10.12.15 Vol. 31 #5
Vol. 30 # #.#.#
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Caroline Paulson’s work, part of the En Italia exhibit in Western’s B Gallery. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
Viking Union 411 516 High St. Bellingham, WA 98225 Phone: 360.650.6126 Fax: 360.650.6507 Email: as.review@wwu.edu as.wwu.edu/asreview @TheASReview facebook.com/theasreview © 2015. Published most Mondays during the school year by the Associated Students of Western Washington University. The AS Review is an alternative weekly that provides coverage of student interests such as the AS government, activities and student life. The Review seeks to enhance the student experience by shedding light on underrepresented issues, inclusive coverage, informing readers and promoting dialogue. We welcome reader submissions, including news articles, literary pieces, photography, artwork or anything else physically printable. Email submissions to as.review@wwu.edu. We welcome letters to the editor. Please limit your letter to 300 words, include your name, phone number and year in school, if you’re a student. Send them to as.review@wwu.edu. Published letters may have minor edits made to their length or grammar.
Marina Price Alexandra Bartick Trevor Grimm Ian Sanquist Kate Welch Morgan Annable Sarah Sharp Alexandra Bartick Designer Zach Becker Adviser Jeff Bates
Editor in Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Writers
IN THIS ISSUE 4 The QRC
Discusses “The Closet” Find out about the QRC’s event “The Closet,” where students can come together to deconstruct traditional coming out narratives.
11 Band of the Week Vervex is performing at the Underground Coffeehouse on Wednesday the 14th. Find out about the artist and the show on page 11.
5 ESC Conference
The ESC is about to celebrate its 25th annual conference at Camp Casey. Find out how you can be a part of this opportunity on page 5.
9 Club Spotlight: Dead Parrots Society
This week’s club spotlight is on the Dead Parrots Society. Find out what they have planned for the month and more on page 9.
6 The Club Cup The Club Activities Office is holding a new event this year, where clubs compete over the year to earn points to win the title of best club.
10
Sustainable You Find out how you can adopt sustainable practices on campus and contribute to the environment on page 10.
Publicity Center Lead Designer wins Adobe award Zach Becker, our very own Associated Students Publicity Center Lead Designer was recently awarded the 2015 Adobe Design Achievement Award in the “Interactive Experience Media/ Digital Publishing” field. The piece he submitted to the competition is called ‘Isolation’, which is compromised of beautiful images combined with animated typography, focusing on images of space. Becker has been a designer at Western’s Publicity Center for the past 3 years. Notable Last year’s special Jurassic Park cover creations of his include the videos shown in of the AS Review. Designed by: Zach the Viking Union for AS Offices, many AS Re- Becker. view covers (including the Jurrasic Park issue pictured) and many of the posters and banners around campus. Becker is an out of state student hailing from Silt, Colarado. He is in the BFA program here at Western. He is currently in Los Angeles receiving his award. Congratulations Zach!
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EVENTS
Fall quarter lecture series BY SARAH SHARP
The Closet (QRC) Wed. 10/14 // 7 p.m. // VU 464 // Free
In response to National Coming out day, The Closet will be a workshop critiquing the limitations of “coming out” narratives. Together we will discuss who and what ideas of “coming out” ignores and ways to tackle this as a community to create new ideas that more accurately represent our experiences.
Sunset Kayak on the Bay 10/14 // 4 - 8 p.m. // Outdoor Center // $25
Fully immerse yourself in the wonderful experience that is a Bellingham sunset! Kayaking on Bellingham Bay will provide you with an opportunity to be in the middle of a pallet of colors constantly put on display. Not only do you have a wonderful spot to watch the sunset from, you will be able to learn basic sea kayaking skills as well. Please sign up at the Outdoor Center
Drawing Jam opening reception Thurs. 10/15 // 6-8 p.m. // VU Gallery // Free Drawing Jam is a collaborative community art project in which you’re invited to come draw, sketch, write, and doodle all over the walls of the VU Gallery. We’ll supply the water colors, oil pastels, pens, markers, pencils, color pencils, and glue, you supply the art! And of course, you’re welcome to bring your own supplies - the only mediums not allowed are oil paints and spray paint.There will be free refreshments for attendees.
Forums on the well-being of people and the planet are scheduled every week throughout the 2015-2016 school year. Fairhaven College hosts a Fall World Issues Forum every Wednesday from 12 - 1:20 p.m. in the Fairhaven College Auditorium. In addition, the Huxley College Speaker Series takes place every Thursday at 4 p.m. in Communications Facility room 120. Fairhaven Fall World Issues Forum In the wake of Sept. 11, Western students grappled with how to respond to the terrorist attacks that shook the nation. So Fairhaven faculty decided to pause the 2001 fall orientation to deliberate over recent events as a community. And so the Fairhaven Fall World Issues Forum was born. Today, the public forum has developed to encapsulate a selection of international issues, from the water crisis to white nationalism. Fairhaven professor Shirley Osterhaus was hired 14 years ago to organize the first forum, and has been inviting over 400 different speakers spanning at least 40 different countries to campus ever since. “[The purpose is to] get the voices of marginalized people out there and give real legitimacy to their voices,” Osterhaus said. The forum differs from a typical lecture series in its component of student involvement. For example, a group of students formed a divestment campaign last quarter following a lecture on coal trains. Other times, students involved in campaigns such as Black Lives Matter have spoken at the forum before the primary speaker to offer students suggestions of how they can make a difference on campus. The suggestions are often as simple as empathy. “I think sometimes it’s standing in solidarity with different groups on campus. It might be standing with students on this campus who feel marginalized,” Osterhaus said.
of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Visiting Professor at the New School University in New York November 4 “Maiz y el Pais: Political Violence in Mexico and Corn’s Lesson for Justice” Luiz Rivera Martinez of the Consejo National Urbano Campesino, the National Urban and Peasant Council November 11 “Stories from Downwind: The Power of People’s History” Sarah Alisabeth Fox, author and folk historian November 18 “Cotton from India, Coffee from Colombia, Soy from Brazil: Understanding the Globalization of Water Ruth Matthews, Executive Director of Water Footprint Network Huxley College Speaker Series Topics ranging from research ecology to community resilience will guide an ongoing discussion of conservation this year in the Huxley College Speaker Series. The series will feature a number of professors and alumni from Huxley College of the Environment, speaking on contemporary environmental concerns in the Northwest within their fields of expertise. The Huxley College Lecture Series, like the World Issues Forum, will continue to host speakers throughout the year on a weekly basis. Upcoming Guest Lecturers: October 15 “The Pyrogeography of Wildfires in the Western U.S.” with Michael Medler. October 22 “Sustainable Employment, Sustainable Life” Dave Bennick
Upcoming forums: October 14 “Intergenerational Experiences in Aboriginal Education: My Family” with Dr. Gwen Point, Chancellor, University of the Fraser Valley.
October 29 TBD, Robert Dillman
October 21 “An Altar Boy with a Gun” with Raul Diaz, social worker at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles.
November 12 TBD, Becky Petersen
October 28 “Economy in Crisis: Fantasies, Realities, Possibilities” Richard Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus, University
November 5 TBD, Mary Christina Wood
November 19 “PCBs and Mercury Concentrations of Freshwater Fish” Martin Stapanian
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The BY IAN SANQUIST On Wednesday October 14, the AS Queer Resource Center will host The Closet, a workshop that will invite participants to deconstruct and challenge traditional coming-out narratives. This event is being held in part as a response to National Coming Out Day, and will create a space for participants to discuss and question the very premise of coming out, along with the often-sensationalized narratives that surround it, in the interest in building an understanding of who is excluded by such narratives and working toward a more inclusive mode of sharing. The QRC expects this to be a small, somewhat intimate event in scale. AS QRC Education Coordinator Mack Orendurff said the event will be structured as a discussion. Event participants will be asked to share stereotypes that they associate with coming out, and then to offer perspectives as to how those narrative conventions either hold true or fall flat. “It’s often [portrayed as] this burden, something that you know that people are not going to react well to, and that there’s a lot of anxiety and dread around... this idea that it’s this huge announcement, that you sit your parents down and say I have something to talk to you about, that it’s this serious thing, that it’s often this negative thing,” Orendurff said. “That kind of narrative is really only accurate for some people and not a lot of people.” Another problem of traditional coming-out narratives is that they enforce a sense of conclusion. AS QRC Co-
discusses “The Closet” ordinator Scout Hartman described identity as something that can change over time. “A lot of us come out to different people at different times and very few people get to come out once,” Hartman said. “Not to mention there’s a myth associated with coming out that once you come out, life is just glitter and rainbows. It’s not true for...I’ve never met anyone it’s true for, and that’s because often our stories are told as these really inspirational, sensationalized, or they’re these really tragic stories, but realistically what we have are stories, and for most of them, for most of us, they’re still happening.” Hartman said that when looking at a narrative, one has to ask what audience that narrative is serving. Later in the year, the QRC will host the Queer Experience, an event that gives community members the opportunity to write and share their stories. “For us to sit down and write our own narratives can be a really powerful and healing experience,” Hartman said. “If that narrative is being sensationalized on TV shows like Glee, or other mainstream media, well it’s a very narrow narrative, and it’s not serving a queer population, it’s serving a straight cis population that wants to feel better about themselves.” This event is less of a transition from one narrative to another than it is an attempt to shatter a monolithic narrative into a million different stories, into as many different stories as there are LGBT individuals. The event has been timed to coincide with National
Coming Out Day, which Orendurff and Hartman describe as a somewhat dated tradition that had its use at the beginning, but is no longer so relevant a holiday. “Straight people don’t come out, cis people don’t come out, so [National Coming Out Day] is still highlighting that narrative of who has to disclose this information, or what is assumed to be the standard or normal,” Orendurff said. “That dichotomy of either you’re out or you’re not...I think it’s often this huge amount of invasiveness that you come out and then suddenly it’s ok for people to ask you all these sorts of invasive questions that they would never ask other people...you’re supposed to feel comfortable just disclosing anything about your body or your sex life or how you have sex, all of these things.” There has never been any uniform queer identity, much as there has never been any uniform human identity. This event will open a space for participants to challenge monolithic narratives of coming out. “The biggest question that I think I myself ask as well I hear a lot in the queer community is, well why is my love different, how is my love different, because it’s not. And I think if there’s any narrative it’s that it’s a narrative of love is love, regardless,” Hartman said. “Even the love between two straight people, or three straight people, or whatever, is completely different for every relationship, and I think that’s the point, that the love in every relationship is different, so why is ours excluded.” The Closet will be held in Viking Union Room 464 Wednesday October 14 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
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Ethnic Student Center celebrates 25th annual conference BY KATE WELCH “You’re going to be happy, you’re going to cry, you’re going to have some feelings at this conference,” says ESC Outreach and Marketing Coordinator, Alex Ibanez. This school year, both the Ethnic Student Center and its annual Camp Casey Conference are celebrating their 25th anniversaries. This year’s conference, held on Whidbey Island, is a two-night, three-day on October 16-18. The retreat will be featuring community building activities, personal development workshops, speakers and other activities. “The cost is only $40 for students living off campus, for community members, it’s 165 dollars, and for people living on campus, it’s free. Folks, if y’all ain’t doing anything October 16 to the 18, sign up,” said Ibanez. “Our theme is Sankofa, that means ‘Looking back to move forward’. Sankofa and then there’s this phrase right behind it [on the poster] and it means ‘It is not too taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot,’” Says Giovanni Milan, the interim program coordinator for the Ethnic Student Center, “And it’s really just thinking about the past to progress. It’s the Akan language, and it derives from Ghana.” This year’s conference will feature a lot of cultural sharing and storytelling, says Ibanez, “This year’s conference is all about where is our future going, and to grow we must look back.” Ibanez also alluded to a few special guest keynote speakers, but that he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise for attendees. In terms of tangible things to expect, says Milan, those attending will be fed and provided with lodging, transportation and a free t-shirt but “really it’s about the student experience and the experiences that you share. And we want students to really begin to think of social justice and narratives and using the ethnic student center as a resource and connecting them with different on-campus resources.” Both Ibanez and Milan say that their target audience is really first quarter or first year students. Sometimes it can be difficult for new students to find community in an unfamiliar demographic, says Ibanez. The goal is to find community that students can feel strongly supported by, community built by a sharing of knowledge and mutual caring. Community that both hope will carry on beyond conference says Ibanez, “That’s one thing that I’d like to say, building upon my own conference experience, I had a lot of community building there and I met a lot of my friends that I still consider friends today.” This is the sort of community building student leaders have been trying to build since the late 1960’s when talks of a unified ethnic student union began. It wasn’t until over 20 years later when the AS President and the leaders of the various ethnic student groups were able to secure the funding for a join space in the Viking Union. Since then, the ESC has been able lots of support and resource to ethnic students and students of color, says Milan. Today, the ESC offers a shared space, support for Ethnic Student Unions and clubs, academic advising, math tutoring, scholarships, mentoring and social justice narratives. Top: Members of Western’s Ethnic Student Center attend the 2014 ESC Camp Students, staff, faculty and community members wishing to participate in Casey Conference. Bottom: Students form a study group at the Ethnic Student the conference can check for availability on the ESC’s website at www.as.wwu. Center in VU 420. Photos by Trevor Grimm // AS Review edu/esc.
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The Underground Coffeehouse Wednesday Night Concert Series
May the best club win BY SARAH SHARP Your club’s name engraved on a towering silver cup— rumored to outshine the NHL Stanley Cup—is what AS club members stand to gain in a new competition. Every AS club is eligible to compete in the first annual Club Cup for the right to be named the 2015 Club Cup champion by participating in various activities outside regular club meetings. “The goal is to put a bit more of a spotlight on the clubs that are excelling and doing what they can do to serve students, and create a little more comradely and excitement among the clubs,” said Casey Hayden, the student activities coordinator. AS clubs will be able to earn points for community and campus activities they are already involved in, such as Back 2 Bellingham, an annual alumni and family weekend. The staff in the Club Hub have compiled a tentative list of activities and events that can earn clubs points. However, the list is subject to change as new opportunities arise throughout the year, Club Coordinator Walter Lutsch said. The club with the most points at the end of the year will be named the Club Cup champion. A complete list of categorized point-earning opportunities will be unveiled at the opening ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 15 from 6-7 p.m. in the Viking Union Multi-Purpose Room. The idea for a competition that would provide incentives for clubs to become more involved on and off campus has been floating around the Club Hub for a couple years now, Hayden said. The Club Cup stemmed from a desire to see clubs to engage with the Western and greater Bellingham community beyond weekly club meetings. “We’re trying to bring clubs out of their shell and make them a little less insular,” Lutsch said. Participants are encouraged to don semi-formal attire, and represent their club by creating a flag to wave
across the stage during the opening ceremony, loosely modeled after the Olympics, Lutsch said. “Bringing everyone together in this fancy, very official-feeling event might give clubs the inspiration they need to do something different, to do something more,” Lutsch said. Participation in the Club Cup is not mandatory, but highly encouraged. Clubs will have opportunities throughout the year to take part in a variety of events and activities, intended to appeal to more than 200 student groups. “Clubs that are little more introverted don’t have to worry about being at an automatic disadvantage, because not all of them are based on big projects or things with a lot of charisma like going on stage,” Lutsch said. “There are things that you can do no matter what your interests are.” The Club Cup will integrate existing club events into the competition’s point system, including the traditional end of the year club awards. Lutsch said he expects the awards will provide a boost of points that could prove to be a game-changer for the Club Cup’s leading competitors. For Lutsch, who has been planning this event since the end of last year, the ideal 2015 Club Cup championship would look a little something like this: “It would be a thrilling, roller-coaster ride of a competition throughout the year with different clubs jocking for position in the top three. We finish out the year with a surprise pull-ahead after the end of the year club awards, and name the first Club Cup winner ever.” Come to the opening ceremony in the VU Multi-Purpose Room this Thursday, Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. to witness the cup’s symbolic debut, and see how your club can get involved in the first club competition of its kind.
Band of the Week
Vervex A MUSIC REVIEW BY IAN SANQUIST Vervex is the solo recording project of Jake Barrow, a Western alum and musician of considerable talent and depth. His songwriting is eclectic and mostly upbeat, veering toward the sunnier side of all possible dispositions. To listen to Vervex is to smile and bounce; his music explores childlike melodies with astonishing maturity and focus. Vervex will play in the Underground Coffeehouse this Wednesday at 7 p.m., part of the Underground’s Wednesday Night Concert Series. Paris the Songwriter Williams will also play. Paris is a 17-year-old songwriter from Redmond, WA. At nine, she won the Washington Reflections art contest. She has been creating music ever since. A “vocal loop artist”, Paris creates irresistibly soulful arrangements, looping parts of her voice to build a deep focus electronic a’capella punctuated by finger snaps and handclaps, sparse rhythms that perfectly frame her voice and leave space for the breath with which she fills her songs. Her voice rises over itself, uncoiling toward the sky as another part of it lies low and poised and meditative, in a beautiful illustration of the way a person could feel two ways about something at the same time. Check out “Inadequate”, “What If ”, “Pivot”, and “Thaumaturgic”, all available on her website, paristhesongwriter.com
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ABOVE: Paris the Songwriter Williams performs onstage with looping pedals. Photo courtesy of Paris the Songwriter Williams The Music Of the five Vervex releases available on Bandcamp, “Gather & Scatter” is the latest, released in December 2013, and featuring Vervex as a full band. The title, “Gather & Scatter” evokes the feel of the music pretty well; the preferred mode of these three songs is to coil in tightly and then unwind with immense and thoughtfully controlled energy, like springs, or pogo sticks. The opening track, a punchy summer-beat number called “Midas Eyes,” brings together more and more playful musical elements as Barrow’s voice picks up speed, until these elements disperse into chilled out planes that seem to float or sail. Then at the end everything comes crashing back together in a jet engine crunch. This is indie music in an exuberant
ABOVE: Vervex performs at the Underground Coffeehouse in early 2014. He returns as a headliner on Wednesday, October 14 at 7 p.m. for a free show with Paris the Songwriter Williams. Photo by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
key. The EP is full of arrangements that build quickly into tightly wound balls and then bubble outward, or bounce around the room just barely managing to avoid breaking anything. Barrow’s voice is somewhere between R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and the guy from Local Natives. “Ground Level”, also from “Gather & Scatter”, plays on a melody that’s less bubblegum than yo-yo, like a kid in a propeller beanie skipping along the sidewalk playing with a paddleball. It’s carefree but heartfelt, like a playground considered from a nostalgic perspective. An earlier Vervex EP, “The Wave”, released in November 2012, is full of music similarly buoyant in tone; the difference is that the songs on “The Wave” are played solely by Barrow. But this is only a difference in per-
sonnel. The songs on “The Wave” sound just as full-bodied as anything on “Gather & Scatter”; if anything, they’re tighter in arrangement, without the elbow room that additional recording musicians allows. “This Old Game” is a standout track from “The Waves”, notable for its singleness in Vervex’s catalogue. “This Old Game” finds Barrow singing about “living in a ghost town” over a pulsing nocturnal melody that’s full of trouble and haze. Many of Vervex’s songs play like beach music, and “This Old Game” is no different, except that it’s minor key beach music, beach music for a choppy sea. “Your Song Here,” is a compilation of songs released in November 2013. The music on this release varies from a song that Barrow sings in French,
to an acoustic love song with a central tennis metaphor (“40 Love”, also featured on “Gather & Scatter” with a full band) to Toro Y Moi infused electronic atmosphere on “Horizon Lines” and a jungle ambience of rattles and bulging soundscapes on “Skull,” a song of psychedelic yearning that finds Barrow’s voice echoing like Panda Bear from the opening line, “Someday I’ll get out of this skull of mine.” Jake Barrow is a multi-talented songwriter and composer who wanders freely through styles, consistently promising that there’s fun to be had. It will be interesting to hear what he plays next. Vervex will play this Wednesday in the Underground Coffeehouse at 7 p.m. Paris the Songwriter Williams will also perform.
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Shedding light on Western’s lesser-known BY MORGAN ANNABLE Most Western students may only be familiar with the more prominent publications that have stands in locations all around campus, such as the Western Front, Klipsun or Planet Magazine. Labyrinth, Occam’s Razor and the Fairhaven Free Press are some of Western’s other publications that give students a platform for sharing their written and artistic work, outside of the classroom.
Labyrinth Labyrinth, a journal published by the Women’s Center, was originally started to give women a chance to speak publically about their experience. Now it has evolved into a journal encompassing the voices of all marginalized identities. “The goal of the journal is really to give those who aren’t often given platforms to speak a way to express and let people understand. The silenced people. The people who aren’t comfortable speaking about their experiences,” assistant coordinator for creative programming of the Women’s Center Mady Hovenga said. This year’s theme is “Uprooted: Understanding the Structure, Growth and Challenges of Marginalized Identities,” and Hovenga is looking for submissions that explore the challenges and experiences faced by people whose voices often go unheard. Labyrinth receives submissions regarding
disability, sexuality, gender, mental illness and more. “It’s a large scope,” said Hovenga, who is accepting submissions until December 11 at 11:45 p.m. To submit a piece of art or writing, visit orgsync. com/56663/forms/107366 or call (360) 650 6114, email as.wc.creative.programming@wwu.edu or stop by Viking Union 514. The journal consists of visual art as well as written work. Submissions may not exceed 1600 words for written work and 20 MB for media. “We’re really hoping to get more art this year,” said Hovenga. “It can be photography, sculpture if you take a picture of it, pretty much anything that can be printed as an art form can be used.” The writing included in the journal also comes in a multitude of genres and forms. Labyrinth prints poetry, fiction and nonfiction, as long as the work ties into the theme of identity. Hovenga hopes that Labyrinth’s impact will reach beyond Western’s campus. “It is a privilege to be here and even to have something to submit to a literary journal,” she said. “I want it to expand beyond Western’s campus and get into the community more.” Labyrinth welcomes submissions from everyone, not just Western students. “We all have so much hidden beneath what we present to people, and I want this to be an opportunity for people who maybe have something that’s not so visibly apparent to voice it,” Hovenga said. Occam’s Razor Occam’s Razor is Western’s annual publication showcasing exceptional academic work by undergraduate students. The academic magazine has two goals, Kate Kuntz, Editor in Chief said. First, they provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to publish their work before entering the competitive market and gain experience of the submission and editing processes. Second, the magazine is a snapshot of the work the Western students are doing in classrooms across campus. “We encourage submissions from everywhere across campus,” Kuntz said. “We’re very interdisciplinary, so there’s no emphasis on, say, humanities papers or anything. We consider everything from science, mathematics, to history, to social sciences.” There will be one deadline each quarter, so that students will have three opportunities to submit their work. The first deadline will coincide with fall quarter finals week. Submissions do not have to be work from the quarter in which they are being submitted; any work completed at Western is eligible for submission, as long as the author is a current
Western student. Occam’s Razor is not currently accepting submissions, but students who wish to enter their work for consideration are encouraged to continue checking the website at wp.wwu. edu/occamsrazor/submit/ or “like” Occam’s Razor WWU on Facebook for updates. Students who wish to publish their creative work are encouraged to submit to Jeopardy, Western’s creative publication, at jeopardy.wwu.edu. Those who are unsure to which category their work belongs should contact either publication for guidance. Occam’s Razor encourages submissions written so that someone without a background in the field can appreciate the point of the paper. Kuntz said that the Occam’s Razor staff plans to offer a workshop sometime this quarter. The details are not set at this time, but they will publicize the specifics as soon as they are available. “Everyone is enthusiastic about it,” she said. “We really encourage students, if they have a paper they’re proud of, send it to us,” said Kuntz. “Submit it. Take a chance. We would love to read it.”
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publications Fairhaven Free Press Fairhaven Free Press was started by a Fairhaven student who wanted to create a paper that would address any pressing issue that came to light. “He wanted an independent paper that was a student voice,” Dan Larner, Professor of Theatre, Emeritus, at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies and former faculty advisor for Fairhaven Free Press, said. “The idea was to have a paper that would report on issues that were anywhere from very local, that is, from right in Fairhaven College and probably of interest to no one outside of Fairhaven, to university issues to local and state stuff to international stuff,” Larner said. “The idea was also that it would be open to different kinds of essays with journalistic style and journalistic interest or bent in mind that it wouldn’t all be strictly reporting, there would be feature writing, and maybe even fiction and poetry, appropriately labeled.” Another goal of the paper was to delve deep into the issues explored in the articles, rather than simply delivering basic facts. Larner said that an important principle was to produce the Free Press as a collective effort and make all decisions as a group. A few students held positions and took responsibility for organizing the participants, but choices about procedure and editing were made together. “There were a few emergency decisions that had to be made by the editor,” he said, “But it was my principle as the advisor never to make an editorial decision; I refused to make them.”
Your weekly club spotlight: The Dead Parrots Society BY MORGAN ANNABLE Western’s improvisational comedy group, the Dead Parrots Society, will commence fall quarter with a month of weekly performances, which they call “Squawktober.” During the month of Squawktober, a completely improvised performance will take place every Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in Old Main Theater for $4. Each weekend will feature a different improv format. On October 2 - 3 the group kicked off the month-long extravaganza performing shows in the “Montage” format. “We get three suggestions and, using those suggestions, we do scenes that kind of lead into each other or are referentially related,” said Alex LaVallee, Business Director of Dead Parrots Society. The following week, October 9 - 10, they performed the narrative format “Family Dinner”, in which each member of a family recounts their day through a series of flashbacks which give context to a dinnertime scene which cohesively binds the narrative. This weekend, October 16 - 17, they will perform “Dartmondo”. “We get a standup comedian to come and they do a set of comedy and then we do improv based off of their standup set. So that’s a lot of fun, getting to explore the ideas of the jokes that they’re telling,” said LaVallee. Current students, Western alumni and professional comedians have performed for Dartmondo shows in the past. On October 23 - 24, the Dead Parrots Society will perform during Fall Family Open-House weekend. “We’ll be doing shows for students and their parents and guardians if they choose to come up to Western,” said LaVallee. “That weekend is a little more accessible for people.” For the last weekend of Squawktober, October 30 - 31, the Dead Parrots Society will perform Halloween shows. “Those are a little bit more dark or spooky, usually, fitting with the holiday,” said LaVallee. LaVallee said that the club meeting each Tuesday will feature a lesson plan that is related to the skills that will be highlighted in the format that will be performed the following weekend. “For instance, if we’re doing more of a narrative show, the topic for the week would be narrative. If we’re doing a show that requires a lot of blind support, we’ll focus on being able to quickly support someone and their choices on stage,” he said. In addition to performing, the group is putting a large emphasis on teaching improv and making it more accessible all demographics this year. “There are a lot of white, male voices in comedy, not just in improv but in all comedy on campus and also in American society,” said LaVallee. “In past years, club meetings have had a competitive vibe to them. This year we’re trying to cut away the competitive aspect of rehearsals and celebrate each other in our failures and our successes. Of all our members, not just the people in the performance cast.” LaVallee hopes that easing the competitive edge will encourage students from a wider range of demographics to attend club meetings. LaVallee said that the Dead Parrots Society will also host various workshops throughout the school year. Some of these workshops will be specifically aimed at non-male-identified individuals. Other workshops will have smaller sizes. At club meetings, participants split into groups of approximately 20 people, but the small group workshops will consist of about 10 students. “So there is less stress to impress everybody because there are fewer people,” said LaVallee. The club meets every Tuesday night from 8 - 10 p.m. in Humanities Facility 110 and they encourage anyone to stop by and try their hand at improvisation. One hundred students attended the first meeting of the year on September 29. “We love teaching it, so we’re happy to teach it to anyone who chooses to show up,” said LaVallee.
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Sustainable Western, sustainable you BY ALEXANDRA BARTICK We are already seeing the physical effects of climate change on our earth. California is entering its fourth year of record-breaking drought, wildfires have been burning through the Western United States all summer, storms are more extreme and glaciers are melting faster than ever. Sea levels are set to rise, endangering coastal cities and displacing millions of people. A large cause of all these issues is the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) in our atmosphere. These
include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and many other damaging pollutants. The gases build up in the atmosphere, causing temperatures and sea levels around the globe to rise, which has drastic effects on weather patterns, access to fresh, clean water and access to arable land. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change notes that 33% of coastal land and wetland habitats are expected to be lost in the next hundred years due to the change in sea levels. Many of the nations that will be affected the most are low-lying coastal developing nations including
Waste reduction By examining the waste you create and making note of what can be recycled or composted, you can help reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. According to Western’s Environmental and Sustainability Programs, 80% Western Washington University’s waste could have been recycled or composted. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Western’s dorms provide recycling options. They may not collect compost, but you can start a small compost container in your dorm room and dispose of the compost in the bins on campus. You could also talk to the eco rep in your dorm about starting up a compost bin for your floor. If you live off-campus, the city of Bellingham contracts Sanitary Service Company to provide recycling and compost bins for all households. SSC will pick up recycling once a week and composting every other week. While you are on campus you have access to paper, glass and plastic recycling as well as composting. Here are a few tips on how you can be a better recycler on campus.
Bangladesh, Vietnam, India and China. The displacement of these people will likely lead to conflict, shortage of food and water and an extensive loss of resources. While governments around the globe are struggling to figure out ways to regulate the amount of GHG countries produce, you as an individual person can play an important role in helping lessen the affects of climate change by making some minor adjustments to your daily life. Here are some tips on how to live more sustainably as a student on Western’s campus.
Tips for managing your waste > Unfortunately, plastic bags cannot be recycled. But they can be reused! You can wash the plastic sandwich bags that you bring each day for lunch and reuse them since thin plastics like these are not recyclable. >When you are recycling cardboard boxes or envelopes, make sure you tear out any plastic or metal films before putting them in the correct recycling bins. >Pizza boxes cannot be recycled, but they can be composted. If it’s covered in food waste, put it in the compost bins. Any paper product that has food waste on it can be composted including coffee cups, juice cartons, paper food wrappers, tissues, napkins and paper plates. >Broken glass cannot go in the recycling bins. >Flatten boxes before putting them in the recycling bins. SSC will not take large boxes (such as the boxes you used to move in) unless they are completely broken down.
Waste bins in the seating area on the 6th floor of the Viking Union show which bin to put your waste in, with labeled bins and examples of recyables, garbage and compostable materials. Photos by Trevor Grimm // AS Review
>The most common items Western students put in the garbage that could have been composted are coffee cups. All of the campus coffee vendors use compostable cups and lids (expect the coffee lids from Starbucks in the Atrium). Compost bins are located in Miller Hall, the Atrium and the Viking Union. The compost collected in the city of Bellingham is used by Whatcom county farmers, which helps reduce the amount of non-organic fertilizers that end up in our water systems.
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Transportation According to the EPA, transportation exhaust is responsible for 13% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The easiest way to combat this is by limiting your use of a car, If you live within a couple miles of campus, there are multiple buses you can take to get to school, and we all have a bus pass encoded on your student ID. There are buses that run to Fred Meyer, Haggen and the Co-op so you can take the bus to go grocery shopping. There are also multiple buses that will take you downtown and out to Cordata. If you need to take the bus late at night the student shuttle runs until 3 a.m. By taking the bus to campus you also save money by not having to buy a parking pass. In addition to buses, Bellingham has bike lanes and bike paths to help you get around town safely. There are bike fix it stations on campus, and a bike shop in the Outdoor Center, which can provide you with all the knowledge and tools necessary for a safe trip, as well as maintaining your bike. By walking or riding your bike instead of driving your car you completely eliminate your emissions and by riding the bus you help decrease the total amount of emissions put into our atmosphere. Depending on where you live, you don’t even have to drive when you want to go home to visit your family. The Bolt Bus can take you to Seattle, Portland or Eugene, and you can take public transit to get to Everett, Tacoma, Olympia, cities on the peninsula and other locations in western Washington, all for a very low cost. If you need help figuring out how you can get home on a bus, or the best way to ride your bike to work or campus you can stop by Western’s Office of Transportation in VC 25 and they will help you plan your trip.
Energy and Electricity Reducing your energy usage and electricity bill When you aren’t using an electronic device, take the extra few seconds to unplug it. Your computer and phone chargers are still using energy when they are plugged into the outlet but not into your device. So when you take your phone off the charger, or when your laptop is fully charged take the extra step to fully unplug your device. Not only will you be saving electricity but you will also be saving money on your electricity bills. According to a study by the Energy Center of Wisconsin, the energy that is drawn from outlets when devices are off but still plugged in can account for 15% or more of the total energy used by electronics. Buying energy efficient products and using natural lighting can help further reduce the amount of energy your household uses. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, incandescent lights are the most inefficient, 90% of the energy used is put out as heat, and only 10% actually goes towards lights. Always turn these off when not in use or opt for more energy efficient bulbs such as CFL or LED lighting. Not only does this help reduce your carbon footprint, it will also save you money on your electricity bills.
Graph created by: United States Environmental Protection Agency
Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels 1900-
Carbon dioxide emissions (Teragrams CO2)
Diet According to an article from the WorldWatch Institute, “livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.” Not only does livestock contribute to more CO2 emissions than transportation exhuast, according to the USDA livestock production is also responsible for 80 - 90 % of U.S. water consumption, and about 2,500 gallons of water are used to produce one pound of beef. To put that into comparison, the USGS water science school estimates the average American uses 80 - 100 gallons of water a day. The United Nations reports that 30% of the earth’s land is used for livestock production, including 33% of the earth’s arable land to grow grains for the livestock and 70% of the Amazon has been turned into grazing land for cattle. If you want to reduce your overall impact on the environment, decrease the amount of meat you eat, especially beef and dairy products. Another way you can reduce your impact on the environment through your dietary habits is by eating locally produced foods. Foods produced locally don’t have to be transported as far to reach your grocery store, it helps support and keep money within the local economy and in general local grains, fruits and veggies are priced competitively with nonlocal goods. Next time you’re at the grocery store check and see if there is a local option for the produce or grains you are buying and consider buying the locally produced good. According to 2009 article published in the American Chemical Society, 83% of the average US households GHG emissions comes from the production phase of food; the transportation of food actually only accounts for 11% of the GHG emissions. If you really want to cut back on your GHG emissions by changing your dietary habits, one great way to do this is to avoid as many processed foods as possible. Instead you can buy whole, local ingredients and make your own meals. Not only is this better for the health of our planet, but it is also better for your body.
LEFT, BOTTOM: Pieces in B Gallery done by art students who recently completed an arts workshop in Italy, led by Professor Cara Jaye. Exhibiting students were Madison Churchill, Elle Debell, Nicole Denning, Elle Horsfall, Angelica Jordan, Adam Kitx, Austyn Lawrenson, Emma Lundgaard, Caroline Paulson, Johanna Ruhsenberger and Jaclyn Tabone. ABOVE RIGHT: Local acoustic artist The Co Founder performed Wednesday night at the Underground Coffeehouse as part of the Underground Coffeehouse Wednesday Night Concert Series. Next Wednesday will feature Paris the Songwriter Williams opening for Vervex starting at 7 p.m. All photos by Trevor Grimm// AS Review
BY KATE WELCH
Focus on Community at “The Fair”
The hottest issues in America will be coming soon to a fair near you! “The Fair” is an event hosting a multitude of environmentally-focused groups, both on campus and in the community. The event is carnival themed and will feature many diverse activities and offerings. Students attending the upcoming sustainability focused fair can expect plenty in the way of entertainment. Carnival games, free food, and other activities will be featured. This event, on Wednesday, October 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. will be in the Viking Multipurpose room. “First [the fair] starts with a scavenger hunt, and when students come in they’ll receive a piece of paper with five questions on it, and they will interact with the sustainable groups to answer those questions,” Says Victoria Monreal, the office coordinator for the Office of Sustainability, “Then, once they’ve answered those, they can play 21 different carnival games and win tickets. Those tickets can go to all of our prizes. We have some that are just raffles, and some you can just exchange tickets right off, and we have over 900 dollars worth of prizes.” The prizes were donated by local business and organizations, according to Monreal. Prizes include things like Western t-shirts, recycled B2P pens, notebooks, and gift certificates from businesses such as the Buffalo Exchange, The Upfront Theater, Robek’s Smoothies, and The Pepper Sisters Restaurant. Another very important feature of “The Fair” is the free food. Free soup put together by the Dining Services’ very own Chef Patrick Durgan.
“There will also be free food, free samples of soup and bread. The ingredients for the soup were donated a lot by Growing Washington and the Outback Farm,” Says Monreal, “Chef Patrick is awesome and he creates this delicious soup that we used last year at an event too. So it’s really local and also really delicious too, and great harvest donated some bread.” The event organizers hope that at least 150 people will attend, and Monreal says she hopes to reach new audiences, “ hope this reaches out to those student that usually wouldn’t come to this event.” A great deal of publicity has gone into trying to achieve that. Digital signage, posters, email lists and a KUGS Public Service Announcement are just a few of the ways that the coordinators have done to publicize the event. “The Fair” is part of a greater event on campus called “Vikings for Change Month”, according to Anna Kemper, the program director of the AS Environmental and Sustainability programs. Vikings for Change Month will also include events such as October Climatefest on October 18 in the Performing Arts Center, an event that will include speakers, tabling organizations and a video message from former Vice President Al Gore. Other events are a workshop called “Speak Up, Speak Out”, on October 27 that will focus on philosophies non-violent direct action, said Kemper in an email. For students who want to get involved, a lot of volunteers are needed, according to Kemper. Students who help out can receive a free t-shirt and some tickets to get prizes.