Willamette Runner Wins National Title

WEST CHESTER, Ohio — Willamette University cross country runner Sarah Zerzan battled a wet and muddy course to win the women’s individual title at the NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships in West Chester, Ohio, Nov. 18. The junior from San Carlos, Calif., was the first of 279 runners to cross the finish line, becoming Willamette’s first national champion in cross country. She completed the 6-kilometer course in 22:31 to win by 20 seconds over the second-place finisher, Caitlin Bradley of Dickinson College.

“I’m excited,” Zerzan said. “It was difficult and challenging, but everyone else was running in the same mud. You can’t let it defeat you.”

Zerzan got off to a solid start and was behind two runners at the mile mark. With about two miles to go, she moved in front and began to increase her lead, winning by nearly 100 meters.

“She just kept pulling away,” Willamette Head Coach Matt McGuirk said. “I think she would have been there at the front even if it were dry. The course was extremely difficult.”

“It was like running in a swamp,” Zerzan said. “The water often went over our ankles. I’ve never run in consistent mud like that. I’m from California and we don’t get that much rain.”

Zerzan was one of just five runners to complete the women’s race in less than 23 minutes. Although she won by 20 seconds, the next three runners finished just two seconds apart. Willamette claimed 20th place in the women’s team standings. Willamette’s second runner to reach the finish line was Maddie Coffman, a sophomore from Idaho, who clocked in at 24:59 for 106th place.

Zerzan received All-America honors for the second consecutive season. She placed 25th at the 2005 NCAA National Championships to earn her first All-America award. The top 35 runners at the National Championships are selected as All-America each season.

“I have more confidence this year,” Zerzan said, “so I just think that I can run with these people, and I do. It was amazing. I’m so glad to be on this team.”

“We have a national champion among us tonight,” McGuirk said. “The entire team is happy about that. So many good things have happened this year. It’s been a very positive experience.”

The NCAA Division III National Championships completed an outstanding season for the Willamette cross country teams. In addition to placing 20th nationally, the women’s team won the Northwest Conference (NWC) title for the fifth consecutive year and claimed its fourth straight NCAA West Regional title. Zerzan completed a triple championship this fall, winning the NCAA, West Regional and NWC titles.

The WU men’s team won its fifth consecutive West Regional crown and won the NWC title for the sixth consecutive year. Ian Batch, a junior from Boise, Idaho, was the NWC’s individual champion and placed eighth at the West Regional.

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Museum to Close for Thanksgiving and Winter Break

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will be closed Nov. 23–24 for Thanksgiving and Dec. 23–Jan. 2 for winter break.

Current special exhibitions on view at the museum are The First Crow’s Shadow Institute Biennial and Fay Jones: Painted Fictions.

The Crow’s Shadow Institute exhibition is on display until Dec. 22 in the Study Gallery and Print Study Center. Organized by faculty curator Rebecca Dobkins, the exhibition features a selection of prints created by Native American artists at the Crow’s Shadow Institute on the Umatilla Reservation in northeastern Oregon.

Fay Jones: Painted Fictions opens Nov. 18 and will be on display until Jan. 20 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery. Organized by Director John Olbrantz, the exhibition features work by this highly regarded Seattle narrative and symbolist painter who deals with a host of autobiographical issues in her work.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (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 younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Museum Hosts Teacher Workshop and Gallery Talks

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will host a free workshop for teachers interested in bringing their classes to see the forthcoming exhibition Fay Jones: Painted Fictions.

Elizabeth Garrison, the museum’s Cameron Paulin Curator of Education, will teach the workshop from 4 to 6 p.m. Nov. 29 at the museum. Advance registration is required; to register, call (503) 370-6855. The workshop will help teachers prepare students for a field trip to the museum, develop strategies to tour the exhibition and propose ideas that reinforce the gallery experience and broaden curriculum concepts once back in the classroom. Garrison has written a teacher guide on Seattle painter Fay Jones that is available online at www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

The museum also will offer a series of free gallery talks on the exhibition from 12:30 to 1 p.m. Nov. 21 and 28, Dec. 5 and 12, and Jan. 9 and 16. Gallery talks will be presented by Garrison or a museum docent.

Fay Jones: Painted Fictions features 24 works by this Seattle narrative and symbolist painter who deals with a host of autobiographical issues in her work, from growing up in New England in the 1940s and ’50s to an exploration of a broad range of personal symbols. The exhibition runs from Nov. 18 through Jan. 20.

Fay Jones: Painted Fictions has been supported in part by grants from the City of Salem Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 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 younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Guitar Night at Bistro

Guitar students of John Doan will perform Thursday, Nov. 30, at 8 p.m. at the Bistro at Willamette University. The concert is free and open to the public.

“The Bistro is an intimate coffee shop setting, and almost anything that can be played on the guitar will be performed,” Doan said. “Be ready to hear classical, blues, folk and other traditions from some of the most talented guitarists in Salem.”

A special appearance of Willamette’s guitar class will highlight the evening. Doan will also play previews from his upcoming Christmas concert, as well as music for a rare three-necked guitar.

“This may be Willamette’s biggest guitar happening of the year,” Doan said. "The Bistro is cozy, so come early for a good seat.” For more information call 503-370-6174.

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Native American Elders Discuss Northwest Fishing Rights

Native American elders Billy Frank Jr. and Hank Adams will meet Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. in Cone Chapel at Willamette University to discuss “Lessons for Future Generations from the Struggle for Northwest Treaty Fishing Rights.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Frank, a Nisqually tribal member, and Adams, who is Assiniboine-Sioux, are recipients of the national American Indian Visionary Award and are long-time activists for salmon restoration and treaty rights. The conversation will be moderated by Elizabeth Woody, director of Ecotrust’s Indigenous Leadership Program.

Frank and Adams were on the front lines when the battle over treaty-guaranteed Indian fishing rights erupted in the 1960s and ’70s. As the current chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Frank has worked to achieve a number of key agreements between the tribes and various local, state and federal officials that further strengthen treaty-guaranteed fishing rights and environmental protection laws.

In the 1970s, Adams served as a leader behind the famous Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington and the subsequent Indian occupation of the BIA headquarters building. He also served as the last expert witness in the court case that eventually upheld treaty fishing rights for Northwest tribes, the so-called “Boldt Decision.”

This forum is supported by Indian Country Conversations, a Willamette University series that brings people together to discuss issues of interest to Native Americans. The Indian Country Conversations Series is sponsored by the Office of the President and the College of Liberal Arts.

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Community Invited to Star Trees Lighting

The Salem community is invited to the tenth annual Star Trees Lighting Saturday, Dec. 2, at Willamette University. The free program begins at 6:30 p.m., in front of Waller Hall on 900 State Street, across from the State Capitol Building. A family holiday concert will follow at 7 p.m. at Smith Auditorium on the Willamette campus.

Prior to the event, Bon Appetit will provide an all-you-can-eat holiday dinner from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at Goudy Commons on the Willamette campus. The cost is $7.50 for adults and $4 for children six years of age and younger.

The tree lighting event will include music, a welcome from University President Lee Pelton and former Salem First Citizen George Puentes, and hot chocolate and cookies, provided by the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. A drawing will be held for a boy and girl to flip the switch that lights the trees. They will also receive $100 savings bonds from MaPS Credit Union and $50 gift certificates from the Willamette Store on campus. Beta Theta Pi advises attendees to dress warm, and invites community members to bring coats or contributions for their annual Penny Coat Drive.

Planted in 1942, the five giant Sequoias at Willamette are the tallest trees on any U.S. campus. They are referred to as “Star Trees” because the view from the center looking upward creates a beautiful star-shaped view of the sky. Campus lore says that if two people kiss under the Star Trees they are destined for true love. (Numerous couples have tested this premise, but no statistical follow-up survey has been conducted.)

Sponsors include Willamette University, Dick and Linda Carney (CFP Inc.), Elwood’s Tree Service, MaPS Credit Union and Bon Appetit. For more information call 503-375-5304.

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Victorian Christmas with John Doan

“A Victorian Christmas with John Doan,” a holiday tradition in its 20th season, comes to Willamette University Sunday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. The concert, in Willamette’s Smith Auditorium, re-enacts what it might have been like to celebrate Christmas a century ago.

“The show explores how Victorians invented many Christmas traditions we remember and quite a few we have forgotten,” the Willamette associate professor of music said. “The aim is to recapture the feeling of a time before radio and TV when our ancestors provided most of their own musical entertainment at home, especially during the holidays.”

Doan will play more than a dozen turn-of-the-century instruments once popular in American parlors, on vaudeville stages and in mandolin orchestras. The 20-string harp guitar, classical banjo and ukelin are a few of the original instruments to be featured. Doan explains their history in an entertaining and often zany fashion, shows slides of old catalogs and archival photographs, and leads the audience by singing or whistling many of our most beloved American carols.

Doan is a touring and recording artist who has appeared on radio and television across the country. The festive Christmas program is a live version of Doan’s Emmy-nominated Oregon Public Broadcasting television special.

Advance tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and children under 12 and are available at Willamette’s Music Department or by phone at 503-370-6255. Willamette University students, faculty and staff may acquire free tickets up to one week prior to the event, but tickets are limited. For more information see www.johndoan.com.

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An Evening with Lewis Nordan

Critically acclaimed author Lewis Nordan will give a free reading Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Mark O. Hatfield Library at Willamette University.

Nordan is emeritus professor of creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh. His publications include almost 100 short stories in various journals and anthologies and seven books of fiction, including two collections of short stories and five novels. He also published a memoir. Olympia Vernon, Willamette’s Hallie Brown Ford Chair of Creative Writing, is sponsoring the event.

Nordan, born in 1939, grew up in Itta Bena, Miss., a small town in the Mississippi Delta. After high school, he attended Delta State College for one year before going into the Navy. He served aboard several ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, where he worked as a journalist.

Publishers Weekly wrote that “Nordan’s engaging, wise, delightfully wry stories sound a melodious, bittersweet yawp, pulsating with love, grief, rage and a thirst for redemption.” Nordan’s novel “Music of the Swamp” was cited by the American Library Association (ALA) as Notable Book of the Year and won a Best Fiction award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. The book includes ten stories focusing on a boy growing up in a Mississippi Delta town and his love for his alcoholic father.

Nordan’s novel “Wolf Whistle” is based on the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy killed for whistling at a white woman in 1955 in Mississippi. It won the ALA Notable Book Award, the Mississippi Authors Award for Best Fiction, the New York Public Library Award for Best Book for the Teen Years, and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for best book. Library Journal wrote that “‘Wolf Whistle’ displays some of Faulkner’s lyricism and Flannery O’Connor’s surreal humor ... [Nordan] emerges as a unique and powerful Southern storyteller in his own right.”

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Starting Local, Thinking Global: Students Host AIDS Summit

Two representatives from Willamette University’s chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign quickly discovered a problem last spring when they attended the organization’s national conference in Washington, D.C.: They didn’t meet any college students there from the West Coast.

They were alarmed by the lack of involvement from their region, and though the Willamette group had just formed, the members’ commitment to social justice made them realize that being the only Pacific Northwest university chapter was something they needed to change — especially as AIDS continues to take an enormous toll worldwide, killing 8,200 people every day.

To build momentum among Pacific Northwest high schools, colleges and universities, the students are hosting a regional summit Dec. 1 from 1 to 8 p.m. at Willamette in honor of World AIDS Day. They have secured a visit by Adam Taylor, a well-known Washington, D.C.–based social justice activist who co-founded the Student Global AIDS Campaign while a student at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The event also will include dance-a-thon from 8 p.m. to midnight to raise money for Partners in Health, a global health organization with a proven track record of preventing the spread of HIV and delivering life-saving health care to those in need.

“We want to spread this movement to the rest of the Pacific Northwest,” said Sarah Zerzan, a junior biochemistry major. “We’re one of the only groups in the West, and that’s a problem. We want to make Willamette a leader on this issue.”

Currently only one other Pacific Northwest chapter exists, at Olympia High School in Washington. The Willamette group members see their event as a way for students to learn how they can start a chapter and work together to address the problem. They plan to bring in speakers from groups such as disaster relief organization MercyCorps, Oregon Health & Science University, Cascade AIDS Project and Jubilee USA Network, an alliance working toward debt cancellation for impoverished countries.

The Student Global AIDS Campaign is a national grassroots movement, the largest student network committed to ending the HIV and AIDS crisis worldwide. The fledgling Willamette group already has a national leader in Will Nevius, a sophomore politics major who is a member of the campaign’s national steering committee, a group of 11 students who plan and implement the organization’s nationwide advocacy efforts.

The Willamette students also have a nationally recognized global AIDS expert, Joyce Millen, as their faculty mentor. Millen, an assistant professor of anthropology at Willamette, is the former director of the Institute for Health and Social Justice at Harvard Medical School. She co-edited and authored the critically acclaimed book “Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor,” and she co-authored “Global AIDS: Myths and Facts,” a guidebook to help students fight the pandemic.

Nevius said the organization wants young people to realize that AIDS is a different issue globally than it is in the U.S., with different factors contributing to the spread of the disease in other countries. To mobilize Willamette students, chapter members made presentations in residence halls, held a campus rally and used a campus showing of the film “Rent” as a chance to discuss differences between AIDS treatment in the U.S. and other countries. They also got more than 60 students to participate in an AIDS awareness walk in Portland in September.

They know there is not much time to attract people to their summit Dec. 1, but they think they can tap into the youthful idealism of students everywhere to build a movement that goes far beyond one event.

“University students have to understand the role we play on a national scale,” Nevius said. “We do have a voice and the power to prompt change.”

For information about the summit at Willamette, including how to register, go to www.willamette.edu/events/aids. For more on the national Student Global AIDS Campaign, visit www.fightglobalaids.org.

Please Note: The above press release has been updated. The original time listed for this event was from 1 to 6 p.m. and the dance-a-thon from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following morning. The event is now scheduled for 1 to 8 p.m. and the dance-a-thon will end at midnight. (November 13, 2006)

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Willamette University Hosts Hunger Awareness Banquet

The Office of Community Service Learning at Willamette University will host its annual Hunger Banquet from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Nov. 15 in Cat Cavern at the Putnam University Center.

Students at this global hunger simulation will experience firsthand the inequities that result from food shortages. When people arrive, they are placed in a category that determines how much food they will receive at the banquet. Ten percent of students will be granted a full meal, 30 percent will only receive a partial meal and the remaining 60 percent will receive an even smaller portion.

The focus of this year’s event is the lack of food and emotional support in war zones and refugee camps. Guest speaker Fidel Nshombo will talk about his experiences as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Students also will have the opportunity to discuss what they experienced during the meal and how it relates to the problem of world hunger. The goal is to give students a better sense of the physical and emotional hunger refugees experience.

The event is mainly geared toward Willamette students, although the public is invited. The cost is $6, and non-student guests must RSVP by Nov. 10 to Amy Johnson at adjohnso@willamette.edu.

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