Board approves architecture firms to design Whitman College

In a weekend largely overshadowed by prominent faculty appointments, University trustees approved Saturday the architecture firms responsible for designing Whitman College and reviewed the University's financial condition.

The trustees approved the feasibility of the new college and hired Porphyrios Associates, whose principal Demetri Porphyrios is a 1980 graduate of the architecture school. The trustees also hired the architecture firm, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, which renovated Blair Hall. The two firms will jointly coordinate the project.

Whitman College will be built in the collegiate gothic style, as Mathey and Rockefeller colleges were built, Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62 said.

The trustees also received the current operating budget and considered the impact of the recent economic downturn.

No sudden budget changes were necessary, Wright said, because the Priorities Committee maintained a sufficiently long-term strategy. Wright said short-term economic impacts could be "absorbed without wrenching change."

However, he said that the economy has affected endowment earnings and individual charitable giving.

The student health committee also examined the role of fraternities, sororities and eating clubs.

It also looked at the trustee's alcohol initiative, which sponsors campus social events that do not involve alcoholic beverages.

Brian McDonald '83, the new vice president for development, delivered an "analysis and future thoughts" for the University fund-raising effort, Wright said.

Sam Todd '04, a member of the Whitman College committee, said his colleagues felt that the University should continue the gothic style that characterizes much of campus architecture.

The students "wanted a feeling that the college has been there [for some time], not some randomly placed college," he said.