AS Review 12.04.17

VOL. 30 # #.#.#

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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

Shawnee Lang leads the Take Back the Night march from Red Sqaure to downtown, Thursday, Nov. 30. Read the story online at wp.wwu.edu/theasreview Hailey Hoffman // AS Review

IN THIS ISSUE NEWS 4 Meet Leti Romo, new Coordinator for Equity and Inclusion Resource Centers

LIFE 6 Bellingham’s KRME 102.3 FM begins campaign for a new home

FEATURES 9 Prof-ile Check out who we interviewed this week!

© 2017. 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.

Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Writers

Erasmus Baxter Kira Stussy Hailey Hoffman Josh Hughes Gwen Frost Julia Berkman Hailey Murphy

Adviser Jeff Bates

It’s definitely beginning to look a lot like winter with all this wind and rain we’ve been seeing here in Bellingham. Bundle up, Vikings! Hailey Hoffman // AS Review

12.4.17 • 3

EVENTS Black Minds Matter Dec. 4 // 4:30-6 p.m. // FR 102 // Free The WWU AS Social Issues Resource Center is hosting this Live Stream lecture series. This series started Oct. 23 and will occur every Monday until Dec. 5. Every week, different speakers are invited to talk about different issues concerning black men and boys in the education system.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ ASReviewofWWU/ Breaking news, updates and online exclusives.

Twitter: @TheASReview News and polls.

IG: @ASReview Photos of campus life.

Top Ten Records: Oct. 22-28 1

Born in Paradise (EP) David D’Angelo

2

Colors Beck

3

Antisocialites Alvvays

4

Automatic For The People R.E.M.

5

Dumbness Cherry

6

Orc Oh Sees

7

Wallflower Jordan Rakei

8

HEAVN Jamila Woods

9

Needle Paw Nai Palm

10

Soul of a Woman Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings KUGS is the Associated Students’ student-run radio station. Listen online at kugs.org. If you’re interested in getting on the waves, pick up a volunteer application in the station’s office on the seventh floor of the VU.

4 • as.wwu.edu/asreview

Meet Leti Romo, new Coordinator for Equity and Inclusion Resource Centers BY HAILEY MURPHY The Associated Students, to replace the former student position of Resource and Outreach Program (ROP) Director, has hired Leti Romo as the Coordinator for Equity and Inclusion Resource Centers.

The ROP director used to be a student position. This student would oversee the programming of the ROP centers.

However, there was usually a new student in the position every year, which affected the productivity of the ROP. “What was happening in the past, when it was a student position… was turnover,” Romo said. “So not necessarily every year there would be the same person as the director.

So what was happening is that momentum… changes every time that there’s someone new in charge.”

Thus, a new position, Coordinator for Equity and Inclusion Resource Centers, was created.

Romo’s duties as coordinator is to assist the resource centers in any way possible. This includes helping the centers connect to the student body, helping the centers in their advocacy efforts and helping the centers grow in to larger agents of change. “[I] serve as someone who helps the resource centers connect not only to students and their programing and the advocacy that they do, but also connects them to the institution… my goal is, as I understand it, is to help the things... that the centers are doing for change, to continue on and grow from there,” Romo said.

With her long history of working on college campuses, Romo is prepared for this job. Back in her undergraduate at Iowa State University, she was involved with the Minority Student Affairs office– their equivalent of a multicultural center– and the Student Support Services office. This was her first experience working with such resource programs.

She also joined Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority Inc. during this time.

When she started as a graduate student at the University of Southern Florida, besides becoming a house mom for the sorority, she also started working as an advisor for students who were on the cusp of admission. These students would go through a trial summer prior to starting their degree program.

“It was a lot of students from urban areas,” said Romo.

“I was working with students who, even though they were in gifted and talented in classes in high school, equivalent-wise, it wasn’t the same as other schools in wealthy areas so they weren’t as prepared for college as these students that were coming from these stronger educations.

So I worked with them to get them transitioned and make sure they were at-par.”

After her time as an advisor, she worked in resident life for ten years, first at Humboldt University, then at University of California Irvine and lastly at Chapman University.

“When I was in that position, the institution [Chapman University] was going through a really negative time when it came to diversity, equity and inclusion,” Romo said.

However, a committee was formed to focus on issues of equity, inclusion and diversity at Chapman. Romo first was asked to be a part of that committee due to her experience from University of South Florida. She later became chair of that committee.

The development of this committee led to an effort to

Hailey Hoffman // AS Review create Chapman University’s first center for underrepresented students, the Cross Cultural Center, with Romo leading the charge.

They were met with much resistance, as Chapman University President Jim Doti said there would never be a multicultural center so long as he was president because it would “ghettoize” the school.

As it turns out, Doti’s claims didn’t hold up. After two years of fighting, Romo and her fellow committee members got approval for the Cross Cultural Center. Romo left her position as Assistant Director to develop the Cross Cultural Center, which opened last February.

Yet, after months of working at the Cross Cultural Center, Romo desired a change of pace.

“I was at a point [where]… I was feeling really disconnected,” Romo said. “I wanted to slow down a little bit. I needed to make sure that I was focusing not just on my career but then also on my kids.”

This is how Romo ultimately came to be at Western.

Now, after working here for one month, she’s learning all

about the Associated Students, the ROP and the work of students on campus. With this information, she’s questioning how the purpose of the ROP can be changed for the better.

“Do we want to be just programmers? Do we want to be advocates? Do we want to be both? Do we want to be something else? Do we want to be support? What do we want these centers to be? And then when we figure out the what and the why, then we can start building around that and making sure that we’re doing things that are reaching out... I hope that students at the centers here are able to be activists and advocates through their programming, through the spaces that they create here.” Romo said.

Additionally, Romo wants to increase connectivity between ROP and campus, both to assure that students are aware of these resources and also to improve the advocacy work of the ROP. “I really want to be able to create relationships that are going to be meaningful and beneficial for not only the center but also for the person that we’re trying to collaborate with,” said Romo.

Relationships are particularly important to Romo. Not only the relationship between ROP and the rest of Western, but also the relationship between herself and students.

She wants students to know that she’s available for help.

“I think a lot of times when we’re at an institution, especially with people who are underrepresented on campus or feel like they don’t belong, there’s not a lot of people who will listen to your truth as your truth… I try to make sure that I make space for everyone’s truth,” Romo said.

What Romo looks forward to in this position is being directly involved in student advocacy. When working at Chapman University, it was the administration initiating changes for students. At Western, particularly within AS, students incite change.

“One of the things that really drew me to this position… is how much there’s student activism here, and how the student voice has a level of bite to it. It’s very respected…

The fact that AS would make sure to include resource centers is amazing. So to be able to further empower… to be there for support is really cool to me.”

Overall, Romo is adjusting to Western nicely. The cold has been a change– her kids had never seen snow before– but otherwise, things seem to be a good fit.

“When I got here to interview [it] was like my test of how it felt inside. Is this a fit, is this not a fit? And it felt like this was a good place for me. It felt like this is where I need to be,” Romo said.

12.4.17 • 5

America was never white

BY MARIA DIMAS

This an excerpt from a book “UndocuStudents: Our Untold Stories” compiled by Blue Group, an organziation of undocumented Western students and their allies. It is reprinted here with permision. The book is available to view and purchase through Western’s CEDAR website. If you want to support their work or book you can donate at https://www.vikingfunder. com/project/6593

America was never white. It’s red from the blood and pain fear has shed.

my home. I ran from fear and pain.

EDUCATION: For me it is the one thing in this world that will keep me from being a stereotype.

I ran but I didn’t know I was running. I had no choice.

I knew I didn’t belong here. I could see it in the eyes of the people that would spit in my face. I could hear it in their words of hate and their accusations.

I dreamed that maybe… through some miracle I could go to college.

EDUCATION: It’s the thing that will help me attain my dream career.

EDUCATION: It’s the thing that I will pay even after I graduate.

EDUCATION: It’s the thing that I want.

EDUCATION: It’s what you refuse to give me.

EDUCATION: It’s what I have to fight for.

EDUCATION: It’s the only thing keeping me from the shadows called reality and life.

I hide and run. I fear for my life. You categorize me with criminals and rapists.

You don’t know me. You don’t know my name, my age or my situation.

I ran from crime and abuse.

You don’t know my pain. you let his hate and ignorance fuel your fear.

Now all you see is my skin, name and status.

You ignore my achievements, my goals, my heart and my feelings. you want my culture but not my people. you’re greedy.

You refuse education.

Therefore you are now blind.

My Life isn’t a movie it’s my reality.

You see me as a parasite…stating that I don’t give but take.

You are wrong.

At the age of 7 I ran from a country that was

Then my freshman year of high school came and that dream was killed.

It was destroyed by your laws and your word.

It was as if I was just another insect whose life was meaningless and inconsequential.

For two years my hopes where gone. The embers of those hopes were fading more and more leaving nothing but ashes behind.

Then it happened an opportunity, a new flame of hope appeared.

DACA- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was put into place and was approved.

I was accepted into a four-year University. I was no longer a stereotype.

I have a future…or I had a future…because now I’m in a limbo of fear, pain, stress and uncertainty of my future and life.

As of right now my university’s fees are more than I can afford.

I’m a freshman. First generation student, who has no financial support from home because my parents don’t make enough to pay bills let alone pay for a $20,000 per year University.

I’m about 200 miles away from my loved ones, in a time where I’m accused

of being a criminal, a rapist and a lazy person.

How can you expect me to help my community more than I already am, when you don’t give me a chance? When you destroy all my attempts at succeeding and helping your county and your people.

I had no choice and I will repeat it over and over again. I had no choice.

I ran from sexual assault. I was 7 years old.

I HAD NO CHOICE! I. WAS. SEVEN. YEARS. OLD!!!

And now he wants to send me back to the place where my nightmare became a reality.

Your Ancestors. My Ancestors.

You call us criminals; his hate blinds you to the reality that we are not to blame.

You close your eyes and shield your ears from the truth, that hangs in front of you.

You asked for our help, we gave it to you.

Always when you asked. Always when you needed it.

1920’s your industries wanted us.

Then when you fell apart and the Great Depression hit, you blamed US! You saw us as the cause instead of seeing that it was your banks and government that failed.

We were simple scapegoats. You accused us of bringing disease, crime and taking your jobs. You created labels and stereotyped us.

All so that you could round us up like animals

and return us to a place that we were escaping. You deported about half a million people of Mexican decent. Simply because of their color of skin, your fear and their descent. You knew that the majority were U.S citizens but all you saw was the color of their skin and their descent.

We helped you during the war because you wanted our help, because you needed our help, we helped you during your natural disasters and once you were back on your feet you pushed us down, kicked us and called us criminals.

And once again you created a mass deportation of both U.S and Non U.S. citizens.

Yet you kept our culture.

Why do you refuse us, why do you treat us like a disease?

All we want is what your founding fathers wanted.

We want to live in a country where we aren’t judged or killed by who we worship.

We want to make someone of ourselves.

Isn’t that what your people, Europeans, wanted? That’s why they came to the new world.

Or have you forgotten.

Natives were here first.

Columbus brought more black slaves than white explorers.

Pioneers then brought more black slaves and started to kill natives.

You saw yourselves as superior because of the fair color of your skin.

The world was yours…

Have you thrown away your own history and become the same kind of people your ancestors ran away from?

Cont. pg. 7

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12.4.17 • 7

Sparking a new station?

Bellingham’s KRME 102.3 FM begins campaign for a new home

K

MRE needs some help.

A non-commercial, community-based low power radio station currently based out of the Spark Museum, KMRE 102.3 FM has been broadcasting the greater Bellingham area since 2005.

Built around informational programs centered on the community, including entertainment and education shows such as “Spark Science” and “Up

one of the few remaining independent non-profit community radio stations, the future of KMRE parallels the bigger-scale need for such stations to stay alive and relevant as news and media outlets are changing more than ever in 2017.

“SPARK Museum has been a great host to us for all these years however due to space issues, we will need to find a new location for our community studio,” Station Manager Suzanne Blais said. Since its inception 12 years ago, the needs of the station have shifted to fit with the times. Because KMRE

Stephanie Kountouros works in the booth at the KRME radio station in the Spark Museum. Hailey Hoffman // AS Review Close And Personal”, the station has provided a refreshingly local take on current events and relevant programming.

However, after years of broadcasting out of the Spark Museum, KMRE is in need of a new home.

The needs of the station has outgrown the current space, yet the search for somewhere new to broadcast out of has, as of now, proven to no avail. As

has proven successful, it’s now in need of a home independent of SPARK, the organization that birthed the station.

KMRE Program Director Stephanie Kountouros is concerned, but excited at the possibilities of a new location and independent status for the station.

“Parting ways is a challenge for any enmeshed organizations,” Kountouros said. “But doing so gives us a chance to find a better space for our growing

needs and increased number of local programs. We’ve just added ‘Community Voz’ providing Bellingham with voices from Community to Community, Red Line Salish Sea and other groups. They have insights and issues you won’t find anywhere on the FM dial.”

KMRE also highlights the importance of local over national or global— a growing concern of the station is that the discourse behind local issues and stories may disappear with the current importance placed on dramatic global events that overshadow other discussions to be had.

“Many of the voices and perspectives we feature have no other broadcast media outlet.” Kountouros said.

Alongside the Cascadia Weekly and KUGS’ local news and public affairs show “The Beat”, KMRE covers stories and engages with citizens, activists and other voices that have few other options to be heard.

This makes the need for a relocation somewhat concerning, considering that the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) rarely grants licenses for community stations such as KMRE. If the station’s signal goes down without a secured new home, the odds of it returning grow much slimmer. In turn, the community support for the station becomes more important, since they will ultimately have the power to decide the fate of the station.

“We’re at a crossroads— do we emerge strong and brilliant as a new entity, or do we celebrate the last decade and turn off the microphones forever. It’s up to the community to decide— and decide if we’re worth working for.” Kountouros said, of the possibility of the station shutting down.

After two public community meetings that were held at the start of November concerning the future of the

station, KMRE has decided to set up a fundraiser in hopes of keeping the station alive.

Since the station is in the process of become its own entity, a new non-profit organization must rise from the ashes of the current space to be eligible for transferring the radio signal. This need, alongside the cost of relocation and replacement of equipment warrants the station’s need for community help.

The hope of relocation and expansion comes at a pivotal time for KMRE,

America was never white cont.

BY JOSH HUGHES for good.

Western’s own KUGS is not the only local station that broadcasts current issues and community based programs, but it might become the most accessible source for such radio programming if KMRE doesn’t continue to broadcast.

“Together, we can ensure our community has a voice on the air for years to come,” said Blais.

Though SPARK cannot continue to host the station, it currently exists in a state of limbo and KMRE continues to broadcast to the outer reaches of

Realize that America stopped being great but not because of the population of color people but because the reality is… America was never white.

READ YOUR OWN HISTORY BOOKS AND TAKE OFF YOUR BLINDFOLDS!!

You limit people’s success, and yet you blame them for their lack of success.

I’m an undocumented student who lacks the proper documentation to become a citizen and help a country that I have come to see as my own.

I’m one of 65,000 undocumented students graduating from high school each year.

And now I’m part of the 2% that will continue to a college or fouryear university.

Lucky for me I live in a state that gives in-state tuition to my people.

However, other states ban enrollment or make undocumented students pay out-of-state tuition.

If the states or the national government allowed students willing to succeed and aid in the development of this country to afford college or means to afford college the results would be more beneficial to the USA than anyone else.

Stephanie Kountouros, the program director, edits recordings by adjusting sound levels for an upcoming show on the KRME radio stations. Hailey Hoffman // AS Review

with the possibility of their 40 local programs growing and expanding to the broadcast area. Due to a partnership with Daylight Properties, the station’s transmitter currently exists atop the Herald building, making the broadcast range go all the way from Ferndale to parts of Skagit County. If the station doesn’t find the new space it needs, the transmitter will go down

Whatcom County. Tune in to 102.3 FM for your daily dose of local historical, educational and entertainment based programming, and know that you can have a say in the future of one of Bellingham’s most beloved organizations.

KMRE’s fundraiser can be accessed online at http://savekmre.org/.

Because of my lack of financial aid and opportunities to obtain money, I might become part of the 74% of undocumented students that leave school due to financial reasons.

I’m limited to success and resources, however I and so many undocumented students try everything we can to succeed and prove to people that we don’t bring crime, disease or drugs.

We bring hopes, dreams and determination to a country that wishes to crush us.

It’s your move. Stay blind or face your fears.

See the truth!

Look back see your past.

See your actions.

Ask yourselves, why do you blame others for the decisions of your own people, of your own government.

Why do you let the ignorance of others blind you to the reality of their fear and hatred?

America wasn’t built by the power of white people.

It was built on the bones, bodies and labor of the Native Americans, Africans, African America and Hispanics.

All for your gain. Even Now, you destroy your laws to gain more power and profit. You break contracts and treaties when their use gets in your way to power.

You need our help and like before you will ask for it.

And like before we will give it to you, because we know pain.

We know the reality of being alone, and that is something that we don’t wish upon anyone else.

We are neighbors. We share the same land and yet you see us as aliens.

And that is what you call us.

My blood is the same as yours. My anatomy is the same as yours.

My emotions, hopes and thoughts work the same as yours… so why do you see me as a disease?

I HAD NO CHOICE, I WAS SEVEN!!!

But you… You have a choice.

Fear, pain, and hate, Or Love, compassion and truth.

—Maria Dimas

8 • as.wwu.edu/asreview

AS Board of Directors meetingsNovember 30 November 23

ResLife Demands update VP for Student Life Annie Gordon spoke on a working document she and the RAs are putting together. The document details the current demands of the RAs and is available online.

“People are expecting riots, and I’m trying to shift the tone a little bit,” Gordon said.

According to Gordon,there’s a meeting coming up with Jones and Melinda (?) to speak about it.

“There is a sense of accountability, and that accountability can look a lot of different ways,” Gordon said. She decided to do an update in a few weeks.

Food and Housing Christian Urcia (from Birnam Wood) is close to getting a food pantry open in Birnam Wood, but according to Gordon, they need funding. Gordon wants the AS to support the program. The AS University Housing Representation and Advocacy Committee (UHRAC) has budget money, but the structure of the committee is currently under construction.

The food pantry would be for all western students, not just Birnam Wood residents.

That raised the question of if UHRAC can be pulled from, because it’s a fund for on-campus students only.

“We always have to be the ones to find funding for things like this, when the university should be funding things like this,” Chhabra said.

Chhabra decided to set up a meeting with the Foundation Board because they do a lot of philanthropic work. ...But how does this affect me?

A food pantry on campus means that many Western students who don’t have a lot of money or access to food can now make wholesome healthy meals.

Smoke-Free Campus Western students voted on this issue in 2014, so the board wasn’t sure whether or not they should implement a smoking ban based off that vote. The board was also not sure if they should vote before or after drafting a plan for its implementation.

If they decide to poll students on this issue again, it will take more time and probably

BY JULIA BERKMAN

wouldn’t be implemented until Fall of 2018.

Chhabra and Rutledge wanted to bring it to Sabah.

The main reason Gordon is heading the Smoke-Free campus initiative is to help students who have allergies or asthma.

“How it was explained to me from someone who has a physical reaction [to smoke], all it takes is a gust of wind,” Gordon said.

No matter how far they put the smoking poles, Gordon worried that it wouldn’t be far enough.

Part of the board’s hesitation to implement a smoke-free campus has to do with alienating those students who do smoke.

“So far we’ve been looking at it as an accessibility issue. I certainly have been wrestling with the stance we take on nicotine and acknowledging that it isn’t easy to wake up and quit,” Gordon said.

Gordon also said it would be difficult to compromise. Students who smoke would have to do so off-campus.

The whole board agreed they want to move forward to the planning stages of a smokefree campus based off the 2014 vote. ...But how will this affect me?

Well, if you’re a student who opposes smoking on campus, this is a win for you. If you’re a student who smokes, this may make your day a little harder. While the board is trying their best to accommodate everyone, smokers with no mind to quit, mobility issues or no time may have trouble once this initiative takes root.

AS Budget Process 2017-2018 Jose Rios-Sanchez and LaValle made a presentation on the budget and appealed to the board for feedback.

There’s a deficit of $84,000. Expenses are growing quickly and revenue is not, so they may do Budget freeze, reallocation, or cut some AS programs. ...But how will this affect me?

The AS could see budget freezes and, if things get bad enough, potential cuts. This could mean reductions in the number of events AS offices put on (speakers, concerts, etc), the number of student employment opportunties available and more. Not a good time.

On November 30th, 2017, the AS Board met in Old Main 340 for their weekly meeting, without ASVP for Diversity Erick Yanzon. Here’s what was discussed.

CW: Sexual assault Information Items- Legislative Agenda At the meeting, ASVP for Governmental Affairs elect Ana Ramirez showed the in-depth documents, drafted by the AS Legislative Affairs Council, that will make up the Legislative Agenda. This agenda determines what student lobbyists will bring to the legislature.

The first issue reviewed by the board was regarding civic participation. This agenda item proposes that high schools across the state do more to engage students with the civic process by teaching them about the political process. Having more informed youth, according to Ramirez, makes them more likely to vote young and continue to vote for the rest of their life.

The LAC also hopes that such legislation would increase the voting turnout in younger age demographics.

The second agenda item discusses different sources of revenue available to Washington State. This revenue would go towards higher education to increase affordability and accessibility. Among their revenue proposals are taxing cannabis, taxing lottery winnings and increasing the estate tax.

Simrun Chhabra, AS President, suggested that the LAC educate students going to Lobby Day in Olympia on these taxes. Chhabra’s group at last year’s Lobby Day focused on the estate tax, due to being more familiar with it, and this ended up costing them.

“When we went in to lobby, we focused on the estate tax and the legislature wasn’t responsive to that,” Chhabra said. If students are more familiar with the taxes, they can focus on taxes more likely to pass.

The next agenda item was regarding the unionization of undergraduate students. College students are often used as a “cost saving alternative” to full time staff, according to the LAC document, resulting in being underpaid and overworked.

This item proposes that universities be required to recognize undergraduate employee

BY HAILEY MURPHY unions. A union gives students the opportunity to collaborate with universities for fair employee treatment.

This agenda item was also passed by the Washington Student Association (WSA), a coalition of students at four-year universities in Washington that lobbies on behalf of students. This means that, in addition to Western students lobbying for this issue, WSA will also lobby as a representative for all students of all 12 Washington universities.

Another item brought back to the legislative agenda seeks to bring more support to sexual assault survivors on college campuses. This includes increasing funding for more support services, as well as endorsing WSA’s plan to exempt universities from the Administrative Procedures Act. This would allow universities to change the process by which a perpetrator is removed from higher education.

By changing this process, Ramirez said, survivors would be less involved in getting the perpetrators removed and thus wouldn’t be put in potentially traumatic situations.

Annie Gordon, ASVP for Student Life, expressed mixed feelings on this item. While she supports more programming for sexual assault survivors, she also wants the AS Board to support rehabilitation of former perpetrators. After the board sent out a letter on sexual assault last spring, many students contacted Gordon, concerned that they were failing to support rehabilitation. Gordon cautioned the LAC on how they word their stance.

“Inherently, when we start talking about policies regarding removing people from higher education, we’re taking a strong position… and we could be suggesting that we don’t support rehabilitation,” Gordon said.

The last agenda item will be new to LAC’s agenda this year. This item seeks to create a self sustaining loan program in Washington that would provide scholarships to undocumented students. Because undocumented students can’t take out federal loans, they often have to pay out of pocket for higher education. This legislation seeks to give undocumented students access to scholarships.

According to Ramirez, 120 DACA recipients lose it everyday. This number will rise to 1,200 in March. With these students losing

Cont. pg. 11

12.4.17 • 9

Prof-ile

BY GWEN FROST

Name: Shirin Deylami Position: Associate professor in political science and WGSS Education background: Ph.D. Political Science, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities M.A. Political Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill B.A. Politics and Women’s Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz Hometown: Mission Viejo, California Classes you are teaching this quarter: Intro to political theory, comparative political thought (472) Claim to fame (article published anywhere cool? is your cousin Brad Pitt?): I did an edited volume of Photo courtesy of Shirin politics about the TV show The Wire. I have a new piece coming out, a book chapter about Black Lives Deylami Matter and the politics of anger, and why we should turn to anger instead of grief for radical democratic politics. The book is called the politics of mourning. Also, I did an article on female suicide bombers.

QUESTIONS: What did you want to be when you grew up (as a kid)?

I wanted to be a lawyer. Until the middle of college I thought I wanted to do women’s rights law. My parents were an immigrant family and I learned a lot of English from tv, and I loved law shows. I would watch those, so I think that’s what I thought being a successful American was.. even to the point where somebody called my Mom because I had been ‘objecting’ in class, in like third grade. I think that’s pretty indicative of my personality.

What would you sing at a karaoke night?

Heart’s Barracuda, if I had to do something, because you don’t really have to be a good singer to do it.

What are you reading right now/most recently? What’s it about?

I’m reading two things, for WGSS I’m finishing a book called Living a Feminist Life by Sara Amed. And I’m always reading something in fiction, I’m reading a book called American War, it’s about what he imagines the next civil war in America will be about: Water.

Aside from necessities, what are three things you could not go a day without?

My kids, for sure, terribly probably my phone, I’m not gonna say it’s a necessity and iced coffee.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of love?

I had kids. That I think is pretty crazy actually. It’s pretty intense and weird. But they’re cute so it’s fine. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but I think you know how hard it is and you do it anyway.

If you could join any past or current music group which would you want to join? why?

Bikini Kill (writers note: Deylami said this without hesitation) pretty much changed my life. I was in high school when their first album came out. I was just so- to be part of a self-created feminist movement that challenges everything about the music industry, and even challenges space… she took up space in a way that I’d never seen before.

They had a long last influencing on the American feminist movement. They just are amazing.

And by the way, she’s one of the nicest people ever. I’ve met her twice.

What advice would you have given your college-undergrad-self?

I would have said ‘enjoy it more’. I feel lucky the job I have is intellectually stimulating I didn’t know that time to read and think and talk with people about ideas, when you go into the rest of the world, that’s not what you do. Don’t waste it. You don’t ever get to have space like that again, so value it, enjoy it.

Out of this world!

Nodalus and arbour concert at the Spanel Planetarium

BY JOSH HUGHES JOSHconcert HUGHES As part of BY the ongoing series at the Spanel Planetarium, Bellingham bands Nodalus and arbour will be performing on December 3 at 7:30 p.m. The last Planetarium show of the quarter, both artists provide original music and video art for the performance.

Nodalus, aka Troy Bohman, hails from Kenmore, WA, and considers himself a “bedroom beat junkie”. In vein with Flying Lotus, Madlib, or J Dilla, Bohman’s beats have a jazzy, off kilter vibe to them that you might consider instrumental hip hop or the treaded term “trip hop”. His most full project, “that secret shit”, which came out in 2015, takes his most close-to-finished instrumentals to culminate in something like a mixtape. He says he may rework some of these pieces to eventually create an official album, but until then he’s content dropping Soundcloud gem after Soundcloud gem.

His beats range from mellow, keyboard driven grooves to upbeat, bassy motifs that recall Thundercat. The drum machines boom and snap with the grit of 90s hip hop, and the synths wash over everything like a silky waterfall. Tracks like “The Best Part of the Bigger Picture” combine all of his best assets into fully formed tracks that don’t sound too far off from a BADBADNOTGOOD groove session. Every song is dusted in late night smoke, sounding like the aural equivalent of a hazy drive down I-5 at midnight. A veteran in the Washington beat scene, expect Nodalus’ set to make your head drift into the cosmos, or at least the ceiling of the planetarium.

Hans Watkins, who goes by the moniker arbour similarly makes lo-fi beats with intricate rhythms and bass heavy grooves. Yet where Nodalus finds more inspiration in jazzy hip hop beats, arbour takes cues from the smoothed out soul of King Krule and Bon Iver by crafting warm, fluid beats. Another artist who has existed in and around the Bellingham scene for half a decade, arbour’s music finds a soft spot between some of the spaciest contemporary EDM and the ambient folk roots of S. Carey.

Arbour’s beats usually find solace in heavy reverb and slightly delayed drums, while different types of organic sounding synths warp in and out of focus. Like Nodalus, most of arbour’s discography lies in the depths of Soundcloud oneoff, but he also has multiple full length albums available online. This year’s “Old Growth” has many of the same characteristics of his previous releases, but here some of the tracks deal more with the ambient side of electronic music, recalling Blithe Field’s mellow, drugged out sampling. Saxophones and dark wurlitzers line the edges of the tracks, and the cohesive project is a calming, hypnotic experience.

While previous shows at the Spanel Planetarium have included a variety of genres and bands, Nodalus and arbour lend themselves well to the atmosphere of the space. Each artist will provide their own visuals to fill the dome while 45 lucky audience members get to indulge in the intimacy of such a venue.

Tickets are $3 and can be purchased online or at the WWU Box Office. There are only 45 spots available in the Planetarium, so nab your tickets before the night of the show. The Spanel Planetarium is located on the third floor of Haggard Hall.

10 • as.wwu.edu/asreview

Germination fine arts show part two The other week we featured the first half of the BFA Students, this week spotlight’s the other six

BY JOSH HUGHES Every year the twelve Bachelor of Fine Arts students get a few opportunities to showcase their work at the galleries around campus, culminating in a show at the Western Gallery. But before they can get to that point, the artists get a first chance to display their work that will continue and develop throughout the year. Often centered around themes of emergence, growth, development, this year’s aptly named Germination follows suit. While the exhibition has now ended, the show let gave the audience an introduction into each of the twelve artists’ distinct work and styles, which are sure to expand as the year goes on. In case you missed the exhibit, however, here’s a rundown of half of the students who make up the BFA, along with their work: Cecilia Lister Through two canvasses, Lister’s painting in Germination depicts a self portrait of the artist and her clothes. Titled “Parts of Me are Still Plastic Bagging”, the figures exist in an ambiguous grey plane, both crouched and mirroring each other’s position. “I look into intimate personal moments of the everyday for inspiration,” said Lister about her work. “Here are the painting coveralls that I wear when I work and that have been in use in my family for multiple generations,” she continued.

Through detailed oil painting, she portrays a vivid portrait of the domestic, bringing to mind the youthful long for home and the complex importance of family. The two canvasses complement each other by combining to form the whole, but neither of the two self portraits feel complete. The work delicately exposes the feeling of being neither here nor there.

Natalie Millsap On a rectangular canvas, Millsap warps a wavy human body with the geometric glitch of cyberspace. Her piece, “Translation” deals with the digital trace that humans leave, and how that existence begins to bleed into the “real” world.

“The question is how much our virtual world and real world combine or stay separate,” reads Millsap’s artist statement, addressing the blurring or “glitching” that occurs when our day-to-day interactions are affected by our digital interactions, and vice versa.

Mainly composed of dark purples and pinks, the body in “Translation” appears to be melting, but it remains distinguishable from the cubes that are engulfing it. In the bottom left corner one hand remains largely unaffected and intact, almost as though gripping a lost phone. Through quite

an analog medium, Millsap touches heavily on digital implications of the 21st century and brings to question what even constitutes as the human body in current world.

Robyn Roberts The only sculpture work in the Germination gallery, Roberts’ ceramic pieces “Penguin Hybrid” and “Abstract” explore the three dimensional space between light and shadow and presence and absence. “Abstract” especially plays with the formation of space through its perforated holes that poke throughout the piece. As with all sculpture, its dimensionality becomes enacted as the viewer walks around the artwork, but the holes of the piece create dynamic beams of light that manipulate the boundaries of sculpture.

“Penguin Hybrid”, on the other hand, toys with the concept of a human face by smacking it right on the head of a penguin. Roberts says her work often deal with people and the expression of human faces, something she intends to explore throughout the year working in the BFA. “I am excited to experiment further with sculpting detailed figures and expressions and to play with exaggeration and distortion of the figures,” she says of her work in the gallery. Both of her pieces also deal with human impact on the environment, circling back to her usage of ceramic as a naturally occurring material.

Clinton Sana “The subject matter I focus on is based on the Chamorro experience in our society— does anyone notice?” reads the start of Sana’s artist statement for his work with the BFA cohort. Chamorro, the indigenous people of the Marianas Islands, are a culture politically divided by the United States and Guam. A combination of indigenous, Mexican, Filipino, Spanish and American, the Chamorro people represent a completely unique meshing of a vast array of cultures, something Sana explores in her rich charcoal work.

His pieces “Francisco On His Wedding Day” and “Rosalia On Her Wedding Day” are haunting portraits of a couple obscured by various grey collaging techniques. Based on “found photos, personal photos, and personal sketchbook drawings”, Sana’s work attempts to create a narrative of identity. Questioning his past and her present placement in respect to contrasting cultural values, his work simultaneously finds harmony in the form of the Chamorro experience in modern day America.

Marcus Waterman “Aesthetics are our identities, and my work is about understanding the intrinsic associations that form our aesthetics,” reads Waterman’s artist statement on his piece for the exhibit, “41.2% Orange”. The biggest piece in the gallery, “41.2% Orange” confronts the viewer with a grand wall of color in the form of rectangular squares placed atop each other. Waterman’s work looks to explore the individual’s relationship with color, void of cultural or political implications.

He suggests that our affinities for color, shape, and line define the way we experience spaces on a day to day basis, and in line with the 20th century color field painters, Waterman’s art evokes a visceral reaction based purely on formal elements.

“By over-saturating the viewer with both simple and distinguishable elements, I hope to incite a distinctive first impression; whether it be unease, disinterest, or excitement and joy,” says Waterman of the piece. The first in a series he intends to continue throughout the BFA, the work lets the viewer soak in and embrace physicality while leaving room for individual interpretation. In other words, self-identity guides Waterman’s work.

Mikah Washburn Washburn’s piece in Germination, “Their Hands for Towers in the Dirt Plains Under Light”, combines several pencil drawings with charcoal sketches to create a culminating sense of rough anatomical diagrams. His piece shows various figures, some plunging into the abyss, some crawling sideways up a strange mechanism, all with geometric precision and the trace of her pencil outlines.

“Everything I have I owe to the ground,” reads Washburn’s own examination of the piece, which complements the work so much that it nearly feels like part of the piece. “I and them— my hands to touch the love and anger in the sun in its house, their hands for towers in the dirt on the plains under light. Come a wind, come mama, come home.

I am buried in it all, the grip of the earth.” While his work might seem more impenetrable compared to other pieces in the gallery, there’s a sense of connectivity between all the elements in the work, suggesting a symbiosis of sorts between the self and the other.

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Board of Directors cont.

DACA, they will also lose access to loans, making this legislation all the more pertinent.

Board Reports In the Board Reports, ASVP for Business and Operations Alex LaValle and ASVP for Academic Affairs Hunter Eider reported on the AS Student Technology Fee Committee meeting. The committee is reviewing the student technology fee, as they do every five years. At the meeting, they contemplated changing the print quota.

While many students want a larger print quota, LaValle also said that many students have no use for the quota, as they print off campus.

Gordon discussed improving safety on the Ridge after two instances of indecent exposure. She’s met both with Sue Sullivan, the Director of Environmental Health and Safety, and Ridge RAs. Among potential proposed solutions were exterior cameras, more lighting for a parking lot 15R and creating a safety survey.

Gordon proposed trying to create a hall specific Western alert system. Through the current alert system, alerts are only sent out if there’s an immediate threat. So if someone gets into a dorm hall and is gone by the time police arrive, there may be no alert.

With a hall-specific system, Gordon hopes that alerts will be sent to students who are affected, despite University Police’s assessment of immediate danger.

“We have a lot of residents right now that are actively stating that they don’t feel safe,” Gordon said. However, these ideas still need more deliberation.

Additionally, Gordon reported on The Trevor Project’s assessment of Western. The Trevor Project is a non-profit organization working to prevent suicide among LGBTQ+ youth. They reported back to the Suicide Awareness Committee on what they could do to improve suicide prevention.

In response, the committee is drafting a strategic plan to improve suicide prevention on campus. Among their plan is a QPR training program. This program teaches people how to prevent suicide when someone’s in a crisis.

Last Wednesday, a master trainer from QPR came to Western.

They trained a number of faculty and students on how to use QPR, then became certified trainers themselves. Gordon was among those trained, and now hopes to inform others on this method.

Research has shown, according to Gordon, that having a high population of QPR trained citizens decreases the suicide rates in that area dramatically.

Hunter Eider, ASVP for Academic Affairs, reported on the faculty senate’s recent meeting with President Sabah Randhawa and Provost Brent Carbajal, in which ideals of shared governance on campus were discussed. These discussions were spurred after Western signed a third party contract with Study Group without consulting faculty.

At the meeting, faculty stated they want better communication pathways, as well as more student involvement in shared governance, according to Eider.

Ramirez then informed the Board that, in addition to Local Lobby Day, ESC Lobby Day and Environmental Lobby Day, there will be a Disability Outreach Center lobby day this upcoming year.

The Birds and the Bees w/ Gwen Frost TW: assault, rape, power dynamics Love Column, I was assaulted about two years ago, and without going into specifics, it has been an interesting journey re-engaging with my sexual activity and sexuality again after the trauma. Why I am actually writing is this: I have been unable to push one sexual fantasy out of my head as of late, which troubles me. It’s a fantasy involving being heavily dominated, almost like a rape-fantasy. I obviously don’t want to be raped, and have a lot of fear and baggage surrounding the reality of a situation like that, but viewing porn related to and fantasizing about a power dynamic of total submission is really attractive to me, and I feel like there is something wrong with me (also given my history, shouldn’t it be triggering to fantasize about??) Is this a normal reaction to assault? Does this have any relation to my assault? Should I try to dissuade these thoughts?

-Conflicted Dear Conflicted, First I would like to say thank you for writing in, and and I am proud of you for embarking on a journey of re-engaging with your sexuality after trauma. It is a hard road to navigate, and there will be a lot of emotional baggage and unknown triggers that can be surprise-encounters on the way.

When someone is assaulted, they are often denied their own agency of what they would like to do with their body, because of their lack of or inability to give consent.

Fantasizing about something happening to you in a hypothetical scenario gives you something that you wouldn’t have in an actual situation of assault: power, autonomy and control. When we fantasize about situations where we do not have power, we still have power over every aspect of the situation: how far our partner(s) go, what boundaries they push, and when the encounter should stop.

We control both their and our own abilities and desires, which gives us a comfortability as we are not confronted by things we do not have an active interest in engaging with.

There can be a certain amount of empowerment to be embodied in a rape-fantasy for sexual assault survivors.

Through the fantasy, you reclaim the personal agency to be however submissive you wish, with whomever you wish. And in your case, you may feel you are able to assert power in a situation where you were once powerless.

Many people that I personally know have felt more comfortable engaging in dominant-submissive sex or roleplay with someone who they are in a trusting relationship. To give someone the benefit of trust by letting them be dominant within your own set boundaries is an

immense offering of trust, because you are trusting them to not take it too far, to not take advantage of you.

David Ley is a Clinical Psychologist and author who has studied sex and ethics, and authored three books regarding sex and relationships in the past ten years.

“We should not automatically characterize this fantasy as a symptom of an illness, resulting from a history of rape or sexual assault,” he said. “Instead, we may need to consider the possibility that this fantasy represents a normal, even a healthy, attempt by a person to regain some control over their sexuality, and the way in which their traumatic history affects them.”

I’m unsure of your gender identity, but I have found a lot of prevalence in studies about women experiencing what are called “rape-fantasies.” I believe these findings can be relatable or insightful for any gender identity.

In a 2009 Journal of Sex Research article, two psychologists from North Texas University asked 355 college women how often they had fantasies of being overpowered/raped by a man/woman against their will.

When using the word “overpowered,” 52 percent of women said they had experienced this fantasy. When the word “rape” was used, 32 percent reported experiencing it. Your fear of being raped is reasonably juxtaposed by the mental eroticization of scenario where you can control and recontextualize the sexual aspects of a traumatic event.

Though I do believe our society romanticizes sexual domination (often male domination), I am not convinced that these fantasies stem entirely from social conditioning.

Check out the podcast episode “Sex Gets Real 125: Rejection, rape fantasies, painting consent violators as evil” with Dawn Serra on Spotify.

In the podcast, Serra says “as a rape survivor, there is something for me very empowering about choosing to give my power away and being able to play that out with someone I trust. And It’s this re-telling of what it means to have either my power taken away or giving my power away.”

In summation, no, you’re fantasies are not something that should be triggering (or not triggering). Because this has been a persistent fantasy for you, I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility that it has emanated as a product of your assault. However, people who have either a) not been assaulted or b) not had your particular experience have shared the same eroticization.

I think you should only try to dissuade these thoughts if they are traumatizing or causing you pain. But I believe the anguish about whether your fantasies are abnormal is something you can let go of, because these kinds of fantasies aren’t abnormal. And for some people, they are even therapeutic.

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Don’t let dead week get you down

Lighten up your prep week load with this fun, study-inspired word search!

finals study Wilson Library group projects books test essay flashcard procrastinate sleep crying screaming accepting fate