Fall 2013 Issue 10

The

PIONEER

Issue 10 | November 14, 2013 | Whitman news since 1896 | Vol. CXXXI

How much money?

The ASWC budget has increased by $90,183 over the past six years.

$$$ Club budget requests have gone up by $16,121 since FY 2011.

ASWC rewards have gone up $6,868.

Budget requests are met with the student fee, which has spiked to $350 in FY 2014.

From FY 2008–2012, the student fee was kept at or below $320.

$428,067 FY 2008

$518,250 FY 2014

Balancing ACT How will ASWC manage more clubs and a bigger budget?

by Lachlan Johnson Staff Reporter

A

rising student fee combined with cuts to select clubs’ budgets last spring impacted student life on campus this fall, as organizations such as Waiilatpu and Whitman Direct Action struggled to adjust to increased austerity at Whitman.

While Associated Students of Whitman College (ASWC) funding has remained relatively stable for the last five years, in previous decades, spending increased significantly beyond inflation, and the recent budget crunch raises the question of whether this austeri-

ty is the beginning of a longer trend.

ASWC is working to alleviate pressure from clubs and smooth out issues with the lifecycle fund, which contributed heavily to last year’s budget decreases. The student fee increased faster than inflation throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but spending increases have leveled off since 2008. This financial discipline coincided with a larger shift within ASWC towards more organization and professionalism. When funding pressures began to increase again two years ago, the ASWC finance committee realized spending needed to be allocated differently than with past committees.

“Last year and this year our fi-

nance committees have been a little more conservative in allocating funds because we have seen towards the end of the year [that] ASWC funds have been drained, and then we haven’t had money to fund projects,” said ASWC Finance Chair Tatiana Kaehler.

“That’s been a bit of a wake-up call for us, especially last year.”

The Question of Peak Funding One of the major causes of a recent spending crunch has been increased demand from clubs. For the 2011–2012 budget, clubs requested a total of $51,380, but requests made last spring for this year’s budget totaled $67,501. While re-

cords are not complete, it is likely that this year also set the record for the number of clubs on campus asking for funding from ASWC. “I don’t think there is a limitation to how many clubs we can have that are ASWC-recognized, it just increases the burden on the [ASWC] Finance Committee if they decide to request funding,” said ASWC Club Director Nate Higby.

The issue ASWC faces with clubs is not their number, but the amount of funding each club requests. While small clubs requesting only a few hundred dollars are unlikely to face long-term budget pressure, those which demand high levels of funding for

things such as travel or expensive equipment will likely receive only partial funding and have to seek additional sources of revenue.

“A lot of the clubs we have on campus serve the need of helping students participate in hobbies that are on the more expensive side,” said Kaehler. “[ASWC’s been discussing] the need for students who are participating in expensive activities to put some of their own money into it because ASWC cannot be the funder of really expensive hobbies.”

To prevent the shortfalls seen last year, Kaehler is taking steps to shift funding away from club budgets and towards the Travel and Stusee ASWC, page 3

Boarders skate toward official club status by cole anderson Staff Reporter

T

here are clubs to satisfy most any hobby and passion at Whitman College, but for the skateboarding community, a

small but tight-knit and enthusiastic group, the idea to create a formal club hasn’t been much more than just an idea. This year, however, a group of passionate skaters has taken the initiative. With everything in place and only a final

Zach Gordy ‘15 (pictured) and skateboarding regulars on campus are nearing official club status, a process spearheaded by Riley Hernandez ‘14. Photos by Blake-Whitney

proposal to go over with ASWC, a skateboarding club at Whitman is almost a fully formed entity.

“The idea of a skate club has been kicked around since I was a freshman. I don’t think we can attribute the idea to one person. It was just a notion that was in all of our best interests,” said junior Zach Gordy.

Some of the members of the skate club are also members of other clubs, and participation in these clubs prompted the creation of a skate club.

“A few of us are on the snowboard team, which uses ASWC funding to go on trips to competitions, so we had talked about starting a skate team before. We had toyed with the idea for a while, but one day Riley [Hernandez] just filled out the paperwork and did it,” said junior Tom Shellum.

In previous years, those on campus who love to skate typically just got together frequently throughout the week and skated at various spots around campus and in the Walla Walla area.

That group has always been rather small. With the advent of a club, not only will there be more of a collective effort to establish safe and viable spots to skate; there will be an opportunity for more students to either learn a new sport or hone their skills further.

“We already had a skate listserv so we could organize skating together and driving to the park, but having it be a club allows us to do things like be in the Activities Fair in the beginning see SKATEBOARDING, page 4

Isabel Zarate, Ann Chen (above) and Nandini Rathi (below), all ‘13 have all been chosen as the Whitman nominees for the Watson Fellowship. Photos by Clay

Whitman selects Watson nominees

by ISABEL MILLS Staff Reporter

I

n the next few months, Whitman College seniors will find out what the next year of their lives entails. Four of these seniors hope their futures will include a Watson Fellowship.

This fellowship is a chance for 40 students from 40 liberal arts colleges to receive $28,000 to go abroad for a year to execute a project of their choosing.

To become a Watson Fellow, students must be a senior in one of the chosen colleges, and they cannot return home for 12 months. Seniors Josh Melander, Ann Chen, Nandini Rathi and Isabel Zarate are all Whitman nominees for the fellowship.

This year, approximately 36 students showed interest in the project. Director of Fellowships and Grants Keith Raether described the application process these students have gone through.

“This year 16 students began the formal application process, and 14 completed full applications. The applications were

read by the five-member internal Watson selection committee. The committee short-listed nine students for interviews. At the conclusion of those interviews the selection committee discussed all candidates and decided on the four nominees.” said Raether.

Zarate is a psychology major and has always been interested in how individuals respond to certain situations. Her parents are originally from Mexico, and her personal connection with being enrolled in an education system that was culturally different than her home life pushed her to research this issue more in her Watson project.

“The questions are basically how do you integrate immigrants into your education system and how does going into an education system that isn’t culturally your native education system affect your identity. People have performed studies about where immigrants succeed the most, but not many have asked how people feel about compromising between the values of one culture and another,” said Zarate. see WATSON, page 6

NEWS

PAGE

2

NOV

14 2013

NORD AWARD Students engage in GLBTQ research Sean Mulloy (left) and Ben Roberson (right) ‘14 were awarded $2,500 for research projects involving GLBTQ issues. Photos by Barton

by HANNAH BARTMAN Staff Reporter

T

he 18th-annual David Nord Award was presented to seniors Ben Roberson and Sean Mulloy in late October. The award is presented to students who propose a project in relation to GLBTQ issues and cumulatively provides them with $2,500 to conduct their research. Roberson is focusing his project on an electronic and physical timeline outlining gender and queer related issues at Whitman College, while Mulloy will be doing research on the effects of the United States v.

Windsor court case on queer issues.

“We tend to look for projects that take different approaches or that draw upon different disciplines,” said Professor of Politics and David Nord Award Committee member Susanne Beechey in an email.

Both recipients are a part of the GLBTQ club on campus and thus have been aware of the award throughout their Whitman careers.

Most of the inspiration for their projects, however, carries a personal weight that inspired their participation in the award. Roberson, despite his interests as a religion major, found that this project would speak to his role as a queer student on campus.

“A large part of it has to do with my own sexuality,” he said. “I feel like coming to Whitman as a member of [the GLBTQ] group, it’s important to find people you connect with in the group itself or in some kind of history, which we don’t have at this point.”

Roberson’s timeline will manifest itself first online, and then in a physical form through posters hung up around campus. He is still in the planning stages, looking through ASWC files and copies of The Pioneer from the 1960s and 1970s, but he plans on both finding primary source material and interviewing current members of the community to gather information.

In relation to long-term effects of the project, Roberson hopes

that students will look to his timeline when they come to Whitman to understand how their own sexuality fits in both as past and present Whitman narrative.

“If they do identify and they want to know what that experience would be like at Whitman, then this project would show what it is like now and what it was like in the past,” said Roberson.

Mulloy’s interest in this project is more academically bound, as this project is also his thesis. He decided upon this specific issue through his involvement in the policy decisions of United States v. Windsor as an intern in Washington D.C. last summer.

“Just being [in Washington D.C.] and seeing all the different protesters and hearing the decision, I thought it would be a really cool project to get into since it’s so timely,” said Mulloy.

The decision stated that restricting the legal recognition of marriage solely to heterosexual unions is un-

constitutional and was a landmark decision for queer rights. Researching issues regarding the policy decisions surrounding queer issues, Mulloy hopes, will lead him to understanding other issues of more precedence within the queer community.

“I want to look at ways in which legal strategies and legal victories can bring about social change for the queer community and what ways maybe it can and can’t be restrictive,” he said. “I want to holistically look at how this decision affects the broader goals of the LGBTQ movement.”

When researching for the project, Mulloy will have to focus on scholarship provided from similar court cases from the past, since the United States v. Windsor court decision only occurred last summer, and thus the current scholarship is limited. In his research, Mulloy hopes to find alternative solutions to the multitude of adversities that surround the queer community.

“I want to see how better we can address these issues of dis-

crimination, inequality and violence against queer people without getting distracted by things that only affect the privileged part of the community,” he said.

The completion of both projects is scheduled for the end of spring semester. The stipulation of the award requires that the students give a presentation to the community outlining the findings of their research.

“These promise to be thoughtprovoking presentations, and I hope many from the Whitman community can join us in celebrating this scholarship late next spring,” said Beechey.

David Nord ‘83 was a political science major who died in 1999 of AIDS. He received a master’s in psychology from Antioch University and began to practice as a psychotherapist until he stopped to become a full time researcher and writer. He established the endowment for the award before his passing and was able to attend the first presentation in 1996.

Alaska Airlines flight cutoff time shortened

by SAM GRAINGER-SHUBA Staff Reporter

W

hitman College students will no longer be able to catch flights last minute out of Walla Walla, which may cause frustration during the end of semester rush to return home. Effective on Oct. 30, Horizon/Alaska Air of the Walla Walla airport changed its cutoff time for checking into a flight from 30 minutes to 40 minutes, specifically targeting passengers without checked baggage.

Brian Dohe, Whitman’s director of annual giving, heard the announcement while waiting for a flight in the Walla Walla Regional Airport. It prompted him to send a notice to campus in hopes of avoiding frustration in the impending holiday season.

“I suspect that for students and staff, [the change] could cause people to miss their flights,” said Dohe.

According to Horizon/Alaska Airline’s Greg Sullivan, the change has been a long time coming.

“We have actually been at a 40-minute cutoff for checked bags for over a year now, but we had kept our counter open until 30 minutes prior. We had been letting those passengers know that they were late and in the future they wouldn’t be allowed to check bags with a 40-minute cutoff,” he said.

He also commented that the change has only been made to standardize check-in times, thus minimizing delays and making sure all passengers and bags get on the airplanes.

Dohe has noticed that more passengers tend to carry bags on the plane, rather than check them, possibly due to the fee for checked luggage. The increase in carryon bags has led to congestion at the security checkpoint, which he speculates could be the reason for the change in cut-off time.

“One of the days I flew out recently, they left six people behind who had not yet cleared security,” said Dohe. “They’re not joking around about this.”

For students, the effects of this change can depend based on where they are flying and for how long. Though it may seem intuitive that the change might negatively affect those who live further from Walla Walla, that may not necessarily be the case.

“I hardly ever fly without checking bags,” said first-year Molly Coates, a native Pennsylvanian.

Dohe suggested that the change might have more of an effect on students, faculty and staff flying for short trips, to places such as Seattle.

“If a student is checking a bag, he or she may plan on arriving early enough to check that

bag and get through security,” he said. “But if you’re flying without any checked baggage, you’ve printed out your boarding pass on campus, and you think you’re ready to go to the airport whenever, that will not be the case anymore. You might have missed that 40-minute window to get to the airport. Sometimes I see Whitties, Whitman staff, faculty and townspeople that I know showing up [at the airport] with minutes to spare.”

Coates agrees and points out that transportation also plays a role.

“It’s hard to finagle when to get your flight, depending on when the buses go. So if you have to get to your flight 40 min-

utes ahead of time, but the bus only gets you there 30 minutes ahead, you’ll have to rearrange your whole plan,” said Coates.

First-year Kyla Foreman agrees to an extent, but suggests that the change might have a more dramatic effect on long distance travelers.

“Since I live in California, it means being awake all day and having to wait longer than necessary,” said Foreman. “The farther you are from Walla Walla, the more bothersome it is. Being in an airport really early and having a long flight home is no one’s cup of tea.”

Dohe hopes that by being aware of the change in requirements, students will be

able to plan ahead better and will not have any trouble getting home during the holidays.

“I thought this needed to be shared within the Whitman community and announced broadly on campus to minimize any disruptions for students, faculty and staff when they’re flying in and out of Walla Walla,” said Dohe.

Corrections to Issue 9 The corrections box should have been labeled “Corrections to Issue 8.”

The illustrations box printed in Issue 9 was an accidental reprint of issue 8.

ADVERTISEMENT

What are you doing after graduation?

Expand your career options with the Bridge MBA at Seattle University.

• For non-business majors • 12 month program to completion • No work experience required

20% OFF with student ID and this coupon The Bridge MBA at Seattle University.

For more information, call (206) 296-5919 or email mbab@seattleu.edu Check out all of our highly ranked graduate business programs : w w w.seattleu.edu /albers /gradover view /

PRODUCTION

WRITING

BUSINESS

Editor-in-Chief Shelly Le

Production Manager Sean McNulty

NEWS

Managing Editor Pam London

Production Associates Maddison Coons, Jess Faunt, Molly Johanson, Marianne Kellogg, Jesse Moneyhun

Business & Circulation Manager Skye Vander Laan

PIONEER

EDITORIAL

News Editors Sarah Cornett Dylan Tull A&E Editor Aleida Fernandez Sports Editor Quin Nelson Feature Editor Karah Kemmerly Opinion Editor Kyle Seasly Humor Editor Molly Johanson Photography Editor Catie Bergman Videography Editor Skye Vander Laan Illustration Editor Luke Hampton

Hannah Bartman, Samantha Grainger-Shuba, Lachlan Johnson, Lorah Steichen, River Sterne

A&E

Chief Copy Editor Matthew Nelson

Emma Dahl, Nathan Fisher, Adam Heymann, James Kennedy

Copy Editors Natalie Berg, Lauren Sewell, Flora Sheppard

FEATURE

ILLUSTRATION MaryAnne Bowen, Sophia Cooper-Ellis, Lya Hernandez, Kelsey Lund, Asa Mease, Emma Rust, Tyler Schuh, Eduardo Vazquez

PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEOGRAPHY Rachael Barton, Jade Blake-Whitney, Tanner Bowersox, Marra Clay, Devika Doowa, Allie Felt, Chaoyu Li, Halley McCormick, Marlena Sloss, Anna von Clemm, Emily Volpert

Isabel Mills, Serena Runyan

SPORTS

Marah Alindogan, Cole Anderson, Chris Calamita, Kelsey Peck, Mitchell Smith, Dylan Snyder

OPINION

Toby Alden, Dani Hupper, Bill Landefeld, Andy Monserud

BACKPAGE

Elena Aragon, Rosemary Hanson, Melina Hughes, Evelyn Levine

WEB TEAM Webmaster Nick Budak

Web Editor Ben Schaefer Web Content Editor Tristan Gavin

ADVERTISING

Advertising Associates Maya Booth-Balk, Taylor Thomas For information about advertising in The Pioneer or to purchase a subscription please contact business@ whitmanpioneer.com.

EDITORIAL POLICY

The Whitman College Pioneer is a weekly student-run newspaper published under the auspices of the Associated Students of Whitman College. The purpose of The Pioneer is to provide pertinent, timely news and commentary for Whitman students, alumni, faculty, staff and parents, as well as the Walla Walla community. The Pioneer is dedicated to expanding open discussion on campus about the issues with which students are most concerned. We provide coverage of Whitman-related news as well as featured local and regional events, and strive to maintain a standard of utmost fairness, quality and journalistic integrity while promoting freedom of the press. In addition, The Pioneer strives to be a learning tool for students who are interested in journalism. The Pioneer welcomes all feedback and publishes letters to the editor in print and online.

SUBMISSION POLICY

Letters to the editor may be submitted to The Pioneer via email at editors@whitmanpioneer.com or sent to The Pioneer, 345 Boyer Ave., 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 attributed and may be edited for concision and fluency.

CODE OF ETHICS

The code of ethics serves as The Pioneer’s established guidelines for the practice of responsible journalism on campus, within reasonable interpretation of the editorial board. These guidelines are subject to constant review and amendment; responsibility for amending the code of ethics is assigned to the editor-in-chief in conjunction with the editorial board.

The code of ethics is reviewed at least once per semester.

To access the complete code of ethics for The Pioneer, visit whitmanpioneer.com/about.

The

NEWS

NOV

14 2013

PAGE

3

ASWC streamlines budget

S.O.S!

from ASWC, page 1

ASWC resolution encourages greater counseling resources

by LORAH STEICHEN Staff Reporter

A

lthough the Counseling Center on campus is available to all Whitman College students, recent efforts from ASWC have moved to ensure that the center is not only open to all students but is also able to serve all students’ needs. ASWC Senate passed a resolution on Nov. 3 supporting the creation of an additional position in the Counseling Center that would serve students from diverse backgrounds.

“The resolution was advocating for a counselor who could connect with students from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. Right now most of the counselors in the Counseling Center don’t necessarily have experience dealing with race-related issues or issues about sexual orientation or gender identity,” said ASWC Vice President Jack Percival, who helped write the resolution.

The resolution was passed in an effort to provide increased campus resources and support for students dealing with issues of racial identity on a predominately white campus. There is no counselor at this time who

is well-equipped to deal with issues related to race and ethnicity. “[During a counseling session], I expressed my frustrations and asked for advice on how to cope with the baggage that comes with being a minority student on a predominately white campus and was given advice that I could not use. My counselor expressed that the advice might not be helpful because he didn’t know what it was like to be in my position, but I left that appointment feeling just as lost as when I went in. This isn’t the fault of the counselor — he just didn’t know how to help me because he had never experienced what I have,” said junior Alisha Agard.

According to Percival, the creation of the Counseling Center position was among ASWC President Tim Reed’s top priorities this year.

The resolution reflects ASWC’s effort to institutionalize resources and supports for students of color.

Although the resolution was originally written with a focus on issues relating to race and ethnicity, the language of the resolution was revised during ASWC Senate to be more inclusive.

“There were concerns about the narrow focus of the resolution,

and others brought up the lack of resources relating to gender identity and sexuality as well. Because of these concerns, the resolution was then amended to include information regarding resources geared towards helping those with gender identity or sexual orientation issues,” said junior ASWC Senator Sayda Morales, who also helped write the resolution.

In addition to providing resources for marginalized students within the Whitman community, the increased Counseling Center position would expand Counseling Center services and availability. According to the ASWC resolution, increased use of the Counseling Center in recent years has limited counselor availability. Wait times for appointments can be as long as six weeks.

The resolution from ASWC exists in conjunction with a budget request from the Counseling Center that would allow for the increased position. Both the budget request and the resolution were presented to the Board of Trustees during their visit to campus last week. Although the trustees discussed the budget during this meeting, they will not pass the official budget until February 2014.

Whitman Model UN club wins big

by RIVER STERNE Staff Reporter

D

espite low numbers, the Whitman College Model United Nations Club is winning big awards. The club, consisting of 12 active members, travels around the Pacific Northwest, and occasionally to the East Coast and Canada, to attend UN simulations with other colleges.

The Model UN team, led by sophomore club president Katy Wills, recently attended the National Model United Nations conference and won two substantial awards: Delegate’s Choice Award and Outstanding Delegation. The NMUN conference took place Oct.

25 through 27 in Washington D.C. “Delegate’s Choice Award is chosen by the other delegates,” said sophomore Julia Wood. “They just vote for whatever delegation they think did the best job. Outstanding Delegation is the highest award you can win, [and] that’s chosen by the people who are running the conference.”

The club sent three members to the conference, making them the smallest delegation there. Despite their small numbers, they beat out many teams of over 40 students to win the awards they did.

“Julia [Wood] and I won Delegate’s Choice Award,” said sophomore Nick Hochfeld. “This means we were the most diplo-

Nick Hochfeld ‘16 (above) won the Delegate’s Choice Award, with fellow delegate Julia Wood ‘16 at the NMUN conference in Washington D.C. Photo by Doowa

matic and easiest to work with and brought the most people together.”

Whitman Model UN was also successful in the conferences they attended last year, winning Delegate’s Choice at a conference in Seattle.

“It was cool last year because most of us were just freshmen and we didn’t really know totally what we were doing,” said Hochfeld.

The team will attend another conference in Seattle in several weeks.

The team has grown slightly bigger this year, with 12 active members currently as opposed to last year’s eight.

“I think part of the reason it’s small is that it’s an academic club,” said Wills. “We sit around and talk about foreign affairs, and then we do research and write papers about a country’s position on topics and then debate them.”

Wills suggested that students may be hesitant to join Model UN because it requires intensive research and work outside of school.

“While it is fun, it draws a particular crowd of people that aren’t really turned off by doing some research outside of class,” said Wills.

The club also serves as an outlet for expression among students who are passionate about politics and want experience in diplomacy.

“Model UN is important at Whitman because it gives students an opportunity to get outside of the bubble both physically and mental-

ly,” said Wills. “You throw yourself into embodying an actual diplomat from another country, so you have to get out of your Whitman mindset.”

For each conference, Wills and the team research a topic they are given and write a paper on that topic in preparation.

These issues can range anywhere from urban development to the role of women in global societies.

“We go to conferences and debate about issues that are pretty pertinent to our modern global society,” said Wood.

Participants are assigned a country and a committee when they attend conferences. They then spend three five-hour sessions discussing and working through the topic they have been assigned with their appropriate conference.

“You’re assigned a country and you’re assigned a committee, and in the committee there will be three topics on the agenda for the whole conference,” said Wills. “In the first committee meeting you set the agenda and debate with other delegates about what topic you want to discuss first; it’s tough because you end up researching each of the three topics, but you only get to discuss one of them.”

Model UN provides students a way to gain political experience and enjoy themselves simultaneously.

“We’re just a group of kids who think it’s fun to pretend to be the United Nations,” said Wood.

dent Development Fund (T&SD).

By forcing clubs to apply separately for additional funds for travel or expensive projects, rather than funding these projects directly in the annual budget, the finance committee hopes to identify areas such as airfare, hotel costs and publicity, where costs may be trimmed down.

“It really is to clubs’ benefits to submit a [lower] request, because then more money can go to their club and to other clubs on campus,” said Kaehler.

Applying through T&SD has worked well so far, but concerns exist over whether the new strategy will be able to save enough funds to assist travel in the spring.

A lack of direct control over funding for trips has left the leadership of traveling organizations such as Model United Nations and GlobeMed unsure how many members will be able to attend events.

“Some students do not feel comfortable committing to [going to a conference] without knowing in advance whether they will be able to get the money, which definitely limits the people who want to go,” said senior GlobeMed co-President Kate Runkel.

While a decade ago ASWC’s response to more demand may have been to raise the student fee, its modern incarnation is hesitant to view that as a one-stop solution.

With tuition from the college still rising steeply, ASWC has realized that pushing the costs on to students is not a sustainable answer.

“I definitely think there’s a limit to how much ASWC can do, [and] as ASWC continues to feel pressure from clubs and interests on campus that want to receive funding, it’s going to be very difficult to lower the student fee,” said Kaehler. “It’s going to reach a point where [the student fee] can’t be increased except for inflation.”

Protecting the Lifecycle Fund Another major contributor to this year’s budget austerity is the neglect of the Lifecycle Fund, which is used to replace equipment and technology for ASWC and campus media organizations. When it was conceived, the Lifecycle Fund was intended to have a small amount of money deposited each year to spread out long-term costs; however, the fund was neglected since 2009, and last year ASWC had to find a way to pay $24,000 all at once.

To make sure the Lifecycle Fund is not ignored again, last year’s finance chair alumnus Sam Sadeghi ‘13 advocated to write into the ASWC by-laws that two percent of the yearly budget be set aside for the Lifecycle Fund. While this slightly decreases the flexibility of year-to-year spending, it ensures the Lifecycle Fund will never be forgotten again. Because the consequences of not giving to Lifecycle were not felt until several years later, it was tempting in past years to use funds to address more immediate pressures such as spending on clubs and T&SD. “With the frequent turnover of leadership, it would be so easy for ASWC to fall into the same mistakes,” said Kaehler. “I think that’s why it’s so important for finance chairs to try to implement by-law provisions and make structural changes that are permanent.”

Avoiding the Past While a look at the last two years may suggest ASWC is once again entering a period of financial growth as seen in decades past, the financial discipline seen in the creation of new regulations suggests this is not the case. Some of the increases seen in the ‘90s and 2000s may be attributed to events which are unlikely to occur again, such as the explosion of student interest in activities and club sports, the founding of the T&SD Fund, and the creation of the Whitman Events Board. WEB takes up the largest single portion of the ASWC budget and received $165,000 in this year’s budget.

“When the Whitman Events Board [WEB] was commissioned, that was when the college began cutting its support for events on campus ... We started absorbing a lot of the costs that the college used to absorb for on-campus events,” said senior senator and former ASWC President Kayvon Behroozian.

The finance committee is attempting to find a balance between raising the fee and reining in spending. ASWC remains open to student opinion on the matter, and pressure in either direction could shift their policy.

“It’s important for the student body to recognize that ASWC works for them,” said Kaehler.

“We’re working to implement their ideas and to benefit them, so it really is up to the student body to decide what happens with the student fee and how it’s allocated.”

A&E

PAGE

4

nov

14 2013

Getting adventurous with ‘Drunken City’

by James Kennedy Staff Reporter

I

n covering Whitman’s latest production, “The Drunken City,” The Pioneer sat down with the four leading ladies of the production: the three lead actors and the director. Senior Florence LeBas directs first-year Haley Forrester as Marty, sophomore Maya Kozarsky as Linda and senior Alexandra Schaffer as Melissa in the play originally written by playwright Adam Bock. The story concerns the adventures of three brides-to-be who begin to question their futures after a wild (and drunken) adventure in a big city. An in-person interview was conducted along with a follow-up email concerning the lack of leading women in theater. Their answer from this follow-up interview was inserted into the article.

Without further adieu, let’s head into the drunken city.

Pioneer: What sort of difficulties do you run into when trying to recreate an existing source material, both in directing as well as acting?

It took me a long time to pick up on it. You always want to get the words right, you never want to paraphrase, no matter if it’s been done before, or the director’s your writer or anything like that.

LeBas: I guess one of the [other] big difficulties of this particular play is that it requires the “world to tilt” ... that’s one of the stage directions ... I know in the original production, in New York, they had a hydraulic stage, that, you know MOVED. We have to find ways to do that on our own.

Kozarsky: Minus the hydraulics.

LeBas: Yeah, minus the hydraulics (laughs).

Pioneer: Not in the budget?

LeBas: Yeah, we definitely don’t have the budget for that.

Pioneer: Have any of you seen the play performed live?

Forrester: Something I try to avoid doing is — if I can help it — to avoid watching other versions of the show, or clips of scenes on YouTube or anything, just because that will get a different idea stuck in my head.

LeBas: One of the biggest difficulties in this particular play is [the language of] Adam Bock, the playwright. He has a very particular language style, and it takes some getting used to ... He doesn’t write in commas, like, ever.

His writing is very fragmented.

Schaffer: You’re trying to recreate something you’ve already seen.

Kozarsky: I think also just reading it for the first time is like ... do I want to audition for this play? So I’m gonna go read it ...

LeBas: We have kind of a gift in this play in that it was written in ... 2008. So it has only been performed a handful of

Whitman dance clubs ignite students’ dance fever

by EMMA DAHL Staff Reporter

W

hitman College is full of students with a wide variety of passions and interests. Just by looking at the number of extra-curricular activities and student-run clubs, one can see a reflection of students’ hobbies.

Yet, maybe more than anything, Whitties love to dance. Covering a variety of styles and disciplines, dance clubs on campus offer an outlet for anyone with the urge to move their feet. Ranging from Latin to tap to swing and spanning a spectrum of skill levels, there’s something for everyone.

The Irish Dance Club, also known as River Rince, is a club that is perhaps best known for their engrossing performances at Mr. Whitman and Walla Walla’s Best Dance Crew. The club’s main focus, however, is to promote Irish culture and heritage through traditional dances. The club is divided into an informal practice group and a higher-level performance company.

“Irish dancing was, and continues to be, a large part of Irish culture, and has been influenced by each event in Ireland’s history,” said sophomore member Noelle Butler in an email. “It used to be used to tell stories, such as Irish folktales and mythology, and also was a way to celebrate Irish music and culture in a changing world.”

If performing in front of your peers isn’t for you, try the Folk Dancing Club. Members of this group take turns teaching each other folk dances from around the world in a casual setting. Sophomore Alex Ayal’s spe-

*

cialty is Israeli folk dancing.

“I’ve been Israeli folk dancing for many years now, so I only teach those. But the people who go regularly all know different dances, so we just switch off teaching each other,” said Ayal in an email interview.

A third club on campus is the Social Dance Club. The Social Dance Club focuses on dances such as swing, waltzes and foxtrots, among others. The club has a casual atmosphere and its core attendees are people who want to have fun through dance. The social, physical and mental benefits of dancing are numerous, according to junior Marijke Wijnen, so Social Dance club becomes a necessary outlet.

“At Whitman I spend a lot of my time doing things that are very heady, so dancing is a nice balance because you don’t have time to think. Your body just takes over,” said Wijnen in an email.

Butler agrees. “[Dancing] is also a great way to exercise. I am not a huge fan of running, but through dance, I am able to still get myself to exercise, and have fun at the same time,” she said.

Dancing isn’t just a physical release; it’s mental and emotional, too.

“It’s just an awesome form of self-expression that you can do with other people,” said Ayal.

To reap these benefits, try one of Whitman’s dance clubs. If you’re interested in River Rince, email Noelle Butler for more information. Folk Dancing Club meets on Wednesdays at 7:30 in Sherwood 213. If you’re interested in the Social Dance Club, contact Marijke Wijnen for more information.

How did picture one become picture two?

See for yourself at the Lifeskills Series guitar workshop photo slideshow online at whitmanpioneer.com/category/media-2

The brides-to-be in “The Drunken City” experience a night of alcohol-filled debauchery, laughs and revelations. Photos by Li

times. It’s not like we’re doing Shakespeare where we’ve seen ... about a million adaptations of it. We get to form it on our own without all of that.

Pioneer: On a more serious note, let’s talk about women in plays. A lot of plays aren’t women-centric, but this one has both female leads as well as a central theme, and, for this production, a female director. As women, did the play speak to you in a different way or influenced the direction you’ve taken with it?

Schaffer: What struck us most about the cast of “The Drunken City” was the equality of the characters. Not really even in terms of there being three men and three women ... but that everyone gets their “moment” in the play ... A lot of women are involved in

Whitman’s theatre department, so it is nice to come across a play that gives the same number of opportunities to both genders. However, what’s better than being involved in a show “about women” is being in a show about life, and we think the sense of life in the play — and the joy, heartbreak and experiences that come along with that — is what the audience will connect to the most.

Pioneer: Well put! Now, sell the play in one word.

All: Ahhh [anguished silence] Schaffer: I don’t want to choose something unoriginal like “funny...”

Forrester: I was thinking of “sparkly,” but...

LeBas: “Tilt-a-whirl?”

Pioneer: If you hyphenate it enough, that’s one word.

Schaffer: Yeah, that’s rough...

Um... “Drunk”? (laughs) Forrester: Can I use a phrase?

Pioneer: As long as it’s a short phrase.

Forrester: I’ll use a phrase from the play. “Candy and flowers at night.”

LeBas: Yeah, that describes it pretty well.

“The Drunken City” is currently playing at Harper Joy Theatre through Sunday, Nov. 17. For the video interview, visit whitmanpioneer.com/category/arts.

Thor rescues woman who should save herself

by NATHAN FISHER Staff Reporter

T

hink about the formula for some of the most successful movies in recent history: a little humor, maybe a touch of violence and throw in a superpower or two and I’m sold. Add in Marvel’s magic and the whole world will line up to see the movie. This past week I donned my Avengers t-shirt and headed down to the theater to see “Thor: The Dark World,” the newest installment in the Marvel Universe.

Although not my favorite su-

perhero (or actor), Thor (C h r i s Hemsworth) is arguably one of the hottest hunks, and combining his caveman-like acting abilities and muscles, he wins over and saves Natalie Portman’s character, Jane Foster. In between the humorous interactions and constant death, destruction and mayhem, I had this gnawing irritation with the “damsel in distress” theme in this film. Really, aren’t we over the notion that women can’t fight for themselves?

First a little context: “Thor 2” is set after “The Avengers” with Thor back home in his own world, Asgard. Naturally we just so happen to be witnessing the “lining up” of all nine realms/worlds which, for some reason, wreaks havoc on physics on Earth (one of the nine realms) and creates the perfect opportunity for someone to take control of the universe. If that didn’t make sense, it’s probably because the screenwriters didn’t bother to explain exactly what this gobbledygook means.

All you need to know is that a dark, evil power just happened to pick Natalie Portman’s character as a host, causing an evil alien to awaken from a 5,000 year slumber and try to reclaim the power from Portman in order to rule

over all nine realms. And who comes to save the day? Well that hunk of a Viking Thor, with his gigantic muscles and flowing mane!

You would think that a smart, successful woman like Portman’s character would be able to fend for herself, but apparently she still needs a muscular manly man to save the day. When Jane has the evil power inside of her, Thor literally swoops in and grabs her. Although it’s been two years since they’ve last seen each other, she doesn’t exactly put up a fight before they make out. Evil power after evil power try to kill Jane, but Thor always swoops in to s a v e her. At o n e point Ja ne

tries to save Thor, but is even powerless to move him an inch!

Thor constantly watches over Jane. Not once is a woman given power and rewarded for it.

While for the most part the violence and humor of the movie masked this misogynistic theme, “Thor 2” was not kind to women.

Apparently in the world of Thor, if a woman wants to be with a man, she has to either act like a man, or act like she needs him to save her. The whole point of “Thor 2” was Thor saving Jane from death. Because a brilliant physicist who knows everything about the universe is realistically unable to save herself!

Now, although I was slightly peeved, I definitely enjoyed “Thor: The Dark World” even though the plot was predictable and half of the characters looked like they were taken out of “Lord of the Rings,” “Star Wars” or “Star Trek.” The highlight of the movie was Thor’s sassy brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Loki steals the show with his wit and humor. While Thor may not be my favorite Avenger (cough, cough Iron Man), I had more fun the second time around than I did the first. But please, Natalie Portman, you are a strong, smart and savvy woman who should demand that your character at least partially fights her own battles.

PIO PICKS Each Thursday, The Pioneer highlights events happening on campus or in Walla Walla during the weekend.

Here are this week’s picks: Stand Up Economist Economics? Comedy? At the same time? Stand-up economist Yorum Bauman melds the two worlds together for a laughfilled night.

Sponsored by Environmental Studies Department, CCC and WEB.

Thursday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. at Reid Coffeehouse

Chemical Forensics: A Whitman College Phi-Talk Dr. April Carman, a physical chemist from the Pacific Northwest National Lab, is coming to Whitman to present about her experience researching in the areas of materials science and chemical chromatography.

Please join in experiencing the first of many presentations brought to our campus.

Sponsored by Whitman College Alpha Phi. Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. in Brattan Auditorium

Breakfast and Recycling Curious about where your recycling goes? Ever wondered what happens to that plastic bottle you put in the section lounge recycling container? Come recycle with the Outhouse!

We’ll meet at the Outhouse to recycle and return to a wonderful breakfast!

Sponsored by ASWC Saturday, Nov. 16 at 9:30 a.m. at the Outhouse

Rocky Horror Picture Show Time Warp with the best of them at Whitman’s take on the cult classic, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

Saturday, Nov. 16 at 10 p.m. in Maxey Auditorium

Shattering the Silence Join current students as well as Whitman staff and Walla Walla community members as they share their perspectives and experiences regarding sexual assault.

Sponsored by FACE and ASC. Monday, Nov. 18 at 5:30 p.m. in Reid Ballroom

Writers’ Colony In honor of the hair-filled month, the theme for this Colony is hair!

Sponsored by ASWC

Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Writing House

SPORTS

NOV

14 2013

PAGE

5

Ellis’ steady presence anchors lax team

by MITCHELL SMITH Staff Reporter

W

hen most people watch lacrosse highlights, they look for flashy goals and big hits. While senior men’s lacrosse captain Dan Ellis doesn’t often provide either of these, he acts as an anchor and a leader for a team thats success this year is very much in doubt.

The team lost a bevy of talent to graduation last year. Two defenders, a midfielder and a goalie will have to be replaced in order to improve upon, or even match, last year’s 3-3 record (1-3 in division).

“This year could be a big toss-up,” said Ellis, “we lost a lot of very key players.”

However, this uncertainty is exactly what the team will try to overcome, and Ellis is leading the charge. Even though the rangy defender is a BBMB major, which takes up much of his time, he still finds space in his schedule to fill out all the required paperwork for the team, run fall captain’s practices, finalize the spring schedule and even organize hotel rooms for tournaments.

“Every team needs someone like that and he’s taken that spot,” said junior Robbie MacNichol. “[Without Dan] our team would pretty much crumble.”

This has become even more evident this semester, as Ellis’ captain cohort, junior Max Skotheim, is currently studying abroad.

The season does have hope, though, partly due to Ellis’ emphasis on teaching the intricacies of college lacrosse to the less-experienced players.

“It really depends on how much a lot of the freshmen are able to step up and get motivated. This year could be a big success as we try to build on what we had last year with some new pieces, but it could easily go the other way around if we’re not able to put stuff together and get [the team] to work,” said Ellis.

The difficulty lately has been welcoming newcomers to the small roster without making the commitment level seem too daunting.

“The hardest part is trying to figure out the best attitude for the team and when it’s a good idea to go easy on people and when you need to step up and actually push people,” said Ellis.

This balance is especially hard for a first-time captain to achieve.

So far though, Ellis’ teammates agree with the tone he has set.

“He’s definitely the top leader,” said first-year Chris Cahoon. “We have some jokers on the team, so he’s a good role model to keep everyone in line and working hard.”

Ellis does more than just contribute to the logistics. In practice, he’s an invaluable asset on defense. Ellis is not a defender who will recklessly initiate contact in order to knock the ball loose. Instead, he waits for the right moment to take advantage of the opponent’s mistake.

“He’s very precise. He’ll take the ball from you because he’ll hit you right on the hand. On my club team we call that the ‘punisher’ ... but that doesn’t work because Dan’s not mean — Dan’s kind,” said MacNichol. Sophomore Will Clifford has noticed the same thing about Ellis.

“Being that lacrosse is very physical and competitive, it’s amazing how Dan can play defense and still be composed. He never loses his head. He’s mentally stronger than everyone else in that way,” said Clifford.

“I didn’t know if I wanted to spend that much energy in lacrosse,” said Ellis of his thought process when deciding between Whitman and another school where lacrosse is a varsity sport.

While Ellis has ended up putting a great deal of time and energy into Whitman lacrosse, he will continue to keep his composure and keep the team running, both on and off the field.

Dan Ellis ‘14 is a key member of the lacrosse team, providing calm, stable leadership and stingy defense. Photo by Felt

More support needed for NFL players Young players struggling with substance abuse

by DYLAN SNYDER Staff Reporter

E

very year across sports, players get disciplined for doing drugs, whether they be recreational or performance-enhancing. What is different about this season, however, is that we are seeing players completely abandon their teams due to their inability to control their use of drugs.

This year we have seen two of the top up-and-coming players in the NFL, Aldon Smith and Justin Blackmon, take indefinite leaves of absence from their teams in order to enter rehabilitation facilities to treat their drug and alcohol use. Smith is on his way to becoming one of the premier pass rushers in the league, and Blackmon may be the most talented receiver in the league under the age of 25.

Now the football world watches with baited breath to see if they can overcome their inner demons of addiction and abuse to

come back to the playing field.

Smith took his leave after getting his second DUI since leaving the University of Missouri for the NFL. This is incredibly troubling, not just on the basis that he was a repeat offender of drinking and driving, but that

Being able to keep young players focused on the game, and not where the party is afterwards, is the key to creating contending teams. no one in the locker room was keeping him in check. His team, the San Francisco 49ers, is full of veteran leaders who should have been able to spot and correct Smith’s actions before they got to the point that they did.

Blackmon is a more inter-

esting case, as he has been suspended by the league indefinitely for repeatedly failing drug tests, while Smith hadn’t failed any. In addition, Blackmon, as a member of the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars, didn’t have the locker room stability that Smith had. The Jaguars are a bad young team without much guidance for a struggling yet immensely talented young player.

Both of these incidents suggest that NFL teams should have more support for players dealing with personal issues. The team pays for much of the time that doctors and staffers see players, and much of what players say can get reported back to the team. Teams need to be better equipped to help struggling athletes, and frankly it is surprising that things like this don’t occur more often.

Looking at the situation that many of these players are in: between the ages of 21 and 25, making hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dol-

lars, and with little knowledge of what to do in their free time, it doesn’t seem like any surprise to me that a lot of people get into trouble with alcohol and other risky practices.

That is why having a good locker room environment is such an important facet of the game.

Being able to keep young players focused on the game, and not where the party is afterwards, is the key to creating contending teams. Of course players are entitled to live their lives outside of football, but having the support system around them that cultivates a culture of treating football like a job and not a game — because that is all football is to many of these players — is crucial to success.

The mental health and safety of football players should be the first thing in regards to what coaches and teammates look for in someone who may be having a hard time, and using football to do so is a winwin situation for these teams.

Skateboarding club rolling along smoothly from SKATEBOARDING, page 1

of the year to find any first-years who skate. It will also hopefully allow us to travel to some competitions in the eastern Washington/Oregon area,” said Shellum.

A presence at the Activities Fair will help the club, as it will generate interest among first-years immediately.

“We have not done much advertising, and not many peo-

ple on campus skateboard. There are probably 10 of us maximum at any given time that skate. Hopefully this club also can serve as a beacon to get people to start skating,” said Gordy.

Zach Gordy ‘15 skates in front of North Hall. Regulars like Gordy have to make use of campus for tricks. Photo by Blake-Whitney

This comes at an ideal time as well because, as of late, Whitman has become stricter about where skateboard enthusiasts can skate.

“I am glad it happened this year because of how much Whitman has been cracking down on us. Historically, as long as we did not grind any ledges, we were allowed to skate on campus. This year that has all changed. Hopefully the club, and our activities through the club, are able to change policy on campus and provide us with a convenient and safe place to skate,” said Gordy.

Funding is also a big draw for skateboarders, as most of the terrain they ride is natural or already built, and they are left to improvise with what is already available.

“I’m just looking forward to us having the money to build a mini-ramp and put it out by the quad porch [at the TKE house],” said senior Max Reikosky.

And there would potentially be funding for things like broken boards and boards available for new members to try out.

“Funding for our hobbies is probably the most important aspect. There is a certain level of trick or terrain difficulty one is willing to skate without fear of

SCOREBOARD SOCCER

Men’s v. Whitworth University Nov. 9: L 2–0 Women’s v. George Fox University Nov. 8: W 1-0

VOLLEYBALL

v. Whitworth University Nov.6: L 3–0 v. Linfield College Nov.9: L 3–2

SWIMMING

Men’s v. Linfield College Nov. 8: W 157-40 v. Willamette University Nov. 9: W 137-66 Women’s v. Linfield College Nov. 8: W 139-65 v. Willamette University Nov. 9: W 151-52

UPCOMING CROSS COUNTRY

v. NCAA Regionals Nov. 16: AWAY

SWIMMING

v. Lewis & Clark Nov.15, 6:00 p.m.: HOME v. Pacific University Nov.16, 6:00 p.m.: HOME

BASKETBALL

Men’s v. Old Westbury Nov.19, 9:00 p.m.: HOME Women’s v. St. Thomas Nov. 15: AWAY v. Pomona-Pitzer Nov. 16: AWAY

breaking your board and having to buy a new one; they are very expensive,” said Gordy.

But money is not the primary reason for the club’s inception by any stretch. The main goal for the more involved members is creating an organized club that can draw more than a few students each year, and have a positive interaction with the rest of the Whitman community.

“Our motivation right now is to try and help the community — to create something more permanent than just a bunch of friends that skate together,” said Gordy.

For all the members of the club, Whitman’s recognition of their favorite hobby and sport is extremely meaningful. Skating isn’t just an activity they partake in, but a lifestyle that defines their personality.

“Skateboarding is dancing with a piece of wood on wheels. It is a medium with which I can tell jokes, the punch line being either a smooth getaway or a trip to the pavement.

It plays the same role any sport would play. It gives me the opportunity to hone my coordination, balance and willingness to take risks,” said Reikosky.

PAGE

6

FEATURE

nov

14 2013

Work abroad attracts alumni

by Serena Runyan Staff Reporter

F

rom villages outside of Botswana to Dongying, China, Whitman College alumni are living all over the world to impact the local communities and to learn about themselves.

Living abroad offers graduates different ways to develop themselves positively for the future. For Patricia Vanderbilt ‘12, living abroad in Dongying in the Shandong province of China to teach English offers her constructive challenges and opens her eyes to new perspectives. Vanderbilt applied to teach in China after working for a year as a Fulbright English teaching assistant in New Dehli, India.

“I like living abroad,” said Vanderbilt in an email. “I like the challenge of figuring out how things work in a different country, adapting to a new culture and learning a new language. I think I learn a lot about myself and my native country and culture in the process.”

Caitlin Hardee ‘12 became entranced with Berlin, Germany after spending a year abroad there as a junior. She moved back the summer after graduation on a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) media grant, and spent the next few months obtaining a visa to stay there after her grant period ended.

“Berlin is fascinating as a political capital and hub of EU policy, as well as one of the nightlife capitals of the world and the true heart of electronic music in Europe. It’s also breathtakingly cheap,” she said in an email.

She is currently working in Berlin with a two-year freelance visa and completing a variety of editorial and public relations projects.

Unlike Hardee, Fritz Siegert ‘12 has known for years that he wanted to live abroad after graduating.

“Since before college, I’ve known that I wanted to spend a sig-

nificant portion of my life abroad.

As a (still) aspiring pre-medical student, this desire was only further fueled by such silly books as ‘Mountains Beyond Mountains,’” said Siegert in an email.

“Mountains Beyond Mountains,” a book by Tracy Kidder, chronicles the journeys of a man named Paul Farmer who attempts to spread the benefits of modern medicine to those who need it most.

Siegert is currently living in Botswana as a 2012-2013 Princeton in Africa Fellow. Like Vanderbilt, Siegert’s desire to experience a place that would contrast his life in America drew him to Africa.

“I have always wanted to experience Africa, and more than that, [to] experience a way of living that contrasts from what I have experienced thus far. Apart from a short month-long stint in the UK, this has been my only trip overseas,” said Siegert in an email.

And, as all of these graduates desired, the dissimilarities to America these countries provide have been sources of rewarding growth, as well as challenging adjustments. Siegert has been able to experience a change from the busy lifestyle he had in America.

“Simplicity and patience are lenses through which to view the world that are often underutilized in America. Class to ASWC to rugby to TKE to volunteering to thesis to parties to catch-up coffee dates ... my last year at Whitman was as fast as it was furious.

It’s been eye-opening to experience a culture and way of life that appreciates down time as much as it does busy time,” said Siegert.

This element of simplicity has given Siegert many fond memories, such as hitchhiking to different villages.

“Hitch-hiking is [a] fairly common way to get around in Botswana. Outside of Gaborone (the capital), most people do not own cars and rely on others to get

around. Some of my favorite moments in this country have come while I’m traveling to visit friends in nearby villages, in the back of a pickup truck on a sunny day, groups of ostriches running alongside,” said Siegert in an email.

Nik Hagen ‘13 spent two months in Italy after graduation working as an au pair. For Hagen, being abroad served as an enriching transition to post-graduate life. In addition to Hagen’s opportunity to explore Italy, this break from his life in America gave him the necessary amount of independence for serious reflection.

“I knew I wanted to do something completely different with my summer to serve as a separation between college and the ‘real world’,” said Hagen in an email.

“In the post graduation confusion and haze, I figured my time abroad would give me time and perspective to reflect on the four years of college I had just completed and give me a chance to look ahead while simultaneously experiencing a different part of the world.”

Just as Hagen used his time abroad for separated introspection, transitioning to living in India and China forced Vanderbilt to adjust to being a foreigner and has provided ample opportunity for self-definition.

“I think living abroad makes me do a lot of reflecting,” said Vanderbilt. “I’ve learned to accept that I’m a foreigner. It sounds obvious, but it is difficult to live somewhere where my appearance immediately reveals me as a foreigner, no matter how long I stay here or how well I learn to speak Chinese. I’ve learned to accept the good and bad experiences that come from being a foreigner.”

In China, where many people speak little to no English, Vanderbilt’s process of learning Mandarin has been a challenging opportunity to integrate herself more fully into Chinese society.

“It was a small moment, but my first real conversation with the grandmothers who live in my apartment community was a very significant experience for me,” said Vanderbilt in an email. “Every time they sit me down and ask me questions about the [United States], and after a lot of repeating and gesturing, I’m able to understand and attempt an answer; every time I feel a little more connected to China and a little happier about my life here.”

Vanderbilt’s unfamiliarity with the area and the language sometimes frustrates her, but ultimately it is an opportunity for growth. Vanderbilt’s experiences have caused her to be more confident independently.

“Traveling anywhere alone while abroad is always a best [and] worst experience,” she said. “It forces me to step outside my comfort zone and be vulnerable in the things I do and the connections I make. Sometimes it leads to unplanned frustrations, but as I work through them I become more confident in myself and more comfortable living in a foreign country.”

Hardee is also glad to have the opportunity to practice her language skills.

“I love constantly encountering an international mix of people, being surrounded by foreign languages and getting the opportunity to speak and write German on a daily basis,” she said.

Hagen’s experience was also difficult at times, but ultimately helped him develop independently.

“The whole experience was both incredible and incredibly frustrating,” said Hagen in an email.

“The kids I was taking care of were quite the hand full and definitely tried my patience daily ... but it was an incredible time for introspection and reevaluation of the things I find most meaningful about life and personal interaction.”

Hagen echoed Vanderbilt’s

emphasis on personal connection abroad. His time in Italy allowed him to reflect on his priorities.

“I think the greatest thing that I learned was that regardless of the setting, I can’t find much joy in any living situation or travel experience without people I care about to share it with and interact with,” said Hagen in an email.

Siegert inevitably also experiences this relative isolation as a foreigner. For one, he works through a language barrier in Botswana when he’s not teaching English.

“Though the official language of Botswana is English ... the ‘language of the people,’ soto-speak, is Setswana. I have picked up bits and pieces of the language here and there,” he said.

And the more laid-back attitude he has learned to appreciate from Botswana has sometimes acted as a road-block. “[T]hat same ‘simple and patient’ lifestyle that I have loved can oftentimes prove frustrating when trying to collaborate professionally with peers,” he said.

Siegert has still managed to make big impacts, however. One of Siegert’s best experiences has been designing a service trip that took six students to work at a refugee camp in Northern Botswana for a week, using models from service trips he led at Whitman.

“The kids loved it as much as I did,” he said.

Cultural dissimilarities have also introduced Siegert to more negative aspects of living in a foreign country.

“At other times, there is also a strong culture [of] misogyny that I struggle with given a good number of my close friends here are women,” he said.

Overall, though, these experiences abroad have provided unparalleled opportunities for these graduates to learn about different areas of the world, their own country and about themselves.

Watson nominees pursue international projects from WATSON, page 1

Zarate expressed a desire to go into education reform or public policy one day, and this Watson project would give her the background she would need to decide what to do in these fields.

While abroad, she plans to do a qualitative study by talking to high school and college students about their experience in foreign education systems. She is also already in contact with certain non-governmental agencies (NGOs) and researchers who have asked similar questions.

“What is our education system producing? Are we producing critical thinkers that can go into any field, or are we using a model that just needs to be flipped? I think those are the kinds of questions I want to be thinking about while I think about career choices,” said Zarate.

Chen’s project also reflects her passions. The book “The Little Prince” has motivated her ever since she was little. The book is essentially a fairytale written during World War II about a young boy who visits multiple planets, each with different problems that relate to our world.

Chen will go to Poland, France, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to explore the residues of inhumanity in those places and to see how “The Little Prince” spreads its messages of humanity to the people. One particular way she will do this is by physically reading the book in different languages to those who have lived through war crimes, Korean refu-

gees and sick children to see what different perspectives come about.

“Every time I read something about peace in general, it always brings me back to “The Little Prince.” It’s been so long and yet people still read it, and I wonder what kind of essence the book has that makes it able to propagate so successfully, and how different languages mediate that,” said Chen.

Rathi also has an intense itinerary. She is planning on traveling to South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Jordan, Nigeria and Morocco to investigate how the male-dominated field of filmmaking varies in different cultures.

“My project is about women filmmakers in different cinema cultures around the world. I read about some interesting trends.

For example, in the [United States] in 2012, the number of female directors for the highest grossing 250 films was only 9 percent.

As compared to that in the Arab world, for example, almost half the directors are women,” she said.

Rathi will travel to a few different film festivals, looking at how these events help women break into the industry. The ones she will attend are directed specifically at women. One in London is called Images of Black Women, and it showcases the work of black women directors or films concerning black women. Another one in Paris is solely dedicated to lesbian and transgender women.

“So it’s not just about being a woman, but about being a woman of color or of sexual minority. And depending on where in the world

you come from, and what kind of privileges you have, all these things change the game completely. And without taking them all into consideration, it’s impossible to make any statement about filmmakers and what they are able to do,” said Rathi.

All four finalists have completely different projects, and all are equally passionate. This passion is what has driven them through the entire journey. Although the application process is quite lengthy and strenuous, each of these applicants

declared that it was entirely worth it.

“Even if you don’t get it, it gave me the opportunity to selfreflect in a way I never had before, and it’s giving me an opportunity to think more about what I want to do in the future. So I think I will have a better understanding of myself. One of the things about the Watson is that it’s all about the process and the journey starts with your initial idea,” said Zarate.

When the Watson fellows return from their year abroad, they ADVERTISEMENT

will attend a national conference and give a short speech about their experience. Quarterly reports must be sent to the fellowship foundation, but other than that, the outcome is all up to the individual.

“The Watson is really amazing because they’re not interested in your project — you are the project. All they want is to give you a year to go out and experience the world. And when you come back, you don’t have to give anything.

You are who you are,” said Chen.

OPINION

NOV

14 2013

PAGE

7

Anonymity trumps need for censorship BILL lows for cyberbullies to post racLANDEFELD ist, sexist or other forms of hurtJunior

H

ave you ever had a question that you didn’t feel comfortable asking anybody? Well, I know that myself and many other Whitman students have. Luckily at Whitman, there is such a place that you can do this, and it is on a website called Whitman Encounters. However, this outlet to freely speak your mind might not be around for much longer.

In the last two weeks, there has been a lot of controversy over cyberbullying and racism. What started off the web eventually found itself onto the web and right onto the Whitman Encounters website. This website allows Whitman students and anybody else with Internet access to post to an online forum anonymously. The benefit of Whitman Encounters is that each post is anonymous — each comment is read based on its individual merits without being biased toward the person making them.

Due to the fact that Whitman Encounters is anonymous, the likelihood of abusive language to be posted is higher. Anonymity al-

ful language without consequence.

They can hide behind their computer without fear of future repercussions, while the person or people that they attack suffer from their harmful words, never knowing who posted the hurtful post.

However, had the website not been anonymous, we would never see some of the true opinions of people out in the open. Think about it — all of the people who post all of these hurtful comments would probably never say the words to the person’s face or even post them on the web with their name attached.

This way, the Whitman community can see these hurtful words and realize that issues like racism and sexism do exist at Whitman. Rather than brushing this problem under the rug by removing the anonymity and banning the website, we should recognize that there are conflicting opinions at Whitman, and we should encourage open-minded discussions in order to understand the different opinions. While an anonymous online forum might not be the best place for this discussion, sometimes it takes a place like this to break the ice and catalyze discussion, such as the issues being discussed on Whitman Encounters over the past couple of weeks.

Like it or not, these harmful comments that are posted on Whitman Encounters creates important discussions. Right now, our entire campus is discussing these is-

sues of race and Internet anonymity more than ever. Where else can you essentially “reply-all” to the student listserv, capturing the attention of a large part of the campus? While we should not rely on Whitman Encounters to facilitate all of our discussions — we should encourage meaningful faceto-face discussions — the anonymity allows for us to point out the problems and discuss these issues, whatever they may be.

Whitman Encounters allows people who do not feel comfortable speaking out loud to safely post their thoughts on the website. The flipside of this is that the anonymous postings allow marginalized Whitman students to speak out against the ways that they were treated in a safe way for the entire campus to see. There have been countless personal postings that many would not be comfortable attaching their name (or even Whitmail address) to, such as coming out, dealing with depression and substance abuse. Whitman Encounters can act as a guide, support group and helpful tool to those in need of speaking out without revealing their identity. While this comfort ability can extend to harmful comments, these opinions are not indicative of the Whitman population as a whole. I suggest that the moderators of Whitman Encounters take a more aggressive stance on cyberbullying, especially on personal attacks. That being said, they should allow for conten-

tious topics to be discussed, such as how race affects Whitman, because Whitman Encounters facilitates these open forum discussions to take place without the fear of worrying how people will judge you.

While I think that cyberbullying is destructive and has real life implications, instead of banning the website from the Whitman servers or taking away the anonymity of

Whitman Encounters, we should seek solutions to our issues. If there is somebody posting racist things on the site, confront him or her. Rather than calling to cure the symptoms of the problem, tackle the disease. By this, I mean fostering discussion through the various outlets at Whitman, both in person and on Whitman Encounters.

International community should support wind power Voices from the DANI HUPPER First-year

T

he merits of today’s energy sources are all relative. As there is no completely pollutant-free way to harness energy, we are forced to pick the lesser of many evils. And with a few practical technological advancements, wind power could put us on the track to a future in renewable energy.

It’s difficult to determine wind power’s global electric potential (i.e. the maximum amount of wind power we could harness in

the current political and economic climate). Will we take advantage of stronger and steadier offshore winds? Will areas with high wind capacity permit wind farms on their own property? Will we find a way to easily convert wind energy to put on all electrical grids? Due to these varying factors, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2011 report provided a range of global electrical potentials using wind power. The studies range from 70 EJ/year to 450 EJ/year. While there is a large difference in predictions, even the low estimate of global wind-provided electricity outputs a significant amount of power; 70 EJ/year is roughly equivalent to all the electricity we produced across the globe in 2008, and the 450 EJ/year figure is roughly six times that.

And wind power is just beginning to really take off. From

1999 to 2009, globally installed wind power increased 12-fold. In just 2009, 20 percent of the electricity from newly installed global electrical systems came from wind power. Particular countries that have jumped on the wind power bandwagon include China, the United States, Germany, India and Denmark. Surprisingly, China is the leading wind power producer. China has a 75,000 megawatt wind capacity, which is more than a quarter of the world total.

Like all energy sources, wind power has its problems. There are three I find most difficult: integration, transmission and reliability.

Firstly, there is concern that wind power at high turbulence will not be able to integrate into the lessmodern electrical systems (however, it’s been successfully integrated into the systems of Denmark, Portugal, Spain and Ireland). Second-

Mease not Mooses by Asa Mease

ly, areas with the greatest wind capacity are often distant from cities. There is concern that it will be too complex and unattractive to hang power cables between the wind farm and the populated area.

Lastly, we have not found a way to store wind power in the absence of wind, and thus a backup or storage system is needed. These are significant issues. But pro-wind-power countries like China and Denmark show that these issues can be overcame with effort. The IPCC believes technology will advance appropriately in the near future.

Of course you might not be so supportive of wind turbines if they were in your backyard. Home owners find them to be an eyesore and an annoyance because of their perpetual sound. Producing energy on your own property is not always pretty (though I, myself, find wind turbines quite peaceful). But we should remind ourselves of what non-local energy looks like: hydraulic fracturing near aquifers in Pennsylvania, drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and mining for coal in Kentucky.

Once constructed, wind turbines emit no pollutants. They cause little harm on the surrounding ecosystem. The cost is competitive with prices in the current market. It could potentially power our growing energy demand, particularly if the appropriate technological and political advancements are made.

Wind power is a practical energy source. The international community should invest more time modifying its kinks rather than the fossil fuel alternative.

Community How do you feel about the new tennis courts?

Poll by SKYE VANDER LAAN

AUSTIN BIEHL Sophomore

“I really like them. I think that they were a really good investment. There definitely wasn’t enough room before, and the courts were really cracked and old, so overall I think it was a really good thing, except for the loss of the trees and the compass.”

COLIN BRINTON Junior

“In terms of my opinion on the recent addition of the tennis courts, it really doesn’t affect me, I don’t really have an opinion on it ... I guess it’s good the extra tennis courts allow both the community and the tennis team to play at the same time.”

MICHELLE JANNING

Simple video games offer new arena for competition TOBY ALDEN Senior

T

he most elegant games are those which have the fewest and simplest rules, but the greatest complexity resulting from their interplay.

The Chinese game of Go epitomizes this axiom. In it, players alternately place stones on a grid, attempting to demarcate territory and to capture their opponents stones by surrounding them. It’s a simple formula, but the number of permutations it gives rise to are beyond the computation of even our most powerful computers. Conversely, a game with many complicated rules tends to be less strategically complex because the implications of each rule are rarely every fully realized in play; in part, this is because one rule will often undercut the consequences of another. This explains why people who play too much of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. turn the items off and refuse to fight on any map other than the flat, featureless Final Destination — items and varied terrain introduce complications that actually detract from the

already sufficient complexity of each character’s set of abilities. The more rules a game has, it seems, the less relevant each rule becomes.

For this reason, most of my favorite games tend to have a high ratio of rules to strategic depth. This is especially true of one game in particular: Puyo Puyo 2, a gem of a puzzle game that briefly enjoyed a degree of popularity among my friends sophomore year. I’ve heard it described as competitive Tetris, which, although slightly misleading — if only because Puyo Puyo has much more depth to it than its Soviet cousin — is not a bad encapsulation of how it plays. The screen is divided into two playing fields, one for each player; colored blobs, called puyos, fall in pairs of two and can be rotated and moved from side-to-side until finally coming to rest at the bottom of screen. When four blobs of the same color come into contact, they pop, and an equivalent amount of “garbage puyos” — colorless nuisances that can only be rid of by popping adjacent puyos — are sent to the opponent’s side. The game gets interesting when the disappearance of one group causes another to fall down and form another group of four, causing a chain reaction that dumps exponentially more garbage puyos onto the opponent, unless, of course, the opponent sets off a chain of his own whose garbage cancels out the imminent broadside. This leads to frantic, tennis-like matches in which mountains of gar-

bage threaten each player alternately as each detonates larger and larger combos in response to the other, until, finally, one of them slips up and is buried alive (the game is won when your opponent’s puyos touch the top of the screen). This takes, at most, about two minutes. The mental gymnastics involved in keeping track of the chain you’re building become more and more demanding as you get better and more ambitious, and YouTube videos of lightningfast

Japanese tournaments give witness to the ridiculous extent to which one can become good at Puyo Puyo.

This is the kind of game you could play for a lifetime, so long as someone was willing to play with you.

Sadly, Compile, the makers of Puyo Puyo 2 and its sequels, went under in 2003. But the rights to Puyo Puyo were sold to Sonic Team, a subsidiary of Sega, and Puyo Puyo games are still being made under the name Puyo Pop. A lot of the original game’s charm has been lost, unfortunately, and too many superfluous rules have been added, but most of these can be disabled, and the core gameplay has remained intact.

Anyone who enjoys puzzle games s h o u l d check Puyo Puyo out and rope their friends into it too. Whitman has a desperate need for competitive video games that aren’t Super Smash Bros., or whatever iteration of Call of Duty Activision most recently milked from the franchise’s longdesiccated teat.

Professor

“I think I have mixed feelings about it because I feel frustrated with myself that when the opportunity for input about the project was invited, I didn’t do that ...

I don’t think the aesthetic changes that came about might have been as predictably negative as people thought, and I’m sad that the trees were cut down. ” BRIAN GLICKMAN Sophomore

“I really like the tennis courts.

They’re really nice — I like the blue color ... the one issue, though, is that the compass is gone, and I really miss it because now I can’t hear my voice echo.”

*

For video responses visit: whitmanpioneer.com/category/ opinion

SNACKPAGE

PAGE

8

NOV

14 2013

Students just want snacks Studies show that snack culture is on the rise

R

ecent polls by The Huffington Post have revealed a shocking fact: Despite commonly held beliefs about college students, the amount of snacks students consume is far less than it was 30 years ago.

Similar polls on Whitman’s campus confirmed this surprising decline. Though theories are abound, we decided to ask students about this apparent dearth and what they thought about it.

For the most part, answers were relatively similar.

“I don’t really have snacks,” said sophomore Amy Durhann.

“Sure, I’ll have occasional snacks, but for the most part I don’t.

It’s mostly when I’m drunk.”

“I never have snacks!” said first-year Allen Mitchel. “Some people do, but not me!”

When asked if he liked snacks, he just laughed.

“Of course I like snacks! Everybody does,” he said.

Though not true of all students, most seem to agree with Allen.

“I came to college thinking I’d be having a lot of snacks,” said senior Morgan Freisch as she sat with her friends on Ankeny Field. “But in reality I’ve been hungry for a few years!”

Her friend, Lynda Miles ’13 from New York agreed.

“You ask someone about having snacks, and they suddenly get weird,” she said. “Do West Coasters not like snacks? Because that shit should be in the brochure!”

Senior Jenna Miles chimed in.

“It is easier to have snacks

with townies — they are not nearly as up-tight as Whitman students!” she said, and the girls burst into laughter.

But if students want snacks, what is preventing them? We asked Associate Professor of Sociology M. Gaye to give us a few hints.

“I think there is just not the educational infrastructure for people to learn about snacks,” said Gaye. “Snack education at the high school level is atrocious and students are forced to turn to the Internet or to their peers to learn about snacks. Most of the informatiovn is incorrect!”

Associate Professor of Psychology S. N. Pepa had another theory.

“I think it is a particular product of Northwest culture. Students raised in the Portland or Seattle area don’t think snacks are bad, but they just have never talked about it. They don’t have the social vocabulary to express their desires honestly. And they also don’t really know how to ask for things in general — much less snacks.”

Whatever the reason, stu-

dents across the board express significant frustration.

“I’m just tired of all the drama,” said junior Mia Nye. “What’s so hard about just having casual snacks with a friend? And yet everyone makes it into a big to-do.”

“Everyone here is so weird about snacks. I can’t wait ‘til I graduate,” said senior Aaron Billings.

“Why is it that you get such a weird reputation if you like snacks?” sighed first-year Lydia Lord. “I’ve had enough.”

“I really wish they had Doritos in the dining hall — how cool would that be?!” said first-year John Manchip.

It’s time we had a conversation at Whitman! A conversation about snacks. Whitman is a Bastian of liberalism, forwardthinking and activism — so why can’t we talk about something as simple as snacks? It certainly isn’t because we aren’t thinking about it. The Backpage encourages students to be proactive — start the conversation yourself! Change starts small; educate yourself and remember that safe snacks are the best snacks!

Snackspose New science reveals that you should probably have a snack right now

F

or years we have been told that snacking is bad for you, that it is important to only eat three square meals a day and that snack foods and junk foods are terribly unhealthy. But new research is being done by snack scientists, or “snackentists” as they prefer, at prestigious universities all over the country. I am investigating their findings in order to answer the question we have been asking all along: should I eat a snack?

In short, the answer is yes.

Professor T.J. Snacksberg, a leading snackentist, has been researching the effects of snacks vs. no snacks on his test subjects, who are also his research assistants.

His method is to divide his subjects into two groups, those who regularly receive snacks such as milk and cookies, Cheetos or chips and salsa when a bell is rung. The second group receives no snacks but rather three square meals of kale and brown rice without salt.

“Upon observing my test subjects, I have noticed a few trends.

The subjects who receive snacks are overall much jollier and go about their routines excitedly awaiting the next bell, while the non-snack group grumbles all day long, often falling asleep at work or complaining about their meals. They have also become more aggressive and hangry, as I like to say,” said Snacksberg.

I have a personal experience with the hanger of the non-

snack fed subjects. When visiting the laboratory and observing the subjects, the hangry subjects attacked me as soon as they smelled the cookie in my pocket that I was saving from lunch.

“I am of the opinion that snacking is of the upmost importance to the mental and physical health of human beings,” said Snacksburg.

Dorita Lowenstein, Ph.D. in Snackology, is researching what sort of snacks are truly best for us.

“Snacks are of the upmost importance in the human diet. We need snacks to keep us awake, to keep us from being bored and to keep us from being hungry for dinner. We need to snack,” she said.

Lowenstein has been testing the effects of various snacks upon a wide range of test subjects.

She postulates that the best snack is what she refers to as the “ultimate trisnackta,” which is one snack that simultaneously combines salty, sweet and savory. Although she has yet to find this ultimate trisnackta, she has experimented with the following combinations: chocolate-covered baconwrapped Cheetos, hummus truffle with a light dusting of Pixy Stix and Cheez-It cake with a salsa buttercream and chocolate ganache.

She hopes to identify the perfect trisnackta before 2014’s International Snackology Conference.

While there is much research still to be done, the consensus is clear: You should eat a snack.

Dorita Lowenstein, Ph.D. in Snackology, is attempting to create the ultimate snack. Photo by Sloss

SNACKSTISTICS:

MIDNIGHT

NUMBERS IN SNACKS

2270

SNACKS

35

Estimated percentage of Whitman students having snacks right now.

1500

Throughout the Week

100

Estimated percentage of snacks that I should be having right now.

313,914,040

(ranked by calories)

Number of pumpkin pies that will be baked in November.

45

Percentage of those pies that will be eaten as a snack.

800

78

People on campus that claim to dislike pumpkin pie.

78 200

People you should shun because of their feelings about pumpkin pie.

300 150

Me

30 MON

TUES

WED

Who you pie-haters should be giving your extra pumpkin pie.

THURS

FRI

SAT

SUN