Thursday, April 7, 2022

Every year, Whitman Debate closes out their season with the opportunity to compete at three national tournaments running late February through late March.  

 

At the National Round Robin (Feb. 26-27), the team of sophomore Jas Liu  and senior Reeve Boyer won enough preliminary rounds to advance to the round robin portion of the tournament, where they debated teams from the University of Oregon, Mercer University, Rice University, University of Texas–Tyler and UC Berkeley. 

 

For the first time in seven years, Whitman qualified teams to the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE), held March 4-6. The teams of Liu and sophomore Kasey Moulton and Boyer and junior Ilse Spiropoulos advanced past preliminary rounds. Liu and Moulton placed eleventh, debating a team from University of the Pacific in partial octofinals. Boyer and Spiropoulos debated a team from the University of Oregon in partial quarters, placing fourth overall. Liu placed seventh in speaker points.

 

The team closed out their season March 25-27 at the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) national tournament. A season-best three teams advanced to elimination rounds. First-years Alexa Grechishkin and Kyle Mathy  debated a team from University of the Pacific in the partial octofinals round.  Boyer and Spiropoulos received a bye through partials, and debated a team from University of the Pacific in octofinals. Liu and Moulton won their first elimination round against a team from Concordia University Irvine before debating a team from the University of Texas-Tyler in octofinals. Also in attendance were junior Taegan Wilson and sophomore Grace Canny.

 

The Whitman debate team placed third in the nation in sweepstakes at the NPDA National Tournament. Congratulations!

The Whitman Legend by Kay Nielsen, which hangs in the seminar room in Maxey West, illustrates a mythologized version of the story of the Whitman Mission that minimizes Indigenous presence, justifies settler claims to the land, and celebrates Manifest Destiny. It also serves as a teaching tool for faculty from a number of disciplines interested in the relationship of settler-colonialism to representations of the land, of history, and of Indigenous people. So, should it remain in place for pedagogical purposes? Should it be taken down? And if it does remain in place, what kind of contextual material is necessary to mitigate the potential for harm? 

 

As part of the Long Tent programming, community members and visitors are invited to explore these questions in Maxey West through new wall text, a small library and opportunities to provide feedback. On April 14, we will also learn from visiting speaker Michael Holloman in his talk titled “The Whitman Legend: a Candid Cultural Conversation.”

 

Debates about the painting came to a head last fall when artist Roger Amerman was on campus for You Are Here, an exhibition at the Sheehan Gallery of work by contemporary Indigenous artists. Amerman expressed a viscerally negative reaction to the painting, noting it was part of the larger problem of the historical erasure of Native presence on Whitman’s campus. His proposed antidote was to build a Long Tent here and create programming to highlight the continued presence of Plateau people, making that presence felt and heard at Whitman and in Walla Walla.

Announcements

Reminders: P-D-F Week and Last Day to Withdraw or Audit a Course

Students don't forget about these important deadlines from the Registrar's Office!

1. This week the Registrar's Office will accept P-D-F forms for courses for which you wish to use that grading scale. They need to be completed and signed off by your advisor and submitted to the Registrar Office no later than last day of classes (Monday, May 9). Download the P-D-F form.
2. This Friday, April 8 is the last day to withdraw from a course and receive a grade of "W" for Spring 2022 semester. You will need to have advisor clearance and then you can withdraw via registration in your My.Whitman account.
3. The application to Audit a Course form is due by Friday, April 8. Download the Audit Form.

Have an event you'd like to share with campus? Submit the information to the Events Calendar.

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