Willamette Stories

A Great Year for Politics

Melissa Buis Michaux knows you’re not supposed to talk about politics in public, but the politics professor is often too curious to stay away from the topic. She strikes up conversations about social issues and elections with cab drivers and airport strangers, and has engaged in a years-long conversation with her students.

“She ended our American Politics class with such an inspiring final lecture,” says former student Tyler Reich ’06, “that I asked when she was going to run for office. I want to vote for her.” Michaux was his most challenging and inspiring professor. “She makes politics relevant.”

“I suppose philosophers would disagree,” Michaux says, “but I believe politics is the place where you can ask the most important questions. Some people think that ideas aren’t important, that politics and parties are corrupt, but if you take a long view, parties are an important vehicle for democracy. At their best, they present voters with meaningful choices and connect citizens to their government. The health of our democracy depends on the mobilization of its citizens, so it’s heartening to see more and more young people tuning in.”

A self-admitted political junkie, Michaux began a life of campaigning and caring when she was in fifth grade. When her teacher stood to lose a job, she wrote a letter to the county commissioner protesting cuts in the school budget. “I got a nice letter back thanking me and informing me that the budget would go forward as planned,” she smiles.

“It’s funny that I should be into politics. Both my parents were politically agnostic, and in 1980 when I asked my grandparents if they were voting for Reagan or Carter, they told me it was none of my business.”

Michaux has done a lot to plant seeds of political activism at Willamette, especially among women. Last year she sponsored a local chapter of the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee (WUFPAC), an organization that encourages young women to run for office. “Women seem reticent to run for office,” she says. “Men seem to need less encouragement, even though studies show that when women run they raise as much money as men and win as many races. It’s important to promote the idea that politics isn’t a male domain. More of my female students express interest in nonprofit work, but politics is where you actually get to effect change. Politics is all about deciding how we allocate resources.”

Michaux also teaches “Parties, Elections and Campaigns” and directs Willamette’s legislative internship program. “We have an army of students at the capitol across the street. Students often volunteer as an intern the first year, and by the second or third year they’re running the office as chief of staff.” Reich says it’s pretty intimidating when students first walk up the big steps to the Capitol, but Michaux gives insider tips and teaches how government really works. “She tells us the things our boss won’t tell us, but will love it if we know,” he says.

Michaux isn’t just on top of political strategies. She’s a policy wonk, especially when it comes to welfare reform. She completed graduate studies in Boston, a city where homelessness and poverty are all too visible. “There were a lot of simplistic debates about a complex, hot-button issue, and people were ideologically polarized. The rhetoric in the mid-1990s was about blaming the poor for social ills, and full of misinformation about how people end up on welfare. What seemed to be missing was any sense that the poor are like the rest of society, or that welfare programs primarily benefit single and divorced women with children.”

Michaux wanted to come to Oregon because the state was one of the early leaders in welfare innovation, and she visited welfare offices from the Columbia Gorge to Medford, seeking solutions with her research. “States are laboratories of democracy,” she says. “In its best iteration, welfare must promote economic independence through work while providing support for child and health care.”

Michaux also wrote “Making Mommies: Feminist Responses to Parenting Manuals” with history Professor Leslie Dunlap. Intended for a volume on feminism and popular culture, the chapter documents how feminism and the rise of intensive parenting have influenced parenting manuals since the 1950s. Manuals are now heavily prescriptive, Michaux says, even advocating that fathers monitor what their wives are eating while pregnant. In an effort to quell anxiety, the manuals actually produce more anxiety by placing all the responsibility for children’s well being on parents, especially mothers, without challenging the political and social conditions that structure parenting choices.

As Michaux wrote “Making Mommies,” two blonde girls smiled from a frame on her desk. Her daughters’ hand-painted art decorates her office, along with a “Women Vote” poster and a certificate from her students: Most Likely to Teach Two 300-Level Courses with Morning Sickness OR Run for Office. This year she’ll juggle chairing the Politics Department and the Women and Gender Studies Program.

But it will be okay. “I love being able to talk and read about politics for a living,” Michaux says. “People always say, ‘This is a great year for politics,’ but they’ve been saying that since I started teaching. It’s always a great year for politics.”

Thanks for a Great Run, Nick!

Willamette wants to thank Nick Symmonds ’06 for a great run at the Beijing Olympics. A growing fan base from around the world cheered Symmonds on during the past year as he swept race after race, ultimately landing the top spot on the U.S. 800-meter Olympic team. If you’ve somehow missed the run that awed millions, you can watch it here (and re-watch, and re-watch).

Hundreds of newspapers, TV programs and bloggers have followed Symmonds’ progress, tossing around words like “legend.” Letsrun.com said Symmonds is so “raw and talented it’s unreal,” and Sports Illustrated reporter David Epstein said the event he was most looking forward to in Beijing was the men’s 800 meters. “You don’t have to be a track fan,” he wrote, “you just have to be alive — as in, if that race didn’t get you excited, you better check your pulse.” The local Statesman Journal added another clock to their newsroom, set 15 hours in advance to reflect Beijing time, so they could continue their Nick watch, and nearly 5,900 fans from around the world visited the guestbook at Nicksymmonds.com (link below).

Symmonds outran the competition in his preliminary round in Beijing while NBC Olympics announcer Bob Costas told TV viewers that Symmonds had told him Willamette was the place where “he learned how to run from the front to the back and everywhere in between, and how to weave through traffic.” Costas even pronounced “Willamette” right.

Symmonds finished first in his preliminary race in Beijing, but went on to a fifth place finish in the semi-final. He articulated his feelings on The Final Sprint website (link below).

“It is August 24th and I have just finished packing my bags ... ”
“ ... When I went to find one more gear on the home stretch, I found nothing. I had seriously mistimed my kick ... I was frustrated. I was sad and disappointed, but I signed on to represent my country to the best of my abilities in victory or defeat. I began to storm off the track, but I heard my mom’s voice in the back of my head, ‘Win or lose, just be the first person across that line to shake your opponents hand.’”
“ ... It’s funny how this sport is sometimes. I was only 45 minutes removed from competing in my first Olympic Games and already I was looking toward the future and setting new goals for myself ... It is a goal that is four years in the future, and there are dozens of steps to get there, but life is all about the journey.”

Symmonds will return to Eugene, Ore., to begin preparations for the 2009 season. “I would like to run 1:43 or faster before the season is over,” says Symmonds, whose personal best is 1:44.10. He plans to compete next summer at the world championships in Berlin, and he has already set his sites on the 2012 Olympic Games. The biochemistry graduate eventually hopes to become a doctor like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

You can send best wishes to Symmonds in his guestbook at Nicksymmonds.com. Thanks, Nick!

Quotable Quotes

• I have watched track for 40 years. The 800 finish was one of the best performances in track history!
• Your race the other night had me about 6 inches from the TV screaming from the top of my lungs.
• Back in elementary school, I knew you were fast... but damn, I didn’t know you were THIS fast.
• You provide teachable moments about living your dreams.
• I am just proud to have known you since you climbed on the walls at the JFK Library.
• The finals were one of most exciting events I’ve seen in my 50 years of following track.
• You make all of WU proud with your achievement and grit, even those of us long gone from campus.
• Nick Symmonds is a running god!
• Congratulations on representing our Fraternity and our Country. You are the man ... (who, by the way, is going on our recruitment board).
• There we all were two years ago, the WU chem profs asking all the senior chem majors what they planned on doing in the next five years. After several talked about their plans for med or grad school, you confidently said, “Run in the 2008 Olympics.”
• You were a class act in the exit interview.
• Condolences on not making the finals. I admire your demonstration of passion, self-control, wisdom and perseverance.
• You may have been disappointed in that second race, but you made all of us proud!

Willamette has produced five Olympians since 1936, including an honorary graduate who served as interim university president.

Journeying for Knowledge

Rositsa Atanasova ’07 has never been afraid to explore, either geographically or intellectually. The Bulgaria native traveled to America, first in high school, then again for college, seeking educational opportunities she couldn’t find at home. She has studied eight languages, including Arabic, Greek and Hebrew, and while she was a Willamette student, she lived in France for a year to immerse herself in the country’s Muslim immigrant community.

This fall, with the help of a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship, she heads to the East Coast to study for a master of theological studies at Harvard Divinity School. She sees the program as the perfect way to continue exploring the topics she embraced in her classical studies major at Willamette — language, philosophy and religion.

“People tend to underestimate the importance of religion in our lives,” she says. “A lot of our politics and conflicts relate to religion. People among the religious communities need to talk more one on one to realize they are not as different as they think.”

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship program, one of the largest and most competitive in the nation, provides $50,000 for up to five years of graduate study in any field. Atanasova was chosen based on her service and leadership, interest in a broad range of subjects, strong character and excellent communication skills. She is the first person from Willamette to receive the award.

At Harvard, Atanasova plans to continue investigating Islam, a religion she researched while at Willamette. During her junior year, she obtained a grant to interview young Muslim women in France about a French law banning the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in primary and secondary public schools — mainly affecting Muslim girls donning headscarves. The grant from the Lilly Project, which engages people across campus in research, service and discussion to help students discover their vocation in life, helped Atanasova make a documentary film, “Behind the Veil: A Quest for Identity.”

She found that the Muslim girls faced a tough choice: Remove their headscarf at school, denying their religious and personal identity, or stop going to school. Due to difficulties in obtaining permission to interview these students, she sought perspectives from university students who were no longer bound by the law yet had chosen to wear the headscarf.

When she asked these young women whether they identified themselves more strongly as French or as Muslim, they often answered “Both.” Many said they wore the headscarf because it was comforting and served as a shield between them and the world.

“Here we have an emblem that others say symbolizes political radicals, but they all had different reasons for wearing it,” Atanasova says. “The fact that they said they were both French and Muslim, to me this was the clearest evidence that they’re not militant. If they were, they would negate the West. Many of them said very good things about France and how it had changed their lives.”

The deeply personal struggles caused by these types of conflicts between religion and public life continue to intrigue Atanasova.

“I’ve always been interested in identity issues, in particular the way religion shapes identity. We live in this world where cultural or physical borders become so blurry, and I want to know how that affects the way we identify ourselves.”

For more information on this scholarship and others, contact Monique Bourque in the Student Academic Grants and Awards office on the third floor of Putnam University Center, or visit www.willamette.edu/dept/saga.

Willamette Grounds Even Greener Than You Thought

Oregon travel guides rave about Willamette University’s natural beauty and The Oregonian named the campus one of the most beautiful urban walks in the state. New grounds manager Jim Andersen and his crew prefer not to take all the credit. “We’re fortunate to be where we are,” Andersen says. “It’s pretty easy when Mother Nature does the job.”

Now they are relying on Mother Nature to do even more, as they pioneer a greener way of caring for Willamette’s landscape. And since they’re ahead of the curve as far as institutional landscapes, strategies aren’t well developed. They’re figuring it out on their own, with a little experimentation.

For example, two adjacent lawns served as large-scale test plots last year. One received the traditional treatment of synthetic fertilizers and weed killers; the other was sprayed with organic compost tea. “The natural lawn is more lush now,” Andersen says. “Traditional fertilizers work quickly, but they may not be as good for the long-term health of the soil. Now crews mow higher, leave lawn clippings on the lawn as natural sources of nitrogen, water less and let some corner lawns go dormant in the summer. We want lawns that take care of themselves.”

The natural approach also extends to flower gardens, where pesticide use was reduced more than 80 percent last year. Weed treatment begins with applications of vinegar and mulch rather than Roundup, and when time runs short, stray weeds in corner areas of campus are tolerated with a conscious “mindful neglect.” Individual employees have also created unique micro-gardens with diverse plant palettes, like the Asian garden near the law building and the water garden between the York and Lee Buildings.

“We’re in the infancy stages,” Andersen says. “It’s important to preserve the history of the place, including the history of the plant life, but sustainability gives us an exciting new avenue to explore.”

Getting an Education on the Streets of Portland

“Some students said the Take a Break trip is a very nice experience, but I had few English skills so I didn’t have the courage to join,” says Willamette senior Yuki Sugisawa ’09.

Until last spring, that is, when Sugisawa signed on to spend eight days on the streets of Portland with the homeless. Willamette students organize the alternative spring break trips each year and fan out across the country, volunteering in homeless shelters, inner city schools and impoverished rural neighborhoods. Instead of a break at the beach, they take steps toward stewardship of their local and national communities, addressing literacy, poverty, racism, hunger, homelessness, HIV/AIDS and the environment.

“It was my first intense exposure to the volunteer experience,” says Sugisawa. “We talked to the homeless people, and they were very kind. They tried to take care of each other and of us. For their community, we were visitors. We asked, ‘Where are you from?’ and asked about their lives, but we didn’t ask directly. They are careful and so we used appropriate language.”

Sugisawa met a man who has a wife, a job, no drug or alcohol problems, and a disability — with no insurance. “I could tell he is a good person. He was reading newspapers to find a better life.

“This trip broke a lot of my stereotypes and made my point of view expand. If I don’t talk to those who have different perspectives from my own, my vision will be very narrow. Before I thought studying was much more important, but now I know I need experience, too. For me, this connects my education and real life. Volunteering is important to understand how we are linked to each other.”

Sugisawa has also mentored children at a local elementary school and will volunteer this year with Salem’s Colonia Libertad, a Salem program that provides education and proper housing for Spanish-speaking immigrant farm workers. “I want to study the Latino culture,” says Sugisawa, who began college at Tokyo International University of America (TIUA), a partner school to Willamette. “In class I have heard about how immigrants struggle to identify themselves in the U.S. I have the very same experience.

“Should I hang out more with my Japanese friends and talk Japanese, or should I hang out with Willamette friends and learn more English? Day by day, I’m changing here. Before, my only focus was to improve my English, but now I’m standing between the boulder that is Japanese society and the boulder that is U.S. society. It’s difficult to categorize or identify myself, so I have a sympathy for Latin American immigrants.”

Sugisawa, called the “philosopher of the trip” by his teammates, is majoring in international studies and hopes to work at the United Nations someday. “I would like to change even a little piece of the world.”