“My fear is that the Board of Education will act arbitrarily without hearing all sides of an issue.”
LANE COMMUNITY COLLEGE’S
I N D E P E N D E N T, S T U D E N T- R U N N E W S P A P E R
1.9.14
V O L . 5 0 , n O. 9
Roger Gamblin classified employee
Board eyes Spilde plan Diversity training talks set for Feb. 5 Mohammed Alkhadher Senior Reporter
Center Building facelift begins The Center Building is surrounded by rubble after the first phase of its $35 million renovation, demolishing the existing exterior walkways, began dec. 16. the concrete stair system on the building’s west side will be replaced with an inside stairwell. ALYSSA LESLIE / THE TORCH
Project Manager Todd Smith said plans for the new Center Building will include a new titan store, a remodeled cafeteria, more tutoring centers, private study rooms and computer labs. The renovations were designed to provide more natural light and improve traffic flow around the campus.
Snowstorm leaves SPA, NASA in the cold Organizations have no plans to reschedule activities
Laura Newman A&E Editor December’s freak snowstorm added to the winter vacation of most Lane students. It gave many the opportunity to study more for delayed finals, drink cocoa and play in the winter wonderland. However, there were some devastating results for many of the events planned the week before finals. The Shakespeare Showcase, a 23-year-old acting medley put on by Lane students in the Blue Door Theater, was cancelled for the first time in
its history. Director Judith “Sparky” Roberts, who teaches the Acting Shakespeare course, has invited her students to participate in the winter term showcase. The only problem is if the Shakespearean acting class doesn’t fill this term, there will not be a showcase to perform in. Roberts is counting on the Student Productions Association’s April staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to give the community its Shakespeare fix. Additionally, the Native American Students Associa-
tion cancelled its annual powwow. NASA faculty adviser Drew Viles said the powwow was cancelled for safety reasons. Some participants were travelling from as far as South Dakota for this event. Some preparations for this event will be carried over to next year’s powwow. “The biggest loss was the time and effort of many ... faculty who had been working on projects such as making elder baskets, wrapping cedar and gathering up stuffed animals (for the children’s dance),” Viles responded via
email. “Some of it won’t be wasted effort.” Cancelling the event disappointed some, but also came at a financial cost. “Because the event was cancelled so close to the time of scheduled happening, I am sure that there was a financial cost. For example, the powwow would have included a free salmon dinner,” Viles said. “Food was all bought and the salmon was thawed out. Everything was ready to go. And then the powwow was canceled.” There aren’t any plans to reschedule these events.
Lane moved one step closer to requiring every employee to attend cultural competency training when the Board of Education on Jan. 8 discussed, for the first time, a policy proposed by Lane President Mary Spilde. In December, the board set a 30-day deadline for a task force to propose a policy for training college employees to be conscious of cultural differences, after growing impatient with the progress made by the college’s Diversity Council. The council did not provide a policy by the deadline, so the board began considering Spilde’s proposal. Staff and faculty spoke for and against the implementation of the policy. “My fear is that the Board of Education will act arbitrarily without hearing all sides of an issue based on unexamined assumptions,” Roger Gamblin, a classified employee, wrote in a letter distributed during the meeting. “All parties seem to want to get this behind us as soon as possible, but I strongly recommend against the Board of Education ‘imposing’ any policy because that will only extend the issue and probably end up making it public and embarrass us all.” Board member Bob Ackerman proposed an amendment to next month’s agenda and requested the Diversity Council’s policies be reviewed by the board. Board members Dr. Gary LeClair and Pat Albright said they disapproved of the consensus system. “Any organization that leads by consensus is a flawed system,” Albright said. Faculty union President Jim Salt said he’s not a fan of the consensus system, but he still defended it. “I think it makes us work through the issues and come up with something everyone can live CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
2
editor-In-CHIEF
Opinion
CLIFTON HANEY
EDITORIAL
Lane Community College’s Independent, student-run newspaper
STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Clifton Haney
MANAGING EDITOR Alyssa Leslie
NEWS EDITOR J. Wolfgang Wool
SPORTS EDITOR Jarrid Denney
A&E EDITOR
Laura Newman
SENIOR REPORTER
Mohammed Alkhadher
REPORTERS
Taya Alami Anna Tatum Jesse Davis Cameron Hughey
COPY CHIEF Sean Hanson
COPY EDITOR Zack Bear
PHOTO EDITOR Eugene Johnson
PHOTOGRAPHERS Matt Edwards Zora Parker Alex Quadrini
PRODUCTION MANAGER Byron Hughey
GRAPHIC ARTIST Connor White
WEB EDITOR Tenaya Smith
AD MANAGER Joseph Foley
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Patrick Bloughy
NEWS ADVISER Paige Parker
PRODUCTION ADVISER Dorothy Wearne
POLICY • Letters to the editor should be limited to 300 words. • Guest commentaries should be limited to 500 words. • Please include the author’s name, phone number and address (for verification purposes only). • The Torch reserves the right to edit letters and commentary for length, grammar, spelling, libel, invasion of privacy and appropriate language. • The Torch reserves the right to publish at its discretion. All web and print content is the property of the Torch and cannot be republished without editiorial permission. • Up to two copies per issue per person of The Torch are free; each additional copy is $2.
CONTACT The Torch Lane Community College 4000 E. 30th Ave. Eugene, OR 97405 torch@lanecc.edu
THE TORCH / Thursday, JAN. 9, 2014
We want to hear from you Dear Reader: This editorial is calling out to you, and it’s calling out about the very paper you’re reading it in. We need you, you see. Somewhere we lost you and your input. Our email account sits perpetually empty except for the occasional junk mail offering discount Canadian Viagra and Joe Biden addressing us as his friends, and we’re somewhat uncomfortable with him making that presumption. With a sigh, we answer the phone, and it’s Cheryl from Discount Toner shyly asking to give her sales pitch to whoever buys our ink. We explain we’re not interested and hang up. “It wasn’t always like this,” we think before going back to work serving you. “It used to be a two-way conversation … ” We’ve been here nearly a halfcentury doing it — serving you, that is. Of the $50.30 you pay per term towards the student activity fund, $2.75 becomes part of our budget, and in essence that makes you our valued subscriber. We’re paid — reporters earn $25 per story and the editor-inchief earns $175 per issue — to provide information that will be helpful and relevant to your daily lives. More importantly, we do it as a work of love. We’re in awe of the fact that, since 1965, The Torch has given journalists like us a real opportunity to be published in an award-winning newspaper. It’s the mythical break writers always dream of. We’re really grateful for that. Thank you. But our purpose for existing is to give you a voice about the school, that
isn’t directly from the school. Our job is to let you know what cool opportunities exist for you. Our job is to give you a laugh. Our job is to help you understand the complexities and politics of seemingly unapproachable entities, such as Lane’s Board of Education, that govern your academic careers. Don’t misunderstand us. The Torch is an amazing opportunity for its staff, but only a fraction of its purpose is to serve its own employees. Without a community to engage us, to challenge us, we’re not fulfilling our purpose or our promise. We can’t be our best without you. We can’t fulfill our potential without you. Why aren’t you talking to us? Why aren’t you using the space below, traditionally reserved for your letters to us, as an opportunity to make your voice heard? It would be easy to blame student apathy, but we know better. Lane is a hub of activity for students from across the spectrum doing incredible things. Last term, multiple student groups came together to found Lane’s food pantry, in an attempt to address the real need of hungry students on our campus. Lane’s student government worked diligently with several of the interest groups here on campus to forge a new Cultural Competency policy that will hopefully provide a safe and open environment for Lane students and employees alike. Students are supporting each other, building a community together here. Maybe the community never fell apart. Maybe we fell behind. It’s easy to feel irrelevant in this age of super-computer
telephones, and websites that fetch the exact information you believe you need. We get lunch the same places everyone else does here. We overhear students questioning the new construction at the Center Building, the very construction we covered on the front page of our last issue. Does that imply disinterest on the part of students, or a message we didn’t broadcast over the right channels? Should we give up and go home? No — we can still serve a very important purpose. Perhaps we’re just not where we need to be. Maybe we need to change gears. The Torch changes leadership yearly. Maybe without a focused and consistent approach we haven’t kept up with what you need. Maybe we just haven’t reached out enough. And that’s where you come in, Dear Reader. How are you? Are we giving you the level of service you expect from a newspaper you pay for? Are we covering stories that are valuable and relevant to you? Are we working in the spaces you’d like to see us in? How can we work with you to be a better paper? What do you think about the things happening on your campus right now? We want to know. We’re students, just like you. We’re approachable, we promise. We have two official email accounts for you to reach us at (torch@lanecc.edu and torcheditor@lanecc.edu). We tweet @LCCTorch and we’re on Facebook at facebook. com/lcctorch. Come start a conversation with us.
Athletes give back, help locally Commentary by Jarrid Denney Sports Editor New college sports scandals crop up all too often. Whether it be a recruiting violation, a coach quitting on his team for a better job or an athlete being arrested, when media coverage focuses on the actions of college athletes off the field, it tends to be negative. Over winter break, Lane basketball player Gage Ostanik proved that every once in a while, a college athlete can make waves in his or her community for the right reasons. On Dec. 13, Lane men’s head basketball coach Bruce Chavka received an email from Ann Christiansen, an ASPIRE coordinator at North Eugene High School. Ann explained that earlier that evening, she and her husband, Alan, had been driving on the Beltline Highway when their left rear tire blew out as they approached the River Road exit in West Eugene. “We pulled over to the side of the overpass as cars were speeding by us. My husband got out to fix the tire when along came Gage,” Ann wrote. “He pulled his big white truck out in front of us, got out and walked back to ask us if we needed help.” Alan said he would never turn down someone wanting to help, and Ostanik
offered to back his truck up behind the couple’s car, so they would be protected from traffic. “My husband said he never even thought about it until Gage spoke it,” Ann wrote. “He said, ‘I could have been killed trying to change this tire with no covering.’” Alan and Ostanik fixed the tire and afterwards the couple thanked him and acknowledged how rare it is that anyone would stop and help. Ostanik told them that if he hadn’t stopped, his coach would be mad at him. “We both laughed and asked, ‘Your coach?’” Ann wrote. “He said ‘Yes, I play basketball at Lane.” It was at that point that the couple decided that they needed to inform Chavka of Ostanik’s act of kindness. “In the past, I’ve gotten sketchy emails about guys maybe not doing what they were supposed to or acting up. I’ve gotten the ones that are not very favorable,” Chavka said. “When I read Ann’s email, I actually read it twice because it was so special. That’s just who Gage is. He has a heart of gold and he’s a really good guy.” It’s refreshing to hear about a college athlete who is having a positive influence on Lane County as a community, because so often, that is not the case. Most University of Oregon football fans are familiar with the legal troubles
of former Duck stars like Colt Lyerla, Cliff Harris and Jeremiah Masoli. The coverage of their problems could lead a fan to believe that theirs is standard behavior for college athletes. This is simply not the case. For the past several years, the Lane men and women’s basketball, baseball and women’s soccer teams have all volunteered at the Whitaker Free Community Thanksgiving Dinner. Samantha Schoene, Lane’s starting goalkeeper for the past two seasons, coached the Eugene Metro Fútbol Club under-10 girls team during the fall. Derrick Malone and Tony Washington, two Duck football players who were named to the All-Pac 12 honorable mention team honors during the 2013 season, have spent time helping out at the Eastside Faith Center in Eugene, working with fourth graders in the youth ministry. College athletes are idolized by the fans who pay money to watch them; they are role models. Because of this, their mistakes are thrown out in public for everybody to see, and that is perfectly understandable. However instead of only criticizing the athletes who make ugly mistakes, we should also acknowledge athletes who go above and beyond. Athletes who go about their business the right way and find a way to make a positive impact on their community.
NEWS EDITOR
3
NEWS
J. WOLFGANG WOOL
Campus radio station brews support Laura Newman A&E Editor KLCC will celebrate 46 years on the air and 12 years of beer when its 12th-annual Microbrew Festival begins Feb. 7. The festival, at the Lane Events Center in Eugene, is a fundraiser for the Lane-affiliated public radio station, with a homebrew competition and more than 150 craft beers. “KLCC is NPR. We broadcast the NPR newsmagazine’s morning edition ‘All Things Considered,’ its weekend edition, and within those programs, we have local material, local content,” KLCC General Manager John Stark said, “such as reports from the state capital and throughout the Northwest. So, it is a combination of local, regional, national and international news.” Within the last decade, KLCC has drifted more into reporting or “storytelling,” production director Don Hein said, with less time devoted to music. “The majority of our listeners have been into the NPR programming that we do. We are an NPR affiliate with a significant music identity,“ Hein said.
KLCC transmitted from Lane before it moved downtown in 2008, reducing its visibility among students. The only artifact that remains on campus is a vacant RV parked in Lot L. “The name of that RV is ‘Elsie.’ It is a mobile studio, and it is used to broadcast from events,” Stark said, such as the Oregon Country Fair. “I don’t think a lot of students know that we have a radio station,” said Maranda Burrell, a Lane work-study student who has served as KLCC’s music librarian since July 2013. Burrell works nine hours weekly, completing inventory of new music and organizing the extensive library for the station. “I am currently filling the only work-study position. Next term, the position will open up. I don’t do any broadcasting. It’s a lot of data entry. But you still get to work in the environment and see how a radio station functions. It’s a really good place to be. I really enjoyed working here,” Burrell said. KLCC offers many musical programs, generally in the evening, that include hours
PUBLIC SAFETY REPORTS December Dec. 6 at 7:41 p.m.
Public Safety asked three unidentified people to stop tobogganing and leave campus.
Dec. 19 at 9:20 a.m.
Public Safety issued a citation to an unidentified man who was masturbating at the campus LTD station.
Dec. 24 at 8:54 p.m.
Public Safety received a complaint from an unidentified man regarding a Public Safety patrol car. The man said he’d been intimidated by the patrol vehicle behind him. The officer informed his shift adviser.
Dec. 26 at 1:48 p.m.
Public Safety found an unattended green Honda Civic with the “ignition punched” and radio missing in Lot E of Lane’s main campus.
SFS
dedicated to jazz, folk, world music, blues — even the Grateful Dead, in a program titled Dead Air. “We are a community service of Lane Community College so we broadcast to people throughout Oregon,” Stark said. “And we have some students integrated throughout the entire operation behind the scenes. Yes, we do have students who are on the air as reporters.” Stark said there are opportunities for students at the station, whether through volunteer, internship or work-study. “We have students from Lane as well as University of Oregon who participate at the station,” he said. “A student would contact the program director or the news director and ask them to consider their working at the station, their interning at the station, their volunteering at the station.” However, before a student jumps at this opportunity, some skill sets are necessary for this type of work. “We need pretty advanced journalistic skills. We can do internships and we can do work study, but it takes a fair amount of skill to be able to do that,”
LAURA NEWMAN / THE TORCH
Lane student Maranda Burrell organizes music at the KLCC station as part of her work-study.
Hein said. “We welcome people but recognize that most people need to take that journalistic writing class. We’re not an entry-level radio station.” Microbrew Festival organizers say they need volunteers
next month for this event. Volunteers can sign up until Jan. 31, through KLCC’s website, www.klcc.org, under the Microbrew Fest header. The website also offers free streaming of the station’s broadcasts.
BOARD: Continued from page 1 W with,” Salt said. “Had we all focused on this during this process, then I think we would have accomplished it in a more timely manner.” “The system we have currently is not effective,” said Elizabeth Andrade, the executive assistant to Lane’s president, who served on the council until Dec. 16. “At this time it’s hard to have such an expensive governance system that is not working.” Andrade was removed from the council by Bob Baldwin, president of Lane’s classified employee union, who accused her in an email of adopting “an approach of
negativity and public disparagement towards” the faculty union, as well as using her position to advance her own “personal agenda.” More details were unavailable at press time. “This feels like a tremendous abuse of power,” Andrade said at the meeting. “It feels like a witch-hunt.” The board suggested amendments that will take place in the second reading of the draft at its Feb. 5 meeting. “This is happening,” said board member Matt Keating. “If you have anything to amend or to add, do so in the next 30 days.”
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The Torch / Thursday, JAN. 9, 2014
4
sPorts editor
SpORTS
JARRID DENNEY
Titans women fall to top-ranked Cougars to begin regional play Lane leads conference in points per game, rebounds Jarrid Denney Sports Editor At this point in the season, the Lane women’s basketball team is the most prolific offense in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges. They lead the conference with an average of 85.65 points per game, nearly five points better than Big Bend Community College, the secondhighest-scoring offense. They also lead the conference in free throws made, total assists, total rebounds and total blocks, and are second in three-point field goals made. Freshman Shelby Snook leads the Titans’ offense so far. She is third in the NWAACC in scoring, averaging 19.65 points per game on 46 percent shooting. She is also fifth in assists with 5.18 per game. “I think our offense is really built off of things that I am able to contribute to the team,” Snook said. “If I can’t get a basket, then I look for teammates, and that’s when I get my assists.” Freshman Gabby Heehn leads the conference in threepoint field goals made, with 54, while freshman Niki Duncan is second, with 48.
BREAKING
WITH 44 POINTS, Lane freshman guard Shelby Snook set an single scoring record in the Titans’ Jan. 8 victory against the Umpqua Community College Riverhawks. Lane won 94-93.
On Jan. 4, the Titans opened up South Region play at Clackamas Community College, in a rematch of last year’s NWAACC championship. The top-ranked Cougars shot 12-of-32 from the threepoint line on their way to an 82-64 victory to improve their season record to 12-2. “This is their gym. We knew they were going to shoot well,” Titans head coach Greg Sheley said after the loss. “We knew they were going to take away the three for us and we were going to have to drive to the basket and make layups, and we couldn’t do that.” The Titans are now 13-4 and ranked fourth after a non-conference schedule that featured three of the NWAACC’s top eight teams. “Experience-wise, we grew a lot with all of the tournaments over winter break,”
sophomore Brandy Blackburn said. “The younger players had a chance to see a lot of different teams in the NWAACC.” Although they have plenty of time to play catchup to the Cougars, they will most likely need to beat them when they meet again at Lane on Feb. 1, if they are to claim another South Region title. The Titans started off their winter break by winning the Red Raider Invitational Tournament in Lakewood, Wash. They were crowned tournament champions after defeating the Cougars in a 76-70 overtime victory on Dec. 13. Freshman Marikah Wright led Lane with 25 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Tori Mahaffie contributed 11 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. Sheley said the difference between the Titans’ two matchups with the Cougars lies in his team’s three-point shooting. The Titans went 9-of22 from three-point range in the first meeting, as opposed to 4-of-15 in the second. From there, the Titans headed to Bellevue, Wash., for a threeday tournament. They went 2-1, picking up wins over Whatcom Community College and Bel-
EUGENE JOHNSON / THE TORCH
Lane freshman shelby snook broke the school scoring record with 44 points against the Umpqua Community College Riverhawks in a Jan. 8 game. the titans won 94-93 at home.
levue Community College. Duncan and Snook each broke the 30-point mark during the tournament, Snook versus Whatcom and Duncan versus Bellevue. A week later, at the Chemeketa Holiday Tournament in Salem, Lane claimed an 83-80 victory over Highline Community College on Dec. 28, as well
Lane men start season with 7-8 record
How to pay for college...
IN ONE DAY!
Team returns home to play Linn-Benton Roadrunners on Jan. 15 After a December full of success and struggle, the Lane men’s basketball team owns a record of seven wins and eight losses. The Titans began their winter break by finishing third at the Dale J. Bates Tournament, a three-day tournament at Lane Community College fom Dec. 13 to Dec. 15. After an 83-74 victory over New Hope Christian College on the tournament’s first day, the Titans squared off against the Southwestern Oregon Community College Lakers, currently ranked fourth in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges. The Titans took a 41-40 lead into halftime and were carried by sophomore Alex Sattley, who hit four three-pointers in the first half and finished with a game-high 29 points. However, they could not hold off the Lakers, who went 16-21 from the free-throw line in the second half to put away the game. The Titans were forced to settle for a spot in the tournament’s consolation championship versus Lower Columbia Community College. Sattley once again led the Titans with 25 points and six rebounds, and tHe torCH / tHursday, Jan. 9, 2014
sophomores Alec Breazeale and Zach Kirschbaum each added 15 points to help Lane to a 73-61 victory and third-place finish. “I think we really improved on being mentally focused,” Sattley said after the tournament. On Dec. 20, the Titans hit the road for the Everett Crossover Tournament in Everett, Wash. Lane began the tournament with a 98-95 overtime victory over the Everett Community College Trojans. Kirschbaum led the Titans with a season-high 34 points and 17 rebounds, while shooting 10-of-11 from the free throw line. “They weren’t too big of a team so I just used my advantage the best way I could,” Kirschbaum said. The next day, the Titans knocked off the fifth-ranked Community Colleges of Spokane Sasquatch. Kirschbaum filled up the stat book for the Titans, scoring 19 points while also chipping in eight rebounds, two steals, two assists and two blocks. Freshman Dale Baker added 10 points and five rebounds. The Titans’ winning streak came to an end when they met the top ranked Clark Community College Penguins in the tournament championship, and were handed a crushing 87-59 loss.
The next week wasn’t any easier for the Titans. They traveled to Weed, Calif., where they suffered three consecutive losses to Sacramento City College, College of the Siskiyous and Butte College. “The California trip was a deal where I just think we didn’t have enough time off,” Chavka said. “We went up to Everett and played well, but then three days off after that just isn’t enough.” On Jan. 4, the Titans opened up regional play with a 79-67 loss on the road against the Clackamas Community College Cougars. The Cougars hit 11 three-pointers, five of them coming from sophomore guard Spencer Bankofier, and were able to limit Sattley, Lane’s leading scorer, to just five points. Chavka said the Cougars did a great job of keying in on Sattley and Kirschbaum and it seemed like their goal was to limit both of their scoring. “Every time I would catch the ball in the second half, they would send another player over to double me, which made it difficult to score,” Kirschbaum said. Sattley is averaging 18.42 points per game and Kirschbaum is averaging 17.08 — the duo has combined to score 42.6 percent of Lanes’ points this season.
A FREE Financial Aid And Scholarship Event Saturday, January 11th
Lane Community College Center for Meeting & Learning, Main Campus, Bldg 19, Room 100 8:30 - 9:00
Registration Welcome, Event Overview
9:00 - 2:30
College Goal Oregon Meet with financial aid professionals who will help you complete the online FAFSA. Bring your 2012 Tax Returns and 2013 financial records.
9:00 - 10:30
Scholarship Workshop 1 “Be a Competitive Applicant!” Learn resources and strategies for finding college scholarships plus how to write quality essays and applications.
11:00 - 12:30
Scholarship Workshop 2 “Finding funds for Oregon Students” Learn how to apply for Oregon Student Access Commission scholarships.
12:45 - 2:15
Sesión Informativa acerca de becas y ayuda financiera.
Lane students register with CRN 33916 Community members call 541-463-6100, go to lanecc.augusoft.net or register the day of event. For disability related accommodations, contact Jackie at 541-463-5164
www.lanecc.edu/ces/classes-and-workshops Presented by:
5850462J04
Jarrid Denney Sports Editor
as a 124-84 win over Treasure Valley Community College on Dec. 30. However, on the tournament’s second day, the Titans suffered a 93-75 loss to Wenatchee Valley Community College, which currently sits outside the top 10 in the power rankings.
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