Pacific lutheran university
SCene June 1991
S tuden ts
700 Students participate I n
PLU Fres h m a n Is A N ational Forensics Cha m p i o n
National Forensics Event At PLU More than 700 students from 1 1 2 col leges a n d u n iversit i es across the cou ntry were at PLU Apri l 1 2-1 4 to partici pate in the National Individual Events Tou r na ment sponsored by t he Ameri ca n Forensic Association. The 1 4th a n n u a l event was hosted at PLU for the first ti me, accord ing to PLU forensics pro fessor Edward Inch, the tou rna ment coo rdi nator. It was a lso the fi rst time that AFA's District I I - five nort hwest states and northern California - hosted the tou rnament. AFA- N E IT recogn i zes com peti tive exce l l ence in p u b l i c speak i n g , Inch i n d icated. Stu d e n ts q u a l ify for t h e tou r n a m e n t through regional district tourna ments, or "at-large" by meeting several other criteria. PLU q u a l ified th ree students for the national tou rname nt. Tacoma sophomore Patty Norris qual ified in public spea king; Can by, Ore., freshman M ichael Fuller was in extem poraneous spea k ing; and McMinnvil le, O re., sen ior Jeremy Desel com peted in poet ry interpretation . Last yea r a PLU se n i or, N i kk i Poppen, took 1 2th place i n per suasive speak i n g a nd 1 3t h i n extemporaneous speaking. PLU was one of fi ve schools
Less t h a n a year i nto he r col lege career, Amy Lui nstra of Spo ka ne i s a n a t i o na l fore ns'ics champion. Lu i nstra, a PLU freshman, won the Lincol n-Doug las debate com petition at the national Pi Ka ppa Delta tou rna ment in Eatontown, N.J. Pi Kappa Delta is the nation al forensics honorary. In the eve nt fi nals, Lu i nstra defeated a c o m p et i t o r from Seton Hall U n iversity. Lu i nstra p reviously participat ed in debate for two years at Mead H i g h School in S pokane. E a r l i e r t h is yea r she e a r n ed " best a l l-aro u n d " honors i n a reg i o n a l to u r n a m e n t h e l d at Whitman College in Spokane. She said she sel ected PLU beca u se of its o u tsta n d i n g forensics prog ra m . That cam pus reputation was enhanced at the Eatontown sweepstakes when seven other PLU stude nts a lso won medals. The tea m 's accom pl ishments earned the u n iversity a 1 2th place nationa l ly and an "excel lent" rating. Lui nstra believes com m u n i ca tion is very i m porta nt in a ny career. At present, she is consid ering law school; "There is no bette r p re p a r a t i o n fo r law school than debate," she said .
that bid for the 1 991 AFA-NEIT. The bidding p rocess began more than two yea rs ago i n Fa rgo, N . D., with a presentation by rep rese ntatives of PLU a n d the Tacoma-Pierce Cou nty V isitors and Convention Bureau .
New F res h m a n Ea rns ESPN Scholarsh i p Just a few days after electing to pursue his collegiate fut u re at PLU, Ryker Labbee of Toppen ish, Wash . , rece ived a b i g boost toward h is fi rst year's tuition by winn ing ESPN's National Scholar Athlete Award . The $ 5 ,000 sc h o l a rs h i p was created by the c a b l e sports channel to honor its pick for the nation's top scholar athlete. The award is based on acad e m i cs, involvement in school and com munity, and team leadersh ip. Labbee, a 4.0 student, rushed for more than 2,000 yards last season in football, was the start ing point guard for Toppenish's state runner-up basketba l l team , and was a top Class A jave l i n th rower in track.
The Mast W i n s Top H o nors I n Five NW States By Jessica perry
PLU's student newspaper, The
Mast, has been named the best
a l l - a ro u n d n o n -d a i l y col l e g e newspaper in t h e five Nort hwest states. The Mast also won a fi rst place award for in-depth reporting on "Defi ning the 'L' in PLU." The Soc i ety of Profess i o n a l Journalists Mark o f E xce l l e nce awards were presented at the SPJ Reg ion 1 0 a n n u a l confer ence. Individ u a l thi rd-place awards were presented to t h ree Mast staff m e m bers: Larry Dea l ,
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senior economics major, col u m n writi ng; Erik Cam pos, freshman, sports photograp hy; a nd Jod i N y g ren sen i o r E n g l i s h a n d French major, feature writing. Th is is the second yea r i n a row The Mast has been na med the best a l l-a rou nd non-da i l y stu dent paper in the reg ional com petition. " (The Mast) had some of the best writi ng to be fou nd i n any student newspaper in the Pacific Northwest, including the big-uni versity d a i l ies," said contest judges.' SPJ is a nationwide orga n i za tion that focuses on issues and
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eth ics in journa lism. It has about 1 7,500 professional and student members.
Student Body President Ea rns Leadersh i p Awa rd J a m es Morre l l of Seatt l e , a 1 991 PLU grad uate, is the recipi ent of PLU's Don J erke Lead e r ship Awa rd. The award is presented annual ly to honor a student leader who has made an outsta nding contri bution to qual ity of l ife on ca m, pus. Other criteria include lead ersh i p, g rowt h , service a nd scholarsh ip. Morre l l has served as student body president d u ring the past year and was a student govern ment senator for two years. He has also been active in the U n i versi ty Cong reg at ion, where h e h a s been a worship assistant for four years. An econom ics major, he has mai ntai ned a 3 . 8 g rade poi nt averag e d u ri ng his under graduate career. The leadership award is named in memory of Donald Jerke, PLU ca m pus pastor and then vice president for student l ife from 1 9 7 5-8 1 .
M ath Stu d e nts Earn Ra n ki ngs I n Nat i o n a l Exa m Perhaps the myth has created t h e fact: w o m e n a re not bel ieved to be as p rofi c i ent in mathematics as m e n ; conse q u ently fewer women tackle mathematics as a specialty. B u t O l y m p i a , WaS h . , s e n i o r Debbie Tygart Longm ire, a math and p hysical ed ucation m ajor, has not been intim idated by the myt h . She s i m p l y topped PLU's student mathematicians and 80 percent of the country's finest in the annual intercolleg iate Wil l iam Lowel l Putnam Mathematics competition . The annual co m p e t i t i o n attracts tea ms from the top col leges a n d u n i versities i n the cou ntry . Co ntestants a re g i ven 1 2 problems to sol ve in a six hour time period . The problems are so d ifficult that less than 1 0 percent of the contestants solve more than two of them. Only five percent of this year's top 500 were women, plaCi ng Lon g m i re i n even more select company. She fi n i sh ed 461 out of 2,347 competitors. As a team, PLU fin ished in the top 1 6 percent. Top ranked u ni versities this year were Ha rvard, Du ke, Wate rloo, Yale, Washi ng ton (St . LouiS), Ca l Tec h , C a l Berkeley, M IT, Sta nfo rd a n d Swarthmore. In addition to Lon g m i re, PLU contestants finish i n g i n the top third were David Cooper of Gig Ha rbor, Wash., a sen i o r mathe matics and co m p uter e n g i neer ing major; Joseph King of Wau sau, Wise., a so phom ore math major; and John M iles of Corval l i s, O re . , a j u n i o r m aj o r i n g i n math a n d physics. E ight to 1 0 PLU students met wee kly w i t h m a t h p rofessor M ichael Dol l i nger last fal l to pre pa re for the exa m by analyzing problems. Seven took the exam . *
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It is true that you n g women a re often steered away from mathematics d u ring their school ca ree rs, a ccord i n g to De b b i e Lon g m i re, PLU's t o p m a t h stu dent this year. "I guess it is a social th ing," she sa id. "We tend to be encou raged more toward h u manities. "But I was lu cky," she contin ued. "Particu larly in high school (Olym pia H i g h School) I had a teacher that encouraged me. Here at PLU I kept trying to get away from it (math), but when I did, I m issed it. I l i ke the t h i n k ing, the logic part of it. "It is frust rati ng, but fun at the same ti me." Lon g m i re looks forward to a career as a mathematics p rofes sor, one of the rel at i vely few women i n the fi eld.