Past News from Fall 2005News Archives HeadlinesClick on the headlines or photos below to link to the full stories
December 19, 2005Nate Wilson reviews new Narnia movie in Books & Culture
You can read Wilson's full review of the film at the Books & Culture website.
November 29, 2005New Saint Andrews College receives national accreditation
New Saint Andrews College became Idaho’s newest accredited four-year private liberal arts college today. The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) – without any conditions – unanimously approved Moscow’s limited-enrollment classical Christian college as a fully-accredited bachelor’s degree-granting institution at its annual meeting in Virginia Beach, VA. The College completed in four years what is normally a five-year accreditation process. According to TRACS, "Accreditation indicates that . . . in the professional judgment of the on-site evaluation team and the Accreditation Commission, the institution provides quality instruction, student services, and is financially stable." "We are very thankful for this national affirmation of the quality and integrity of our limited-enrollment classical Christian College," said President Roy Atwood. New Saint Andrews offers a classical liberal arts program modeled on the curriculum of Harvard of 1643 to about 150 students from 30 states, several foreign countries, and 22 Christian denominations. The College has attracted some of the nation’s brightest students as indicated by their entrance exams scores. Of the more than 3,600 colleges and universities nationwide, New Saint Andrews students are among the top 2 percent, ranking 17th on the ACT and 73rd on the SAT. The TRACS on-site evaluation team, which visited the Moscow campus in September, commended the College for its strong educational program, faculty, administration, and board. "New Saint Andrews has a unique, well-conceived and coherently executed academic program," the site team reported. "The school meets, and in many areas far exceeds, the TRACS standards for its educational program." According to TRACS, "New Saint Andrews has recruited and largely retained a sound, competent, and dedicated faculty. The institution goes to great lengths to find, recruit, and retain the best professors available who share their educational and theological commitments." "The College has an excellent proactive and effective governing board,” the site team noted, “and exhibits an exceptional leadership team headed by the President." TRACS is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), and the Idaho State Board of Education as a national accrediting body for colleges and universities. TRACS has more than 50 accredited and candidate undergraduate and graduate member institutions. The College will host a formal celebration of its new national accreditation sometime early in the new year. September 10, 2005College gets high marks from TRACS accreditation team
"The school meets, and in many areas far exceeds, the TRACS standards for the educational program," the TRACS report concluded. The team examined more than 25 areas of the College's programs, personnel, and operations, but identified only six minor areas involving procedures and policies that needed some additional attention.
The TRACS evaluation team was headed by Dr. Wayne Freeberg, former executive director of the Florida Department of Education's State Board of Independent Colleges and Universities under six different governors. The site visit also included a conference call between Dr. Marilyn Davis, the Idaho State Board of Education's Chief Academic Officer, and Dr. Freeberg, TRACS representative Dr. David Beck, and College President Roy Atwood on Friday afternoon. The TRACS draft report noted that "New Saint Andrews has a unique, well-conceived, and coherently executed academic program." The report also acknowledged that the College "has recruited and largely retained a sound, competent, and dedicated faculty. The institution goes to great lengths to find, recruit, and retain the best professors available who share their educational and theological commitments." The TRACS team issued its draft report to members of the College board, administration and staff on Saturday, Sept. 10, the last day of the site visit. Dr. Roy Atwood, president of the College, thanked the TRACS team for their thorough examination of the College's operations and for the positive report. The report will now go to the Accreditation Commission for review. Dr. Atwood noted that "the College's administration, faculty, staff and students are all to be commended for the outstanding job they have done in establishing a truly excellent undergraduate program at New Saint Andrews. We are very grateful to God for His kindness in blessing our small College during these early formative years and during this rigorous accreditation process. The TRACS team was very impressed with the overall quality of education offered here and with the outstanding team of talented and dedicated people who have helped build the College in such a short period of time. A hearty congratulations and well done to the College community. I also want to thank the many people here in Moscow, around the country, and literally around the world who have been so supportive of the College with their prayers and gifts." The positive report puts the College in a very strong position to receive full accreditation at the next meeting of the TRACS Accreditation Commission in November. The Commission will meet in conjunction with the TRACS national convention at Virginia Beach, VA, November 30-December 2. The College has been a candidate for accreditation with TRACS since 2002. An institution has five years from receiving candidacy to become fully accredited. New Saint Andrews is moving forward after only three years as a candidate institution. "We look forward to completing the final step in this long accreditation process: a positive decision by the Accreditation Commission in November," Dr. Atwood said.
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The College 
New Saint Andrews Felllow Nate Wilson published a review of the new Narnia movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for Christianity Today's Books & Culture magazine.
by a former executive director of the Florida Department of Education's State Board of Independent Colleges and Universities, arrived in Moscow Wednesday afternoon. The accreditation site visit continues through Saturday.
The highlight of the evening, though, was clearly the gourmet banquet fare. The menu included a pre-appetizer of avocado and shrimp mousse with tomato coulis garnished with lemon zest and faux-caviar; an appetizer of artichoke bottoms stuffed with morel 
mushrooms; the main entree of pork filet mignon with bourbon sauce; a mesclun salad with French vinaigrette; and finished with a lavender creme brulee garnished with fresh currants, other fresh fruit, and coffee.
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Beth Covington samples a mushroom plate at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow on Thursday. Covington is a student in the College's Aesthetic Gastronomy class. Students will learn how to prepare five courses of a meal during the seven-week class. |
Story By Kate Baldwin, Daily News staff writer
Photo by Geoff Crimmins/Daily News
Copyright 2005
If eating is a symphony, with each course as a movement, a professor at New Saint Andrews College has begun his opus.
Joshua Appel introduced 15 students to a harmonious world in NSA’s newest elective, Aesthetic Gastronomy. Through an intersection of sociology, philosophy, theology and history, his class examines the role of food in Western tradition and culture.
In recent lectures, Appel shared historical stories of Roman feasts where guests suffocated on roses and gladiators replaced centerpieces. He also taught students about the exotic origins of spices such as the hand-pollinated orchids of South America that produce vanilla beans. Last week, French chef and pastor Francis Foucachon guided the students through the acts of “decouvrir” — or discovering. He described the study of gastronomy as “removing the veil from what God created for us,” yet the only “bible” Foucachon brought to class was an English-language cookbook titled, “The Concise Larousse Gastronomique.”
Appel explained that, being at a Christian school, students are encouraged to think about ethical issues and their obligations in relation to their food. With topics ranging from labor and trade to veganism, Appel anticipates lively debates in the coming weeks. While Appel tends to focus on more typical subjects, Foucachon’s lecture elaborated on the multisensory virtues of food. He described the methods in which each sense — sight, touch, sound, smell and taste — enters the composite experience of eating. The class heard comical stories of restaurants destroyed by bad background music and good steaks ruined by Styrofoam plates. “When he is speaking about food he is so passionate about it. His face lights up,” Appel said. Foucachon, who worked for three years in Lyon at La Voute, shared a few practical secrets that included tips on creating smoother fondues and creamier sauces.
The results of his advice surfaced Thursday when the class recitation brought an assemblage of hors d’oeuvres for tasting. Appel said he is very thrilled at the fervor with which the students have taken on their assignments. Reaching from Nate Halverson’s plate of crab flan with basil oil to Beth Covington’s artichoke lemon dip, the class was an hour-long flurry of arms wielding spoons and fondue forks. At the first of five tasting recitations, each student brought two dishes of hors d’oeuvres. Students exchanged dishes and evaluated their classmates’ recipes based on four points: taste, smell, presentation and ingredients. Appel said the exchange challenges both the student who prepares the dish and the one who eats it.
In making her hors d’oeuvres, Covington said she had learned from Foucachon’s suggestions “to build on the recipes of others.” For her artichoke lemon dip, she said she doubled the lemon quantities and added zest. “I took it up a notch,” she said. Covington judged Brent McLean’s “mushroom sandwich,” which wound up being the hit of the day. She believed he used “two to three types of mushrooms, likely marinated or sauteed in something.” She also noted that the dish had some type of cheese and either roasted or grilled cashews. Her palate, or ability to taste unique flavors, remains under development.
Foucachon insists that everyone retrain their taste buds. He said food lovers can do so by eliminating sugars, salts and processed foods from their diet for a week. “You discover something on your plate you didn’t know was there,” Foucachon said. Each remaining week, the class will bring a new dish in the order of a typical dinner with a soup, a salad and bread, an entree and then a dessert. A final banquet cooked by all 15 students, Appel and Foucachon will complete the semester. However, Appel said students might take a Foucachon-guided grocery expedition to learn how to select the best produce. He said he also will host optional movie nights with “Babette’s Feast” and “Mostly Martha.” Whereas Appel had worried that there wouldn’t be interest in his class on food, he said the administration is now likely to offer it in the summer term, and possibly as soon as this spring.
Copyright 2005 Moscow-Pullman Daily News.Reprinted with permission
