It seems, in this nation, there is a lack of motivation. Thomas L. Friedman said in his Sept. 11 Op-ed column in The New York
Times that the nation is not driven to succeed. Friedman gives us a timeline for this malignant decay, writing that it began with the baby
boomers that grew up after the Great Depression and World
War II.
This is true; Linfield students should be doubly thankful for the hardworking faculty and staff at the Portland and McMinnville
campuses.
Integrated Technology Services might be the most unjustly maligned, given how often students use the Internet. Irv Wiswall, chief
technology officer for ITS, and his staff have worked unceasingly to improve Linfield’s Internet.
“Internet falls short of expectations,” from TLR Feb. 19, and “ITS amps up school network,” from TLR Sept. 10, detail ITS’s work.
Both show that ITS has improved the Internet at Linfield every year.
The work of the other faculty and staff cannot be ignored. Thomas Hellie, president of Linfield College, thanked in his State of the
College Address many people who jump-started the Northup Hall renovation project.
Praise from Hellie went to people such as Bruce Wyatt, vice president of college relations. Hellie credited Wyatt and his staff for the
achieving what he called “one of the best fundraising years in Linfield’s history.”
The recession that struck America caused many colleges to cut back on programs or reduce staff and faculty, but it did not strike
Linfield, thanks to efforts by the administration.
While colleges such as University of Oregon were planning to drop their educators and administrators (“University could lay off 68
positions to save $25M,” Daily Vanguard, Sept. 10, 2009), Linfield abandoned across-the-board pay cuts for its faculty, Hellie said.
Friedman said that the baby boomers and later generations are unmotivated. Although such a statement is a sweeping
generalization, Linfield’s faculty outdid itself to shatter this assution.
During the last two years, Linfield’s numbers dropped as students were unable to afford higher learning. But a record number of
freshmen and transfer students, totaling 535, have chosen to learn at Linfield this fall. Even with this influx of freshmen, Linfield is still
down 30 students from the 2008-09 academic year.
On the surface, it doesn’t sound significant. Hellie himself cited reduced financial aid from public colleges and a student discount
larger than he liked.
Even so, he gave the greatest credit to Linfield’s faculty, admissions and financial aid staff.
“I thank and applaud all of you for making special efforts — in some cases phone calls and personal letters — to inform prospective
students about our college,” he said. “Your personal efforts exhibit what is special about this place — they are, in fact, the driving power
of Linfield.”
This is why Linfield was able to hold strong against the tide of the recession and then swiftly recover: the hard work and
perseverance of Linfield’s faculty and staff.
Students should be thankful for them.

News editor
Joshua Ensler can be reached at [email protected].