The QC, Vol. 94, No. 24 • April 24, 2008

              Tl
CE OF WHITTIER COLLEGE SINCE 1914
Quaker Campus
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Issue 24 - Volume 94
WWW.QUAKERCAMPUS.ORG
President leads
D.C. delegation
Herzberger, Duran, seniors travel to capital
Josh Wood
QC News Co-Editor
A delegation led by Whittier
College President Sharon Herzberger lobbied Congressional offices in Washington, D.C. to support
funding for colleges and universities serving Hispanic students.
The delegation included Associate
Professor of Business Administration Dan Duran and seniors Lauren
Vargas and Melissa Vega, who returned to campus Wednesday, April
16 after the four day trip.
"Our students were invaluable
because they put a face to the request," Duran said. "As good as it
is forthe faculty and administration
to meet with these representatives,
it's more critical and powerful
to see what the real impact is on
students."
The delegation traveled to the
capital as part of an annual HACU
(Hispanic Association of Colleges
and Universities) meeting to promote the need for more funding to
support Latino students. According to Vega, most of the attendees
were leaders of organizations and
institutions. "There weren't a lot of
students from other schools there,
and that says a lot about [where]
Whittier's priorities because obviously it was an expense for us to
go," Vega said. "For them to be
willing to make that expense shows
that they actually care."
During their stay, they met with
the offices of Senator Dianne Fein-
stein (D-Calif.), Congresswoman
Linda Sanchez (D-Lakewood), and
Congressman JoeBaca (D-Rialto),
who is the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. "We met
face to face with Joe Baca, who was
obviously very supportive, which
gave him a chance to chat with our
students," Duran said.
"When we were talking to the
representatives, they wanted to
know how going to a Hispanic-
serving institution influenced our
lives and our education, so it was
actually first-hand," Vega said.
A Hispanic serving institution is
defined as serving a 25 percent
Hispanic student body.
However, Vega and Duran felt
that their efforts were less effective
when meeting with representatives
who already support their agenda.
"Honestly, a lot of the people that
we visited were already pro-education, so we were just reiterating
what they thought," Vega said. "I
see DELEGATION, page 4
PHOTO BY JOSH WOOD / QC NEWS CO-EDITOR
A projector flashes words of inspiration and information about the food system's impact on
the environment across the walls of the T.l. on Tuesday at lunch. Students ate outside.
Bon Appetit celebrates Earth Day
• Josh Wood
QC News Co-Editor
Whittier's T.I. turned off the
lights and changed their menu to
help reduce their carbon footprint
on Earth Day this past Tuesday.
Over four hundred of Bon Appetit's
college cafeterias participated in
the company wide execution of
Low Carbon Diet Day to initiate
awareness of carbon creation and
reduction of energy.
Tuesday's lunch saved most in
terms of food thrown away. "We
saved 120 pounds of food today vs.
a typical day in the T.L," Director
of Dining Service Fabio Soto said.
see EARTH DAY, page 5
College applications trends declining nationally
Justin Velasco
QC News Co-Editor
When Ivy Han was looking for
colleges to apply to last fall she
was looking for three things: small
class size, close student-faculty
relationship and a strong writing
program.
Whittier College stood out for
the soon-to-be high school graduate, and now that she has had to
wait for her acceptance letter, it is
time for Whittier to wait for her,
along with the other 2,000 (approximately) accepted applicants,
to confirm fall enrollment.
Though attracting college
bound students such as Han may
have been easy with a population
boom in teenagers, according to
Vice President of Enrollment Lisa
Meyer, that boom might be reach
ing its end.
In three to five years, Meyer
said that colleges nationally will
expect to see fewer students applying to their school. "Now that
that growth is about to cap off and
start to decline there won't be that
many students going to college,"
she said.
To increase interest from
prospective students, Meyer said
Admissions is continuously trying to assess what Whittier does
well and how to share it with high
school seniors.
To do this, Admissions has
tried implementing new recruiting promotions such as revamping
the whittier.edu Web site, hosting
Admitted Students Weekend and
Family Weekend concurrently and
implementing online chats with
prospective students, allowing
them to connect with professors,
students, athletes and administration.
Han said that through the
Whittier Web site, she was able to
do her own research into the college
and see that it had everything she
was looking for, and has decided
to attend Whittier in the fall.
The college has also developed
new mail information cards, but
Han said she receives too many
things through mail for her to care
to look through. "I usually look at
the e-mail not the mail," Han said.
"I get a lot of those."
High school senior Sam
Schwartz said he applied to
Whittier because of his counselor's
recommendation. Schwartz said
academics, size and location
weighed on his mind when selecting a school.
In an e-mail interview, Schwartz
spoke candidly about Whittier:
"Whittier's small size makes it
easier to get to know professors
and get a more hands-on education," he wrote. "This small size
is also super constraining, and I
noticed this right away. In the two
days that I was on campus, I saw
the same guy around 10 times. He
did stand out, but for me that reinforced how small the community
was. Academically, Whittier is very
strong, but its reputation isn't as
good as some of the other schools
I am looking at."
S wartz said he will be attending
the University of British Columbia
next fall.
"Each year we try to either do
new programming or tweak the
ones we have to make them better.
I do think we are making progress,"
Meyer said.
Last year, Whittier brought in
312 first-year students and about
55 transfers, according to Meyer.
Each year, Admissions tries to bring
in 350 first-year students and 50
transfers. She added that this has
been the trend for the past four years
she has been at the college.
After looking back at previous
data, Meyer said about 65 to 70
percent of the 2,500 applications
they usually receive are accepted.
The accepted students have until
May 1 to make their pick.
Though predictions about future college-bound students may be
right, according to the Associated
Press, the national acceptance rate
for colleges remains roughly 70
percent. "We want to articulate what
Whittier is and get that message out
as much possible," Meyer said.
PSYCH CIRCUS
The Sachsens get psychedelic.
Campus Life, Pages 8-9
PABLO MENENDEZ
Cuban guitarist comes to rock.
A&E, Page 11