The Independent Issue # 102 i
Fort Lewis College News Magazine
Oct 30th, 2019
Outdoor Pursuit trips what they take and why they matter
Dear Readers,
Editor’s Note
For students and professors, the beginning of the academic year is always a tough but exciting transition. This is a beautiful time of year to start moving our energy inward, and focusing on ourselves and our school or career goals. Typically by October, things have settled and everyone has become well adjusted to their studious routines. This is one of my favorite months of the year, by far. There’s nothing more romantic to me than gazing out my window at the fall colors, drinking my hot black coffee with honey and ripping my reporters’ articles to shreds. Kidding!
All jokes aside, we have some incredible people on staff this semester, and it makes my job entirely worth it to be able to work with them. As some of you may know, The Independent has taken on plenty of new members this year, and as we each get more acclimated to our roles I get more and more stoked on the future of The Indy. We hope to fulfill our goal to be a solid source of entertainment and education. We want to hear about what makes you laugh, smile, cry, gasp, or say “Wow, I didn’t know that.” That’s what we’re here for! So stop by the media center or hollar over social media anytime you have an idea about what we should be covering or doing better. We’re students, and we thrive in this environment where we can learn a little more with each day. We hope you’re all enjoying the school year as much as we have been. Again, transition is tough and colder weather (with no snow yet) can affect our moods and mental health. Take care of yourselves! We’re here to help keep you cozy. Grab a magazine or get on our website and snuggle up with your favorite blanket. You never know, maybe you’ll learn something! Here’s to carving pumpkins, drinking cider, shedding our leaves and growing into something bigger and better than we could ever imagine.
Coya Pair Editor in Chief
Cdpair@fortlweis.edu
Cover An FLC student repelling in south-central Utah during a slot canyoneering trip in April, 2018. Photo courtesy of Matt Cecil
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In This Issue Food waste from San Juan Dining, The Rocket and Animas Perks is ran through a compost sytem and bagged to fertilize the campus garden. Photo by Colton Branstetter
Outdoor Pursuits Trips What They Take and Why They Matter Charlotte Williams
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20th Annual Bayfield Heritage Days Sheep Trailing Lea Leggitt 5-6
A Look at the Campus Compost System Ethan Hale 7-8
The Meaning of Consent: FLC’s Approach to Preventing Sexual Assault Kim Cassels 9-10
Gender Identities on Campus Taylor Hutchison
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Outdoor Recreation Safety During Hunting Season Lea Leggitt 13
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Outdoor Pursuit trips: what they take and why they matter
O
utdoor Pursuits is credited as Fort Lewis College’s outdoor organization that provides educational training, outdoor resources and frequent trips for students. Students at FLC are offered the ability to embark on a plethora of adventures, varying from hiking to ice-climbing to mountain biking to backpacking— experiences that would financially cost more through the average commercial company in Durango. For FLC students, OP provides the same accommodations for a portion of the normal cost it would require, while still providing for the same resources and learning opportunities through adventures that normal commercial companies do, Brett Davis, the assistant director of Outdoor Pursuits said. For instance, OP is expected to host 21 trips throughout this semester, according to their Fall 2019 Program Guide, which is advertised on their website, on flyers posted around campus and in the OP office located in the Student Life Center. The OP fee for membership is included in every student’s yearly activity fee, meaning that OP membership is free and available to all students, Davis said. This is a relatively recent change in FLC policy, which began in 2018 as an effort to see an increase in student activity and membership in OP. As a result of the change, OP has received a 27 percent jump in student memberships, Davis said. Although membership to OP is included in every student’s activity fees, certain trips OP offers do require an additional cost, Davis said. OP determines its cost for a trip by figuring out the fixed minimum cost to run a trip including food, transportation and fuel, among other costs, said Davis. The trip cost does not charge for labor, nor does OP make any revenue from it, Davis said. In an effort to make the trip more affordable to students, OP reduced the total number of the fixed minimum costs by 20 percent.
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A group of FLC students kayaking on the Colorado River during a SOL training trip in late October, 2018.Photo Courtesy of Matt Cecil
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StudentS Leading Students OP also has a student program called Student Outdoor Leadership, which teaches FLC students the skills it takes to help lead these trips, and gives them the opportunity to practice these abilities, Davis said. Depending on how dangerous the outdoor activity is, some trips are run only by SOL leaders. Matt Cecil, a senior and SOL leader, explained that SOL is a section of OP focused solely on students leading these outdoor trips, which was implemented in 2011.
Factors that determine whether a trip can be run by student leaders are analyzed from a risk management standpoint, Josh Kling, the coordinator of OP said. This includes the technicality of the activity and objective hazards.
Student Involvement Not all students take advantage of OP’s resources. Davis said he believes it may be because of a common misconception that students have to possess previous experience in the outdoors in order to sign up.
OP trips provide new experiences and instruction to students, as well as the ability for students to connect with new people and establish new friendships. Eddie Espienoza, an OP trip participant, described how the OP trips have helped students including him connect with other people and nature. “The scenery and the environments are gorgeous and beautiful,” Espienoza said. “It’s also really conducive to everybody opening
First-year students backpacking during a Peak Experience trip in August, 2018. Photo Courtesy of Matt Cecil The most rewarding thing as a SOL leader has been having the opportunity to give back to other students and introduce them to the outdoors, Cecil said. “It’s really cool to share these things with people,” Cecil said. “You want to be sure you’re providing the best experience you can for people who’ve paid to come to these places.” Depending on the length of the trip, sometimes OP and SOL leaders begin planning trips months in advance, which includes detailing the routes of the trip and planning meals, Cecil said. About two months in advance, OP starts planning detailed route information, Cecil said. The prep side is not always noticeable, but there’s a lot that goes into it.
“It’s open for everybody,” Davis said. “In fact, we want the student who’s never done anything to come through our doors. We want to encourage them to do that and we want to share our passions so hopefully it becomes their passion.” Ben Inverson, a freshman, discovered a newfound love for kayaking when he attended the beginner whitewater kayaking weekend early in the Fall 2019 semester. “It definitely helped find my new passion for kayaking,” Inverson said. “I found my first rapid and I was hooked on it from the adrenaline and because of how amazing and fun the sport is.”
their minds and absorbing it all. You’re all doing that together.” OP creates opportunities for students to explore the Four Corners and beyond from an outdoor setting, but also to explore themselves, Davis said. “An old colleague of mine always said, our job is to put people in positions where they’re safe, both physically and emotionally,” Davis said. “Then our job is to let the deserts, mountains, rivers and oceans to speak for themselves, because everybody’s going to hear it differently.”
Inverson credits his enjoyment and newly learned skills to his experiences with OP. “They taught me everything, so now I can go out on my own,” Inverson said.
By Charlotte Williams
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20th
Annual
The Sheep are Coming To kick off the 20th Annual Bayfield Heritage Days, J. Paul Brown and his family welcome their sheep home from the mountain where they spent the summer. To get home the sheep walked, straight through town. Their route crossed U.S. Highway 160, at the intersection of County Road 501.
The Big Gun Large herds of sheep are often watched by not only a shepard but a bodyguard who lives with them day and night to ensure no one gets hurt. This one in particular is the dog breed known as the Great Pyrenees.
Bah, Bah Black Sheep Black sheep aren’t as common as white sheep. Some ranchers like having the offset of color for tracking their herd.
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Bayfield Heritage Days
Sheep Trailing
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The Sheep Rancher Brown of Bayfield has been taking his sheep to summer pasture since 1971 with his father. He is now continuing the tradition with his wife, Debbie Brown, and hired shepards who watch the herd.
The Boss Lady Many domestic and wild animals have a leader of the herd. Oftentimes the leader is female, and people refer to her as the head ewe. Ranchers will often put a radio collar on the head ewe to locate the herd.
Following the Herd Sheepherder wagons aren’t used very often today, but are intended to house shepherds as they spend their days in the mountains with the sheep. Most have a single bed, a wood stove and are built to endure tough terrain.
Photos and Story by
Lea Leggitt
A Sea of Sheep There are roughly a couple hundred head of sheep that rolled through town, creating a sea of wool bouncing down the road. Sheep are herd-bound animals, so tight quarters were no issue for them.
Lea Leggitt
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A LOOK AT THE CAMPUS COMPOSTING SYSTEM A
fter students have stood in line, eaten their meal and disposed of the leftovers in the San Juan Dining Hall, a process starts to turn that waste into new life.
Jerritt Gibbons, Campus Dining supervisor, showed off the system that most students don’t get to see. Behind the spinning mechanism where diners place their dishes lays a trough leading to a vat that is a little larger than a trash can.
All compostable material is broken down into a goop before being shot down through a system of pipes and compressors which composes a large compost receptacle, Gibbons said. This composter takes waste from San Juan Dining as well as The Rocket diner and even Animas Perks.
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Food is deposited into a series of pipes and compressors, then spat out into the composter, The Rocket, where it is collected and distributed. Photos by Colton Branstetter
WHERE THE COMPOST GOES
Once the compost has been compressed, it is able to be used as mulch to add nutrients to local gardens. Colleen Mergele, one of the students responsible for overseeing the mulching process, outlined how the process works. While food waste travels through the compressors in less than a minute, the composter breaks this down further over the course of two weeks, she said. Then Mergele and her colleague extract the compost into large bags to set them aside for several months until the end of the growing season, she said. During these months, nature breaks down the compost further so it can more easily soak into the soil, she said. Tests are regularly run on various chemical levels to ensure that the material is safe to be used. Once the compost has been compressed, it is able to be used as mulch to add nutrients to gardens, Gibbons said. The mulch is moved into the Campus Gardens behind the Center for Southwest Studies to grow more food, accounting for $1,000-$2,000 worth of the dining hall’s menu throughout the year, Marty Pool, Environmental Center coordinator, said. This process has been used at Fort Lewis College since 2011, when a grant was given to
the Environmental Center and Campus Dining to purchase the machine for $60,000, Pool said. Each year, $5,000 is given to the joint effort to keep the machine running and make it more efficient, he said.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
The process of using food waste to grow more food is what Pool called a closed-loop system, where leftover food is repurposed instead of creating more waste. “It’s a great system,” Pool said. “In a perfect world, we’d have several more all around campus and everyone would understand how to separate compostable material from other parts of the waste stream, but given our resources we’re doing a really great job.” Over the seven years the system has been active, it has gotten significantly larger to hold more material, Pool said. Even with the larger model however, an estimated 20 percent of food waste is still escaping the loop, Pool said. The biggest thing people can do to reduce food waste is cutting back at the start of the cycle, Pool said. People dining on campus should only take what they can eat. Pool said that certain fats and oils cannot be composted. For instance, excess roast beef
from The Rocket diner cannot be fed into the system with any effect. Even with these shortcomings, the system creates 200-300 pounds of compost per week, and four to six tons per year, Pool said. Another continued problem with the system is that plastic waste cannot be composted, he said. The dish crew has to remove each individual bit of plastic from the system themselves, numbering in the thousands, he said. Any plastics that are missed find their way into the mulch, and do not break down over time. This makes it so that the mulch cannot blend with the soil as effectively. Campus Dining is also performing smaller scale eco-friendly actions, he said. They have added a system where students can take a dining hall mug with them and use it instead of disposable cups, as well as using non-disposable cups, plates and silverware when catering.
Ethan Hale
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The Meaning of Consent: FLC’s Approach to Preventing Sexual Assault to the campus police department since 2016. The beginning and end of colleges’ academic years tend to have higher rates of sexual assault cases, which sources attribute to the increased use of drugs, alcohol and the misunderstanding of consent. One in five sexual assault cases nationwide are reported to law enforcement, Christain Champagne, the 6th Judicial District Attorney said. People who are at the highest risk for sexual assault are between 18 and 24 years old, he said.
Difficulty of legal follow through
In a review of the Fort Lewis College Annual Security Report, The Independent found thirteen reported sexual assault cases
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According to the FLC police blotter, five of those cases have become inactive, meaning the investigation is no longer continuing. A sexual assault case can become inactive for multiple reasons, including a lack of evidence or a student deciding they don’t want to move forward with the investigation, Matthew Dufva, an FLC police corporal, said. “We always ask the victim what would you like to see happen, or what would you like from our department,” Dufva said. According to a 2015 survey by the Association of American Univiersities who researched sexual assault and misconduct on 27 college campuses, 50 percent of sexual assault victims chose not to report the incident because they didn’t think it was serious enough.
Victims often choose not to follow through with litigation due the difficult nature of prosecution, self blame or undergoing a sexual assault exam, Champagne said. During prosecution, people can become fearful of a process that can be intrusive and requires them to face their offender, Champagne said. There are laws that prevent intimidating the victim from things like inquiring about their sexual relationships and shaming them, he said.
“No sexual assault victim is ever at fault.” the
Christain Champagne
6th Judicial District Attorney
The Independent i “No sexual assault victim is ever at fault,” he said.
What is consent? Sexual assault does not have to involve penetration, Molly Weiser, FLC’s Title IX coordinator, said. It includes being groped in the backseat of a crowded car and any other unwanted sexual contact. Colorado law states that voluntary intoxication is not a defense against sex crimes, meaning an offender cannot be excused for being under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they have sexually assaulted someone, Weiser said. Along with drugs and alcohol having an influence over sexual assault cases, confusion around the meaning of consent is also a major contributing factor, Champagne said. “Consent is affirmative, knowing and voluntary words or actions that create a mutually understandable and clear agreement to engage in sexual activity,” according to FLC’s Campus Assault Resources and Education. Essentially, consent is the presence of yes, not the absence of no, Weiser said. If you’re uncertain if you’ve been given consent for sex, evaluate your intentions, Rhonda Ferguson, the assistant director of Sexual Assault Services Organization, said. “Are you misinterpreting something, or are you being coercive?” she said. “Are people not picking up on those signals because they don’t know, or are they ignoring them?” Coercion includes asking multiple times for sexual contact, trying different tactics to persuade, or taking advantage of someone who is inebriated, Weiser said. “No does not mean convince me,” she said. Weiser said that misinterpretations of consent have resulted in cases of unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault at FLC. The cases that go to Title IX do not always go through the police department, she said. Sexual assault respondents have told Weiser they thought they were given consent
based on a compliment or minimal contact like a hand brushing up against them. If there is a question in someone’s mind about whether the person they are pursuing can consent to sex, it’s time to step away from that person, she said. Weiser says that any sexual relationship, whether it’s casual or serious, should involve communication and respect. “What if, instead of penetration, we reframed our goals as intimacy and connection?” Weiser said.
Title IX and reporting assaults
All reported sexual assault cases that occur on campus go to Title IX, where the institution can take action to safegaurd the victim’s education. These actions can range from referrals to counseling for the individuals involved in the sexual assault, adjusting a student’s schedule or housing to disenrollment of the offender, according to the FLC Grievance Procedure. If someone reports a sexual assault to campus police, they are not required to meet with Title IX. Similarly, reporting a sexual assault to Title IX does not require a meeting with law enforcement, Dufva said.
What is being done? Weiser provides an in-depth and interactive presentations centered around consent, communication and how Title IX approaches sexual assault cases to groups on campus. FLC’s new program for freshmen is called First Year Launch, which is a required course that includes education for new students about sexual assault, consent and Title IX, Weiser said. Students and faculty can report sexual assault, personal or observed, to Molly Weiser of Title IX, SASO or the FLC police department.
WHAT IS A SEXUAL ASSAULT EXAM? Sexual assault exams include physical exams similar to a pap smear, urine and blood tests, photographs of injuries, and treatment for said injuries and STIs. Sexual assault nurse examiners are trained to use compassion for the victims during the forensic exam, Rhonda Ferguson, the assistant director of Sexual Assault Services Organization, said. “We really try to mitigate that trauma,” she said. The Violence Against Women Act of 2005 does not require victims of sexual assault to participate with the criminal justice system nor cooperate with law enforcement to receive a sexual assault exam. Sexual assault exams are free under the VAWA, and are paid for by the division of criminal justice of the Colorado Department of Public Safety. Victims can take an exam up to five days after the assault to retrieve evidence.
Kim Cassels
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Gender Identity on Campus
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T
Pronouns
he Fort Lewis College campus is diverse - from race and ethnicity to gender and sexuality. Students, faculty and staff work to educate the community on gender to help create a safe and welcoming environment for all students.
Gender pronouns are words used to refer to someone, like they, he or she. These words correlate with gender identity.
Miseducation can lead to acts of discrimination, such as when the removal of transgender-bathroom rights posters made some students uncomfortable. To put an end to incidents like these, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center and other regional resource centers open the discussion to the public.
Hughes said that gender pronouns are important for both transgender people and everyone else whose gender identity does not align with their biological sex. When someone who is transgender is misgendered, it can feel as though their validity is at stake, they said. Even cisgender people feel hurt when someone misgenders them, they said.
Gender Xander Hughes, president of PRISM, believed that gender was determined by the self but later began to factor in the idea that gender is a social construct, they said. Hughes said that everyone experiences gender uniquely, and by that standard, gender is determined by the self. But gender expectations differ from culture to culture, so gender is what we make it, they said. Biological sex, on the other hand, has to do with your anatomy and nothing to do with your sense of self, they said. Hughes interned at the Rainbow Youth Center during the 2019 summer, where they trained others in Durango, Telluride and Montrose using the gender unicorn. The gender unicorn is an infographic used to help define the differences between gender identity, gender expression, biological sex and attraction, they said. Within attraction, there is both physical attraction and emotional attraction. There are distinctions among all five of these traits, and these traits are not related, they said. For example, Hughes identifies as non-binary transmasculine. So, Hughes uses they/them gender pronouns and masculine gender expression. Their gender identity does not determine who they are attracted to, they said.
“I don’t define gender pronouns,” Molly Wieser, the Title IX coordinator, said. “I wait for other people to define them for me.” Students who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth sometimes struggle with their identity, Wieser said. So it’s best to use their preferred gender pronouns - no questions asked - to validate them, she said. The best way to ask someone about their gender pronouns is to offer your own gender pronouns, said Nancy Stoffer, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center director. This way it isn’t explicitly asked, but an avenue is created for others to offer their own, she said. Hughes agreed with Stoffer and added that it is better to offer your own gender pronouns to everyone rather than only ask those who appear to identify as something other than cisgender. To do this, someone may state their gender pronouns when they introduce themselves to someone, they said. Hughes learned this after they attended a lecture for faculty and staff calledTrans 201 with Adrien Lawyer, the co-director and co-founder of the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico.
Education Lawyer visits places like FLC to teach transgender cultural competency. This means that Lawyer trains people to be able to provide service, or access to service, for transgender people. In New Mexico, the center trains at places including hospitals, police departments and prisons, he said. They hold trainings in Durango because it’s in the Four Corners area and offers resources for people who are in cities such as Farmington and Aztec, he said. In Sept. 2019, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center on campus hosted a lecture for students and others, Trans 101 with Lawyer. At this lecture, Lawyer hoped to educate people on the basics of what it means to be transgender, he said. He has worked with people who hated transgender people, but he has found that most of these people are more fearful than they are hateful, he said. Education will help these people be confident in their interactions with transgender people, rather than fearful of saying the wrong thing, he said. “Our goal is to get to the point where it is no more of a big deal to be trans than it is to be left handed,” Lawyer said. “It’s just an attribute that some people have and some people don’t.” As for gender in general, the U.S. is misogynistic and transgender women and transgender women of color tend to experience more discrimination and violence than transgender men or white transgender people, he said. For that reason, he said that he highlights how unfair treatment of women holds people back and pointed to how the U.S. women’s national soccer team has to fight for equal pay. “There is no reason we should live in 2019, in one of the most resourced countries in the world, and still have women be unequal to men and have pay inequality, have violence and sexual violence disproportionately affecting women,” Lawyer said. “That speaks very poorly of us.”
Taylor Hutchison
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............. Outdoor Recreation
A
s the temperatures begin to drop and wildlife begins to start their mating seasons, hunters are gearing up to fill their freezers. They will head out with either a bow or a rifle to complete the task. These hunters started their pursuit in late August with a bow and arrow while other rifle seasons start later in the fall. This means there are many people out with a loaded firearm and this raises concerns for safety for all outdoor recreationists. Hunting is allowed on public land such as U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management owned laned with the exception of any public land falling within city limits. There are many trails listed on websites, such as the Trails 2000 site, to give hikers and mountain bikers an idea of alternate trails in city limits to avoid high traffic hunting areas. In the 1960s, hunters in Colorado averaged nine fatal and 24 non-fatal injuries each year, such as firearm malfunctions or other firearm inflicted injuries, Joe Lewandowski, Southwest Region spokesperson for Colorado Department of Fish and Wildlife, said. “Incidents happen due to someone’s negligence or mistake,” said Mia Anstine, a local hunting guide. The legislature took action and passed the hunter education course completion requirement in 1970, Lewandowski said. The results have been a steady decline in hunting fatalities and accidents. In the 1990s, the averages dropped to 1.3 fatal and 11 non-fatal hunting accidents annually, he said. Today, Colorado sees about five nonfatal incidents a year and 1.2 fatalities related to hunting per year.
Safety During
Hunting Season Archery Season ................ Aug 31-Sept 30 Muzzleloader .................... Sept 14-Sept 22 Bear .................................................. Sept 2-30 Rifle #1 ............................................. Oct 12-16 Rifle #2 ............................................ Oct 19-27 Rifle #3 ............................................. Nov 2-10 Rifle #4 ............................................ Nov 13-17 and ammunition, firearm safety, shooting fundamentals and firearm and wildlife laws, he said. This class is to ensure that hunters are well educated before students head out into the field. In Colorado a hunter must wear a fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink hat and vest over their outer garment to help reduce hunting injuries and fatalities while hunting elk, deer, antelope, bear or moose during the muzzleloading or rifle seasons.
Hunter safety classes teach responsible firearm handling in the field, in the vehicle, in the home and after hunting, said Don Volger, a hunter education class instructor.
“Non-hunters should take a clue from hunters and also wear fluorescent orange while in the backcountry during hunting seasons,” Mary Monroe, director of Trails 2000, said.
Through lectures, hands-on activities and videos, students learn about firearms
Colorado Parks and Wildlife also strongly recommends those riding horses in the back-
country during the rifle seasons wear orange because there could be a chance hunters mistake a horse for an elk, deer or moose. Many hunting guides and outfitters also recommend tying orange or bright ribbons on the saddle to help hunters better identify your animals, Anstine said. Some will also tie ribbon on antlers of harvested game being packed out by horseback as an additional safety measure, she said. If there is an accident in the outdoors, call 911. If there is a lost or missing person call the Sheriff’s dispatch at 385-2900 and they will alert La Plata County Search and Rescue. If there is wildlife in trouble/injured, call Colorado Parks and Wildlife at 247-0855.
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Lea Leggitt
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