Issue74online

Fort Lewis College News Magazine Issue 74

www.theindyonline.com

i FREE

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK You adorable person, you are reading our publication, and we are thrilled that this is so. The Independent, as you may know, is a student-run news organization. Some of us are students who earn credit for our work, and some of us are simply members of the Indy as a Registered Student Organization.

My name is Lauren S. Hammond and I am the online editor for The Independent, The Indy Online. I am a senior of political science, whereas most of my colleagues here at the Indy are students of communications. This gives me a different perspective than most of them. From my point of view, I generally see the media as a tool that shapes public opinion. In other words, the news delivers messages that have the ability to strongly influence citizens’ opinions and behaviors. This is in the back of my mind and really guides my ethical stance on news media writing.

As this is my first Letter From the Editor, I asked around the editor’s table for advice as to what I should write about. In the end it seemed like I could talk about anything I wanted to, and talking about media itself would make a good introduction to what it is we do.

Some staffers do it because they think it’ll look good on a resume. Some do it because it’s fun. We do it because we rely on each other to create what we create together. We do it because we are kind of like a family.

Cover Photo by Sean Summers: On page 9, Keenan Malone takes a look at the school’s status as a Liberal Arts college in his article “Examining Liberal Arts at FLC.

Lauren S. Hammond Online Editor lshammond@fortlewis.edu

EDITORS & STAFF

EDITOR IN CHIEF Trevor Ogborn

ASSOCIATE EDITOR IN CHIEF & PRINT EDITOR Luke Perkins

BUSINESS DIRECTOR Emma Vaughn

COPY EDITOR Carter Solomon

ONLINE EDITOR Lauren Hammond

LEAD PRINT DESIGN Hanna Maddera

ONLINE DESIGN EDITOR Julia Volzke

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Sean Summers

VIDEO PRODUCTION EDITOR Nic Hassinger

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Catherine Wheeler

BUSINESS: Madison Carman Blythe Curry COPY EDITING: Jarred Green DESIGN: Allison Anderson Camden Smith PHOTOGRAPHY: Brent Belone Nate Obici SOCIAL MEDIA: Mike Gertsen-Rogers REPORTING: Jamie Draper Archer Gordon Keenan Malone Ryan Simonovich Kelkiyana Yazzie BROADCASTING: Deanna Atkins Lindley Gallegos Haylee Knipple Allie Kruchell

CAMPUS

Reacreditation Process Underway for FLC - 3 Story by Kelkiyana Yazzie & Luke Perkins

Funding Favors Four: Native American Tuition Waiver - 5 Story by Jamie Draper

COMMUNITY

Career by Senior Year? - 7 Story by Jarred Green

COVER

Examining Liberal Arts at FLC - 9 Story by Keenan Malone

OUTDOOR

Outdoor −→ Indoor - 13 Story by Ryan Simonvich

HEALTH

Slide Into Winter: How Seasons May Affect Your Mood - 15 Story by Jamie Draper

SPORTS

Skyhawk Cycling Wins Mountain Bike National Championship - 17 Story by Archer Gordon

OPINION

Finishing in 4: I Did It - 19 Opinion by Lauren Hammond

“Liberal” Arts -19

Opinion by Catherine Wheeler

SAD This Winter - 20

Opinion by Hanna Maddera

ENTERTAINMENT

Meet an Indy Staffer, The Signs as Majors and Creative Works by Students! - 21

Photo byAllison Anderson: On page 5, Jamie Draper reports on the four year graduation plan and the native tuirtion waiver.

CAMPUS

REACCREDITATION PROCESS

UNDERWAY FOR FLC Story by Kelkiyana Yazzie & Luke Perkins

T

he Higher Learning Commission came to Fort Lewis College in October for a reaccreditation visit to determine how well the institution is serving the students and overall community.

“Accreditation is the primary means of assuring and improving the quality of higher education institutions and programs in the United States through self-examination and peer review that involves the reviewing and judging of educational quality,” Barbara Morris, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said.

The reaccreditation process requires an institution to show that it meets or exceeds the standards in place by the HLC in five specific criterions, Lee Frazer, assistant professor of adventure education, said.

Frazer served as the co-leader for the

3

Photos by Charine Gonzales

Design by Allison Anderson

criterion team reporting on the mission of FLC alongside Shirena Trujillo Long, coordinator of El Centro, and Glenna Sexton, vice president of student affairs, who served as the team’s administrative liaison, he said.

For an institution to receive affirmation of their reaccreditation it must prove that it fulfills the core components of each criterion, Frazer said.

To ensure FLC was meeting the standards laid down by HLC for each criterion, five teams were created to analyze if the college was fulfilling the core components for each criterion, he said.

Approximately 60 students, faculty, staff and community members made up these teams, Morris said.

They have been gathering data and constructing the narrative for the Assur-

ance Report and Quality Initiative for the past two years in order to prepare for the reaccreditation visit, she said.

In addition to the faculty co-leaders and administrative liaisons each team included stakeholders from the local community and on campus, Frazer said.

The first step to ensuring compliance with the HLC’s criterion came in the form of gap analysis, he said.

The goal of the gap analysis was to see where FLC was meeting the HLC’s expectations for higher education accreditation, he said.

For criterion team one this gap analysis was conducted via a survey administered to faculty, staff and community members, in order to show how well the college understood and was fulfilling its mission state-

ment, Frazer said.

Gap Analysis Findings Regarding Mission Statement of FLC Early into the analysis it became apparent that the campus was divided on the mission statement, he said.

“We found fairly soon in our investigation that there were different interpretations of the liberal arts and the extent to which we are still or are a liberal arts institution,” he said.

The discussion of what constitutes a liberal arts education came up during the HLC’s visit when they met with members of The Associated Students of Fort Lewis College, Phil Carter, speaker of the senate for The ASFLC, said.

The HLC commission met with members of The ASFLC and discussed what a liberal arts school was and what a liberal arts education meant to them, Carter said.

While Carter was unable to speak for the other members of The ASFLC he believes that a liberal arts education should focus on an applicable field of study while still offering an interdisciplinary understanding of other majors and how they affect different subjects, he said Differing interpretations of liberal arts, and the reaccreditation process as a whole, has resulted in an understanding that FLC’s mission statement needs to be updated and made more publicly visible, Frazer said.

“We need to create something that’s, I think, more fitting and relevant to the realities of Fort Lewis right now,” he said.

FLC’s mission, according to its website, is currently “Fort Lewis College offers accessible, high quality, baccalaureate liberal arts education to a diverse student population, preparing citizens for the common good in an increasingly complex world.”

As it stands, this offers a vague guidance of what FLC should be, Carter said.

“You could slap that mission on pretty much any institution and it would fit, and I think that kind of defeats the purpose of having a mission,” he said The differing interpretation of FLC’s current mission has led to tension amongst some faculty members, specifically between faculty in the sciences and faculty in the humanities, Frazer said.

“Battles between disciplines have always occurred, always gone on,” he said.

“We all think we have the angle on truth, fact is we don’t. We are all valuable in my mind, we all have something to contribute.”

Frazer said he believes the accreditation process helps those involved better understand issues being brought up by faculty from “oppositional” disciplines.

“The HLC accreditation visit offered a healthy airing of faculty views on challenges the college faces,” Dugald Owen, associate professor of philosophy and president of the faculty senate, said via email.

Some of the specific issues brought up were the proportion of college resources allocated to different departments, especially STEM disciplines vs non-STEM, Owen said.

“Has that fixed this divide or bridged this divide? No, because not everybody was involved in the accreditation process, not everybody chose to be involved,” Frazer said.

This divide between disciplines is not caused by a local anomaly, but a national trend, he said.

“Fort Lewis and the state of Colorado and the landscape of higher education is changing,” he said.

This change is exacerbated by FLC’s standing as a public institution, Frazer said “We’re not a private liberal arts college with a $900 million endowment like Oberlin College,” he said.

As a public institution FLC ultimately has to offer the type of education that incoming students are seeking, which is currently geared more to the technical side than the liberal arts, he said.

“The fact that FLC is a publicly funded school means that it ought to serve the interests of those who pay the bills,” Owen said. “It should be sensitive to the desires of the students it enrolls and to the values of the citizens of Colorado”.

However, this opens up the discussion of what those desires and interests are and what form of education best promotes the values of the citizens of Colorado, he said.

There are multiple important reasons why FLC puts accreditation as a priority, Frazer said.

From a pragmatic standpoint there is federal funding that is only available to accredited institutions, he said.

“A majority of FLC’s current strategic plan is associated with the Quality Initiative that is part of the overall reaccreditation,” Morris said.

Takeaways from the reaccreditation should help shape the next strategic plan which FLC is in the process of hosting listening sessions for students, staff and faculty, Morris said.

The upcoming strategic planning sessions represent an opportunity for students to relay what type of education they are interested in having and how FLC can provide that education, Justin McBrayer, associate professor of philosophy and faculty representative to the board of trustees, said.

“Students will have a chance to put input into our plan that guides us for the next five years,” McBrayer said.

Also of importance is the quality of education that a peer-reviewed accredited college offers, and the increased value of degrees from such institutions, Frazer said.

Students can develop an impressive portfolio of classes taken and papers written, but if the institution they graduate from is not accredited their degree is not as valuable as it should be, Carter said.

“If I get a degree from a school that loses its accreditation right after I graduate that’s probably not going to do me much good,” he said.

FLC is currently waiting for the report from the HLC which should arrive in the next couple of months, Morris said.

The report and ruling from HLC on reaccreditation can range from a definitive yes and a definitive no, with conditional reaccreditation being a potential outcome as well, Frazer said.

Conditional reaccreditation would allow FLC to address any shortcomings in meeting the criterion as laid out by the HLC, he said. i

4

CAMPUS

Funding Favors Four: NATIVE AMERICAN TUITION WAIVER

Photo by Allison Anderson: The John & Sophie Ottens Foundation Native American Center is a location in the Student Union as a resource.

Story by Jamie Draper

Photos by Allison Anderson

Design by Camden Smith & Hanna Maddera

ifferent incentive programs exist to keep college students in school and to get them to graduate. The encouraged timespan it should take one to graduate is four years.

“It is designed to improve four-year graduation rates,” she said.

Because the program was implemented three years ago and the program lasts four years, it cannot yet be determined how the program may affect graduation and retention rates, Orien McGlamery, senior analyst of institutional research at FLC, said.

A benefit of the finish in four program is to reduce direct tuition costs of a baccalaureate degree, Smith said. Expenses are reduced indirectly by avoiding costs of ad-

ditional semesters and possible accruement of interest on student loans.

Finishing in four years also reduces the risk that life events will interrupt degree completion, she said.

It seems the college prefers when students achieve a degree in four years because after that four year mark, the chances of them graduating decreases, Evan Wick, student body vice president at FLC, said.

“Finish in four is publicized to all new freshmen,” Smith said.

D

Finish in Four

Fort Lewis College was required by the Student Bill of Rights statute to offer a fouryear graduation agreement program, Carol Smith, associate vice president of enrollment management, said. This program is known as the Finish in Four Program.

5

To be eligible for the finish in four program a freshman status student must declare a major, and be of college-level standards in math and composition, she said.

Certain majors have additional requirements.

“I think finish in four is the biggest campaign at the college to encourage students to come back each year and graduate,” Wick said.

The college strategizes to improve retention rates by identifying reasons why students do not re-enroll, and the school also looks to see if there is anything they can do to improve those variables, he said.

Native American Incentive to Graduate in Four

There is built-in incentive for recipients of the Native American Tuition Waiver to graduate in four years as it is only applicable for four years, Wick said. FLC is one of two public colleges in the United States that offers this type of tuition waiver.

“As an Alaska Native, I’m on the Native American Tuition Waiver,” he said.

While the waiver pertains to tuition for Native American students, other expenses are not covered, he said. The waiver does not pay for additional expenses, for example one’s room and board.

Native American students are eligible for merit scholarships, however merit scholarships offered by FLC can only be applied to tuition, Tracy Pitcoli, director of financial aid at FLC, said.

As students on Native American tuition waiver do not have a tuition bill, additional funds from merit scholarship cannot be applied to it, Pitcoli said.

“If you fall under the Native American Tuition Waiver, you are ineligible for merit scholarships,” Wick said.

Recipients of the Native American Tuition Waiver do not have tuition costs and merit scholarships are only applicable to tuition, he said.

sentatives by Scott Tipton in February 2015.

The state of Colorado is currently responsible for these higher educational expenses which mainly service out of state students, Wick said.

This bill would make the Native American Tuition Waiver an expense of the federal education budget rather than the state budget, he said. This switch to federal funding is intended to ensure that the tuition waiver is funded into the future, he said.

According to H.R.1089, there is a limitation stating funds will not exceed the total cost for out-of-state waiver recipients in 2014-2015 school year, nor will it exceed $15 million.

The bill has been in committee since March of 2014. There is bipartisan support from both houses, Wick said. Colorado’s delegation introduced the bill and all but one member remains in support of it. i

“

I THINK FINISH IN FOUR IS THE BIGGEST CAMPAIGN AT THE COLLEGE TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO COME BACK EACH YEAR AND GRADUATE, - EVAN WICK

”

Photo by Allison Anderson: Some of the many Native RSOs that are offered to students.

H.R. 1089 & S. 1390

There are currently two bills in Congress that deals with the Native American Tuition Waiver for higher education, Wick said.

FLC and the University of Minnesota Morris are the only two public colleges in the United States that offer the Native American Tuition Waiver, both of which are mentioned in the legislation, he said.

According to H.R. 1089, The “Native American Indian Education Act,” is a bill that was presented to the House of Repre-

6

COMMUNITY

Photo by Allison Anderson: The Career Services resource in Jones is a good resource to help find jobs after graduating.

Story by Jarred Green

Photo by Allison Anderson

O

ne main focus of attending college is to be more accredited in a given career field choice. The process of searching for this chosen career can never be started too early for students.

Planning

“Start early with your planning,” Mark Mastalski, director of the Leadership Cen-

7

Design by Camden Smith

ter at Fort Lewis College, said.

It may not be clear what path one may want to take, but the best way to figure this out is to try everything, he said.

By trying out many different courses, students have a better understanding of what they would like to do, and they also have more experiences that they can use when applying for a job in their field of

choice, he said.

“Students should understand that education is not solely about the degree that they receive,” Mastalski said. “It’s about the knowledge and the skills they acquire.”

Students should also be well-diversified in their skills, he said.

“For people who are technically oriented, I think it is important to have those other skills and classes to round out your education,” he said.

Skills that help students prepare for their jobs can be acquired directly on campus, Jill Kolodzne, Career Services coordinator at Fort Lewis College, said.

If students take classes like senior seminar seriously they will be spending time in class preparing themselves to get a job, Kolodzne said.

As they attain skills, students become more diversified and gain more knowledge about subjects they might not otherwise have, Mastalski said.

Students should also use the resources provided at Career Services, he said.

“

STUDENTS CAN SIGN UP FOR A TIME SLOT, GO THROUGH A MOCK INTERVIEW AND GET IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK ON HOW THEY DID,

Career Services can provide students with the skills necessary to have before entering the job market, Mastalski said.

Career Services helps students think critically about how to present themselves to employers, Tana Verzuh, Career Services coordinator at FLC, said.

“It’s never too early to come to Career Services,” Kolodzne said.

Career Services also helps students begin to approach the process of searching for a job, Verzuh said.

Community Involvement

It is also important for students to be involved in their communities, Mastalski said.

“Grades are certainly important to some employers, but even more employers look at your co-curricular experiences,” he said.

It is important for students to volunteer and show that they are an active participant in their community because employers want to hire engaged employees, he said.

“It is not enough to have a degree,” Mastalski said.

Internships can provide students with necessary field experience for the career they desire, Kolodzne said.

“Employers really want to see that a person is doing things outside of being in the classroom,” Mastalski said.

Students should have at least 2 years of internship experience before they graduate, Kolodzne said.

One way Career Services helps students is to figure out what internships would work best for them and works to establish internship schedules as well, Verzuh said.

This is done by taking into consideration every aspect of the internship: when it will take place, if it is paid or unpaid and if housing is included, she said.

Career Services has direct connections to employers in the city that they direct students to for internships or job openings that match their career choice, Verzuh said.

It is important to have the right skills and attitude along with knowledge, Mastalski said.

Filing it All Together

When the time comes, students should

- TANA VERZUH have their documents such as resumes and cover letters polished and ready to be sent to employers before they graduate, Verzuh said.

“Cover letters communicate how you are the best candidate for the job based on how you can make life easier for the employer,” Kolodzne said.

Cover letters are business letters that tell the employer what skills applicants have and how they can apply those specific skills to the job in order to be the best candidate, she said This is a way to let employers know what is liked about the company and why a person is excited to be hired for the position without directly saying one is excited, she said.

What Career Services has to Offer

The first Thursday of every month, Career Services holds drop-in resume cafés where students can have their resumes and cover letters reviewed and edited, Kolodzne said.

Students can also set up one-on-one resume building meetings where they can sit down with a Career Services coordinator,

”

she said.

“We have conversations and help them figure out what skills they have to offer,” she said.

Employers judge applicants based off the structure of resumes as well as the skills presented, Kolodzne said.

“They’re also judging you based off of your presentation skills and your writing ability,” she said It is important to be able to convey messages clearly and concisely, she said.

Career Services also provides mock interviews for students, Verzuh said.

Students can make appointments to go over their interview skills, she said.

At the Job Fair every year an organization by the name of Professional Associates holds mock interviews for students, she said.

“Students can sign up for a time slot, go through a mock interview and get immediate feedback on how they did,” Verzuh said.

With the experiences and documents ready to be sent, students will be prepared for their path into their career, Mastalski said. i

Dorm Beds Available $460 per month All bills paid and furnished Call 970-­‐764-­‐5009 Durango Dorms

COVER

Photo by Sean Summers:

LIBERAL ARTS AT FLC Story by Keenan Malone

W

Photo by Sean Summers

ith the new construction and the anticipated completion of Fort Lewis College’s soon-to-be Geosciences, Physics and Engineering Hall on the southwest part of campus, some wonder if recent channels of funding toward the science, technology, engineering and mathematics departments - or STEM departments - at FLC mean an end to FLC’s standing as a liberal arts college.

“I may have a bias because I work in a humanities department, however some of the concern comes from a tendency to fund the STEM departments based on the ideas of job security associated with those departments,” Michael Martin, FLC’s history department chair, said.

The new academic building is scheduled to open in the 2016 fall semester, an online news statement from the FLC’s Office of Alumni Relations said.

This statement, published on July 29, 2015 said the academic programs that the $35 million campus addition will house are among FLC’s strongest and fastest growing in terms of enrollment.

This shift of resource availability is also reflected in recent faculty hirings by department.

In an October report to the board of trustees by Justin McBrayer, FLC’s faculty representative to the board of trustees and professor of philosophy, McBrayer outlined a drop in humanities and teacher ed staff coinciding with a rise in STEM department staff over years ranging from the 08’-09’ school year to the 14’-15’ school year.

In McBrayer’s report, he said “the biggest losses in this category are history and English.”

The category McBrayer refers to are teachers with tenure or teachers on a tenure track.

To give more context to these losses, McBrayer shows how the faculty shifts to and from the social sciences and the School of Business Administration are relatively flat, with the number of tenure or tenure track teachers in social sciences increasing

Graphics by Hanna Maddera

by 3.6 percent and the amount of the same teachers in SOBA neither increasing nor decreasing.

The report said the number of tenure or tenure track faculty from the teacher education department has gone down by 14.3 percent between the ‘08-’09 school year and ‘14-’15 school year.

However, that percentage only reflects the departure of one person, the report said.

To contrast to the faculty losses in the history and English departments during this selected time period, McBrayer’s report shows a 26.5 percent increase in hirings of tenure or tenure track teachers in the hard sciences for this time period.

“The biggest gains in this category are in biology and physics/engineering,” the faculty report said.

McBrayer said he feels there is a perceived conflict of arts and humanities departments against the STEM departments in a fight for liberal arts, based on the recent shifts in funding toward tenure track hard science faculty, along with the funding these departments have received for FLC’s new geosciences, physics and engineering building.

This invalid conflict actually works to defeat the concept of liberal arts, McBrayer said.

The inclusion of STEM topics into arts and humanities topics and philosophical topics into the sciences, are a big part of what make the liberal arts education in general and at FLC, McBrayer said.

The Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges - abbreviated as COPLAC - is a collaborative of public liberal arts schools around the continent based out of The University of North Carolina that includes FLC as their sole representative of public liberal arts institutions in the state of Colorado.

On the COPLAC website, FLC articulates the liberal arts status the school holds and the school’s inclusion in COPLAC as attributed to FLC’s individualized education, coming from what they report as a 17-1 student-to-faculty ratio.

Design by Hanna Maddera

While these traits have been traditionally known as characteristic of an education at FLC, concerns were raised in McBrayer’s faculty report to the board of trustees of the effect that increasing class sizes may have on students’ educational experiences at FLC. The report shows a decline in the number of full-time teaching faculty from the late 1990’s up to into the fall semester of 2014.

Specifically, the report outlines the increase of students-to-faculty ratio after 2009 and it is shown that a year ago, there were 30 students for every tenure track teacher at FLC. In the report, McBrayer only accounts for tenure track faculty in regard to these ratios and attributes this to the connections tenure track teachers can give students to scholarly research that other faculty may not be able to.

Apart from the recognition McBrayer’s report brings to student-to-teacher ratios and the effect this has had on our claimed individualized education at FLC, some faculty are concerned about the transferability and lack of uniqueness of FLC’s liberal arts core with liberal arts core curriculums of other, non-COPLAC designated, schools, McBrayer said.

McBrayer said the concern was that the new ease in transferability may give FLC less of a regional liberal arts distinction.

Currently, FLC stands alone as the only school affiliated with COPLAC in the state of Colorado.

Last month, FLC faculty participated in a faculty-to-faculty conference in Denver put on by the Colorado Department of Higher Education to ensure that our General Education programs are meeting these standards, William Niemi, Western’s vice president for academic affairs said via email. The conference had participation from various colleges in the state including Western Colorado State University.

While these liberal arts curriculum inclusions are not exclusive to Western and

10

Business Administration 524.1

Education 113.3

General Education / Other 11.2 Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences 1402.9

All Other Fields 61%

Natural & Behaviors Sciences 1531.6

# OF FULL-TIME STUDENTS 2013-2014

FLC, Western’s inclusion of liberal arts in their general education requirements may mean change for FLC’s regional distinctiveness as a public liberal arts school.

The liberal arts curriculum recently implemented by Western has yet to qualify the University as a COPLAC recognized public liberals college.

Western plans to improve their liberal arts education to fit what liberal arts are defined as by modern standards, Niemi said via email. Western has traditionally been defined as offering a liberal arts curriculum and the idea of liberal arts inclusion at Western is not necessarily new.

“Although Western has traditionally offered a liberal arts curriculum, over the past two decades the meaning of so called ‘liberal arts’ has become more expansive,” he said via email.

He said liberal arts is no longer simply a broad education, typically with a general education and a major or minor in the arts, humanities, and social or natural sciences, but rather an expectation that students are learning liberal arts skills, such as critical thinking and analysis, communication skills and quantitative literacy.

The distinction Niemi speaks of, be-

11

tween traditional and modern conceptions of liberal arts, are two concepts of education Martin sees commonly confused with each other, he said.

“There seems to be a confusion between the concepts of liberal arts and liberal education,” Martin said.

A liberal arts education entails more interconnected course material while a liberal education simply means students have the freedom to choose to take courses outside their major, he said.

A great liberal education, as defined by Niemi in terms of what is offered at Western, includes developing skills within an individual student’s major while investigating the content of disciplines in the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences.

The interconnectivity Martin defines as the core of a liberal arts education is something that can be seen at FLC, he said.

As an example Martin points out a class taught by FLC professor of economics, Deb Walker, on the philosophy behind economics. Walker, in regard to this class, described the concept of economics as pertaining more to a knowledge of people about less about numbers, statistics, or a curriculum based solely on mathematical

Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences 39%

PERCENTAGE BREAKDOWN 2013-2014

formulas, Martin said.

The need we have as a society for critical and abstract thinking around all subjects, including this one is something to be considered, he said.

Along with McBrayer, Martin said the inclusion of science into humanity courses and, perhaps more abstractly, humanity concepts into science courses has benefited the quality of the courses he has taught.

To showcase more of this interconnectivity, Martin had Les Sommerville, a chemistry teacher at FLC, come into his history class to explain chemistry concepts and better contextualize material in the history class, he said.

Even the presence of biology majors in Martin’s Black Death class added to his curriculum in an exciting way, he said.

Courses such as the one the one Martin describes above are affected by an increase of students in ratio to teachers, McBrayer said in his report.

“Innovative class structures like teamtaught courses and cross disciplinary courses are less feasible with lower amounts of faculty,” McBrayer said.

With innovation being a key element of a true liberal arts education as defined

Business Administration 21.9

Education 5.9

General Education / Other 0.9 Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences 73.8

STUDENT POLL Do you believe FLC is still a Liberal Arts College?

YES - 55 NO - 21 UNDECIDED - 24 Natural & Behaviors Sciences 78.9

# OF FULL-TIME FACULTY 2013-2014

by the COPLAC, McBrayer’s report writes that a lack of tenure-track teachers on campus prevents FLC from offering innovative teaching.

“It is important for a liberally educated individual to read Shakespeare or Toni Morrison or Descartes, while learning about probability and the scientific method as well,” Niemi said.

Niemi said Western is emphasizing professional opportunities for their students more now than in the past, but they expect professionally trained students to have a solid liberal arts education from exposure to their general education program.

“I think we have had and will continue to have some balance between the arts, humanities and social and natural sciences here, in addition to professional programs,” Niemi said.

In the report to the board, McBrayer said, “given that students often rely on student to faculty ratios, it is plausible that they do not believe our claim to provide individualized learning.”

The gradual loss of teachers, as shown by the report, is bad for student recruitment, he said.

A table produced by Collegeresults.

com was also represented in McBrayer’s report which indicates that in 2014 FLC had the second highest student to faculty ratio in the state of Colorado.

This table showed FLC averaged 21 students per teacher, just ahead of Colorado Mesa University and Metropolitan State University of Denver which both tie at average ratios of 27 students per faculty member.

Ratios such as these have obviously led to increased class sizes and an increase in maximum caps for students in certain courses.

Several anthropology courses have increased caps from 24 to 48 and all history survey courses are about 30 percent larger than they were a few years prior to 2014, McBrayer’s report said.

FLC’s alumni news report defines the strength of the STEM departments as pertaining to student enrollment.

However, Martin points out the misconception that STEM majors are the “safe” majors because they will be guaranteed more jobs or have higher chances of getting hired.

In regard to those who may doubt their future success with whichever major they

0

10 20 30 40 50 60

are pursuing, or more specifically, those who doubt their success in regard to their perceived lack of a connection to the hard sciences, these individuals can consider the needs our society has for abstract thinkers, Martin said.

“A popular stereotype pinned to majors like English and philosophy is their lack of a foreseeable career outcome outside of teaching,” he said.

Beyond this stereotype remains the numerous examples of career outcomes for these majors, Martin said.

He pointed out that certain banks are known to hire English majors for their research capabilities and think tanks will hire philosophy majors for their ability to think abstractly.

Martin said FLC’s focus on liberal arts should not come from a need to infuse hard sciences into the humanities for their perceived relative practicality, but rather for the critical thinking abilities that come from the interconnectivity of a multitude of different disciplines. i

12

OUTDOOR

OUTDOOR Photo by Brent Belone: An instructor from Outdoor Pursuits teaching a student basic techniques while in a Kayak.

Story by Ryan Simonovich

Photos by Brent Belone

Design by Hanna Maddera

hen temperatures drop and seasons change, so do sports. Whether you are a varsity level athlete or are just trying to stay in shape, it can be tough to get out the door and into the cold weather.

Fort Lewis College athletes, such as track and field runners, train throughout the winter months, Mark Dutro, cross country and track head coach, said.

FLC has both track and field as well as cross country programs, Dutro said.

The Cross Country season is is ended with regionals on Nov. 7, and track season is set to begin with a meet on Dec. 12, he said.

Athletes who compete in both cross country and track have a different training schedule than those who only compete in only one sport, he said.

Runners who are coming off the cross country season take a two-to-three week break in order to reset and relax their bodies before starting track, Dutro said.

The runners will start running again over Thanksgiving break, he said.

They will build a base fitness and then add more intense workouts closer to the season when their bodies can handle it, he said.

Four miles is the longest distance

sprinters train for, Quin Borneo, freshman track and field sprinter, said.

On the other hand, track specific athletes have been training for several months, Dutro said.

Sprinters, jumpers and throwers have been practicing since September, he said.

Some of the workouts track and field athletes been doing are weight lifting, bike and running, Borneo said.

“I don’t like the idea of being in shape, then taking time off and getting out of shape,” she said.

The varsity track program at FLC is only in its second year, so it is not as strict

W

13

INDOOR Photo by Brent Belone: FLC students begin indoor cycling session with warm-up drills.

Photo by Brent Belone: Students at the Fort climbing indoors on the Wall Climb located at the Student Life Center.

with who can compete, Dutro said.

This will probably change to a more merit-based system as the program grows, he said.

“We’re pretty much taking who we can get so we can maintain a good size program,” he said. “We have recruited athletes who are in this year as freshmen.”

Which students get to compete depends on ability, condition level, budget and eligibility, Dutro said. FLC can compete as many athletes that it can afford to transport.

Fitness Resources on Campus You do not need to be a varsity athlete in order to stay in shape during the winter.

The FLC Student Life Center is one

of the more popular buildings on campus, Doug Ewing, Recreation Services Director, said.

Last year the SLC saw about 140,000 entries and 3,000 unique users, Ewing said.

Attendance at the SLC tends to increase when it gets colder, since it provides facilities to workout inside, he said.

“The SLC offers group fitness, personal trainers, intramural sports, a track, weight room, exercise machines, a rock climbing wall and racquet ball court,” he said.

My friends and I go to the gym at the SLC and workout, Taylor Schwarz, a freshman, said.

Using a phone app that suggests workouts can help when the weather is bad and

motivation is at a premium, she said.

Staying inside and not exercising can be detrimental to your health, Ewing said.

The benefits of working out are weight loss, positive body image, more energy, improved immune system and reduced stress, he said.

The perks of working out are relieving stress and feeling a sense of accomplishment , Schwarz said.

“Get up and get active,” Ewing said “Don’t get stuck inside.” i

14

HEALTH Photo provided by Talulah Gilroy: One of Durango’s first snows of 2015.

Slide into Winter: How Seasons May Affect Your Mood Story by Jamie Draper

Photo by Talulah Gilroy

A

s the season transitions into winter and amount of sunlit hours decreases, many folks may notice a change in their mood, energy and sleep patterns.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

“Seasonal Affective Disorder is a type of depression that comes with light and season patterns,” Brian Burke, associate professor of psychology at Fort Lewis College, said.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, SAD is a specifier for the mood disorders of depression as well as bipolar disorder, and is not a separate diagnosis, Burke said.

15

Graphics by Camden Smith

SAD is especially prevalent in students age 18-24, Karen Nakayama, clinical director of the counseling center at FLC, said.

Mood disorders are typical to find with college-age people, when so many other big changes are happening, Kendra Reichle, coordinator of student wellness initiatives at FLC, said.

Seasonal change is just one obvious element of the changes people constantly experience in life, Reichle said.

Although exact mechanisms that connect light exposure to mood are unknown, studies show statistically significant patterns between light and mood, Burke said.

Students generally self-identify their

Design by Camden Smith

depression related to seasonal change, most commonly from fall to spring, Nakayama said. It usually takes someone two years to identify their seasonal mood patterns.

Depression as Evolutionary

Depression is seen negatively due to detrimental consequences like suicide, and drug and alcohol use, but depression is also associated with creativity, Burke said.

“Depression is an opportunity to become more aware, and realize you can really only do one thing at a time, and be mindful,” Reichle said.

It can be argued that the most adaptive thing to do when struggling with something is to retreat for some amount of time,

Burke said.

It can be helpful to stay in and contemplate how to try something new, he said.

Depression can help someone look outside the box.

The evolutionary psychology perspective coincides with some of the symptoms seen with SAD like sleeping more, less energy, less movement and a preference for high carbohydrate foods, he said.

“Basically you’re hibernating, in bear terms,” Burke said.

What may be very adaptive from an evolutionary perspective is not seen that way in modern society, he said. One cannot be absent from work all winter, or not have the energy to maintain relationships and still expect those things to function in modern times.

“The main problem in almost all disorders is that we are living in a world that doesn’t fit for how we evolved,” he said.

Currently, it is very easy to access high carbohydrate foods, and ancestral predecessors did not have that immediate access, Burke said.

Depression can be viewed like a slide on a playground, Reichle said.

“It’s so easy to slide down, but going back up it takes a lot more work,” she said.

“Sometimes you fall and slip back down, sometimes it takes multiple attempts and multiple creative interventions to get yourself back at that place of balance.”

Treatment

Addressing your lifestyle comes first when treating depression, Burke said.

Exercise, diet, workload, socializing and sleep are areas to address, he said. People should learn to identify their own triggers and see what works for them.

People who exercise outdoors are less likely to experience SAD, compared to those who exercise indoors, he said. Connecting oneself with the natural world improves health.

“Go outside for a walk, even if it’s snowing.” Reichle said. “It can be beautiful.”

Realistic expectations related to exercise are important when using physical activity to treat disordered mood, she said.

Small successes should be celebrated.

Another important part of treating a mood disorder is support systems, she said.

Maintaining contact with people can create a safety net, Reichle said. If family is stressful, one may choose someone else to reach out to.

Often the first disruption that happens with any mood disorder is sleep, Burke said. Excessive sleep is often implicated with SAD. People should stay aware of how much sleep their body actually needs, which may in fact increase slightly in winter months, he said.

“Just try to get to know yourself,” he said.

Those with seasonal patterns of mood disorder may be advised to use light treatment, and purchasing a lamp to simulate the sun’s rays can be relatively inexpensive, Burke said.

Treatment options include melatonin, which is a hormonal-based supplement shown to help reset sleep or wake cycles that often become disrupted in SAD, Nakayama said.

“Melatonin is a natural substance that our bodies make in response to light,” Burke said.

Melatonin treatment addresses the

“

IT’S SO EASY TO SLIDE DOWN, BUT GOING BACK UP IT TAKES A LOT MORE WORK,” SHE SAID. “SOMETIMES YOU FALL AND SLIP BACK DOWN, SOMETIMES IT TAKES MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS AND MULTIPLE CREATIVE INTERVENTIONS TO GET YOURSELF BACK AT THAT PLACE OF BALANCE. -KENDRA REICHLE

”

same cycle integral to how light affects mood, he said.

If lifestyle treatment is not enough to alleviate the symptoms of SAD, treatment would then move to cognitive behavioral treatment that looks at what people are thinking about themselves and how to replace those thought patterns with more healthy ones, he said.

When other methods do not work, medication is a treatment option, Burke said.

“For me, medication is a last resort,” he said.

Know Thyself

Some individuals may be better able to adapt successfully to a climate with less light than others, Burke said.

“Part of knowing how to deal with seasonal affective disorder is knowing yourself and also knowing when it’s not a problem for you, knowing when normal variations in your life are acceptable,” he said.

Some deviations from normal patterns are fine, but when behavior feels out of control, there is a great resource on campus in the counseling center, Reichle said.

It is important to decatastrophize this variation, Burke said. Having different energies at different times of the year is perfectly healthy and normal.

“Everything varies,” Burke said. “We’re not going to be the same every day.” i

SPORTS Photo by Brent Belone: A collage created by FLC Cycling in memory of their past success.

SKYHAWKS CYCLING WINS MOUNTAIN BIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP Story by Archer Gordon

Photos by Brent Belone

Design by Allison Anderson

he Fort Lewis College cycling team and Cycling Head Coach Dave Hagen took first place at the division I National Mountain Bike Championships that took place Oct. 22-25.

Gary Hunter, athletic director at FLC, said the process to qualify for nationals begins with being chosen for the varsity team.

“The cycling team has a substantial number of members, from which Dave selects a varsity squad,” he said.

“To qualify for the FLC nationals team, you must be one of the top four riders in

your discipline,” Zach Graveson, FLC cyclist, said.

During the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference races, the coaches evaluate how each team member is riding and whether or not they will be a good fit for the nationals team, Graveson said.

FLC is allowed to take 10 riders from each gender - for a total of 20 riders - to nationals, Sofia Gomez-Villafañe, cyclist for FLC, said.

In order to make the team a rider needs three starts at conference races, Gomez-Vil-

lafañe said.

The coaches usually select the top performers to bring to nationals, she said.

While this year’s experience at nationals was nothing new, as it was his fourth year competing, it was still an awesome opportunity, Graveson said.

The experience was also nothing new to Gomez-Villafañe.

Her first year at nationals she was nervous because she had no idea what to expect but the past two years she had fewer nerves because it was more about knowing

T

17

she had to beat her performance the year before, Gomez-Villafañe said.

2015 marks her fourth year at nationals, she said.

There are multiple mountain bike events, Hunter said.

Graveson said there are three event types, cross country, omnium and downhill.

The FLC cycling team was formed about 20 years ago, Hunter said. The area had been home to Olympic medalists at the time.

“The formation of a cycling team seemed like a natural occurrence due to the area’s history of success,” Hunter said.

Even with the collegiate success at FLC, most graduates do not make a living off of cycling, but some, including Tom Wells, Howard Grotz and Tom Danielson, have had successful careers, Hunter said.

Gomez-Villafañe said she would like to continue her cycling career after college.

“After I graduate I will try to focus on racing mountain bikes and cyclocross,” Gomez-Villafañe said. “I will give it a try for two or three years and decide if I want to make a professional career or go back to school.”

Graveson said after college he would like to race professionally and race in the Union Cycliste Internationale Mountain Bike World Cup, which is the elite level of mountain bike competition.

Cycling does have benefits for its team members, Hunter said.

“All athletics build strong minds and strong bodies,” he said.

He said cycling also helps teach leadership, sportsmanship and competitiveness.

Cycling is a healthy life sport that one can continue to participate in later in life, Hunter said.

“Racing has very much made me into the person I am today,” Graveson said. “It has opened so many doors and I feel blessed to be living the life I am. I have made many life-long friends and travelled to countless memorable places.”

Hunter said the FLC cycling team has a good academic reputation.

Most people graduate and the team GPA is high, he said.

Overall the athletics department is very satisfied with the team’s results and is hopeful for future success at the cyclocross, road and BMX national championships this spring, Hunter said. i

Photo by Brent Belone: The recent trophy FLC Cycling has won in the Collegiate Rocky Mountain Conference.

Photo by Brent Belone: This is another recent award given to FLC Cycling while competing in the RMC.

18

OPINION

FINISHING IN 4: I DID IT Opinion by Lauren Hammond The year of 2012 I graduated high school, had my first summer job and in the Fall, I made my way to Fort Lewis College for my first year of college. It is now the Fall of 2015, and after my last advising meeting I only have nine more credits to complete in my final semester.

My Experience with Advising As it is, this came as quite a surprise.

My advisor was a professor in my major’s department who was not always the most attentive to his role as an advisor. He would simply send me an email informing me that I was checked off, and now eligible to sign up for classes.

I have been almost entirely self-advised until just a few weeks ago. I sat down with an advisor for the first time since my freshman year and this new advisor was actually quite impressed that I was on track to finish in four years as well.

He said I only needed nine more credits. My senior seminar course would be a four-credit course and my science with a lab course would also be four credits, adding up to eight. He said being self-advised should be worth the one credit I would be left with.

Although I doubt FLC as an institution is going to give me a credit for this, I obviously agree that I deserve two thumbs-wayway-up.

Advising at FLC as a Whole It is not an easy thing to graduate in four years without advising support. And as I said before, I was surprised to be only nine credits away from graduation. I feel lucky.

Here at FLC there are some professors who have no interest in the advising process. In my opinion, this is justified, and I side with the hiring of professional advisors at our school.

Yes, some argue that the intimacy of the professor-student relationship is important to the advising process, and I understand

19

the sentiment. However, I also understand how easily my track to graduation could have gone awry.

Although I am not trying to critique anyone who spends more than the standard four years to earn a baccalaureate degree, I would like to critique the small amount of advising I received at FLC. I’m not sure why it seems socially unacceptable to take more than four years to graduate. In an article by Jamie Draper, you can see that it is strange that there are programs being implemented but seemingly not enough actors there to help achieve the goals of these programs.

Even though I had a less than ideal experience with advising in the last three and a half years, I am happy to be finishing in four. Thank you sweet baby Jesus. i

“LIBERAL” ARTS Opinion by Catherine Wheeler The only word I can think of to describe my college experience thus far is transition. No, not my transition from high school, to college, or nearing the precipice into adulthood.

Oddly enough, my college education has not really been about me. It has to some extent, but I have spent a lot of days worrying about the transition of my college.

Just like most of my peers, I did not mean to come to a school in the middle of an identity crisis.

It started my first year in fall 2013 with a student forum about the credit change from a three and four credit mix to strictly three credits for all majors, with a few exceptions.

The credit changed passed, much to the dismay of faculty and students. Faculty senate voted 12-4 with four abstentions against the credit change, according to Michael Martin, the faculty member leading the research about the change. Of the about 100 students that participated in the forum only one student cited their support for the change, according to Alex Thompson, the Associated Students of Fort Lewis College

president at the time.

If the concern of a credit change did not worry me enough about the status of my anticipated graduation date, Justin McBrayer wrote a report about the composition of faculty, and how it was affecting the college negatively.

This worried me more than the idea of staying in college longer. My professors are the reason I stayed at Fort Lewis College. In my first year here, my professors diligently kept me aware of what was happening on an administrative level, kept me sane, and helped me become the writer and person I am today.

I believe that most students can say this about professors they have had here. We have an extremely caring faculty. They genuinely want us to succeed and make sure that our needs and wants are considered in discussions, and it hurts to see that the college’s lack of shared governance with them was hurting both of us.

But throughout this transition of the nature of FLC, I believe we have been left out of most of the conversations. As I am not privy to the administration’s decision making process, I can never know how much they use faculty and student input.

But using the credit change as an example, they dismissed the opinions of the people it affects the most.

The only way I have come to find out anything about the changes being made are through faculty that know I care about my college education and believe I have a right to know how it is changing.

They ask for our participation the way parents let their children cook, giving them one task to give them the idea that they are helping, but in reality they are making something that will never be used.

But in fact, I believe we understand it the most. It is our education. Each of us came here for a reason, but we stepped in knowing our expectations, and those have systematically changed, mostly through notification via email after the decision has been made.

I am not asking to be managed like a child. I am asking to be, along with my peers, genuinely included in the dialogue about the direction of this school.

Right now, FLC’s as an institution is acting like the freshman that is trying to “find itself ” during this uncertain time.

My only hope is that in the process of

Meet an Indy shaping itself for its next stage as an institution, is that they start listening to their students and faculty about what they want in their school.

When I leave FLC, I want to be proud of the school that taught me so much about who I am and the person I want to grow into. I do not want to look back as an alum and see something I do not recognize. i

SAD THIS WINTER Opinion by Hanna Maddera As our small mountain town’s exterior becomes dusted with snow, our days become shorter, darker and colder. For some, this is the season that they have been anticipating all year. For others, going about daily activities gets a bit harder in the winter because of a decrease in motivation and more extreme moods.

Jamie Draper of The Indy reports on Seasonal Affective Disorder in her article “Slide into Winter: How Seasons May Affect Your Mood” on page 15. She interviews Brian Burke, associate professor of psychology at Fort Lewis College.

Draper writes, “According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, SAD is a specifier for the mood disorders of depression as well as bipolar disorder, and is not a separate diagnosis, Burke said.”

Personally, when the temperature drops, I find it a bit harder to go about my daily responsibilities and activities. It requires me to exert both more physical and mental energy to do everything that I need to. Through the snow is fun to romp around in, I’m just one of those people that struggles more in the winter months. If you’re like me, don’t worry. By accepting the situation and learning how to prepare yourself for it, you can confidentially face the shift in seasons.

I believe that Draper offers valuable advice in the section of her article entitled “Know Thyself.” By listening to your own mind and body, you can learn to deal with whatever these months throw at you, even if it means taking the time to heal yourself.

In addition to loving and caring for yourself, you must care for others this season too. Ableism is the oppression of a group of people with disabilities. This can mean physical or mental disabilities, and not all disabilities are apparent by just looking at a person.

If you are unaffected by the change in seasons or SAD, you can learn to be understanding and supportive of your peers who are going through a tougher time this winter.

And together, we can all avoid being ableist and hurtful to those with disabilities. We must look out and care for each other, Skyhawks. i

Staffer!

NAME: Keenan Malone HOMETOWN: Santa Fe, NM WHAT DEPARTMENT I AM IN: Reporting FAVORITE INDY DEPARTMENT: Design FAVORITE STATE: Washington LEAST FAVORITE VEGETABLE: Cherry Tomatoes FAVORITE INDY MOMENTS: “When I did the story on the Heavy Metal EPA and that same beer was my first legal drink.”

Photo by Nate Obici: Heavy Metal EPA.

WHY YOU THINK PEOPLE SHOULD JOIN THE INDY: “Being involved with the Indy connects you to the community and when you are reporting for the Indy you know more about what is going on than the general public.”

20

ENTERTAINMENT

THE SIGNS AS

MAJORS An unoffical statement by an Indy staff member.

ARIES (March 21 - April 19): ✴ Spanish ✴ Gender and Women’s Studies ✴ Public Health TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): ✴ Environmental Studies ✴ Geology ✴ Biology

creative works by students:

Creative submissions do not represent the opinions and values of The Independent.

If you have anything you would like to submit, please contact or send to Hanna Maddera, Lead Print Design. (hlmaddera@fortlewis.edu)

THE YUCK-ATAN METEOR Comic by Devin Hernandez

GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): ✴ Communications ✴ Chemistry ✴ Marketing CANCER (June 21 - July 22): ✴ Psychology ✴ Graphic Design ✴ Political Science LEO (July 23 - August 22): ✴ Education ✴ Art History ✴ Music VIRGO (August 23 - September 22): ✴ Exerscise Science ✴ Native American and Indigenous Studies LIBRA (September 23 - October 22): ✴ Engineering ✴ Athletic Training SCORPIO (October 23 - November 21): ✴ Adventure Education ✴ Business Administration SAGITTARIUS (November 22 -December 21): ✴ English ✴ Sociology CAPRICORN (December 22 - January 19): ✴ History ✴ Accounting ✴ Economics AQUARIUS (January 20 - February 18): ✴ Anthropology ✴ Fine Art ✴ Theatre PISCES (February 19 - March 20): ✴ Philosophy ✴ Physics ✴ Mathematics

21

WORMCOMIC2.JPG Comic by Hanna Maddera

FOR TYLER Art by Ashli Ringgold Depicted on far left, Lithograph.

NOT YET Art by Grant Stuart Depicted on immediate left, Monograph.

UNTITLED Comic by Jared Dillon

22