Issue 89

Independent

The

Fort Lewis College News Magazine Issue 89

www.theindyonline.com Spring 2017

FINDING A VOICE: FREE SPEECH AND SAFE SPACES

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Dear readers, It’s finally here. By the time you’re reading this issue, there will be less than two weeks left in the semester. All the late nights in the fishbowl, the nights alone studying in your room while your friends go out, the countless group projects, and the unnecessary stress that comes with the semester will all be over soon. Buckle up and hit it hard for one more week, and relish the fact that you won’t have to stress about school again for a very long time.

I hope that you enjoy this last print issue of the Independent. I’m really proud of the content - not only in this issue - but throughout the whole semester. We’ve covered numerous stories that I believe are important to the student body. We’ve covered some hard news issues, such as the budget issues that the school is facing and the plight of contingent faculty members here. We’ve given some background information regarding how student government works, the history of Chapman Hill, and the Miss Hozhoni pageant. We’ve also broken into covering news, such as the protest during Donald Trump’s inauguration and, as we like to call it in the newsroom, “Preachergate.”

The Independent is committed to telling stories that the student body needs to hear. We’ve got a committed and dedicated staff that works extremely hard to cover the news. I hope that you enjoy their work, and continue to make the Independent a part of your day.

Be sure to check out our special issue, which will be released on finals week. Best of luck during finals!

Alex Semadeni Editor in Chief Independent News Organization

Anyone who is interested in providing feedback on The Independent can reach out either through email (independent@fortlewis. edu) or through Facebook (The Independent FLC) and Twitter (@flcindependent). If you are interested in providing feedback about specific departments please visit theindyonline.com where you can find contact info for our departmental editors.

EDITORS & STAFF

Alex Semadeni Editor in Chief

Jarred Green Associate EIC

Carolyn Estes Print Editor

Crystal Ashike Photography Editor

Allison Anderson Design Editor

Chris Mannara Social Media Editor

Cover photo by Isaac Furtney. On March 20th, a student poured coffee on a Bible belonging to a preacher unaffiliated with the college, who had been proselytizing outside of Reed Library since that morning.

Izzy Farrell Online Editor

Avery Martinez IndyTV Producer

Natalia Sells Business Director

Keenan Malone Copy Editor

REPORTING CJ Calvert Becca Day Davis Deussen Douglas DuPont Matt Roy Shandiin Ramsey Ryan Simonovich Lacey Tewanema DESIGN Hannah Burlingame Katreena Haswood Walter Potter PHOTOGRAPHY Isaac Furtney Traven Halley Richie Scheuer Mathew Tallman VIDEO PRODUCTION Nicole Curry-Stephens Sierra Doan Faith Luna Alex Sarracino BUSINESS Levi Nells Evan Wick SOCIAL MEDIA Brandon Book

IN THIS ISSUE

COMMUNITY An Addition to the Animas - 3 Story by Davis Deussen

State and National Budget Disputes Felt Locally - 10 Story by Douglas DuPont

CAMPUS Pursuing an Education After the Military - 5 Story by Shandiin Ramsey

COVER Finding a Voice: Free Speech in Safe Spaces - 7

Story by Ryan Simonovich and Becca Day

ENTERTAINMENT Indy Online Highlights and Professor Profile! - 13

A kayaker at the Durango Whitewater Park, which is currently undergoing developments.

Story on page 3.

Photo by Richie Scheuer.

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COMMUNITY

An Addition to the Animas

Story by Davis Deuissian

Photos by Richie Scheuter

Design by Walter Potter

The animas river as it flows into the play park

T

he Durango Whitewater Park is currently undergoA kayaker surfing the rapid ‘Smelter’ ing renovations to address some issues that the park has with high river flows.

The renovations were scheduled from Feb. 23 to mid-March and some of the work has already been completed, Scott McClain, Parks Manager for the City of Durango said.

Higher river flows that are unusual for this early in the season have caused the remainder of the renovations to be pushed back until the river flows lower, meaning that the work should be completed sometime in the fall, McClain said.

The park remains open while the renovations are ongoing, McClain said.

The City of Durango Parks and Recreation Department headed this project and hired S20 Design and Engineering to come up with the plan for and areas during high flows, Werner said. to build the whitewater park, which completed conThe fifth structure, which is located upstream of the Duranstruction in the winter of 2014, McClain said. go Whitewater Park, was not affiliated with S20 Design and The goal behind this project was to turn a Engineering, Werner said. few, constantly shifting whitewater structures This fifth structure is associated with the City of Duranthat had been at this location into a permanent go’s Utilities Department, who hired Riverwise Engineering, whitewater park by providing differences in deas a way to get water flow over to an intake system that grees of difficulty and different types of waves for brings water in for the city’s water system, McClain rafters, kayakers, playboaters and other river users, said.

McClain said.

“The main point of that was Utilities, to make The cost of the project was $1.25 million, McClain sure that especially at low flows, late-summer that said. they were still getting water as utility where they Corner Pocket and Ponderosa are the two strucneeded it, but then we worked with them as tures that are experiencing the renovations to address isParks and Recreation Department to make sure sues with the flow patterns and wave size occurring in these

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that it worked for the boaters and incorporated some recreation feature into it as well,” McClain said.

The renovations that are currently ongoing are a part of the initial planning process as a period of maintenance, due to the uncertainties that come with the designing and building of a river project, Werner said.

“Whitewater parks almost always have a maintenance and tuning component that goes into them and this is just some tuning to try to change the characteristics of the waves as the water gets high,” Werner said.

Due to different levels of wave intensity, the features in the whitewater park give a variety of training opportunities for river-goers to practice, such as paddling techniques, rolling techniques, understanding river currents, how to get in and out of those river currents and overall river safety, Kat MacDougald, a local kayaker, said.

MacDougald said that the whitewater park is a nice addition for people to get out and finesse their techniques in a smaller, community-based area rather than always having to go out to practice on bigger features.

A kayaker rolling out of rapid

A rafting party rididng over ‘Smelter’

The exit of smelter and the play park

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CAMPUS

Story by Shandiin Ramsey

N

on-traditional students are common in colleges across the United States. Some of these students have come from the military and are trying to receive their degrees to move on to the next chapter of their lives.

Over 1 million veterans are using their Government Issued bill to attend college after their service, but only 15 percent of these veterans are traditionally aged college students between the ages of 18 and 24, according to the Department

N A G N I U S R E PUR T F A N O I T Y A R C A U T I L ED I M THE Photos by Crystal Ashike of Veterans Affairs.

Fort Lewis College is home to at least 150 of these non-traditional students working to continue their education, Paul Flores, president of the Veterans Club said.

Flores was wounded in combat while deployed to Iraq with the Army, he said.

He had anticipated staying in the military and making it a career, but that all changed when he was hit with debris from a grenade, he said.

Design by Hannah Burlingame “When I got out, I really had to decide what I wanted to do for myself, because all I really wanted to be was a paratrooper,” he said. “I expected to live the next 20 years of my life jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. But in a split second, everything can change.”

Flores moved back to the Pima reservation where he was from, and he became a council member for his tribe and was in charge of Veterans Affairs, law enforcement, and congressional liaison for

“When I got out, I really had to decide what I wanted to do for myself, because all I really wanted to be was a paratrooper... I expected to live the next 20 years of my life jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

But in a split second, everything can change.” two years, he said.

After committing to go to Georgetown University to study political science, Flores visited his cousin who attended FLC for spring break, he said. After seeing the campus, he immediately fell in love and changed his plans.

“The serenity, the calmness, the environment and outdoorsiness,” Flores said.

“It helped me heal, not just physically but emotionally. It was a place for me to reflect on where I had been, where I was go-

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ing and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”

Andrew Fillmore served in the Marine Corps as an infantryman, while Jake Yost served in the Navy as a hospital corpsman working for the Marine Corps.

Fillmore joined when he was 17, he said.

“My dad did 20 years in the Air Force, and I always wanted to be in the military.

It was between the Army or the Marine Corps, and I wanted to be the best, so I

joined the Marine Corps as infantry,” Fillmore said with a laugh. “I enjoyed the hell out of it.”

Yost spent three years between FLC and Metro State before deciding to join, he said.

“I joined because I needed direction and it sounded intriguing when they told me they would pay for my school and send me around the world and I thought ‘all right, cool’,” Yost said.

One of the biggest issues the three

Members of the FLC Veterans’ Club.

have faced in school as a non-traditional students has been how students address them and the questions they ask.

“We come with a stigma, and its hard because people think that they’re going to trigger us,” Flores said. “A lot of times it’s not really that. We’re just trying to move on with our lives and open a new chapter.”

Yost agreed that other students ask some uncomfortable questions about his military past.

“I’ve had one or two people come up and ask ‘Have you ever had to kill somebody?’,” Yost said.

Fillmore added that he had been asked a question like that in his history class.

“I was infantry, and I showed them my tattoo,” he said. “‘What do the red dots mean?’ Well, do you really want to know what they mean?

Take a guess.”

Fillmore misses the community he left in the military and had a hard time transitioning to school where it is less structured and not as close, he said.

“The brotherhood I had in the Marine Corps was like nothing I’ve ever had anywhere else,” Fillmore said. “It was really hard coming from a group like that then bouncing around try-

“I can shoot a rifle pretty good, and I can not get shot pretty good.

There’s not many jobs on the market like that.” ing to figure out what I want to do. I was an infantryman. I can shoot a rifle pretty good, and I can not get shot pretty good. There’s not many jobs on the market like that.”

The Veterans Club on campus serves as this brotherhood for the vets at FLC, Flores said.

“The Veterans Club was the group that saved me from being lost,” Fillmore said. “Granted we’re all different branches, but it’s a brotherhood in a way. We all did the same thing, and we all have the same mindset.”

All three found the Veterans Club, and it served as a sanctuary for them, they said.

“The branches all intersect,” Flores said. “They may not be the exact same

thing, but when the innuendo and the jokes start flying, it gets past none of us. Giving each other a hard time is how we decompress. In a high stress environment, humor is the best way to get past it and keep going.

That’s how we know to get through stressful situations rather than being somber because, no matter what, you still have a job to do, and it isn’t going to stop.”

Edi in a tor’s N vet 4-pa ote: Th r e ser rans t-seri is ar ies at F es o ticle ww i o w.t n its e rt Le f profi is th hei e ndy ntiret wis C les hi last s o y g to onl , l h ine check lege. T light ry i .co m. out o vie ng wt he

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COVER

FINDING A VOICE: FREE SPEECH AND SAFE SPACES

Story by Becca Day & Ryan Simonovich

F

reedom of speech has been a topic of discussion after a recent campus visit by a self-described public preacher.

Keith Darrell’s religious views and opinions on westward expansion angered students such as Randy Banks, who was detained by the Durango Police Department after getting in an altercation with Darrell.

Polarizing Opinions

While Darrell’s speech was inflammatory to many people on campus, he had a right to be there, Mark Seis, a sociology professor at FLC said.

“I think we have to have that insanity, that we have to allow that because how would we ever know then what the truth is if we don’t have an ability to listen to a lot of people talk,” Seis said.

There is a need for people to ex-

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Photos by Isaac Furtney

Design by Allison Anderson

press their opinion and make their voices heard, Ryneal Lewis-Adams, sociology major at FLC and activist on campus, said.

Students gathered the day after the preacher came to campus to voice their opinions on the line between free speech and hate speech.

A statement was also sent on behalf of President Dene Thomas in an email to the student body.

“This campus, as a public institution, is a public forum for discourse, even discourse with which we disagree,” the statement said.

Universities and colleges are one of the last places where people can explore diverse ideas and embrace differences in opinions, Seis said.

Colleges and universities would be shooting themselves in the foot if they did not allow the expression of diversity to strive on their campus,

he said.

Free speech and polarizing opinions have been discussed within FLC’s administration, Mitch Davis, the Public Affairs Officer said. The president’s cabinet has been focusing on what these debates can teach us, he said.

“This is an issue that you look across the country at other colleges and universities, and I would say every single one is dealing with these kinds of issues,” Davis said.

Davis said that there is passion on all sides of this issue.

There are the people who feel that when you’re on campus you should not feel like your beliefs are being devalued or attacked, he said.

Other people feel like students would be at a disadvantage if they were not exposed to radical ideas, he said.

Left: A student addresses the crowd at a safe space rally that took place on campus in March.

Right: A number of curious onlookers gazes over the railing atop the deck of Reed Library while dozens of other students debate, watch, or otherwise acknowledge the spectacle below.

History

While everyone is entitled to speak their beliefs, it is not right that people can go around and attack the lifestyle or identity of other people, Seis said.

There are many different ideas about what to do about this issue, and one idea is a safe space, Davis said.

However safe spaces are difficult concepts to define and enforce, he said.

“One of the questions you have to ask if you created a safe space is who decides what’s okay in a safe space,” Davis said.

Some define a safe space as protecting against hate speech or attacks on opinions, he said. But how do you define hate speech, and how do you define an attack?

Another issue when considering the creation of safe spaces or free speech zones is power dynamics, Seis said.

Historically, free speech favors the privileged, leaving oppressed groups and minorities with less ability to express their opinions and views, he said.

For example, the people in control of universities get to regulate free speech, he said.

There are many things that play a role in regulating free speech in the U.S. other than just the First Amendment, Seis said.

The Alien and Sedition Act was signed into law by John Adams and it limited immigrants rights, allowed the government to deport foreigners and essentially made it illegal to disagree with government authorities, he said.

Speech has been regulated for a long time, he said.

Other instances where speech is regulated in America is from Schenck vs. United States, he said.

“The court had ruled that you can’t cry ‘fire’ in a theatre,” Seis said. “That’s not free speech, that’s not protected speech because

it would create a panic people would get hurt and so there were constraints to speech.”

The Espionage Act also acted to curtail people’s right to free speech, Seis said.

This Act was passed soon after the U.S. entered into WWI and made it illegal to interfere with the military or war effort or support any of America’s enemies, he said.

Free speech has always been limited, Seis said.

“Sometimes speech is totally shut down by the government, but I think in a more intellectual way that we never really had true free speech,” Seis said.

While the government limits free speech, colleges and universities are places where diverse ideas exists and should be expressed, Seis said.

FLC has considered free speech zones in the past, Davis said. The school decided against implementing specific free speech zones because of the argument that free speech zones limit free speech elsewhere on campus, he said.

If a student group such as the

008

Associated Students of Fort Lewis College or the dean of a department suggests a policy, the policy would have to be approved by the president’s cabinet, Davis said.

Darrell is not the first speaker with controversial opinions to visit FLC. In 1992, Shawn Slater, a spokesperson from the Ku Klux Klan spoke at an event at FLC, and the administration did not stop him from coming, Davis said. (Editor’s note: More information on this incident on page 10.)

Conflict Resolution

When discussing different opinions it is important to recognize whether or not each party is willing to have a productive discussion, Erik Juergensmeyer, chair of the peace and conflict studies program said.

The Peace and Conflict Studies program focuses on how to resolve conflicts both large and small, he said.

Darrell had opinions that created conflict, Juergensmeyer said. So what can be done when people disagree?

Recognizing if a person has interests rather than positions is one strategy to dealing with a conflict, he said.

People with interests want to create drama and attention, he said. People with positions are more likely to have a cohesive conversation, he said.

Since there were so many people surrounding Darrell, it was not a conducive environment to fostering a productive dialogue, he said.

One way to resolve the preacher conflict is to form a counter protest, Juergensmeyer said.

Nancy Stoffer, coordinator of diversity programming, also agreed that a counter protest is a good strategy to resolve conflict when there is a large group of people.

The Common Ground program provides strategies to have more productive conversations about sensitive topics, Stoffer said.

It is about understanding rather than attacking, she said.

If someone says something that is insensitive or offensive to a particular group, Common Ground teaches that the parties try to find a common understanding, she said.

One should ask why a person would say that or the reason why they think that, Stoffer said. Let them know how it sounds from another person’s perspective, she said.

Common Ground does not silence other people’s opinions unless those opinions are inciting violence, she said.

There is a lot of creativity that can be brought to situations like the preacher incident, she said.

“We don’t have to be happy with somebody to still allow them or still want them to have their civil rights,” Stoffer said.

“Allowing free speech does not mean that we agree with that speech. It just means we agree with free speech.”

Keith Darrell speaking on campus in March. Darrell’s visit and the topics he spoke on incited backlash from many FLC students. For more information, watch the IndyTV video covering the incident at www.theindyonline.com.

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SHAWN SLATER AT FLC –1992 Shawn Slater, a spokesperson for the Ku Klux Klan, was invited to speak at FLC by the political science club in 1992, Larry Hartsfield, professor of English said.

Much like today, political correctness and freedom of speech were prominent topics at the time, he said.

“It was a time of great tension,” Hartsfield said.

The college didn’t want Slater on campus, and students were freaking out about it, he said. But nonetheless, nobody stopped him from speaking on grounds of free speech, Hartsfield said.

The college and community tried to downplay Slater’s validity by turning the event into a panel discussion with other speakers and cancelling classes, Hartsfield said. Pur-

gatory offered free skiing and a local brewery held a concert to draw attention away from the man, he said.

Campus was deserted that day and armed law enforcement was on the roofs in case anything happened, but the day turned out to be anticlimactic, Hartsfield said.

One of the greatest threats to our culture at this time is not talking about threatening ideas that challenge our own ideas, Hartsfield said.

“Freedom of speech is often offensive,” Hartsfield said. “Who decides what’s offensive?”

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COMMUNITY

State and National Budget Disputes Felt Locally

T

he Fort Lewis College Environmental Center in conjunction with Our 1st 100 Days took a stand for the arts and humanities.

In light of recent federal budget proposals that aim to remove funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, a mural was painted on the Everyday Gas Station at the corner of Eighth Street and College

of Our 1st 100 Days.

Over seven different Durango artists worked to create the mural, including Kirkman.

Kirkman utilized skills learned at FLC to help bring the mural project to life, she said. She’s studied graphic design, advertising, psychology, and color theory.

“I’ve been an artist my whole life, and it’s something I can’t not do,” Kirkman said. “It’s personal.”

Atop the mural reads: “Art Matters.” Included in the center of the mural is a quote from environmental activist and author Terry Tempest Williams: “Finding beauty in the broken world is creating beauty in the world

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Drive that aims to reflect on why art matters.

Art major Hayley Kirkman, and member of Fort Lewis College’s Environmental Center, spearheaded the project.

“The mural is concerning the defunding of arts and humanities, so we wanted to put out a positive message about that and let people know it’s important,” Kirkman said.

we find,” it reads.

The Independent has looked further into what the effects of eliminating the cultural agencies would be, as proposed by President Donald Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget plan.

According to the recent budget plan, the Trump administration’s FY2018 budget proposal calls for eliminating four cultural agencies and their collective $971 million budget.

The proposed budget eliminates all $148

Story by Douglas DuPont Photos by Crystal Ashike & Traven Halley Design by Katreena Haswood On April 15 the two organizations hosted a launch party for the mural followed by a group bike ride out to Ska Brewing Company, in support of the arts. After the dedication various speakers stood up to defend the arts, according to Rachel Landis, Environmental Center Coordinator and Committee member

million for the National Endowment for the Arts and all $148 million for the Endowment of the Humanities, as well as eliminating the $445 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports public television and radio, including PBS and NPR. On the Colorado state level, congressman Doug Lamborn has introduced legislation to ensure the de-funding of the three aforementioned organizations.

“It’s something he’s introduced several times during his career as a congressman, and others have supported it,” Chris Aaland, development director for KSUT said. “It’s been rejected with bipartisan support.

Aaland, an opponent of the proposed legislation, is concerned there may be more

support for this legislation because all three branches - Senate, White House, and Supreme Court - are controlled by one party.

Should it pass it would be a difficult budgetary problem for most public and community stations, Aaland said.

According to Aaland, public media, the arts and education all go hand in hand, regarding why the cuts to the NEH, NEA, and CPB are often roped into the same discussion.

If one of these agencies is cut, the other two are also advertently diminished financially, according to the national budget plan.

“Community and public radio stations provide fairly stable, concise perspective on the world and what’s going on. It also contributes very highly to the local feel of the geographic area that it serves,” Bob Griffith, a 39 year veteran of the commercial radio industry said. “One of the reasons is the content and the programming has become highly desirable,.”

According to Aaland, people in public and community radio are addressing ways that they can get through the potential funding cut, but he thinks now there’s much more

interest in it.

“Personally, I see it as a bit of an assault on the things I hold dearest and my way of life,” Aaland said. “But some folks on the other side of the aisle acknowledge these programs as a threat to their way of life. Any time there’s discussion on it, I know it’s elevated our listeners importance of the product of public radio.”

Neither southwestern Colorado congressmen Cory Gardner, Scott Tipton, nor Michael Bennet were available for comment on either the state or federal budget proposals.

A group of artists from Fort Lewis College paint a mural at the Everyday story on the corner of East Eighth Avenue and College drive on Thursday, April 6th, 2017. In response to the Trump’s Administration first 100 days in office and defunding of the Arts and Humanities. Top: (Left) Katrina Rachwitz and (Right) Hayley Kirkman, Bottom: Ali Scheig and Amaya Mckenna.

President Donald Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget plan would eliminate funding for 19 agencies. Below is a list of the 19 agencies who risk elimination, according to the proposal. African Development Foundation • • • • • • • • •

African Development Foundation Appalachian Regional Commission Chemical Safety Board Corporation for National and Community Service Corporation for Public Broadcasting (The CPB) Delta Regional Authority Denali Commission Institute of Museum and Library Services Inter-American Foundation

• • • • • • • • •

U.S. Trade and Development Agency Legal Services Corporation National Endowment for the Arts (The NEA) National Endowment for the Humanities (The NEH) Northern Border Regional Commission Overseas Private Investment Corporation U.S. Institute of Peace U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

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ENTERTAINMENT

THE INDY ONLINE Want more? Head over to theindyonline.com for exclusive stories, opinions, Indy TV videos, photo slideshows and more! You can find these stories online now:

MEET A PROFESSOR

FLC Pulls Out the Dominant Victory over Rockhurst

MICHAEL GRUBB

by Tammera Thomas

Story by Davis Duessen

The ASFLC: RSO II Grant Eligibility Story by CJ Calvert

President Trump’s New Healthcare Plan Story by Shandiin Ramsey

Professor Michael Grubb is an assistant professor of chemistry with expertise in physical chemistry, spectroscopy, chemical reaction dynamics, photochemistry, laser physics and optics.

Why did you choose Fort Lewis College?

“When I visited for my interview, I just really liked all the other faculty I would be working with as peers, and when I had lunch with the students, the students here weren’t afraid at all to ask questions.”

Where are you from? Where did you go to school?

“I grew up in Texas, near Dallas. I did my undergraduate and grad school at Texas A&M, and then I did a research fellowship at University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.”

What do you do in your free time?

“I play music, I write stories, I do artwork. I do creative stuff like that.”

Do you have any pets?

“No, I do not. Too much responsibility. I like dogs, but I just wouldn’t want to take care of one myself.”

What made you decide on chemistry?

“I actually started off as a computer science major, but I got kind of bored with that and was looking for another major. The chemistry building was right beside the computer science building so I just wandered in one day and the advisor said ‘Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll just switch you into chemistry and if you don’t like it, you can get out later.’ And I ended up liking it.”

Behind the Curtain Video by IndyTV

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA! The Independent FLC @independentflc @flcindependent flcindependent IndyTV

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