Issue 3 spring 2015

The

PIONEER

ISSUE 3 | February 12, 2015 | Whitman news since 1896 | Vol. CXXXII

Former prisoners seek opportunity

by CHRISTY CARLEY Staff Reporter

This article was produced in collaboration with Anna Middleton and Andrew Schwartz of The Pio Radio Hour. The interviews with Scott Andrews and Glenna Awbrey were conducted by Middleton and Schwartz as part of a larger series on homelessness in Walla Walla. Tune to KWCW 90.5 FM at 10 a.m. on Sundays to hear more. The show is also available for online streaming at www. mixcloud.com/WhitmanPioneer/.

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Part of Northam’s success is the balance between seriousness and fun that he has created for his teams, a crucial aspect that keeps the practice mood light while still allowing opportunity for improvement. Photo by Bashevkin

Northam leads tennis team to new heights

by MITCHELL SMITH Staff Reporter

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hitman’s Athletic Department is in the middle of a renaissance of sorts that has seen a number of different sports experience historic success over the last decade. Still, there are dominant programs, and then there is Whitman College tennis, winners of the last nine Northwest Conference championships and owners of an unprecedented regular season Conference winning streak of 114 matches.

That culture of success begins with Head Men’s Tennis Coach Jeff Northam, who began his 17th-consecutive year at the helm of the Whitman tennis program last weekend during the team’s match at the University of Idaho. Northam, who played for Whitman between 1984 and 1988, returned to coach

the team in the Spring of 1998.

Since then, the direction of the program has never wavered from one of continued success.

“Every year it seems like other teams think that we’re going to have to rebuild, and the last seven or eight years we haven’t really done that once,” said senior Colton Malesovas.

The roadmap to this continued success, according to everyone involved in the program, seems to begin and end with Coach Northam. This team is a cohesive group both on and off the court, and the players attribute that to Northam more than anyone else.

“That’s all the culture that he’s set up because it’s one thing to have one [successful] team, one group of guys that’s cohesive and come together, but he’s been able to create that environment for the past num-

ber of years,” said Malesovas.

The creation of this chemistry lies with Northam’s ability to provide the team with group experiences like barbecues, rafting trips, camping and more — events that Northam calls “crazy, silly things.” There is more to these experiences, however, and they have helped the team grow and accept all new members without skipping a beat.

“It’s fun to have those bonds be solid,” said first-year Zach Hewlin. “Our coach puts up the expectation that we will hold each other to a high level of respect and value each other’s time commitment to the team and to ourselves.”

Northam, however, is quick to point out that the conditions provided by the school help the program immensely. New outdoor tennis courts, fewer see TENNIS, page 5

n Valentine’s Day of 2011, Scott Andrews was released from the Washington State Penitentiary. After 18 years and seven months, Andrews said goodbye to his structured prison life and stepped foot on a bus to Pasco, Wash. and into the fast-paced 21st Century.

Transitioning to a life out of prison can be difficult for many former inmates. A report from the Washington State Department of Corrections states that 31.2 percent of those released from prison will re-offend within three years of their release.

The Walla Walla Successful Training and Re-entry (STAR) Project provides support for former inmates released into the Walla Walla and Columbia counties. Founded in 2004, the project aims to aid transitioning offenders in finding housing, employment, education and food benefits, as well as helping with the general transition back into society.

While still in prison, Andrews sent a letter to the STAR project, but the reply he got was dismaying; due to funding, they said, they would have to close their doors.

However, after being released he heard through word of mouth that the project was still up and running.

After being released, prisoners are often required to be on parole in the county where they committed their crime. Andrews was required to stay in Walla Walla County for three years. Originally from Florida, he was not personally connected to the county, thus lacking a strong support network.

“I was scared,” said Andrews of the day he was released.

“They give you 40 dollars in cash and a check for anything that was in your inmate account, a pat on the back and pretty much tell you ‘we’ll leave the light on for you.’”

After arriving in Pasco, Andrews spent three months living in a motel managed by the mother of one of his cellmates. For two or three weeks after his re-

lease, Andrews didn’t journey further than 100 yards from the motel.

“You can’t come out of a structure like prison and think that you’re just going to step into the mainstream and run with everybody else,” said Andrews. “It’s not going to happen.”

After his three months at the motel, Andrews moved to Walla Walla and got in touch with STAR. Since then four years have passed; Andrews is still a client of STAR but is currently self-sufficient. He graduated from Walla Walla Community College in 2013 and is now employed full time.

Like most former inmates, however, Andrew’s path to employment wasn’t easy.

Many job applications include a box which applicants must check if they have been convicted of a felony. This can lead employers to dismiss their applications without reading the full application. Opposition to such a requirement on job applications has grown since the “Ban the Box” movement was founded in 2004. While some employers maintain that they have the right to include such a question, those in support of the movement argue that applicants should have the opportunity to make a first impression before they are ruled out.

Because more than seven years had passed since his conviction, Andrews wasn’t required to check the box on his job applications disclosing that he had been convicted of a felony. But this didn’t prevent him from being asked if he had ever committed a felony at job interviews, to which he always answered truthfully. Sometimes he got turned away.

The prospect of finding employment for felons who do still have to check the box is even more daunting. When they can’t find employment, convicted felons often turn to crime, reverting back to the lifestyles they had before prison. One of the things STAR is doing is supporting “Ban the Box” legislation through Washington Fair Chance Coalition, which, if passed, would make it illegal for employers to ask about a felony on their applications.

“We’re pretty proactive in getting the Ban the Box legislation passed,” said Executive Director of the STAR project Glenna Awbrey. “That doesn’t mean that once the person is called in for an interview that [the question of whether or not they have a felony conviction] wouldn’t be asked, and it should be asked. It’s just at least to give people the opportunity to get in.”

see STAR, page 3

Girl, bus fall in love after lengthy courtship

by ALLIE DONAHUE Staff Reporter

L

ibby Arnosti ’13 and Bella, a 1976 green Volkswagen bus, met online. It wasn’t your typical crash and burn Tinder thing; no, these two will grow old together.

Arnosti, who described herself as a “Volkswagen creeper,” first noticed the ’76 bus sitting in an empty lot across from the Rose Street Safeway in 2008 when she visited Whitman as a high school junior.

“It was one of the things that made me feel like this place in the middle of nowhere could actually be pretty cool,” she said in an email to The Pioneer.

After finishing classes at Whitman, Arnosti stuck around Walla Walla doing communications for Whitman Athletics. Now Arnosti also works as a bilingual para-educator at Pioneer Middle School.

Arnosti had had her eye on the bus since high school, and finally, in early March 2014, she posted a sticky note on its windshield, expressing her interest in purchasing it.

A few days later, she got an email back... from the bus.

On Friday, March 14, 2014 at 9:28 p.m., Volkswagenman@domain.com (it was asked that The Pioneer not publish this email address) wrote, “I will turn 39 in November of this year. The youngest, yet the largest and strongest of all that have come before me. I’ve been loved, hated, cussed at and praised everywhere I’ve ever traveled to or lived.”

During the next few weeks, Arnosti exchanged 10 emails with the bus.

She explained her love of Volkswagen buses.

“I will turn 23 in July of this year. Since I can remember I have felt a distinct identification with VW buses, and strong attraction to them, their history, their character, and the stories they create. see VOLKSWAGEN, page 6

Libby Arnosti ‘13 began emailing the bus’s owner, Tim, in March 2014. The catch? The emails were written in the voice of Bella, the Volkswagen. Photo by Barton

WHAT’S INSIDE THIS ISSUE?

Sports

A&E

Opinion

News

A player mostly characterized by intangibles, senior Clay Callahan has become a leader for the men’s basketball team through his selfless play and leadership by example.

Columnist Emma Dahl reviews Andrew Bird’s new series of albums and short films, Echolocations, which focuses on the acoustic qualities of various environments.

How to keep it sexy when you can’t keep it up: The Pioneer’s new sex columnists talk about dealing with a sudden lack of libido in the bedroom.

You’ve seen the signs. Now read the results of Walla Walla’s referendum to fund rebuilding of Memorial Pool.

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12 NEWS 2 Student clubs: How long do they last?

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2015

by LANE BARTON Staff Reporter

E

ngagement beyond academics is a part of life for most students at Whitman, and there are currently 55 ASWC-funded clubs on campus. However, only 12 of the clubs with active membership today existed on campus eight years ago: Action for Animals, Black Student Union, Feminists Advocating Change and Empowerment, Fencing Club, Hillel-Shalom, Latin@ Student Coalition, Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding Club, Whitewater Club, Fencing Club, Whitman Medieval Society, Whitman Direct Action, Whitman Mentors Program and Anime Club.

As students only spend four years on campus, clubs often disappear when interest fades or members graduate. Content, leadership and a sense of community can all play a role in ensuring a club survives across multiple generations of students, according to the current members of Whitman’s older student organizations. Extracurricular activities with a broad appeal to Whitman students, such outdoor activities provided by Whitewater Club or Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding Club, as well as well-supported social causes like Action for Animals and Feminist Advocating Change and Empowerment, draw similar people together in a group that highlights their similarities.

Many clubs built around religious or ethnic identities, including Hillel-Shalom, Black Student Union and Latin@ Student Coalition, have a constant presence on campus. These organizations can appeal students looking not only for interesting activities, but also communities that promote important discussions about faith and race.

“I think people take a big interest in [Black Student Union and Latin@ Student Coalition] because a lot of time they don’t just set up fun meetings or events, but they also address a lot of racial and ethnic issues on campus that I think a lot of other clubs are a bit more hesitant to address,” said Latin@ Student Coalition President sophomore Celia Gorbman.

A sense of community has also been key to the success of the Whitman Fencing Club, which has existed on-and-off at Whitman in different forms as far back as the 1940s. Current members cite a tight-knit group dynamic as one reason for its extended popularity.

“We don’t just do practices.

This is a very strong community

= 5 ASWC funded clubs

In 2015, there are 55

of those 55 clubs

In 2008, 41

In 2009, 41

7 or 12.7% are new In 2010, 48

ASWC-funded clubs for the fiscal year, the most in the past 8 years.

12 or 21.8% have been in existence for at least the last 8 years

In 2011, 42

In the last 8 fiscal years there have been

of the 36 clubs which have been around for 2-7 years: In 2012, 49

In 2013, 53

In 2014, 50

95

14.5% are 2 years old, 18.2% are 3 years old, 14.5% are 4 years old, 9.1% are 5 years old, 7.3% are 6 years old, and 1.8% are 7 years old. *

clubs in total The clubs have an average length of

2.49 years

*Not all club data is continuous (e.g. some clubs may have temporarily disbanded and been re-formed)

SOURCE: statistics are ASWC budgets from the 2008-2015 fiscal year provided by Leann Adams of the Office for Student Activities, data compiled by Lane Barton. and there’s a lot of bonding that goes on after practice or before practice,” said Fencing Club Budget Representative senior Erik Anderson.

The resilience of clubs can also be reinforced by connections with other student organizations. One example of this is Fencing Club and Renaissance Faire Club, which have both last-

ed for at least eight years and share students between the groups.

“There’s also a lot of draw into and from other clubs. We have a lot of crossover between the Renaissance Faire Society and the Fencing Club ... We’re all really connected through a very unique interest set,” said Fencing Club President senior Kate Seiberlich.

Strong leadership is probably the most important trait for clubs that endure over multiple generations of students. In addition to having an involved president and budget manager, clubs which last longer than their original members’ time at Whitman must find a way to recruit and train students from younger classes so that there

is someone to take charge when the current leadership graduates.

“We have strong leadership in the club. All the presidents are normally sophomores or juniors who are there, and a lot of the time once they do a year term, they’ll still be very involved in the club after that ... We like seeing leadership in younger students,” said Gorbman.

Pio Past: 2 Arrested, 15 Suspended in Recruiter Demonstration Originally printed April 18, 1968.

Author unknown

T

wo Whitman students were arrested Monday in connection with a demonstration against the appearance of military recruiters on campus. Charles Lawrence and Mike DeGrasse were taken into custody after refusing to halt obstruction of the Navy Air vehicles in the SUB* driveway.

Approximately twenty-five students joined in a protest that covered two days and included nonviolent obstruction in the driveway, and demonstrations in front of the recruiter’s table in the SUB and by Dean Knopf’s office in Memorial Building.

In addition, 13 other students were suspended from school after joining in obstruction with Lawrence and DeGrasse. All but the two arrested moved when Chief of Police Watts offered the last chance to avoid arrest.

The fifteen were suspended until they agreed not to obstruct the open-campus policy expressed in an Administration statement.

As of noon Tuesday, 3 of those suspended had expressed compliance with the college and were again enrolled in school. The others were in the process of appeal and faced a 2 p.m. deadline before facing possible eviction from college housing.

Monday dawned sunny but brisk as the demonstrators confronted the Naval Air recruiters as they drove up to the SUB. Dean Scribner arrived on the scene to find a peaceful tableau: approximately 25 students sitting in front of a parked station wagon convertible.

Scribner stated the policy of the college, that the administration supported the right of expression and the goals of the protest, but that they were not in sympathy with the action being taken. He urged the demonstrators to move aside and stated they faced dismissal or suspension if they carried on their present actions.

All but Lawrence and DeGrasse stood up and moved and the two remained their 2 1/2 hours until finally arrested. After the two refused to move the Council on Student Affairs was convened to consider the charge against Lawrence and DeGrasse and that they “did intentionally obstruct the access of military recruiters to the College and thus knowingly contravened the office college policy regarding the principle of the open campus.”

At 12:30 Dean Knopf returned with the unanimous decision of the CSA, that the two would be suspended until they submitted a statement they would comply with the college open cam-

pus policy. Knopf went on to say the same policy would apply to anyone who took their place, and civil authorities would be called if they still refused to move.

They maintained their post and were joined by 13 others who waited until the police arrived. Their names were taken and they were placed on suspension on the same terms as Lawrence and DeGrasse.

All 15 were willing to be arrested, but bail money was available for only two, and when Chief Watts gave the final warning all but the two stepped aside. Both were escorted quietly to a waiting police car and charged with unlawful assembly and disobeying an order to disperse and released the same afternoon on $100 bail.

The recruited drove through the crowd and set up a table in the SUB opposite a SDS booth dispensing information on the draft. Throughout the afternoon 30-40 students lay in front of the table, leaving 18 inches of access to the recruiters.

The action stretches back to Jan. 17 when the ASWC Student Congress unanimously approved a resolution stating that, “in order to protect the constitutional rights of freedom of speech of the students of Whitman College, the ASWC Student Congress requests that military recruiters hence-

forth be banned from the Whitman Campus until recision of the Hershey statement is made . . .”

The statement referred to an Order from Selective Service Director that allows local boards to reopen the classification of those invovled in disruptive demonstrations interfering with recruitment into the armed forces. The resolution was reaffirmed by a vote of 7-2, Feb. 21, and given final, unanimous approval on March 1.

While the Academic Council and the administration considered the matter, recruiter visits were suspended.

On March 4, the first to state their position was the Academic Council, a position in effect supported subsequently by the administration. The declaration pointed out a long-standing Whitman tradition of maintaining an open campus to representatives of all beliefs, and opposed recruiters on campus only if they were persuaded that Whitman students involved in protest were actually reporter to their draft boards.

That afternoon saw the dropping of two simultaneous bombshells with the announcement of an Administration policy statement ignoring the ASWC resolution and supporting recruiter visits and the scheduling of an appearance by the Air Force.

The administration announce-

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ment stated in part, “We believe that we do not have the authority to ban any lawful activity from access to the campus of Whitman College, and we further believe that it would be unwise for us to condone any attempt to do such a thing.”

A protest meeting of concerned students was called and a course of action planned similar to the protest carried out in the SUB Monday. This action proved unnecessary as the appearance was cancelled due to the visit of the inspector-general to the recruiter’s Pasco office.

Following spring break, two organization meetings were called last Friday and Sunday to decide on the nature of demonstration against the appearance of the Air Force this week. From these meetings emerged the idea of actual obstruction, “We felt it was the only effective way to protest the action and convince the administration of our view-point,” stated Lawrence. “It was an act of conscience, as the situation had reached the point where this was the best way to register our disagreement. We had decided on the course of action and anybody who wished to join was welcome.”

Following the Sunday night meeting 10-15 expressed willingness to face arrest in the act of obstruction. * = Student Union Building

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The

NEWS

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12 2015

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STAR aids ex-inmates from STAR, page 1

Photo by Barton

Pool bond passes on 4th attempt

by LACHLAN JOHNSON News Editor

V

oters in the City of Walla Walla voted Tuesday, Feb. 10 to pass a 5.83 million dollar bond measure to rebuilt the Walla Walla public pool.

Preliminary results from Tuesday evening show 4,323 votes in favor of the bond (63.6% percent) and 2,470 against (36.4% percent).

Bond measures in Washington State that raise taxes must pass by a supermajority of over 60 percent.

The money raised by the bond measure will be used to construct a “standard pool” (50 meters by 25 yards), a kid pool with zero-depth entry to accommodate new swimmers and people with disabilities. Other improvements will include a new bathhouse and locker room facilities, a new concession stand, new mechanical systems for both pools and community spaces for special events. Construction is expected to finish in May 2017.

“It has always been the plan of the city to have a pool ...

A pool’s vital to the community. The temperature we have here versus the ones you have in Seattle — kids need a place where they can be safe, enjoy themselves and cool down. They also need a place to learn how to swim,” said Jim Dumont, the director of Walla Walla Parks and Recreation.

This year’s bond measure was the fourth attempt to raise funds to

rebuild the public pool. Three previous attempts failed to achieve the supermajority needed to raise taxes in 2004, 2006 and 2012.

The decision to make a fourth attempt to pass a bond measure for the pool was made following the release of a report by Rowley Pool Consultants in May 2014.

The report found the old pool, which opened in 1972, was not salvageable. The old pool was closed in 2006 due to poor maintenance and low attendance. The design for the new pool was based on Rowley Pool Consultants’ report, which determined from a survey of Walla Walla residents that a two-pool plan stood a strong chance of passing in a bond measure and would meet the needs of the community at a minimal cost to taxpayers.

The bond measure to rebuild the pool was supported by the grassroots organization Rebuild Memorial Pool, which distributed materials in favor of the bond measure and canvassed voters. Their arguments in favor of the pool focused on the needs of children. Drowning is the second-highest cause of unintentional injury death for children ages one to 14 in the United States. Pool supporters believe a public pool would provide swim lessons to young children who are currently unable to learn. The Walla Walla YMCA provides swim lessons at their indoor pool, but the public pool will provide more space and lower costs.

“We have almost a genera-

tion of kids who don’t know how to swim in Walla Walla. But they’re either expensive, or at times that are inconvenient. The Y does a good job, but they can’t serve the needs of the entire population,” said Becky Kennedy, who serves as the secretary and part of the leadership of Rebuild Memorial Pool.

Pool supporters also believe the new pool will provide a positive space for local teenagers to gather during the summer. The pool is expected to create 25 new jobs, most of them positions as lifeguards during the summer months. “[Rebuild Memorial Pool] hope to fundraise afterwards to form a non-profit and potentially reduce some of the taxpayer cost, or if there is a gap when we get the final design to cover that gap,” said Kennedy.

While there was no organized opposition to the bond measure, many voters were opposed to the increase in taxes the bond will create. Opponents also voiced concern over whether the new pool will be properly maintained.

Pool maintenance is estimated to come to 200,000 dollars per year. While the pool is expected to raise 100,000 dollars from entrance fees, programming and concessions, the city will still need to contribute 100,000 dollars in maintenance.

Voter turnout in Tuesday’s elections was low, with only 43 percent of voters mailing in ballots. Final results will be certified on Tuesday, Feb. 24.

InterNation Celebration returns for 4th year

The “Ritmo Latino” performance featured dancing influenced by various Latin American styles. Photo by Turner

by ANDY MONSERUD News Editor

T

he Beyond Borders Club partnered with the Intercultural Center and ASWC to host the fourth-annual InterNation Celebration in the Reid Young Ballroom on Saturday, Feb. 7. The celebration, preceded by an international dinner in Prentiss Dining Hall, featured a series of performances inspired by various cultures around the world.

The celebration, emceed by seniors Mcebo “MC” Maziya and BBC member Lydia Loopesko, included an international fashion show as well as 15 other performances, largely songs and dances, that ranged in tone from campy to awe-inspiring. Students from 12 different countries (including the United States) performed.

The InterNation Celebration emerged four years ago from an “International Feast” in Jewett Hall which combined dinner and a show into a single event. Since then it has quickly established itself as a major part of the Whitman calendar, and not only for students. Adult community members and their families made up a major portion of attendance at this year’s event.

Preparations for the Celebration begin ear-

ly in the school year for BBC. “We start thinking about it at the beginning of first semester, and then we start planning towards the end of the semester,” sophomore BBC Secretary Yuridia Ramos said. “Usually we have a list by the end of the semester, and then by the beginning of the second semester we confirm with them if they want to participate.”

Sophomore BBC President Wenjun Gao first joined the club in the wake of last year’s celebration. This year she served as director for the event. She ran into a few hitches in planning, most notably a constantly-shifting roster of performers.

“I had 18 groups of people sign up at the end of last semester, and at the start of this semester people [told] me that they couldn’t do it anymore because of academic struggles or because of their partner not doing it anymore,” Gao said. “We were really stressed out.”

Two performers dropped out the day of the event due to illness, and Gao, Loopesko and other members of BBC found themselves scrambling to adjust. Still, the event itself went off largely without a hitch.

“I was totally not sure what it was going to be like,

but I’m really glad I came,” first-year Megan Gleason said. “It was pretty amazing.”

The event was also well-attended, which pleasantly surprised Gao. “I was amazed, actually, because there were 300 seats and they were all taken,” she said. “People were even standing at the back.”

Loopesko, who spoke in an exaggerated French accent throughout the celebration, said that the emcee duties she shared with Maziya were largely unaffected by last-minute change-ups.

“Very little of [the emcee banter]” was scripted, she said.

“MC and I met half an hour before the show and had some bare-bones ideas. Those ideas were basically the extent of it that was scripted, nothing else.”

Loopesko was also pleased with the event’s execution, saying that it follows a trend of improvement over the past four years.

“It’s kind of had an upward curve,” she said. “Our freshman year... wasn’t very organized because it was the first time we were doing it and we didn’t know what we were doing, and it’s just gotten a lot better since then. More people are involved, more people show up, and people kind of know about it, know what to expect.”

Awbrey stated that since being involved with the STAR project, her views on people with felony convictions have changed.

“If people can get into a job and start working, most of them are really really good employees. And I’ve had employers tell me that all the time,” said Awbrey. “It’s getting past that initial fear or ignorance, or whatever it is, to actually interacting with people one on one ... I think [there are] going to have to be law changes so that it forces people to look at things differently.”

Hearings for the Ban the Box legislation, formally titled the Fair Chance Act, are taking place in both the Washington State House and Senate this week.

Mitch Clearfield, a senior lecturer of philosophy at Whitman, teaches a course on punishment and responsibility. Clearfield became interested in issues of incarceration when he moved to Walla Walla in 2001. He later spent two years on the board of the STAR project.

Clearfield believes a big obstacle for people who hold a felo-

ny conviction is a contradiction in the way society views punishment.

“I think our society has this kind of conflicted mindset where we hope people do better, and we want people to do better, but we also don’t want to do anything that’s going to lead them to doing better. Because they did wrong, and they don’t deserve that,” said Clearfield.

“Why are we letting people out if we don’t think they’re ready to succeed? And if we think they’re ready to succeed, let’s let them succeed.”

Andrews doesn’t want to be judged by his past. He said he deserved to go to prison and that his time served made him who he is today, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t get a second chance.

“How would you feel if it was your kid? Your kid’s the one that’s getting looked at like that, getting talked down to. Almost every avenue that they try to go down, coming to a roadblock, getting doors slammed into their face,” said Andrews. “Correction officers telling you, ‘Yeah, we’ll keep the light on’ ... People need to realize that people make mistakes. We’re all human.”

Digging through Whitman’s lost & found

by JEREMY ALEXANDER Staff Reporter

T

he lost and found at Whitman College exists in relative obscurity. Where does your water bottle go when it vanishes? What happens to items in the lost and found that no person ever claims?

Every building at Whitman College that has an office has its own lost and found. These offices hang onto the things they accumulate for a little while and then send them over to the director’s office in the Reid Campus Center.

Administrative Assistant for the Reid Campus Center Paul Dennis also serves as a caretaker for the lost and found.

“It varies from building to building,” said Dennis of the campus’s lost and found repositories.

“But the library is the most diligent and sends items out once a week.”

Items that arrive at the campus center director’s office go into a box.

Once that box fills up, a custodian logs it into the main storage area down the hall. In the resource room this room is filled with organized cabinets of hundreds of lost items, which students claim as theirs.

If no person comes to claim these items, they are kept from April 1 to the following day in April the next year. When the first of May to comes, the items are rounded up and sold.

“Items that have been in there up to a year are sold off in a big yard sale in the Reid Campus Center lobby,” said Dennis. “The money raised at the yard sale is then used to sponsor The Adopt A Family program at Christmas time.”

He has overseen this process for the past 15 years. For Whitman’s small size, there are some interesting, expensive and peculiar things that have ended up in the resource room.

“We’ve got a pair of crutches down there,” said Dennis. “I often wonder how it is you walk into some building someplace on crutches and then left without them

and did not realize you weren’t walking with them anymore.”

He has seen everything from guitars, skateboards and graphing calculators to leather jackets. Year after year, the most consistent item the lost and found receives is a couple hundred water bottles. Many Whitman students have reusable water bottles, and they are misplaced frequently.

Photos by Tywen Kelly

Gabe Kiefel is a former student and currently a security officer at Whitman. He talked about his role as a security member when he finds lost items.

“Once in a while we use the lost and found listserv, but most things end up being turned into the main lost and found at the Reid Campus Center,” said Kiefel. “The lost and found is not run through security, [but] we often get phone calls since we are here 24/7.”

Kiefel also had a bizarre lost and found experience during a summer high school debate camp that took place at Whitman.

“There was a wallet that was run over by a lawn mower,” said Kiefel.

“I was called by a maintenance guy, and we were out there looking for little shreds of information. There was 160 dollars in there, and it was all destroyed. We were able to piece together an ID and located the owner.”

Dianne Clark is the administrative assistant For Division 1 in Maxey Hall, where there is a blue bin for lost items. Anyone can place items in the bin. Items are sent to Reid at least once a semester. She was not sure what the most frequent lost item is. As for the strangest item, Diane had a specific answer.

“The strangest item we have come across was a Fitbit wristband,” she said. “No one has claimed it yet.”

Every year thousands of items get misplaced at Whitman, and most end up in one place. If a person loses a water bottle, they had better have a lot of free time when they go to the resource room. There are hundreds.

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12 A&E Music Department introduces unique courses for banjo, sitar FEB

2015

Rhiannon Clarke ‘15 learns to play the different musical notes of the sitar during one of the newly-added music courses offered at Whitman taught by new Whitman Music Assistant Jeremiah Gregg. Photo by Barton

by HANNAH BARTMAN Staff Reporter

W

hitman’s Department of Music does its best to remain open and accessible to all Whitman students, regardless of major or previous involvement in music. One option that welcomes all students is the possibility to learn an instrument. Teachers in the music department are available for instruments from voice to piano to sitar.

Each semester fluctuates. One instance of this being that this semester has the largest amount of banjo players, at seven students, ever in the history of banjo at Whitman.

“People are more interested in [playing banjo]. It’s been great for me because it’s kind of a passion

for me to teach this instrument,” said Music Assistant Jon St. Hilaire.

Hilaire sites bands such as Mumford & Sons and Sufjan Stevens as part of the resurgence of folk in contemporary music. He notes that there are still “hardcore folk” artists, but that folk is such a mutable genre of music that many other artists are utilizing folk instruments and subgenres, such as bluegrass, to create contemporary combinations.

Another instrument that became available to students at Whitman in the fall of 2014 is the sitar.

This unique instrument is offered by new Whitman Music Assistant Jeremiah Gregg, who has been studying sitar for roughly 13 years. He began in his first of seven trips to India and has overall spent an accumu-

lation of three years in India. Four students last semester and four this semester are enrolled in lessons.

“The sitar has been my favorite instrument for as long as I can remember. My parents mainly played world music in the house growing up, and took my sister and me to lots of world music festivals, which often featured Indian Classical music, so I fell in love with it early on (along with other styles of Indian music),” said senior Rhiannon Clarke in an email. “I’d always in the back of my mind wanted to take sitar lessons, but I just assumed I’d never get the chance.”

Gregg has taught on and off for eight years, and he recognizes that teaching is a profoundly different experience than playing the instrument.

“I thought [musicians] who taught lessons didn’t perform; however, my guru was very much an international performer. It gave me a different perspective on the importance of teaching here and artistic practice. You have to know what you know so much more thoroughly [as a teacher] than if you just play,” said Gregg.

Gregg learned the process of teaching the sitar from his guru, Ustad Usman Khan of Pune, in India. In this process, the student must first learn to sing on key and practice the technique before delving into playing tunes.

Additionally, Gregg learned the importance in sitar of tuning each string by ear to create a relationship with each string between

the performer and the instrument.

“Each note has a certain feeling. If you can feel that unique feeling then you can, in your mind, create that feeling and that’s how you start to sing on key. I think in order to really tune well [you need to learn to sing before you play],” he said.

Clarke notes that the teaching style between Western music and learning the sitar seem largely similar, but, similar to Gregg’s observations, the general process of learning the instrument is different.

“Learning sitar has felt very holistic, maybe more so than learning other instruments. It feels like there are so many components: learning to sing pitches; working on rhythm patterns; and playing the instrument itself,” she said in an email.

‘Dear White People’ examines the Andrew Bird transports listeners to life experiences of black students canyons of Utah with Echolocations

by JAMES KENNEDY Staff Reporter

“D

ear White People,” an award-winning entry at the Sundance Film Festival, will be shown at Whitman as part of the Power and Privilege Symposium on Friday, Feb. 20. The showing is open to all Whitman students as well as Walla Walla community members, and it will start at 8 p.m. in Cordiner Hall to end the symposium.

The film satirically examines the experiences of black and mixedrace students at a predominantly white school and also discusses conceptions of identity and self.

Unlike many movie showings hosted by the Whitman Events Board, the showing of “Dear

White People” was prompted by enthusiastic student requests.

Senior Sierra Dickey, the cinema director for Whitman Events Board, was emailed by multiple groups and individuals asking them to show the film at Whitman.

“I usually don’t get requests like that at all,” said Dickey.

Dickey speculates the overwhelming support for the film is related to similarities to the fictional “Winchester University” and Whitman College itself. Not only is it a well-received film, but it is a relevant and important film for Whitman students to see.

“Clearly it’s a great film without its politics, but part of the reason that makes it great is its politics,” said Dickey. “We at the community need these kind of events to critically examine

our position and build a better community through doing that.”

Sophomore Ryan Long saw the film in Seattle over last semester’s Thanksgiving break in Seattle, and they praise the film for its depiction of race relations in a white-dominated environment. They believe that Whitman’s administration could especially benefit from viewing the film, as Winchester’s administration handles the schools race problems quite poorly, serving as a warning of what not to do in this type of situation.

“Whitman has a race problem and that’s very obvious,” said Long. “While I’m not an expert on these experiences at all ... I hope that people will see this film and start thinking about what they’re doing.”

However, the film goes beyond race relations in its examination of identity and self.

“It’s a piece of media that’s representing something that both black students and white students don’t usually see,” said Dickey.

“It’s about how in a place where you’re a minority, there’s a constant struggle about acting out people expect of you, like you feel you need to do, and acting out according to yourself.”

The Power and Privilege Symposium will open with a more serious, information-heavy film by Shakti Butler, the keynote speaker for the event. Senior Natalie Shaw, marketing and communications director for the symposium, said that they chose to show “Dear White People” as part of the conclusion in order to add levity to the event without invalidating the experiences of the rest of the Symposium.

“We decided to screen ‘Dear White People’ as a part of the closing ceremony because we wanted to do something fun that was also relevant to the mission of the Symposium,” said Shaw.

“Because the Symposium focuses on creating spaces challenging conversations, participation can be an intellectually and emotionally exhausting experience for some students.”

While the details are still in progress, the showing will be accompanied by a “passive debriefing” of the film’s content. Dickey reiterated that while the film is less serious in tone than a lot of the events, it is by no means a deviation from the ground covered during the Symposium.

“There’s comedy and it’s more celebratory, in a way, but it’s equal parts tragedy and comedy,” said Dickey. “It’s a way to lighten the mood without allowing everyone to go into catharsis.”

by EMMA DAHL Staff Reporter

I

might be biased when it comes to Andrew Bird’s music. Everyone has that one musician they’ve been attached to for years, the artist who’s carried them through thick and thin, the artist you always come back to. For me, it’s Andrew Bird; his music is entirely exceptional. It’s emotional, creative and straight from his heart.

He’s consistently looking to experiment, to stretch his creativity and produce original, unique and beautiful material.

His new series of albums and short films, Echolocations, focuses on the acoustic qualities of various environments.

There are five installments in all: Canyon, Forest, Lake, River and City. In the freshly released first installment, Bird and videographer Tyler Manson travel into the canyons and waterways of Coyote Gulch in southern Utah, where they recorded a series of improvised pieces inspired by and in tune with the environment. While I could paraphrase Bird’s motivation for the album, he says it best: “Ever since I was a child I would test different spaces with my voice or whistle or violin.

Whatever sound you make it’s like a giant limb that can reach beyond your fingers and grope the corners of the room. Now when I’m on tour playing a different theater every night we ‘tune’ the room hunting down the bass traps and the standing waves to give the listener the most even and wide spectrum sound. There are certain frequencies that resonate while others are lifeless.

Sometimes the room refuses to yield and I have to consider playing different songs that will work in that room. It’s a challenge but I enjoy the moments when I must yield to the environment. So I thought it would be interesting to take all this outside where the reflections off the landscape are triggering countless inferences and steering the conversation.”

Echolocations is entirely unique; instead of creating music focusing on conveying a certain emotional message or personal expression, Bird sets out to characterize the location. He tests and analyzes the acoustics of the canyon, and he creates music that is a reflection of the environment and indicative of the attitude of the place.

Listening to Echolocations: Canyon is more than a typical musical experience; you’re actually transported to Coyote Gulch.

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You feel like you’re sitting on a nearby sun-warmed rock, listening to Andrew test the acoustics of his surroundings. Within the tracks, you can hear the wind, a creek bubbling, the occasional fly buzzing past. But most of all you can hear the canyon respond to Bird’s violin, you can hear the tone reverberate back and forth between the red walls of the canyon. You can sense Bird’s understanding of how the canyon will react to his music. It’s difficult to explain in writing, but experiencing an environment audibly instead of visually is a entirely new and Bird produces it perfectly.

My advice is to not listen to the album for a melodic good time; listen to it for an audial experience. This is Bird at his most experimental. He’s literally probing his environment and developing his sound based on its feedback. And he creates something magical.

The album is available to stream both on Spotify and Soundcloud. But please don’t listen to Echolocations on Spotify. The last thing you need interrupting the stream of Bird’s flawless sound is that loud-mouth guy telling you to buy Spotify Premium and jolting you out of the warm, red canyon and back to gray, wintry Walla Walla.

SPORTS

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Callahan assists men’s basketball team in unconventional ways

by KYLE FLANNERY Staff Reporter

G

o to any Whitman Men’s basketball game and you will rarely see senior Clay Callahan score (or even shoot for that matter). But what you will see him do are the intangibles, the little things that transcend box scores and the stat sheet. He won’t win you the game with a single shot; he will win you the game through selflessness, game management and by placing his teammates in quality scoring positions. He brings defensive intensity and tries to keep everyone firing on all cylinders.

For a point guard, it is quite uncommon to not shoot the ball, but when asked why he doesn’t shoot, Callahan simply laughs.

He doesn’t believe that it’s ever been a big problem. It’s interesting to hear him even describe it as a “problem,” when in reality it may just be his greatest attribute.

“I like to set people up.

I always got more out of that than shooting. We’ve got so many guys that can shoot this year. There are so many guys that are effective,” he said.

A player like Callahan is essential to any sports program, and his mindset is particularly instructive. The ability to recognize that there are more skilled players around him, players that can contribute in ways he can’t is one of the more important lessons for an athlete. By realizing this, by developing a niche with-

in the game, Callahan is able to focus on his strengths and minimize situations of weakness.

For Callahan it’s always been more fulfilling to play like that, with a specific role in mind. His role simply doesn’t involve shooting all that often. It does, however, involve getting the ball into the hands of teammates in shooting opportunities that are just as good, if not better.

Though Callahan is fully capable and willing to shoot when it comes down to it, he knows his team and he understands what everyone else is capable of. With so many other skilled players around him, shooting often is not necessary to him. Because of this ability, he is seen as a natural leader on the squad. His teammate, senior forward Matt Mounier explains why.

“He has a respect for everyone, which is really important in a leader. He’s really good at reading situations and knowing what we need, what’s best for everyone. That sets him apart,” said Mounier.

If he’s seen as a natural leader, it simply begs the question: Why isn’t he a captain?

The answer is that the men’s basketball team does not believe in designating captains.

“We believe naming someone a captain limits other potential leaders — natural leadership rises to the top. We have, really, five to six guys who are doing an extraordinary job of leading in their own way,” said Head Men’s Basketball Coach Eric Bridgeland.

And Clay Callahan is certainly one of them — an important voice among many. When he believes he has the right things to say, he says them. The same goes for any person on the team, no matter their regular contribution. Whether they’re getting significant minutes or sitting injured on the bench, they can still play an important role.

Unfortunately, Callahan suffered an ankle injury this past weekend which may threaten to sideline him for the first time in his Whitman basketball career. He had x-rays done on Monday, and the team was left to hope it was minor. Callahan himself thought it was simply a bad ankle sprain and that he’d be back soon.

“It feels equitable to a sprain I had on my left ankle last year, and that one I sprained in a Tuesday game and was able to play that Friday,” he said.

Unfortunately, the diagnosis was a small fracture in his leg.

It appears unlikely that Callahan will be able to return for the remainder of the season, but he will certainly still be there to lead from the sideline. With the end of a successful season fast approaching, the team is hoping to make a push for conference championships, and they think they have the players to do it. In the past, opposing teams have been able to key in defensively on a few players, but this year, with so many guys able to score off the dribble as well as shoot, opponents often face more than they can handle.

Callahan ‘15 has helped lead Whitman to yet another successful season. Photos by McCormick

New insights lead to new styles for NBA

by DYLAN SNYDER Staff Reporter

B

asketball appears to be the next frontier of advanced statistics after teams trying to get an edge have nearly exhausted baseball. Now, when you follow the NBA you often hear things of like Player Efficiency Rating (PER), similar to baseball’s Wins Above Replacement (WAR). As a result of this challenge to become more calculating and efficient, however, we see an interesting trend. It all started with the Houston Rockets and is now perpetuated by several other teams in the league.

The Rockets’ plan was a pretty simple one in terms of thought process. They simply wondered, “What can we do to maximize our expected points each and eve-

ry time down the court?”’ The answer they derived was also fairly intuitive. They were going to shoot a lot of three pointers and to attack the rim as much as possible. By eliminating long two pointers, they maximized expected value (good three-point shooters can average 1.3–1.5 points per shot) or maximized percentage of scoring (layups are scored at a higher rate than 20-foot jumpers). And because of this, the first real implementation of analytics in basketball was born. Not everyone claims to be a fan, but the implementation of similar systems around the league is undeniable.

For the first time in the history of the NBA, there were more threepoint shot attempts in a month than there were free throw attempts.

The bonuses are obvious: A three pointer gives you more points than

shots that typically result in free throws. What is startling, however, is the sheer number of three pointers being shot around the league.

Looking across the league, the NBA threes are skyrocketing, but on an individual level this appears to be the golden age of elite outside shooters. The Atlanta Hawks’ Kyle Korver, a journeyman sharpshooter who appears to have found a home, is on pace for the first 50/50/90 season in NBA history. This would mean that Korver made 50 percent of his total field goals and three pointers, while also making 90 percent of his free throw attempts.

Korver thrives in the catchand-shoot system of offense that the Hawks are currently running.

This style also happens to be by far the most efficient in terms of raising a team’s shooting per-

centage on long balls. The Hawks might not publicize their attempts to use these theories on the court like the Rockets did, but they certainly are making use of them.

On the other side of the country we see players like Klay Thompson, who capped a record-setting 37-point quarter last week by going 9-9 from the three-point range.

If players are going to keep getting better at the three-point shot, there will continue to be an increased emphasis on it. As NBA All-Star and former NBA champion Chris Bosh put it when asked about his new tendency to shoot the long ball, “I’ll start dunking again when it gives me three points.” The game gets significantly more complex when a team has an elite outside threat capable of scoring points in a hurry.

The other upside to having

the focus of a roster on making the outside shot is the ability to maintain an advantage for a longer period of time. Players like Dwyane Wade have struggled to adapt their game as their bodies start to age and athleticism goes, conversely you have players like Ray Allen, Mike Miller and Korver, who seem to have eternal life on the court.

The movement toward increased analytic approaches using probability and expected value theory isn’t going away. In fact, if anything, it’s only going to get bigger as teams become more successful in implementing systems similar. As teams improve and cut out “wasted plays,” we could see an offensive explosion around the league as teams craft offenses to run like well-oiled machines, cranking out as many points per possession as humanly possible.

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teaching requirements for coaches and a high level of academics help Northam to snag highly-rated recruiting classes, which are essential to the future of the program. In terms of recruiting, as the program improves so does the caliber of players considering Whitman.

“Many of the kids we have had the option to play in a Division One program, there is just constant work, not a lot of time off,” said Northam about his recruiting practices. “You have to be able to bring in a few players that can have an impact on the program, no doubt about it.”

More people than just his players have noticed Northam’s success. The Whitman program has quickly become the envy of other tennis programs in the Northwest Conference, and to a degree, the other teams at Whitman. “He’s creative, he has a million and one ideas, and he tries them all,” said Whitman Athletic Director Dean Snider. “If I have new, younger coaches coming in, I tell them to watch what Jeff does to develop a team and build an experience for his students. I’d say if you follow that model, you’d be successful.”

Success, in this sense, is measured by more than just tallies in the win column; it means providing a memorable experience for student-athletes that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

“I think I do a good job of creating a real positive experience for the guys. I want their time on the court to be their most enjoyable of the day. I want their

experience and their ties to Whitman to be exceptional and fun and powerful,” said Northam.

Northam has become more than a tennis coach to his players. He’s become a mentor, a guide and a friend. Northam described the number of people who reached out to him on his recent birthday as truly touching.

“Literally it was overwhelming. It was one of the most special days of my life to have all these people text me and call me and go out of their way to get a hold of me,” said Northam. “I’m just so lucky to work with the guys I work with and the program and to be at the college I’m at, just so blessed.”

This year, the team will have its own unique set of challenges. It lost five seniors from last year’s team, including its number-one, -three and -four singles players and half the members of its best three doubles pairs. Even with these heavy losses, a strong recruiting class and steady development from the holdovers could make this group the most successful in Coach Northam’s tenure. The team had its first matches this past weekend, falling to Division I University of Idaho and beating NAIA Lewis and Clark State.

The real test will arrive this weekend, when the team hosts University of Texas-Tyler, UC Santa Cruz and University of Redlands. Even with the challenges that come with a large class of first-years, this season could be one for the already-full record books, and one that Coach Northam will remember for a long time.

12 FEATURE Through email correspondence, alumna connects with bus FEB

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2015

Libby Arnosti ‘13 (above) first noticed the green bus at the Rose Street Safeway in 2008. In March 2014 she stuck a note on the bus hoping to buy it. She received a surprising response. Photos by Barton from VOLKSWAGEN, page 1

My desire to own one is rooted in an awareness that the VW bus, and everything it represents, precisely reflects who I want to be and how I want to be in the world.

This car resonates with me. The awareness of this fact grew organically in me from an early age, and my passion for VW buses is now recognized by my family and friends as a logical extension of my own personality.”

In return, the bus poured its heart out to her.

“I’ve been over this country’s Great Divide in the Rocky Mountains, glided, oh so warmly, through Kansas and Wyoming wheat fields during the Harvest under the full moon to the sound of great tractors as well as crickets galore. I’ve been down the Oregon coastline, from Newport, miles and miles south, on to almost L.A., returning home once again, safe and sound, yet richer, if not a little more worn, for the experience of it all.”

Arnosti wasn’t sure how to feel about the emails.

“I was wildly excited but also a little bit on edge,” she said. There was a sexual undercurrent to the exchange that worried Arnosti.

In one email the bus wrote, “I’m in dire need of a good hot bath, with maybe some good massage all over... based in carnauba [wax].”

Later, it encouraged Arnosti to “Sit on my drivers seat, feel my dashboard, slide your hands over my headliner... get a feel for me, as I to you.”

“It felt like I was courting the bus,” said Arnosti.

Trying to keep perspective, she forwarded the emails to her friends and parents.

“None of them had their creepy sensors set off,” she said.

In the seventh email, though, things changed. The person behind the bus finally came forward.

“Libby, my name is Tim, I’m the owner of the VW bus that has caught your eye and even possibly, your heart.”

Arnosti estimates that Tim (who asked to keep his full name private) is about 60. He is the building manager for a public housing authority for developmentally disabled people.

“I care for a living,” he wrote.

When Tim no longer impersonated the bus, a line in an email raised hackles.

Arnosti had mentioned that she owned the book “How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive” by John Muir (descendent of the famous naturalist).

Already deeply impressed with Arnosti’s love of Volkswagens, her owning the book pushed Tim over the edge. He owns three copies.

“You. absolutely. scare. me. to. death. Really,” he wrote.

This was love language, and its source was an anonymous, online, older male.

But despite hesitations, Arnosti stayed open to Tim. In a sense, Arnos-

“I was wildly excited but also a bit on edge ... It felt like I was courting the bus.”

Libby Arnosti ‘13

ti explained, Tim seem to be falling in love with her.

Tim bought the bus as a high school graduation gift for his son. He had envisioned a father-son project, refurbishing the entire engine so that his son could drive the bus away to college. But when asked to put up $400 for the project, the son balked. The project was dropped.

“He had his heart broken by his son,” said Arnosti. “It seemed to him that I was mending those pieces that had been broken. I was a weirdly perfect person for this story to come to completion.”

In a way, Arnosti’s relationship with Tim was about love.

“Fundamentally it was about love of the bus ... this crazy love for this bus ... That’s what connected us,” she said.

After that last dramatic email, Arnosti went to meet Tim on April 1, 2014. He told her that he had been up all night thinking and that he had decided that Arnosti was the right person to inherit his beloved bus. He signed the title over to her then and there, for free.

Arnosti named her new bus “Bella,” a derivative of Tim’s

email address. She had the engine work done by a man named Rocky Jennings, whom she called Walla Walla’s “Volkswagen savant.”

Hardware taken care of, now Arnosti is working on decorating.

The floor is covered in rugs, including one she took out of her neighbor’s dumpster. Her aunt sewed her pillows with fabric Volkswagens, and Arnosti just sewed a sleeping cushion for a backseat bed. Soon she hopes to make curtains.

Arnosti is obsessed with Bella. She talks about her any chance she gets, and she just changed her profile picture on Facebook to a shot of her leaning through Bella’s passenger-side window.

But it’s not really Bella herself that Arnosti loves.

“It’s the idea,” she said. “I think there’s such thing as having profound love for an idea.”

For Arnosti, Bella symbolizes possibility and the unknown.

“These are ready made adventure cars,” she said.

This summer, Arnosti hopes to have that adventure. She plans to travel around the country with Bella, meeting other people with Volkswagen buses. On her trip, Arnosti wants to photograph bus owners with their buses. She will put it all together into a photo book with text blurbs called, potentially, “Volkfolks.”

There are already a few published photo books of Volkswagens, but the books don’t show the bus owners.

Arnosti thinks that people are missing from Volkswagen literature.

“How many people care about portraits of buses, versus care about the people [who own them]?” she said. “I mean, come on.”

As a symbol of adventure, Bella served as the connecting point between Tim and Arnosti, people from such different worlds that one would never expect them to be friends.

That’s Bella and Arnosti’s story. Arnosti knows that other buses and their owners have stories, too.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “Physically I think the bus is just freaking adorable, but that’s not all it is. It’s about the people.”

FAST FACTS: RELATIONSHIP MOMENTS 1976: The Volkswagen bus is born.

2008: Arnosti first encounters the bus in the Safeway parking lot.

March 2014: Correspondence begins between bus owner Tim and Arnosti April 1, 2014: Arnosti and the bus are united. Tim signs the title to her for free.

OPINION

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When libido dies, communication is key

by CRYSTAL AND CHEVY Anonymous

O

ur names may not be Luna, but we sure know how to Lovegood. Or at least, how to talk about how to love better. The goal of this new column is to explore, with our fellow students, sex, intimacy, college hookups, relationships and everything else that comes along with them. So, who are these masked crusaders of love, sex and the space in between? We are Crystal and Chevy, and we are here to do as Salt ‘n’ Pepa instruct us: Talk About Sex, Baby. We are two Whitman students; one of us identifies as a woman and one as a man, and we are both somewhere along the sexual orientation loop. For now, we are choosing to remain anonymous, per request of our partners and for the sakes of our parents.

A lot of what we write will come from our personal, mostly heterosexual experiences. That being said, we feel that, on a basic level, relationships are relationships, regardless of sexuality. While we will sometimes talk in a gendered binary, particularly concerning genitalia, we recognize gender is a construction. Which brings us to our two big goals: 1. To encourage communication on all points and 2.

To redefine what our readers think of as sex and intimacy.

For our first topic, we want

to discuss something that we feel anyone might experience, no matter where you fall on the spectrum of sexuality. What do you do when you have a low libido during a high-libido situation? Particularly when you are already in mid-hot-steamyconsensual-hookup. (We like to call this Limp Dick Syndrome or Dry Vagina Syndrome).

There are probably many ways this could turn out. We’ve experienced both the good, the bad and (bypass ugly) the really, really bad. So here are our tips.

1) Take the pressure off yourself by acknowledging the situation. There is nothing like trying to get a hard-on with an ocean of self-consciousness and loathing weighing you down.

2) Communicate your newfound freedom to your bedroom partner. This is key!

Just saying, “Hey, I’m really into you (emphasize the fact that it really is you, not them). But right now it’s just not gonna happen that way.”

3) Suggest an alternative activity. If your inability to get hard or wet at that moment is not due to discomfort or lack of attraction, that does not mean that sex has to end there.

This is where we come to our second theme: Sex does not exclusively mean penetration. Oral sex, mutual masturbation, utilizing those hands, etc., should all be counted as intimate activities with your

partner. If you are experiencing a low-libido moment, transfer the attention to your partner and ways you can please them.

This will take pressure off you and feel good for your partner.

Bonus! We know from personal experience that

these extracurricular activities often have a happy ending for both of you.

Disclaimer: This does not in any way mean that you should EVER engage in sexual activity with anyone with whom you are uncomfortable. You can

always change your mind about engaging in sex, even during intercourse. Sometimes it can be difficult, especially if someone’s dick is inside you and you feel the twisted obligation to carry through, or vice versa. But you can always say no.

Self-reflection, teaching the movement help fight back against privilege paralysis

by KATY WILLS Junior

W

hile some new parents may be told that their child is at greater risk for heart disease, diabetes or obesity, their white babies don’t come with a document warning the parents of the potential for privilege paralysis. I began to understand this condition last year.

In April 2014, I attended a workshop on social entrepreneurship, in which a group of students tackled issues of aid and development work. The workshop facilitator was an upper-class white man in his 50s who, through his entrepreneurial work, helped women in the global south achieve financial independence. Our group found itself questioning his legitimacy as an agent of positive change; we thought it presumptuous of him to act as a “white knight” jetting

down south to slay the dragon of poverty and “allow” these women to actualize their true potential. The facilitator acknowledged the imperial undertones of his position but cautioned us against letting privilege paralyze us.

“Privilege paralysis” describes the reticence of white people to engage in dialogue or activism surrounding contentious issues which may not affect them directly. This is a condition I have noticed here on campus and in my own mind. The culture at Whitman lacks a feeling of responsibility for activism. This isn’t exclusive to race issues, either. The environment, sexual violence, racial discrimination — these are all upsetting topics which incite frustration among Whitman students, so why don’t we do more?

It’s not only a culture of apathy; it’s because a lot of us are scared we’re going to do it wrong.

Whitman Teaches the Movement offers one way to begin combating this trend. I taught a curriculum on farmworker rights activist Cesar Chavez to a group of first-years at College Place High School. We discussed a film entitled “Viva La Causa,” about the gross inequality farm workers faced in the 60s. The students all too easily drew parallels between events in the film and racist experiences in their own lives.

While it would be convenient to say the students were shocked and inspired by the lesson, I can speak more to my experience than theirs. I spent an hour with this group of 14 year olds, but I’ve spent 20 years in my own head. While sitting in the classroom, I had an important realization about my own reason for participating in WTTM: the incredible power of youth. I signed up to train a new generation of activ-

ists, but while standing in front of 20 awkward, pubescent faces, I realized that I am an integral part of the current generation.

I can’t say the students’ minds were blown. It would be insincere and presumptuous to rave about the 65 minutes I spent in the classroom as a groundbreaking experience for those rowdy high schoolers; but what I can say is that I planted a seed in their minds and poured a little water on my own.

It took me until my third year at Whitman to begin “teaching the movement” because I assumed for two years that it wasn’t my place.

As a white, middle-class student at a prestigious college, I found myself uncomfortable with my privilege. I felt it wasn’t O.K. for me to teach civil rights to younger students because I’m part of a class of people who have committed monumental crimes of oppression. Teaching the move-

ment gave me an opportunity to address my personal privilege paralysis and embrace my potential as an agent of change.

I am not an expert on race, and discussing it still makes me uncomfortable because I know the social structure which grants me privilege takes it from the hands of others. But I understand the importance of talking about race. The opportunity to reverse my privilege paralysis came in the form of a series of pestering listserv emails from WTTM. I don’t want to admonish those who dedicate their time at Whitman to issues of social injustice by claiming they aren’t doing enough. I’m arguing that those who experience discrimination directly, those involved in BSU, FUBU, FGWC and Latino/a Student Coalition, shouldn’t be the ones bearing all the burden of activism on Whitman’s campus.

Advertising, sports have power to reclaim ‘like a girl’ HILLARY SMITH Sophomore

ONE WOMAN ROUND TABLE

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f the countless Super Bowl advertisements, one in particular made a deep impression on me. It included clips from an experiment conducted

by Always, a feminine hygiene brand, in which people of different ages were asked to mime physical actions — run, throw, etc. — “like a girl.” The adults pretended to be weak and silly. But the young girls, unaware of the phrase’s connotation, portrayed vigor and determination.

This was eye-opening for me because I realized that I would have done the same thing the adults did. I have become desensitized to “like a girl” existing as an insult. But this phrase, in evoking the stereotype of females as physically weak, can be incredibly harmful to girls with waning self-confidence, which Always’s study proved tends to begin at puberty.

The young girls in the ad, however, give the phrase positive meaning. In order to maintain this attitude, we must produce more ads and other me-

dia conveying this meaning. I am realizing how powerful television ads, which I usually find annoying, are in promoting messages like this one, because they reach large audiences.

While I recognize that the ultimate goal of advertising is profit, the favorable response to this Always ad seems to prove that positive and eye-opening messages catch our attention and make us inclined to support the brand, so I hope that more companies will use ads in this way.

Along with advertising, professional sports play a significant role in establishing gender norms because athletes also reach large audiences and are often featured in ads themselves.

Thus, something that would surely help redefine the meaning of “like a girl” is greater promotion and coverage of professional women’s sports. There really aren’t any huge female counterparts to the huge men’s teams.

The teams we refer to when referencing various cities’ professional sports are always men’s. The teams that are a big deal are always men’s. For goodness sakes, men’s football is so huge that we reschedule meetings so that everyone can watch the Super Bowl.

But why this disparity? Why is the WNBA so much less popular than the NBA? I’ve heard that the women just aren’t as fast-paced and exciting to watch.

But whose fault is that? Should we shift some money and efforts from men’s basketball programs to women’s to try to remedy this?

As a soccer fan, I can attest that

women’s games are just as thrilling and competitive, so why is the men’s World Cup a bigger deal? And why must we add “Women’s” in front of every professional women’s sports league?

Why can’t we add “Men’s” in front of men’s to equalize it? In not doing so, we’re perpetuating the idea that men’s teams are the main teams and women’s are those other, special ones.

A recent Boston Globe article suggests that one reason for this disparity between men’s and women’s teams is our culture of long-standing allegiances to traditional — and therefore men’s — teams. It also states that people still perceive women as less physically capable, which is why we need more exposure to female athletes — so that they can prove the opposite and inspire girls.

Some women’s teams cited in the article are enhancing their viewerships by promoting themselves in their communities. I think this is an effective start to solving the exposure problem, but as stated on the Women’s Sports Foundation website, women’s sports still receive significantly less funding than men’s, so closing this funding gap is imperative in increasing promotion and exposure.

Sports and advertising can and should work in tandem in promoting the positive meaning of “like a girl.” I hope this starts to happen for the sake of the next generation of women so that they can maintain their confident attitude and not let their supposed physical inferiority degrade their self-esteem.

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George W. Bush lectures to Whitman to offer Whitman Art Department pre-barista track

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s a man who is no stranger to unemployment, I am honored to unveil the Student Engagement Center’s latest attempt to delay my inevitable move back to my parents’ basement. Finally the Whitman student body and I will be able to learn skills which will be useful to us in the job market of contemporary America like how to froth a mocha and look good in an apron.

I am of course referring to the new pre-barista track availa-

Classes include: Whatever Man 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Apathy, Sarcasm 220: It’s such a worthwile class.

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othing quite says ‘Spring’ like former presidents giving commencement addresses on their post-presidential passions.

Few have forgotten President Jimmy Carter’s April 1994 speech at Columbia University regarding Habitat for Humanity, or Ulysses S. Grant’s lecture titled “I Won the War Drunk” at Harvard University in 1868.

Our 43rd president, however, wasn’t offered the commencement speech at Whitman graduation. Instead, President George W. Bush guest lectured at the Whitman Art Department this past week. Bush, who left office with two ongoing wars, a trashed economy and lax regulations on the environment, has turned into a post-presidential Picasso.

President Ponts contacted the Bush family through a mutual friend to get Bush to speak at commencement. The Young Republicans Club at Whitman immediately celebrated the possibility, and donations began flooding into the college. The faculty, however, sent out an email that basically said, “NO FUCKING WAY.” Ponts, perturbed, emailed the two members of the Young Republicans Club, asking for a “set

ble to all Whitman students. Those who choose to pursue a pre-barista degree will find themselves on the fast track to some of the most prestigious Starbucks cafés in the entire country (like the one in which Steve Jobs invented the iPhone while getting a handjob behind an espresso machine).

This is not, however, to say that aspiring Whitman baristas will have it easy. On the contrary, of principles” and a “simple goal” that would allow the students’ parents to continue to donate absurd amounts of money to the college through some sort of compromise.

The Young Republicans responded, still pushing for Bush to come to Whitman, but not as the commencement speaker. Ponts, slick as ever, figured he could get Bush to lecture at the Art Department. When contacted for a response, the entirety of Whitman’s art faculty laughed for five minutes. In an exclusive Skype interview with the former president, we got down to brass tacks.

That’s what I believe, and that’s one part of my foreign policy... I mean, painting policy.

Backpage: So, Mr. President, are you glad to be lecturing on your new hobby?

Bush: Forget it. I’m the decider.

Bush: Yes, I am. No one invites me anywhere. I’m just happy to get off my damn ranch. I’m sick of all these Lil’ Bush reruns.

BP: What is your philosophy when it comes to making art?

Bush: Well, let me tell ya — anywhere a paintbrush stirs, let art critics fear. I believe that God wants everybody to be paint.

those future coffee vendors among us must undertake a rigorous courseload of classes specifically tailored for soon-to-be baristas.

These include: Whatever, Man 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Apathy, Sarcasm 220: It’s Such a Worthwhile Class, Nihilism 307: Who the Fuck Cares?, Nihilism 308: No Really, Who the Fuck Cares? and Beginning Acting (often considered to be the start of some of the most illustrious barista careers).

Yet, in today’s competitive barista market, the right classes alone might not be enough to secure even the most promising young Whitman student a job making lattes.

This is why the SEC has recently provided grants for internships at local coffee shops. The newly founded Barista Department (motto: id quod plerumque accidit, or “knowledge is overrated”) is already a roaring success, with many students already switching majors in anticipation of not being able to find a job after college.

Well, it’s a new and challenging world out there for many Whitman graduates. However, with the addition of the prebarista track, many Whitman students will be able to overcome the uncertainty in the outside world with one simple question: “Is that for here or to go?”

BP: How would you describe your paintings?

Bush: Well, I would say they’re misunderestimated most of the time. No one gets what I’m trying to say. Painting is where I find hope, where my wings take dream.

BP: Wings take dream? Like the band?

Bush decided to show a few of his art pieces, portraits ranging from Hamid Karzai to Vladamir Putin, despite the two leaders poor standing with the United States.

“These guys are my pals,” he said.

One moment was awkward, however. When Bush was walking off stage, he very clearly passed gas. He turned around and said, “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.” The crowd of 18 erupted in laughter.

69 activities for exuberant Valentine’s Day weekend

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he amount of grey outside is overwhelming, and quite honestly everyone is fed up.

Whitties are starting to wear their Birks in a vain attempt to feel better about the world (even though all they end up with are wet and slightly muddy feet). There hasn’t been a glimpse of sunlight in the past 48 hours, and in all truth it’s starting to take its toll. The student body has become groggy, paler than usual and downright cranky. We behave more like zombies, craving sleep and coffee, than like active participants in everyday life. The whole non-showered, sleep-deprived, flannel-wearing state of the student body has been taken to a new extreme. The weather is making everyone feel like they need a nap all the time; my 9 a.m. class has really just become the period in between dreams, so all I can do is blame the weather. In order to combat this,

I’ve taken it upon myself to think up a few things that I think will ease the pain of another overcast day.

First, there’s the obvious: some afternoon delight. The sweet, sweet taste of... ice cream. Wait, that’s what you were thinking too, right?

I personally think ice cream can fix just about anything (even on the rainiest of days). Some Rocky Road or Cherry Garcia can alleviate even the gloomiest of overcast days.

Next, also somewhat obvious, is some light bondage. I’m talking about when you get out your rope and tie... knots for rock climbing! When has there been a better time to make sure that you know the accurate ways to tie those knots? Never! Who knows, maybe this will even allow you to wow your rock climbing class in the future. You’ll soon be the superstar of rock climbing. Safety first, kids!

Then of course there’s the op-

Mease not Mooses by Asa Mease

portunity to get on your knees and blow... glass! Haven’t you always wanted to learn how Chihuly created his awesome sculpture in Reid? Now’s your chance!

You can explore the world of art, learning how to express yourself while creating beautiful sculptures. Think of how all your friends will be in awe of your amazing ability to blow (glass).

Valentine’s Day is coming up, too! Maybe you can eat ice cream, tie knots and/or blow glass with that special someone. There really isn’t a better way to sweep your significant other off their feet by proposing a wild weekend of 69 fun arts and crafts. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it’ll be a damn good time. Hope this list has successfully taken your mind off of the looming grey skies — best of luck finding a way to escape the endless overcast days. (Cue “Escape [The Piña Colada Song]”).

ILLUSTRATION BY GUAGLITZ

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