It's been a winning season for student athletes on the Pomona-Pitzer athletic teams, which earned team, conference, regional and national recognition during the fall.
The men's football team finished 6-2 for the fourth winning season in a row. Jim Regan (Pomona '99) established a team career rushing record of 2,767 yards over four seasons. For the season, Jace Withy-Allen '99 led receivers with 23 catches for 361 yards and three touchdowns, while Creed Pettit '99 tallied 47 tackles defensively. The 1998 senior gridders were the first players to sweep games over Occidental and cross-campus rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps for the fourth straight year.
The women's volleyball team finished 14-8 overall and 8-4 in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC ) play (third), with middle blocker Andrea Bustamante (Pomona '99) earning First Team All-SCIAC honors and setter Erika Gamst (Pomona '01) earning Second Team All-SCIAC honors.
The men's soccer squad completed the season 9-9 overall and 5-5 in SCIAC play (third). Individually, Eric Dugan '00 was named SCIAC Soccer Athlete of the Year on a vote from the conference coaches. The last Sagehen to win the award was Pitzer's Chris Davis in 1990. Additionally, Jason Magee '01 and Greg Johnson (Pomona '00) were named First Team All-SCIAC, and Francisco Diaz '00 was named Second Team.
The women's soccer team earned a record of 7-8-2 overall and 6-6 in the SCIAC (fifth). Goalie Zelinda Welch '00 was named First Team All-SCIAC; Second Team honors went to Anna Wolbach '00, Torrey Shelton (Pomona '02), Larisa Meisenheimer (Pomona '99) and Sharon Silveira (Pomona '02). For the season, Wolbach scored a team-high seven goals, while Welch tallied 107 saves and was involved in 6 1/2 shutout games.
The women's cross-country team took second in the SCIAC with a 6-1 record. Anastasia Finnegan (Pomona '00) won Runner of the Year honors for winning both conference races, while Leah Barnes (Pomona '00) earned a berth to the National Championships, where she finished 53rd out of 183 runners.
On the men's side of distance running, the Sagehen harriers finished in a tie for fourth in the SCIAC with a 3-4 conference record. Adam Boardman (Pomona '01) took second in the SCIAC Championships and sixth in the West Regional meet to lead the squad.
In the pool, the men's water polo team finished 13-19 overall, 5-4 in the SCIAC (fourth). Ryan Williams (Pomona '01) was named First Team All-SCIAC and Marc Cavagnolo (Pomona '01) was named Second Team. The squad advanced to the Western Water Polo Association Tournament at season's end.
A scout's handbook might show dozens of different knots--overhand, reef, granny, bowline, and so on. But two new catalogs prepared by three mathematicians, including Pitzer's own Jim Hoste, list more than 1.7 million knots.
According to the Oct. 10 issue of Science News, Hoste and Jeffrey R. Weeks of Canton, N.Y., worked on one catalog, while Morwen Thistlethwaite of the University of Tenessee in Knoxville indexed the other. They jointly described their tabulation efforts in the fall issue of Mathematical Intelligencer.
"With more than 1.7 million knots now in the tables, we hope that the census will serve as a rich source of examples and counter-examples and as a general testing ground for our collective intuition," the researchers told Science News.
Mathematicians typically concern themselves with knots having their two ends connected to form a loop. One way to characterize such a knot is to lay it flat and determine its crossing number by counting the minimum number of times one part of the loop crosses over or under another part.
Efforts to tabulate knots began about 120 years ago, after British physicist Lord Kelvin hypothesized that atoms could be described as vortices in the ether, an intangible fluid then thought to fill all space. He proposed that different elements would correspond to vortices bent into different types of knotted tubes forming closed loops.
Inspired by this theory, fellow physicist Peter G. Tait began investigating knots and produced the first knot tables, organized according to crossing number. Tait enumerated all possible knot diagrams up to a given crossing number, then grouped those diagrams representing the same knot type. He stopped at knots with seven crossings--a total of 15 knot types.
Using a similar strategy and with the help of computers, Hoste, Weeks and Thistlethwaite produced independent tabulations of knots with 16 or fewer crossings. Kept secret until they were finished, the two lists were in complete agreement. Hoste and Thistlethwaite are now preparing the 17-crossing list. FACULTY & STAFF N E W S
All faculty and staff are invited to a party celebrating the decisions to recommend Paul Faulstich and Kathryn Miller for promotion to associate professor with tenure. The party begins on Friday at 6 p.m. at the Grove House. Food will be provided, but guests are asked to bring either a dessert or beverages. Says Professor Nigel Boyle: "There will be an antipodean theme--complete with didgeridoo player--so get out your vegemite recipes and your dancing shoes!"
The Rotary Club of West Los Angeles is seeking scholars between the ages of 25 and 40 who wish to visit Lebanon and Cyprus for a four- to five-week, all-expenses-paid sabbatical. Anyone interested should contact Leonard Wasserstein at (310) 888-6138 and tell him they are calling at the behest of Murray Pepper (a Pitzer trustee) regarding the Rotary Club trip to Lebanon and Cyprus. Leonard will arrange for the interview and qualifying information.
Three Claremont faculty colleagues--Sheila Pinkel (art, Pomona), Bryan Penprase (astronomy, Pomona) and Chris Chase (psychology, CMC)--will discuss Web-based pedagogical innovations they've developed with the help of the Mellon Project at a conference, "Mellon's Greatest Hits," on Friday at 2 p.m. in Roberts North 14, CMC. A reception follows the presentations. For more information, e-mail Jim Pinter-Lucke.
Staff safety training programs designed to meet California Code of Regulation requirements will be offered in the multipurpose room of Gold Student Center as follows: today from 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.; Tuesday from 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.; Dec. 9, from 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.; and Dec. 10, from 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Topics to be covered include injury and illness prevention; hazard communication; an overview of the safe use of chemicals; and managing workplace confrontations. For more information and to RSVP, call the Pitzer facilities office at x72226.
Help the Staff Recognition Work Group select a theme for the Staff Appreciation Lunch in May and win a prize. Submit your entry, via e-mail, campus mail or in person, to Wendi Crawbuck in the student affairs office by Tuesday.
T. J. Mueller, formerly of the HMC faculty and now a consultant to secondary and higher education, is offering a workshop for Claremont faculty in managing lecture-free learning Jan. 15 to 17. The workshop explores practical active-learning alternatives to teaching by lecture and seeks to enlighten the transition from high school to college and to encourage secondary and college teachers to share points of view. Admission to the workshop is by application; participants receive a $400 stipend. For more information, send e-mail.
Nina Ellerman-Mason, publications editor and Webmaster in the public information office, begins her maternity leave on Dec. 7 and will not return until sometime in May. In the interim, a part-time replacement is being hired to take over some of her duties. If you have immediate needs or concerns regarding publications or the Pitzer Web, please direct them to Patrick Lee, director of public information.
ANNOUNCEMENTS & O P P O R T U N I T I E S
Members of the Pitzer community have an opportunity to meet with a candidate for the position of director of career services, at an open meeting on Tuesday from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Marquis Library. Copies of resumes are available for review in the dean of students office.
Three Pitzer students, Joaquin Calderon, Tim Jones and Celeste Lofton, were studying in Nicaragua when Hurricane Mitch struck. They are now in San Jose, Costa Rica, spearheading efforts to get badly needed funds to the villages and gras-sroots organizations with which they were working. They will be using a very trusted Nicaraguan contact to personally take donations to the Esteli and Matagalpa regions, according to Professor Ann Stromberg. "These are communities that have received not only these three students, but also other Pitzer students in the past," wrote Stromberg in an e-mail to the Pitzer community. You can help the students and the victims of Hurricane Mitch by sending a check (payable to ICADS) to ICADS, Dept. 826, P.O. Box 025216, Miami, Fla. 33102-5216. On the check, note that your donation is for the Nicaraguan Support Committee.
The early academic outreach program still needs donations for needy students from Madison Elementary School in Pomona. To help, pick up a sponsoring "shoe" at the Scott Hall or McConnell Center bulletin boards and return it with the item(s) purchased for the child you selected by Tuesday to the EAOP office. Donations may be wrapped or unwrapped, but should include a card with the giver's name. If you're too busy to buy a gift, EAOP will do the shopping for you. For more details, contact Leeshawn C. Moore at x73553.
Volunteers are needed to help with the World AIDS Day Memorial Walk on Tuesday. Two to three hours of time is needed that afternoon and evening to help set up the route and direct people. For more information, call Alain at x75648 or Sue Lin at 621-4669. The event is sponsored by the Student AIDS Awareness Committee, the six-college Health Education Outreach program and the Foothill AIDS Project.
Pitzer has a new party organization called ORACLE, whose purpose is to "bring some life back to Pitzer," according to one of its members, Brita Rosenheim. Said Rosenheim: "ORACLE wants to give us the means to hang out together as a community. We are going to have parties every few weeks for the sheer purpose of kicking back and having a good time together. The best part is that all of the parties are free, so everybody should come and take advantage of them."
WEEK OF NOV. 30
MONDAY
Pre-registration begins for spring 1999 semester.
Feng Xilang, former editor of China Daily and advisor to Southern China Daily Post, discusses "The Marketing of Journalism in China," at 4:15 p.m. in room 108 of the Hahn Building, Pomona. For more information, call x70835.
Poetry night at the Grove House begins at 9 p.m. Refreshments are served. For more information, call Erin Lewis at x73516.
TUESDAY
Cris Miller and Dick Barnes of Pomona's English faculty read works by poets who have died during the past year (or so)--Zbigniew Herbert, Denise Levertov, Larry Levis, William Matthews and Miroslav Holub--at 8 p.m. in room 101 of Crookshank Hall, Pomona.
WEDNESDAY
S2A2 (Strategies for Success and Academic Achievement) offers a workshop on overcoming test anxiety, "Don't Stress the Test," at 8 p.m. in the living room of Mead Hall. For more information, call x18032.
THURSDAY
Folk singer Judy Collins performs a holiday concert with the Claremont and Bonita high school choral singers at 8 p.m. at Bridges Auditorium. Tickets are $20 - $30. Tickets are on sale at Huntley Bookstore and all TicketMaster locations. Charge by phone at (213) 480-3232 or call 621-8032 for more information. Pre-show dinners are available at the Faculty House. For dinner information, call 621-8109.
FRIDAY
This week's Friday Noon Concert features "Choral Music for the Christmas Season," conducted by Anna DeMichele. The performance begins at 12:15 p.m. in Balch Auditorium, Scripps College.
SUNDAY
Watch movies in Avery Auditorium at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.
F E A T U R E:
Sagehens Field a Winning Fall Season
P R O F I L E:
Jim Hoste is Tied Up in Knots
COMINGS & G O I N G S
Leonard E. Harper, whose leadership in various administrative posts helped build Pitzer in the early days, died in July at the age of 55. Harper joined Pitzer College in 1971 as associate director of financial aid. The following February, he was promoted to director of the minority student administrative internship program. In 1972, he was appointed director of financial aid and associate director of admissions, a position he held until he was named dean of student activities three years later. Mr. Harper left Pitzer in 1979. "Leonard was a wonderful ambassador for and practitioner of constructive discourse," said Vicke Selk, Pitzer's treasurer and a former colleague of Harper's. "He did a great deal to foster multicultural understanding at Pitzer long before it became an articulated educational objective."
COMING U P
Thanksgiving vacation ends at 8 a.m.
World AIDS Day Memorial Walk.
The center for career and community services holds a Rotary Scholarship workshop from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the living room of McConnell Center. For more information, call x72858.
The third annual Pitzer Holiday Auction takes place from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the living room of Sanborn Hall. As in the past, the money raised from the auction will benefit local charities, including the Boys and Girls clubs of Pomona and Inter-City Volunteers. Please make contributions by Monday to the center for career and community services.
Pre-registration ends for spring 1999.
The Pomona College Gospel Choir, directed by Barbara Lyons, presents its holiday concert at 7 p.m. in Bridges Hall of Music. The program also features the Cal Poly Pomona Gospel Choir, directed by Robert Laird. A donation of canned/non-perishable foods is asked for the SOVA: West End Hunger Program.