Brains Over Brawn in Willamette Contest

This March high school teams from around Oregon will converge at Willamette University for the 20th annual Willamette Computer Programming Contest. Four-member teams from each participating school are asked to bring their preferred computer language software and one computer. By allowing only one computer for each team, the contest mandates collaboration among the students. Teams may also bring a printer. About 50 schools have competed during the past 20 years.

More than a dozen problems will be distributed to student teams Saturday, March 4, at 10 a.m.

“Points are given not only for correct solutions, but for style and flexibility,” said Fritz Ruehr, chair of Willamette’s computer science department and director of the contest.

“We try to include at least two problems that even novices can solve, so that every team can feel good about its participation, but the top teams are challenged with problems appropriate for advanced college students,” Ruehr said.

Some years there are problems no team can solve, and one year a team solved all 14 problems in four hours. Willamette students act as judges.

“There’s an overt attempt on the part of the contest organizers to provide trophies that look like sports trophies,” Ruehr said. “We want to be able to have these kids bring these things home and put them in the high school trophy case and get recognition for intelligence.

“High school culture usually values athletic prowess and beauty over intelligence. Before, ‘being geeky’ was a put down or a negative, but with the Internet boom, academic prowess and technical skills have become more respectable, in the way that athleticism has always been.”

The cultural shift is reflected in the new TV show “Beauty and the Geek.” Willamette graduate Eric Chase recently appeared on the show, wooed by three beautiful women. It’s unfortunate, Ruehr said, that the show neglects to portray women as having technical skills too.

Ruehr volunteers one-on-one with seniors in the Salem-Keizer School District, mentoring teens who have computer science aspirations.

The 20th annual Willamette Computer Programming Contest is sponsored by Willamette University and the Software Association of Oregon Foundation in an effort to encourage the development of computer science skills.

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Multimedia Performance Addresses Cancer

Companydance will perform “Swing a Club: facing cancer,” a powerful multimedia dance work, Saturday, March 18, at 8 p.m. in the Kresge Theatre at Willamette University. There is a $5 suggested donation, with proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society. Call the theatre box office at 503-370-6221 or email thtr-tix@willamette.edu to reserve tickets.

Through the use of dance, visual art, text and music, Swing a Club explores themes of life and death, hope and grief, support and letting go. The integration of several forms of expression creates multiple points of entry that make the work accessible to everyone. This event is the inaugural program of a series featuring speakers and performers who use new technologies in the creation and presentation of art works in a variety of media. The work was conceived and directed by Anthony Roberts, artist in residence at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. Roberts also performs with the troupe.

“This is an opportunity for us to say ‘this is what matters to me’ and to honor that,” Roberts said in describing his work. “It’s about getting closer to your family and what you love and asking yourself how you are going to pass on that love to others.”

The program is sponsored by the Keck Initiative in the Arts and Technology in cooperation with Willamette University Integrated Technology Services.

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Atkinson Lecture Series Welcomes Ira Glass

Ira Glass, host and producer of the National Public Radio program This American Life, will deliver the spring Atkinson Lecture Saturday, April 22, in Smith Auditorium at 8 p.m. Ticket information will be released in March.

This American Life premiered on Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ in 1995 and is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by an estimated 1.7 million listeners.

Glass began his career as an intern at NPR’s network headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1978 when he was 19 years old and held virtually every production job on site. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor and producer. He has filled in as host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.

Under his direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including the Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards, as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Award.

Glass, one celebrity who prefers to be heard and not seen, is a 1982 graduate of Brown University.

The 2005-06 Atkinson Lecture series opened in November with a lecture by Dr. Azar Nafisi, the author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.” [learn more]

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Willamette University Choral Program Honored

The Willamette University Chamber Choir and Willamette Singers have been selected by the American Choral Directors Association to perform at the organization’s Northwest Regional Convention in Portland in March. Willamette auditioned against universities in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Willamette’s Chamber Choir will perform its convention program at the Winter Choral Concert Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. in Hudson Hall on the Willamette campus. The concert is free.

“The program will include a wide variety of literature,” Choral Director Wallace Long said. “From ‘Rotala,’ a piece sung in Latvian by composer Juris Karlsons, to the well known ‘Water Night’ by Eric Whitacre, to a marvelous gospel piece by Sean Ivory and Paul Caldwell, ‘John the Revelator,’ the music will be rich and expressive.” Male Ensemble Willamette and Voce Femminile will also be featured.

The Willamette Singers will perform its convention program at the 11th annual “Puttin’ on the Ritz” big band dinner and dance event Friday, March 11, and Saturday, March 12, from 7 to 11 p.m. in the Putnam Student Center on the Willamette campus. Tickets are $34.50 per person or $260 for a table of eight. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Willamette music office at 503-370-6214.

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Willamette University Celebrates Africa Day

Willamette University students, faculty and staff will honor Black History Month by holding the school’s first Africa Day Celebration Feb. 23. The Salem community is invited to eat African food, dance to live African music, shop in an African market, listen to African stories, view an African film and participate in a panel discussion on Africa today. Campus activities will run from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Festival highlights include a panel discussion about Africa in Cone Chapel in Waller Hall from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Presenters include West African medical anthropologist Louise Badiane; Mamadou Toure, an Imam at Portland’s Muslim Community Center and co-host of the TV show, “Al-Islam in focus”; and Daniel Dau, one of the “lost boys of Sudan” who fled from his war-torn homeland to a refuge camp, before coming to America.

The award-winning film, “Pièces d'identités,” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. at Cat Cavern on the second floor of the University Center. The film tells the story of an old African king who goes to Brussels in search of his daughter. With twists of irony and comedy, the film explores the complicated questions of colonialism, class and cultural identity. Pièces d'identités will be introduced and discussed by Mbye Cham, a film professor from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Baba Wagué, a storyteller from Mali, will share his stories from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Goudy Commons. Anansi Beat, from Ghana, will perform from 4 to 6 p.m. in Cat Cavern. African food will be available for purchase at 11:30 a.m. in Goudy Commons.

The celebration marks Willamette University’s growing interest in the continent of Africa. All events are free and open to the public. For more information call Amadou Fofana at 503-370-6298 or Joyce Millen at 503-370-6593.

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Puttin’ on the Ritz at Willamette University

The Willamette University music department presents the 11th annual Puttin’ on the Ritz big band dinner and dance event Friday, March 10 and Saturday, March 11, from 7 to 11 p.m. in the Putnam Student Center on the Willamette campus. Tickets are $34.50 per person or $260 for a table of eight. They may be purchased by calling the Willamette music office at 503-370-6214.

Puttin’ on the Ritz provides an evening of elegant dining and dancing to the music of the Willamette University Jazz Ensemble and the Willamette Singers, Willamette’s nationally recognized vocal jazz ensemble. Ritz is an evening filled with great food, excellent jazz music and dancing.

“The ballroom dance craze is taking America by storm and the Ritz provides an opportunity to return to an era of elegant dress and the type of dancing where people actually hold each other,” said Wallace Long, director of choral activities and producer of the Ritz.

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Ancient Bronzes Exhibition Lectures and Workshop

In conjunction with its current exhibition, Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University has planned a wide variety of lectures and workshops featuring some of the foremost scholars in the fields of Central Asian archaeology and history.

Thursday, Feb. 23, Sandra Olsen, curator of anthropology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, will deliver a lecture, “Herders, Artisans, Shamans and Warriors of the Ancient Asian Steppe.” She will discuss the horse-riding steppe cultures of Central Asia during the second and first millennia BCE.

Olsen earned her Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of London and has worked at archaeological sites in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and China. Her major focus of research is early horse domestication and the lifestyles of the ancient herders of northern Kazakhstan.

Thursday, March 9, Morris Rossabi, professor of history at the City University of New York, will deliver a lecture, “Mongol Khans and the Settled Civilizations.” Rossabi will highlight the rise of the Mongol khans in the 12th and 13th centuries CE and will discuss their impact on religion, art, science and technology throughout Central Asia as a result of their creation of a Pax Mongolica.

Rossabi is considered one of the foremost authorities on Central Asian history in the United States. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Central Asian history, including “China and Inner Asia from 1368 to the Present Day” and “Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times.”

Both lectures will be at 7 p.m. in the Paulus Lecture Hall in the College of Law at Willamette University. Olsen’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America. Rossabi’s lecture is co-sponsored by the departments of Asian studies, religious studies, and history at Willamette University. Admission is free.

Saturday, March 18, from noon to 4 p.m., a family workshop, “Camels and Leopards and Bears, Oh My!” will be presented in the lobby of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. Children and their parents will create sculpture and wearable art with animal motifs and enjoy colorful animal folktales that transport them back to ancient Mongolia. Admission to the workshop is free and attendees are encouraged to pick up a special family guide and follow the clues.

Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation has been supported by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For further information call 503-370-6855.

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Fourth Annual Pow Wow at Willamette University

The Fourth Annual Pow Wow, sponsored by Willamette University’s Native American Enlightenment Association, is Saturday, March 11, from 4 to 10 p.m. in Cone Field House, Sparks Athletic Center, Willamette University.

Admission is free and the public is invited. Native arts, crafts and refreshments will be sold.

Master of ceremonies is Bob Tom, and arena director is David West. Events include a jingle dress contest and additional contests with prizes.

The event honors the late Craig Whitehead, former arena director.

For details, call the University Office of Multicultural Affairs at 503-370-6265.

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