Tuesday, March 22, 2022

$2 Million Gift Endows Kathleen M. Murray Chair in Computer Science

Computer science students collaborate in the classroom.

 

As President Kathy Murray prepares to retire at the end of this academic year, her legacy will be preserved in the form of a new endowed chair in computer science, thanks to a generous gift from Christina and Peter Dawson, parents of Adam Dawson ’16. 

 

Established in 2015, the computer science program was approved as a new major in 2016 during Murray’s first year in office, and then officially offered to students starting with the 2017-2018 academic year. Since then, it has continued to expand with courses including web design, introduction to data science, computational problem solving and human-computer interaction. Graduates have gone on to careers at Google, Microsoft and other competitive companies.

“I’m delighted by the Dawsons’ generous gift supporting computer science at Whitman,” says Janet Davis, associate professor and Microsoft Chair of Computer Science. “It comes at a pivotal time when we urgently need more faculty to engage in new interdisciplinary programs such as data science while continuing to support growing numbers of computer science majors and minors along with other students from across the college. Naming the chair for President Murray could not be more fitting, as she has been a steadfast supporter of computer science and other new curricular ventures at Whitman.”

 

Read more.

While Whitman is a mask-optional campus, masks are still an important tool in the fight to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we will continue to provide members of our community with a supply of N95 masks, including a limited number of small and large sizes, as well as the Whitman cloth masks for people who would prefer those.

 

We also encourage all faculty and staff to take a COVID-19 during Spring Break, and are providing at-home test kits (one per person) for this purpose.

 

Masks and at-home test kits are available to pick up from the COVID-19 testing center in Cordiner Hall today through Friday, March 25 from 8 a.m.–1 p.m.

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