The QC, Vol. 93, No. 02 • September 14, 2006

              The Voice of Whittier College Since 1914
Quaker Campus
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Issue 2-Volume 93
QC@WHITTIER.EDU
Whittier welcomes thirteen new faculty and staff
Erica Lindquist
QC Staff Writer
As the school year begins,
"more than a dozen new faculty
and staff in new positions" have
been hired at Whittier College, according to Dean of Faculty Susan
Gotsch.
[Seepage 4 for information on
the new hires.]
Although it may have appeared
that Whittier lost a number of
professors last year, with visiting
Assistant Professor of Mathematics Eric Sundberg and Assistant
Professor of Political Science
Caroline Heldman leaving for
Occidental College, Gotsch said it
was a fairly typical year. Visiting
Professors Jeremy Busacca and
Sam Nelson, will be replacing
Heldman and Sundberg for this
year. Busacca, who has taught at
Whittier before, is teaching political science. Nelson is returning to
Whittier to teach mathematics after
spending the last three years as a
visiting assistant professor at UC
Riverside.
Along with the returning Irvine
Fellows, who "are faculty completing their doctorates, working to
publish their research, or creating
_.       ... . . _ LAURA JONES/FOR THE QC
The things he carried: a Fear the Poet cap, a Diet Coke and a whole lot of stories. Tim
O' Brien, author of The Things They Carried gave a lecture in the Shannon Center
Sept. 14. For the full story see A&E page 10.	
Students take Wabash survey
Priya Punatar
QC Staff Writer
Whittier College has been
chosen to be part of the Wabash
National Study of Liberal Arts
Education. Initiated by Wabash
College in Indiana and funded
by the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical
Company's Foundation, this study
is the most comprehensive and
extensive national study examining
the effects of a liberal arts education
on student learning and development ever conducted, according to
Visiting Assistant Professor in Environmental Science and Assistant
to the Vice President of Academic
Affairs Ralph Komai.
Choosing a liberal arts education over a professional program
at a large university is a choice
that most students have to make
before choosing a college. Many
studies have been done focusing
on educational programs, however,
none have examined the characteristics of those institutions most
effective at promoting a liberal arts
education, nor have any tracked the
progress of students while they are
part of a liberal education program,
said Komai.
Komai said, "we are very privileged to have been chosen to be a
part of this survey." He has been in
charge of administering this survey,
and has acted as a liaison between
this school and the research team
at Wabash College.
The study explores "not only
whether and how much students
develop, but why and how this
development takes place because
of their college experience," Komai
said and is administered both in the
fall and spring of the freshman year
and in the spring of the senior year,
according to Komai. It is designed
to track student development
throughout a liberal arts education
and to ultimately help colleges and
see WABASH, page 6
art/performance," Gotsch said,
there are two new professors at
Whittier. One of these new Irvine
Fellows is Sylvia Lopez, ('99), who
is finishing her Ph.D. at UCLA in
the Molecular and Cellular Integrative Physiology Interdepartmental
Program.
Another Irvine Fellow is Professor Roberto De Souza, whose
fellowship is in art history. He is
originally from Brazil and earned
his B.A. from Universidad Federal
Fluminense and his M.S. in photography from the Brooks Institute
of Photography. De Souza is currently working on his Ph.D. in art
history from UC Santa Barbara and
his thesis is about the photo novella. De Souza described a photo
novella as "a comic book that uses
photographs with the same conven-
see HIKES, page 4
Occidental and
Whittier students
help Katrina victims
Esther Chan
QC News Asst. Editor
While some Whittier students
were enjoying life at the beach,
sleeping in and partying, a group
ofWhittier and Occidental College
students volunteer in the Common
Grounds Relief Organization, led by
former Whittier Assistant Professor
of Political Science Caroline Heldman. More than ten Whittier and
Occidental students worked together
to restore New Orleans which was
devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Despite leaving Whittier to take
a position at Occidental College,
Heldman has continued to lead
groups of Whittier and Occidental
students back to New Orleans.
Many of the students who
worked with Common Ground
gutted houses in crews, took care
of toxic floodwater and removed
furniture from houses. The students
helped empty the homes of people
who could not afford to have their
houses gutted, so that the government would not repossess their
houses. Other students worked
with children in schools through
the program called Kids and Community.
The crew was known as "Big
Kitty" and according to senior
Megan Ruebsamen, many incredible myths were created about their
gutting crew. "I heard the leader
of Big Kitty is a Tae-Kwon-Do
Master," Ruebsamen said, which
is a myth Heldman said is true. At
the end of their eight hours shifts.
NEW COACH
Max Gebhardt joins the Whittier
soccer team.
Sports, Page 15
SEX TALK
■
First-year students get the 411 on
the birds and the bees.
Campus Life, Page 9
sudents would compare myths and
stories with other crews.
Common Ground was filled
with many young activists who felt
a calling to help out in New Orleans.
According to Heldman, Common
Ground Relief Organization is the
only organization started by local
residents where volunteers work
with local residents in rebuilding
the city.
Heldman said she wanted students to be able to make a difference
in New Orleans by working with
local residents. "I will remember
the tears pouring from the eyes of
a local resident, Ella Brown, when
she inspected the inside of her
flooded home in the Lower Ninth
Ward," Heldman said. "She was
heartbroken that her home was the
only one left standing on her block
after the levee broke and swept
away her neighbors and best friend
of 50 years."
Junior Shaina Gu said her experience in New Orleans was the
best experience of her life. "My
experiences at Common Ground
allowed me to experience life in
such a different way than I was used
to," Gu saod. "It really just allowed
me to experience life from such a
different perspective, one that I felt
changed me completely."
Gu said, "The experience in
itself will stay with me for the rest
of my life. It has definitely pushed
me towards wanting to work in
non-profit, or an area of work that
focuses not on what I'm gaining
from the situation, but more on how
see KATRINA, page 4