College News
Sharper Focus on Astronomy
Grants will fund a new research telescope
After more than 50 years, Westmont will retire its 16-inch Newtonian telescope from Carroll Observatory and install a 24-inch F/8 Cassegrain with Ritchey-Chrétien optics. The new instrument features more than twice the light-gathering power of the old one and nearly twice the resolving power.
A $300,000 W. M. Keck Foundation grant for the telescope follows a $90,000 award from the James L. Stamps Foundation and a $15,000 gift from another foundation. College officials are working to secure the remaining funds for the $635,000 project.
Obtaining the research-grade telescope meets one of Westmont’s funding priorities: improving the quality of science facilities and equipment. The arrival of the new instrument contributes to the evolution of the physics department into a physics and astronomy program. This change may encourage more women to study physics as they have traditionally shown a strong interest in astronomy.
“We are ready to take another step forward in science education at Westmont,” says President Stan D. Gaede. “Not only will the telescope provide a valuable resource for our general education curriculum, but it offers an opportunity to transform our very fine physics department into a physics and astronomy program.”
“This telescope will be a magnet for astronomy enthusiasts around Santa Barbara and the South Coast,” says Michael Sommermann, professor of physics. “It will become a focal point for astronomical research by faculty and students in areas such as the photometry of variable stars, minor planet observations and much more.”
Once a month, in conjunction with Santa Barbara’s Astronomical Unit, Westmont opens its observatory to local residents. An expanded astronomy program and a more powerful telescope will provide new opportunities for outreach to children and students in Santa Barbara schools and the community.
Is Science a Liberal Art?
Fifth annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts considers the role of science in the liberal arts
What role do the sciences play in a liberal arts education? The Fifth Annual Conversa-tion on the Liberal Arts tackled this issue in February when 30 scholars from colleges and universities across the country attended the conference sponsored by Westmont’s Institute for the Liberal Arts.
Sessions addressed both theoretical and practical questions: How do the sciences help us interpret the meaning and value of our lives? How do we teach the sciences as a part of a liberal arts curriculum? How do we overcome the persistent cultural divide between scientists and humanists?
Speakers included leading theoretical physicist S. James Gates from the University of Maryland at College Park and Cambridge literary scholar and historian of science Dame Gillian Beer, among others. Psychology Professor Thomas Fikes from Westmont participated in a panel discussion.
For more information about the Institute for the Liberal Arts, see the Westmont Web site: www.westmont.edu/institute.
A Literary Event
More than 100 scholars from 30 institutions visit Westmont
Poets, writers and scholars came to campus in January when Westmont hosted the Western Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature. English Professor Cheri Larsen Hoeckley organized the two-day event.
Participants presented papers on the theme, “Who is My Neighbor? Reading and Faith in a Global Community.” Topics included “Good Samaritans Outside the Gospel,” “Neighbors, Others and Ourselves in Film,” and “Novels, Nations and Imagining Others,” along with 25 other panels.
Palestinian poet Naomi Shihab Nye read her work in a session open to the public. An essayist, children’s author and songwriter as well as a poet, Nye has written numerous books, including “19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East.”
“She brought a wonderful voice to our community,” Hoeckley said. “She was so generous with the students.”
Rev. Norm Freeman, a Grammy Award-winning percussionist, led a Jazz Vespers service to end the event. A graduate of Julliard and a professional musician, he became an Episcopal priest in 1997.
“It was the perfect way to wrap-up a weekend of hard thinking and good conversation,” Hoeckley said.
“I was really pleased with the way the theme brought writers and Christians together to think in a rejuvenating and challenging way,” she reflected. “It seemed like the right time for it.”
Christine Kepner, a Spanish professor from Wheaton College, echoed Hoeckley’s comments. “My colleague Phyllis Mitchell and I were both enlivened by what we heard,” she said. “The presentations were helpful to me in identifying direction and resources as well as in gaining insight. The setting was lovely, of course; and the spirit among the participants was warm and collaborative.”
"God on the Quad"
A new book dispels myths about religious higher education
Enrollment at faith-related colleges has soared in recent years. To understand this phenomenon and explore what it means for American society, journalist Naomi Shaefer Riley wrote, “God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation Are Changing America.”
Westmont was one of 20 schools Riley visited while conducting her research. She spent time at Jewish, Mormon and Buddhist institutions as well. Quotes from several Westmont professors appear in the book.
A journalist and a “moderately observant Jew,” Riley considers herself an outsider looking in at the world of religious higher education. The intellectual rigor of the schools she visited surprised her.
“The widely held notion that the members of strongly religious communities in America are somehow intellectually backward is a myth,” she writes. “Devotion to the idea that ‘the glory of God is intelligence’ is ubiquitous among religious colleges, and the schools disproportionately require students to complete a rigorous traditional core curriculum at the same time that the curricula of their secular rivals have often been watered down.”
“I appreciate Naomi Shaefer Riley’s efforts to take Christian higher education seriously as an important phenomenon,” says Provost Shirley Mullen. “Her work, while raising interesting issues that require further study, seeks to be fair-minded and might provoke helpful attention on Christian higher education among those who have been unaware, uninterested or openly dismissive of the Christian contribution to post-secondary education.
“The author openly admits that she has approached her work as a journalist, without the more careful methodological precision of a scholar,” Mullen adds. “While we question the ways in which some of her case studies shape the overall picture of Christian higher education, it is refreshing to be the object of generally appreciative puzzlement and reflection by someone looking in from the outside. It’s instructive to us that some of the things we think we are doing — and that we think we are about — do not seem to be obvious to someone looking in for a few days.”
A graduate of Harvard, Riley edits the new journal In Character and serves as adjunct fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her articles have appeared in the American Enterprise, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, National Review and the New York Times, among others.