Whitman Feud

Whitman Events Board (WEB) has strive to be an active part on campus. One of their efforts included the first-ever Whitman Feud, inspired by the popular television show, Family Feud, hosted Sunday April 4th on campus.

BSU and three other groups formed teams to compete in this exciting new challenge, and Sarah, Nick, Laetitiah, and Olivia stepped up on this sunny Sunday afternoon to spread BSUs name. Sporting our new club shirts, we were surely the most smartly-dressed group represented.

Lookin' good!

The teams were pumped and ready to test their knowledge as the Feud was centered on questions around Whitman. Because it was new, no one knew what to expect and the surprise was all that more enjoyable. Questions posed included, Favorite Place to Play Hide-and-Seek, Favorite Study Location, Best Voted Place for a First Date, Favorite Dining Hall Meal, Top Reason for Visiting the Library, Easiest Major on Campus, Most Popular Professor, and other quirky and unconventional questions.

Ready and estastic!

All teams were thrown for a loop and much deliberation was needed!

Deep in thought...

But the answers were even more surprising than the questions! Favorite meal was Taco Tuesday, favorite date spot was the wheat fields and Best Hide-and-Seek spot was...the library! Unsurprisingly though, the top non-academic reason for going to the library was to socialize and the "easiest" major on campus was voted Sociology.

Laetitiah is surprised at the answers

The score was tied early in the game...

The competition gets intense!

...but  not with us! Sadly, BSU did not win,,no cute trophy for us! No matter, we tried our hardest!

Awesome job guys! Your dedication is very much appreciated!

BSU at the Whitman Undergraduate Conference

The Whitman Undergraduate Conference (WUC) celebrates students' academic excellence and creativity. Here is some background:

"The Whitman Undergraduate Conference celebrates the scholarship and creativity of the Whitman student body through a day devoted entirely to our students’ accomplishments.

The Twelfth Annual Whitman Undergraduate Conference brings together students from every academic area of Whitman College to share their research and creative projects with the campus community.

The conference is noteworthy for the variety of presentations, which take the form of talks, poster presentations, musical performances and artistic exhibitions.

The abstracts in this program attest to the original work students have produced in their courses, senior theses, summer internships and on study abroad."

--Whitman website

In keeping with tradition, all classes were closed for the WUC but the campus was by no means dead. Students woke up early to attend early sessions and hundreds of WUC booklets could be seen toted under arms as students hurried to sessions around campus.

BSUs own Sarah Deming and Robert Crenshaw both prepared presentations for the event. Unfortunately, their presentations were both during the same session, and as such, both at the same time--we couldn't be at the same place at once!

Laetitiah and I attended Robert's talk under the subtitle Identity and Self-Determination, entitled, "What's Good with Ebonics?": An exploration of Linguistic, Identity, Perceptions, and Controversy.

The room was packed as Robert's topic drew considerable interest among Whitman students and the community. Robert focused on the ignorance on the Black community, and the exploration of Ebonics as a language, and how to address the ignorance.

It was a talk to be applauded!

Great job, Robert!

Sarah prepared a no-doubt riveting exploration under Passage to Asia, titled, The Economic Importance of Indian Opium and Trade with China on Britain's Economy, 1843-1890. I'm confident that those who had the privelege of attending were entirely fascinated!

BSU was very proud to see our members taking charge academically. Great job, Robert and Sarah!

Spring Service Day

Time to give back!

Sunday April 18th, BSU joined the Walla Walla community in giving back for the Second Annual Spring Service Day. It was a bright, sunny morning and spring was in the air. After meeting on the steps of Reid with other Whitman volunteers and donned in our new BSU shirts, we hitched rides and enjoyed the cool drive on the way to Walla Walla University at College Place.

Our awesome new shirts designed by Bao-Tram and Olivia!

All three colleges of Walla Walla--Whitman, Walla Walla University, and Walla Walla Community College--participated in this event, and the day was sponsored by many local businesses. After checking in on campus, we were each given a Spring Service Day t shirt to commemorate the event. We had spent the morning ride contemplating what the shirts would look like, and we were presently surprised: they were amazing!

We are pumped for a full day of service!

Each group was assigned to a different organization to spend the day with, and our group was paired with the Blue Mountain Humane Society, a local animal shelter, strongly in need of more volunteers.

It was a comfortable and intimate setting. After seeing how much manual work needing to be done, and the little resources that were available, BSU was touched and even more eager to help out. We helped in a variety of duties: weeding the plants that irritated the dogs' skin and surpressing other weeds in a more gentle approach--in lieu of pesticides--to slow down their growing by laying concrete blocks on top.

With the harmful plants weeded, Robert, Laetitiah and I gathered them into the compost pile and helped clip them into making recycled soil. It was hard work!

Discussing the day's approach: all hands on deck!

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew worked on constructing a wall to surround the property. It was a great team effort!

Olivia, Nick, and Yonas talk through a plan

After a long morning, we enjoyed a short, animated break under the shade of a tree and a tour of the society. The dogs for soo cute!

Nick keeps hydrated

Tumi and I pose for a picture

Then it was back to work!

How's the wall coming guys?

Sarah works her legs, digging

All too soon, though, it was time for us to leave. After saying goodbye to our new furry friends, we grouped up in Sarah's truck, thumped some music, and cruised to the taco truck for some delicious Mexican food. We drove back to the Whitman campus and enjoyed the food and each other's company--what a great way to spend the day!

We'll definitely be looking forward to this next year!