Whitman College Pioneer - Issue 7 Fall 2009

family weekend feature FE ATURE , page

REVIEW:

ROMEO & JULIET

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A&E , page 9

INTERVIEW: ASWC PRESIDENT

Nadim Damluji NEWS, page 3

WHITMAN COLLEGE Walla Walla, WA Volume CXXV / Issue 7 whitmanpioneer.com O , 

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by ERIC NICKESONMENDHEIM Staff Reporter Whitman faculty, feeling the stress of large course loads, advising and overseeing senior theses, are working on a proposal to decrease their teaching load.

A proposal from the Feasibility Study Committee would decrease faculty workloads from three courses each semester to three one semester and two the following. The committee is surveying faculty about the plan, which would put Whitman on par with schools such as Kenyon College and Bates College.

Discussion will continue at the next faculty meeting on Wedneady, Nov. 4.

If approved, the transition would take place over a number of years.

“The normal teaching load is three classes each semester,” said chair of the committee and Associate Professor of astronomy Andrea Dobson. “What we want to do is make it so teachers teach three classes one semester and two the next, with credit for things like experiential trips counted. The three-three system was made a long time ago and is outdated.”

The current faculty schedule does not account for extra advising, senior theses and one-on-one interaction. Because of this, many professors spend a great deal of time on work they do besides their classes.

Professor of classics Dana Burgess, however, sees potential problems in this proposal.

“We won’t be able to offer as many special courses,” he said. “We’ll have to offer and preserve courses that serve our major programs; additional courses will be less likely to be taught. There is also a danger of increased class size.”

A cut in courses may make it more FACULTY, page 2

Parents boost local economy 'RZQWRZQ WR EHQHÀW IURP )DPLO\ :HHNHQG

by JOSH GOODMAN Associate News Editor Downtown Walla Walla hotels and restaurants are set to get an economic boost this Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, when parents of Whitman students come for Family Weekend.

Visiting parents, who book hotels and dine out with their students, will bring business to sellout levels at several local establishments. That’s good news for the bottom line of hotels and restaurants in the middle of a recession and is even prompting some to hire additional staff

by MATT MANLEY Columnist My father and I have a tradition of patronizing one of Walla Walla’s many elite eateries every fall and after much consideration settled on Creektown Café as this year’s venue of choice. We soon learned why it is a local favorite.

Creektown Café is located at 1129 S. Second Ave., a five-minute drive or 15-minute bike ride from campus. The restaurant is situated in what I could only describe as a strip mall, but once

be in a full service hotel where they can have meals in the restaurants or go to our lounge.”

The extra business is also a boon for employees.

“We run full, so we’re always geared up, and there’s a whole bunch of people we employ who we hire because of the business we enjoy from Whitman,” Anderson said. “It definitely has a positive impact on our bottom line.”

The Walla Walla Vineyard Inn, located across the street from campus, PARENTS, page 2

Network unites local activists, student leaders

by GALEN BERNARD News Editor

CREDIT HUBANKS Ian Field ‘12 and other Walla Walla University students listen to representatives from the Network for Young Walla Walla Tuesday in the Student Association Center at WWU. The network wants to connect students from Whitman, WWU and Walla Walla Community College and community youth to work together to address local social issues.

Delicious downtown dining accessible at RESTAURANT REVIEW

for the weekend.

Ron Anderson, general manager of The Marcus Whitman Hotel, expects full occupancy this weekend, as opposed to an annual average of 65 to 70 percent.

Three-quarters of the hotel’s guests will be Whitman families.

“The hotel industry in general has really been hit hard with the recession,” he said, noting that his hotel has been fortunate throughout the past year. “One of the reasons we do well with Whitman is because we’re the only full-service hotel [in Walla Walla] and the parents like to come with their sons and daughters and

DOUGLAS

Professors deliberate reduced courseload

Getting students involved in community activism isn’t always about capturing their interest in the issue at stake.

Sometimes it’s necessary to engage other interests first. In its kick-off events at Whitman College and Walla Walla University, the Network for Young Walla Walla opted for balloons and banana splits, respectively.

The network held its second event of the year Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Walla Walla University. The first took place Saturday, Oct. 10, on the Whitman campus, representing th’s efforts to include students from each of the three institutions of higher education in Walla Walla: Whitman, Walla Walla University and Walla Walla Community College.

“We’re trying to get the three campuses united so we can take on community issues together,” said WWU sophomore Katie Whittlake in her opening statement at the university’s Student Association Center. The event drew 25 to 30 university students to meet and learn

about the network. Attendees were encouraged to sign up for the network on a laptop.

Senior Camila Thorndike was the only Whitman student present. She has directed the network’s development, but emphasized to university students that neither she nor Whitman holds power in the network.

“There is no leadership within the network itself; it is just a way to connect to take on issues,” she said.

The rhetoric about issues is intentionally vague. Network organizers stress that the network does not have a specific agenda, but rather aims to connect and train a diverse group of youth to address issues that interest them.

“Come with an interest; spin it into action,” said Whitman sophomore Zach Duffy, the network’s Web master.

One focus has emerged, however, that would allow students to take on numerous issues that interest them.

“Perhaps our biggest fight is getting youth in decision-making roles. We want a seat at the table,” Thorndike said.

NETWORK , page 3

C REEKTOWN C AFÉ

inside its doors, you can forget about its somewhat-pedestrian surroundings. Booths and tables are mixed on the efficiently spaced dining floor, and a charming patio under a vined arbor awaits outdoor diners. You won’t find any white tablecloths at the café’s unembellished tables, but they won’t be missed in the restaurant’s friendly bistro ambiance. While my party was sitting nearby other tables on two sides, we still had adequate privacy and felt free to laugh above mezzo forte. The place is, in a word, accessible.

Accessible, too, is the cuisine of executive chef Michael Kline’s establishment.

The menu changes seasonally according

to what’s fresh, and some local farms even grow crops expressly for Creektown plates. Kline’s café also contracts with dozens of local providers to provide the freshest (primarily organic) produce to be had locally. The restaurant, he says, has a simple ethos: to provide superb food and great memories.

As we mulled over the menu offerings, we were delighted to receive a basket—and then another, and another—of complimentary artisan bread, baked inhouse. Turns out, Kline knows a thing or two about bread; he is also the owner of Walla Walla Bread Co. on Main St. My group rapidly reached a consensus that the still-warm, crispy-chewy crust and

FA MI LY W E E K E N D C A L E NDA R friday saturday

HUBANKS

moist, substantial quality of the baguette made it the top gratis bread we had ever tasted.

Once our server Nikki succeeded in distracting us from the bread—she may have realized that free bread of such quality is a dangerous business model—we finally made our meal and appetizer selections.

Our hors d’oeuvre, mapleseared scallops ($12), arrived quickly, but this rapidity was by no means reflected in the taste. The maple sweetness permeated the CREEKTOWN C AFÉ , page 12

sunday 4th & Main St., 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Listen to music at the Coffeehouse with ‘09

M  D D Reid Campus Center, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

alum Ranger Sciacca and the Re-Arrangers.

An opportunity for families to spend one

Market for fall produce, food and crafts. Also

Ryan Creal ‘12 jumps through the Com-

hour (or more) volunteering for a local charity.

taking place on Saturday.

GLBTQ and Coalition Against Homophobia

Reid Campus Center, 9-11 p.m.

V N Maxey Hall, 10-11 p.m.

Come to the Walla Walla Valley Farmer’s

Coming Out Day ing Out Door on Ankeny on Oct. 16.

hosted the door to encourage Whitties

Organic Garden, 10-11:30 p.m.

Whitman’s improv-comedy troupe, performs.

A  Cordiner Hall, 9-11 p.m.

Free tickets are available in Reid Campus

Featuring Lights Out, the Sirens of Swank,

harvest.

Center.

Schwa and the Testostertones.

Decorate a pumpkin and celebrate the fall

to embrace their identity, be it sexual orientation or any other identity. National Coming Out Day is observed each Oct. 11, but GLBTQ and Coalition Against Homophobia decided to host the Coming Out Door last week to avoid overlap with the mid-semester break.

NEWS

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October 22, 2009O

Bookstore staff member of 11 years dies

by GILLIAN FREW Editor-in-Chief Ann Jauhiainen took pride in her work. As general merchandise buyer for the Whitman College bookstore, she devoted more than 11 years of service to the campus, and was the recipient of Whitman’s Town-Gown Award (now the Pete and Hedda Reid Service to Walla Walla Award) in 2007. She participated in the Friendship Family program for international students, and was on the boards of directors for the Carnegie Art Center,

YWCA and Parks and Recreation.

Ann died Saturday, Oct. 17, of brain cancer in the company of her family and is survived by her husband, three children and two stepchildren.

Douglas Carlsen, director of the bookstore, hired Ann in 1998 and considered her a friend as well as a colleague. He said she was dedicated to doing her job well. Until her diagnosis in June, Ann was in charge of all of the cards, clothing and school supplies sold in the bookstore.

“If you took away the books, everything else was her,” he said. “She was always busy.”

Ann left her mark on Whitman, selecting the colors of the couches, chairs and rugs that students see every day in the Reid basement.

“They can walk out there and see her handiwork,” said Carlsen, gesturing beyond the bookstore.

Senior Margaux Faris-Merkert, who has worked at the bookstore since her first year at Whitman, said Ann was always supportive of students trying to learn from her example.

“Even when she was having chemotherapy, she would come in and set up a sales rack,” she said.

Faris-Merkert said she and two fel-

low bookstore staff members, seniors Dena Popova and Celani Dlamini, plan to attend services for Ann today and tomorrow.

“Her presence has been missed in the store, her energy,” said Carlsen.

“She connected with many of the students.”

A vigil service and rosary for Ann will be held today at 7 p.m., with the funeral mass tomorrow at 10 a.m. at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church, 2098 East Alder St.

COURTESY OF THE FOUNTAIN

Ann Jauhiainen accepts the Town-Gown

Award from President Bridges in 2007.

District candidates’ debate Faculty: Opposed cite class cuts targets Latino audience from page 1

by RACHEL ALEXANDER Staff Reporter In an effort to educate Walla Walla’s Latino community about political issues, a debate between Laura Grant and Terry Nealey, the candidates for 16th District State Representative, took place Sunday, Oct. 18, at St. Patrick’s Church in Walla Walla. The debate was translated into Spanish and organized by Whitman senior Pedro Galvao.

“The work that Pedro has been doing is groundbreaking,” said Grant. “[Latinos] haven’t been reached out to in the past.”

The debate began with an opening statement from each candidate, followed by both preplanned and audience questions. The issues addressed ranged from support for bilingual education programs to enforcement of laws regarding employment for agricultural workers.

“I am open to suggestions and recommendations from all of you,” said Nealey.

Further, Nealey stated that his campaign has been trying to reach out to Latino voters since the beginning, but has sometimes found it difficult.

Neither candidate identified any of the problems they talked about as specifically Latino issues.

“Latinos are like anyone else—they

want to live the American Dream,” said Nealey.

Although both candidates discussed farm labor and workers rights, they did not speak directly to how these issues affect Latinos in Walla Walla.

“I wish they’d talked more about employment,” said community member Maria Bahena. “There aren’t a lot of jobs here.”

Bahena said that while she agreed with both candidates’ view that Latinos care about the same issues as everyone else, she felt the debate did not address the issue of political access for Latinos.

“We have lots of needs and we don’t know where to go for help,” she said, speaking about the language barrier that keeps many Latinos from accessing social services.

Galvao felt that the event was successful, particularly since the candidates took questions from the audience.

“I’m glad that they were able to put themselves in a position to have half the questions be things that they weren’t prepared for,” he said.

The reaction from community members in attendance was overall very positive.

“I liked it because it was the first time I’d been to a political debate,” said Bahena. “I

had an idea what it meant to be a Democrat or Republican, but I learned what each party’s specific goals were.”

The stated goals of both candidates were fairly similar. Each spoke about the importance of fiscal responsibility, promoting business, supporting agriculture and improving education. Nealey also said that balancing the budget in Olympia and keeping an eye on taxes were crucial steps in fixing the state. Grant mentioned attracting manufacturing firms to the Walla Walla Valley area, including solar panel manufacturers.

Galvao ended the debate by reminding those present that voting on election day is an important step in becoming more involved in politics. According to Galvao, about 1,600 Latinos are registered to vote in Walla Walla, but less than 100 actually voted in the last election.

Galvao also emphasized that although voting is important, people unable to vote can still have a voice.

“Speak to [the candidates] about issues that concern you,” he said.

Grant emphasized that she is there to represent everyone, including undocumented immigrants.

“We need to let them know that they do have a voice and it’s important to utilize it,” she said.

act with students every day, and it would be good for us to be better able to model difficult for students to sign up for the work-life balance to our students. And, classes they want when they want them. it is better for students to have professors Either the number of courses would de- who are satisfied with their jobs because crease or the number of faculty would the professors have time to meet the needs increase. of their students effectively.”

“If we need to hire more faculty, money Burgess, however, worries that only would be an issue,” said Dobson. “We’re some students will see those benefits. He trying to figure out how to shuffle resourc- believes that professors may spend more es. We don’t want this to negatively affect time helping seniors with theses and semithe students.” nars rather than aiding first-years in their The current econoadjustment to Whitmy would also make man academics. a transition more dif“I think the ficult. biggest danger is “I think most of us the upper college are for the three-two will get preferschedule because we ence over the could do a better job lower college,” teaching and/or doAndrea Dobson, he said. “We ing research,” said Chair, Feasibility Study Committee have a good core Professor of geology program but I and environmental think it will be studies Bob Carson. “But I think this is a challenge to make sure inthe wrong time to do that because finan- struction in the lower college continues cial times are tight. I do not believe most to improve. When class size increases, departments can go with fewer classes; it’s writing instruction decreases.” hard to imagine.”

In spite of potential difficulties ahead, Professor of sociology Michelle Janning Burgess believes that a switch could end believes the switch would make for more up being for the better. meaningful interaction with students.

“I think it’s a challenging moment,” “The most important reason I support he said. “I think as long as it can be done a switch is because I think it is good for carefully it can be for the good.” our students,” she said. “We faculty inter-

We’re trying to figure out how to shuffle resources. We don’t want this to negatively affect students.

Students say dining hall food improves for family weekend

by LIZ FORSYTH Staff Reporter

LOOS-DIA

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Parents: Revenue funds renovations from page 1 will also see an increase in business this weekend, with Whitman parents comprising 90 percent of customers.

“We were overbooked on some of our rooms for a couple days, so thank goodness we had a couple of cancellations,” said Manager Dena Turner. “We’ll be close to 100 percent full instead of 60 percent or 65 percent.”

For Turner, the extra business will help with a project to renovate the hotel’s rooms.

“Eventually, it’s going to . . . allow us to do upgrades,” she said. “The hotel had nobody taking care of it [under the previous owner], and it kind of got neglected.”

Restaurants are also poised to benefit from Family Weekend, though the impact will be less than that on hotels.

“When we don’t have things like Parents Weekend, the percentage of Whitman students and parents is low,” said Dan Poitras, bar manager of the Mill Creek Brewpub, which is expecting two to three times as much Whitman-related traffic as normal. “Those weekends are definitely important to us.”

Though expecting extra customers, the restaurant will not significantly alter

its management.

“We might bring on an extra server or something like that, [but] we’re usually prepared on weekends to handle whatever crowd,” said Poitras.

Tom Maccarone, owner of T. Maccarone’s, says weekends are always crowded, and Family Weekend is no exception.

“We’re packed every weekend,” he said.

“If it weren’t Whitman parents’ weekend this weekend, we would be packed with tourists. We probably turned away 200 plus people [last] weekend alone, and there was nothing happening in Walla Walla.”

Maccarone said this coming weekend is almost entirely booked, with nearly every reservation being a Whitman family. Though he’s bringing in an extra employee to set up and bus tables for quick turnarounds, his business will be about the same, just with a different clientele.

“Whitman parents obviously know that it’s a crazy weekend and they make their reservations,” Maccarone said. “But the people coming to taste wine don’t know that, so it’s going to be an unfortunate weekend for them in finding places to have dinner.”

Family Weekend, coming up Friday, Oct. 23, through Saturday, Oct. 25, is an opportunity for students to see their families and for families to get a glimpse of the student’s life at Whitman.

But perceived improvements to the quality of dining hall food during Family Weekend raise some students’ eyebrows.

“It’s always better for Family Weekend and for prospective students day,” said senior Karina Kidd.

Roger Edens, general manager for Bon Appétit, denies that there are any changes in food quality for Family Weekend.

“The food’s the food. Other than making sure we have enough we don’t do anything different,” he said.

Three former RAs separately confirmed that the food is in fact better over Family Weekend, as did numerous other students who requested anonymity.

Eden attributed the positive response students and parents may have to the

food to the superiority of Whitman’s dining hall food services compared to other colleges.

“It’s just so bad everywhere else,” Eden said.

Prentiss and Jewett dining halls will be open to parents. The weekend schedule invites them to “enjoy their student’s dining experience.” Saturday Whitman is subsidizing brunch so that family members can eat for only five dollars and both Prentiss and Jewett will be serving brunch because of the high demand.

Dinner will also be available for parents,

subsidized for only seven dollars.

Nancy Tavelli, director of residence life and housing, coordinates Family Weekend each year. She explained that while food may be at the forefront of many student’s minds, there is much more to Family Weekend.

“The intent is for families, campus, students and parents to interact in a positive way,” she said.

Tavelli also rejected the notion that dining hall food improves for Family Weekend.

“I don’t think that’s true,” she said.

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NEWS

9October 22, 2009

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ASWC steps up advocacy A sit-down with ASWC President Nadim Damjuli addresses administration plans

by GALEN BERNARD News Editor Most known for selecting campus concerts and funding student clubs, ASWC is emphasizing another role this year under the leadership of senior President Nadim Damluji: student advocacy.

Damluji believes there is an opportunity for student voices to be heard by the administration and faculty that ASWC has wasted in the past.

“I think they really are receptive to student input, we just haven’t been providing it. We’ve been waiting for them to come to us and ask us what we think, but my administration is much more proactive,” he said.

Shortly into this year’s first senate meeting on Oct. 4, Damluji introduced senior Will Canine, who will serve in a newly-created position on the ASWC communications staff, Student Advocacy Coordinator. Canine’s first major accomplishment, advocating for the club ski team with Athletic Director Dean Snider, received previous coverage in The Pioneer.

“The ski team is kind of a template for how I see ASWC this year. The ski team knew they needed to get involved with the administration somehow but they didn’t think to come to ASWC. We had to go to them and say ‘Hey, how can we help you?’” Damluji said. “We made students happy. We didn’t have to give them money, we didn’t have to bring their favorite band. We acted on their behalf . . . and ASWC could be really useful in this way.”

Canine

will coordinate the two Town Hall Meetings ASWC plans to hold this year, which will bring to the student body’s attention issues that are being discussed by the college’s committees, many of which now have at least one student representative.

The forums are scheduled for today and April 1.

“Hopefully we’ll hear as many opinions as possible and then craft some policy to take back to these committees,” said Damluji.

ASWC also is attempting to compile student concerns with daily tabling in Reid by the Student Affairs committee, a new initiative this year. The plan is to then raise student concerns at newly arranged monthly ASWC Executive Council dinners with President George Bridges and bi-monthly meetings between Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland and Damluji and senior Jordan Clark, ASWC vice president and chair of student affairs.

“We have this authority and voice that we haven’t been using in the past and that I’m encouraging everyone to use now to come up with more initiatives,” Damluji said.

Damluji recognizes that it is important to advocate for students in relating to the administration and the faculty, as both wield authority.

“If you talk to students and the faculty, they’ll say that the Board of Trustees & Memorial [the building that holds much of Whitman’s administration] has all the power, but if you talk to Memorial or the Board of Trustees they’ll say the faculty has all the power,” said Damluji.

Damluji and Clark now

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sit on the faculty policy committee.

Damluji notes that he and Clark are equal members, with voting rights, not ex-officio like on other committees.

“I think this a key place where we could take initiative and present stuff on the table, which we are looking to do,” Damluji said. One item currently being discussed is whether students should be able to receive Whitman credit for internships.

Now that students are getting a voice, Damluji says they must use it more effectively.

He referenced a conversation with a faculty member who noted that while it is good to have students in meetings, they often seem unprepared.

“And realistically, it’s kind of true,” said Damluji. “We just show up and expect our voice to be heard when we haven’t really prepared for meetings.

That’s a perception I want change.”

Damluji thinks one way for ASWC to be more prepared and potent is to write more Acts. For an act, an ASWC representative writes a resolution on an important issue to express what ASWC and the student body wants. The document then can be presented to the faculty and administration.

“That’s a really useful tool that we don’t use much,” said Damluji. He cited an act declaring that the students wanted the first race symposium as perhaps the most recent example.

Damluji is working to change the perceptions and nature of ASWC’s involvement on all fronts—students, faculty and administration.

“I want ASWC to matter, capital M. To get involved and get in conversations that we haven’t been in the past,” said Damluji. “So, it’s not reacting to the ski team being cut but rather we’re involved in the conversations where the option of the ski team being eliminated is discussed.”

Recognizing that students are invested in making the most of their time at Whitman, Damluji emphasizes the key is adopting the right approach to influencing college decision-making. He thinks this year’s focus on taking the initiative to advocate for student interests will lead to a stronger ASWC. “It’s not that students don’t care, it’s that students are reactionary,” Damluji said. “We and ASWC in the past have always been reacting to things once they happen to us. I don’t want to be reactionary anymore. I want to be prepared and take on issues . . . I now want to make ASWC in a way that we advocate when we want to. That every student gets a voice and a role in defining [his or her] experience of Whitman and not just accepting the way it is.”

BULLION A Walla Walla community member speaks out during a question-and-answer period.

Event revives Alinsky activism

by RACHEL ALEXANDER Staff Reporter More than 100 community members, faculty and students gathered at Reid on Friday, Oct. 15, for a discussion about community organizing in Walla Walla.

The talk, which featured a panel of three community organizers from Eastern Washington, was part of a three-day symposium hosted by Whitman’s Sociology Department.

The symposium focused on the work of Saul Alinsky, who spent over 40 years community organizing in Chicago.

“Alinsky is an interesting character because he’s very controversial,” said Michelle Janning, sociology department chair.

Noah Leavitt, adjunct assistant professor of sociology and general studies, explained Alinsky’s controversial focus.

“Alinsky is considered controversial for the same reason that anyone who teaches disenfranchised people to understand how they can challenge existing power structures and have more control over their lives is controversial,” he said. “Existing power structures don’t want to be understood, and they certainly don’t want to be challenged.”

Alinsky studied sociology for his work.

“He never would have called himself a sociologist, but his work is very relevant for people interested in public sociology,” Janning said.

Sociology professors saw the event as a way to reach the community while making the study of sociology more practical.

“How do you take a discipline that’s considered very theoretical and take it to Whitman students, who are very practical?” said Leavitt.

The symposium featured numerous workshops on community organizing, with topics ranging from bringing people of different faiths together to educating the next generation of organizers.

A featured guest was Dave Alinsky, Saul’s only son. Though not a community organizer himself, he recognizes the importance of activism today.

“My generation has pretty much screwed things up,” he said. “It’s going to be up to your generation to clean up our mess.”

Some symposium participants used the event as an opportunity to network between groups, while other attended simply to hear about organizing.

First-year Emily Berg said she wasn’t exactly sure why she signed up to attend one of the symposium’s panel discussions but appreciated the generating ideas.

“Listening to problems that are currently prevalent in Walla Walla has made me more aware of how I can affect the community while I’m here at Whitman,” she said.

Walla Walla residents spoke about the problems they saw in the area.

“Walla Walla’s a very poor town,” said Norm Osterman,. “It’s hard to see on Main Street, where people are sipping wine and eating cheese. There’s poverty here. There’s things that need to be changed.”

The organizers in the room discussed strategies for mobilizing communities.

“Go in and talk to [people] without an agenda,” said Julia Leavitt, a Whitman graduate who organizes for Commitment to Community.

Louis Gonzales, a local union organizer agreed.

“It really is knocking on doors cold and listening,” he said.

For Dave Alinsky, community organizing offers students a lesson in democracy.

“Democracy is a very fragile thing.

There’s no guarantee that it’s going to last,” he said. “You can’t just sit by and assume that other people are going to protect your freedoms. I think that’s one of the most important things you can get out of a four-year education.”

Network: Aims for diverse student participation from page 1 “Why shouldn’t there be a student voice in decisions when it’s our future?”

Thorndike identified Walla Walla’s Sustainability Commission and City Council as examples of committees on which students could and should have a representative.

Since the network is not issue-based, Thorndike thinks it will be able to morph itself to incorporate as many different interests as possible, including youth from the community beyond the

three student bodies.

“We want to leave the door open to as diverse a group as possible to link to the network,” said Thorndike, citing socioeconomic and ideological diversity in particular.

Efforts to engage Walla Walla Community College students are the clearest example so far of that goal. Christina Stamper, one of two WWCC students present at the University kick-off, noted that while WWCC students face barriers to getting involved because they often have jobs and families, they also can

help the network understand local issues and are committed to the community.

“We bring inside perspectives on the issues, health care or affordable housing,” Stamper said.

Thorndike and Ian Field, sophomore and vice president of AWSU at WWU, both noted that because WWCC students live in the Walla Walla area, they can contribute to the institutional memory the network wants to create that will enable future students to quickly get involved in the community.

“So often the excitement that youth ADVERTISEMENT

can generate can seem like a false hope to community members, or professors even, because they know we come and go,” she said.

Thorndike expects the network Web site will provide a self-sustaining forum for future students to access leadership tips and tools.

“Future students can plug into this network and run from there,” she said.

Whitman’s event drew approximately 60 people looking to plug in, about the same number that attended the Walla Walla Unite picnic that sparked the net-

work last spring.

Having activated students at the local institutions, the network now plans to unite them Dec. 4 through Dec. 6 at its Youth Leadership Summit, featuring panels on sustainability, peer-to-peer activism training and salsa dancing.

“The summit is really important because it is the manifestation of our mission,” said Thorndike.

The mission is reflected in the network’s slogan: Find a cause, connect with others, make plans and take action.

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Family Weeken d FEATURE

October 22, 2009O

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by WILL WITWER Staff Reporter

1

Show off your dorm

The small space in which students are confined to live is an important part of college life. While inevitable, this activity is notable for its brevity, because there really isn’t much to do in a dorm room but stare at the walls and laugh awkwardly at the mess.

Students, clean your dorm before before opening it up for parental examination.

2

Walk or run in the wheat fields

The wheat fields are a hidden Walla Walla gem because they are the perfect setting for wonderful conversation with parents that a hurried phone

call cannot provide. Their sheer openness is impressive and will make your parents think you have become more sophisticated. Bonus: if you go at night, you can see the warm, reassuring glow of the prison lighting up the sky.

3

Paddle at Bennington Lake

Bennington Lake, located just three miles northeast of Walla Walla, offers activities and a boatload of attitude. Well, not the attitude so much, but there is a lot to do, from boating to swimming.

4

Visit an art gallery

While any city has art galleries, not any city is Walla Walla, which features the strangest collection of wineries and art houses of any small town. Ever. (Note to students: if you

First-year parents UHĂ HFW RQ :KLWPDQ

by HADLEY JOLLEY Staff Reporter First-year Hadley Jolley describes her parents’ experiences at Whitman this year and provides insight into a parent’s perspective of life at Whitman.

Upon my arrival at Whitman, the first thing one of the RAs in the Prentiss Hall lounge said after I picked up my room key was, “I had that room! It’s tiny!�

Yes, compared to other Prentiss rooms, my room was particularly tiny.

So tiny that we had to carry some of what I brought to campus back to the car and take it home.

When a man saw my father carrying a few boxes back to the car, he said, “So you over-packed?� “No. We were under-roomed,� my dad, Michael Jolley, said.

This was not the first time my parents had been on campus. My mother and I had visited the school twice before, once when I was a sophomore and again in the fall of my senior year. My father came with me to Whitman’s admitted students’ day in the spring, after I had decided to attend Whitman.

Besides my lack of room space— though my half of the two-room double, as my parents pointed out, was still bigger than some of the dorm rooms they shared with others when they attended college—my parents were impressed by the way Whitman handled students, and in particular, with how easy it was to get registered and move in. “I thought everything was pretty well organized. They did a good job of having everything set up,� said my father.

The fraternity members who helped carry my possessions up to the third floor—and down again—certainly didn’t

hurt, either.

Both my parents consider the campus itself very beautiful and the day we moved in, the sun shone and the campus looked better than usual. “I just loved the campus. All the students were really nice. It seemed like an easy-going place,� my mother, Karen Henry, said. “The one thing that struck me when we visited Whitman was that there were a lot of people out and about.�

She said that she had not seen that kind of activity at other colleges we visited together.

One of the benefits of living relatively close to Whitman—it’s a four-hour drive from our home near Portland to the campus—is that it is not difficult to visit before attending or even applying.

The closeness has other benefits as well.

My mother said she would not have been as comfortable if I were farther away. She would have felt more disconnected. “There’s that just psychological factor,� she said.

My dad pointed out that they’re within driving distance in case I get extremely sick.

The town of Walla Walla also created some sense of closeness and familiarity. My father noted that Walla Walla is fairly similar to other places my family has lived. Kalispell, Mont., also small and conservative, stands out. “It’s not like I’m sending you to Southern California or the East Coast,� my dad said.

Over all, my moving into college didn’t cause as much stress on my parents as it could have. “I thought I would be more sad, but I was more thrilled for you after spending a couple of days at Whitman and meeting your classmates,� my mom said.

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suggest going to an art gallery, your parental units may be so convinced of your maturity that they will be willing to lend you that money you need for your candy addiction). Whitman’s own Sheehan Gallery opens a new exhibit called “The Art of Collecting,� this Friday, Oct. 23. Check it out on opening day to meet the artist, Emile Lahner.

5

Go to breakfast at Clarette’s

Breakfast is the best meal of the day. And Clarette’s has some of the best breakfast in Walla Walla. It’s kind of a no-brainer.

6

Visit a winery

The Walla Walla Valley is wine country, a big plus for parents.

Go enjoy wine tasting with parents at one of the numerous wineries in town.

7

Attend the Speakeasy a capella concert

8

Volunteer for Make a Difference Day

A capella is so hip right now that even distinctly unhip people like parents enjoy it. Thus, go see all of Whitman’s premier a capella groups, who are terrific, perform. You can even maintain your indie cred by pretending not to enjoy it. The show is at Cordiner from 9-11 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24.

Volunteering to help the Walla Walla community with your parents is a great way to help the world and enhance your relationships with the people you love at the same time. So make a difference—fun for the whole family!

From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, show up at Reid and volunteer

W

t F o for an hour.

A o Attend the farmers’ market a Walla Walla has a terrific Farmers’ Market packed with local products and real people, and if that doesn’t convince you, fresh raspberries speak for themselves. Make sure you go early morning on Saturday, though, because Sunday has much less to offer.

9

10

Walk aimlessly through Walla Walla

Your parents are coming to see you and talk to you, so walking through Walla Walla is a great opportunity to explore the town and explore your feelings. Wandering without a sense of purpose is great fun and kind of an adventure. Just don’t get lost.

Parents ask, Pio DQVZHUV Whitman parents submitted questions about student life, academic pressure and more

by HELEN JENNE Staff Reporter As a Whitman parent, especially if your Whittie is a first-year, you probably have many questions, not all of which your son or daughter can answer. To help inform you, The Pioneer asked current parents what questions they have about Whitman, and here we report on the most frequently discussed topics.

Helping your son or daughter succeed academically If you feel that your child needs academic help it is important to remain supportive but not overly involved. “I think the most important thing parents can do is continue to support their students from their end and allow the faculty and staff to support their students from our end,� said Juli Dunn, director of academic resources, via email.

Whitman has many resources for academic help, including professors’ office hours, Student Academic Advisers, group and individual tutoring and the Academic Resource Center. “In terms of academic assistance, encouraging their son or daughter to make use of existing campus resources is paramount,� said Dunn.

However, as she points out, there is a fine line between telling your child to take advantage of these resources and calling the Academic Resource Center, a professor or SA. “If parents are checking up on their son or daughter, it makes the job of the instructor or the student affairs personnel more challenging and the journey for their son or daughter less meaningful,� said Dunn.

The economy and Whitman According to Peter Harvey, treasurer and chief financial officer, Whitman’s income is currently down because of falling short-term interest rates and expenses have increased, due mainly to increased financial aid for some students. Whitman’s endowment is down 20 percent, which Harvey explained is in the middle of the range when compared to other colleges. “The current economic downturn has had modest effects on Whitman,�

Harvey said via e-mail.

Some of the ways Whitman has responded to the decrease in income, include postponing certain building or ground maintenance projects, filling some vacant staff positions with visiting professors instead of tenure track professors or leaving some vacant staff positions unfilled and reducing operating budgets for food and staff travel, Harvey said.

What does the budget look like in the future? “I expect that budget issues will be challenging through 2013, and there likely will be little money available for new initiatives,� Harvey said. “However, we will continue to deliver a liberal arts education of the highest quality and I believe that most students will notice little or no effects in the years ahead from changes we have made.�

Recycling, sustainability and food “The college began recycling in earnest about 20 years ago and as the time has changed so too have we evolved in the materials re-used or recycled,� said Bob Biles, college recycling coordinator, via e-mail. “Whitman has recycled entire buildings in the past and also recycles lumber, concrete, old chemicals, batteries, other electronics and, of course, normal materials such as paper, plastic, glass, tin and aluminum,� said Biles. “Residents of the Environmental Studies Interest House pick up the recyclables from the residence halls every Sunday.

Whitman received an overall grade of Bfor sustainability from greenreportcard. org, a Web site that has in-depth sustainability profiles for hundreds of colleges in the United States and Canada.

This grade

is broken down into nine categories, one of which is recycling and food. In this category, Whitman received an A grade.

Efforts towards sustainability are demonstrated by dining halls’ commitment to serving no tropical fruit—such as bananas, mangos and pineapple—during lunch or dinner. The dining halls also compost preconsumer food scraps, although they do not compost postconsumer food scraps.

The Whitman dining halls have committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2010. And they try to purchase local food. The dining survey in Whitman’s green report card says, “Our first choice is to purchase seasonal, regional and organic ingredients from a 150-mile radius of each restaurant.�

Graduate school assistance The Student Engagement Center offers students assistance when it comes to jobs, internships and graduate school.

Graduate school advising is always available by appointment in the Student Engagement Center in Reid, room 219.

The Annual Whitman College Graduate School Fair will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 27, from noon to 3 p.m. in the Reid Ballroom. This fair offers a major source of information on graduate schools, in addition to various graduate school representatives who visit Whitman to recruit.

The Student Engagement Center also provides a graduate school guide at http://www.whitman.edu/content/career_center/students/information-ongraduate-schools under Student Engagement Center Publications.

ALDEN

FEATURE

9October 22, 2009

5

Local winery guide

PHOTOS BY CORNELIUS

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by CONNOR GUY A&E Editor

Catie MacIntyre Walker, the selfproclaimed “wild wine woman of Walla Walla,� has been in the business for years. Though she’s graduated from the Center for Enology and Viticulture at Walla Walla, many of her formative experiences as a wine lover have been hands-on—she’s spent time doing the dirtier parts of wine making, digging holes, planting vines and working crush.

More recently, she’s written wine columns for the Union Bulletin, served as a judge in wine competitions and written for Tourism Walla Walla. She currently maintains her online store, Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman.

Pio: We all know that wine is big in Walla Walla, but how big is “big�?

Walker: Ha! That’s quite a question—you could almost write a book.

For example, there are over 1,800 acres of grapes planted in the Walla Walla American Viticultural Area. There are over 125 bonded wineries in this AVA, and the numbers keep growing, though l t

not all of them are open to the public.

How much wine they distribute?

Well, that depends on all of the wineries. No two wineries distribute the same amount, and what they do distribute depends largely on the size of the winery. There are small boutique wineries that sell out every season and others that distribute all over the nation.

Pio: We’ve heard that there are different “districts� of wineries here; is that right?

Walker: That’s right; As you come into Walla Walla heading East on Highway 12, there are about six on the way into town. There’s another “district� in downtown Walla Walla, where you could spend all day tasting through the various winery tasting rooms.

Up near the airport area, several of the old WWII barracks and warehouses are now wineries, and stand alongside several new structures, such as the Port of Walla Walla’s wine “incubators.�

Down south of Walla Walla, near the Oregon Border there are several wineries as well as many of the local vineyards. That’s an area that really gives the

tourist a taste of “Wine Country.�

For a guide to these different “districts,� http://www.wallawallawine.com provides an excellent map.

Pio: What’s the best way for parents to experience the best of Walla Walla’s famous wine industry in just a night or two?

Walker: Get the parents to downtown Walla Walla on a Friday night!

On Fridays, I believe Walla Walla Wine Works on the First Ave. Plaza is open until 8 p.m. Sapolil Winery has music on Friday nights (and sometimes Saturdays) and of course, you can buy wine by the glass or bottle. Because of Sapolil’s Friday night music, I’ve heard that Merchants LTD Deli is staying open late for pizza. They’ve also installed a new bar. And if you want to stop by somewhere for just a slice, Sweet Basil Pizzeria is open until 9 p.m. Another option is Vintage Cellars on Second Ave., which is often lively and has wine for sale by the bottle or glass, as well as a small food menu.

Pio: What are some of the most popular bottles of wine right now and where

c a n people go to get them?

Walker: Just about every winery in Walla Walla offers a red blend . . . Some of my favorite red blends are from Forgteron Cellars, L’Ecole, Waterbrook, Bergevin Lane and Mannina.

The best way to buy wines is buy them directly from the wineries because you are guaranteed the ability to taste the wines first. But after the wineries close, or if you’re looking for a bigger selection, Super One Foods on 9th St. offers a great selection.

There’s also my little online store, Walla Walla Wine Woman (http://www. wallawallawinewoman.com)—I have a little wine studio downtown Walla Walla, but the majority of my sales are online. However, I will open up for appointments.

Pio: Where else can parents look

to find information about wine and wine-related activities?

Walker: The Walla Walla Wine Alliance has one of the best lists of wine related activities, (http://www.wallawallawine.com) and Walla Walla Wine News (http://www.wallawallawinenews.com), also keeps a pretty good calendar of events.

WINE TASTING :

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A QUICK GUIDE

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by KRISTEN COVERDALE Staff Reporter Gathering for dinner is an important ritual for many families. Eating together is a time to unwind and reconnect after school or work.

For the newest members of the Whitman community, Family Weekend will be first time most of them have seen their parents or siblings since the semester began.

First-year Kelly Peterson expressed her anticipation. “I’m really excited my parents are coming this weekend. I miss being able to hear about everyone’s day, family dinner is so important to me . . . We’re all going out to dinner!� she said.

Family Weekend is not only a great time to show off the campus to your family and introduce all of your friends, but also the perfect time to check out some of Walla Walla’s best restaurants to rekindle those intimate family dinners.

If you’re looking for a good place to eat, walk down Main Street, where you will find some fantastic eateries.

Backstage Bistro, located at 230 E. Main St., prides itself on a menu of steak, seafood and pasta in a warm, somewhat romantic setting. It has more options for vegetarians than other restaurants in town. For example, the Fabriano salad, made with a tangy vinaigrette and dappled with a bleu cheese crumble, is vegetarian and other menu items can be prepared without meat. If your family has a mix of omnivores and herbivores, this might be the perfect choice.

Junior Annie Horman reflected on a family dining memory at Backstage Bistro from the beginning of her freshman year. “Backstage Bistro is a cute little cafĂŠ with soulful live music and yummy food.

We ate outside at 10 p.m. and even though we were super rushed, we appreciated the great service and it was just good to sit down and eat with my mom and dad.�

The Backstage Bistro often features live jazz music on Saturday nights.

Another restaurant off of Main Street is T. Maccarone’s, located at 4 N. Colville St., which specializes in organic Italian food. Brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. offers a wide array of breakfast foods like eggs, crepes and pancakes as well as seasonal soups, salads and sandwiches. If you’re indecisive and have trouble picking from the dinner menu, the T. Mac and Cheese is absolutely to die for.

Junior Taylor Montminy had nothing but praise for T. Maccarone’s. “It has a really awesome ambiance with a warm atmosphere. My parents love checking out all the new restaurants in town but we always end up back there.�

For the more adventurous food-lover in your family, Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen, located at 125 E. Alder St., has a unique and tasty menu with entrees like duck bolognese, beef tongue gnocchi and leg of lamb. Like many restaurants in town, Saffron strives to use seasonal, locally grown produce, but its Mediterraneanstyle cuisine sets it apart. Each dish is not only plated beautifully, but is also bursting with flavor. “The restaurant is a little cramped because the room is so small but the food is really good. We shared the flatbread, which I definitely recommend,� said junior Kristine Unkrich about her Saffron experience.

All of these restaurants guarantee fantastic dining and a memorable family dinner. Just remember to make your reservations early because these places are sure to fill up fast!

Backstage Bistro: call 509-526-0690 for reservations, www.backstage-bistro.com T. Maccarone’s: 509-522-4776, www. tmaccarones.com Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen: 509-525-2112, www.saffronmediterraneankitchen.com

Winery Name

Address

Phone

Hours

Tasting Fee

Recommendation

Amavi Cellars

635 N. 13th Ave.

509-525-3541

Fri, Sat, Sun 11-5

$5, waived with purchase

2007 Syrah

Ash Hollow

14 N. 2nd Ave.

509-529-7565

Fri 11-5, Sat 5-7

$5 + $3 for reserves, waived with purchase

2006 Syrah

Beresan

4169 Pepper Bridge Rd.

509-522-9912

Fri, Sat 11-2

$5, waived with purchase

2006 Semillon

Bergevin Lane Vineyards

1215 W. Poplar St.

509-526-4300

Fri, Sat, 11-4; Sun noon-4

$5, waived with purchase

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon

Buty Winery

535 E. Cessna Ave.

509-527-0901

Fri, Sat 11-4

$5, waived with purchase

2006 Red Blend

Canoe Ridge Winery

1102 W. Cherry St.

509-527-0885

Fri, Sat, Sun 11-5

$5, waived with purchase

2006 Reserve Merlot

Cougar Crest Winery

50 Frenchtown Rd.

509-529-5980

Fri, Sat, Sun 10-5

$5, waived with purchase

2005 Anniversary Cuvee

DaMa Wines

45 E. Main St.

509-520-9687

Fri, Sat 11-6; Sun 11-2

$5, waived with purchase

2007 Cowgirl Blend

Dunham Cellars

150 E. Boeing Ave.

509-529-4685

Fri, Sat, Sun 11-4

$5, waived with purchase

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon

Dusted Valley Vintners

1248 Old Milton Hwy.

509-525-1337

Fri, Sat, Sun noon-5

$5, waived with purchase

2007 Stained Tooth Syrah

Elegante Cellars

839 C St.

509-525-9129

Fri, Sat, Sun 10-5

NO FEE

2007 San Giovese

Forferon Cellars

33 W. Birch St.

509-522-9463

Fri, Sat, Sun 11-4

NO FEE; Reserves $5, waived with purchase

2005 Zinfandel

Fort Walla Walla Cellars

1383 Barleen Dr.

509-520-1095

Fri, Sat, Sun 10-4:30

$5, waived with purchase

2005 Reserve Bordeaux Blend

Isenhower Cellars

3471 Pranger Rd.

509-526-896

Fri 10-4; Sat 11-5

$5, waived with purchase

2007 Road Less Traveled Cabernet Franc

K Vintners

820 Mill Creek Rd.

509-526-5230

Fri noon-5; Sat 10-5; Sun 10-3

$5, waived with purchase

2007 The Deal Syrah

Lowden Hills Winery

1401 W. Pine St.

509-527-1040

Fri 1-5; Sat 10:30-5; Sun noon-4

NO FEE

---

Northstar Winery

1736 JB George Rd.

509-529-0948

Fri, Sat 10-4; Sun 11-4

NO FEE and 15% discount with Whitman ID

2000 Library Wine

Patit Creek Cellars

325 A St.

509-522-4684

Fri, Sat 11-5; Sun 11-4

$5, waived with purchase

---

Pepper Bridge Winery

1704 JB George Rd.

509-525-6502

Fri, Sat, Sun 10-4

$8, waived with purchase

2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

Reininger Winery

5858 W. Hwy 12

509-522-1994

Fri, Sat, Sun 10-6

$5, waived with purchase

2003 Cima Blend

Sapolil Cellars

15 E. Main St.

509-520-5258

Fri, Sat, Sun 1-7

$2, waived with purchase

2007 Syrah

Saviah Cellars

1079 JB George Rd.

509-520-5166

Fri, Sat, Sun 10-5

NO FEE

2006 Big Sky Cuvee

Seven Hills Winery

212 N. 3rd Ave.

509-529-7198

Fri, Sat 10-4

$5, waived with purchase

2007 Ciel du Cheval Red Mountain Blend

Spring Valley Vineyards

18 N. 2nd Ave.

509-525-1506

Fri, Sat 10-6; Sun 11-4

NO FEE and 15% discount with Whitman ID

2006 Uriah Merlot Blend

Tamarack Cellars

700 C St.

509-526-3533

Fri noon-4; Sat, Sun 10-4

$5, waived with purchase

2007 Cabernet Franc

Three Rivers Winery

5641 W. Hwy. 12

509-526-9463

Fri, Sat, Sun 10-5

$5, $10 for reserves, waived with purchase

2006 Malbec-Merlot Blend

Trust Cellars

1050 Merlot Dr.

509-529-4511

Fri, Sun 11-4; Sat 11-5

$5, waived with purchase

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon

Va Piano Vineyards

1793 JB George Rd.

509-529-0900

Fri, Sat, Sun 11-5

$5, waived with purchase

2007 Syrah

Waterbrook Winery

10518 W. Hwy. 12

509-522-1262

Fri, Sat 10-8; Sun 10-6

NO FEE

2005 Meritage Blend

Whitman Cellars

1015 W. Pine St.

509-529-1142

Fri, Sat, Sun 11-5

$5, waived with purchase

2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

Humor

The Pioneer ISSUE 7 OCT. 22, 2009 Page 6

Weird things to do in a sauna: t Ice cream social t Bring in a pound and a half of candy corn that you have nibbled all of the tips off and then offer it to others in the sauna before saying, “Oh no! This candy corn has no tips!” t Start a sit-in to bring back YakBaks t Drag a desk covered in some files, office clutter, a fax machine and a Newton’s Cradle desk ornament into the sauna and wait for people to come in so you can say, “You’re late for your interview.” t Bring a prospie! t Break up t Slumber party! t Bring your five-year-old cousin and say, “Cousin, this miasmic portal is where Sesame Street characters come to die.”

The Backpage Presents:

Jean-Marc “Cirrus” Davenport, art major extraordinaire “I am inspired by the raging requiem of the human existence, the flippant frailty of our porcine passivity and, of course, the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Roald Dahl.”

For the benefit of the “ignorati,” Davenport presents a series of captions of his newest performance art piece,

Awkward gestures that riddle the human realm

The “I’m Dating Your Ex” Finger Guns and Wink

The Post-Finger-Banging a Dude on a Dark Bridge Fist Bump

The “Yes, That is My Erection” Doff of the Cap

The Check-Out Line Non-MutualGrind

NEXT W EEK IN HUMOR The Best Traps on Campus with Chuck Cleveland Famous Balloon Hoaxes Throughout History (Hindenburg is on the list) World’s Fattest Babies

PHOTOS BY GALEN COBB The “Hey, Mom and Dad, I’m Pregnant” Salute

The Post-Coital Handshake

Missed Connections Lyman Dining Hall – M4W – 18

on the bench in front of Jewett. I feel like we’re from different worlds, similar to the main love interests in “Titanic.” Maybe I can “paint” you wearing a “necklace” sometime. I could (and will) continue to watch you in silence, or—if you’re willing to ditch your jock friends—we can make this real by watching my copy of “The Royal Tennenbaums” (Criterion Collection).

Sherwood Climbing Wall – M4W – 20

Library – M4W – 21

I saw you eating your boca burger and reading “The Odyssey” (by Homer). I was wearing Birkenstocks, athletic shorts and a Whitman hoodie. I think you were with your boyfriend.

I love Homer. Did you know he was blind? Crazy! If you will be my Circe, I will be your Odysseus. Please send photograph for confirmation.

Oh my god, you are agile. Me: chalked hands. You: free climbing on the wall behind me. I think we talked once at an Ultimate party. You are a geo major, right? Maybe we can run (or climb) into each other on purpose.

I’d love to belay you before winter break.

Ankeny Field – M4W – 22

You were playing Ultimate Frisbee in your sports bra last Saturday afternoon. I was the guy smoking cigarettes

We were both pulling an all-nighter.

I ran out of work to do around 3 a.m., but I stayed for the rest of the night just to look at you. You might remember me as the guy sitting across the quiet room looking at you. I’d like to write a paper about your eyes; you have the biggest boobs I have ever seen. You should come over and sign my book sometime, or if you want something more discreet I’ll be on the fourth floor of the library tomorrow at 4 a.m. ;)

Sigma Chi – M4M – 19

Bro. You were the bro with the backwards baseball cap, cargo shorts and muscle-T. I was the bro shotgunning beers with the freshmen pledges. We played a game of beer pong and you totally cleaned my clock. I respect you a lot for that, bro. Let’s bro out sometime. Or fuck.

Your Off-Campus House – W4M – 18

Remember me? We hooked up last night after the Cat Party. I think you are a senior. I had to leave early—as you suggested—to write an Encounters paper. It was nice sleeping in a bed larger than twin-sized; maybe we can do it again sometime. Also, I left my phone and ID card somewhere in your room last night—I really need to get both of those back. We have class together on Tuesdays and Thursdays; maybe I could get those from you then. Accept my friend request on Facebook if you’re interested!

2009 Teen Sophie’s Choice Awards: Bittersweet…....................................................................page 6 Astronaut-rock star “not as cool as everyone thinks,” says ex-boyfriend of astronaut-rock star’s wife.........page 9 Elephant girl takes porn industry by storm …...................................................................page 31 1/3

Aaron Aguilar, Jazmin Lopez and Diana Madriz, of Club Latino!

From the desk of ASWC Memo to Club Latino:

While reviewing your request to fund activities for your club over the coming semester, I had a few thoughts regarding the nature of your events.

In the spirit of encouraging diversity, I feel that Club Latino’s celebration of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the “Cinco de Mayo” festival (to be held on the fifth of May), could perhaps do more to represent Latino culture.

Looking over the planned events, I see that it mostly involves musical acts, cake and something called “tamales.” I’m not exactly sure what a tamale is, but it sounds very spicy.

I suggest that instead you choose a food that all students can recognize as diverse. Perhaps burritos? Quesadillas? Does Taco Bell cater?

Let’s not mince words. Your club is essential to promoting diversity at Whitman. Why are you hiding your

diversity? We can’t afford to waste funds on non-diverse activities. And if you’re non-diverse, you’re anti-diverse. Why are you anti-diversity?

Having taken Alternative Core one and a half times, I went ahead and drew up a list of things you can do to really kick your diversity up a notch: t Mexican-American War-themed water balloon fight t International Burrito Festival (featuring burritos from around the world) t Marc Anthony children’s choir tribute t Spanish pronunciation workshop taught by Dora the Explorer t Telemundo viewing exploration t Spanish language soap opera themed party (bring makeup and a gun!) t Crêpe party

t Battle Star Galactica Marathon, because I’m 80 percent sure Admiral Adama is Latino, which brings up all sorts of questions about whether or not Lee Adama was adopted, but I digress.

I really think you guys can do this.

I believe in you.

Also, one more thing. I love piñatas. I can still remember my first piñata party—whoo boy—and I have been passionately interested in your culture ever since. If there are two things this campus could use more of, it’s piñatas and diversity.

Diversely yours, Abe Johnson ASWC Executive Public Representation Chair

EMILY BASHAM, GALEN COBB, NADIM DAMLUJI, HELEN JENNE, ALEX KERR, SIMI SINGH AND FINN STRALEY FEATURING AARON AGUILAR, JAZMIN LOPEZ AND DIANA MADRIZ. PROPS TO G. FOX AND SPOON.

The Breakup High-Five

Opinion

The Pioneer ISSUE 7 OCT. 22, 2009 Page 7

Calling all Whitties: Buy, then vote, American Maybe I’m just naive. Maybe it’s the idealist in me. Maybe the American worker still looms too large in my youthful imagination.

ALEX POTTER But whatColumnist ever it is . . . I had to know.

Do I own a single piece of clothing made in America? No. I don’t. And that is eating me.

Why do I care?

Because the American worker is dying and isn’t simply being “reeducated” for “high-tech” jobs. Just look at the unemployment rate today. If you include workers who have stopped looking for work or taken part-time jobs, it isn’t nine percent of Americans who are real-

istically “unemployed”—it’s 17 percent.

Those levels don’t indicate a recession.

They indicate a depression.

I don’t want to seem like one of those people who longs for the days when one third of all working Americans stood on an assembly line, but the fact is the current global economy is not working out for many, many working Americans.

I’m not writing to “prove” this point.

Most Whitties, due to their liberal leanings, are already sympathetic to working-class claims. Instead, what I’m urging is an alliance between the Right (or at least some of it) and the Left in support of the American worker.

When I realized I didn’t own a single piece of clothing made in America, I wanted to do something about it. I decided that jeans, a quintessential American article of clothing, would be an easy place to start looking for an Americanmade alternative. I was wrong.

After finding out that Carhartt is clos-

ing its last remaining American factory and staring at a list of about five other possible manufacturers, I basically narrowed it down to two. I could buy either Texas Jeans of North Carolina or Certified Jeans of Seattle.

What immediately struck me was the marketing of these two American-made brands.

Texas Jeans emphasizes the patriotism and the pride that comes with buying American. Their online ad declares, “It’s All About Pride.” Needless to say, it’s to conservative, rural and working class Americans that this jeans company markets. A pair of Texas Jeans costs $30.

Wal-Mart be damned.

This constituency’s opposition to exporting American jobs derives from a distinctively “America first” ideology: American jobs in economics, American lives in foreign policy, the American citizen in immigration and the American taxpayer in domestic politics.

Climate change inaction too costly

LISA CURTIS Columnist

There’s a small office on Capitol Hill that is playing a major role in determining whether Americans will have affordable health care or more renewable energy in

the coming year.

The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan body in charge of providing economic data to Congress, has an incredible amount of power over our political system.

In June, this office released a report on the Affordable Health Choices Act showing that enacting the proposal would increase the deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade and would insure fewer than half of the 46 million uninsured Americans. Republicans had a field day with charges that “Obamacare” would break the treasury while failing to provide insurance.

But on Oct. 7, the budget office released a report on another bill, America’s Healthy Future Act, saying that it would cut the deficit by $81 billion and drop the number of non-elderly uninsured Americans by 29 million over 10 years.

This quickly led to the stubborn Senate Finance Committee finally approving America’s Healthy Future Act, a bill that doesn’t include the public option but does provide more coverage through an expansion of Medicaid, subsidized tax credits, insurance market reforms and requiring employers to provide coverage.

Now that it looks like we might actually get health care reform passed, let’s turn our attention to this little problem called global climate change. The debate over health care has put climate legislation on a bit of a hiatus while a debate over the costs of climate legislation continues in the background.

In early June, the budget office found that under the American Clean Energy and Security Act, greenhouse gas emissions would be cut nearly 12 percent by 2020, generate 1.7 million jobs and cost the average household 48 cents per day.

Republicans changed their tune, or at least, adjusted their talking points. Then on June 26, the act squeezed by the house in a 219-212 vote.

Now everyone’s waiting on the Senate’s bill, which goes even further than the energy and security

act, proposing to cut carbon emissions 20 percent by 2020. Recently, however, the Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf sparked headlines when he testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that legislation limiting greenhouse gases was likely to lead to job loss.

The budget office came up with a new estimate, saying that the energy and security act (a template for the Senate bill) would reduce gross domestic product by up to 0.75 percent by 2020 and 3.5 percent by 2050.

This new estimate complicates the chance of passing climate legislation anytime soon.

Most people acknowledge that if the United States is going to be taken seriously at the major international climate conference in Copenhagen, it needs to pass strong domestic climate legislation before December.

Without that, it will be difficult for U.S. negotiators to work with rapidly industrializing countries like India and China, who strongly believe that fully industrialized countries need to take the lead on solving the problem that they’ve had the biggest role in creating.

At the same time, it’s hard to believe that the budget office’s new estimate truly covers all of the costs. There are major costs to inaction: the budget office itself estimates that rising temperatures could reduce our GDP by three percent by 2100.

The Stern Report from World Bank economist Nicholas Stern in 2006 took a much more pessimistic view, estimating that global warming will cost the world up to $7 trillion unless it is tackled within a decade. Stern also warned that unchecked climate change would turn 200 million people into refugees, leading to the largest migration in modern history as homes are lost to drought or floods.

More recently, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) wrote a joint op-ed in the New York Times, refusing the argument that climate legislation is doomed to fail. They addressed hidden costs, such as the threat that climate change and continued dependence on foreign oil pose to national security, and the cost of sacrificing clean-tech jobs to countries like India and China.

Both sides of the debate acknowledge that the costs are great, no matter how you run numbers. While proposing to add to the $1.4 trillion deficit seems insane, not acting on a problem that threatens the stability of the world population isn’t exactly smart either. Congress needs to acknowledge that while there might be a cost in the short-term as our country adjusts to a cap and trade system, in the long-term, it’s an action we can’t afford not to take.

Lisa Curtis is a senior environmental-politics major. She is Whitman’s Sustainability Coordinator.

JOHNSON

Certified Jeans markets to a different demographic. Their slogan is “world protector” jeans, not America protector.

Certified’s first point on their Web site is that all of their materials are organic.

Their second point is that they aren’t sold in evil environment-destroying malls. Last, their jeans are made in the U.S. but with the qualifier of “under U.S. labor laws” to remind you that this isn’t about protecting American jobs but about preventing labor abuses abroad.

There is no doubt that environmental and social justice issues are the primary marketing tools of Certified Jeans.

A pair of Certified Jeans costs about $80. So yes, Seattle shopper-girl, you can get two or three in exchange for those True Religions you’re wearing and maybe even feel a little less guilty when deciding on your volunteering outfit.

But unlike in business, where a single corporation might form multiple brands to target specific consumer bases, poli-

tics is about the convergence of common interests to form coalitions.

I don’t care whether you want to buy American-made goods for environmental, social justice or “America first” reasons. They are all equally valid insofar as buying American really does further all of those interests.

Results are what matter. Votes are what matter.

So I’m calling on all consumers who would buy Texas Jeans or Certified Jeans to cast, as citizens, the same vote. Who will receive that vote, who will unite these uniquely similar yet culturally divided interest groups, is yet to be seen.

I will venture to say, however, that it won’t be the Republican Party any time soon. In the meantime I plan on buying a pair of jeans from both Certified Jeans and Texas Jeans once I get a real job.

Alex Potter is a senior double-majoring in politics and Asian studies.

Breaking the Bubble:

6HOÀVK VHUYLFH

“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

- Lilla Watson Wa t s o n’s formulation seems to me the general perception of communit y service— purely selfless, altruistic actions done MATT MANLEY out of selfColumnist s a c r i f i c e to benefit others.

I’m not above this delusion myself—I’ve also been conditioned to think of the “service mind set” as an ivory tower of goodwill.

I’ve realized, however, that this is an untenable description of why we (or at least I) do service. Call it a confession, call it what you will, but I need to say it plainly: my motives for service are far from the “perfect” altruism stated above.

Being completely selfless leads to burnout, breakdown and a disconnection of self from the object of one’s labors. Having personal investment, and yes, even that oftreviled quality self-interest will make for better volunteers more consistently committed to their cause.

Let me explain this further: I’m trying to get at the crux of the quote above

by Watson, an Australian aboriginal activist and intellectual. What Watson so aptly observes is that pure charity, especially when one is physically and emotionally disconnected from the beneficiaries, is not an effective mode of bringing about the good.

Help offered without the personal investment of the benefactor inscribes hegemony and a needy/needed dichotomy. Watson’s quote is a powerful

statement against those who would try to “help” her people, to reach down from an ivory tower and pull them into the “civilized” world.

To understand Watson’s quote and the nature of service, we must understand that “pure” service is born out of compassion and relation. What are the motivations behind a relationship?

There is common love, common struggle, common encouragement.

Serving and understanding each other is a natural extension of respect for

one another’s humanity.

To make the world a better place, we don’t have to forgo all semblance of self. We must understand that our “liberation is bound up” with each other.

When we mentor a child, he’s more likely to succeed in school, live a happier life and one day exhibit the same compassion and sense of regard to others that was once showed him. This is service in microcosm; to help others, but also to invest yourself in what concerns you.

This brand of service mind-set is what makes you feel alive and allows you to exercise your own core values.

In doing less, we are not true to ourselves.

Matt Manley is a junior English major. He coordinates the Adopt-A-Grandparent program in the Community Service office.

LOOS-DIALLO

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Editor,

This semester, ASWC representatives will make important decisions that effect students’ Whitman experience. ASWC reps need to hear from students at the Town Hall this Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Reid Ballroom!

The Town Hall is an open forum for all Whitman students, and one way ASWC is attempting to better gauge student interests. Please come voice your opinion on three major issues before participating in our open forum.

These three issues will be on the agenda: Changing the Academic Dishonesty Policy: ASWC representatives have learned that Whitman’s current policy on plagiarism has caused unnecessary strife in students’ and professors’ lives. At the Town Hall, ASWC reps will present some of the troubling stories caused by the rigid

plagerism policy—which requires a failing grade even for honest mistakes—and ask students for input on crafting a new policy.

GoPrint and printer accessibility: The Whitman community has seen a massive overhaul of the printing system in the last two years. The GoPrint system now charges students for printing in order to eliminate paper waste and cut down school costs. A representative from WCTS will be at the Town Hall to discuss the new system and respond to any questions, comments, or concerns. Furthermore, at ASWC we are concerned with students’ ability to easily access printers around campus. ASWC reps have made it their goal to increase printer accessibility, and want to know where students need new printers most.

The Alternative Voices Distribution Requirement: Whitman students are cur-

rently required to fulfill the AV Requirement. However, there has been no comprehensive, written account of the goals of the requirement or the kinds of classes that should count for it. This year, the General Studies Committee has drafted such a document and hopes to implement it for the 2010-2011 academic year.

The ASWC reps will present their work on the issue, and hope for student input on the future of AV. In the coming months, ASWC will take action on each of these issues and the campus community will be affected by the choices student representatives make.

That’s why we want to hear from lots of students this Thursday at the Town Hall!

- Russ Caditz-Peck ‘10, ASWC Communications Director - Will Canine ‘10, ASWC Student Advocacy Coordinator

OPINION

8

October 22, 2009

/HW·V WDON FODVV $UH \RX ZKDW \RXU SDUHQWV JDYH \RX" There are lots of things you and I don’t deserve: our height, our race and our class.

Obviously, we didn’t choose how tall we are or the pigments in our skin. Less GARY WANG obviously, we Columnist didn’t choose our socioeconomic statuses either.

Surely, none of us chose our parents before we were born. And largely, our parents have given us our class status. Now, given that most of us are about 20-years-old and probably have not earned enough money

to meaningfully afford everything we have (e.g. Whitman tuition), the only way we have gotten where we are, have what we have and go to school where we do has been on someone else’s dime.

Think of it this way: if you plagiarize, you fail because the paper you turned in doesn’t reflect your work. The paper’s not a reflection of your innate abilities, choices and effort; it’s taking someone else’s work and pretending it’s your own.

Our class, similarly, is a gift freely given that has significantly influenced our lives.

Let’s look at skiing, a paradigmatic example for us Whitties who love the outdoors.

Skiing is related to geography and socioeconomic status; plain and simple, it can be expensive. Basketball? Not so much. Now guess which is more popular worldwide.

I’m not suggesting skiing is less of a sport than basketball, or that skiing, because it’s

more expensive, is morally wrong. My point is that socioeconomic background influences what kind of lives we live, as a whole, down to where we “summer,” down to if we could afford test-prep services in high school and down to what college we all attend now.

If this is so, then what part of my life, or your life for that matter, is truly yours?

And what part is the product of our parents’ hard work or what they’ve inherited?

In America, this discussion is particularly hard to have openly because any mention of the word “class” is tainted with ideas of “communism.”

But who are we kidding? According to an article in the Financial Times, the top one percent got 23.5 percent of the total income Americans earned in 2007. A study saying that the top 0.01 percent of Americans earned six percent of America’s

total income in that same year was cited by Paul Krugman in a recent New York Times blog.

If class determines what kind of lives we live, and the gap between classes in America is widening, then are Americans increasingly living wholly different kinds of lives? At what point do two people born in the same country end up having little in common by way of interests, shared communities and culture? What’s worse is that America falls victim to a particular myth, inherited from the Puritans, that says we hard-working Americans deserve everything our work gets us.

But if we start out at different rungs on the ladder, then we’re going to end up at different places even if we all work equally hard. This is why there’s affirmative action for race and why there should be more affirmative action for class.

Individually, we have to take a step back and look at each aspect of our lives and differentiate, if at all possible, aspects of ourselves that are not only possible but probable because of circumstances outside our control like race and class. Otherwise, can we truly say the lives we live are ours, rather than just an inevitable outcome of a set of facts like where we were born and our race and class?

Recognizing the gifts we’ve been given doesn’t entail a wholesale rejection of those very gifts. It exposes us to the contingencies underlying all that we have. If we recognize that what is ours could very well have been otherwise, then is it possible to rescue the archaic notions of humility and grace from the dust bin of humanism?

Gary Wang is a junior political philosophy major.

T ECH T IME

Experiment: Student life using only Firefox Earlier this year, Google hired several student interns to work with the team behind Google Docs, its free internet collaboration suite, with feaBLAIR FRANK tures similar Columnist to Microsoft’s Office and Apple’s iWork. The interns’ goal was to create a Docs suite that fits better in a student’s workflow.

When I read about this, I thought: would it be possible to live solely on the

Internet for an entire week? So, I tried it: No desktop applications for me, save for Mozilla’s open-source Web browser, Firefox, my personal favorite. On a dark Sunday evening, I laid out some ground rules for myself.

1. No use of desktop applications, except for Firefox. That meant no iTunes, no Skype, no exceptions.

2. For all documents, spreadsheets and presentations, I must use Google Docs.

So, I started along my merry way that Monday, beginning with my Encounters class. Note-taking, most notably outlining, in Google Docs is a chore. I finally took to manually tabbing everything over without bullet points to avoid dealing with the nuisance. When it came time for me to go to chemistry, I was dreading the com-

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ILLUSTRATION

ing week.

That’s when Docs began to shine. We were discussing bonding in class, drawing diagrams, and I learned very quickly how easy it is to draw figures in Google’s own diagram-drawing system, built just for Docs. Then Firefox crashed. I was beside myself. I worked hard on those drawings and didn’t want to lose them. Thankfully, Docs auto-saves every minute. I didn’t lose any data and I was able to pick back up right where I left off. Crisis averted.

When it came time to send Professor Miles my discussion paper for ‘Church and State in American History,’ Docs was a boon. Google makes it incredibly easy to e-mail a document to someone in Microsoft’s .doc format. As a test, I set up offline mode using Google Gears and turned off

my Wi-Fi. I was able to make a new document for my class notes, write in it, save it and upload it to the web when I turned my Wi-Fi back on.

When it came time to work on a paper, I nearly broke my ground rules. Docs is great as a word processor, but it’s really bad at isolating you from the Internet. I typically use Vim or Hog Bay Software’s Writeroom for writing papers because of their bare bones approach to text editing and the ability to isolate myself from the Internet, where I tend to get lost in all sorts of timewasters.

Unfortunately, due to its online nature, Docs doesn’t allow me to shut off all distractions. I had to fight with my inner procrastinator tooth and nail before I finally got the paper done.

All in all, my experience in working on the Web was positive, especially when it came to Google Docs. That said, there’s one fatal weakness of that whole system: Google.

Not saving documents on your computer means that you’re completely at the mercy of Google’s servers. If, heaven forbid, the Docs servers were to crash, there would be no way to access your data until they came back up again, which would be unfortunate if you were counting on them to write a paper, or study for a test. However, Docs is so convenient and easy to use that it might be worth the risk.

Blair Frank is a first-year chemistry major. The past three summers, he was an editorial intern at Macworld.

Senate must pass health care Remember the debate over President Obama’s health care plan?

Not long ago people were bringing guns to town JAMES SLEDD hall meetings Columnist where shouting and jeering dominated civilized conversation.

Although the furor over health care may have died down—the newspapers aren’t filled with pictures of screaming, finger-pointing Tea Partiers—the debate is far from over. On Oct. 13, the Senate Finance Committee, led by Montana senator Max Baucus, passed its version of a health care reform bill.

Although imperfect, the Finance Committee bill contains meaningful reforms. The Senate leadership should work to improve the bill by including some form of a public health care plan, but if they cannot, it still must pass.

Before moving to a vote on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Harry Reid must meld the Finance Committee bill with a more liberal health care bill passed earlier this year by the Senate Health Committee.

The Finance Committee version of health care reform has divided Democrats. The bill does not contain the

so-called public option, a government-run health care plan designed to lower premiums. Instead, the Finance Committee bill provides for non-profit health cooperatives.

Many progressive Democrats insist that they won’t vote for any bill that doesn’t contain a public option. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), insisted that improvements must be made to the Finance Committee bill on the Senate floor. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) warned that the bill “is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough.”

Meanwhile, Republicans keep railing against all versions. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) claimed that the bill will “raise taxes significantly and it’s going to raise them on a lot of average Americans.”

Ideally, health care reform would include a government-run public option.

A public option would be the best way to reduce health care costs and provide coverage for all Americans.

Although the Finance Committee bill lacks a public option, it includes many other needed reforms. The bill would provide subsidies for low-income Americans to purchase health care, prevent medical bankruptcies by capping health care expenses and prohibit insurance companies from cruelly denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

If the public option were included in

SONG a final Senate bill, it would not gather a single Republican vote and might not attract enough moderate Democrats to pass.

Thus, Senator Reid and the Democratic leadership should consider the so-called “trigger plan.”

The trigger plan wouldn’t initially include a public option, but if the insurance industry didn’t reduce average health care costs below a specific threshold, a public health plan would come into effect. The trigger option could satisfy both progressive demands and moderate calls for gradual reform.

Even if the Senate leadership is unable to include a trigger in the final bill, the Finance Committee bill must pass.

Committees have delivered momentous reform bills to both the House and Senate floors. We have come closer to meaningful health care reform than any point in the past forty years and we must not stop now.

James Sledd is a senior environmentalpolitics major.

Sam Alden, Kelly Douglas, Emily Johnson, Binta Loos-Diallo, Carrie Sloane, Jung Song, Kiley Wolff

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

BUSINESS

The Pio’s midterm check-in

Advertising Manager: Matt Solomon Finance Manager: Jordan Estes Advertising Associates: David Deming, Shellin Tran Advertising Designer: Brianna Jaro

EDITORIAL POLICY The Whitman College Pioneer is published under the auspices of the Associated Students of Whitman College. The purpose of The Pioneer is to provide pertinent, timely information and entertainment for Whitman students, alumni, faculty, staff and parents, as well as the Walla Walla community. In addition, The Pioneer strives to act as a catalyst and forum for communication within the Whitman community. To do so, The Pioneer publishes weekly Board Editorials. These opinion pieces reflect the views of The Pioneer, and not necessarily the views of each individual associated with the newspaper. The Pioneer welcomes letters to the Editor or any contradicting opinion pieces.

SUBMISSION POLICY Letters may be submitted to The Pioneer editors via e-mail at editors@whitmanpioneer. com; or sent to The Pioneer, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, 99362. All submissions must be received by 4 p.m. on Saturday prior to the week that they are intended to appear.

All submissions must be signed and may be cut for space and edited for journalistic style.

For information on advertising in or subscribing to The Pioneer, contact The Pioneer at business@whitmanpioneer.com.

Dear Readers, This semester, even more than most, has been a time of transition for The Pio. GILLIAN FREW We hired a Editor-in-Chief p r e d o m i nantly new staff of reporters, columnists, photographers, illustrators, production and business associates and even a few new editors, while welcoming back our core returning staff members. We switched from tabloid style to broadside. Our art director, junior Rebecca Fish, redesigned the entire template for how the paper is printed. We have a weekly news radio show. For the Back to School issue, we launched a brand new version of our Web site (www.whitmanpioneer.com), designed to be more

interactive and user-friendly by our Webmaster, senior Andrew Spittle, who also pioneered—no pun intended—our new online editing system.

Included in all of these transitions was my appointment as editor-in-chief and Kim Sommers’ as publisher, a process that began during the summer and was officially recognized by ASWC on Sunday, Oct. 18. Kim, who became editor-in-chief with senior Jamie Soukup in fall 2008, will continue to help guide The Pio in her current role while overseeing the burgeoning business side of the paper.

As editor-in-chief, I hope to do a lot of things in a relatively short period of time. Like most editors before me, I hope to expand and improve our coverage, but thanks in large part to their hard work I have the luxury of saying that we already have. For instance, we started the semester with an intent to focus more on community issues and the Whitman faculty, and I believe we’ve made significant inroads in pursuing both of those goals. The Opin-

ions section has also incorporated more diverse perspectives on topics ranging from twitter to valley transit. But don’t think we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

The Pio, like every college paper, has a constantly changing life cycle and finding the right approach is always a work in progress. There will always be production nights that seem like they never end, or literally don’t, and there will always be the occasional error in judgment—my biggest goal is for us to learn from our mistakes.

That said, our staff this semester has been phenomenal; to date, not a single reporter has quit the staff, and to everyone who’s ever signed up for a campus club or activity, you know how incredible that is (knock on wood).

To sum up this midterm check-in, we’re in a pretty good place—but we need to get better. Help us do so by attending our weekly meetings, held upstairs in Reid every Sunday at 7:30 p.m., commenting on our Web site or submitting a letter to the editor to editors@whitmanpioneer.com.

9

A&E

The Pioneer ISSUE 7 OCT. 22, 2009 Page 9

Theater department sets ‘R&J’ in skateboard culture

by CAITLIN HARDEE Staff Reporter Director Chris Petit is a man with a vision.

“You want to make that more of a struggle,” says Petit, assistant theater professor, to Lady Capulet, portrayed by sophomore Caitlin Goldie, as her husband, senior Spenser Meeks, pulls her away from her daughter’s still form.

At rehearsals for Whitman’s production of Romeo and Juliet, the cast and crew wrestled with details while I huddled in the back row with sophomore props technician Niccole Cluff and talked shop.

“I work closely with the set designer . . . The visuals [of this play] are going to be lovely. The staging is fantastic and the lighting is fantastic, which automatically makes it gorgeous,” Cluff said.

Piercing feedback screeched over the monitors, stunning everyone into momentary silence. The sound team dispatched someone to turn off the amps.

The work moved on. Scooting down the row, I found the actor playing Balthasar, first-year Yoni Evans, passing the dark minutes offstage. He offered more insight into the play’s gritty urban visuals.

“Along stage right, there’s going to be corrugated metal, which has already been spray-painted to look like urban graffiti. It’s trying to bring this undefined cultural [feeling] you find in places like Barcelona, places in Europe, big cities where there are gangs and a strong street culture,” said Evans.

These visuals spring from a holistic yet modern re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic, which updates the conflicts and tensions into a setting closer to our own experience of love and violence. The actors retain their American accents and the high-class Montague and Capulet families derive their power from gangs and organized crime rather than title.

“The Montagues’ young people— Benvolio, Balthasar, Romeo—they’re a skateboard gang. There’s going to be a lot of skateboard stuff. The Capulets are kind of a creepy, cultish gang,” Evans said.

Junior Anastasia Higham, Juliet, discussed the effects of the play’s modernization on its deep concepts and the contrast between modern and Elizabethan values.

“Religion is very important to these characters, in a way that is much more of Shakespeare’s time than of today,” she said. “Also the importance of vir-

BULLION Anastasia Higham ‘11 (right) plays Juliet opposite Lisa Mattson ‘10 as her nurse in the play’s first act.

ginity—these are not modern concepts and we’re not trying to make them that.

It’s another world. The modern youth violence is real, but it has this ancient feud that it’s coming from.”

Higham spoke enthusiastically about working with director Chris Petit.

“He’s great—I’ve been wanting to work with him for a long time. I’m taking two other classes from him, which is really helpful—an acting class and a movement class. And that really helped,” Higham said.

Higham also remarked that the character of Mercutio has been converted to a woman, an edgy role taken on by senior Lara Spengler.

“There’s a really different dynamic between Romeo and Mercutio. The idea is being in love with your best friend and him having no interest in you whatsoever. There’s also a whole lot of gender issues—[Tybalt] makes fun of me for being a woman and wanting to fight him, so it adds a whole new component,” Spengler said.

At the end of a lengthy rehearsal, director Chris Petit spoke about the over-

all challenges of the production.

“There are certain scenes that I cut; pages of ‘O woe is me’ that are difficult for a modern audience, so I guess the biggest challenge is keeping the story together, with the dramatic arc, and the modern values,” Petit said.

Petit also spoke to the dual nature of the play.

“And the play is a strange play; it’s a tragedy but it’s kind of also a comedy.

The story comes from what we could call a dime-store romance novel and what makes it have depth is Shakespeare’s language . . . I wanted to find a balance between having a show in two hours and keeping the story.”

I tried to wheedle more sneak peaks, but he was secretive.

“Come see the show,” Petit said with a smile.

ROMEO & JULIET Running from Thursday, Oct. 22 through Saturday, Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. in Harper Joy Theater.

Creektown Café: Satisfying, strong overall dining experience from page 1 not obscure the natural meatiness of the shellfish. It was certainly enough to rouse my appetite.

The juncture after appetizers gave the group of oenophiles an opportunity to ogle wines the and make a selection. Creektown’s wine list reflects its homey, comfortable ambiance and is especially strong in wines from the Walla Walla region and Washington wines generally. The restaurant rotates local selections on its wine list, so a return visit is likely to provide new gems to sample. With help from our server, we settled on the Walla Walla Vintners Merlot, whose intensity proved to be a great match for the variety of flavorful dishes we sampled. We also appreciated the fact that many of the wine list selections were available by the glass as well as the bottle, giving the opportunity to sample the local specialties in smaller quantity.

While the wines were sampled, our entrée sides of clam chowder ($4) and house salads ($6) were served. The soup, while lighter than many chowder recipes, had an enjoyably subtle spice and hearty nibbles of clam, red potatoes, bacon and celery in every spoonful. House salads also impressed; Walla Walla sweets were combined with soft feta, frisée, red and yellow halved pear tomatoes and a bed of romaine lettuce to create the freshest course of the eve-

ning.

Next came the moment we had all been awaiting—entrée arrival. The earlier run-in with the Café’s scallops had led me to order the seared prawns and scallops ($27) and my antipasto research proved fruitful. A generous amount of scallops and prawns were served, arrayed in a Pernod-cream sauce circle around a central tower of fried potato cake, topped with thinly-

The pie’s eponymous fruit superceded all my previous notions of the huckleberry. sliced honey crisp apple. While this round of scallops was a fraction underdone for my taste and the amount of potato was more than necessary for the dish, the flavor combination of the velvet-rich sauce and potato crunch were agreeably married to the seafood by the sweet-tart honeycrisps.

All of the entrée portions were substantial, especially for a restaurant of Creektown’s caliber, and two of my party generously offered to share some of their dish. To my right, I sampled the cook’s special, sturgeon served with saffron broth and root vegetables ($26).

Its sauce had a strong seafood character, but stopped short of overpowering the firm, succulent fish. On the left I was offered the roasted pork shoulder paella with brussel sprouts ($27). This dish was a total surprise. If sprouts still send a juvenescent tremor through your stomach, then this dish may well prove their redemption: featuring smoky-sweet pork, well-textured tomato prawn rice, and cippolini onions, the bitter tang of the feared green balanced figured perfectly into the paella’s overall savor and consistency.

Dessert seemed for a moment out of the question, but the list of toothsome confections offered by our server was too much for our loosened willpower. My huckleberry icebox pie was adequate for sharing, but I did so only grudgingly. Prettily garnished with heavy cream and a halved fig, the pie’s eponymous fruit superseded all my previous notions of the huckleberry. I guessed even before Kline told me that they were picked locally.

Needless to say, I left stuffed. The atmosphere, helpful staff, and excellent food of Creektown Café completely won over my group. From seating, it was obvious to us that Creektown does not cast itself as an ivory tower of cuisine; rather, it is a place where food is a means and an end. Enjoyment of your dining evening is paramount—and virtually guaranteed.

Music video meltdown

by MIKE SADO Contributing Reporter Jay Sean, “Down (feat. Lil’ Wayne)” The way it used to be: Bumping, grinding and sweating in your mansion. If you’re Jay Sean, you have accomplished one great thing during your U.S. invasion: you have finally dethroned the Black Eyed Peas and their awful “feelings” (L’chaim!). You look good and feel great. You can even summon balls of light from your fingers, and your entire world looks like it was filmed through a filter that screams, “Wet dream!”

You’re also British. We didn’t react so well to Robbie Williams (“Too British and possibly gay,” we said in our Texan drawls before returning to our tea parties and death penalty pretty parties). We don’t quite know who you are. Are you Justin Timberlake? Chris Brown? Usher?

Cobra Starship, “Good Girls Go Bad (feat.

Leighton Meester)” The way it is now: Sneaking into clubs located in the basement of your local city deli. This is the kind of thing that would make Glenn Beck cry on television in front of 50 bajillion people every night: “Why are the kids dancing in the basement of delis? Where are the trendy dance clubs for real, ordinary Americans?” Then Beck will blame it on Barack Hussein X’s trendy, arugula-flavored, crypto-Muslim-commie plot to destroy America before drawing an elaborate flow chart with his feces.

Cobra Starship is not Glenn Beck, but if they ever made a flow chart for this song, it would contain two bubbles: “Good girls?” → “We make ‘em go bad.”

Shakira, “She-Wolf ” The way it should be: Writhing in ecstasy on the dance floor. Your new girlfriend is somewhat, maybe, possibly strange. She speaks in tongues, pants wildly and whenever you move close to her she growls back at you. Sometimes you’ll ask her mundane things, and she’ll just howl at you (e.g. “Honey, pass me my Mojito.” “A-ROO!”).

Tonight’s theme is: patriarchal oppression. “Wait,” you think, “isn’t that the theme every night?” She thinks you treat her like a “coffee machine in an office.” “That is the stupidest thing anyone has said to me,” you think, but you bite your tongue in fear that she’ll rip it out and belly dance all over it.

“Is this love, or is it Memorex?” Just when you think you hate her, you love her all over again. “Yes,” you want to say, “I do have it in me. There is— indeed—a she-wolf living inside me.

I’m gonna let it out. I’m gonna let it

“So nondescript,” we whine. “Can you turn on the auto-tune, please?”

“No, no!” You protest. “Please don’t leave! I have buckets of champagne, and just look at my beautiful man-nips!” Then you take out your pocket Lil’ Wayne because you think we’ll love it when you whip him out. (No homo.) Whoops! We don’t like him. Guess it’s back to chilly man-nips and chipping Cheerios for you.

Especially when it’s obligatory “bad girl” Blair Waldorf (What is this “Leighton Meester”?) cuffing hipsters while wearing pumps. This is terrible, somehow! Questions: Is it acceptable to wear Prada while conducting a raid? Is it okay to sing “I know your type, boy, you’re dangerous / You’re that guy I’d be stupid to trust / But just one night couldn’t be so wrong / You make me wanna lose control”? Doesn’t it mean you’re a “good girl” if you’re on the side of the law? Is “Leighton Meester” an actress or a dish commonly ordered in a Latvian restaurant?

I don’t know! Perhaps this video is a pitch for the CW’s Gossip Girl spin-off, “Vice is Nice, But . . . You Know,” wherein socialite Waldorf joins the police force and encounters working-class struggles while juggling her upper-class reputation. Dan Humphrey can be her partner, and he will ask her to read his horrible Jay McInerney fan fiction during every crime scene (Blair will just scoff, and tell him to avoid getting any crime scene evidence on her Manolos). At the end of each episode, Blair learns an important lesson and concludes, “I may not be GOOD girl, but at least I’m not a BAD cop.” And then she arrests some Hot Topic Hipsters. And giggles.

out, dammit!” And so you do, except you’re not that flexible, and you’re not that great at dancing. In fact, you look like you’re caught in a blender. You are Woody Allen on the dance floor. Still, your girlfriend is proud. You have gone from square, alpha male to fierce, independent woman in one night. Because she loves you, she rips out your heart and eats it. You just smile with a tear in your eye and say, “That’s my little she-wolf.”

PIO PICKS Each Thursday, The Pioneer highlights three events happening over the weekend on campus or in Walla Walla. Here are this week’s picks:

so far this year. To hear a sample of Jazz Ensemble II performing their piece, go to whitmanpioneer.com and click on A&E. Friday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m., Cordiner Hall. Free.

ROMEO AND JULIET See “Theater department defines cliches in new production,” page 9. The theater department sets Shakespeare’s classic tragedy in a neo-punk, skateboarding culture.

All shows are in the Harper Joy Theater. Free with a Whitman theater pass, though many shows are already sold out because of higher demand during family weekend.

Show times are Thursday to Saturday, Oct. 22 to 24 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 25 at 2 p.m.

FALL SAMPLER CONCERT Each year, the music department’s various groups and ensembles collaborate for this family weekend concert. Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Jazz Ensembles, Chorale and Chamber Singers will all take the stage, showcasing the various pieces they’ve worked on

FACULTY RECITAL FOR CELLO AND PIANO Dr. Edward Dixon, cello, and Dr. Eugene Flemm, piano, will perform together for the first time since 1987 when they performed at the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. Dr. Flemm is of the music faculty of Clearwater Christian College in Tampa, Florida. The duo, who have been friends since they attended graduate school together at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music in the early 1980s, will also be playing at Walla Walla University and Eastern Oregon University. Dr. Dixon has been on the Whitman College music faculty since 1990. Sunday, Oct. 25 at 3:30 p.m. in Chism Recital Hall. Free.

compiled by CONNOR GUY A&E Editor

A&E

October 22, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

‘Wild Things’ shine in Jonze’s adaptation

by BECQUER MEDAK-SEGUIN Movie Reviewer To call Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are� the best possible cinematic adaptation of any children’s book—or any book for that matter—anywhere in the entire world would not even begin to afford it the unprecedented adulation, by children and adults alike, that it deserves.

The film, based on Maurice Sendak’s 1963 book of the same name, obligates an inescapable visceral empathy from its first scene until its last. Between these scenes lies a story of a young boy whose rampant and vivid imagination has finally run wild as he is transported seamlessly from the reality he has known his whole life to a new one merely a voyage away. Beneath this story lies one of another kind: one about the loneliness, incomprehension and despair that come with being a child.

To anyone who remembers that part of his or her childhood, or even just the feelings with which it is associated, this movie offers an aesthetically pleasing reminiscence as its sole objective is to recapture these moments, images and emotions.

This is because Jonze (director of “Adaptation� and “Being John Malkovich�) and novelist Dave Eggers have written a script that taps into children’s emotions rather than one that pleases their superficial penchant for cherry-filled explosions, pictureperfect superheroes and boy-band-marinated soundtracks.

This objective is the only perfect connection between the film and the book.

Jonze’s film doesn’t pretend, like “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,� to remain faithful to the book. He uses Sendak’s book as an emotional template for a similar, less enigmatic story about a child’s struggles with anger and alienation in a suburban neighborhood.

Beneath this story lies one of another kind: one about the loneliness, incomprehension and despair that comes with being a child.

What some call Jonze’s ‘additions’ to the original story—a back-story that includes indifference from a phone-addicted sister (yes, it’s her boyfriend) and dating mother—may seem a little clichĂŠ. However, these ‘additions’ feel individual, apposite to Max (Max Records), wholly plausible as causes for his prepubescent violence and abject loneliness and far from clichĂŠ when viewed in the context of the film.

Though arrived at through entirely different stories, plot lines and conventions,

“Where the Wild Things Are� generates the exact sentiment and necessitates a similar audience as last year’s devastatingly beautiful “Synecdoche, New York� (written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, who wrote the screenplays for both of Jonze’s previous films, coincidence?).

For a movie more similar in genre, see Henry Selick’s “Coraline,� also an ‘adaptation’ of a children’s book.

In its delicate opening scenes, the film demonstrates the fragility of childhood play at both extremes: Max picks a snowball fight with his sister Claire’s (Pepita Emmerichs) teenage friends that soon reaches its fun-and-games breaking point after one of the friends jumps on Max’s snow igloo, destroying it along with Max’s feelings. Then, yearning for some sort of acknowledgement of his existence, Max takes out his frustration in a tantrum in front of his mother (Catherine Keener) and her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo). The conniption reaches its violent breaking point when Max, dressed in a wolf costume, bites his mother and flees from the house to a new reality where the wild things are.

But childhood play is much more than its superficial appearance, for there are many ‘mature’ themes that children have to deal with during their upbringing that go almost entirely unnoticed by so-called ‘children’s movies.’ This is why I can’t really stomach people destructively and arbitrarily imposing the ‘children’s movie’ and ‘children’s book’ labels on both the movie and book “Where the Wild Things Are.�

Exceptional literature and film, regardless of its target audience, will always possess a certain timelessness and depth that eschew any demographic pigeonholing.

I’ve read and heard many complaints about this film from critics and people who longed for another cute little Hollywood remake of a children’s book with which they could blindly empathize and effortlessly watch. They cite a “lack of narrative eventfulness� (are you kidding me?

The book had ten sentences and practically one event!), an ambiguity to the source of the wild things’ sadness (they’re sad because they’re lonely, idle, and stuck on an island with nothing to do, dummy) and an overall lack of energy in the film (if the emotional roller coaster that this movie impels you to ride isn’t enough, I don’t know what is). Fortunately, Jonze didn’t succumb to such pathetic, regressive and artless demands.

The genius of Jonze lies in his decision to make “Where the Wild Things Are� a film about children rather than a so-called children’s film. In his decision to give the child’s psyche a voice rather than muzzle it with banal coming-of-age nonsense, he beautifully, truly and simply “let the wild rumpus start.�

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New WEB cinema director seeks student involvement

by C.J. WISLER Staff Reporter Junior Chris D’Autremont’s involvement with campus activities began his first year at Whitman when he joined the Campus Activities Board. “It was sort of a fad in Anderson to be a part of campus programs like ASWC,� said D’Autremont. “I had a lot of fun in CAB and thought it did positive things for Whitman.�

D’Autremont became the marketing director his sophomore year. When he heard about the merge of CAB into Whitman Events Board, he applied for multiple positions, including his current position as the WEB cinema arts director.

For D’Autremont, WEB is an important part of the Whitman campus community, and his responsibilities as cinema arts director allow for important programs such as the WEB Film Series and drive-in movie nights. These events serve to both entertain and educate Whitman students, providing relief from studies as well as a way to connect with both the Whitman campus and the outside world. “WEB, although it doesn’t have the regularity of the old ASWC film series

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or CAB movies, expands upon them and gives more variety,� said D’Autremont. “WEB chooses films that not only entertain students but also provides thoughtprovoking films. The drive-in brings the campus together twice a year for really fun and exciting movies, whereas the film series provides more independent, cerebral films.�

It was sort of a fad in Anderson to be part of campus programs like ASWC.

Chris D’Autremont ‘11

D’Autremont’s position as cinema arts director for WEB primarily involves collaborating with the rest of the WEB committee directors on which films they should show. “My primary job is to assist other WEB directors in choosing what films we could watch,� said D’Autremont. “I don’t actually select which films are viewed, as they are put to a vote by the WEB committee.�

The WEB Film Series committee rarely selects new films to show. The difficulty

‘Francis’ creators start theater group

by C.J. WISLER Staff Reporter After last year’s hit, student-produced, zombie musical “Francis,� seniors Ian Jagel and Peter Richards collaborated to form the new theater troupe called 12 Stones in hopes of producing high-quality, studentsponsored and student-supported theater. “We’re hoping for an all-inclusive, nondenominational theater outlet for all students on campus,� said Richards.

They also hope that the organization will bring both the theater and non-theater communities together. “We want to foster a student theater group outside of any academic department that is efficient in and of itself,� said Jagel.

Jagel and Richards will be hosting a celebratory fundraiser on the night of Oct. 31, Halloween, in order to raise money for the up-and-coming productions as well as for other non-season shows. “The idea is that we will provide a structured organization that will provide resources for other shows while shows already being produced are running,� said Jagel.

Posters and news concerning this event will be coming soon. The theater troupe also hopes to become an ASWC-funded club in order to continue into later years.

The reason behind their extensive bid for funding centers around one of their main goals. “We’re hoping for something completely collaborative and entirely student produced, but with very high artistic values,� said Jagel.

Despite lacking resources that other organizations like the theater department have, Jagel and Richards remain optimistic. “Just because it’s not run by the [theater] department doesn’t mean it won’t look like it’s run by [the theater department],� said Richards.

C ROSSWORD P UZZLE complied by KARL WALLULIS

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12. Cowboy’s tool, minus a letter 13. Spain’s largest river 14. Status __ 15. Length of some track races 16. Say it’s going to be alright 18. Activity for traveling Whitties 20. Device for drawing liquid from a reservoir 21. Bantu-speaking African people 24. Give a lecture 27. British pot?

28. Goal of 18-Across 33. Netanyahu is its PM 34. The cream of the crop 35. Audio jack label 38. He founded Thebes 42. Difficulty with 18-Across 45. Pitiful 47. Island where Napoleon was exiled 48. Female gametes 49. Children’s author Silverstein 50. “Like __ out of hell�

51. Bud 52. Simplicity 53. Actor Paul of “There Will Be Blood�

Down 1. Coagulates

As the co-founding managers and artistic directors of 12 Stones, who both aspire to work in the theater industry after college, Richards and Jagel encourage students interested in writing, directing, acting or just generally helping with shows to get involved. “Right now we’ve gotten one submission from an interested participant,� said Jagel. “We are focused on creating original works,� said Jagel. “That’s a big part of what we’re doing.� “We’ve got people from all different departments, both staff and students, interested in doing these plays,� said Richards.

Even though they expect high-quality work, Jagel and Richards hope to keep the schedules flexible for students working in Harper Joy Theater productions. “We want to respect the commitments students make to [Harper Joy] shows,� said Jagel. “We’re not going to ask people to cancel on their commitments for our shows.�

According to Jagel, 12 Stones has selected five student-written plays for this year alone, some of which are nearly or fully written works just waiting for a production start date. “Right now we have . . . an episodic children’s fantasy, a ballet, a musical, a noir piece and a multicultural myth I’m writing in the works,� said Jagel.

The basic outline of the 12 Stones’ mission statement, according to Jagel, includes supporting student-produced theater, with a strong focus on audience experience and more site-specific theater. “We really want the audience experience of an event as opposed to a separated show,� said Jagel. “And we want to do theater in non-traditional locations.

[Those are] kind of our vague tenants for 12 Stones.�

The first season show, tentatively titled “Christina and the Clockwork Boy,� will premier on Dec. 5.

2. Vietnam’s capital 3. Exhaust 4. Leafy Chinese vegetable 5. Nocturne relative 6. Aid and ___ 7. Rocky outcropping 8. Slugger Sammy and family 9. Rats 10. Your and my 11. Grief 17. SNES classic featuring the eight “Koopalings� (Abbr.)

19. Orchestral instrument 22. Place to see nature unnaturally 23. Charged particle 25. â€œÂżQuĂŠ __?â€? (What’s up?)

26. Controversial element of Ptolemaic theory 28. It’s usually about 15% 29. __ Kosh (clothing brand) 30. Like some nudity 31. French state?

32. Ginger 36. Japanese musical drama 37. Beyond bulky 39. Dry, thin toast 40. Like most subways 41. Treaty signed in Bangkok, 1955 43. Not dis or dat 44. Expires 45. Emulate a weasel?

46. Actress Gardner

in getting the screening rights for these movies is not the only reason WEB shows older films, however. “We don’t really select brand-new films because a lot of students have seen them already,� said D’Autremont. “We try to show films that are ten to thirty years old because students are less likely to have seen them and these are films that have a big impact on today yet are still really entertaining.�

The next WEB Film Series event will take place around Halloween, showing the horror classic “The Shining.�

The final part of D’Autremont’s job is to advertise not only for the WEB films but also for WEB itself. “One of my biggest goals is to get people interested in WEB, because it’s such a fun program,� said D’Autremont. “We are always interested in people’s opinions on what films we choose and what we should do [in the future].�

If students are interested in letting the Whitman Events Board know how they are doing or have an opinion on what can be changed, D’Autremont advises that they attend their meetings. WEB meets every Wednesday at noon in Reid, room GO2.

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Sports

The Pioneer ISSUE 7 OCT. 22, 2009 Page 11

New blood energizes men’s golf Staff Reporter The 2009-2010 season represents a promise of improvement for the Whitman men's golf team. With new blood combining with the old, the team expects to accomplish greater things than it has in the past. On Sunday, Oct. 18, at Heron Lakes Golf Course in Portland, Ore., Whitman gave tangible form to that promise by finishing with a team score of 305 (+17) in the second and final day of the season finale, Northwest Conference Fall Classic. While the team finished seventh in a nine team field overall with a two-day total of 629, Sunday’s score represents Whitman’s lowest tournament score in over 16 years and the first time in that same time span that it has had four players post scores in the 70s.

First-year Geoff Burks, who tied for the team lead Sunday with a three-over par 75, feels that the team’s ceiling is even higher than what it showed on Sunday, but still referred to the weekend's play as “very encouraging.”

Burks said, “I think we all could have

SATURDAY, Oct. 17 Volleyball

Willamette University vs. Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

Game Scores 1 2 3 4 Willamette University (7-10, 4-6 NWC) 25 20 25 25 Whitman College (4-12, 1-9 NWC) 23 25 19 20

Men’s Soccer

University of Puget Sound vs. Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

Goals by Period 1 2 OT 2OT Tot University of Puget Sound (6-7-2, 3-4-2 NWC) 0 0 0 0 0 Whitman College (3-7-3, 2-5-2 NWC) 0 0 0 0 0

Women’s Soccer

University of Puget Sound vs. Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

Goals by Period 1 2 Tot Whitman College (4-7-0, 5-8-1 NWC) 0 1 1

FRIDAY, Oct. 23 Volleyball

Lewis & Clark vs. Whitman in Walla Walla, Wash., 7 p.m.

Game Notes: The Whitman women (1-9) look to snap a six-game losing streak against conference rival Lewis & Clark College (6-4). Last time these teams faced off, sophomore Katie Miller responded to a strong showing by the Pioneers with 12 digs, seven kills and two service aces.

SATURDAY, Oct. 24 Women’s Soccer

Pacific University vs. Whitman College at Forest Grove, Ore., noon Game Notes: The Missionaries (4-8-1) look to build upon the momentum they gained from Sunday's 5-0 rout of Pacific Lutheran University. They begin their weekend road trip by traveling to Forest Grove, Ore., for Saturday's match-up with Pacific University (4-5-1). They are looking to leapfrog the Boxers and move into fifth place in the Northwest Conference standings. The last time these two teams faced off, on Sept. 20 in Walla Walla, the Missionaries were shutout 1-0 by the visiting Boxers. Late in the first half of that game, the Missionaries

done better, but we have to be happy that we scored lower than any team since Pete McClure’s been coaching.”

Sharing the team lead with Burks was team leader, junior Brian Barton, fresh off an impressive come-from-behind win at the Northern Colleges Classic at Oakbrook Country Club in Lakewood, Wash. the previous Monday, Oct. 12.

In addition to Burks and Barton, junior transfer Max Rausch and sophomore John Abercrombie contributed to the team’s score with 77 and 78, respectively. The fact that Burks, Rausch, junior Noah Jolley (81) and senior Grant Brandal (82) each finished with personal bests is a testament to exactly how noteworthy the team’s performance was on both an individual and a collective level.

Coach Peter McClure loved what he saw from his team last weekend in Portland, but he seemed to be more impressed with the way the Missionaries have approached the season as a whole.

“We haven’t had this motivation and dedication for many years,” said McClure.

The prominence of these two invalu-

able qualities may have something to do with the presence of new additions such as Burks and Rausch, who have helped to bring new life to a team that finished seventh amongst the nine teams in the Northwest Conference last season.

With these new faces augmenting an already talented roster led by the steady and smooth Barton, Whitman seems to have the personnel necessary to be successful.

“After we solidified our roster in qualifying, I could see the depth and talent of our team, which was really refreshing and encouraging for me,” said McLure.

Whitman will gain much needed depth when varsity basketball players senior Steve Campbell and first-year Peter Clark return to the team for the spring season.

Campbell and Clark fired the Missionaries’ only under par rounds of the season to date during the second round of team qualifying—each posting impressive one-under par 71s at Veteran's Memorial Golf Course in Walla Walla.

McClure is understandably exited for their return.

"Steve is a proven player: he helped

us immensely this fall, and from what I have seen of Peter he is a very good, competitive golfer who loves to play at a high level and I look for him to be one of our top players in the spring," he said.

Burks left the tournament firmly believing that both he and the team will be much improved when spring arrives.

“As a team, I feel that we’re going to be more consistent,” said Burks, the firstyear sensation whose personal goal for next semester is to shoot below 75 each round.

Looking toward the season’s continuation in the spring, McLure too believes that the team’s future is brighter than either its past or present.

“I think it is important to set goals; one of our goals is to finish in the top three,” he said.

Whether or not such optimism is a stretch, Sunday’s performance certainly planted thought that victory is not out of reach and provided the team with a solid foundation—perfect to have so early in the season.

“As of now we are definitely the underdogs and I think we’re going to surprise

a lot of people,” said Burks, echoing his coach’s sentiment.

For now, the team, like the rest of us, can only wait.

HONG Brian Barton ‘11 practices his short game at Veteran’s Memorial Golf Course in Walla Walla.

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University of Puget Sound (12-1-0, 9-10 NWC) 1 1 2

Men’s Cross Country

Puget Sound Invitational Ft. Steilacoom Park in Tacoma, Wash.—Men’s 8K Top 2 Whitman Finishers Time 7. Rand, Cory 13. Reid, Curtis

26:52.34 27:31.19

Team Stats: Place; Total Points Whitman College; 3, 85

Women’s Cross Country

Women’s Golf

Northwest Conference Fall Classic, Heron Lakes Golf Course in Portland, Ore. Top Whitman finishers (par 72) Tate Head (85, 81) 166 Caitlin Holland (84, 87) 171

Linfield College vs. Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

Goals by Period 1 2 Tot Pacific Lutheran University (9-5-0, 6-30 NWC) 0 3 3

2. Colis, Yasmeen 6. Ballinger, Kristen

Whitman College (3-7-3, 2-5-2 NWC) 1 1 2

Team Stats: Place; Total Points Whitman College: 2; 51

SUNDAY, Oct. 18 Men's Golf

Brian Barton (78, 75) 153 Max Rausch (78, 77) 155

Whitman College (5-8-1, 4-7-0 NWC) 2 3 5

lost junior defender Kate Newman to a leg injury. She is not expected to return for the remainder of the season.

Cross Country

Swimming

Whitman Alumni Swim Meet in Walla Walla, Wash., 10 a.m.

Event Notes: Last weekend the Whitman men and women kicked off the season with dominating performances besting the College of Idaho 128-74 and 146-56, respectively. This Saturday the swim team welcomes its alumni back to Harvey Pool for the annual Alumni Meet.

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Pacific Lutheran University vs. Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

Goals by Period 1 2 Tot Pacific Lutheran University (3-11-0, 2-8-0 NWC) 0 0 0

Pacific University vs. Whitman College at Forest Grove, Ore., 2:30 p.m.

Game Notes: The Whitman men hit the road this weekend looking to rebound from Sunday's disappointing 3-2 loss at home to Pacific Lutheran University. The Missionaries’ (2-5-2) last match-up with the conference-leading Pacific University Boxers (7-1-1), on Sept. 20th, in Walla Walla ended in a double-overtime 2-2 stalemate. With a victory on Saturday, Whitman could move from seventh to fifth in conference standings.

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Women’s Soccer

Northwest Conference Fall Classic, Heron Lakes Golf Course in Portland, Ore. Top Whitman finishers (par 72)

Men’s Soccer

Drip Coffee & Pastry $350 Latte & Pastry $450

Men’s Soccer

Puget Sound Invitational Ft. Steilacoom Park in Tacoma, Wash.—Women’s 6K Top 2 Whitman Finishers Time 22:54.54 23:07.56

e-mail: tahatdh@whitman.edu or rauschmh@whitman.edu

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by JAY GOLD

Parent's Weekend Timed Trials in Walla Walla, Wash.

Event Notes: The cross country looks to show off for parents during the Parent's Weekend Timed Trials at Martin Track in Walla Walla.

SUNDAY, Oct. 25 Women’s Soccer

George Fox University vs. Whitman College at Newberg, Ore., noon Game Notes: The Whitman women (4-8-1) look to finish their road trip this weekend in Newberg, Ore. They hope to reproduce their victory over the George Fox University Bruins (6-8). First-years Julianne Masser and Jaclyn Rudd hope to repeat the success they had previously against the Bruins, scoring their first collegiate goals, respectively.

A Stone's Throw Cafe Homemade Soups, Wraps, Bagel Sandwiches, and Salads Best Espresso in Town

Men’s Soccer

George Fox University vs. Whitman College at Newberg, Ore., 2:30 p.m.

Game Notes: The Missionaries (25-2) head to Newberg to repeat a victory against conference cellar dwellers George Fox University (1-8). The last time these teams faced off, the Missionaries rode sophomore Brian Percival's early second half goal to a 3-2 victory.

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October 22, 2009

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: RACHEL SHOBER

COMMEN TARY

First-year makes an impact

Madden: NFL loses a hero?

by STATEN HUDSON

by MAX RAUSCH and DUJIE TAHAT

Staff Reporter

Sports Editors

As any volleyball player will tell you, one of the most important characteristics of a solid player is a solid head.

Being able to cope with the pressure, weather the swings and remain emotionally stable in a tight game all comes with experience.

But for first-year Rachel Shober, remaining calm in important situations is already second nature. Earning a consistent spot in the regular rotation, Shober has impressed her coaches and teammates with her ability to remain focused under pressure.

“Rachel has brought a great emotional level and mental game to the team,” said Junior captain Alex Graves. “She's a steady, solid player and is always ready to rally the team when we're facing a difficult spot in the match. She brings a ton of maturity to the court as a freshman and has impacted the team in a great way.”

Shober plays middle blocker and ride side hitter for the Missionaries. In high school, she played for the ultra-competitive Archbishop Murphy Wildcats, who dominated league play all of her four years.

For Shober, transitioning from high school to college volleyball was quite a challenge.

JACOBSON “Being a college athlete is a lot of work,” said Shober. Rachel Shober ‘13 serves it up during a home match. In her early career, she has amassed 89 digs, 12 kills “College volleyball is dif- and 18 service aces. Women’s volleyball looks to snap a six-game losing streak at home this weekend. ferent because everything is just one step up from high school—players are better and more com- team is confident it has the ability to suc- everyone on the same page,” said Graves. mitted, the style of play is faster and more ceed in the near future.

“I wish we had been able to do it sooner, powerful, practices are longer and more “We are improving every day in train- but we have now. We're all in it together, intense and the season in general is about ing—we've been working to expose the and now that we're on the same page we a month longer.” strength of each individual player in or- can make those changes that we've been Despite the challenges, Shober says she der to build a stronger team,” said Coach reaching for.” has enjoyed every minute of the season so Carolyn Papineau. “The freshmen have All in all, Graves is excited about the far. been doing an incredible job at learn- team’s prospects in the years ahead. With “It has been a great experience, and it ing our system quickly, contributing to another solid recruiting class in the works, is so much fun being a part of a team,” the team in many different ways. We are the team could once again challenge for a said Shober. “But it is definitely difficult seeing daily improvement, and will see NWC title in the next few years. balancing homework and being gone so this success pay off in terms of wins and “These [first-years]—not to mention much and trying to have a social life on losses.” four other sophomores and juniors, are top of that, especially as a freshman.”

With such a young team, the few upper- going to go into next year with a huge Shober is part of an impressive ‘09 re- classmen players are having to shoulder group of solid returners,” said Graves. “It cruiting class that managed to place seven most of the leadership role—something is just going to get better from here on out freshman players on the team. While the they are more than willing to do. and I'm excited that I get to be a part of it team’s results this year have been less than “The job we wanted to do as upperclass- for the last part of the season.” stellar, as their 4-12 record suggests, the men was pull the team together and get

This NFL season is one characterized by bizarre circumstances. Packers fans shed nacho cheese tears as former favorite son, Brett Farve, un-re-retired to lead the division rival Minnesota Vikings to an undefeated record through week six. Peyton Manning proved that you only need the ball for 15 minutes to win a game. And my Oakland Raiders led the NFL in one major statistical category, gross incompetence, giving hope to all the Bobby Bouchers in the world. To add to my disappointment, legendary Hallof-Famer and former Raider’s coach John Madden is not announcing football games for the first time this century.

In fact, this will be the first season Madden is not visibly involved in the NFL since the AFL-NFL merger in 1966. To me, Madden was football. His original and insightful commentary always left me feeling like an insider.

Whoa, whoa, Max. Hold on. While I'm sure your entire column dedicated to the glory that is Madden would be nothing short of riveting, your obviously jaded opinions are a bit excessive. Therefore, I am obligated to bring you and your views back to Earth. The last time I checked, Madden was barely literate and offered nothing of value to football fans, or more broadly, society on the whole. My Filipino grandmother, who doesn’t speak a word of English, could provide more accurate and coherent analysis. Madden’s like the kid in kindergarten who got held back because he couldn’t color inside the lines. I learned more about how graphics don’t work than I did about football any time he opened his mouth. It makes me wonder if all that Tinactin hasn’t seeped into his brain, which by now is probably just a gigantic, disjointed teleprompter filled with Al Michaels fill-ins.

Easy, tiger, Madden was an entrepreneur and an humanitarian. Not only did he introduce the world to the trifecta of deliciousness that is the turducken—a brilliant combination of turkey, duck and chicken—he crusaded tirelessly to find a cure for athlete’s foot, all while providing citizens with valuable home improvement information. Not to mention he is also the face of the best-selling video game of all time.

While I will have to concede that “Madden,” the game, is indeed an altogether out-of-body experience, I stand behind my claim of Madden’s inability to piece together an articulate, comprehensible sentence. His general buffoonery is exemplified in the testimony of his former players in Oakland, who insist that he cost them more than they gained, leading them away from the promised land. The players bluntly suggested that if Madden hadn’t been the coach they would have won at least two more Super Bowls in 1970s. Madden is but a corporate patsy who doesn’t know any better.

Oh c’mon, Dujie! Don’t be that guy. Haven’t you ever heard of the phrase “ignorance is bliss”? Madden fully embodies the truth in this idiom. I think that you’re overlooking the fact that Madden has worked to bring joy to football fans everywhere. As for his alleged incompetence, if he were as dumb as you suggest, why would the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, have offered him a special advisory position? Don’t hate the player; hate the game.

Whatever, man. The NFL is a business. The corporate heads only want you to think that Madden is important so that you continually feed your soul through the self-perpetuating consumerist lifestyle that their advertisers' shamelessly pedal.

I can see there is no convincing you. I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree.

Damn, skippy! All right, want to play “Madden”?

Sorry, brah—I only have one controller.

Missy gets athletic: En garde!

When we were kids all our parents told us to not play with weapons for fear of poking an eye out. After being inspired by the duals in the movie “Hook” as MELISSA a young child, my NAVARRO cousin and I took Contributing it upon ourselves Reporter to make our own weapons out of my dance batons (from my short-lived ballet days). We took off the protective rubber ends to make them look like real swords. This was a great idea . . . until an eye was indeed poked. Not out, but still painful according to my cousin. Lesson learned.

I was a bit hesitant about anyone allowing me to hold a sharp object again until I was encouraged to try fencing.

Protective rubber ends and armor are required so I became less worried about severely hurting anyone.

The fencing club on campus is a group of about 10 to 15 people, made up of mainly first-years and sophomores. Junior Mikayla Hunter is the only upperclassmen in the club and has been a member off and on since her freshman year.

“It hasn’t always been this beginner-friendly,” said Hunter about her past experiences with the club.

That definitely wasn’t the case when I met the group. The new faces

greeted me with a warm welcome and assisted me on getting suited up for the battles ahead. I was equipped with a mask, jacket and one glove. Michael Jackson would be so proud.

Sophomore Stefan DuBois is the club’s fearless leader, running warmup drills and stretches before everyone starts bouting—another term for battling and one among many new words that I learned about the sport.

DuBois has passed on knowledge he picked up in the last couple years to many of the other members including fellow sophomore Sam Lundberg.

While everyone was busy practicing more advanced moves, Lundberg broke down the basics to me.

“It’s a lot of multi-tasking. Focus on footwork, pointing, defending yourself,” said Lundberg.

The different parries—also known as positions—with Italian names were a bit confusing at first and Lundberg’s quick defense to my initial jabs took me by surprise. Eventually, he was kind enough to let me stab him a few times to get a feel of victory.

“The challenge is having technique become second nature, which is why we have a lot of repetitive practices,” said DuBois, stressing the difficulty of getting fencing technique down.

I noticed that a lot of lunging was involved, as my glutes were feeling the burn. Sophomore Nina Estep is the only member of the group who has had prior fencing experience before coming to Whitman and can attest to the fact that the sport is a great lower

body workout.

“You can feel it in your legs and develop calves of steel,” said Estep. She also mentioned that the predominant injury tends to be bruising. I was glad to hear that there was little chance of me suffering any major open wounds.

The club focuses more on classical fencing rather than sport fencing. Estep explained to me that sport fencing is more concerned with scoring points by simple stabs whereas classical focuses on performing historical battles and really going all out in the fight.

“Don’t be a coward,” said DuBois to the other fencers.

Easier said than done, as I hesitantly stabbed Lundberg for fear of bruising him. My fighter’s instinct finally came out as I lunged the foil (another word for sword) toward his chest. Needless to say, fencing is a great way to let out aggression.

But this wouldn’t be a proper and full experience if I didn’t get hit. I asked the group if anyone could stab me and much to my surprise there was a lot of enthusiasm about stabbing the reporter. After filling out a liability form, I received a chest plate made for women, which later proved to be extremely necessary. Next time I’m in a sword fight, I’ll not only think back to technique, but also remember to have a plastic bra with me just in case.

Lundberg agreed to a match, in which he swiftly defeated me after many quick jabs to the chest. After struggling to think quickly with my hands and feet, I started to appreciate

PHOTOS BY JACOBSON the multi-tasking abilities that are involved with being an effective fencer.

I also saw how much the sport resembled dancing and choreography.

“I like how fencing is kind of an art,” said Hunter, who has had experience with ballet and immediately noticed the similarities between fencing positions and dance moves.

Fencing is a combination of grace, beauty and sheer ferocity that is good for the mind and body. For a sport that demonstrates how people used to settle disputes, it’s a fun way to physically and mentally challenge others with a friendly match.

The club meets in Sherwood every Tuesday and Thursday at 7 p.m. and encourages all skill levels to participate. Proper gear is also provided for safety and prevention of eye-poking.

Touché! Sam Lundberg ‘12 instructs Melissa Navarro ‘10 in the art of fencing.