AS Review - May 31, 2011

05.31.11 V.26 #30

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LETTER from page 9

SLUTWALK from page 9

In other words, the “fiesta” theme dinner in a way encourages students to believe that it is okay to stereotype and participate in racist activities, even if the people partaking in these activities don’t necessarily know or understand how they’re stereotyping others or how they’re embodying racist and offensive actions. It harms them and is also particularly painful for Latina/o students who see these students as peers, see Western as a home and already see their culture being prostituted by beer and tequila companies. As a national organization that strives for social justice and the eradication of racism, we acted in the best, most appropriate way to end the “fiesta” theme dinner.

We want to recognize that many people who have partaken in Cinco de Mayo celebrations which we find offensive haven’t ever been exposed to the truth behind Cinco de Mayo. We recognize that many people don’t know or understand how or why their actions might be perceived as offensive. We are not blaming these people for not knowing; we are encouraging people to take the time to educate themselves and then make the decision whether they feel it is appropriate for them to celebrate the holiday.

We are very grateful that University Dining Services took the time to meet with us and listen to our concerns, and we are even more appreciative that they were so willing to accommodate us. We also want to thank Sean Guynes and others for showing their curiosity about the issue. MEChA is always open to anyone who wants to learn more about issues such as this one, and we hope to see some of you next year at our meetings! ■

the [University of Washington] next year, Robin.

She and I decided that because there wasn’t one of these in Seattle yet we would take it on. We reserved the domain and all that. Then we got an email from Toronto, that’s where the headquarters of this is, that’s where it all started, and their satellite coordinator told us someone else expressed interest.

Jessie, she’s a Microsoft employee, they put us in contact with her. And ever since then it’s been a terrific three-way partnership.

Submitted on behalf of MEChA by Nadia Saldaña-Spiegle

The AS Review serves as a public forum for students to have their voices heard. Please limit your letter to 300 words and include your name and phone number.

Published letters may have minor edits made to their length or grammar, if necessary. You can email letters to as.review@wwu.edu, or drop them off in the AS Publicity Center in Viking Union 411. Opinions in letters are not necessarily shared by the staff.

Review: What do you hope will ultimately come of this event?

Schimmel: I feel like the best way, in order to reduce victim-blaming and slut-shaming, is educating kids accordingly. But before we can change the education curriculum that we have, we have to really win over the hearts and minds of the current adult generation. A lot of them don’t see it as a problem.

It’s about convincing the general public that this is a problem and that there are ways we can change it. So far this has grabbed the attention of the mainstream media who don’t necessarily represent us the way we would like. But nonetheless, the important thing is that it is bringing this issue to the attention of a lot of people who hadn’t heard of it or given it much thought.

It’s not a stretch of the imagination as the first movement against victim-blaming or the first movement to reclaim the word “slut.” But it is the first time it has gotten this much media attention, which, really, regardless of how people look at this, they are at least thinking about it. And that is just exposing a lot of ills right now in our society and in our criminal justice system. But we really think, in a democracy like ours, people tell us “Men are still violent; they are still going to rape women and a rally will not change that.” This rally isn’t targeted at rapists, it’s targeted at the public and looking at rape as an issue and sexual assault as an issue, and how they hold our judges accountable when making decisions. “She was dressed in a certain way, sex was in the air,” that is actually a quote from a Canadian judge who shortened a rapist’s sentence because of how the victim was dressed. So really, just convincing the public to hold the justice system accountable.

Also to stop on a day-to-day, personal level the

culture of victim-blaming. I’m a political science major, so I’m always looking at the legal side of this. But sexual assault is one of the most traumatic experiences that someone can suffer in their lifetime. And it’s made even worse when victimblame becomes a factor in that, just the unnecessary amount of guilt or shame that survivors have to go through. I really think that is preventable, and by really opening people’s eyes to this issue we hope to reduce that as well.

Review: What would you say to students who don’t feel like their voices don’t matter?

Schimmel: I would say that there are a lot of ways to affect change, and this is just one of them. There are things that everybody can do, actually all of these things people can do. Some of these things take a larger commitment of time and resources than others. But writing to the editor of your newspaper, writing letters to your legislators, even blogging on the Internet, they are all things that people who want to see change can do. Organizing a protest like this—you know there are good days and bad days we have with this. But really, it’s been a very rewarding experience. I’m glad I’m doing it and in some ways it’s easier than it looks, especially once it gets going.

You really meet a lot of amazing people out there who have useful talents. You network with them and you find your place in the movement and you establish a vision and you make a plan and you do it.

There are all these encouraging moments along the way when some radio station or newspaper wants to interview you, or when one of the almost 4,000 people attending the Facebook event friend requests you and they tell you that you’re their hero. The ceaseless amount of people who want to help out, if it’s an important cause; you’re not going to be alone in it.

There are always going to be people who will want to step up and do their part. Naturally, you’re going to be getting a lot of negative energy from people who [want to] discourage your cause. Sometimes it’s easier to shrug that off with strangers on the Internet and sometimes it’s harder when it’s your best friend from your childhood. It’s rough, but as you go, you continue to build conviction in your cause and that makes it all worth it. ■ For more information, visit Slutwalkseattle.com.

May 31, 2011 • 11

PERSPECTIVES from page 8 have a difficult time, because it is very encompassing. There’s so much that this position does; it would be hard for a student to understand. It took me six months to learn how to do this job! But I don’t think we should expect students to know every little thing the president does, that’s unreasonable; I don’t think we can even say that about our nationally elected representatives. But I think the important thing is making sure students know they can use the president as a resource, someone they can go to if they have a concern … And there could be more effort on behalf of the AS and the board to reach out to students and let them know that they can use us as a resource.

Ellermeier: I agree with Colin … by and large students don’t know what the AS president does. Do I think it’s important to know what the AS president does? Yes, in as much as how the AS president can be of service to them. And also on a broader scale, I feel confident that I go to a school where we do have such strong student leadership within the administration, I think that is something students need to know.

Daniel Berman/ The AS Review

Anna Ellermeier and Colin Watrin spoke with us about the challenges of being the AS president. Ellermeier, who won the position in a run-off election earlier this month, takes over for Watrin this summer.

Review: Colin, what is one proposal or initiative that you really wanted to implement this year but couldn’t?

Watrin: One thing I wanted to work on but didn’t get a chance to is to reform the student senate.

Maybe “reform” is not the right word, more restructure or empower. I think that they could play a much larger role in the AS and on campus, and compared to other schools our senate is pretty small.

The amount of authority they have is very minimal, and I would like to see the AS start to move in the direction where the student senate is given more authority. Ideally, the representatives or the chair would be elected by the student body, giving them that authority to make decisions because really the reason they can’t make decisions now is because they’re not elected. But if we were in a position where the chair was elected or parts of the senate were elected, we can elevate their role.

Review: Anna, what is one proposal or initiative you would like to implement next year?

Ellermeier: I would echo what Colin said, but trying to change the student senate so it’s more of a representative audience, where it can be a liaison between the students and the government. The other things I would like to see happen is to make the board of directors more visible. I think students would be really receptive to that right now because as we go through the budget process, students are going to feel it and they’ll need somewhere to go.

And meeting students where they’re at, too. I think

it’s important to have our office hours posted, so you can come into our office whenever you want, but as president I would like to be going to hall councils and clubs, and maybe use social media in a way we haven’t seen AS presidents use before. I feel like the whole board learned a lot campaigning, and I think we can use the skills to get people to vote for us to get them to give us feedback on what they think. And also working with other schools on the legislative front. If we are going to be successful in lobbying for higher education, we need to start viewing higher education as a statewide issue and as a nationwide issue and not just a Western issue. ■

LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR AS BOARD OF DIRECTORS ONLINE AT AS.WWU.EDU/GOV. YOU CAN ALSO STOP BY THE BOARD OFFICE IN VIKING UNION 504.

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COLUMN

The Om(nom)nivore’s Dilemma Seriously Huge Pretzels

D

Lindsay Kucera/ The AS Review

ead week is upon us once again, and you all know what that means: stress baking! That’s right—when the big projects start looming over my head and I hear the sound of important deadlines as they whoosh past me—I don’t get to work. I bake! It’s definitely an inappropriate response, replacing the urgency I should be feeling around this time of the quarter. I’ve been told more than once in the past few weeks that I should be kept under constant stress so that I keep producing cookies, cakes and (this week at least) pretzels for the enjoyment of others.

Costs: $6 Makes: 8-10 medium pretzels Ingredients: For the dough: 1 1/2 cups warm water, between 100-110 F 1 tablespoon brown sugar 2 teaspoon salt 2 1/4 teaspoon yeast (usually one packet) 4 1/2 cups white flour 4 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted For boiling and baking: 10 cups water 2/3 cup baking soda Egg wash (One egg yolk with one tablespoon water or milk) Sea salt, garlic powder, sesame seeds for garnish

Directions: In a mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water, and let sit for three to five minutes until yeast begins to froth. Add in the sugar and salt and whisk until blended. Pour in the butter, and slowly add the flour, stirring to incorporate it as you go.

Turn the dough on to a flour surface and knead for about five minutes until it feels elastic. Grease the bowl and put the dough back in, spray or pour a few tablespoons of cooking oil over the dough and let it rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 400 F, and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.

Divide the dough into eight or ten pieces, and then roll each to a foot-long strip. Shape the dough into a “U” and then cross the two ends and twist once to make a pretzel.

Put the 10 cups of water and the baking soda on the stove to boil. Using a slotted spatula to keep their shapes, put the pretzels in the water one or two at a time for about 30 seconds, and then remove each and put them on the baking sheets. After all the pretzels have been boiled, brush with the egg

College Budget Cooking

Lindsay Kucera/ The AS Review

wash and sprinkle with salt, garlic powder or sesame seeds if you want an extra punch.

Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the pretzels, until golden brown. Cool slightly before serving. I suggest serving the pretzels with cheese, garlic butter or another creamy dip, depending on your preferences. ■ Stay tuned for the final Om Nom next week!

PHOTOS

Daniel Berman/ The AS Review

Daniel Berman/ The AS Review

Joe Rudko/ The AS Review

(From left) A plastic-sheeting sculpture outside the Fine Arts Building; A student walks through the plastic-sheeting sculpture; Lamppost Revival performs during the Higginson Fesitival of Music Saturday, May 21.

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WEDNESDAY june 1 Volume 26 Number 30 • May 31, 2011

NEWS

4 GREEN FEE ENERGY GRANTS

Student projects get the “green” light.

FEATURES

6 YORK NEIGHBORHOOD FREE TABLE

Take something, leave something...it’s all free.

8 TWO PRESIDENTS IN ONE INTERVIEW

What a deal!

9 SLUTWALK SEATTLE

Interview with Western student-organizer.

EVENT

7 UNDERGROUND END PARTY

Grand finale features live music, giveaways.

COLUMN

12 DON’T OVER-OM THE NOM With massive pretzels.

Death and Birth: The new episode of “The Beat” 6 p.m., Listen live on KUGS at 89.3 fm or at kugs.org

This hour-long edition of “The Beat” features seven segments on the issues of death, near death and loss. “The Beat” is produced by the student public affairs team at KUGS.

Underground Coffeehouse End of the Year Party (see story on page 7) 8-10 p.m., Underground Coffeehouse Free

FRIDAY june 3 Be Our Guest

4:45 p.m., Viking Commons Dining Hall The Student Homeless Outreach Team is putting on the quarterly event Be Our Guest, where students will give hungry members of the community their extra guest meals from their university meal plan.

The hope is that students and community members will eat together, converse, and in turn create a cohesive Bellingham community. It’s also a great way to use up those extra guest meals. Students should arrive at 4:45 p.m. so they can easily pair up with community members.

Glee Club’s Spring Musical Showcase 7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center 16 Free, but donations are accepted

The Glee Club is holding two events showcasing songs from a variety of famous Broadway shows including “Wicked,” “A Chorus Line,” “Legally Blonde” and many more. Get there early so that you can get a good seat.

Pink Friday

9 p.m., Viking Union Multipurpose Room $3 individuals, $5 couples Put on by the AS Ethnic Student Center, this campus-wide event provides students the opportunity to dance the night away while contributing to Sisters Network Inc., a company committed to increasing national attention to the devastating impact of breast cancer in the African American community.

COVER

This is a strange photo.

Photo by Joe Rudko/ The AS Review.

SATURDAY june 4 Pride Prom

8 p.m. to midnight, VU MPR Free An annual dance for all identities, put on by the AS Queer Resource Center. Come to the prom you wish you had in high school.

Making your life better, one page at a time.

May 31, 2011 • 3

taoofjournalism.com

Editor in Chief Evan Marczynski

Assistant Editor Lindsay Kucera

Events Editor Olena Rypich

Lead Photographer Daniel Berman

Staff Writers Chelsea Asplund Matt Crowley Jordyn Kehle Kirsten O’Brien

Photographer Joe Rudko Accuracy Aide Alex Bacon Adviser Jeff Bates

Viking Union 411 516 High St. Bellingham, Wash. 98225 Phone: 360.650.6126 Fax: 360.650.6507 Email: as.review@wwu.edu Online:as.wwu.edu/asreview @theasreview facebook.com/theasreview ©2011. Published most Mondays during the school year by the Associated Students of Western Washington University.

We are a student-produced, alternative campus weekly covering news and events that are of interest to the Western community. We support all programs, offices and clubs affiliated with the AS. We have a direct connection to the AS Board of Directors, and although we report on board actions objectively, our relationship should be made clear.

Submissions: We welcome reader submissions, including news articles, literary pieces, photography, artwork or anything else physically printable. Email submissions, or send them to the mailing address above.

They will be returned as long as you include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Letters: We also welcome letters to the editor. Please limit your letter to 300 words and include your name and phone number. Published letters may have minor edits made to their length or grammar, if necessary.

Calendar/Ads: We don’t sell ad space. Sorry. Email the Events Editor at as.pr@wwu.edu to have an event listed in the calendar.

Liz Leo/ AS Publicity Center

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NEWS

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Joe Rudko/ The AS Review

When Green is Gold Five Green Fee projects awarded funding

Kirsten O’Brien/ The AS Review • Jordyn Kehle/ The AS Review

A total of $263,900 out of the Green Energy Fee has been awarded to five

student-planned projects, which range from installing solar panels on the Environmental Studies Building to replacing plastic garbage bags in Wilson Library with compostable ones.

Each year, students pay $21 toward the fee, the majority of which is used to pay for renewable energy credits, according to a press release about the Green Energy Fee awards. The leftover money goes toward funding the grant program, which makes funding available to students who want to propose their own projects to reduce Western’s environmental impact.

Students approved an initiative to start the grant program during the 2010 Associated Students election.

This year, students had until April 18 to submit proposals to the Green Energy Fee Committee, which is made up of students, faculty and staff. In addition to the five projects that received funding, two proposals were turned down.

Senior Matthew Moroney was awarded the most funding, $167,500, to install a 5-kilowatt (kW) solar panel array on the Environmental Studies Building’s south-facing roof.

Moroney said Western’s current solar panel array on the roof of the Viking Union has the smallest output among six peer universities nationwide. Peer universities are defined as schools with comparable enrollment, core goals, public funding levels, national reputation and faculty excellence, according to Western’s Office of University Planning and Budgeting.

The VU solar panel array has a 2 kW output, according to an informational kiosk on the building’s sixth floor. Moroney added that the solar arrays installed at Western’s peer universities have an average output of 56 kW, and that although his project will increase Western’s output, the university will still be drastically behind the peer average.

“We are falling behind as environmental leaders,” Moroney said. “It’s time to start leading again.”

As a member of Students for Renewable Energy, an AS club, Moroney helped to get the fee initiative on the ballot last year. After the initiative passed, Moroney volunteered to be a member of a Green Energy Fee task force over the summer, and then served on the fee committee during fall quarter. At the beginning of winter quarter, he stepped down to pursue his project.

Moroney said that he hopes the panels will be installed by fall 2011.

Senior Grant Bowman was awarded $61,000 to retrofit Western’s C parking lot, located across from the Wade King Student Recreation Center, with energyefficient lighting. He plans to install light-emitting diodes, more commonly known as LEDs. Bowman said that LEDs are more environmentally friendly, safer and more energy-efficient than the high-pressure sodium lights currently installed in the C lot.

“These sorts of projects are what are going to be required to make significant change,” Bowman said.

Although Bowman originally envisioned re-lighting the entire campus, the current parking lot retrofit will serve as a pilot project for anything larger in the future.

“It’s a project in the hopes that campus will adopt this technology campuswide, at least in the parking lots,” Bowman said.

The fee committee is currently reviewing when Bowman can start his project.

He hopes to see the work finished sometime in 2012, but isn’t sure yet if that is possible due to a pending bid for both materials and a plan to modify the design of the current light fixtures to allow them to accommodate LEDs.

SUSTAINABILITY AND WASTE REDUCTION

Recent Western graduate Julia Shure was awarded $21,000 to install motionactivated water bottle refilling stations on the second floor of Old Main, in the Atrium, in the Rec Center and on the first floor of Haggard Hall. The bottle refilling fixtures will be attached to the back of drinking fountains.

Shure said that her proposal was part of a larger campaign coordinated by Western’s Students for Sustainable Water club.

“Basically, the bigger campaign is to eliminate bottled water from campus,” Shure said. “We are trying to encourage students to drink tap water. A lot of people make their decisions based on convenience or even aesthetics, so having

May 31, 2011 • 5

new and nice-looking fixtures at a drinking fountain will hopefully encourage students to make use of them.”

Although most of the money awarded to Shure will fund the refilling stations, the remaining funds will go toward coupons for discounted water bottles sold for $5 at the Associated Students Outdoor Center. The coupons will be available fall 2011. The bottle refilling stations may be installed by fall 2011, although there is no set completion date yet.

Both senior Greg Miller and sophomore Bodie Cabiyo decided to create proposals to deal with amount of waste generated by paper towels in campus bathrooms.

“We’re really excited about [all of the projects]. They all could have big implications on how Western could do business, and they could become campus standards.” -Jamin Agosti Miller and his group were awarded $1,400 to replace the plastic trash bags in the first and second floor Wilson Library bathrooms with ones made out of compostable material.

“Instead of going into a landfill, the bags will relatively quickly turn into compost, which is an organic material that can be reused for landscaping, and it can even be brought back into the university for our landscaping,” Miller said. “It can really bring it full circle.”

Miller said that his simple idea might also save Western money. It is 20 percent cheaper for the university to compost than it is for it to throw away paper towels and trash bags, he said. In addition, Miller’s project will include an educational component that will encourage students to be conscious of the resources they use.

“This is an educational opportunity that makes students more aware of their waste,” he said.

“Resources are not just things that are there and appear and are infinite.”

Cabiyo’s project tackles paper-towel waste differently. He and his two group members were awarded $13,000 to install four high-speed, energyefficient hand dryers in the Arntzen Hall bathrooms.

Cabiyo said that although the dryers and the installation costs are expensive, within three years they should fully pay for themselves. Over a 10year period, he estimates the dryers will save the university $33,000. After implementing the project, his group plans to do a follow-up study. They ultimately hope to create a comprehensive analysis of the project’s effectiveness to present to Western’s Facilities Management department, with the goal to have similar dryers installed in other locations, ultimately reducing Western’s environmental impact.

“Hopefully, we’ll see more across campus in the near future,” Cabiyo said.

DECIDING WHO GETS THE MONEY

The fee committee selected proposals based on criteria set out in the program’s mission statement, which says projects should help reduce Western’s environmental footprint and increase student involvement and awareness regarding sustainability.

Two projects were not selected: one plan for

a sustainability-based extracurricular class for students and community members, and another proposal to install solar power panels on top of the amphitheater in The Outback Farm, located just south of Fairhaven College.

LOOKING AHEAD

Jamin Agosti, AS vice president for student life and the fee committee chair, said the approved projects could make a major impact throughout campus.

“We’re really excited about them all,” Agosti said. “They all could have big implications on how Western could do business, and they could become campus standards.”

“We want Western to become more sustainable,” he continued. “Whether that means reducing the utilities that we are purchasing, reducing our environmental footprint… [Becoming more sustainable is] one of the biggest goals of this program.”■

THE PROJECTS INSTALL 5 kW SOLAR PANELS ON ROOF OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES BUILDING - $167,500 RETROFIT LIGHTING IN C PARKING LOT WITH ENERGY-EFFICIENT LEDS - $61,000 INSTALL MOTION-ACTIVATED WATER BOTTLE REFILLING STATIONS AROUND CAMPUS - $21,000 INSTALL HIGH-SPEED, ENERGY-EFFICIENT HAND DRYERS IN ARNTZEN HALL BATHROOMS - $13,000 REPLACE PLASTIC TRASH BAGS IN WILSON LIBRARY BATHROOMS WITH COMPOSTABLE ONES - $1,400

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FEATURE

PHOTO: Assorted free items on Peggy Jones’ “exchange table” in front of her house in the York neighborhood.

anything away,” Jones said. “We know people throw stuff away in the alley in the garbage, and so we set up something here so people that need something can come and get it.”

Jones has lived in her house with her son since 1976, but while she was growing up, her family never had a lot of spare cash.

“I came from a family who never had a lot. We made due, and we didn’t throw things away,” she said. “It’s sort of an ingrained thing.”

Her experiences in her childhood, and also later in life as a single mother, made thriftiness a lifestyle.

In addition, she said that she knows how stretched people’s budgets can be, especially for students.

“I feel like this is my contribution to my community that the community can contribute to also.”

-Peggy Jones Joe Rudko/ The AS Review

Free exchange is on the table Local resident has unique approach to giving things away Kirsten O’Brien/ The AS Review

There is a table full of stuff in Peggy Jones’ front

yard.

Clothing, shoes, books, pots and pans, children’s toys and even a string of Christmas lights lie scattered on the table, which is surrounded by walls and a ceiling made of corrugated plastic. A lightbulb hangs from the ceiling, partially obscured by a slightly damaged Chinese paper fan, which acts as a makeshift lampshade. The table is a cross between a garage sale and a Salvation Army store, except none of its contents are for sale – they’re all free.

Jones has set up the table, known lovingly among York neighborhood residents as the “free table,” in front of her house on Franklin Street for the past five years. She prefers to call it an “exchange table,”

and she encourages residents to pick up and drop off things as they please.

“I want it to be a community effort,” she said. “I want people to feel comfortable about taking stuff and bringing stuff.”

Jones said that she and her son, Leonard Hopper, inspect all the items that end up on the table. They test all electronic items and label the ones that don’t work. Jones washes dirty clothing items and scrubs pots and pans before laying them out. She also picks up free items from garage sales to add to the table, as long as they are in good, usable condition. She said that if items sit on the table for too long, they are taken to local secondhand stores.

“We always recycle things; we don’t throw

“There are a lot of students in this area, and I went back to Western when I was 50 years old, and so I know how tight things are,” she said. “I feel like this is my contribution to my community that the community can contribute to also.”

For those familiar with the table, it received quite the makeover this year. Traditionally, Jones and Hopper set it up in April and took it down in the fall when the weather got dreary. This year, they spent about $500 buying wood, plastic and cement blocks to give the table a roof and walls so it can stay up all year.

“We want to run it for as long as possible,” she said.

Jones said that her neighbor, an art student, offered to make her a sign. A 4-year-old boy who lives up the street wanted to paint the table and decorate the cement blocks underneath it.

Neighbors have been very appreciative of the table and Jones said she has no plans to charge money for the items. To those who wonder why she doesn’t just have a garage sale, Jones responds, “Well, why not give it away for free?” ■

May 31, 2011 • 7

PHOTOS Joe Rudko/ The AS Review

The Head and the Heart in the Performing Arts Center

Seattle-based indie band The Head and the Heart played a free show to a packed crowd in the PAC Concert Hall Wednesday, May 25. The concert was coordinated by Associated Students Productions Pop Music.

EVENT

It’s the End of the Year as we know it Underground Coffeehouse hosts grand finale with B’ham’s own Eclecticity

Jordyn Kehle/ The AS Review

The days of school-less leisure and exotic

vacations are within reach as summer rapidly approaches. But not before final exams, projects and papers. Although most students are buried in textbooks or sleeping in computer labs, everyone deserves one last hurrah to celebrate another successful year. On Wednesday, June 1 from 8 to 10 p.m., the Underground Coffeehouse will host its End of the Year Party, a free event with live music and prize giveaways.

The party will feature Eclecticity, a Bellinghambased band that has performed at numerous local events this year, including the Higginson Festival of Music and EndFair.

Starting as seven strangers who periodically jammed together in the Underground, Eclecticity recorded their first full-length album last spring.

The band incorporates an array of instruments, including guitar, vocals, bass, organ, drums, percussion, saxophone and trombone. Samuel

Eisen-Meyers, the band’s guitarist and vocalist, described Eclecticity as a mix between soul rock, world beat and afrorock.

End of the Year Party “We are just 8-10 p.m., June 1 beginning to find Underground our sound,” he said.

Coffeehouse “We are in some ways (Free) taking what we know from our respective backgrounds in attempts to find our voices and share our music with the students.”

For the first hour of the party, the band will host a jam session and invite anyone who can play an instrument to join them on stage.

“Eclecticity has been a really popular band performing on campus, and I definitely wanted something with a little bit more of a fun vibe,” said Megan Housekeeper, the Underground coordinator.

“Typically, the Underground does a lot of acoustic

music, and so this will be a little bit more upbeat to get people dancing.”

Housekeeper said there will also be a prize wheel, and attendees can win prizes including Underground Coffeehouse tumblers and promotional posters from various Underground shows.

The Underground will also give away CD samplers, which include tracks from bands that recently have performed concerts at the venue, including Shenandoah Davis, Kris Orlowski, The Bad Tenants, Sea Fever and Native Guerrillas, as well as Eclecticity. There will also be complimentary ice cream floats from Mallard Ice Cream.

“I would hope the party celebrates everyone’s effort of going to class throughout the year, making it through that, coming to music events and everyone putting on those events,” said Kim Masser, a supervisor at the Underground. “It’s a combination of everything.” ■

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FEATURE

PHOTO: Associated Students President-elect Anna Ellermeier listens to current President Colin Watrin during an interview in the AS board office. administration that they’re figuring it all out at the same time that everyone else is, so there’s not this golden answer out there.

Ellermeier: And also working with AS employees and other organizations and figuring out, as our university changes, how does our organization change and how do we adapt to the changing times?

I think we have an opportunity to make the AS more impactful and more important to students’ lives.

Review: With the majority of board members next year being female, what do you think that reflects?

Daniel Berman/ The AS Review

Presidential Perspectives Looking ahead with the current and future AS president Matt Crowley/ The AS Review

As the year draws to a close, a new crop of

student representatives prepare to take the reins of the Associated Students for the 2011–2012 school year. One of them, future AS President Anna Ellermeier, will be taking charge after what has been a busy year for current president Colin Watrin. The AS Review sat down with both to talk about the state of Western and its future.

The AS Review: What will be the challenges for the AS president next year?

Anna Ellermeier: I think that one of the challenges is going to be, as we move further into the budget process, and things become more complicated, I think one of the challenges the president is going to

face is being able to communicate what’s going on at the university level and what’s going on at the state level to students in a way that makes them feel like they can affect change within that process, and that the president needs to be constantly communicating with students in ways they can understand.

Colin Watrin: I agree, I think the budget is the biggest thing affecting Western right now. The changes that are happening, they’re going to occur, and whether the students feel involved in that process or not will rest on the Associated Students and the president, and they’ll have to take steps to have forums and really try to make sure the process is understandable for students, because it is a confusing one. I can say having worked with the

Watrin: I think having been on the board the last two years, with last year being an entirely male board and this year having one female member, I think there will be a different perspective that has been missing. The nature of any government is that it ebbs and flows, whether it’s right and left or democrat and republican and, you know, change is good in government, because without change you get stagnant. You don’t grow. And there’s so much more to it than just gender. I think the fact that we have an entirely new board with no returning members will be more important than gender; it will be the experiences people bring that will be far more important.

Ellermeier: To me, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the type of students we have in these positions.

Gender is something that definitely affects your perspective and it affects your experience in the world, but I think it’s a very small component. You can have a man as president, like Colin, [who] is just as committed to women’s issues and women’s rights as I will be as president. To me, what’s more important is what kind of leaders we have elected to the board and also what kind of process we have in the elections.

Review: Do you think students know enough about what the AS president does?

Watrin: No. Whenever I try to explain to students or they ask me what I do as president I always

PERSPECTIVES continues on page 11

May 31, 2011 • 9

LETTER

FEATURE

Response to letter on dining hall “fiesta dinner” cancellation

SlutWalk Seattle Rally for a new perspective

Editor’s note: On May 23, we published a letter from Western student Sean Guynes regarding the cancellation of the “fiesta” themed dinners in university dining halls. Guynes critcized the role that the Associated Students Ethnic Student Center club MEChA played in the decision to cancel the dinners. After the letter was published, we were contacted by members of MEChA who wished to submit a response. Typically, we have a 300-word limit on letters, but the members of MEChA asked for more space to fully express themselves. Since we required Guynes’ letter to be shortened before it was published, we asked him if it would be okay to allow the members of MEChA to have more space for their response, which he agreed to.

We want to begin by thanking Sean Guynes for expressing his concerns and giving us the opportunity to respond. As Sean referenced in his letter, MEChA worked with University Dining Services to cancel the “fiesta” theme dinner this year and for future years because the dinner is offensive. MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán) is a national organization that fights for social justice for all groups. We have been very involved this year with supporting students from migrant families, which include immigrants predominantly from México, Latin America, Russia, Ukraine and India. Please see the Ethnic Student Center’s website or come visit us at Viking Union 420 for more information, or come to our club meetings in Academic West room 304 Thursdays at 6 p.m. – everyone is welcome.

We appreciate and agree with Sean’s concerns about the celebration of cultures. The “fiesta” themed dinner was planned by people who haven’t experienced the culture and who have superficial and limited knowledge of its customs and traditions.

Because of this, the dinner portrays Mexican culture from a non-Mexican perspective, which tends to include generalizations about the culture that aren’t necessarily true and may harm Western students who may leave the dinner misinformed.

For a more authentic and educational celebration of Mexican culture and other Latin American

cultures, we invite everyone to attend the annual Latino Student Union Heritage Dinner, which takes place toward the beginning of every spring quarter. Students who mostly identify as Latina/o as well as non-Latina/o student allies partake in the planning and running of the event, which allows the Latino Student Union to share its cultures with others. For example, this year’s dinner included a dance called Bachata, which has its roots in the Dominican Republic. Some students who attend the “fiesta” theme dinner in the dining halls may not be interested in learning about and experiencing Mexican culture. We argue that for them, the “fiesta” dinner is still harmful.

The “fiesta” theme dinner was originally supposed to be a “Cinco de Mayo” theme dinner, a holiday generally thought to be Mexican Independence Day. When University Dining Services asked the Ethnic Student Center for permission and received a no, they simply changed the name to “fiesta” (“party” in Spanish) and kept all the same components.

In fact, Cinco de Mayo is not a holiday that Mexicans generally celebrate. In México, it is only celebrated in Puebla, where a historic battle took place and where the holiday is called “El Día de la Batalla de Puebla.” It is also celebrated in tourist towns where beer companies, restaurants and night clubs prostitute “Mexican” culture for economic gain.

Several industries in the United States transformed this day from the celebration of the underdog into ignorant racism. As we’re sure the majority of readers have noticed, many people today, including many people on Western’s campus, participate in dressing up as “Mexican,” enacting popular stereotypes and drinking alcohol on Cinco de Mayo. As University Dining Services linked the “fiesta” dinner with May 5th as a way of “celebrating Mexican culture,” they were positively reinforcing any other manifestations of Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

LETTER continues on page 10

Chelsea Asplund/ The AS Review

By its very definition, to “reclaim” means

to retrieve, recover or bring something back.

Western sophomore Samuel Schimmel has made it his mission to reclaim the word “slut” by cocoordinating SlutWalk Seattle, happening this June.

In what originated as a protest in Toronto, SlutWalk centers on the fight against the sexist, social acceptance of rape in today’s culture.

Schimmel said the event is meant to shed light on the misconceptions of rape victims and their circumstances. The Seattle SlutWalk will be held on June 19 at noon, when protesters will rally and march from Pine Street to Westlake Center.

We sat down with Schimmel to learn about his experiences planning the event and what he hopes will come of it.

The AS Review: How did you get involved with SlutWalk?

Samuel Schimmel: I actually found it on Tumblr of all things. I saw a poster for it and it said, “Reclaim the word ‘slut,’’’ which seemed like a good cause, and the more I learned about it, the more I learned it was just one of many facets of SlutWalk. Part of it is about victim-blaming, which is placing the burden of prevention of sexual violence on the victim, with statements such like “She deserved it,” “She was asking for it,” “She shouldn’t have been dressed this way or behaved this way.”

The other part of it is slut-shaming, which is stigmatizing people, especially women, for how much sex they have. I have a background mostly in the queer movement, and I was really impressed with how we reclaimed the word “queer,” like how at Western, we changed the LGBTA to the Queer Resource Center is a testament to that. I feel like we can do that with the word “slut” too. That was what got my interest. One of my friends, she’s just about to graduate from high school, she is going to

SLUTWALK continues on page 10