September 2008 Stories

Elections: More than Just Politics

The class of 23 students in Eaton Hall jotted notes as Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury outlined the state’s unique vote-by-mail system.

“Oregon is still the only state where 100 percent of our elections use vote by mail,” he told them. “It isn’t that complicated; it’s really just absentee voting on a larger scale. It boosts confidence in the state’s electoral system. Elections are the way the public grants government the power to govern, and when the public loses confidence in the election system, the public loses confidence in the legitimacy of the government itself.”

It was the first of many lessons for students this fall in a new course, “Elections 2008.” As the country heads toward the November election, the students will hear from mathematicians, a historian, political scientists, a computer scientist and the dean of Willamette’s MBA program.

What’s going on here? Math, business and science professors teaching about politics?

Definitely, says Peter Otto, who teaches mathematics and organized the class with assistance from Politics Professor Richard Ellis. He says there’s no better way to explore all the facets of an election than to invite people from multiple disciplines to lead the discussion. Otto got the idea from a similar class held at his previous university during the 2004 election.

“A couple of my colleagues there in the math department participated, and that was one of the parts that appealed to me,” he says. “I think this is a great way to educate the community about the upcoming election, but it’s also an opportunity to have an interdisciplinary activity that involves different parts of the campus. We’re across the street from the state Capitol, so Willamette seems like a perfect venue for this class.”

During the semester, mathematicians will reveal the math behind voting theory, a politics professor will talk about women running for office, the dean of the Atkinson Graduate School of Management will address campaign finance, and a computer science professor will demystify electronic voting machines. Also on the agenda: the founder of the Pacific Green Party of Oregon discussing voter reform, a history professor analyzing election systems in other countries, and three state representative candidates giving a first-hand account of the campaign process.

The interdisciplinary nature of the discussion also is reflected among the students, whose majors include economics, international studies, anthropology, art, history, rhetoric and media studies, politics, French and Spanish. Their diverse backgrounds led them to ask Bradbury a wide array of questions, including whether he thought vote by mail could be implemented nationwide.

“I think it could work,” he said. “I think it fits with 20th century lifestyles, and those lifestyles are the same in Pennsylvania as they are in Portland.”

Otto invites anyone on campus interested in the election to sit in on his class. “Elections 2008” meets Wednesdays, 4–5:30 p.m., in Eaton 209. View the entire speaker schedule.

Willamette Welcomes New Class

Scottish bagpipes played and the campus Mill Stream was lit with floating candles as 542 new undergraduate students celebrated the beginning of their Willamette experience August 29.

The new class, which includes 51 transfer students, comes from 25 states and 12 countries, and 57 percent are women. Twelve percent are the first in their families to attend college, and 15 percent are multicultural or international students. They will represent Willamette well. Their median high school GPA was 3.77, with a median SAT score of 1850.

International students make up 39 percent of Atkinsons’ Early Career MBA Class. They come from Bangladesh, India, China, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Japan and elsewhere. The 76 new students have the highest GMAT scores of any incoming class in the business school’s history. The MBA for Professionals Program will see approximately 40 new students — half in Portland and half in Salem. More than half of the new Law Class comes from outside Oregon. A diverse group, the 161 J.D. candidates speak 14 languages and represent 42 undergraduate majors. The School of Education will see 91 new students, with 71 attending full-time.

A Great Year for Politics

Melissa Buis Michaux knows you’re not supposed to talk about politics in public, but the politics professor is often too curious to stay away from the topic. She strikes up conversations about social issues and elections with cab drivers and airport strangers, and has engaged in a years-long conversation with her students.

“She ended our American Politics class with such an inspiring final lecture,” says former student Tyler Reich ’06, “that I asked when she was going to run for office. I want to vote for her.” Michaux was his most challenging and inspiring professor. “She makes politics relevant.”

“I suppose philosophers would disagree,” Michaux says, “but I believe politics is the place where you can ask the most important questions. Some people think that ideas aren’t important, that politics and parties are corrupt, but if you take a long view, parties are an important vehicle for democracy. At their best, they present voters with meaningful choices and connect citizens to their government. The health of our democracy depends on the mobilization of its citizens, so it’s heartening to see more and more young people tuning in.”

A self-admitted political junkie, Michaux began a life of campaigning and caring when she was in fifth grade. When her teacher stood to lose a job, she wrote a letter to the county commissioner protesting cuts in the school budget. “I got a nice letter back thanking me and informing me that the budget would go forward as planned,” she smiles.

“It’s funny that I should be into politics. Both my parents were politically agnostic, and in 1980 when I asked my grandparents if they were voting for Reagan or Carter, they told me it was none of my business.”

Michaux has done a lot to plant seeds of political activism at Willamette, especially among women. Last year she sponsored a local chapter of the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee (WUFPAC), an organization that encourages young women to run for office. “Women seem reticent to run for office,” she says. “Men seem to need less encouragement, even though studies show that when women run they raise as much money as men and win as many races. It’s important to promote the idea that politics isn’t a male domain. More of my female students express interest in nonprofit work, but politics is where you actually get to effect change. Politics is all about deciding how we allocate resources.”

Michaux also teaches “Parties, Elections and Campaigns” and directs Willamette’s legislative internship program. “We have an army of students at the capitol across the street. Students often volunteer as an intern the first year, and by the second or third year they’re running the office as chief of staff.” Reich says it’s pretty intimidating when students first walk up the big steps to the Capitol, but Michaux gives insider tips and teaches how government really works. “She tells us the things our boss won’t tell us, but will love it if we know,” he says.

Michaux isn’t just on top of political strategies. She’s a policy wonk, especially when it comes to welfare reform. She completed graduate studies in Boston, a city where homelessness and poverty are all too visible. “There were a lot of simplistic debates about a complex, hot-button issue, and people were ideologically polarized. The rhetoric in the mid-1990s was about blaming the poor for social ills, and full of misinformation about how people end up on welfare. What seemed to be missing was any sense that the poor are like the rest of society, or that welfare programs primarily benefit single and divorced women with children.”

Michaux wanted to come to Oregon because the state was one of the early leaders in welfare innovation, and she visited welfare offices from the Columbia Gorge to Medford, seeking solutions with her research. “States are laboratories of democracy,” she says. “In its best iteration, welfare must promote economic independence through work while providing support for child and health care.”

Michaux also wrote “Making Mommies: Feminist Responses to Parenting Manuals” with history Professor Leslie Dunlap. Intended for a volume on feminism and popular culture, the chapter documents how feminism and the rise of intensive parenting have influenced parenting manuals since the 1950s. Manuals are now heavily prescriptive, Michaux says, even advocating that fathers monitor what their wives are eating while pregnant. In an effort to quell anxiety, the manuals actually produce more anxiety by placing all the responsibility for children’s well being on parents, especially mothers, without challenging the political and social conditions that structure parenting choices.

As Michaux wrote “Making Mommies,” two blonde girls smiled from a frame on her desk. Her daughters’ hand-painted art decorates her office, along with a “Women Vote” poster and a certificate from her students: Most Likely to Teach Two 300-Level Courses with Morning Sickness OR Run for Office. This year she’ll juggle chairing the Politics Department and the Women and Gender Studies Program.

But it will be okay. “I love being able to talk and read about politics for a living,” Michaux says. “People always say, ‘This is a great year for politics,’ but they’ve been saying that since I started teaching. It’s always a great year for politics.”

Thanks for a Great Run, Nick!

Willamette wants to thank Nick Symmonds ’06 for a great run at the Beijing Olympics. A growing fan base from around the world cheered Symmonds on during the past year as he swept race after race, ultimately landing the top spot on the U.S. 800-meter Olympic team. If you’ve somehow missed the run that awed millions, you can watch it here (and re-watch, and re-watch).

Hundreds of newspapers, TV programs and bloggers have followed Symmonds’ progress, tossing around words like “legend.” Letsrun.com said Symmonds is so “raw and talented it’s unreal,” and Sports Illustrated reporter David Epstein said the event he was most looking forward to in Beijing was the men’s 800 meters. “You don’t have to be a track fan,” he wrote, “you just have to be alive — as in, if that race didn’t get you excited, you better check your pulse.” The local Statesman Journal added another clock to their newsroom, set 15 hours in advance to reflect Beijing time, so they could continue their Nick watch, and nearly 5,900 fans from around the world visited the guestbook at Nicksymmonds.com (link below).

Symmonds outran the competition in his preliminary round in Beijing while NBC Olympics announcer Bob Costas told TV viewers that Symmonds had told him Willamette was the place where “he learned how to run from the front to the back and everywhere in between, and how to weave through traffic.” Costas even pronounced “Willamette” right.

Symmonds finished first in his preliminary race in Beijing, but went on to a fifth place finish in the semi-final. He articulated his feelings on The Final Sprint website (link below).

“It is August 24th and I have just finished packing my bags ... ”
“ ... When I went to find one more gear on the home stretch, I found nothing. I had seriously mistimed my kick ... I was frustrated. I was sad and disappointed, but I signed on to represent my country to the best of my abilities in victory or defeat. I began to storm off the track, but I heard my mom’s voice in the back of my head, ‘Win or lose, just be the first person across that line to shake your opponents hand.’”
“ ... It’s funny how this sport is sometimes. I was only 45 minutes removed from competing in my first Olympic Games and already I was looking toward the future and setting new goals for myself ... It is a goal that is four years in the future, and there are dozens of steps to get there, but life is all about the journey.”

Symmonds will return to Eugene, Ore., to begin preparations for the 2009 season. “I would like to run 1:43 or faster before the season is over,” says Symmonds, whose personal best is 1:44.10. He plans to compete next summer at the world championships in Berlin, and he has already set his sites on the 2012 Olympic Games. The biochemistry graduate eventually hopes to become a doctor like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

You can send best wishes to Symmonds in his guestbook at Nicksymmonds.com. Thanks, Nick!

Quotable Quotes

• I have watched track for 40 years. The 800 finish was one of the best performances in track history!
• Your race the other night had me about 6 inches from the TV screaming from the top of my lungs.
• Back in elementary school, I knew you were fast... but damn, I didn’t know you were THIS fast.
• You provide teachable moments about living your dreams.
• I am just proud to have known you since you climbed on the walls at the JFK Library.
• The finals were one of most exciting events I’ve seen in my 50 years of following track.
• You make all of WU proud with your achievement and grit, even those of us long gone from campus.
• Nick Symmonds is a running god!
• Congratulations on representing our Fraternity and our Country. You are the man ... (who, by the way, is going on our recruitment board).
• There we all were two years ago, the WU chem profs asking all the senior chem majors what they planned on doing in the next five years. After several talked about their plans for med or grad school, you confidently said, “Run in the 2008 Olympics.”
• You were a class act in the exit interview.
• Condolences on not making the finals. I admire your demonstration of passion, self-control, wisdom and perseverance.
• You may have been disappointed in that second race, but you made all of us proud!

Willamette has produced five Olympians since 1936, including an honorary graduate who served as interim university president.

Journeying for Knowledge

Rositsa Atanasova ’07 has never been afraid to explore, either geographically or intellectually. The Bulgaria native traveled to America, first in high school, then again for college, seeking educational opportunities she couldn’t find at home. She has studied eight languages, including Arabic, Greek and Hebrew, and while she was a Willamette student, she lived in France for a year to immerse herself in the country’s Muslim immigrant community.

This fall, with the help of a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship, she heads to the East Coast to study for a master of theological studies at Harvard Divinity School. She sees the program as the perfect way to continue exploring the topics she embraced in her classical studies major at Willamette — language, philosophy and religion.

“People tend to underestimate the importance of religion in our lives,” she says. “A lot of our politics and conflicts relate to religion. People among the religious communities need to talk more one on one to realize they are not as different as they think.”

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship program, one of the largest and most competitive in the nation, provides $50,000 for up to five years of graduate study in any field. Atanasova was chosen based on her service and leadership, interest in a broad range of subjects, strong character and excellent communication skills. She is the first person from Willamette to receive the award.

At Harvard, Atanasova plans to continue investigating Islam, a religion she researched while at Willamette. During her junior year, she obtained a grant to interview young Muslim women in France about a French law banning the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in primary and secondary public schools — mainly affecting Muslim girls donning headscarves. The grant from the Lilly Project, which engages people across campus in research, service and discussion to help students discover their vocation in life, helped Atanasova make a documentary film, “Behind the Veil: A Quest for Identity.”

She found that the Muslim girls faced a tough choice: Remove their headscarf at school, denying their religious and personal identity, or stop going to school. Due to difficulties in obtaining permission to interview these students, she sought perspectives from university students who were no longer bound by the law yet had chosen to wear the headscarf.

When she asked these young women whether they identified themselves more strongly as French or as Muslim, they often answered “Both.” Many said they wore the headscarf because it was comforting and served as a shield between them and the world.

“Here we have an emblem that others say symbolizes political radicals, but they all had different reasons for wearing it,” Atanasova says. “The fact that they said they were both French and Muslim, to me this was the clearest evidence that they’re not militant. If they were, they would negate the West. Many of them said very good things about France and how it had changed their lives.”

The deeply personal struggles caused by these types of conflicts between religion and public life continue to intrigue Atanasova.

“I’ve always been interested in identity issues, in particular the way religion shapes identity. We live in this world where cultural or physical borders become so blurry, and I want to know how that affects the way we identify ourselves.”

For more information on this scholarship and others, contact Monique Bourque in the Student Academic Grants and Awards office on the third floor of Putnam University Center, or visit www.willamette.edu/dept/saga.