The Observer, Fall 2022 - Issue 7

Story

Two protests in one week march against alleged Title IX violations Two protests in one week march against alleged Title IX violations

President Wohlpart addresses drops in enrollment and budget in State of the University

Evan Couch News Editor

President Jim Wohlpart ad dressed multiple key points about the university in his annual State of the University and strategic planning exercise on Friday, Nov. 4.

Key points covered in the State of the University speech included the current progress on the Vision and Mission for the university, enrollment num bers, budget numbers and more.

One of the biggest topics of the State of the University fo cused around enrollment and how it affects different aspects of the university.

According to Wohlpart, it has been three straight years of dropping enrollment. Wohl part said that fall enrollment for 2022 came in at just un der 9,400 students. With the “large” class of 2023 graduat ing soon, Wohlpart said this will drop the enrollment even lower next year.

On the other side of the down numbers, Wohlpart said the current freshman class is up 90 students from last year with 1,550 students. Wohlpart also mentioned that the uni versity will be returning to a recruitment process that they have used in the past where they will hope to retain more students.

“The reason for this change is that we have shifted our re cruitment process from one that is transactional to one that is more relational, working more directly and closely with students, their families, their guidance counselors and even their teachers,” Wohlpart said.

Along with the decrease in enrollment, Wohlpart said this has a direct effect on other as pects of the university like the budget.

According to Wohlpart, due to the low enrollment and not meeting the built in contin gency of 9,900 students, there was a $2.5 million tuition re duction in the final working budget. Wohlpart said to ad just to the decrease in a work ing budget, they have found ways to balance it through re ducing expected expenses.

One example given was a decrease in the amount spent on tuition waivers and schol arships. Wohlpart said because the typical $15.5 million used for tuition waivers and schol arships went to $14.4 million due to fewer students, this saved $1.1 million.

Wohlpart also said the univer sity is saving about $5.1 million due to unfilled work positions. Wohlpart clarified that these unfilled positions have been that way for a while and are not new reductions in staffing.

Due to low staffing, Wohl part mentioned that it is hap pening in all levels of the university, including the exec utive levels.

According to Wohlpart, they have permanently eliminated one of seven vice president positions at the executive lev el. Wohlpart said they will have an update in the coming months about how they will continue to adjust to the right work size.

One key point in the State of the University was the in clusion of the progress for the new Vision and Mission for CWU. Wohlpart talked about the work that went into where they are currently with the Vi sion and Mission.

“While there is urgency in this work, it must be done with intentionality or it will be merely performative,” Wohl part said. “To be a true learn ing organization will mean being in uncomfortable spaces together so that we can grow and learn how to do things dif ferently.”

Wohlpart also said there is still more work to be done as they head into the next phase where they will create a strate gic plan and define values.

“While we have challeng es ahead of us, together, we will find a pathway through,” Wohlpart said.

Scammers impersonate local deputies

Benitez Staff Reporter

Residents of Kittitas County have been experiencing scam calls impersonating Deputy Sheriff Scott Hoffman.

According to Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office Inspector Chris Whitsett, the calls impersonat ing the deputy started around last week and they consisted of threats to try to scam people.

“They impersonated the dep uty,” Whitsett said. “They were telling citizens that they had a warrant for their arrest or that they’d failed to appear for court. [The people scamming] use a variety of different ways to try to intimidate and coerce people into eventually giving them money.”

Whitsett also said this partic ular scam call hasn’t stopped yet either. According to Whitsett, they were informed that some one received a call as recently as Tuesday Nov. 1.

According to Whitsett, the sheriff’s office has had trouble finding leads.

“We haven’t developed any leads yet, it’s been a spoofed number from a VoIP”, Whitsett said. “We don’t have any current information on where it’s com ing from.”

Whitsett also said it’s often a long and difficult process to un cover who and where the scam mers are.

“You can write warrants to get to an IP address, and write the next warrant to get to the inter net provider and then another warrant to get to a VoIP service, and you follow a chain of techno logical search warrants,” Whit sett said.

Even if law enforcement are able to find this information out, they can’t always do something about it.

“Ultimately these things are al most always happening in India and Nigeria or other countries where we don’t have any extra dition powers or any authority to enforce criminal laws against fraud and theft,” Whitsett said.

Whitsett said this is often the case with most international scammers.

Even though law enforcement often run into the barrier of in ternational borders, Whitsett said it’s important to prosecute the cases they can.

“We have seen cases like that in the U.S.,” Whitsett said. “And we have a much greater chance of prosecuting those cases, and we

have prosecuted some cases.”

If caught, these scammers could face charges such as theft, identity theft, impersonation of an officer and several others.

Whitsett, who first started back in 2007, said that scam calls are something the sheriff’s office has dealt with for a long time.

“I would say in the last five or six years is when it really has be come kind of a condition of day to day life,” Whitsett said. “We get calls about telephone based fraud every day, every week, all year long, and that’s been the case for several years now.”

Whitsett said that so far no one has been scammed by this call, but other times residents haven’t been as lucky.

“We’ve had cases where sub jects in our county have lost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Whitsett said. “That was within the last year.”

According to Whitsett, older and vulnerable people are often the targets of these scam calls in the county.

“It’s infuriating to see these people being taken advantage of in this way,” Whitsett said. “And it happens in our county, tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars every year get taken from people in these ways, that can’t be recovered.”

Whitsett said the best way to combat the rise in scam calls is through prevention and the spread of awareness.

“We have to try to prevent it through education, and we do that with our community by try ing to let them know frequently, ‘Hey, this is still happening. Hey here’s a new form of fraud and theft and coercion,’” Whitsett said. ”We try to build our social media audience to keep everyone updated and build a positive re lationship with our community.”

The best thing you can do is to stay informed, but even so scam calls can’t be prevented. So what should you do if you receive one? Whitsett advises anyone who re ceives a call like this to not en gage and call KITTCOM.

“If somebody claims to be a law enforcement officer in Kittitas County, and they demand money from you, they’re lying,” Whit sett said. “If you have any other reason to doubt who you’re actu ally talking to, you can always call KITTCOM and be put in contact with us.”

You can report scam calls to KITTCOM who can be contact ed through (509) 925-8534.

Omar

Photo by Brevin Ross

Local National Global

A driver who was suspected to be drunk crashed into the truck of a 16-year-old girl on Vantage Highway on Oct. 29 and she was left with “gruesome” injuries, ac cording to YakTriNews.com.

The CWU Veterans Center is hosting their annual RED (Remember Every one Deployed) Week to celebrate Vet erans day Nov. 11, according to CWU News.

A $5 million grant was awarded to the Cle Elum Reservoir by Sen. Patty Mur ray (D-WA) in order to provide resistance against droughts and promote the “safe pas sage of fish,” according to YakTriNews.com.

Staff

Nancy Pelosi said she might retire from her position of Speaker of the House, according to The Hill. Her deci sion will be affected by the incident with her husband in October.

Elon Musk is now offering a paid ser vice to receive the elusive blue Twitter checkmark. According to CNN, it would cost around $8 a month to secure their own checkmark and keep it.

Maryland has become the 20th state to legalize recreational marijuana ac cording to AP. Arkansas, Missouri, North and South Dakota also had measures for legalizing marijuana on the ballot.

Beyond Our Coverage The Observer

A floating train in Thailand is a huge success as water levels rise. According to Reuters, the train starts in Bangkok and travels six hours away to the Pasak Jolasid dam.

Around 1,000 protesters have been charged in Iran, which was the result of the death of Mahsa Amini who was detained by morality police, according to CNN.

According to AP, North Korea denied claims by America that the country shipped artillery and ammunition to Rus sia to aid in the war against Ukraine. North Korea accused the U.S. of lying.

Letter from the Editor

Ellensburg community,

Please take some time to appreciate yourself, write yourself a letter telling yourself what you are proud of in your life and take some moments to be grateful for what’s going right versus what’s going wrong. Reach out to people you love and express this to them, ask somebody who seems down how they’re doing, commit random acts of kindness throughout your life as you’re able to and watch the effects ripple outwards.

Check out our coverage of Title IX protests on page 4-5, coverage of the Faculty Art Exhibition and Rocky Horror Picture Show on page 3 and an opinion piece about dining on campus with dietary restrictions on page 6. Have something to contribute to The Ob server? Shoot us an email at cwuobserver@gmail.com.

CLARIFICATION: In our printed story about the “Cats Against Assault” Instagram account, we listed Andrew Morse’s title as Interim VP of Financial Affairs, but his actual title is Interim VP of Public Affairs. This has been made clear online and we have com municated this with Morse.

Take care,

Majors in Minutes helps undecided students find a path

Zaire Eltayeb Staff Reporter

CWU recently hosted Majors in Minutes, a major exploration fair, on Nov. 3 to help bring awareness to all the majors the university has to offer.

Majors in Minutes was a re quirement for the first-year general education course Uni versity 101 this year, and in cluded academic advisors for undecided majors and student representatives for the different majors offered on campus.

Kipp Marsicano, an academic advisor at CWU for undecided students, spoke about the im portance of Majors in Minutes.

“The prime goal for us here is to increase peer to peer con nection,” Marsicano said. “Stu dents really enjoy connecting with other students and hearing about their experiences. They can see themselves in other stu dents.”

Marsicano expressed her ex citement for the new major con vention and how having student representatives truly made the event more student friendly.

One of the many majors pre sented at the convention was the Actuarial Science Major.

Maddi Everson, a senior in the program, shared her experience with getting connected to the program.

“A representative from Cen tral came to my high school and was talking about it,” Everson said. “At the time I was consid ering accounting, but I wanted something more challenging.”

Dustin Bishop, another senior in the program, also spoke about why he thinks a majors fair is helpful to have on campus.

“A lot of people do not know about Actuarial Science, that is what major fairs are good for,” Bishop said. “They educate peo ple on everything that Central has to offer.”

Bishop shared his experience with first-year students struggling to find a good fit on campus.

“A whole bunch of freshmen do not know what they want

to do in life,” Bishop said. “This allows them to put their feet in the water and figure out what they want to do by looking at all the majors here. ”

Greetings

Katherine Camarata Lead Editor

Photo by Dylan Hanson

Studentsgettoknowvariousmajors. Photo by Caitlin Bassett

Sarah Spurgeon Art Gallery features work by faculty

The Sarah Spurgeon Art Gal lery, located in Randall Hall, was filled with attendees and 2,000 pounds of ice for the Department of Art and Design Faculty Exhibition which took place on Nov. 3.

The gallery will feature the recent work of full-time and part-time faculty members, graduate teaching assistants and retired faculty members all from CWU. One piece that will be shown is “Thaw” created by the Art and Design Department Chair, Gregg Schlanger.

“It’s [the ice] been placed in a pool and it’s going to gradu ally fall over the course of the exhibit,” Gallery Directory, Heather Horn Johnson said.

Horn Johnson also said this show is a good opportunity for students who are either cur rently taking or may want to take an art and design class to see what their professors are working on.

Schlanger said he has never done anything like “Thaw” before.

“I use ice because I think it’s very seductive of a material,” Schlanger said. “I had no idea that it was go ing to glow blue like glacier under these lights until yesterday … It was a happy surprise.”

Schlanger said he hopes the piece is simple enough to allow people to bring themselves to it and think what they want to think about it.

S. Moss, a CWU alum, said that “Thaw” gives them feelings of dis connect between body and mind.

“My show [solo exhibition at CWU] was focused on things of being trans, seeing my body and my gender as a shifting identity and I totally see that here,” Moss said. “I don’t think photos would do this piece justice because I think the movement of everything is so important. Nothing’s going up towards the houses, every thing’s coming down.”

Charlie Tadlock, a graduate assistant at CWU, had a piece in the exhibition called “An Hour and a Half Home,” which is a time-lapse of him driving back home to the west side of Washington.

Tadlock said he just let a sense of unconsciousness come over him with the time-lapsed images of himself.

“There’s points where I’m dancing along to the music in the car and there’s a point where I stop and get out and stretch and sort of letting that kind of mo notony and banality of the road come through,” Tadlock said.

Tadlock said with this piece he hopes people will consider their own presence as they go through landscapes.

“I would like it if people thought about the next time they’re out driving ‘What are these sort of iconic symbols? How are they sort of fading in and out of this sense of sort of highway hypno sis?’” Tadlock said.

Shane Johnson, a non-tenure track faculty member, had two pieces in the show: “Gallery of the Gamer: Overwatch Tour nament” and “Gallery of the Gamer: World of Warcraft.”

“These two pieces were a part of a job that I did for Activision Blizzard Media,” Johnson said.

“They contracted with a mar keting agency that I work with

[and] they wanted to create an online virtual gallery featuring different artworks or adapta tions of artworks that reflected different aspects of gaming and gamer culture.”

Van Parsons, a junior studying art at CWU, said their favorite piece was “Gallery of the Gamer: Overwatch Tournament.”

“That is just like, the peak epit

ome of like ‘Oh my God, I want to do that,’” Parsons said. “It’s such a great thing to see it in a gallery setting. You don’t usually see it.”

The Department of Art and Design Faculty Exhibition will be in the Sarah Spurgeon Art Gallery until Dec. 3. The gal lery is free and is open week days from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturdays from 1-5 p.m.

Attendees do the Time Warp again at the Rocky Horror Picture Show

Beau Sansom Staff Reporter

Storm clouds gathered on the evening of Nov. 4, as freezing rain pounded down upon hundreds of CWU students while they lined up down University Way from Mc Connell Hall to Shaw-Smyser Hall. When the doors finally opened at 9 p.m. members of the crowd, much like Brad and Janet in the film, were invited inside and up to “the lab” to see what was on “the slab” as they shivered with “antici…pation.”

This year’s Rocky Horror Pic ture Show shadowcast performed in front of a packed house, filling nearly every seat in the auditori um. The audience sat and stud ied the cue sheets provided at the door, telling them when and how they can interact with the show and actors.

Audience interaction was just one aspect of the show’s spectacle. The elaborate costume design was a key factor in making the show pop according to several cast and crew members. Fourth year the ater arts major and veteran cos tume designer Hope Pringle was in charge of costuming for the production. They said their goal when designing for the show was to pay homage to the source material while keeping the actors comfortable.

“For the most part I tried to keep pretty faithful,” Pringle said. “It comes down to my budget, my time and my actors. I have to keep in mind my actors’ comfort. I would rather have them on stage feeling confident and comfortable with maybe a little bit less skin

showing than the role necessarily calls for.”

According to Pringle and Fourth year theater studies and deaf sign language studies major and Direc tor Nel Baehr, a major theme that was conveyed through costuming was queer joy and history. Pringle worked closely with the actors to get their wardrobe to both fit in with the show and represent them as individuals.

“I’m incorporating some ele ments of punk culture into it be cause historically queer and other marginalized folks have been in spaces that aren’t widely accept ed by society,” Pringle said. “Most of our cast is part of the LGBTQ community so I’ve been working with my actors and saying, ‘what do you want to be wearing?’”

A great deal of work went into producing the wardrobe for the show: Pringle said they had spent anywhere from roughly an hour on simple alterations to pieces from previous shows to around 15 hours designing and making more elaborate costumes.

Costuming was not the only time consuming process for the show, other aspects from the lighting to the choreography also proved to require extensive time commitment. Lighting Designer and third year theater production and design major Sequoia Good spent hours organizing the light ing and creating cue sheets for spot operators.

“I spent the last two days focusing the lights which took about eight hours,” Good said. “Today and to morrow I’m going to be patching all the lights and programming the

show. I’ll be there for a very long time, maybe until 12:00 a.m. but that’s okay, it’s for Rocky.”

The actors themselves put a large sum of time into getting their choreography and perfor mances sharpened . According to Second year musical theater and sociology major Isaac Olson, the cast spent roughly 70 hours total in rehearsal.

Annabelle Brasch and Mason Atwood served as co-choreog raphers for the production and received repeated praise from the cast for their work on the show. Olson went into detail on the com

mitment and choreographers.

“It’s been a lot,” Olson said. “ The cast has had around 70 hours of rehearsal within the span of this month on top of school and work and a social life. The en semble is killing it this year, we had our choreographers Anna belle Brasch and Mason Atwood choreograph this year and they blew it out of the water.”

Baehr said they did extensive re search and note-taking on Rocky to prepare for the show. Baehr said they received great words of praise for the cast and everyone involved in the production.

“It’s a crazy feat what these peo ple did,” Baehr said. “They picked up those dances like that, it was crazy. .”

The cast and crew remarked that they were able to form their own close-knit community through all of the hard work that went into get ting Rocky onto the stage. Fourth year history and education major Andy Johnston played Riff Raff in the show, and remarked how spe cial he thought the cast relationship was throughout the show.

Megan Rogers Senior Reporter

ShaneJohnson(right)discussinghispiece“GalleryoftheGamer:Overwatch Tournament.” Photo By: Megan Rogers

DiegoGarciaassistinginpresentation. Photo by Beau Sansom

Two protests in one week march against

Carroll Scene Editor

The sound of a dozen students yelling “C-what? C-won’t follow federal law!” pierced the cold morn ing air as a crowd of sign-bearing students marched across campus.

An Instagram page called “Cats Against Assault” first posted on Oct. 20. On Thursday, Nov. 3, a protest coordinated by the Instagram page led students in a loop on that began and ended at the Wildcat Statue in front of the SURC.

The protests started at 10 a.m. and contin ued until 2 p.m. The

march went in 30 minute intervals.

According to volunteers, the route took roughly 25 minutes.

“I am here because I really believe in the things this organization is asking for,” a student volunteer who asked to stay anonymous said.

“I’ve heard the same story over and over again, which is that Central doesn’t do anything. I love Central and I hate for that to become what it’s known for.”

Some students said they were at the protest to support their peers and others said they were there to share their own ex periences.

“I am per sonally here

because my Title IX case was swept under the rug,” senior Biology stu dent Polina Chowdhury said. “I am here advocating for myself [and] for my other coworkers from the Learning Commons whose cases also got swept under the rug.”

Chowdhury said that her previ ous boss in the Learning Commons told her and other female cowork ers to dress in a way that would at tract more men into the Learning Commons.

“[My boss] told me and the other female coworkers to wear tight leg gings and do squats so men would come into the writing center more,” Chowdhury said.

Faith Kruse, a sophomore in An

thropology, said that she had also been harassed by CWU faculty.

“I’ve been harassed by employees here,” Kruse said. “I worked in Din ing Services for about two months last year, and I was harassed by one of the supervisors who faced no repercussions for his actions and I believe is still employed here.”

Every half hour a different group of students representing a differ ent campus club or organization led the march before handing off the megaphone to the next student representatives.

According to the flier that was handed out at the event and posted on the Instagram page, the student organizations that led the march

included the cross country team, the lacrosse team, track and field, the Douglas Honors College, the cosplay club and the Black Student Union. Not listed was the women’s rugby team, who said they led the 11 a.m. cycle.

“We’re always told that [student athletes] are ambassadors on cam pus and that a lot of people see us and look up to us,” junior in Public Health and fly half on the women’s rugby team, Kai Brandt-Templeton said. “We represent our school at a national level. For us to be here promoting this helps get the word out across the country, across the conference, across the state.”

What is the standard procedure when a Title IX case is reported?

The procedure for when a re port/disclosure or formal com plaint is submitted to the Office of Civil Rights Compliance is to reach out to the reporting par ty/complainant to offer them a meeting to learn more about their rights, the investigative process, and the support resources avail able at CWU.

The letter sent to the report ing party/complainant contains a variety of information about the purpose of the meeting, in formation about connecting with PATH, and the right to have an advisor present. It also has a link to our webpage, and attached to the letter is a PDF of the “Know

your Rights and Options” bro chure, which will also be offered in hard copy at the meeting.

Per Title IX – if there is a formal complaint filed and if the behavior alleged falls under Title IX, then the complaint will be assigned to an investigator, who will conduct the investigation and produce an inves tigation report.

The investigation report will be shared with all parties and then forwarded to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, which conducts and manages the Title IX hearing process for student cases.

For employee cases, the report will be forwarded to HR, who will mange the hearing process for the Employee Title IX Committee.

The Title IX hearing committees

will make the decision on any viola tion of policy and outcomes.

Student Discrimination process:

If the alleged behavior does not fall within Title IX, then the complaint may be investigated via the Student Discrimination process if the behavior alleged could be a violation of the Stu dent Conduct Code or the em ployee discrimination process for employee complaints.

The process of investigation, cre ating a report and forwarding of the report to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities or HR would be almost the same.

The decision on the report would be decided by a Student Conduct Officer or by the Appointing Au thority (employees).

How long has it taken your lon gest standing Title IX case to be resolved? Do they typically get resolved within 90 days? Why or why not?

We aim to resolve all Title IX complaints within a reasonable amount of time – typically within 90 calendar days. However, each case is different, and some do take longer depending on specifics of the case, number of people to interview and reasonable requests for extensions, etc. We keep all parties informed of our progress with weekly updates.

Do you provide the rights of complainants in writing when they are initially meeting with the Title IX department? Is there proof of this?

Morgana

ProtestorsmarchtofightTitleIXviolationsoncampus. Photo by Brevin Ross

Photo courtesy of Thomas Pederson, Direc tor of Civil Rights Compliance & Title IX

Compiled by Katherine Camarata

Photos by Brevin Ross

against alleged Title IX violations

Learning Commons organized protest on Nov. 1

Ulstad with contributions from Megan Rogers Staff Reporter and Senior Reporter

Chants of “Stop protecting rap ists!” rang through the walkways between the SURC and Brooks Library on Tuesday, Nov. 1 as stu dents aired their grievances over al leged Title IX violations by campus staff.

According to the CWU website, Title IX laws “prohibit discrimi nation based on sex in educational programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance … in cluding but not limited to: sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sex ual violence by employees, students, and third parties.”

Naomi Williams, organizer of the protest and a senior in the mu sic education program, claimed that her supervisor discriminated against her at the Learning Com mons on campus.

Williams claimed that her super visor, Jared Odd, spoke inappropri ately on gender pronouns and had a policy banning employees from asking what pronouns students prefer. She also claimed that Odd would not use different pronouns than biologically presented under the guise of having an agenda being pushed on him.

Williams claimed that she was demoted after filing a series of Ti tle IX complaints against Odd. She said she believes that revealing she was neurodivergent was one of the motivating factors in her demotion.

Williams said that Odd claimed it was due to reasons not related to her being neurodivergent.

“I disclosed that I had autism … Two weeks later I was demoted from my lead position,” Williams said. After being demoted, Odd said it was due to budget concerns.

According to Willaims, she lat er asked about the administration

budget and they told her there was no budget change.

During the protest Williams said, “I was told by Jared [Odd] that he had lied about why I was demoted. I was demoted because I had filed complaints about him to other ad ministrators and that other tutors liked me more than him because I was advocating against him.”

The investigation into Williams’ claim involved 19 witnesses and five other complainants. She said that during the investigation, “We started hearing about other Title IX cases that had been kinda swept un der the rug by the university … [we came] to the conclusion that the administration was being negligent and we had to take action.”

Students from multiple depart ments and walks of life took part in the demonstration. Anthropology student Faith Kruse, who claims to have been a victim of harassment at her job on campus, credited the Instagram account “Cats Against Assault” for bringing the protest to her attention.

“Cats Against Assault” made their first post on Oct. 20 and at present have over 1,700 followers.

“It’s really important that more people speak out,” Kruse said. “Be cause then you’re go ing to realize that, ‘Hey, he did that to me too.’”

Kruse said the public allegations against her former supervi sor are part of what made her realize how inappropri ate some of their daily interactions were.

Senior political science major Blu Christensen said this protest and others like it are important.

“Myself and other victims of sexu

al assault and abuse are having their voices erased in a lot of ways by having these cases being dismissed,” Christensen said. “In many ways, I know that other victims feel like they don’t have any other voice … if their cases are dismissed.”

Attendees and organizers were calling for accountability in Title IX

Q & A with Staci Sleigh Layman, Associate Vice President of Human Resources

We provide the “Know Your Rights and Options” document in PDF form along with the initial letter to the parties, and we offer a hard copy to the parties at the initial meeting.

What measures are taken to en sure those reporting feel safe?

We utilize supportive measures such as no contact orders during, and even after, complaints have been adjudicated. No contact orders are shared with the CWU Police Department.

We evaluate the need for changing living and academic environments on campus, and we restrict access to certain loca tions on campus while we inves tigate the complaint.

We also inform all parties— specifically respondents—of our

How are disciplinary actions for Title IX violations decided?

Who decides?

For Student Title IX cases, it would be the Student Title IX committee.

For Employee Title IX cases, it would be the Employees Title IX Committee.

Do you feel you have handled Title IX violations with any substantial error in recent years? Do you feel proud of how your department handles Title IX cases?

There is always room to improve

our work, but I am confident that the office has competent staff and investigators who strive to investi gate cases in a timely and thorough manner using trauma-informed practices. One of our goals is to provide decision-makers with as much relevant information as pos sible and ensure that all parties en gaged in the process feel they have been heard.

What is your response to the “Cats Against Assault” Insta gram account and movement on campus calling for improve ment in Title IX handling?

I think President Wohlpart, the administration and everyone in volved in administering the Title IX process are committed to im

proving our work with these types of cases and, more broadly, remain engaged in how we can better edu cate and get involved in preventa tive work for our community when working with our campus partners.

We don’t get it right every time, but we are committed to working with all constituents to continue to improve and build a safer community.

Does the Title IX department and Human Resources ever ask students and complainants to sign non-disclosure agree ments? Are they ever asked to sign something agreeing to stay silent?

We have never asked any student to sign something to stay silent –this would be a violation of Title IX

What role does the HR depart ment play when Title IX viola tions are reported?

As responsible employees, HR staff report possible Title IX issues to the Title IX Coordinator for re view and possible action. The As sociate Vice President for HR is re sponsible for application of CWUR 3-45-062 Supplemental Title IX Disciplinary Hearing.

How long has it taken your lon gest standing Title IX case to be resolved? Do they typically get resolved within 90 days? Why or why not?

The length of an investigation varies depending on many factors. The academic year, especially the periods between quarters, is chal lenging for complainants and re spondents. CWU works hard to ensure that complainants and re spondents are kept informed as the process evolves. Many complaints are able to be resolved within the prescribed timelines.

How are disciplinary actions for Title IX violations decided? Who decides?

The Associate Vice President for HR is responsible for application of CWUR 3-45-062 Supplemental Title IX Disciplinary Hearing.

Do you feel the handling of Ti tle IX cases needs to improve? How and why?

Policies and procedures are liv ing documents that must grow and adapt to changes in federal and state regulation, and to the changing needs and expectations of employ ees and students. I assume that ev ery practice and process can benefit from insight and review.

What is your response to the “Cats Against Assault” Insta gram account and movement on campus calling for improve ment in Title IX handling?

I haven’t visited the Cats Against Assault Instagram account. Student activism is almost always a good thing. I appreciate that students and others are utilizing their collective voice to educate others about per ceived injustice.

Any Complainant/Victim is free to share their experiences with whomever they would like.

Prior to May 2021, we did ask all parties in cases to sign an Evidence Disclosure agreement, which was done to acknowledge that parties were given “unredacted” reports that would include information typically protected by FERPA, such as students (including witnesses) and others involved in a case.

We have since re-evaluated this practice, and for the past 18 months, we have not utilized any evidence agreements and have shared the investigation reports with only a notice that they are given access to sensitive and private information.

Andrew

“...The administration was being negligent and we had to take action.”

-Naomi Williams, CWU student and com plainant in Title IX case

non-retaliation policy.

Photo courtesy of Staci Sleigh Layman, Associate Vice President of Human Resources

Photo by Brevin Ross

Compiled by Katherine Camarata

I don’t miss dining on campus

Cinderella Columnist

I’ve always found dining on campus to be extremely diffi cult and rather expensive. As someone who can’t have much dairy, is allergic to a lot of fruits and recently discovered she can’t have eggs, I’ve always found it extremely difficult to find food options on campus.

During my freshman year at CWU, I skipped meals and opted for snacks instead of try ing to fight with the options on campus.

After my first month, I went to the Student Medical Center to find a solution and ended up speaking with Dietitian Emily Shaw almost weekly. She told me ideas of what I could eat or select from various places, taking only the greens from a salad bar and grabbing chicken to create a meal, or asking for most of it on the side to com bine on my own.

I found myself more un comfortable as I had to ask for more accommodations, and in the end, I didn’t continue that. Overall, I never found a great

solution. I ate the same three options, one of them being al most completely made up of dairy products, but I found lac tase enzyme supplements to be able to eat dairy.

After my first year, I made an effort to make a meal plan every week, meticulously plan ning the things I would eat, when and then grocery shop. I saw no value in getting a din ing plan with the restrictions and preferences I have.

I had always considered do ing a meal box service and being able to pick and choose my options, but I felt that they never lined up with what I could eat.

After four different services, and four years of trying them with my family, I found EveryPlate.

Not only are their options worth the price per serving, but every ingredient is fresh. Substitutions can be made for meats, vegetables and even sides. I now feel that I can con fidently order what my body won’t reject, as well as be able to enjoy it.

Part of me wishes I could still relive days of eating with my

friends in the SURC. However, I would look back on recently going to the dining hall and how I found myself with an upset stomach immediately after, and remember why I can’t go.

I’m still not sure if it’s due to my sensitive stomach or my long list of allergies, but dining on campus is no longer a safe option for me. I cannot imag ine that there will be a perfect solution for every allergy or preference, but I’m slowly see ing progress as I walk by the dining hall to class.

Perhaps one day we could see CWU add a meal service for off-campus students, or for those who are unable to dine with the meal plan. Given the number of ingredients that the dining services bring in for their extensive menu, I could see them creating premade sal ad box options or even meals with raw meats.

It would be difficult to create meals that all students or staff with allergies could enjoy, but working with the nutritional professors or the dietitian at CWU could be a great start in creating a better solution.

Bert and Ernie celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary

Morgana Carroll Columnist

Streamers lined the SURC as a banner with the words “Hap py Anniversary Bert and Er nie!” scribbled on it was hung from the ceiling to celebrate CWU alumni Bert and hus band Ernie’s 50 years of mar riage together.

Bert graduated with a degree in bird watching in 1965 and would meet the then boy next door Ernie at his new Sesame Street apartment after leaving his hometown of Ellensburg. Bert proposed four years later at the Stonewall Riots.

The event was put together with the help of the alumni board and Bert’s old friend Jim Wohlpart. They tried their

best to keep it a surprise, but according to Wohlpart, it’s hard to get a couple on a plane right before their anniversary date without raising a few eye brows.

“Bert’s always been a nervous flier,” Wohlpart said. “He was asking a hundred questions as we boarded the plane.”

Over 500,000 people were at the party, nearly meeting the capacity for the SURC.

All eyes were on the dance floor as Big Bird and Welling ton discoed into the night.

“I never expected such a cool cat to be willing to boogie with me,” Big Bird said.

The party went late into the night, causing many to com plain about the noise. When police officers arrived in re

sponse, rather than breaking the party up they joined in, diving onto the dancefloor to do the worm with Slimey.

The happy couple were seen laughing and enjoying them selves throughout the entire night.

“I can’t believe that this many people came out to celebrate with us,” Bert said. “To have so many good friends, it’s even better than oatmeal.”

Around halfway through the party, Ernie finally managed to pull Bert onto the dancefloor for a slow dance to “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” by Elvis Presley.

“He has two left feet and no sense of rhythm,” Ernie said. “But there’s no one I’d rather dance with.”

Brittany

BertandErnieinfrontoftheSURC. Photo by Beau Sansom, edited by Morgana Carroll

EveryPlatemealservice. Photo by Brittany Cinderella

Volk wins LSC Defensive Player of the Week

Isaac Hinson Sports Editor

Football’s safety Tanner Volk won the Lone Star Conference (LSC) Defensive Player of the Week award this past week, making him the third Wildcat to take home an LSC Player of the Week award.

His performance against Tex as A&M-Kingsville proved him to be worthy of the award, with a team-high 12 tackles, seven of which were solo-tackles, and 1.5 of which registered a loss in yardage for Texas A&M-Kingsville.

“I found out through Twitter,” Volk said. “Coach Fisk texted me later, saying congrats, telling me all the hard work had paid off, stuff like that.”

To Volk, this award doesn’t be long to him alone, he sees it as a team award.

“I told him I appreciate it, but it’s a team award really,” Volk said. “My role as a free-safety is to find room to make plays, and everyone does a good job of playing around what I do and it makes my job really easy.”

Chris Fisk, head coach of the football team, had words of affir mation regarding Volk.

“He’s a student of the game,” Fisk said. “He’s a coach’s kid. He’s been around football his whole life. He understands what you need to do to be successful, and he goes out every day and carries that out.”

As Fisk alluded to, Volk is the son of a former football player. His father, Bill, played for West ern Oregon University. Volk played under his father at Aloha High School.

“People say ‘Oh it’s easier, your dad’s the coach’,” Volk said. “Being under his vision 24/7 taught me a lot. He’s taught me about leader ship. I really appreciate everything he’s done and taught me.”

Volk said his mind is set on im proving, both as a player and as a team. He said he feels that the Wild cats are ready to go the distance.

“Getting that playoff experience last year really drove me to want to help this team win,” Volk said. “Getting those snaps as a young guy, getting to play while I learned the defense. Now I’m more accli

mated … I think we can go even farther as a team than where we were last year.”

Fisk said he sees a leader in Volk, and knows that his potential as a player is high.

“I hope to see him continue what he’s doing,” Fisk said. “He’s a great leader for our team. He’s an emo tional leader. I think he’s playing well above where a guy his age should play and his growth poten tial for what he can do in the future is very high.”

Volk intends to live up to his current play and knows that the results will follow if the work is put in.

“I know the standard now,” Volk said. “Rather than only preparing the right way, we need to execute too. And those awards will fall into place, and people will get the recognition they deserve. But get ting the W is more important than anything.”

The Wildcats play Texas Permian Basin on Nov. 12 at Tomlinson Stadium, as they honor their seniors and hope to add to the ‘W’ column.

GNAC announces MVP Pre-season All-Conference

Devin Guerra-Burnett Sports Reporter

Women’s basketball center Sam Bowman was awarded the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Preseason All-Confer ence MVP this past week.

Bowman said she grew up in Zillah and has been playing basket ball since her youth.

The now senior expresses how being recognized made her feel.

“It definitely made me excited, it motivates me a lot to have a good year like we did last year,” Bow man said. “Honestly I can’t read too much into it, it doesn’t mean anything, I just have to back it up now.”

Being named preseason MVP, Bowman said she plans to work hard to live up to that title given to her.

When it comes to her recogni tion with her family and friends, Bowman said she has a support system behind her cheering her on in her accomplishments and future.

“I called my parents and my brother, they’re all super excited for me,” Bowman said. “I’m really happy I got it for the recognition of the team.”

According to Bowman, a focus for her is working on continuing to be the best player she can be and dominating as a center.

“My overall play and being effi cient, that’s my main goal,” Bow man said. “I’ve always wanted to be known as the hardest working player on the court so just keeping

that mentality of ‘I will work hard er than everyone else,’ focusing on honing in on my post moves, pre paring myself for different defens es that might come this year and just being confident.”

Bowman said she feels this wouldn’t be achievable without her teammates.

“Working together, we have a really good group this year,” Bowman said. “It’s a brand new group, we have a lot of potential, so building each other’s confidence is going to be huge. I’m going to do what I can to help build their con fidence.”

Bowman said she has been working relentlessly on new skills to showcase this season.

“I switched it up this year, there’s a few moves that are the focus right now but there has been one I’ve worked on this summer that I’m excited to see how it will go,” Bowman said.

The last scrimmage helped all the new faces on the team gel, Bowman took a few things from it.

“It gave me a lot of hope and a lot of confidence,” Bowman said. “I thought it went really well, I’m really happy with how the team played overall together, we share the love of [the game] really well and shared the ball and a lot of components that seemed to come together in that game which gave us a lot of confidence.”

Women’s basketball head coach, Randi Richardson-Thornley, said she had two players selected for Preseason All-Conference awards.

“It’s not something we talk much

about,” Richardson-Thornley said. “None of those acculates or opin ions matter much for what we have going in front of us.”

“We don’t want to put a lot of weight on those things,” Rich ardson-Thornley said. “With that being said I do think that Sam and Sunny [Valerie Huerta] are both very well deserving of both of those things with the work they have put in and performances they had so far in their career.”

Richardson-Thornley explained how the awarded players for GNAC Preseason All-Conference are chosen.

“The conference has a vote,” Richardson-Thornley said. “All the other coaches in the league vote for players for other teams, they cannot vote for their own players, only opponents of other teams,”

Richardson-Thornley said the girls main focus is for their season is defense.

“We’ve always been a program that has been known for our offen sive ability,” Richardson-Thornley said. “I think where we really have to grow to take the next step is to improve our ability to defend and I think we have the athletes and mentality to be able to do that.”

“[The goal is to get the team to] feel extremely comfortable on the floor,’’ Richardson-Thornley said. “We want them to give their full effort and become a team where we get stops defensively and we are a unit out there and play as one, and offensively that we play with a ton of confidence.”

TannerVolkenjoyingthemoment. Photo by Jacob Thompson / Thompson Sports Photos

Emily Shaw CWU Dietitian & Professor of Nutrition

How did you first get involved with the dietitian and nutrition field?

I originally chose nutrition mostly because I wanted to be in a career where I could help people. I have a love for pub lic health and nutrition fits well into the whole concept of health, wellness and prevention. I have found my passion working here at CWUCentral and helping students with all sorts of nutritional concerns and focusing a lot of my efforts and continuing education on eating disorders and treatment of.

What do you wish more students knew about food on campus?

I think the Dining Hall food gets a bad rap, just like the school lunch does in elementary school. One thing I wish students knew was that their mission is to serve students; which means if you would like something altered, changed, added to, or served in a different way, you need to ask for it! A lot of students feel stuck in ordering the assigned menu items and then don’t speak up if they have a concern or would like something changed with their meal. Maybe you want more veggies added to your pasta, maybe you want the roasted squash added to your caesar salad; it’s all possible, you just need to ask.

What’s a great meal you’ve discovered on campus that you’d recommend?

One of my favorite things to get is the Vegan Wrap, without the tortilla, on a bed of spinach, add all the vegetables, and topped with cashews and cashew cream. The scratch made pad thai dressing is amazing. Sometimes I even put chicken on it and make my own chicken thai salad.

What’s one book you would recommend for people to check out?

Well focusing on a food or nutrition- related book I would recommend anything by Michael Pollan – he has some great books focus ing onfocusing in on our food systems with interesting research on topics. My favorite of his books is called “In Defense of Food”. But the few others I have read of his are also good. “Non Nutrition” – if you haven’t read Tina Fey’s Autobiography “Bossypants”, you need to. I listened to it first on audiobook and laughed so hard I bought the book and read it twice.

Where do you enjoy grabbing a meal outside of the CWU campus? I’m a sucker for Early Bird, their Budda Bowl is one of my favorite things. But after 2 p.m. when they are closed I love BRIX wine bar.

What’s your favorite health science class to teach?

I typically only teach two courses and I really like them both, but if I had to pick I would say my favorite class to teach is probably NUTR 340 Food Resource Management. It’s a confusing title so to explain more, we get to dive into different disease states and discuss the prescribed diet and how to use counseling techniques to help someone with that specific issue. We talk about weight management, diabetes, heart disease, etc. It ends up being a lot of fun and interesting class discussions rather than the typical lecture.

Jackson Lawler

BFA Musical Theatre

Jake Hammar

compiledbyBrittanyCinderella.WildcatWordscompiledbyBrevinRoss.