Vol. 30 # #.#.#
2 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Students leave elevators in the Viking Union Thursday, April 19. Composite by Hailey Hoffman // AS Review
Event Calendar PALS Poetry and Lyric Night April 23 // 7-9 p.m. // UGCH // Free
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 © 2018. 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.
Come for a night of poetry and good writing. Whether you like to listen or create, this is a safe space for you.
Wall-E Movie Night April 23 // 7-9 p.m. // MH 138 // Free
Erasmus Baxter Kira Stussy Hailey Hoffman Josh Hughes Gwen Frost Julia Berkman Hailey Murphy Photographer Jaden Moon Adviser Jeff Bates
April 25 // 11a.m.-3 p.m. //VU 565 // Free Come and bring your clothes to the Earth Day Clothing Swap. This is part of the Earth day celebration that will be happening on campus. This is a great way to connect with the Western community and share a love of the earth!
Earth Day: Fruit Tree Planting
The little robot we all know and love is coming to Western’s campus. Don’t miss the showing of Wall-E in Milller Hall 138 to get your Disney fix. This event is free for all Western students (don’t forget your ID).
April 25 // 11 a.m.-3 p.m.// Outback Farm // Free
Tuesday Open Rehearsal
Outback Farm even better?
April 24 // 8-10 p.m. //BH 225 // Free If you are interested in improv or already an expert at it, this is a fun space for you. Come and practice your improv skills every Tuesday. All levels welcome. Hosted by the Dead Parrots Society.
Backcountry Cooking Clinic April 24 // 4:30-5:30 p.m. // OC // Free
Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Writers
Earth Day Clothing Swap
Learn everything you need to know about cooking in the backcountry. Starve no longer when you go camping or backpacking with the new skills you will acquire at this clinic. All clinics put on by the OC are free for students.
Spend your Earth day planting trees and hanging with cool people. What better way to celebrate, then to make the
Earth Day Celebration Concert April 25 // 7-9 p.m. // UGCH// Free Finish off your Earth Day celebration with this concert that will be hosted by AS Productions. This will involve live music and great bands.
The Incredibles Movie Night April 26 // 7-9 p.m.// MH 138 // Free If you thought Wall-E was not enough Disney for one week, never fear! There will be a free showing of The Incredibles in Miller Hall 138. It’s going to be “totally wicked”!
4.23. 2018 • 3
Inaccurate Western Alert, no update issued
EVENTS
BY ASIA FIELDS
On March 28, University Police discovered that an earlier report of a man peering into stalls in a women’s restroom was actually a woman just listening to music in the restroom lounge. A Western Alert had been issued on March 5, but no update was provided to campus. The Office of Communications and Marketing sends out the alerts in conjunction with University Police. Paul Cocke, university director of communications and marketing, said follow-up police investigations are not appropriate for a Western Alert unless there is an imminent or continuing threat. Cocke said the alert was sent because the reported person was seen as a potential threat. The reporting person said the suspect was trying to look through the cracks of the stall door from the lounge attached to the restroom, according to police records. During the investigation, a University Police officer told someone familiar with the suspect (who did not want to identify them) that police would put out pictures of the suspect and call on the community to identify them if they didn’t come
forward, according to the police report. On March 28, someone familiar to the suspect told University Police the suspect is a woman who was embarrassed about being misgendered, according to the report. The person told police the woman was actually just listening to music on her laptop and accidentally made eye contact with the person using the restroom, as there was a large gap in the stall door. The reporting person chased the suspect out of the restroom and took video of them as they ran away, according to the report. Police noted the suspect was wearing headphones in the video and concluded no crime was committed. Cocke said University Police had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the witness report until further investigation. “Prior to the message being sent, there was discussion of gender issues, particularly since this happened in a restroom, but it is important to note that Western Alerts are sent out quickly when there often is not time for complete police invesCONTINUED PG. 4
Western to reimburse jaywalking tickets BY ERASMUS BAXTER
Western has decided to reimbursed the $1,564 worth of jaywalking citations issued by University Police last Thursday, according to an article on Western Today posted Wednesday, April 19. University Police Chief Darin Rasmussen met with several students before deciding they had not provided enough notification beforehand, according to the article. “In retrospect, we should definitely have done more in the way of notification, before issuing tickets. The goal of the enforcement action was never intended to be punitive, but to alert our campus community to the dangers of jaywalking,” he said. Students who received the tickets will get an email with information about getting the ticket reimbursed, according to the article. The money will come from the WWU Foundation, Paul Cocke, director of communications and marketing, said. The money will go to Whatcom County District Court, where the tickets are adjudicated. “Oh thank god!” Fatuma Hussein, one of the 28 students who received a ticket, said in a Facebook
message when told about the decision. While she hadn’t seen the email from the university yet, she was glad the university understood how unfair the situation was to its students, she said. “Most importantly, I’m grateful to all the fellow Western students that spoke out about this and stood amongst each other to fight against something so unfair even if they’re not the ones who got the ticket,” she said in a message. “It really made a difference.” Rasmussen said that campus police will consider to emphasize jaywalking as a safety issue however. While jaywalking continues to be of high concern, more education of the campus community is necessary before major police enforcement, Cocke said. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommends a three-pronged approach of engineering, education and enforcement,” he said in an email. As of 1:20 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, a sign warning students about jaywalking remained at the intersection outside the Wade King Rec Center, where the tickets were issued.
Top Ten Records: Jan. 21-27 1
Little Dark Age MGMT
2
SLUFF Naked Giants
3
Vessel Frankie Cosmos
4
All in my Mind Dr. Lonnie Smith
5
Gumboot Soup King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
6
Rock Island Palm
7
Undercover Mixtape Orgone
8
I’ll Be Your Girl The Decemberists
9
The House Porches
10
Acid Dad Acid Dad 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
Board of Trustees approve rule changes
BY ASIA FIELDS
The Board of Trustees approved permanent rules for demonstrations and dangerous weapons, following up on the emergency changes it made in October. University Police Chief Darin Rasmussen said there are only minor changes between the emergency and permanent rules. President Sabah Randhawa said the changes are coming after an extensive rulemaking process and opportunities for input from the campus community. Calls for comment and hearings for the rule changes were publicly posted in accordance to state law. Only administrators were present at the hearings for both of the rules, with the exception of a Western Front reporter covering the meeting. There was one written testimony sent in by a student who said they wanted to protect free speech and allow students to carry firearms on campus. The permanent rule changes were developed by Associate Dean for Student Engagement Eric Alexander and personnel from the Attorney General’s Office, Risk Management, Public Safety, Government Relations, Office of Student Life, Associated Students and United Faculty of Western Washington.
What changes were made?
Demonstrations -The title “Demonstrations” was changed to “Freedom of Expression and Prohibited Conduct.” -Addition of: “The university further recognizes that it is committed to a safe campus, ensuring the safety of its community members and preventing loss or damage to its facilities or property.” -Changed the focus on the demonstrations taking place in an appropriate manner to “time, place, and manner.” -Adds in a section forbidding
threatening behavior or communication that would cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety or is “so persistent, pervasive, or severe as to deny a person’s ability to substantially participate in the university community.” -Adds prohibiting violation of the rules on firearms, weapons, armor or armaments. -Adds that those found in violation of these rules can be trespassed. Firearms -The title “Firearms and Dangerous Weapons” was changed to to “Weapons and Armaments Prohibited.” -Adds definitions for weapons, armor and armaments, and firearms. -Adds ammunition and armaments to explanation of what only law enforcement officers can carry on campus. -Added that those who bring firearms and weapons to campus must receive prior written authorization by Public Safety, which will establish conditions if approved. -Clarifies that without prior authorization, individuals must immediately place weapons or firearms in the university’s 24-hour storage facility at the public safety department (which was the rule for bringing firearms to campus before). -Adds university-owned property and university sponsored events to places where the rule applies. -Added that possessing a concealed pistol license from Washington is not an exemption, but that this section does not prevent individuals from having a pistol in their vehicle. -Added that some sports equipment, kitchen utensils, lab materials, safety training equipment and props that could qualify as weapons are permitted to be used for their intended purpose. -Adds that violations are subject to disciplinary or legal action.
Why the changes?
Melynda Huskey, vice president for enrollment and student services, said the emergency rule changes came after violent demonstrations at the University of Virginia and University of Washington. Huskey said the rules are for Western to be more prepared to respond to and prevent similar circumstances on campus. Alexander said Rasmussen led this effort and started the conversation about looking at these rules.
Is this legal?
Huskey said the new rules are to protect students, not restrict free speech. “We weren’t looking to regulate in any way what I believe is the characteristic creativity and energy that our students bring to the expression of a variety of political and other cultural expressions,” she said. “We do not want, though, for any of our students to ever be in a position facing violence or significant harm because we didn’t have the appropriate structure of regulation in place.” Trustee John Meyer asked if the Office of the Attorney General had any concerns about the Constitutional implication of either rule change. Assistant attorney general Kerena Higgins said the office feels the rules are within the university’s legal bounds. “When you’re looking at safety versus rights, somebody might disagree, but our office stands prepared to represent the institution if someone does have a challenge or an issue and we feel that there is a legal basis to go in and represent the institution,” Higgins said. Another rule being considered on use of campus facilities is still making its way through the hearing process and will reach the Board at a later date.
Western Alert continued from pg. 3 tigation,” Cocke said in an email. “In this case later police investigation determined the initial witness report to be mistaken as to the gender of the person in the restroom.” University Police responded to a report of a suspicious person in the Environmental Studies building on March 5 at 1:39 p.m. The Western Alert was sent out around an hour and a half after the incident, at 3:13 p.m., and did not include that the suspect was reported to be looking into stalls. “By their nature and to be most effective, alerts are sent out as soon as possible after a report,” Cocke said. “Because of that sometimes details are fragmented, or not yet clearly understood.” University Police emails show the officer who responded to the report did not email Cocke until 2:57 p.m., and said the delay was because he was dispatched on a felony contact. Evelyn Hobbs, Associated Students Queer Resource Center coordinator, said it’s valid for a person to be alarmed if they think someone is committing an act of voyeurism. However, she said it’s odd to assume the person was not supposed to be in the restroom because of their perceived gender. She said the gender of the supposed voyeur shouldn’t have been the alarming factor, and that this case touches on a bigger controversy about gender and restrooms. “The controversy is almost entirely based on unfounded fears,” she said about discrimination against people who do not appear to conform with the gender of the bathroom they use. Hobbs is concerned about the discrimination faced by transgender and gender non-conforming people who try to access restrooms on campus, most of which are gendered. “It can be awkward to play that sort of game that’s like, ‘What do I look more like today to not be hurt while I’m going to the bathroom?’” she said. The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality found more than half of respondents said they’d avoided a public restroom in the past year because they feared confrontation. Around 30 percent of respondents reported avoiding eating or drinkCONTINUED PG. 5
Ana Ramirez gets her job back Former Associated Students Vice President for Governmental Affairs Ana Ramirez will return to her position Wednesday after the AS Board decided to set aside the bylaws and give her the position back. The AS Board made the decision on Friday, April 13 after discussing it in closed executive sessions during their meetings that day and the previous Friday. Ramirez sent a letter asking for the position back to the board that they read during the second executive session. “I’m very excited, it doesn’t feel real honestly. I’ve waited so long for this,” she said in an interview. Ramirez, who is undocumented, stepped down February 5 after being prevented from fully taking the position due to her lack of work authorization. She cited a lack of support and the stress of trying to do the job in the face of institutional resistance as reasons for stepping down, in a statement at the time. AS President Simrun Chhabra said they are excited to have Ramirez back. “This is our chance to do right by this community who’s been severely marginalized,” they said. “It’s an opportunity and I hope we will use it to its full advantage to be able to create a space where these students who hold undocumented identities or, even like, marginalized identities find themselves being empowered.” In making the decision, the board decided to ignore the process set in the bylaws to fill an AS Board vacancy. Ch-
4.23. 2018 • 5
BY ERASMUS BAXTER
habra said in a Facebook message stop trying. And I didn’t want oththat she will issue a press release er people to think they could do later this week explaining why that to undocumented students, they decided to ignore the bylaws. and I didn’t want other undocThe board had previously deumented students to think they cided to ignore the bylaws by leavshould also give up.” ing the position open. They did The other reason she wanted to so to recognize that students had come back: she loved her job. elected Ramirez and that there While she pointed out it took were structural issues preventing till the next AS election for her to her from filling the position, they finally fully assume her job, she’s said in a statement at the time. still excited to help coordinate According to the bylaws, a federal lobby day (she wants to vacancy on the board is supposed end up in congress one day) and to be filled by holding a widely work on the Washington Student publicized 10-day filing period Association’s legislative agenda for to solicit applicants, and then next year. waiting five days for the AS Board Both federal lobby day, and the to pick from at least two of the upcoming local lobby day will candidates that the AS President feature items supporting undocupicks to bring to the board. mented students, Chhabra said. Since Ramirez resigned she Now that she has work authorihas been approved for Deferred zation Ramirez isn’t worried about Action for Childhood Arrivals any pushback in taking her role (DACA), an Obama-era program she said, but she sees the fact that that allows undocumented people it took getting DACA to allow that who arrived as children to obtain as problematic. She said the uniwork authorization that she apversity should support all undocuplied for after being elected. mented students, or at least try to. Ramirez said a conversation Despite all she’s been through Ana Ramirez pose for her portrait last June. with another undocumented she’d still encourage undocumentstudent at “Beyond HB1079”, a ed students to run for the board, Hailey Hoffman // AS Review conference for undocumented even without DACA, she said. students in Washington where she “I have seen changes in the AS “I kind of became a symbol for unwas a keynote speaker in March, helped and across the university just from me documented students,” Ramirez said. convince her to retake the job. The alone,” she said. “…That’s happening be“I felt really bad for leaving in the first student asked Ramirez if she should still cause even though I didn’t have DACA I place, because I felt it showed if you do transfer to Western after what Ramirez still wanted to try.” push undocumented students away long went through. enough they will eventually leave and
CONTINUED FROM PG. 4 ing so they would not need to use a public restroom, and 12 percent reported being verbally harassed in a restroom in the past year. Hobbs also said she doesn’t feel Western Alerts typically provide students with much useful information, nor is there ever any follow up. “The follow through on a lot of the Western Alerts is literally nothing,” she said. She said it would help address student concerns and worries if the university provided updates on per-
ceived safety threats. Cocke said the university has been discussing how to communicate non-emergency information with campus not using Western Alerts, when asked if the university considered updating the public on the result of this case. However, he said emails are poorly read, and too many non-emergency text messages would lessen the urgency to read Western Alerts. “The University constantly reviews and seeks out lessons learned from all such incidents,” Cocke said. “The goal is to continuously
improve response in order to provide the best possible safety and security to the campus.” Hobbs said anyone who faces discrimination in restrooms can access the Queer Resource Center for support. Staff are in the office (VU 515) Mondays from 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesdays 12:30-2:30 p.m. and 3-4:30 p.m.; Wednesdays 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursdays 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Hobbs can be contacted at as.qrc@wwu.edu.
6 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Elevator outages trap students More than 30 students have been trapped in Viking Union elevators since 2015
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BY HAILEY MURPHY Despite a recent grant to repair and modernize Western’s elevators, breakdowns continue to raise concerns for students. Since 2015, 160 instances of elevator malfunctions have been reported to University Police or maintenance, according to university police logs. “I’m not aware of any industry standards against which we could judge the abnormality of this,” said Paul Cocke, Director of Marketing and Communications. “Overall, Western is engaged in an ongoing cyclic renewal program to keep elevators reliable and as safe as possible.” Hannah Spencer, AS Representation & Engagement Programs Director, was stuck in a Viking Union elevator for a short time during fall quarter. According to Spencer, the doors closed and the elevator wouldn’t move, no matter what button was pressed. “It was only 10 minutes, but we had already set up a designated pee corner in case we were actually stuck,” Spencer said. When she worked at the Viking Union front desk, Spencer often received calls about broken elevators, sometimes as often as twice a week. Elevators in the VU have broken down 40 times since 2015, according to University Police logs, more than any other building on campus. In three out of four of those instances, at least one person was trapped inside. “At least until the VU construction started, there was only one elevator that made it possible to regularly access [the fifth floor,]” Dee Mooney, Disability Outreach Center Coordinator, said. “So if that elevator breaks down, and it has a couple of times, it’s impossible to reach the Disability Outreach Center.” In addition to the VU, there have been frequent breakdowns in Park’s Hall (14), Eden’s Hall (11) and Miller Hall (11). Such breakdowns, if not quickly resolved, restrict accessibility for students who rely on elevators. According to Mooney, students have been stranded both inside and outside their room as a result of breakdowns. “Depending upon how long it takes to fix the elevator, it can be an issue of needing to go bed; needing to be able to get out and eat; or [needing to] go to class. It really impedes many aspects of daily functioning,” Mooney said.
Kaylee Martig, a junior on the Disability Advocacy Committee, said that when a student is trapped outside their room, University Police retrieve their belongings from the room and house them in a ground-level room temporarily. Martig described this experience as “humiliating and unnecessary.” Martig and the DAC lobbied for a $6.7 million grant to improve Western’s elevators last year. According to Cocke, Western received about half of that, and in the previous budget cycle, received $1.1 million. “The money is used to make sure all the mechanical components are reliable and the operating controls are updated to modern standards,” Cocke said. “In addition, the elevators are brought up to current ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Accessible Design standards.” Mooney said the grants will cover 29 elevator renovations. However, more money is still needed to update all 66 elevators on campus. According to Matthew Erlich, spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, 57 of the elevators on campus were built between 1963 and 2003, so it’s not surprising that many elevators are experiencing issues. “Like any aging machine, maintenance becomes extremely important,” Erlich said. “If that’s a problem, we tend to see more outages or malfunctions.” Western is required by law to keep elevators maintained. However, they’re not required to report breakdowns to the Department of Labor & Industries “unless there is an accident,” Elrich said. Elevators in high traffic area with obsolete parts and a history of breakdowns will be prioritized, Cocke said. While “unplanned services outages” are reported to Disability Resources and the Equal Opportunity Office, according to Cocke, Martig believes that the many students who rely on elevators across campus, including herself, deserve access to real-time information about what and when elevators are down. “There are things being done about it,” Mooney said, “But the elevators that are being renovated are not all of the elevators that need it.”
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d Students leave elevators in the Viking Union Thursday, April 19. The VU has had the most elevatort o breakdowns in the last 3 years. Hailey Hoffman // W AS Review
Academic dishonesty reports on rise since 2010
4.23. 2018 • 7
Analysis of 17 years of data shows most common majors and infractions for reports BY HAILEY PALMER
A Western computer science professor was browsing RentACoder, a website where people can pay for coding solutions to problems, when he came across something familiar. It was a student offering money for a solution to one of the professor’s assignments. The professor asked Aran Clauson, another computer science professor, if it would be wrong to write a solution to the problem, get paid by the student and then fail the student for submitting the work he gave him through the website. Yes, it would be wrong, Clauson told his colleague, but that’s only one example of a larger problem at Western. Reports of academic dishonesty spiked in the 2012-2013 academic year with 88 incidents reported. There were 64 incidents reported in the previous academic year. Reports have remained steadily high ever since, with more than 90 reports in each academic year since 2012, according to academic dishonesty data from Western. The finance department had the highest rate of academic dishonesty reports from 2000-2017 with 35 reports for the 10,699 students enrolled in finance classes for that period, a rate of .3271 percent. The computer science department followed with 146 reports for 60,211 students enrolled in its classes, a rate of .2425 percent. With the third highest rate, the journalism department had 34 reports with an enrollment of 31,977 students or .1063 percent. Plagiarism was the most common violation in all three departments. Other violations were collaborating on homework, cheating on homework and submitting another student’s work. The data used in this story, broken down by academic year, department and rtype of violation from 2000-2017, was obtained by a public records request to Western. Over 90 academic dishonesty
report forms from the 2016-2017 academic year were also examined. Plagiarism is consistent Kinesiology Assistant Professor Jessyca Arthur-Cameselle serves as a member of the Academic Honesty board at Western. At the beginning of winter quarter 2017, she required students to pass an online plagiarism test which showed how to cite sources and avoid plagiarism. Later that quarter, a student in her class submitted an assignment that included a sentence that was copied and pasted directly from a web source, according to an incident report filed by Arthur-Cameselle on Feb. 10, 2017. “[The student] did not use quotation marks or provide a citation for the sentence,” Arthur-Cameselle wrote in the report. “When I talked with [the student] about the issue, he understood why it was considered plagiarism and stated that he had intended to reword the sentence into his own words but forgot.” Students enrolled in Arthur-Cameselle’s course were aware of how to properly cite sources because of the plagiarism test taken at the beginning of the quarter, according to the incident report.
“I would say the majority of [reports] is plagiarism in one form or another,” Keller said. “Either it’s improperly citing stuff from other places, but it also can be using your work for two different classes.” Keller said academic honesty is important in journalism. The department puts an emphasis on ethics and integrity in its classes. “In journalism, especially today where good journalism is under attack from so many sides, we really want to make sure our students understand all of the ethical implications of what they’re doing and what they’re writing so they can go out and be good journalists,” Keller said. “That’s one of the reasons we are very Graph by Hailey Palmer strict about making sure they understand the impact when they’re out Arthur-Cameselle gave the student a being a reporter in the business because zero for the writing portion of that assignit’s so important for our field.” ment. Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, associate dean Plagiarism was the most frequently of the College of Science and Engineerreported violation in the three departing and part of the Western Coalition for ments with the highest rates of academic Integrity, said the plagiarism she sees in dishonesty. student work is what she would call uninFinance Department Chair Ed Love tentional plagiarism. said plagiarism is easier to discover today “In the digital age, when we write than in the past. papers, we usually have a resource in “We used to run into a fair amount of front of us that we’re using as background plagiarism,” Love said. “I haven’t had a information for our papers,” Caplan-Austraight up plagiarism incident in awhile. erbach said. “When I’m writing my own Part of it is because plagiarism is so much research and reading some background easier to detect these days.” reading or looking at a previous study, I’ll Of the 35 reports of academic dishonesoften read that and be writing my own ty in the finance department from 2000paper and it’s very difficult if I’ve got that 2017, 11 of the reports, or 31 percent, [previous study] in front of me to write it were from plagiarism, according to acain any different words.” demic dishonesty data from Western. Of Former liberal studies instructor the 146 in the computer science departStephanie Maher ran into an incident of ment in that same time frame, 33 were unintentional plagiarism in one of her considered plagiarism, accounting for 23 courses during fall quarter 2016. percent of the total reports. For the 34 According to an incident report filed reports in the journalism department, 24 on Dec. 16, 2016, Maher caught a student were noted as plagiarism, or 71 percent. who had plagiarized from more than one Journalism Department Chair Jenwebsite on their final exam. The student nifer Keller said plagiarism is the most common type of violation she sees in the CONTINUED PG. 8 department.
8 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Academic dishonesty continued from pg. 7
said they had misunderstood the instructions and was told by the Writing Center to use the websites, according to the report. The student ranked in the top 1 percent of the class, Maher wrote in the report, so she found it odd for them to include the information without proper citations. “After discussing the matter with him, however, I firmly believe that this was an unintentional mistake,” Maher wrote in the report. “I made it clear to him the critical importance of academic honesty and advised him to cite any and all sources in the future.” Maher offered the student the opportunity to submit a 15-page research paper to make up for the final exam. Plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional, is still an issue, Caplan-Auerbach said. “The problem is that plagiarism involves taking someone else’s work. Not just because you’re trying to represent it as your own or steal ideas,” Caplan-Auerbach said. “You’re stealing their effort and the time it took for them to craft the
to a problem are two different things, with the latter being more important, Clauson said. “At the end of the day, it’s all about my ability to look at their work and give them a grade,” Clauson said. “If they submit something to me that’s not their own work and doesn’t really reflect their mastery of the material, then that’s cheating.” Other violations in the department include 19 reports of collaborating on homework, 13 reports of using unauthorized resources and nine reports of unauthorized collaboration.
Photo illustration by Hailey Hoffman // AS Review right phrase and pick the words that best described it.” Clauson said the plagiarism he sees in the computer science department is typically students copying code and ideas. He said he also sees students lifting solutions and code from Stack Overflow, a question and answer website, but not being able to explain how the solution works. “If you understand how it works I’m happy, just come in and explain how it works,” Clauson said. “Students who lift it from Stack Overflow can’t explain it.” Students who are caught plagiarizing in the computer science department are usually 200-level students struggling their way through the class and department, Clauson said. Caplan-Auerbach takes a similar approach to Clauson when she suspects a student of cheating. “In some cases, a student is able to explain what happened, and it ends there,” Caplan-Auerbach said. “If the student is not satisfactorily able to explain what happened then there is an e-form that we fill out.”
Violations and Reporting Them In addition to plagiarism, collaboration on homework and tests was the most reported violation from 2000-2017 in the finance, computer science and journalism departments. The mathematics and environmental studies departments had the next highest percentage of reports with cheating on a test and plagiarism being the most common type of violation. Caplan-Auerbach said the College of Science and Engineering has recently put an emphasis on catching and reporting academic dishonesty. “It has kind of been on our radar as faculty and we’ve been trying to be more proactive at [catching] it for probably about five years,” Caplan-Auerbach said. “We’re fighting to be a little more vocal about it.” Cheating on homework and submitting another student’s work were each reported 25 times from 2000-2017 in the computer science department. Having a solution to a homework problem and being able to develop a solution
Caught In The Act For online submissions, professors have the option to run assignments through an anti-plagiarism software called Vericite. Western previously used a software called Turnitin until summer 2017. These software aid in catching plagiarism by checking the internet and any previous assignments submitted through the software for similar language or phrasing. While the software helps, Keller said it is still up to a professor to determine what is and isn’t plagiarism. She said the journalism department encourages all professors to use the software. Software such as Vericite only checks for the language in a paper or an assign- u ment and not for citations so there are g other approaches the journalism depart- l ment takes to not only catch plagiarism, i but all kinds of cheating. s “We talk to each other if we get something turned in and we’re like, ‘This V doesn’t sound like the student,’” Keller h said. “Especially if you’ve had the student for awhile you can tell by their phrasing i and tone that the language isn’t something 2 they would normally use.” c Some professors in the computer sci- i ence department use Measure of Software t Similarity to catch students copying code. s The system is similar to Vericite or Turnitin, but used specifically for code and d program solutions. t Clauson said he personally isn’t a fan of using Vericite to check for plagiarism. a “I find that Vericite is completely d t CONTINUED PG. 9
What’s going on in the Underground Coffee House this quarter As usual, there’s a lot going on at the Underground this quarter. On top of the normal Open Mics (that occur every Tuesday at 7 p.m.), the various trivia nights, and semi-regular poetry evenings, there’s also the Wednesday Night Concert Series. Every Wednesday at 7 p.m., a couple of bands perform at the Underground for no cost to the public. This quarter is especially exciting because of Western’s yearly Battle of The Bands, the winner of which will get a slot at Lawnstock in June. Even if you’ve missed the last couple of weeks, which included DJ Slab Serif, Razzleberry, and The Black Tones, there’s still plenty of music throughout the next couple months. This Wednesday, April 25, Porch Cat, Crooked Neighbors and Bob Fossil will perform. Porch Cat is a queer, feminist power pop band comprised of Chan Barraza, Emily Ayden and Molly Ada. They write songs about “queer pain and queer joy”, with specific focus on gender identi-
April 25: Porch Cat, Crooked Neighbors and Bob Fossil perform
April 30: “Your Name” by director Makoto Shinkai
ty, illness, and the assorted emotions that come with both. “I know I like my body when it’s with yours” goes the chorus to one of their two released songs on bandcamp, “Bummed Out”. Crooked Neighbors, on the other hand, is a quintet that writes folk influenced music with prominent cello and acoustic guitar. Their sound fluctuates between songs, even taking certain influences from bluegrass and roots music. They’ve been a staple of the Bellingham music scene for the last three years. Last for the evening is Bob Fossil, made up of Kenny Clarkson, Hank Miller, Joe Canfield, Corey Teply, and Alan Schellenberger. Another Bellingham favorite, they write and play richly arranged rock music that draws on funk, progressive rock, and alternative music. They just released their debut album “Safety Meeting” last fall, which features short and sweet songs that hope to share “a meaningful human experience with people throughout the world via music”.
Academic dishonesty continued from pg. 8
useless,” Clauson said. “The positives I’m getting are clichés. Turnitin was a whole lot faster and when it said something was in the 10 to 15 percent range it means that several sentences [were plagiarized].” While Clauson doesn’t prefer using Vericite, anti-plagiarism software has helped him in the past. According to an academic dishonesty incident report filed by Clauson on May 3, 2017, a student submitted a paper which contained sections that were directly copied from Wikipedia. The paper was run through Turnitin and Clauson gave the student a zero for the assignment. “It’s easy to cut and paste out of Wikipedia,” Clauson said. “It’s really easy to find, too.” Caplan-Auerbach said one of the approaches she knows of to catching academic dishonesty was certain professors talking to their classes about cheating at
the beginning of the quarter. “[T]here wasn’t any kind of university-wide statement about it,” Caplan-Auerbach said. “What we’d rather do is talk about why this matters and why we care about this.”
Moving Forward There were 41 reports of academic dishonesty during fall quarter 2017, which is almost half of the 97 total reports during the 2016-2017 academic year. The Western Coalition for Integrity is aiming to encourage academic honesty among professors and students. “What can we do as a university to promote integrity and make it clear why this stuff matters to us,” Caplan-Auerbach said. “We’re really just trying, bit by bit, to educate the community that this is going on.” Caplan-Auerbach and the Western
BY JOSH HUGHES
After their performance this week, the next four Wednesdays will be completed dedicated to the Battle of the Bands. The nine bands competing are as follows: Animal Inside, Mount Saturn, Great Snakes, India Glover, Cat Valley, Katerina Moran, Middle James, Laughingstock and Dirty Ferns. Each round will feature three of the previously mentioned artists and the three finalists will get to compete again on May 30. On May 23, in between the preliminaries and final round of the Battle of the Bands, WWU Jazz Combo will give a full evening performance at the Underground. Beyond the upcoming concerts, the UGCH will host a screening of the animated film “Your Name” by director Makoto Shinkai on April 30 at 7 p.m. All of the above mentioned events are free for any and all to attend. The Underground is located on the third floor of the VU.
May 23: WWU Jazz Combo and Battle of the Bands ends
May 2: Battle of the Bands begins
4.23. 2018 •
Coalition for Integrity are focused on identifying ways to more broadly start a discussion about academic integrity. “Prior to last year, all information about integrity or academic dishonesty was relegated to Appendix D of the online catalog, which means not a soul on this planet read it until they got busted for something,” Caplan-Auerbach said. “This is not a very proactive approach on the part of the university to deal with integrity.” Professors using the e-form and reporting incidents of academic dishonesty is something Caplan-Auerbach would like to see. The use of e-forms in reporting academic dishonesty was implemented only a few years ago and prior to that, professors had to fill out the form by hand. “[Faculty] had to find some word document to fill out and nobody knew where it was or where to find it and it was huge,”
May 30: Battle of the Bands finalists
Caplan-Auerbach said. “They needed to make six copies of everything, it was just an enormous hassle.” A goal Caplan-Auerbach and other professors have for the future is for incidents of academic dishonesty to also be a learning experience for the students involved. “We would like to have sanctions that are educational not just punitive,” Caplan-Auerbach said. “We would like this to actually be something where [students] don’t just get busted, they learn why it’s an issue.” Clauson also said he tries to turn reports of academic dishonesty into a learning opportunity if appropriate for the violation. “We are fundamentally a place where people learn and if you can’t learn from your mistakes here, where are you going to learn from them?” Clauson said.
HIR: A complex play about family and gender BY HAILEY MURPHY
“Max, come explain your gender ambiguity to your brother!” Paige calls out, amidst the old pizza boxes and strewn pieces of laundry. She’s tried explaining Max’s pronouns to Isaac– they’re even mapped out on the fridge with children’s alphabet magnets. But Isaac’s just been dishonorably discharged from the marines, and the home he’s arrived to is completely unfamiliar. His father, Arnold, has had a stroke, leaving his mother– Paige– to run the home. Free from Arnold’s abuse, Paige lives in constant defiance of her old life. Which means keeping the home in disorder, never eating fried chicken and dressing Arnold up in nightgowns to chip at his masculinity. On top of that, Isaac’s sister Max now identifies as transmasculine, using the pronouns ze and hir. Isaac struggles to understand Max and quickly tries to restore order, yet Max and Paige are unwilling to slip back into their painful past. The result is a conflict between tradition and family, between doing what’s humane and doing what’s deserved, between the old and the new. “Although Isaac is a stern, masculine and brute man, he is also tender and really cares for his family,” junior Christian Seavey, who plays Isaac, said. “[It’s] been really interesting to try and play those opposites and let the
love come into the show, despite all of his confusion and anger.” Don’t be fooled by the dark backdrop of the show. HIR is full of absurdity and humor. Witty one-liners and dramatic monologues carry you through it’s bleak– albeit accurate– view of the American family. “The humor makes the play bearable. It makes it human and near… It helps anyone identify with this family,” Bellamy Ridinger, who plays Max, said. “Parts of the show might seem extreme, but in the end I think this is a very organic representation of something that is all too regular. Humor helps us see how this family is everywhere, and it shows us how we all cope and try to solve problems.” If you’re looking to have all the answers wrapped in a neat little bow, Hir probably isn’t the show for you. The situations are complex and there’s lots of grey. Don’t search for the all-virtuous protagonist, because you won’t find one. Instead you’ll find characters who are flawed, who may be justified in their viewpoints but rigid within them, who have both good and bad inside themselves. The characters embody the complexity of human nature. “Although it’s an absurd-like play, there’s a lot of relevance and relation within these characters. I hope audiences can see themselves in that, and think about how
they might be affecting their lives and the lives around them,” William Eames, understudy for the role of Arnold, said. HIR comments on a variety of issues such as drug addiction, post-traumatic stress and domestic abuse. But it’s commentary on transgender experience is most prevalent, particularly due to the contrasting viewpoints involved. Isaac represents folks who struggle with the idea of nonbinary identities, while Paige, in Max’s words, is accepting to the point of appropriation. Max’s experience in HIR informs audiences about the spectrum of gender identity. It’s presence at Western is particularly important, as this is Western’s first mainstage production that features a transgender character, according to the director’s note. Ridinger himself is transgender, and this is the first transgender character he’s played. “This American family is at once a product of the recent past and near future, and [HIR] bridges the gap between,” Ridinger said. “It reminds me to hope for the world that we are creating, but to also stay present and conscious about the lives around me. In Max’s words, ‘gender is an everyday occurrence.’”
HIR was a play full of humor that comments on the complexity of human nature, with the most prevalent commentary on transgender experience. Photo credit Audrey Hanna.
4.23. 2018 •
WTF is the strategic plan anyway? The Board of Trustees voted to approve Western’s strategic plan, which trustees lauded as a “North Star” for the university, at its meeting on Friday, April 13. The strategic plan, which is for 2018-2024, came out of an 18 month process which involved getting campus feedback, according to an email sent out by President Sabah Randhawa Thursday, April 19. The Strategic Planning Committee was co-chaired by Paqui Paredes, professor of Spanish and chair of the department of modern and classical languages, and Brian Burton, associate vice president for academic affairs. “We didn’t hear that we wanted to become a different institution, but we did hear very clearly and loudly that we need to be better,” Paredes said. Karen Lee was the only trustee who voted against the plan. She said she thinks it doesn’t adequately discuss growth or the business side of planning. At the meeting, Randhawa said he had some concerns about the targets for metrics that the committee laid out, but understood that these will be discussed in conversations across campus. He said he strongly supported the plan, which he said should be a guide, rather than providing every detail. “It’s important to remember that this plan is a broad roadmap that provides guidance as we move forward; in other words, it is the start of a journey, not the conclusion,” Randhawa said in the email sent to campus. The next step is to address funding to advance the plan, which will be done by a committee that will be formed this quarter, he said in the email. However, he said the university will move forward with the priorities in the plan, such as by hiring faculty and increasing funding for student success and retention, and increasing diversity of the student body. Bill Lyne, an English professor who served on the committee, said he recognizes that the final product will not be read by many, but that it is important for guiding the university. “As important as it is to us, there’s not one prospective student who’s going to read that thing. And there’s not one legislator, I can bet my house on this, who is going to read our strategic plan,” he said. “It’s important though, for us. And I think the identification of what
comes next in terms of resources is hugely, hugely important.”
What is a strategic plan?
A strategic plan outlines where an organization will go in the near future and how it will reach that point. They typically include mission, vision and value statements; analysis of strengths and weaknesses; and an action plan with ways to measure success. Western’s strategic plan says it is a “roadmap and vision for our future.” Randhawa instructed the Strategic Planning Committee to create a plan focused on Western’s core values and mission. The plan is also supposed to inform decisions about funding and resource allocation through 2024. The committee was charged with receiving feedback from the campus community in developing the plan and identifying strengths and challenges.
What kind of feedback did the committee get?
At the Board meeting, Paredes read a statement from Burton, the other co-chair, who was not in attendance. “In many ways, the plan is not the work of the committee, but the work of everyone at Western who in honesty and openness told us of their love for the institution, their heartache for its flaws, their pride in its strengths and their hopes for its future,” he wrote. The planning committee received 2,874 responses to their survey from faculty, staff and students. The committee also sent a survey to alumni, which received 1,293 responses. The survey respondents mostly identified Western’s strengths as faculty, the Western community and academics. The respondents identified Western’s biggest challenges as the administration, finance, faculty community and student life, and diversity.
So what’s in Western’s plan?
The plan includes four goals for Western: 1. Provide a transformative education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. 2. Advance a deeper understanding of, and engagement, with place. 3. Foster a caring and supportive environ-
BY ASIA FIELDS
ment where all members are respected and treated fairly. 4. Pursue justice and equity in its policies, practices, and impacts. The plan also outlines three ideals, which are advancing inclusive success, increasing Washington impact and enhancing academic excellence. One component of the first goal is reviewing and improving the general education requirements (GURs). The second goal is to “acknowledge and honor the richness and multiple meanings of place, from local to state, national, and global,” and to engage with this at the university in a respectful way. It includes recognizing “debts and obligations” to indigenous and Native nations and focusing on sustainability. The third goal includes strengthening shared governance, or including students, staff and faculty in decision making. It also includes supporting the physical and mental health of the campus community. The fourth goal includes recruiting and retaining more underrepresented and first-generation students, improving retention of diverse faculty and increasing affordability. It also includes protecting survivors and preventing sexual assault, as well as other types of violence, discrimination, harassment and bullying. More about the specific goals can be found in the strategic plan. The plan also includes benchmarks for success.
Why did Trustee Lee vote against it?
Trustee Karen Lee said she feels business considerations and planning for growth are important components to any strategic discussion, and is not something that should wait to be discussed later. “My concerns are really around: Is this strategy or is this a statement of values? And from my perspective as a Trustee, this document and this strategic plan are a stake in the ground about values,” she said. “But in my mind it is not strategy.” The strategic plan says that the committee saw the goals as values to be worked toward. Lee said she felt Washington State University’s plan was an example that showed specific strategies, as it includes goals such as starting
a medical school. She said that with the exception of the second goal, she doesn’t feel the goals tell strategically where the university should be in five years. She said the plan should include plans for growth, such as what will be done with residence halls to accomodate for growth. She also questioned whether a five year timeframe before the plan was reworked was too long. At the meeting on Thursday, April 14, Trustees Betti Fujikado and Chase Franklin also said they would have liked to see a little more on how the university would implement the plan. But overall, all the Trustees except Lee supported it, sometimes getting emotional about how they felt the plan embodied the spirit of Western. “To me, it’s really fitting that our values are the center of our strategic plan,” Student Trustee Trista Truemper said. She said the essence of higher education is the transformative process outlined in goal one, and that it shouldn’t be devalued, in response to Lee’s comment that it was important, but not strategic. Paredes said it wouldn’t have been possible for the committee to establish concrete actions, as these need to go through university academic and budget processes. Randhawa said the plan will need to result in concrete action, but is a guiding document. “If the plan doesn’t help us to get to that point, we have failed in our effort,” Randhawa said. Chair Sue Sharpe said she appreciates that the trustees express their differences in perspective, “so the campus community knows we’re not just little puppets.” After her vote on Friday, Lee said she values and supports the work of the strategic planning committee, and looks forward to work on business components moving forward. “I want to acknowledge that it takes a lot for an institution to be willing to uncover its perceived flaws and to be willing to put on paper to put a stake in the ground and say that we want to do better,” she said.
AS Review Red Square Bingo Someone playing ukulele or a very small guitar
Slackline with shirtless guy
Bees?
Petitioner collecting signatures
Dog or human in the fountain
Vape bubbles
Campus tour with 50+ people
Hammocks
Skateboarders Someone trips doing some sick on a brick tricks
Blood-mobile
Large circle of people playing hacky sack
Free listening people
Administration is transparent with students
Rainbow in the fountain mist
Chalk drawings
Dog surrounded by a large group of students
Frisbees
Fire and brimstone preachers
Vegans
That one guy that rides a unicycle
Artistic hoolahooping
People handing out flyers for NxNW or Gather
Barefeet
Free space
(it’s over 60 degrees (hopefully))