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, ���Ҵ�ý 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.

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

���Ҵ�ý 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 ���Ҵ�ý 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 ���Ҵ�ý 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.

���Ҵ�ý’s annual Spring Choral Concert will feature the Men and Women’s Chorale, Chamber Singers and the 44-member ���Ҵ�ý 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 ���Ҵ�ý’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 ���Ҵ�ý 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 ���Ҵ�ý’s on-going Economic and Business Speaker Series which is free and open to the public.

There will be nothing conventional about ���Ҵ�ý’s upcoming theater event. In fact, much of the ���Ҵ�ý 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 ���Ҵ�ý’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 ���Ҵ�ý annually. There were also 18 art majors who graduated in 2003.

The ���Ҵ�ý 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 ���Ҵ�ý’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 ���Ҵ�ý 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.

���Ҵ�ý 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, ���Ҵ�ý 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 ���Ҵ�ý, 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.

���Ҵ�ý 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.

���Ҵ�ý 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.

A ���Ҵ�ý student venture will vie against eight other student business plans in a national competition in Santa Barbara. The third annual Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (S.E.E.D) Collegiate Venture Forum will be held at the Andalucia Hotel, March 3-4.

Internationally acclaimed pianist Teresa Walters will play at ���Ҵ�ý’s Porter Theatre. The concert, Tuesday, March 7, at 8 p.m., will include songs from Johannes Brahms and George Gershwin. Tickets are $15 or $10 for students and seniors.

A month-long tournament that started with 128 students competing in more than 100 preliminary debates and more than 60 speeches will culminate in a final showdown for cash prizes. ���Ҵ�ý’s Tournament of Expressions: Finals in Debate, Great Speeches, Persuasive Speeches, and Scripture Alive will be Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in Page Hall. The event is free and open to the public

David Cockburn, professor of philosophy at University of Wales, Lampeter, will be giving a free lecture next week at ���Ҵ�ý. The colloquium, “Love, Particularity, and the Body,” will be Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 3:30 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge.

He has written several book including, “Human Beings: The Proceedings of the Royal Institute of Philosophy Conference,” “Hume” and “An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind: Souls, Science and Human Beings.” Cockburn was awarded a Research Readership in 1994 by the British Academy.

A professor from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., will discuss whether animal pain makes for a compelling argument against God's existence at a free lecture, Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in ���Ҵ�ý’s Hieronymus Lounge. Michael J. Murray, Arthur and Katherine Shadek professor in the humanities, will give the lecture, “God and Darwin’s ‘Clumsy, Wasteful, Blundering, Low and Horribly Cruel Works of Nature.’”

A young Bay Area Celtic band will be playing at ���Ҵ�ý, Friday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in Kerr Student Center (KSC). The Celtic Coffeehouse will feature Célé Dé, an eclectic quintet of Christian high school and college students.

The co-founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement and winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, will be speaking at ���Ҵ�ý next week. The free lecture, “Spirituality and Social Justice,” will be Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge.

Maguire is one of several speakers who will come to Westmont this year through a grant from the Irvine Foundation titled “Building a Mystery: Theological and Practical Explorations in Reconciliation, Community and ‘the Other.’”

More than a hundred singers will be featured in ���Ҵ�ý’s free Masterworks Choral Concert, Friday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. in Trinity Episcopal Church, 1500 State Street.

Students will perform a world premiere play by an internationally acclaimed playwright later this month in ���Ҵ�ý’s newly remodeled Porter Theatre. “The Saint Plays” consist of four Erik Ehn plays, including his latest, “Rogue.” Performances will be February 24 and 25 at 8 p.m., March 2 and March 3 at 8 p.m., and March 4 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 for students/seniors and $15 for general admission.

A local panel of historians will discuss “Patriotism in America and the Importance of Compromise” at an upcoming ���Ҵ�ý Downtown Conversation. The free lecture, Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 5:30 p.m., will be held at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara St.

The conversation follows the Feb. 10, sold-out President’s Breakfast with Pulitzer Prize winning author and noted historian David McCullough.

There will be no calculators, but numbers will be flying as nearly 100 students from 10 public and private high schools in Southern California converge at ���Ҵ�ý for a battle of mathematical brains. The 20th annual High School Mathematics Contest, Saturday, Feb. 11, will feature several different events, including the quiz-show-style-competition, College Bowl.

A renowned Native American ministry leader, Richard Twiss, will speak at two free public events at ���Ҵ�ý, Wednesday, Jan. 25. He will lecture on “Christianity, Native American Culture and Worldview” in Kerr Student Center (KSC) at 3:15 p.m. He will then speak about Native American forms of music and dance for Christian worship at 4 p.m. in KSC.

The founder of the African American Art Song Alliance, Darryl Taylor, will perform at a free recital Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. in ���Ҵ�ý’s Deane Chapel.

Former Major League Baseball announcer and Hall of Famer Ernie Harwell will be the keynote speaker at a benefit reception at ���Ҵ�ý. Former Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Ross Porter and film director Ron Shelton will also be part of the event, Sunday, Jan. 29, at 1 p.m. in Page Hall. Suggested donation is $20 for adults and $10 for children and will directly benefit Warriors baseball.

Three unique artists with very diverse backgrounds will be under one roof at ���Ҵ�ý’s Reynolds Gallery. “Faith, Culture, Calling: The Irvine Guest Artist Show” will be at the gallery, Thursday, Jan. 19, through March. 10.

He’s considered the most significant logician of the 20th century and one of the greatest modern mathematicians, yet most people have never heard of Kurt Gödel or his famous incompleteness theorems. ���Ҵ�ý will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the theorems and the 100th anniversary of his birth.

The two-day, interdisciplinary forum will be held Feb. 3 and 4. It will include ���Ҵ�ý’s mathematics, computer science, theater arts and philosophy departments.

���Ҵ�ý student art projects are sprouting up across campus this week, depicting biblical stories and interpreting moments in Christ’s life. The project, “Stations of Christ’s Life,” won a $10,700 Worship Renewal grant last May from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

Each of the 14 student artists will describe their “station” at a dedication walk Friday, Jan. 13, at 3:30 p.m. The tour will begin from the Kerrwood Lawn. The art projects are expected to remain on campus through the spring semester.

A day of events later this month will formally welcome ���Ҵ�ý’s new Adams professor of music and worship. However, Michael Shasberger has already been winning the ears and hearts of the local community.

American historian and bestselling author David McCullough will be the guest at ���Ҵ�ý’s annual President’s Breakfast, Friday, Feb. 10. McCullough will speak about, “The Spirit of 1776 Then and Now,” at 7 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort.

���Ҵ�ý’s baseball coach was able to make Christmas a little brighter for two families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Thanks to donations from the Santa Barbara community, Rob Crawford sent gifts and money to the families who have been forced to relocate to Shreveport, La.

Warren Rogers, ���Ҵ�ý physics professor, has been appointed to the prestigious position of fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). Each year, no more than one-half of one percent of the current membership of the society receive this recognition.

The eighth edition of Barron’s “Best Buys in College Education” has listed ���Ҵ�ý among the 260 best buys in college education. The book’s editors select colleges based on tuition rates, size and academic emphasis. Barron’s also factored in percentage of faculty with doctorates, percentage of entering freshmen who graduate, and percentage of graduates seeking advanced degrees.

A magazine focusing on Hispanics in higher education has included ���Ҵ�ý in its 10th Annual Publisher’s Pick List. The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine ranks ���Ҵ�ý among the top colleges “doing a commendable job of recruiting, retaining, educating and graduating Hispanics.”

���Ҵ�ý continues to make progress attracting and keeping diverse students. Currently, students of color make up 20 percent of the student body. The first-year class diversity population is 26 percent. Hispanics make up the largest diversity group on campus, 9 percent this fall.

Four ���Ҵ�ý students ran over the competition in the 16th annual ���Ҵ�ý Collegiate Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition. The student venture, Polaris Athletic Training Systems Inc., took first place with its high-tech training device for runners and other athletes.

A magazine focusing on Hispanics in higher education has included ���Ҵ�ý in its 10th Annual Publisher’s Pick List. The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine ranks ���Ҵ�ý among the top colleges “doing a commendable job of recruiting, retaining, educating and graduating Hispanics.”

���Ҵ�ý continues to make progress attracting and keeping diverse students. Currently, students of color make up 20 percent of the student body. The first-year class diversity population is 26 percent. Hispanics make up the largest diversity group on campus, 9 percent this fall.

Four teams of ���Ҵ�ý students have been chosen to present their proposed business ventures in the 16th Annual ���Ҵ�ý Collegiate Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition, Thursday, Dec. 8. The free presentation will be in Hieronymus Lounge at Kerrwood Hall at ���Ҵ�ý. Refreshments will be served at 4:45 pm and the program will begin at 5:15 p.m.

���Ҵ�ý’s baseball coach and a popular Montecito musician are teaming up in hopes of helping families affected by Hurricane Katrina. Rob Crawford and Bobby Shand will present “One Family at a Time,” a special benefit show with The Shand Band at SOhO, 1221 State St., Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door for $20, children half price. All proceeds will benefit the relief effort. Doors open at 5 p.m.

Tickets are no longer available for the First Annual ���Ҵ�ý Christmas Festival, Saturday, Dec. 10 at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara. However, seating is still available for the performance, Friday, Dec. 9 at ���Ҵ�ý’s Murchison Gym.

The celebration is titled “The Word Made Flesh” and is presented by ���Ҵ�ýs’ music, art and theater departments. It is directed by Michael Shasberger, Adams professor of music and worship.

A group of ���Ҵ�ý students is getting a unique opportunity to work with an internationally acclaimed playwright, crafting a new production students will eventually perform in February. The ���Ҵ�ý Theater Arts department has commissioned playwright Erik Ehn to develop a new play as part of his ongoing Saint Play series.