According to one version of this rumor, former president Thomas Cronin (who served from 1993-2005) funded Walla Walla Police Department (WWPD) patrol vehicles for campus use.

Allegedly, Cronin “bought off” the police so that they would protect the campus but let students off easily in instances of underage drinking and partying.

“I don’t know if it is true, but it goes along with other stories of Whitman students [being] left alone by the law,” said junior David Protter.

Protter listed some examples, including Whitman students who scaled the Marcus Whitman with grappling hooks only to be picked up by the college shortly after, students caught hot-boxing a car in the wheat fields and told by the officer to “have a safe night,” and instances of students whose speeding tickets are waived when they “accidentally” pull out their Whitman I.D.s

According to some students, Whitman is a major financial supporter of the police department.

“I’ve heard that Whitman is the number one funder of the police force, buying them new cop cars each year,” said senior Matt Cameron.

Another part of the rumor is that current president George Bridges stopped subsidizing police cars because he found it immoral.

Bridges, however, called the rumor humorous but untrue, adding that speculation about Whitman’s involvement in the community may have originated because of another former president, Chester Maxey (president from 1948-1959).

“At one point… Maxey was also the mayor of Walla Walla.  He may have undertaken something like this,” Bridges said. “I do know that he is single-handedly responsible for shutting down the brothels in Walla Walla, partly to keep the Whitman men in line, but also at the request of the federal government.”

Chester Maxey’s autobiography, “The World I Lived In: A Personal Story,” reflected on his time as mayor, including his controversial crackdown on prostitution and gambling, which until that time had been largely tolerated.  While illegal, these activities persisted because the police force “turned a blind eye,” according to Maxey.

For all those conspiracy theorists that love a good rumor depicting the “bad” side of Whitman, police payoffs make a fun story to retell, but lack any clear evidence.

Whitman’s Treasurer and Financial Officer Peter Harvey said that while Whitman’s relationship with the police department is “collaborative,” the WWPD receives no funding from the college.

Off-duty fire fighters and police officers are also allowed to use Baker Ferguson Fitness Center for training purposes.

“Though the college encourages faculty community service – just as it encourages community service in the student body – the college itself does not financially contribute to the police department,” Harvey said.

“To the best of my knowledge… the answer is ‘no,’” said Bridges. “We do not have subsidized police cars from the Walla Walla Police Department.”

In addition to creating a makeshift slum, Whitman Students for Social Change planned theatre performances, campus discussions and a candlelight vigil to raise awareness of the issue.  Ann Pelo, a representative of the group, resigned a month prior from a special investment advisory committee set up by the college in response to student outcry.  She told the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin in March of 1986 that the shanty town symbolized how Whitman’s spending was antithetical to human rights. 

“The shanty town is an expressive statement of condemnation of apartheid voiced through solidarity with the South African blacks,” Pelo said.  

Blacks living in racially segregated South Africa were not eligible to vote, and the government restricted their mobility.  This system of apartheid lasted from 1948-1994.  

At that time, Whitman owned stock in more than a dozen companies conducting business in South Africa, including IBM and Coca-Cola. These investments generated about $375,000 in revenue each year, and were worth a total of about ten million dollars.  

While the debate reached a tipping point during the week leading up to a Friday Board of Trustees meeting to address concerns, critics had been urging divestment for several months, and students had arranged a one-day boycott of class.  College spending had become a subject of extreme contention.  

“Do we need educational institutions which are fiscally sound but morally bankrupt?” wrote Jack Riehl in an inflammatory letter to the editor, in which he also identified himself as a Whitman alumnus and former member of the administration. In the letter, which was published in Februrary, Riehl also accused the Board of Trustees of having “developed an avarice and greed which is famous, but which is actually better suited to a private business than to a liberal arts education” and that “obsessed with material security, they have loudly ignored the larger questions of purpose and greater human understanding…Whitman is nowhere near the quality institution it pretends to be.”

According to then Dean of Students Russel DeRemer, students had college approval to construct their symbolic shanty town. Although the Union-Bulletin reported that around 50 students showed up to help build, enthusiasm had fizzled by the end of the week as students began leaving for Spring Break.  

Despite a vote by students and faculty to remove funding, the Board of Trustees voted to retain investments, limiting only those that would directly benefit the South African government or military.  

Whitman treasurer Pete Reid argued that continuing to invest was a better way to urge companies to “apply pressure where it could best be applied on the South African government to remove apartheid.” 

A report adopted by the Board of Trustees further stated, “There is not evidence to indicate that divestment is an effective strategy for improving the admittedly reprehensible situation in South Africa.”  

Prior to the murder, Lundquist and Maxon fought over the affections of the same girl, sophomore Suzanne Meuret.

Lundquist was murdered over a love-triangle.

“It was a pretty standard love triangle.  Suzanne had been dating Eric first and had just gotten tired of the relationship or somehow it had broken up,” said Whitman alum, Brek Lawson.  Lawson, who graduated in 1990, lived with both Lundquist and Meuret in Lyman during the time of the relationship drama and ensuing murder.

Matt Cleman, a fellow Lyman resident in 1987, also spoke of the affair.

“Suzanne and Eric broke up about November or December…she started going out with ‘Tris’ sometime in January or February,” said Cleman in a May 20, 1987 issue of the Union Bulletin.

At about 1:30 p.m. on the day of the murder, Maxon came to Lyman where Lundquist lived and took the victim to wheatfields eight miles Northeast of Walla Walla to “talk” over their differences regarding their mutual lady love.  Maxon returned without Lundquist and by 7:35 p.m., Lundquist was reported missing.

According to Lawson, the romantic combination of Lundquist, Maxon and Meuret was dumbfounding.

“I guess part of the, well I don’t want to say humor of it, but it was ironic that these three people were involved in a love triangle,” he said.

Lawson depicted the students involved as colorful characters.

“Tristram was tall, dark hair, a beard—a thin little beard.  He was a trench coat type-of-guy.  A bit of an odd person…I think I recall him and some other guys hanging around and playing Dungeons and Dragons.  It was big at that time and that was kind of his speed,” said Lawson.

Maxon, was alsoconsidered “odd” by those who knew him, but in a different way.

“He was stockier, his hair was a light brown, he was, hard to say specifically, but overweight just 30 or 40 pounds,” said Lawson.  “He was not Tristram, Tristram was tall and thin.”

Considered an “imposing figure” by Lawson and accused of having an “intense personality” by Cleman in the Union Bulletin, Maxon had the potential to intimidate wiry Lundquist into a wheatfields expedition.

Furthermore, Maxon was athletic, into body building, football and strength.  Someone who, according to Cleman, was “really into” being the member of a frat.

At the time of his death, Lundquist was just starting to get into drama.  He was also a standout enthusiast of math, physics and astronomy.

“He was simply an outstanding student,” said Phil Sakimoto, Visiting Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Physics.

But for all their differences, Maxon and Lundquist had the same fatal taste in women and the same competitive edge. Their rivalry was brewing on a couple of fronts.

“Not only did he and Eric like the same girl, but they had battles over the chess board,” said Lawson.  “They matched wits.”

This deadly competition culminated in Maxon’s fateful decision to unleash his wrath against Lundquist with a .22 and his even more surprising decision to turn himself in half a day later.

Maxon went to Walla Walla police station at 5:30 am on May 19 and told officers that he was “in some trouble,” and led them to Lundquist’s body.  

The state originally charged Maxon with first degree murder.  But on January 14, 1988, Maxon pled guilty to a reduced charge of second degree murder.  Walla Walla Superior Court Judge Yancey Reser who presided over the case asserted that because of difficulties with evidence in the case, first degree murder would have been difficult to peg.

Controversy around the case thickened as Maxon’s parents were nearly arrested for contempt against the court.  The day of the murder, Maxon had placed phone calls to his parents. The elder Maxons initially refused to testify against their son or answer any questions regarding their conversations that day.  Eventually, they were forced to testify about the conversations in court.

Although Maxon was determined to have had suffered certain mental incapabilities, Judge Reser denied Maxon’s suggestion that his ineptitudes prevented him from a lucid determination of right from wrong on the day of the murder.

Maxon was sentenced to 13 days and eight months in state prison, the longest possible sentence for second degree murder.

In spite of the drama surrounding the murder involving two Whitman students, there were varied reactions to the event on campus.

“I can only speak for Lyman people, I’m hearing them say it’s like a bad nightmare, a bad movie,” said Cleman.

But Lawson remembers the student reaction as one of relative apathy for a murder.

“It wasn’t a popular trio on campus…they were part of the loner crowd,” said Lawson.

He claims that had the trio been a more popular group on campus there would have been “more of a splash” over the murder.

On the day of his conviction, Maxon issued a statement to the press.

“I’m deeply sorry for what happened and I wish I had a chance to repay other than sitting in a prison cell,” he said.

Between 1967 and 1970 “The Hershey Directive” put in place by General Lewis Blaine Hershey said that the act of protesting could actually void a person’s education deferment and put him or her at risk of being drafted immediately. Because they saw this as an impediment to free speech, many Whitman students felt that military recruiters should not be allowed to solicit on campus.

In the morning of April 15, 1968, senior Charles Lawrence, who now teaches at Seattle University, and junior Michael De Grasse, who is now a lawyer in Walla Walla, were arrested for blocking military vehicles from entering the Student Union Building (which has since been replaced by Maxey Hall). 

“People viewed it as an anti-war protest, and it was. But it was a free speech effort as well,” said De Grasse in his address to the class of ‘69, who had their reunion last weekend. “Just for protesting, you could be subjected to a draft, and this made many people afraid to protest. We thought this wasn’t something the school should put up with, and the entire student congress had voted for recruiters to be barred.”

According to De Grasse, the protest was not a “momentary eruption,” rather, it took a great deal of planning. The organizers chose a designated “leaker” to spread news of the protest before it occurred, and 15 to 20 students volunteered to help block the road. De Grasse also said that this was not merely a “romantic effort.” Each participant expected to be suspended and arrested.

“The plan was that we would be asked to leave, and all but two of us would leave. The two of us would be arrested and then two more would sit down. We would continue this for about a day, and then the recruiters would get bored with it and go home,” said De Grasse. 

However, the plan was destroyed when they found out that instead of just being taken to jail, slapped on the wrists and released, the protesters would be locked up until they paid a $100 bail each. 

“We simply didn’t have the funds for everyone to get arrested,” De Grasse said.

Tom Edwards, who was an Assistant Professor of History here in ‘68 and also spoke at the reunion, said that he fully supported the student protests on campus during the 60s and 70s.

“I was very supportive of student activism. Sometimes students went a little too far, but they were just young!” he said. “The students in ‘68 were revolutionary, they were a different type of students. It was the years between ‘64 and ‘72 that shaped Whitman into what it is today.”

Edwards said that he isn’t sure how he feels about the way the administration handled this issue.

“I’ve often thought about the idea that maybe the administration overreacted, but I’m really not sure if anything else could have been done,” he said, during a phone interview. “On the one hand, shouldn’t military recruiters be allowed to recruit? But on the other hand it was a very tense time. Hershey said that those who protested the draft would lose their draft deferment, and that is a violation of American Rights.”

Protests such as this one were going on all across the country, but according to Edwards not all of them were as nonviolent as this one. 

“In 1968, a professor from Berkeley came to visit, and he said that there’s no problem here. There’s no graffiti, no violence. But we just haven’t had any violence because it’s a small enough school that if students think something is wrong then they can go talk to someone about it. At a school like Columbia it is a different story.” 

Ultimately, in 1970 the Supreme Court ruled that “The Hershey Directive” was unconstitutional. President Richard Nixon then removed Hershey from the Selective Service but appointed him as presidential advisor and promoted him to a full four-star General. At that time, Hershey was the only one to have received this rank without ever having served in combat. 

When Nixon came to visit the campus in September 1971, Whitman activists flew the American Flag backwards to protest war and his actions as president.

Lawrence, who also spoke at the reunion, sees the draft threat as a defining part of his college years.

“Without the draft, we would have had a very different experience at Whitman,” he said.

He also has only one regret about the way students conducted the 1968 protest. 

“We should have just had them arrest everybody and not worried about the bail!” he said.

“The philosophy…was to increase the interaction between residents and free people,” said Professor of Physics, Emeritus Craig Gunsel, who initially became involved in the program after his wife encouraged him to volunteer.  

Through what was called the “Social Therapy Program,” prisoners mixed with Whitman students in the Olin Hall faculty lounge, and even went home with them through the “Take a Lifer to Dinner” program.  For the most part, these interactions took place without police supervision.  

“When I look back on some of things we did with some of those guys, it’s shocking nothing happened. We were rolling with some real hard guys,” said Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures Emeritus Dale Cosper. 

Cosper started the program in 1971, along with Lee Bowker and Paul Peterson, both professors at the time. Within two years Peterson and Bowker had left and Cosper was running the program. Gunsel took over in 1975. 

The then warden and associate warden were also Whitman alumni and very supportive of the programs, allowing them to expand.  

Through “Take a Lifer to Dinner” students would “check out” a convicted murderer and bring him home for a meal, before returning him to prison. There were no guards present during these exchanges, and according to Cosper, “a couple of those guys escaped while they were at people’s houses for dinner.”

“Looking back on it, it seems kind of naïve, but before…these programs were progressive, an effort to provide something different,” said Cosper. 

During their peak popularity, student participation in the programs reached between two and three hundred students. 

“Whitman students are very, very bright but they are also naïve,” Gunsel said.  “After they went out to the prison, they would come back still very bright, but less naïve.”

In 1979, an inmate stabbed an officer, instigating a prison lockdown. During this time, prisoners were not allowed to leave their cells at all. According to Gunsel, this event dramatically altered the culture of the penitentiary.   

Although shocking, the prison’s comparative laxity thirty years ago coincided with a record number of convicts earning Associate’s degrees—more, in fact, than in any other prison in the nation.  The prison currently offers only GED courses and English as a Second Language.  

“The hope was that if convicts were given the opportunity, they would take on responsibilities,” said Gunsel.

“There is something special about Whitman that you really don’t get a feel for until you get  into either your first job or a graduate school,” said Class of ’79 alumni and Alumni Board member John Blackmon. “When you begin to see the levels of preparation that other recent graduates have you then realize that all those years in Walla Walla are really going to pay off.”

One highlight of the Whitman reunion, according to Class of ’89 alumni and Alumni Board member Kottayam Natarajan Jr., is the reconnection of old classmates.

 “Some of my best and strongest friendships were formed at Whitman,” said Natrajan.  “I don’t have a lot of time to spend with these friends, and reunions are a wonderful opportunity to catch up. Even after years apart we can reunite at a reunion and it seems like no time has passed.”

Natarajan and Blackmon also noted the strength of the community bond, both of alumni and of current students. This connection to the college contributes greatly to college life. From alumni donations, to leadership, to recruitment, to career networking, alumni help current students progress later in life and help finance the college.

“I believe that the Alumni Weekend serves to rekindle the bond or spirit that inhabits each and every member of the Whitman Community, including staff, parents, current students and graduates,” said Blackmon.

“A vibrant alumni community is an important part of the college,” said Natarajan. “Although not very visible to students, the alumni contribute to Whitman in many ways. Alumni are a part of the Whitman community and Whitman benefits by facilitating their return on a regular basis.”

Natarajan also revealed that he likes to look at flyers and posters around campus, as well as attend lectures, to get a sense of what is going on at Whitman and “reconnect with… some of the issues and passion we may have forgotten in our busy lives.”

“Often I find that I am thrown back into that wonderful liberal arts world of critical thinking and exploration. But for the tuition, I’d love to be a student again,” said Natarajan.

While the viticulture expansion in Walla Walla is a definite attraction and “neat”, according to Natarajan, the best part of reunions is still meeting up with friends, checking out the campus, and reconnecting with the vibrancy of Whitman college life.

“I think that’s the best part of the alumni program,” said Natarajan. “It keeps alumni connected to Whitman and keeps alumni connected to each other.”

4 p.m. “Expanded Visions in International Medical Service,” an Alumni Career presentation by Dr. Gordon Tobin ‘65, in Gaiser Auditorium, Hall of Science.

Friday, Apr. 24

9:30-10:30 A.M. “Where the Great River Bends: A natural and human history of the Columbia at Wallula.” by Professor of Geology Bob Carson, Kimball Theatre, Hunter Conservatory. 

11 a.m.-12 noon  “Genealogies of Immigrant Worker Protests: Stories from the Zone of Illegality,” by Paul Apostolidis, Associate Professor of Politics, Kimball Theatre, Hunter Conservatory.

5 p.m.  Senior Thesis Exhibit Gallery Exhibit Opening Reception and Lecture, featuring the thesis projects of graduating studio art majors. Speaker TBA. Olin Hall, Room 130.

7-9 p.m.  83rd Annual Choral Contest, Cordiner Hall.

Saturday, April 25

9 a.m.-11:30 a.m.  “Student Activism on the Whitman College Campus in the 1960s,” by G. Thomas Edwards, professor of history emeritus; alumni panel to follow. Panelists include Gretchen Miller Kafoury ‘63, Dick Lilly ‘65, Chuck Lawrence ‘68 and Michael deGrasse ‘69. Kimball Theatre, Hunter Conservatory.

9 a.m.-12 noon  Kappa Alpha Theta Car Wash. Proceeds go to the new women’s homeless shelter in Walla Walla; donations welcome. Hunter Conservatory driveway, corner of Boyer and Park Streets.

9 a.m.  28th Annual Renaissance Faire 5K & 10K Fun Run sponsored by the Student Health Advisory Committee. Registration is from 7:45-8:30 a.m. in front of Baker Faculty Center. Pre-race instructions begin at 8:45 a.m.; race begins at 9 a.m.

10 a.m.-5 p.m.  Renaissance Faire, Lawn of Memorial Building, rain or shine!

Theodora Geokezas ’59 recalled the inequality between men and women that she encountered during her time at Whitman.

“When I was at Whitman, women could only run for [ASWC] Vice President and Secretary.  All of the other jobs that had the money and leadership attached were not trusted to women.”

Another shift involved the Mortar Board National Honor Society, which is still in existence today. Geokezas said that this award was given out to female students during her college years based on their grades and overall good citizenship.  The Whitman administration decided to take away this award because it was not offered to men, which Geokezas felt was unfair.  Today both men and women can be Mortar Board recipients.

In the 1950s, women were also not allowed to wear pants around campus except when it snowed. They also had to be in their dormitory rooms at a certain time each night and were not allowed to leave until a specified time the next morning morning. 

Despite instances of gender discrimination, Geokezas said she used the grounding and life lessons Whitman provided in her later career as a stay at home choice,” she said.

mother.

“Whitman gave me the confidence to take on volunteer jobs that required a lot of responsibility. I ended up using the same kind of skills as jobs in the work force would require.”

Tom Oldfield ’67 noted the difference in Whitman’s social environment as the most prominent change since his time as a student. 

“Social life centered much more on the greek system.  The greek system provided an important social fabric for the school, which is very different today.”

Oldfield’s memories of being a student at Whitman, like Geokezas’s, also reflect the era in which they attended.  Oldfield was struck by many recent graduates’ decisions to take a year of two off before continuing on to graduate school or a career, a choice that contrasts dramatically with what most students were doing in the 1960s.    

“If you didn’t continue on into grad school after undergrad, you would end up in the Vietnam War.  There was certainly more on-campus recruitment for employment after college.  The decisions that you made had an obvious difference on post-graduation experience.”

Though Oldfield knows that the school has undergone many changes, he believes it is still fundamentally the same with regard to its dedication to liberal arts values. 

“The biggest part of the liberal arts education’s objective is to teach you how to think,” said Oldfield. “Whitman does a pretty good job at that…basically you get an education that allows you to think and apply things to a lot of different areas. The good social interaction also provides an excellent background for the future.”

Kottayam Natarajan ’89 said that the greatest visible changes to Whitman since his time at school have been architectural. Not only have the facilities improved, he said, but the grounds and sculptures on campus also greatly enhance the atmosphere.  However, the most significant difference is in the standard of education.  

“The quality of the Whitman education also continues to get better and better,” said Natarajan. “Students who are coming in are better and better. I have an immense degree of appreciation for the success of the students who graduate from Whitman.”

Events and activities on campus remain similar to the ones offered when Natarajan was at Whitman.  He said that when returning to campus he still enjoys attending events such as Coffeehouse, which he was not able to attend as much as he would have liked to while at Whitman. 

When asked about how his Whitman education impacted his life, Natarajan expressed appreciation for the liberal arts education that Whitman offers. 

“Twenty years later I still have vivid recollections of milestone events that happened at Whitman and shaped who I am today.”

The Core curriculum in 1989, which was then titled “Great Works,” was taught to incoming first-years, but a third semester was also a required senior year course. Natarajan said that this allowed him to see how students had progressed through college, and he still remembers the discussions.

“At Whitman, I learned many lifetime lessons; some are intellectual about how to be a critical thinker and others are social lessons about how to interact with people,” said Natarajan. 

Another memory that Natarajan shared is of the Sigma Chi fraternities’ political campaign to get a hot tub. This process, he said, was a way to quickly learn about the democratic process through direct experience. 

Sara Lindsley ’01 was amazed by the increase in technology on Whitman campus.

“When I was in school, Whitman was nowhere near wireless, only about 75% of students had computers and a lot of my friends didn’t have email addresses,” she said. “Very few people had cell phones and in order to get reception, you had to stand in one spot.”

Today, Whitman relies on e-mail and the internet for quick communication with the student body, class scheduling, student payment and much more. Lindsley, who graduated only eight years ago, noted the speed with which Whitman students became dependent on technology as a primary means of communication.

“One of the primary reasons that I chose Whitman was that I felt welcomed when I visited,” she said. “The people made eye contact and said hello even if they didn’t know you.  I can’t imagine how it has changed with the increase in technology. Now you look out on Ankeny Field and so many students are walking around on their cell phones.”

Lindsley felt that she was on the edge of a college generation that did not see much technology use.  However, she does enjoy the benefits of technology today.

“I was hesitant at first to get Facebook, but it has been really fun to connect with friends that I lost touch with after college,” Lindsley said.

Like older alumni, Lindsley said that Whitman taught her how to write essays, and develope beneficial time management skills, and to write a thesis, which made writing her graduate school thesis a less daunting task. 

“I am passionate about liberal arts education and never regret my choice,” she said.

In 2008 the Sirens of Swank, the all female A capella group, preformed “SHU-BE-DOO-SHOOP-SH-BOOM: A 50’s Medley.” The all-male A capella group, The Testostertones, sang a Paul Simon medley from the film Top Gun. Schwa, the co-ed group, sang “ð-cappella.” 

The Environmental Choir sang “Big Yellow Taxi,” and the Jonas Family Singers sang, “Registrar: A Medley.”

Each group is required to sing a classical and modern piece. Last year, The Independent men sang, “Kiss The Girl” and “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat” while the Independent women sang, “Over the Rainbow” and “Dancing in the Street.” 

Kappa Kappa Gamma performed “Rise Up, My Love” for the classical piece and “Friendship and Love Medley.” Kappa Alpha Theta sang “Children of Dannu” and “Tico Tico.” Delta Gamma preformed “Chatanooga ChooChoo” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” This year, senior Ellen Kutscher is directing the women of Delta Gamma.

 “I think the biggest thing is we want it to be really fun for all the girls,” said Kutscher. “We pride ourselves most in keeping it really fun and making sure everyone really has fun throughout the whole process, rehearsals and everything .”

Phi Delta Theta sang “Shosholoza” for their classical piece and a Boys II Men medley for their contemporary one. Sigma Chi preformed “Carry On My Wayward Son” originally by Kansas for their contemporary piece and “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” a traditional sea shanty for their classical work. Beta Theta Pi sang “Wooglin Forever” and “The Final Countdown.”

However, Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) does something a little different than the other groups. In 2007, 2008 and again this year TKE Kyle Cotler decided to write his own piece for his fraternity to perform. More of a skit than a choral song, Cotler’s pieces have been performed the past two years, even while running the risk of disqualification.

“I never liked how boring, stale and antiquated the contest was,” said Cotler. “So I decided to write my own piece that could be more fun for us to perform and more fun for the audience to watch.”  

Last year, the TKEs preformed East Side Story, a spoof on West Side Story with two men as the star-crossed lovers. Excited about Friday’s performance, Cotler is expecting this year’s piece to be “stimulating, evocative and provocative” and the “best one yet.”