Westmont News

The Westmont Fall Dance Concert, “Just Dance!” featuring more than 20 student dancers and choreography by faculty members Susan Alexander and Christina Sanchez, is Friday, Dec. 11, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 12, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., all in Porter Theatre. Tickets, which cost $10 for general admission; $7 for students, seniors or children, may be purchased online at westmont.edu/boxoffice or by calling (805) 565-7140.

Westmont students will perform many of the funniest, most moving and memorable songs of the musical theater canon Friday, Nov. 13, at 9 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m. in Porter Theatre.

(Friday Update 9 a.m.)  Thanks to the incredible efforts of firefighters and air crews
yesterday, the situation with the Gibraltar Fire continues to be
stable. All classes and activities at Westmont, including Preview Days, will
proceed as usual.

Beginning in fall 2016, Westmont will award scholarships covering $140,000 for four years of study to 30 applicants each year. An extraordinary gift from a generous donor will fund the new Augustinian Scholarship and Honors Program. By 2019, 120 Augustinian Scholars will benefit each year from significant financial assistance and challenging coursework.

Westmont alumna Diana Lynn Small ’09, who graduated from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin in 2015, has written two plays being produced Oct. 16-24 at Westmont. “Good Day,” directed by Mitchell Thomas, Westmont associate professor of theater, is Oct. 16-24 at 7 p.m. in Porter Theatre.

Mark Sargent, Westmont provost, and Cynthia Toms, director of global education, will dissect the challenging issues of our food economy and the lives of farmworkers after a screening of the film “

The first clue that this is no ordinary crowd of sulky teenagers comes when the instructor asks those who’ve invested in the market to raise their hands. Most hands go up. As a financial planner explains the benefits of investing, one boy interrupts. “What do you suggest investing in right now?” asks Liam Whitfield, 18, a senior at a private Seattle high school, with swooping bangs and a shaggy sweater. The speaker, from a local investment firm, suggests a standard mix of 60 percent stocks and 40 percent bonds. Whitfield looks disappointed.

The Westmont Observatory will host an informal gathering to view the lunar eclipse on Sunday, Sept. 27, beginning at 6:30 p.m. However, the blood moon will be too low in the evening sky to use Westmont’s telescopes.

Franciscan Friar Junípero Serra, joined by a Native American companion, walked from San Diego to Mexico City for an unannounced visit with Viceroy Antonio Maria Bucareli y Ursúa in 1773. Another friar had told him of a soldier who had raped two native women. Father Serra, nearly 60, was so outraged he decided he was going to do something about it, according to archeologist Ruben Mendoza.

The Westmont Music Department jumps into a new season with a free faculty recital featuring original music on Friday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. in Deane Chapel. For more information about the Fall Faculty Recital, please contact Michelle Starrh at (805) 565-6040.

Westmont jumped three spots and is ranked in the top 100 best liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report for the seventh straight year. “America’s Best Colleges, 2016 Edition” lists Westmont as tied for No. 93 out of the nation’s 245 liberal arts colleges.

Four new talented professors joined the Westmont faculty this fall. Donald Patterson (computer science), Ronald See (psychology), Amanda Silberstein (chemistry) and Sameer Yadav (religious studies) arrived in August and have begun teaching.

The memorial service for Westmont President Emeritus David K. Winter, who died Aug. 15, 2015, at the age of 84, will occur Saturday, Aug. 29, at 10 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church on the corner of State and Constance Streets in Santa Barbara.

Click here to view David Winter's memorial service.

David K. Winter, Westmont’s longest-serving president to date, died Saturday, August 15, at the age of 84. He was born Sept. 15, 1930.