The
PIONEER
Issue 5 | October 10, 2013 | Whitman news since 1896
LOCALIZING THE SHUTDOWN by DYLAN TULL News Editor
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he tense, drawn-out government shutdown has entered into its 10th day, the Oct. 17 deadline to raise the debt ceiling looms ever closer and tensions have only increased between President Obama and the GOP. American citizens have been relegated to useless bystanders, turning the entire crisis into a frustrating and potentially disastrous spectacle. Although Whitman College continues to function relatively smoothly, individuals at the college have been affected in a variety of underlying ways. From research that has been brought to a grinding halt, to students whose tuition payments rely on the salary of a federally paid parent, the impact of the shutdown is undeniable and demands attention. Associate Professor of Geology Kirsten Nicolaysen has encountered multiple hindrances in her work, including her and her students’ inability to complete research before a fast approaching conference, where they will be presenting their findings. Nicolaysen has a student who is finishing up an Abshire Award project looking into explosive eruptions in the Aleutian Islands, but because the student’s data is obtained through a government database, the project is at a standstill. “We’re accessing [data] through a government database. And that database is down. So we have a conference presentation related to this project in October and one in December, and we’d really like to have access to that database,” said Nicolaysen. Many senior students writing their theses also require access to government databases, and have reached a similar impasse due to the shutdown of federal agencies. Assistant Professor of Biology Tim Parker is currently advising two students who, as a part of their thesis research, spent their summers at federal agencies. At this point in time, these students would be expected to obtain the remaining parts of their data and be conducting statistical analyses on these datasets. However, they have no access to portions of their data that are still held with the government agencies. “These two students only have part of the data from their summer and they’re just waiting for folks at different federal agencies,” said Parker. In this case, as in many others, the result of the shutdown is not the end of the world. Assuming the government resumes action within the next couple weeks, the end result will be restructured deadlines and more intensive work in the future. “The fact that they’re not doing their statistical analyses right now slows them down, but it’s not some insurmountable hurdle in the time scales we’re talking about so far,” said Parker. For the others, however, including Whitman’s Outdoor Program (the OP), they must actively work around the obstacles presented by the shutdown to continue to function properly. According to the Assistant Director of the OP Stuart Chapin, between the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, the National Park System and the U.S. Fish and Game Service, around 80 or 90 percent of the OP’s weekend trips operate on federal land. The biggest challenge to the OP is that these federal lands are not all explicitly closed; there is uncertainty surrounding the status of each one, and due to federal workers being furloughed, there is no way to discover which ones are operational and what services they provide. “I think the biggest problem is not that federal land is closed; it’s that a lot of federal agencies aren’t explicitly stating what we can do on their land,” said the OP’s Trips Coordinator senior Madelyn Player. Chapin added that the distinction between what “closed” implies can be ambiguous. Some land is designated as closed, but that may be only in reference to facilities provided. So visitors can legally be on that federal land, but necessities such as water or bathrooms might be unavailable. “So trying to figure out which is which [is difficult]. National parks are closed; you can’t be there. National forests, however, appear to be ‘not open,’ which is not the same in that the bathrooms are locked and you’re not going to see a ranger, but you are allowed to be out there alone,” said Chapin. As for the future, the government shutdown can possibly affect where first-year Scrambles are able to take place at the beginning see SHUTDOWN, page 3
DAY 10
The government has been shut down for 10 days. Like millions around the nation, many Whitman students and faculty are struggling to adjust to changes, from the simple to the drastic.
Students receiving scholarships from federal agencies have had their award disbursements halted until further notice.
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Dozens of students and faculty have been halted from continuing research. Essential sites such as NASA, the U.S. Census Bureau and the NOAA are all offline.
INFOGRAPHIC BY VAZQUEZ AND MCNULTY
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Field trips have been disrupted. Multiple groups were prohibited from visiting the Hanford Reach National Monument for planned field trips, including the Intercultural Center and an environmental studies class.
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Cross Country runners typically train in the areas surrounding Bennington Lake and Mill Creek. Both sites have been closed, leaving the runners without optimal places to run.
OP
The majority of the OP’s trips operate on federal land. At this point, the biggest questions are what land is open, what land is closed and what facilities are unavailable. Multiple trips have been canceled, and many upcoming trips remain uncertain.
Phi house plans for solar panels by Sam Grainger-Shuba Staff Reporter
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Student cyclists take on trek from Seattle to Walla Walla by ISABEL MILLS Staff Reporter
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Chris Perkins and Reid Shaw ‘14 (above) rode 300 miles across the Cascade Mountains and Eastern Washington en route from Seattle to Walla Walla. Photos by Volpert
ost people are aware of Whitman’s impressive cycling team. Lesser known are the handful of students, unaffiliated with the team, who have completed some pretty remarkable rides. In the past two years, three Whitman students started the school year off with a bang by riding their bikes from their hometowns to Walla Walla. Last year, then-juniors Reid Shaw and Chris Perkins mounted their bikes in Seattle for a three-day, 300-mile bike ride to Walla Walla. They started the soccer preseason immediately after they arrived. “We rode about 100 miles a day, which would last from 8 a.m. to sundown, including the time we stopped for meals and breaks. At night we found random fields to sleep on. We had sleeping bags but no tent,” said Shaw in an email. Shaw’s and Perkins’s route followed I-90 to I-82, and then followed Highway 12 to Whitman, but they were mainly biking on side roads. Reportedly, the weather see CYCLISTS, page 4
ven from abroad in Ecuador, junior Joe Heegaard has a plan for Whitman College’s Phi Delta Theta fraternity chapter. As former sustainability chair of Phi, he is spearheading a project to put solar panels on the roof of the fraternity’s house. This project is designed to save energy and money for both the fraternity and the college. Heegaard started designing the project in September of 2012 and hopes to make concrete progress before his graduation. “I want to do this because I believe it would set an example for fraternities nationwide to strive for an environmentally responsible future. As the world continues to be devastated by non-sustainable energy endeavors, I hope that this project will act as an emblem for Phi Delta Theta of our commitment to the environment,” said Heegaard in an email. Money is the largest obstacle standing in the way of the solar panel installation. There are two options that the Phis are investigating. For $11,000, they could install 2.75 kilowatt panels that are made in Oregon. The other option is to install a similar 2.75 kilowatt system, the key difference being that these are made in Washington for $16,500 and include a $0.54 per kilowatt hour incentive. The extra incentive affects how long it will take for the panels to pay themselves off. The Oregon-made panels are cheaper, but they do not include an incentive, which would benefit Phi more in the long term. Whitman has a Sustainability Revolving Loan Fund (SRLF), and the committee is currently considering Phi’s proposal for a loan. If the fraternity is considered eligible, they will receive a loan to cover a large amount of the cost of the solar panels. “With SRLF funds, I would aim to raise $8,000 and hope to take out a loan for $8,500. This $8,500 loan could then be paid back in four years from the incentives and see SOLAR PANELS, page 3