The much-anticipated new film from Columbia Pictures, “Gridiron Gang,” 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 Westmont.
The 333 members of the incoming class of 2010 have begun arriving at Westmont. 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 Westmont students have returned from a unique orientation program that takes students backpacking through the North Yosemite backcountry.
The optional orientation program, Inoculum, 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.
Westmont once again secured a spot among the top liberal arts colleges in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2007.” For the second straight year Westmont 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.
Westmont has hired Santa Barbara resident Steve Julio as assistant professor of biology. Julio graduated from Westmont 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 Westmont’s faculty this fall as assistant professor of violin. Ficsor is a member of the American Double, a piano-violin duo which has been featured on concert series across the United States and Europe.