Provost's Report

Springtime is usually when we get to celebrate the appointment of several new colleagues. You will meet a few of them below—as well as discover some familiar friends in new roles. This is also the season to honor those faculty who are retiring after long and distinguished service. The tributes this month salute Mary Collier and Ray Rosentrater. The Wilsons are on deck for May. Carrie Stein Hill is a long way from retiring, but I did want to thank her as she departs Westmont after serving as an instructor in the Chemistry Department since 2008. “Carrie has been an incredible friend and colleague," Kristi Lazar Cantrell remarks, "and it has been a joy to work with her on pre-health advising." Michael Everest refers to Carrie as "a dynamo of enthusiasm" who "develops an immediate rapport that draws students in . . . Most afternoons she can be found in her office chatting with students about the Law of Multiple Proportions or about their aspirations for the future.” Stephen Contakes adds: “Carrie has been a fire to warm and empower new students' love of science, and a listening ear as they navigate the challenges of pursuing God's call for their lives.” Carrie, we know you will always be dancing. God be with you.

For the fourth straight year it is time to congratulate Kirsten Moore and the women’s basketball team on winning the Golden State Athletic Conference tournament. Although their run in the national tournament was shorter this time around, they return virtually all of their players next year and should have a bright road ahead. John Moore and the men’s team also secured a spot in the nationals for the fifth straight year—the longest streak in the program’s history.

While we are on the subject of sports, how about Rob Ruiz and the baseball club? They have soared to a record of 22-3. (That's nearly identical to the best season-opening record in MLB history, which belonged to the '55 Dodgers.) As the team entered last weekend's series with Menlo, it had the third-lowest ERA in the nation and led the country in fielding. At present, Rob's club is ranked third in the nation (our highest ranking ever) and may not lose many more unless he asks the Provost's Office to serve as his bullpen.

Updates

NEW COLLEAGUE IN MATHEMATICS: ANNA ABOUD

Next fall we will be delighted to welcome Anna Aboud to the Westmont faculty as an assistant professor of Mathematics. Now finishing her doctorate at Iowa State University, Anna holds an M.A. in Teaching from the University of Alaska at Anchorage and a B.S. from Wheaton College.

At Wheaton, Anna double-majored in Mathematics and German. She has taught secondary school in Alaska and has been an instructor at three different universities. Currently, she is involved with a National Science Foundation project that is considering “algorithms for threat detection,” which includes work on algorithms involved with detecting anomalies. With funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Anna is also developing active-learning tasks for the Iowa state curriculum.

OGECHI NWAOKELEMEH ASSUMES POST IN KINESIOLOGY

I am very pleased that Ogechi Nwaokelemeh will be stepping into a full-time, tenure-track role at Westmont. For the past few years she has served in short-term appointments, and has made multiple contributions over this time. Among them has been the two years when she taught an August course in the Global Health semester in Uganda. At Westmont, she has taught classes in nutrition, fitness, public health, dance, and community-based research.

Ogechi has special interests in exercise and nutrition among youth. She has just contributed a chapter on exercise among African Americans to a new book on Physical Activity and Diverse Populations: Evidence and Practice. Ogechi completed her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, her M.S. degree in Exercise Physiology from Howard University, and her doctorate in Kinesiology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

MAGIC, MUSIC, AND MYSTERY AT THE NEW VIC

The Magic Flute is the most famous of all Singspiele—German operas, usually humorous, that blend ensembles, ballads, folklore, and spoken dialogue. Mozart loved them. This one—his most acclaimed—premiered in Vienna in 1791, less than three months before his death. The sportive mix of styles was in part a reaction against the more formalized conventions of traditional Italian opera. There’s a good dose of allegory in The Magic Flute, much of it musing on Enlightenment ideas of power and wisdom, as well as enough fable and foolishness to keep it fun. Along with the folk melodies, The Magic Flute has one of opera’s most demanding arias, requiring a singer to leap large intervals between pitches.

So you can imagine it was just the kind of challenge made for Michael Shasberger and John Blondell —a chance to push our students musically and to reinterpret a classic in freshly comedic ways. Their collaboration led to three nights with full houses at the New Vic Theatre in downtown Santa Barbara, and did the college proud. The Santa Barbara Independent praised the musicianship, the “nonstop inventiveness,” and “edge of darkly speculative wonder” of the show. The reviewer saluted John and Michael, praised several student singers—John Butler, Michelle Vera, Fitz Mora, and Jessica Lingua—and commended Jonathan Hicks (lighting), Yuri Okahana (sets), and Victoria Finlayson (choreography).

John Blondell adds his applause for other “performers”: the audience. “The mystery elixir,” he said, “is always the audience. They arrived, responded to our students in Mozart, and the show grew a 5th dimension, a 6th sense. I always think that we can rehearse a show and then an audience comes to watch something that is complete unto itself. But that is fundamentally wrong. The audience makes it complete. Ingmar Bergman calls it the Golden Triangle—text (and, in this case music), performer, and audience. The deep and loving participation of the audience brought the show into a dimension of completeness that felt magical.” Here’s hoping that there is more Westmont magic in the coming years at the New Vic.

SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF ART ACQUIRES HUFF PAINTING

Congratulations to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art for acquiring a painting by the late Westmont artist, Robert Huff. The piece, titled “Untitled (Red and Black),” was painted in 1958 and is an example of Huff’s abstract expressionist style. The museum’s acquisition of this work is a testament to Huff’s enduring influence on the art world and his significant contributions to the abstract expressionist movement. We are proud to have had such a talented artist as part of our community and look forward to seeing his work continue to inspire future generations.

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