Welcome Back!

While Whitman College resumed classes for fall term back in mid-August, Walla Walla U just opened its doors to students again on Monday. The university is on a quarter system, as opposed to Whitman, which is on semester. This means that Whitman College begins in mid-August but has graduation in mid-May, whereas Walla Walla U begins at the end of September but doesn't have graduation until mid-June. Personally, I prefer the quarter system, simply because it means I only have to have each class for ten weeks - which was especially good for the classes I didn't like! This banner welcomes folks back to the campus every year, hanging across College Avenue. The tall building in the background is Foreman Hall, one of two women's residence halls on campus.

Modern Art

In a college town, you'll find all sorts of dwelling places. Aside from dormitories (which we're not allowed to call that anymore - they're residence halls), there are spacious two-bedroom apartments, studio apartments, run-down rental houses, well-kept rental homes, and the big expensive houses on the hill where the faculty live. This is an example of a college student apartment: older building, a couple of new things, a couple of old things, and random stuff on the walls. This apartment is inhabited by some friends of ours who are expecting their first child (a baby girl) in November. She works part time and he's a full-time student finishing his last year at Walla Walla U. Her sister is an artist and gave them some paintings for their adorable little upstairs apartment. It's a small place, but I love the ambiance. It's relaxing and very "hip."

Balancing Act

I'm not really sure what the name of this sculpture is, but it certainly is eye-catching. It's one of the many pieces of art on the Whitman College campus. My husband and I ate a picnic lunch on their campus one day last week and walked past this as we were leaving. Anyone care to venture a guess as to what it means?

Whitman College is a prestigious private college in Walla Walla. Its student body is probably somewhere around 1200 and it is well-known for being a place of excellent education...and high tuition. Last I checked a year's tuition was around $32,000, though it may have gone up since then, since I think that was at least a year ago. The high cost of attending WC is well-made-up-for, however...the campus is well-maintained, and those of us outsiders in town joke about how the school's administrators and board members sit around contemplating the challenge of what to build next. "We have so much money...what should we spend it on?"

I'm told that Whitman's endowment is so high that they could have absolutely ZERO students on campus for three whole years and still pay every single one of their staff and faculty members and operate as per the norm. Amazing, isn't it?

I hope to have more WC campus shots soon.

Cordiner Hall

I want to get more pictures of this campus on this blog, but for some reason I haven't done it yet. This is the building I am most familiar with on the Whitman College campus: Cordiner Hall. It is their performing arts building, and I have attended performances as well as performing in them myself on several occasions. It's a beautiful building, and the only one of its caliber in the valley. The Walla Walla Symphony performs here each season, directed by Yaacov Baergmann, half-brother to Itzhak Pearlman, the world-famous violinist. The Walla Walla Symphony is the longest continuous running symphony west of the Mississippi River, having celebrated over 100 years of performing a few years back. The Whitman College campus is beautiful - by far the most beautiful university/college campus in the valley (there are three colleges/universities here). I will show more of their campus soon, I promise...and tell you more about the prestigious college itself.

Reid Hall

Earlier this summer I went to a sustainability forum at a local college. It was well-attended (this was taken before the main event started), and I learned some valuable things. Discussions ranged from saving gasoline, to wind power, to heating houses, to public transportation, to the local farmer's co-op. All three of our local institutions of higher education co-sponsored this event with other local businesses, which was quite inspiring to note. The forum took place in Reid Hall on the Whitman College campus in Walla Walla.