”