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One of the world’s leading experts on science and religion will speak at ������Ƶ, Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 3:30 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge. Denis Alexander is head of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, supervising research in molecular genetics, and director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St. Edmund’s College at Cambridge University.

Charles Farhadian, assistant professor of religious studies, will speak on “Can Islam Save the West?” at the first fall event of the ������Ƶ Downtown lecture series, Thursday, Oct. 12, at 5:30 p.m. at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara Street.

Farhadian will explore the relationship between Islam and the West, highlighting a variety of influential Muslim voices to illustrate the diversity of Islam, particularly in its encounter with the West.

Steven Rogers says he enjoys conducting individual psychotherapy and neuropsychological research, but admits his deep passion is working with students. After earning his doctorate, he was a neuropsychology chief fellow at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute when a full-time teaching job opened up at ������Ƶ. He liked the focus on undergraduate education.

Int'l Theatre Festival Converges on Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara will soon host the first international Shakespeare festival in the nation, thanks in large part to the vision and work of John Blondell, ������Ƶ theater arts professor. The will feature 11 days of events celebrating Shakespeare, Thursday, Oct. 12, through Sunday, Oct. 22.

������Ƶ has hired a new director for the . Scott McClelland is heading the off-campus program he describes as a “maturity accelerator” for students.

The San Francisco program began in 1971 and operates in a 108-year old house near Golden Gate Park. There are 22 students enrolled this semester.

������Ƶ once again had the largest team of volunteers at the United Way’s 15th annual Day of Caring. About 115 students, faculty and staff spent their Saturday morning volunteering at North Kellogg Open Space and .

Last year, ������Ƶ’s team had more than 90 volunteers take part in Day of Caring, Santa Barbara County’s biggest single-day volunteer event.

������Ƶ has taken a major step toward keeping its campus up to date technologically by going wireless. The $100,000 upgrade includes the installation of wireless access points at most of the campus residence halls as well Voskuyl Library and Kerr Student Center. The technology will allow students and faculty to connect to the Internet outside of their offices and rooms on campus.

You may want to fasten your seatbelt for this theatrical performance. Recent Indy-Award winning actor Mitchell Thomas performs the world-premiere of “The Earthquake Predictor Rides the Bus”, Friday, Sept. 22, and Friday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m., 8 p.m., and 9 p.m. The entire performance takes place on a moving bus. Audiences will be picked up and dropped off at the entrance to Stearn’s Wharf, at the corner of State Street and Cabrillo Boulevard.

, associate professor of art, will show her paintings in the (ARSG) at the (LACMA) Friday, Sept. 15-Oct. 26. An opening reception will be held Friday, Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m.

Madison Garcia refused to admit she had a stuttering problem. The speech disorder would come and go in phases. Talking on the phone or saying her name was sometimes problematic.

“Because you feel like you can’t communicate,” she says, “you feel like you really don’t have a place in society. That was my biggest fear. If I ended up saying this is what I struggle with, I’d have to deal with it.”

Fourteen students will show off their summer research projects Thursday, Sept. 7, at 4 p.m, in Founders Dining Room. “A Celebration of Student Research at ������Ƶ” will include a student’s work investigating the angular mapping of cosmic muon flux over the sky as well as another student’s work determining the physical structures responsible for working memory.

Dozens of black rubber-band balls are strewn about ������Ƶ’s Reynolds Gallery as part of the latest exhibit, “Cort Savage: Scattered Man and the Particle,” which will be on display from Thursday, Sept. 7, through Oct. 20. Savage has wound the rubber bands around each bone in the human skeleton, reducing the physical human being to an abstract form.

The much-anticipated new film from , “,” is based on a true story involving former Santa Barbara resident Paul Higa, who died in April. Higa was the chief probation officer for Los Angles County. His widow, Jane Higa, is vice president for student life and dean of students at ������Ƶ.

The 333 members of the incoming class of 2010 have begun arriving at ������Ƶ. Joyce Luy, dean of admission, says the first-year students represent one of the strongest and most selective classes ever. There are also 41 transfer students.

Orientation programs run through Sunday, August 27. The first day of classes is Monday, Aug. 28.

Fourteen new ������Ƶ students have returned from a unique orientation program that takes students backpacking through the North Yosemite backcountry.

The optional orientation program, , offers students units of academic and physical education course credit. Students are assigned several readings, lead discussions on the books and write a paper later in the semester.

������Ƶ once again secured a spot among the top liberal arts colleges in the nation according to “America’s Best Colleges 2007.” For the second straight year ������Ƶ joined six other schools with a ranking of 104.

Only nine other liberal arts colleges in California appear in the highest tier: Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, Occidental, Pitzer, Thomas Aquinas and Mills Colleges.

������Ƶ has hired Santa Barbara resident Steve Julio as assistant professor of . Julio graduated from ������Ƶ in 1992 and earned his doctorate at UC Santa Barbara in 2001.

For the past three years Julio has been a postdoctoral fellow at UCSB. He was also a research scientist for several years at Remedyne Corporation, a vaccine development company in Santa Barbara.

New England violinist Philip Ficsor will join ������Ƶ’s faculty this fall as assistant professor of violin. Ficsor is a member of the , a piano-violin duo which has been featured on concert series across the United States and Europe.

A popular CNN online podcast will feature an interview with , ������Ƶ professor of entrepreneurial finance, Friday, July 21. CNN officials say their Web site is visited about a million times a week.

Janet Lamkin, president and chief executive officer of the , has joined the . Lamkin graduated from ������Ƶ in 1981.

The 16-member board provides a critical link between the college curriculum and post-graduate experiences. Its principal purpose is to bring new ideas and fresh viewpoints from those in the business community. The board meets twice a year and reports to the college president.

A group of five ������Ƶ students has returned to the United States after spending a month serving people in .

Mike Yankoski, author of “,” will appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Producers recently postponed a July 6 interview and have not yet rescheduled. Yankoski graduated from ������Ƶ last year and lives in Santa Barbara.

Shakespeare’s “King Richard II” will rule once again. The award-winning play, co-produced by ������Ƶ Repertory Theatre and , returns for three shows at , Monday, July 31, through Wednesday, Aug. 2, at 8 p.m.

Accomplished illustrator and graphic designer Scott Anderson has been named assistant professor of art at ������Ƶ. Anderson has been an art instructor and adjunct art professor at ������Ƶ since 1999. He has also taught at Santa Barbara City College and Nickelodeon Studios in Burbank.

David Newton, ������Ƶ professor of entrepreneurial finance, will be interviewed on CNN's “Anderson Cooper 360,” Friday, June 16, at 7 p.m., for a special series Cooper is doing on top entrepreneurs of the 20th century who have literally changed American life as we know it.

������Ƶ’s co-production of “King Richard II” took top honors at the 14th annual Independent Theater Awards, Monday, May 22. The Shakespearean play won four awards, including direction by John Blondell and performance by Mitchell Thomas. Playwright Erik Ehn also won an award for “The Saint Plays,” performed by ������Ƶ students in Porter Theatre last March.

ESPN and ABC Basketball Analyst Steve Lavin will speak next month at ������Ƶ’s 15th annual Golf Marathon Sports Banquet and Golf Outing. The former UCLA head basketball coach will speak on Sunday evening, June 4, at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort, as a kickoff to a fundraiser aimed at providing scholarships for ������Ƶ athletes.

The Sunday night banquet, hosted by ������Ƶ, is a precursor to an all-day golf marathon at La Purisma Golf Course on Monday, June 5.

������Ƶ Provost Shirley Mullen has accepted the position of president at in New York. She will remain at ������Ƶ through December 2006 and take up her new responsibilities in January 2007.

������Ƶ closes out the Reynolds Gallery season with a celebration of California’s beauty through a special invitational show featuring some of the region’s finest landscape painters. “Views and Visions: Celebrating California,” will be at the gallery from Thursday, May 18, through June 30. An opening reception will be held Thursday, May 18, at 4 p.m.

To honor outgoing ������Ƶ President Stan D. Gaede, the college has renamed the Institute for the Liberal Arts at ������Ƶ the Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts at ������Ƶ. The college has also completed funding toward its initial goal for the institute. David Eaton, who chairs the college board of trustees, made the announcement May 5.

, ������Ƶ religious studies professor, will separate fact from fiction in Dan Brown’s best-selling book, “The Da Vinci Code,” in a free lecture, “Breaking the Da Vinci Code,” in both Santa Barbara and Ventura.

������Ƶ Downtown will present his talk, Thursday, May 11, at 5:30 p.m., at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara St.

������Ƶ has joined a very select group of colleges and universities dedicated to providing the finest equipment for its musicians. The college purchased 20 new Steinway pianos through an anonymous $350,000 gift, making ������Ƶ one of only two four-year liberal arts colleges in California to be an All-Steinway School.

Gerd Jordano, longtime Santa Barbara civic leader, will receive the ������Ƶ Medal during the college’s graduation ceremonies, Saturday, May 6, at 10 a.m. on Russell Carr Field. It will also be Stan D. Gaede’s last commencement as college president.

������Ƶ’s annual Spring Choral Concert will feature the Men and Women’s Chorale, Chamber Singers and the 44-member ������Ƶ Choir, Friday, April 21, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1500 State St., at 8 p.m. A free-will offering will be taken.

The Lit Moon Theatre Company will celebrate the birthday of famed poet William Shakespeare by performing the Bard’s most popular play, “Hamlet,” at ������Ƶ’s Porter Theatre, Friday, April 28, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, April 29, at 4:30 p.m.

Admission on Friday is free for ������Ƶ students, faculty and staff and $10 for general admission. Tickets on Saturday are $50, which includes an off-campus party following the performance.

Three prominent, local bankers will discuss the opportunities and challenges of banking in the current business climate during a panel discussion, Wednesday, April 12, at 3:30 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge. “Banking: Over-Regulated or Under-Entrepreneurial” is part of ������Ƶ’s on-going Economic and Business Speaker Series which is free and open to the public.

There will be nothing conventional about ������Ƶ’s upcoming theater event. In fact, much of the ������Ƶ Fringe Festival will take place outdoors and in areas surrounding Porter Theatre. About 60 performers will take part in 12 different pieces Thursday through Saturday, April 20-22. Performances will be at 5 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. with a Saturday matinee at 10 p.m.

A record number of student artists will present their works at the annual "Senior Art Majors Show," Thursday, April 6 through May 6 at ������Ƶ’s Reynolds Gallery. An opening reception with the 18 senior artists will be held at the gallery, April 6, from 4-6 p.m. There will also be an awards presentation for the artists at 5 p.m. On average, 10 art majors graduate from ������Ƶ annually. There were also 18 art majors who graduated in 2003.

The ������Ƶ Chamber Orchestra will perform its spring concert, Sunday, April 9, at 7 p.m in the sanctuary at El Montecito Presbyterian Church, 1455 East Valley Road.

Under the direction of Emily Sommermann, faculty and students will be presenting works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Volkmann and Benjamin Britten.

A group of residents from Santa Barbara’s Vista Del Monte retirement center will be coming to Westmont in hopes of picking up some health tips. “Max Out on Life: A Wellness Lifestyle Approach” is a month-long, student-led presentation series that begins Tuesday, April 4, at 1:45 p.m. in Murchison Classroom 3.

A professor of psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary will speak about what it means to be a human person, Friday, April 7, at 3:30 in ������Ƶ’s Hieronymus Lounge. Warren Brown’s lecture, “A Thinking Reed: Emergence of Mind and Soul From Human Bodies,” will discuss how it might be that mind, soul and agency can emerge from physical bodies and brains.

Workers are wrapping up their work on renovations to Westmont’s Carroll Observatory in anticipation of the arrival of a new high-tech telescope. The 24-inch reflector telescope is expected to arrive on campus this summer and will be the most powerful one between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A ������Ƶ student venture competed against eight other student business plans in a national competition in Santa Barbara, but came up short to a project from Duke University. Scott Upton’s Polaris Athletic Training Systems LLC will now compete as a semifinalist in the 9th annual Enterprise Creation Competition, March 24-25, cohosted by Indiana University-Bloomington, Syracuse University and Ball State University.

������Ƶ Sophomore Allison Trowbridge walked away the big winner of the college’s annual debate contest. Tournament of Expressions started with 128 students in early February and came to an end Feb. 28, with Trowbridge earning $500 as this year’s champion.

Tony Askew, ������Ƶ professor of art and director of , will hold an informal discussion of current methods of intaglio printmaking Wednesday, March 8, at 4:30 p.m., in Art Center 101 next to the gallery.

Songwriter and poet William Jolliff will have a free poetry reading at ������Ƶ, Tuesday, March 21, at 3:30 p.m., in Hieronymus Lounge.

Jolliff chairs the department of writing and literature at George Fox University. He earned a doctorate in English from Ohio State University. He previously taught at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, where he earned an excellence in teaching award.

������Ƶ officials and a group opposing the proposed update to the college’s Approved Campus Master Plan have both requested that the Thursday, March 2, Montecito Planning Commission hearing be postponed as they continue in mediation.