Whitman Pioneer Fall 2012 Issue 13

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SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE: Investigating Whitman sports p. 3

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Issue 13 | December 6, 2012 | Whitman news since 1896

gap

Closing the Faculty rank by gender:

by Rachel Alexander and Emily Lin-Jones Editor-in-Chief and News Editor

O

ver the past year, the college administration and faculty have been talking more about the difficulties of handling faculty diversity on campus. Although the college makes efforts to recruit a racially diverse faculty, and has sought out larger numbers of female professors, in part to reflect the growing female proportion of the student body, professors in both of these groups tend to leave Whitman in greater numbers than their white and male counterparts, especially prior to receiving tenure.

While most faculty who leave the college have some type of personal reason for doing so, the aggregate numbers have caused concern within the administration.

Over the summer, President Bridges held a dinner for a group of faculty and administrators to discuss concerns over the retention rate. One result of this meeting was the formation of a Working Group on Faculty Retention at Whitman. The group, which has met twice this semester, is planning to bring a consultant to campus in the spring to further investigate the issue.

“We as a working group are hoping to get a stronger sense of not only why some people aren’t staying at Whitman ... but looking deeper and asking, ‘What are the underlying causes of people leaving?’” said Associate Professor of Religion Melissa Wilcox, the spokesperson for the working group.

What diversity means “Diversity” is undoubtedly a buzzword on the Whitman campus, though it’s perhaps most commonly discussed in relation to the student body, rather than the faculty. Students have debated the meaning of the word itself, as well as its importance, and the Office of Admission tends to take a broad view which includes demographic traits, as well as life experiences.

As with diversity in the student body, diversity in faculty is promoted as a way to bring a variety of perspectives to the college. David Schmitz, chair of the faculty and Robert Allen Skotheim chair of history, said that when he became the faculty chair last year, he asked a variety of faculty to share their concerns with him. Promoting diversity within the faculty was a top concern.

“With the economic crisis in 2008 and the necessity of responding to that, certain initiatives in terms of diversity broadly defined lost their momentum,” said Schmitz.

“I think there’s now momentum again.”

Still, as with discussions about the student body, what is meant by the word “diversity” isn’t always clear. For instance, every applicant for a faculty position at the college is required to address in their letter how they will contribute to diversity on campus. Prior to the formation of the working group, Wilcox said that practices like this demonstrate a view of diversity which is so broad that it ren-

Full professor

Associate professor

Assistant professor

female

female

female

23%

43%

55%

77%

57%

45%

male

male

male

By race: Full professor

Associate professor

7%

Assistant professor

11% non-white 19% non-white

white

91%

white

89%

white

76%

Percentages may not add up to 100 as some faculty chose not to report their race INFOGRAPHIC BY PETERSON AND MCNULTY

ders the word without much meaning.

“What we’re not paying attention to is what we mean when we say diversity. Who are we talking about? Are we trying to get a bunch of white men who’ve been to Africa, to put it crudely, or are we really trying to really change the face and the shape of Whitman?” she said.

Wilcox hopes that the working group can help identify ways to better support underrepresented groups on campus.

“If we’re really trying to change the face and the shape of Whitman, we need to be paying attention to not only what it means to recruit people, but what

it takes to bring them here and what it takes to keep them, whether they’re faculty, students or staff,” she said.

Much of the support for diversity initiatives on the faculty reflects the feeling that the faculty should reflect the composition of the student body. The number of international students and students of color at Whitman has been rising in recent years, and the college is currently approximately 60 percent female.

Having faculty who come from similar backgrounds can help support these students by providing them with mentors.

“If you’re going to have women stu-

dents and students of color and you want them to be confident in their abilities, it helps for them to see that there are other thriving successful members of the faculty [who are part of these groups],” said Associate Professor of Politics Shampa Biswas.

Biswas is one of a number of professors who have advocated for increased consideration of gender issues on the Whitman campus, such as the creation of a maternity leave policy, which happened for the first time last fall. She said that equity issues also factor into the discussion on diversity.

“Higher education, in a sense, should reflect the society in which it is located,” said Biswas. When this isn’t the case, “it tells you something about the exclusionary practices at work.”

Invisible barriers Exclusionary practices aren’t always visible, and aren’t only present in the hiring and selection of faculty. Simply recruiting a diverse group of faculty doesn’t mean they’ll stay on campus. Competing demands for time, including a greater demand for mentoring and service work, as well as overt and implicit discrimination, affect how welcome underrepresented groups of faculty feel on campus.

“We have a sense that faculty of color and women faculty members end up doing a lot more of the invisible work of the institution,” said Biswas.

Among the largest concerns mentioned by female faculty and faculty of color is that the time and effort they put into mentoring students outside of academics may go unrecognized.

“As the demographic composition of the student body has changed, ‘diversity students’ who face sexual harassment or racial discrimination or are just looking for somebody to understand the obstacles they face as a first generation college student or an international student at a place like Whitman often look to these ‘diversity faculty’ for mentorship and support,” said Biswas, echoing a concern that has been raised by many female faculty, faculty of color and LGBTQ faculty.

Mentoring work like this takes time away from teaching and scholarship, both of which are valued more highly when professors are being considered for raises and tenure. While it’s difficult to measure, many faculty members from underrepresented faculty groups feel that they are required to work extra hours in order to teach well and produce scholarship at a high level, because of the mentoring demands made on their time.

In addition to mentoring, societal norms about what a professor “should” look like can make work challenging for professors who fall outside of this model. “One consequence of the relatively narrower demographic composition of the faculty is that there are certain prejudices out there about [what constitutes] a qualified and capable professor, which see GENDER GAP, page 2

Encounters forum allows for anonymity, free discussion with few consequences

by Evan Taylor Staff Reporter

T

here’s only one place on campus where you can find declarations of love among intellectual discussion, where cackling trolls hide out under a bridge called diversion and where faceless people debate the merits of facelessness.

Whitman Encounters, a website created and facilitated by Whitman students, provides an open discourse through anonymous posts by users. The site—whitmanencounters.com—allows for anyone, within or outside of the Whitman community, to view the various issues brought up in posts, ranging in topic from sex to Halloween costumes.

The website was created in February of 2012, with the goal of giving Whitman community members a space to voice critical topics they may otherwise keep silent.

“We saw a need on campus that wasn’t being fulfilled,” said one of the creators of the website, who serves as the site’s administrator. “The problem is this ‘Whitman nice.’ Everyone at Whitman is really nice, and that creates a problem because it’s not seen as authentic. We wanted to create a space where it would be possible for people to voice the things that they repress in order to maintain that niceness, and to say what everyone needs to hear, which is pretty far from really being spoken about publicly.”

The administrator preferred to remain anonymous because the website’s success depends on anonymity and disassociation with any individual. The anonymity of the website is a key component for the type of vulnerability and honesty that occurs.

“If you were wearing a mask

standing up in front of an audience of 700 people, you would never say half of the things that people say when they go on [Encounters],” said the site’s administrator. “Insecurities need to be voiced. Someone who is insecure about something can talk about it with other people that are in their community anonymously. They can get affirmation and find that there are other people with that insecurity or that it’s unfounded. Ultimately there are a lot of people who are actually on the same page and just never have the occasion to find out.”

However, the effects of anonymity are two-sided. While some find the courage to be honest and vulnerable through anonymity, others find a boldness to be crude and spiteful.

“It is very easy to get lost in the anonymity and the facelessness of the Internet. The anonymity of it has provided an opportunity for people to give harsher responses to topics that are important to certain people than they would in person, which sparks interesting debate,” said senior Nik Hagen. “Another danger of it is the removal of personal interaction. You get into these realms of objectification of certain people.

It provides an opportunity for people to have some hurtful things said about them or be talked about without them knowing in a very public forum which could [be] embarrassing or uncomfortable, or perhaps even produce a feeling of not being safe.”

Another aspect of anonymity is demonstrated by the experiences of first-year student Colin Ogilvie, a poster on Encounters known as “Colin O” who was impersonated by other users on the website sometimes in a malicious fashion.

“By definition it’s a crime. Personally I don’t care. I’m strongly

against it in theory and if there was a way to do it, I would suggest that legal action should be taken because it is a crime. But I kind of find it more flattering and entertaining in this sense,” said Ogilvie.

“This is the problem with this Whitman Encounters in general: A large majority of the posters on this have not experienced life in the real world.”

Ogilvie finds that the site’s discussions relate mostly to dating and sexuality, so as a place for these topics, he created a dating website, Sweet Encounters—sweetencounters.mydatesites.com.

Despite the parody of the name of the dating site, Ogilvie intends to improve and manage it seriously. He hopes to get in contact with administrators of Whitman Encounters so that the two sites might merge.

“For what they created [Encounters] to be, it’s rather weak,” said Ogilvie. “It’s very much weakened when it is used for ‘I like you. You don’t know who I am, I don’t know who you are, I still like you.’ That’s

fine, but it gets annoying when it’s a lot of it. It has the potential to be so much more. A potential tab on Encounters could be the Sweet Encounters website for the Whitman dating scene. It would be nice to merge the two sites, but it depends on what the admins want. Rather than having two [sites], you would have just one. It’s the same target audience, but just a different purpose.”

Along with some of the faceless dangers of anonymity, there is the opportunity for intellectual discussion and debate concerning current issues within the community. Encounters conversations start with a

post from a user, then other users comment on the original post, which sometimes leads viewers to talk about it with their friends. If a big topic is brought up on the site, most of the Whitman community will hear about it, whether or not they are a regular visitor of the site.

“If something happens on campus and it’s written about and there’s this massive communal discourse, even though it’s anonymous people are still reading and considering those ideas and opinions,” said the site’s administrator. “It doesn’t matter who says them; it matters whether or not they get said at all. Someone who doesn’t necessarily have a venue to express themselves publicly can voice their opinion and it carries its own weight. People don’t pay attention to it because of who’s saying it; they pay attention to it because it’s worth paying attention to, and I think that’s the value of anonymity.”

Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland noted that the title of the website, so close to that of the firstyear core class, presents an issue.

“My biggest disappointment with the website is not necessarily the content but the fact that it’s called Whitman Encounters,” said Cleveland. see ENCOUNTERS, page 2

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Locals blow whistle at Hanford

by Lachlan Johnson Staff Reporter

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tudents learned the risks and benefits of speaking out about ethical concerns in the workplace on Thursday, Nov. 29 when the American Whistleblower Tour (AWT) paid a visit to campus.

The three visiting speakers talked about their experiences exposing violations at the Hanford Nuclear Site, located only a couple hours away from Whitman College along the Columbia River. The event was organized by senior Genevieve Jones, the Whitman Events Board campus relations coordinator.

“At first I wasn’t very familiar with the term whistleblower, and the more I learned the more I became excited to bring someone to speak,” said Jones. “After talking with Dana [Gold] on some phone conversations we decided to have a Hanford focus to make it a local issue as well as [to include] the wider context of government whistleblowing.”

Jones worked with Dana Gold to bring Walt Tamosaitis, a whistleblower from the Hanford Nuclear Site, and Liz Mattson, program coordinator of the Hanford Challenge whistleblowing organization, to campus. Gold, a senior fellow at the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and director of the American Whistleblowers Tour, has visited campuses across the nation in an attempt to bring attention both to the issues raised by whistleblowers and the process of whistleblowing itself.

“Our goal [with the lecture series] is to raise consciousness and raise dialogue around the issue of whistleblowing, and to [help students] realize that whistleblowers are an important part of an effective democracy and promot-

ing institutional accountability, but also to counter negative perceptions and stereotypes around whistleblowers,” said GAP Senior Fellow Dana Gold, the director of the American Whistleblower Tour. “People think [whistleblowers are] tattletales, they’re snitches, they’re in it for their own self-interest, they’re doing it for financial reasons. You’d be better of buying a lottery ticket than being a whistleblower for financial reasons.”

The Hanford Site, where nuclear weapons were developed and built during the second World War and which is now the most contaminated location in the Western Hemisphere and the location of the largest environmental clean-up in history, is less than 60 miles from Whitman. Cleanup of leaking waste tanks at Hanford, which threaten to contaminate the Columbia River, is being carried out by Bechtel Corporation.

While leading research and design for the Waste Treatment Plant project at Hanford in 2009, Tamosaitis spoke out about numerous design flaws, despite Bechtel management’s determination to declare the project finished in order to meet a deadline in the summer of 2010. This led Bechtel management to fire Tamosaitis from the projects. Tamosaitis’ case is not unusual; whistleblowers are often faced with persecution and isolation in the workplace when they bring forward issues which are inconvenient to the organization they are involved with.

“If you get into this situation it’s really important to have a strong support network. I’m blessed with a great wife who supports me tremendously, and we decided we needed to take some action [about the safety issues at Hanford],” explained Tamosaitis.

Tamosaitis worked with the

Walt Tamosaitis [left], a whistleblower at the local Hanford Nuclear Site, and Dana Gold [right], a senior fellow at the Government Accountability Project, discussed calling out ethical violations as part of the American Whistleblower Tour. Photo by Bowersox

Hanford Challenge, a spin-off of GAP based in Seattle, to report his concerns to the U.S. government.

Due to Tamosaitis’ report, construction on the Waste Treatment Facility has been suspended indefinitely as the government examines issues surrounding its construction and considers options for moving forward. Had Tamosaitis not stepped forward, the Waste Treatment Facility may never have run, or in a worse-case scenario could have led to a hydrogen explosion resulting in a nuclear disaster similar to that in Fukushima in the spring of 2011.

Though he is pleased with his decision and would have made

it again, Tamosaitis warned that blowing the whistle is not always an easy decision, and had he been younger and lacked the financial and familial security he has, he may have made a different decision.

“Right now I’m not really in the position to be a whistleblower because I need a job,” said senior Sara Portesan, who attended the lecture. “I [feel I am] more likely to be a whistleblower [after hearing the lecture] even though [Tamosaitis] brought up valid points that right now if everyone thought I was a bad employee I might not get a job, and then I might be out of work for the rest of my life. But it would

be worth it, right? Or should I wait until I could afford retirement?”

Other atendees reflected on the striking removal of the Hanford Nuclear Site from Whitman’s collective consciousness.

“It does amaze me sometimes that we’re here, a center of knowledge and learning and enlightenment, and a place that puts a large emphasis on environmental studies ... literally 60 miles away from us is the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere,” said Visiting Assistant Professor Jesse Abrams. “It doesn’t seem to be part of most people’s experience of living in Walla Walla.”

College investigates faculty retention issues, concerns about staff diversity from GENDER GAP, page 1

sometimes means that highly capable diversity faculty will have their credentials and abilities questioned, sometimes by colleagues and sometimes by students, which can affect morale and performance,” said Biswas.

According to data that Whitman reports to the Chronicle of Higher Education, there is a pay gap between male and female faculty. On average, men at all levels of professorship—full, assistant, associate— earn about $12,000 more per year than their female colleagues. In response to faculty concerns, Whitman’s Office of Institutional Research compiled a report on differences in faculty salary based on gender over the summer of 2012.

The report found that the gap between salaries was due to differences in rank, since male professors have, on average, been at the college longer and generally have a higher rank. It concluded that the differences in average salary between female and male professors of the same rank were not statistically significant, meaning that the gap could not be definitively attributed to gender. Still, these conclusions left a number of questions unresolved. “[The report] didn’t put those data in the context of much greater societal problems of gender pay inequity,” said Paul Apostolidis, professor of politics and Paul Chair Political Science. “These two statistical analyses are helpful, but I don’t think we should conclude on the basis of them that there is no problem.”

Potential issues with

interpretation of the report include the small population being examined and its focus on only one academic year’s worth of data. One factor which determines statistical significance is the sample size in question, and because Whitman’s faculty is such a small body, it would take an extremely large gap to find statistical significance in the pay gap.

There is also a difference between disproving something and failing to prove it, which Wilcox noted.

“Having a finding that does not have statistical significance doesn’t disprove anything,” said Wilcox.

Ultimately, faculty feel that more consistent monitoring and a larger set of data is needed to fully examine the issue of pay. Schmitz said that even without statistically significant findings, the issue deserves greater scrutiny.

“Even if [the findings are not significant], I don’t think that says to us, ‘We’re fine.’ That’s only one point over time. What are the trends?” said Schmitz.

Whitman efforts Since the 1980s, the composition of Whitman’s faculty has become increasingly female, some of which can be attributed to efforts by the college, and some of which is due to the fact that more women are entering academia in general.

“There’s been a change from an institution that was mostly white, mostly male faculty to an institution that will be, if current trends continue, a majority of women faculty very soon,” said Schmitz. While the number of faculty of color is increasing as well, those numbers are still relatively small.

“We haven’t made as much progress there,” said Schmitz.

Still, Whitman’s retention data suggests that the college would benefit from greater institutional support for underrepresented faculty groups. President Bridges addressed the importance of better understanding institutional barriers that female faculty and faculty of color face, and the Office of the Provost is concerned about the issue as well.

“Over the course of the past two years, we have hired 22 new faculty members into tenure-track positions, and, this year, we hope to hire another 11. We are very excited by these new additions to our faculty. But we are also fully aware of the responsibility we have to support these professors and, indeed, all faculty members at Whitman in their capacities as teachers and schol-

ars,” said Provost and Dean of Faculty Timothy Kaufman-Osborn.

In addition to organizing within the administration and faculty to investigate issues with underrepresented faculty, Whitman is planning to hire an outside consultant to look into the matter. The working group on retention will be interviewing two candidates next week, and plans to select one to carry out the project next semester.

“These [consultants] are people who’ve looked at these issues in other places and bring a different set of eyes to something we see as normal,” said Schmitz. “A consultant can help you frame and think through the issue.”

Biswas said that she was optimistic about the consultant, since it shows the college is willing to invest resources in supporting diverse faculty.

“I feel like I’ve been raising the question at intervals and nothing’s really happened. It seems like there’s headway,” she said.

Biswas hopes that the college will follow through on recommendations.

“Part of the reason [the administration] formed the committee and are bringing in an external consultant is because they’re serious, but I don’t know what that seriousness translates to. Does that mean the administration is going to make a commitment to both increasing and supporting diverse faculty?

What does that commitment look like?” she said. “They know that there’s a problem, but I think it remains to be seen what that seriousness translates to in terms of institutional resources.”

INFOGRAPHIC BY PETERSON AND BARTHOLET

Between 2000 and 2012, Whitman College hired 48 female faculty, 30 male faculty, 19.5 faculty of color and 72.5 white faculty. Of these...

2 men 7 women (5%) (14%)

31% resigned prior to receiving tenure

of faculty of color

left the college for some reason

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NEWS

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Photo by Bergman

INVESTIGATING SPORTS The quintessential Whitman student athlete is a competitor on the field and in the classroom, determined to succeed. Each and every Missionary athlete who steps on campus is truly a student athlete in every sense. Wins and losses matter, but it is the athletic experience the college offers that drives student athletes to come spend four years out in tiny Walla Walla.

Between varsity and club athletes, the athletic community encompasses 34 percent of the Whitman student population: 17 percent play a varsity sport and 17 percent compete in club sports. Varsity athletes compete in the Northwest Conference, one of nearly 450 member conferences of the NCAA Division III. Although there are no concurrent conferences for club sports, the Whitman club teams regularly compete against widespread competition, from other NWC-affiliated schools to major DI programs like the University of Washington.

Between the two levels of athletics, Whitman students have opportunities to compete in a wide selection of sports, from basketball and baseball to Triathlon and rock climbing. Moreover, only three sports

have teams at both the varsity and club level: women’s tennis, men’s tennis and women’s volleyball.

The driving force behind Whitman varsity and club athletics? The fervent competitiveness to succeed.

Despite their similarities, varsity and club sports inevitably have their differences. Besides set regional and national conference affiliates, the greatest distinction between varsity and club sports at Whitman is the resources available to each team. Varsity athletics are entirely funded by the College, while club sports are financed by a combination of the College and ASWC. Conflicts arise over field scheduling, travel costs and general communication between the various teams and the Whitman administration, as well as ASWC. It may seem as though there is a hard line drawn in the sand between the resources allocated to varsity sports and those provided to club sports. However, even at the varsity level no two teams are run alike.

Reliance on donations to fund assistant coaches leaves varsity programs wanting more

W

hitman College varsity athletes: all Missionaries, all fierce Northwest Conference competitors, all striving to represent Whitman on and off the field. But no two varsity teams at Whitman are made alike.

Each individual team has a unique history at Whitman.

Teams such as basketball and baseball have competed at the varsity level for decades, which creates a larger alumni base of support. The tangible evidence of that support is in part monetary: Sports with longer histories have more alumni who give dollars to the programs, thus increasing the amount of money available to the coaches of those programs to spend on resources. For sports like volleyball and soccer that were developed more recently, the athletic department has had to create new dollars and new budgets to support those programs.

One of the most prevalent factors that distinguishes one varsity team from another is the presence—or lack thereof— of assistant coaches. Of Whitman’s 14 varsity teams, only five have full-time assistant coaches: men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and men’s and women’s swimming. The two swim teams share a full-time assistant along with a head coach.

In addition, each of these teams has multiple part-time and volunteer assistant coaches, who help with everything from onfield coaching and recruiting to film study and travel planning.

“It has been a great asset to have a full-time assistant,” said Head Women’s Basketball Coach Michelle Ferenz in an email. Ferenz’s full-time assistant coach is Casey Kushiyama. “The position does have a few other duties including teaching and game management, but they are able to really help with the coaching and recruiting.”

The full-time assistant coach-

ing position was created in 2009.

In 2010, the $3 million Kim Evanger Raney Endowment established the Varsity Athletic Endowment, which “is designed to ensure gender equity and equity in sports that do not have as deep an alumni and fundraising base,” according to Athletic Director Dean Snider. Of the $3 million gift given in 2011, 50 percent was used to further enhance the Varsity Athletic Endowment and 50 percent established endowments in men’s and women’s basketball and baseball. This will be the first year that Ferenz and the women’s basketball team benefit financially from the endowment.

While Whitman’s varsity teams all have significant support from the college, some teams are more limited in their resources than others.

Six of the 14 varsity teams have one or fewer assistants on their coaching staffs. Women’s tennis has one assistant coach: 2012 graduate Emily Rolston.

This season, the men’s and women’s soccer teams shared an assistant coach: 2011 graduate John Fleming. Three teams—men’s golf, women’s golf and men’s tennis—do not have any assistants on their rosters. According to Head Men’s Soccer Coach Mike Washington, sharing an assistant coach between the two soccer teams is problematic.

“John [Fleming] is doing both [the men’s and women’s] teams and he’s trying to manage both the recruiting side of it and the field side of it, which is difficult because we’re only getting him for one or two days a week each,” said Washington. “He has to sit through both games on the weekend, which is really tough; it extends his hours. I think it’s taken away from some of the recruiting things we’d like to see done because he’s spread pretty thin.”

When Washington first came to Whitman in 1998, he had a volunteer assistant but essential-

ly had to run the program on his own, from recruiting and meeting with students to scheduling games and coaching on the field.

The need for assistant coaches across the board in the majority of Whitman’s varsity programs is evident, and continues to be a primary focus for the Whitman athletic department and the W Club.

“We identified early on in the building of the W Club the greatest need, and this was consistent across the department: The greatest need we had in the department was assistant coaches,” said Snider. “Assistant coaches would enhance the student experience [and] would help in the recruiting side of things.”

The creation of Whitman’s annual athletic budget is twofold, framed by the past and negotiated according to present and future needs. First is the history side, wherein long-standing varsity programs have a deep base of alumni support.

The second aspect to consider is the present needs presented by each team. Every year, coaches submit requests based on their anticipated travel costs and roster sizes, and the college allocates the budget based on those requests. Coaches must determine what they need to run their program. According to Snider, the larger part of the operations budget is always travel costs “because geographically we are a little challenged.” The challenge is to keep travel costs consistent across all 14 varsity teams.

“At the time the W Club was being conceived we took a look at our location and found an inherent disadvantage. Even if our budgets were comparable to other schools, we needed to spend a significantly higher percentage on travel,” said Snider.

In order to compensate for the great distances traveled to reach competitions, Whitman has significantly increased

its athletic budgets across the board since 2005, doing so with gifts from many of the alumni who would eventually come to establish and make up the W Club, which was founded in 2008. Some of those gifts were made to specific programs to be used for specific purposes, including assistant coaches.

Each full-time assistant at Whitman initially had his or her salary paid for by gifts given individually to his or her program.

The gifts were given with the intention of eventually becoming internal in the athletic budget.

“We generated a gift for both [the men’s and women’s basketball teams] and these are the first two full-time assistants we had in men’s and women’s basketball.

[These gifts] allowed us to take the current funds we allocated to basketball assistants ... and put in the general pool and spread that out to the rest of the programs,” said Snider. “We got those gifts with the understanding that we would eventually make those positions internal and that happened this last year. This is currently the first year that our basketball coaches’ positions are internal.

They’re not gifted any longer; they’re budgeted by the college.”

After seeing the value in this process for creating positions for full-time assistant coaches, the athletic department voiced interest in generating a gift for a baseball assistant, eventually accepting an offer from an alum and creating that new position.

For the baseball team, the assistant coaching position is still gifted and on track with the athletic department’s timeline to bring it into the College’s budget. There are currently no plans for Whitman to add to that list of teams with full-time assistant coaches, but Snider remains optimistic that this will eventually happen.

“I would love to have assistant coaches in every sport,

every one of them,” said Snider. “It will take building, it will take some time and it will take some creativity. Our goal is to have resources that are competitive with the programs we compete against ... in the conference and the nation, where full-time assistants are part of the norm.”

No matter if they have six assistants or none, Whitman’s varsity teams continue to do everything they can to make their student athletes’ experiences the best they can be. The problem exists and the situation is not always ideal, but coaches recognize that the perfect solution will not come overnight.

“Ideally moving forward, it would be nice to each have an assistant each so we could manipulate a little bit better for our own good, rather than trying to share it,” said Washington. “We’ve just got to keep working on it, I think. It’s something [within the department], what we’re trying to do now is [have] every team [get] a full-time assistant.

It looks like we’re one of the last ones set to have that happen.”

Despite the obvious discrepancies in resources that currently exist between varsity teams, the athletic department and the college clearly recognize that there is a problem and continue to partner with the W Club in the hopes of creating an increasingly more equitable experience for all their varsity athletes.

“I want every varsity athlete to be able to say, ‘I’m a varsity athlete and I know what that means because it feels the same as someone else’s varsity experience,’ and so we’re working towards that,” said Snider.

While solutions will not come overnight, varsity coaches and athletes alike are learning how to work within the current structure and find success.

“You know, you either sit and moan about it or you just get on with it,” said Washington.

Although the Whitman baseball team has four assistant coaches listed on its roster, only one is full-time. Like other teams with multiple assistants, the rest are either part-time or volunteer. Photo by McCormick

6 SPECIAL SECTION 4 Clubs frustrated with scarce resources Dec

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2012

by pam london Sports Editor

Over the years, many of Whitman’s athletes have used their ambition and passion for sport to create a unique culture and community on campus: club sports.

Instead of the strict structure of varsity athletics, with conference affiliations and coaching staffs, club sports are entirely student-run. Club athletes have the opportunity to determine how and when they want to practice and play, as well as learn skills such as budgeting and leadership.

“When it comes to club sports, student interest ... is the driver.

What are students interested in?

What do they want to compete in?

Where there is a group of students who want to compete in something, typically that is where club has emerged,” said Athletic Director Dean Snider. “And so rather than being directed by the conference [and] by the NCAA, our club sport offerings are really directed by Whitman College students.”

Just five years ago, the athletic scene at Whitman looked very different than it does today. From a club sports perspective, the improvements in terms of the college’s funding of its club teams are dramatic to say the least. Between ASWC and the college, the budget has grown exponentially and allocative rules are becoming less restrictive.

Still, the ever-expanding nature of Whitman club sports inevitably causes problems in terms of resources. ASWC and the college shoulder the majority of the monetary weight needed to support club sports.

How it works Every spring, each club team submits a budget request to ASWC for the following fiscal year, which includes estimated travel and competition costs for a projected roster size. ASWC must budget its own resources and then work with the college to determine how many of those requests can be met.

For many teams, these projections include travel costs. However, the budgets do not cover enough travel costs to allow teams to go to as many competitions as they would like, thus requiring out-of-pocket expenses. For example, each member of the men’s Ultimate team will pay about $500 this year in out-of-pocket travel expenses. Last spring, the Sweets traveled to three major out-ofstate tournaments—the Stanford Invite in California, Centex 2012 in Texas and the Big Sky Sectionals in Idaho—and the team itself financed many of those expenses.

Due to the timing of budget request submissions, spring club teams including Ultimate must consider postseason tournaments in their projected budgets.

In order to compensate for the potential added costs, teams fundraise money or pay out of pocket.

“We’ll write [the Nationals request] into our budget this spring,” said senior Ultimate player and former captain Natalie Jamerson. “We do as much fundraising as we can, like we bring in a couple thousand dollars in the spring from our tournament [Onionfest], but that’s split between men and women and we blow

ILLUSTRATION BY PETERSON

through that pretty fast. ASWC contingency is a nice buffer or if you’re really in need of more funding that’s something you can turn to, but that deadline is sooner in the season than we’re able to submit our request because we don’t know about Nationals until May.” Just last year, ASWC moved to increase its funding of club sports: Its bylaws now allow ASWC to match up to 75 percent of what the college allocates to club sports. In 2011-12, ASWC funded $35,000 of the club sports budget. Club sports are on the minds of ASWC officers again this year.

“I had the opportunity to present to the President’s Budget Advisory Committee, prior to Thanksgiving break, some budget priorities that ASWC would like to see the college invest in,” said ASWC President Kayvon Behroozian in an email. “One of these priorities was urging the college to increase the amount it contributes to club sports by $10,000.”

This increase in college funding would in turn allow ASWC to increase its own funding of club sports.

Behroozian also noted the commitment demonstrated by club athletes to find the resources to go to competitions, even if that means paying expenses themselves.

“Currently, many club sport participants pay anywhere from roughly $50 to over $500 a year to participate, travel and compete ... This demonstrates significant dedication by our students. However, this also demonstrates that the amount that ASWC and the College contributes to the club sports community can be increased to help support our club sports,” said Behroozian. “Our club sports community has a lot to brag about and there are a number of Whitman club sports [that] are nationally and regionally recognized for their excellence and success. Given that these positive reputations reflect positively on Whitman, I feel that increased and continuous support of the students who contribute to these positive reputations is necessary.”

The student body will be informed of the decision in late February 2013, when the college’s budget for the coming year is finalized.

Despite the significant im-

Search for solutions From the student level, frustrations amongst club teams arise primarily in terms of scheduling. Senior men’s club volleyball captain Gus Friedman believes those frustrations are a product of the varsity-club structure.

“I think conflicts arise in practice space and the use of campus facilities and ... this depends a lot on the club, on the team you talk to,” said Friedman. “I have heard of Frisbee running into problems using the soccer fields ... This semester, the multipurpose gym is booked Monday to Thursday from 4 to 7 or 8 [p.m.] by the basketball teams and baseball team, leaving the club volleyball team practicing from 8 to 10 [p.m.] and anybody else more or less out of luck ... The club teams make do but are playing at really inconvenient times because they don’t have other options.”

Jamerson agrees that a lack of effective communication has been a frustration for club teams.

“There’ve been a lot of issues about not being respected, especially with use of field space,” said Jamerson. “There is a pecking order for which teams get field space and it’s obviously in-season varsity first and then there’s been this question of off-season varsity and in-season club. To have support from the administration and the club sports advocate really helps that, to be able to have that gym space [or] have that field space that we need for our seasons is really important. [It’s been important to] establish good communication with coaches.”

At least one sport has figured out how to strike a balance between varsity practices, club practices and community use. The men’s and women’s varsity and club tennis teams have had a structure in place for a number of years that allows all teams who want to use the outdoor and indoor tennis courts to negotiate scheduling.

“I think that the two varsity teams, the club team and the Whitman community works well together,” said senior varsity tennis player Alyssa Roberg. “For the most part, the varsity teams switch on and off early versus late practice ... and we set that schedule in the beginning of the year and just stick to it.”

The tennis teams, both varsity and club, have been able to maintain open lines of communication and while varsity does take precedence for court time, there is never doubt about whether club teams will get practice time.

“The club team does a really good job of communicating with us ... Even though for them court space is definitely limited as far as times go—I understand we do definitely have the courts at the mostused time—they communicate with us and they use the courts whenever we’re not,” said Roberg.

Despite all the existing frustrations between club sports and varsity athletics, or club sports and the Whitman administration, most parties involved agree there are potential solutions; viability, then, remains the largest obstacle.

“I think [the tension] is one that, as much as it would be great if the whole athletics community could all be on one page, there’s always going to be that varsi-

provements, frustrations continue to arise in the realm of club sports, as well as with their relationship to varsity athletics.

“I think a lot of the frustrations between those different facets have come from a lack of communication,” said ASWC Athletics Advocate Molly Blust. “For example, there really wasn’t a lot of communication between ASWC and really anything in club sports until last year when they put in the ASWC Athletics Advocate position. ASWC puts a fairly large monetary portion into the club sports budget, and so not having any communication with that was a little bit of an issue and a little bit of a difficult time communicating between administration and teams.”

For club sports specifically, the college’s chaperone policy continues to be problematic, especially as more club teams decide to test themselves in more competitions off-campus.

Whitman’s chaperone policy mandates that an adult over the age of 25 or Whitman staff member must go with a club team to any off-campus event. “[The policy] was put into place to keep more safety in the trips, as far as alcohol use and safe driving [goes],” said Blust.

“There’ve been some frustrations on the students’ side as far as just not feeling that the policy was really working in their favor or that they were kind of having to babysit the chaperones instead of the chaperones really adding to the program. There’s definitely teams that have had good chaperones and that see benefits [for their] program.”

According to Blust, improving the chaperone policy will be a focus for ASWC during the end of the fall semester and into the spring. The biggest factor for Blust, ASWC and the administration will be ensuring that communication lines remain open regarding chaperones, so that everyone knows why the policy is in place, how the administration can continue to feel the trips are being conducted in a safe manner and how the chaperones can be an asset, rather than a liability, for the club teams.

INFOGR APHI

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ty versus club [atmosphere],” said Blust. “I think it’s definitely something that can ... be eased. And I think a lot of that comes down to communication and just establishing a very solid [idea of] how scheduling is going to work.”

According to Friedman, conflicts are inevitably going to arise between club and varsity sports, because both levels want to be as competitive as possible but have different access to available resources, such as practice space.

However, Friedman firmly believes that athletes’ frustrations over resources are with the institution, not with other athletes.

“I don’t see club sports practicing any less in the future and I don’t see varsity sports practicing any less in the future. And I think it’s hard to argue that varsity sports shouldn’t get precedence over the space,” said Friedman. “We’ve reached our allocation limit with the space we have.

The solution I see is finding more space, either renting from somewhere else or building a new facility ... It’s hard to envision where that would get built on campus.

One way or another something needs to be done; you can’t deny that the need [is] there. We’re seeing it every day of the week.”

While club athletes see evidence of this hierarchy when it comes to resources like practice space and time, they recognize that this is mostly a product of the system.

Friedman believes that though the frustrations are hard to navigate, they have not negatively affected player-to-player interactions between club and varsity teams.

“I don’t know how much [the conflict over playing space] plays into the club-varsity player nexus. I don’t think anybody particularly blames the other. Everyone tries to be civil working these things out and it’s just trying to figure out the best use of the scarce resources,” said Friedman.

When asked if the relationship between the women’s varsity volleyball team and the men’s club volleyball team is positive, Friedman resoundingly replied, “definitely.”

“We make a point to, as a team, be at their games and supporting [them] and taking pride in being loud and obnoxious to an extent to the opposition and making it a good atmosphere for the games [and] for the team,” he said. “We organize things outside of [games] together ... It’s definitely a good relationship and we all enjoy it.”

CLUB SPORTS

BY THE NUMBERS by pam london Sports Editor

17

Number of club sports teams at Whitman for 2012-13.

16

Club sports teams who requested budget increases for FY 2013.

9

Teams who asked for budget increases and received additional money for FY 2013.

1

Number of teams who had its budget request met in full (Tae Kwon Do).

$99,000

Total amount requested by the 17 club teams combined for FY 2013.

$71,750

Total amount of funding given to the 17 club teams for FY 2013.

$27,250

Total deficit for the 17 club teams for FY 2013, which the teams must come with on their own via fundraising and out-ofpocket expenses.

SOURCE: aswc budget request to the president’s budget advisory committee Nov. 16, 2012

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there are lots of groups whose desires we are totally unaware of because it doesn’t even seem worth it to them to try and find a time that is consistently available.”

Gus Friedman ’13, men’s club volleyball captain

Despite how tightly scheduled the Sherwood varsity and multipurpose gyms are, out-ofseason varsity teams still have access to gym time.

On any given day of the week, the Sherwood gyms are tied up by any number of varsity teams, primarily men’s and women’s basketball and baseball. There are some days when no club teams have gym time and have to practice on the weekends instead.

NEWS

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2012

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Spring symposium set to open racial conversations

by DANIEL KIM Staff Reporter

S

“I spoke to the vice president of ASWC, Marcial Díaz, and he is really helping me out with setting up logistics and getting my vision really centered on what I actually want to see and how big in scope I want to do it,” said Maziya. “So a lot of people in student government are really helping me out in terms of getting my vision clear and getting my mission at a point where it’s relatable with the Whitman community.”

The symposium in 2006 grew out of an incident that occurred at a campus party.

“The incident came from a Survivor-themed party—the Survivor episode during that time was ‘AustraliILLUSTR ATION BY PET

ERS ON

tudents often look for the opportunity to discuss campus issues, and next semester there will be another forum for a specific conversation about race.

Six years ago, a race symposium took place at Whitman in response to a controversial campus incident involving blackface.

Now, sophomore ASWC Senator Mcebo Maziya has decided to bring back the symposium. Maziya and a committee are in the process of setting up a race symposium for the upcoming semester.

Maziya is in the process of creating a solidified group of students who would act as the committee for the symposium.

With the creation of this committee, the members will discuss and talk through some of the possible specific topics regarding race that could be discussed at the symposium.

“All in all, there are about 10 of us and even more people are joining. It is definitely something students want to talk about, but don’t know really how to talk about it,” said Maziya.

Maziya has asked fellow ASWC Senators as well as several professors for some advice on the matter. Associ-

ate Professor of Sociology Helen Kim is one such professor.

“I think the reasons why [Mcebo] and others are interested in having a symposium is because a lot of people at Whitman, like a lot of people anywhere, are uncomfortable talking about race,” said Kim in an email.

“The symposium can provide one way to talk about race.”

The symposium is in the process of being organized, and Maziya is looking to various sources around campus to turn his plans into reality.

an Outback.’ A few guys dressed up in tribal face paints. At the time they did not know the history of blackface—the issue was really more that they were naive to the historical meaning of face painting one’s face and the race issues surrounding their behavior,” said Assistant Director of Admission Robert Street, who graduated in 2007, in an email.

This time, however, Maziya has no racial incident to fuel the symposium on campus. Instead, he decided to organize the symposium to help inform students’ awareness of racial and ethnic issues. He believes that it would help start discussions and talk on campus about racial tensions in the same way talks about rape and gender awareness have started.

Maziya envisions that the race symposium will continue on every year, and he hopes to further his mission of exploring nuanced ways in which students interact with race and ethnicity on a college level.

“We all know what racism looks like on a very basic level and ostensible level. We know what blackface means, we know what saying the ‘n’ word means. We do not really know how certain behaviors and little intricate acts can be perceived as oppression,” said Maziya.

NUMBERS

IN THE NEWS

by EMILY LIN-JONES

6.9

News Editor

Percentage of salary that male faculty earn, on average, over their female colleagues (with factors such as rank and career length accounted for), according to a national survey SOURCE: inside higher ed

82

Percentage of salary that American women earn compared to men in 2012 SOURCE: christian science monitor

64

Percentage of salary compared to men that American women earned in 1980 SOURCE: CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

69

Percentage of American men’s salaries that women between the ages of 25 and 34 earned in 1980 SOURCE: CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

92

Percentage of American men’s salaries that women between the ages of 25 and 34 earn in 2012 SOURCE: CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

8000

Dollars that American men earn, on average, over women the year after graduating college SOURCE: chronicle of higher education

Encounters website provides students space to air frustrations, converse anonymously from ENCOUNTERS, page 1

“If you are somebody external to the college and you are curious about the academic program that involves Encounters and you Google it, you’re going to get the first 10 or 15 related to that site. For people who aren’t familiar with college campuses, or for people who are trying to make decisions, it may make a negative impression. In that sense, I’m disappointed that it couldn’t have been named something else.”

However, Cleveland appreciates the open dialogue of the website, and sees it as a potential resource.

“Free exchange is a positive thing in general for the college, so I’m not so bothered by the content. But some of the people I talk to aren’t crazy about all the topics,” said Cleveland. “I thought it was a good idea to check in on it on occasion because you get an idea of what’s on students’ minds. I’m not approaching it from the idea of policing it; I’m approaching it from the idea of ‘What are students talking about? What’s on their minds?

What issues are coming up?’ From my point of view, I’ve encouraged many of my staff to check in on it on occasion. Probably wouldn’t hurt admissions to do the same thing.”

Anyone, including parents and prospective students, can look at the website if they hear about it.

The website’s openness to the public and the possible impression the website could make of Whitman College has not been discussed in the Office of Admissions. “[The website] really hasn’t been at all relevant to our office and isn’t something that prospective students have brought to our attention,” said Assistant Director of Admission Robert Street in an email.

Users of Whitman Encounters may not realize the popularity of the website. According to the site’s administrator, an estimated one-third of the Whitman community uses the website, and there are 700 weekly users of the website. Depending on the day of the week, there can be anywhere up to 500 unique visitors. There also show to be peaks of activity on the site during times of stress and procrastination—Sunday evenings show a consistent height in activity.

Despite the purposeful intentions of the website, as portrayed by the creator and website’s manifesto, many people don’t take it too seriously.

“I use it mostly as entertainment value,” said senior Katie Chapman. “People get a false sense of security from it, thinking that it’s a private Whitman site, and it’s re-

ally not. You have to realize that there are people outside the Whitman community that are probably reading it. It’s not like it’s a secret.”

Managers of the website aren’t keen on censoring content. In fact, many flagged posts will be reinstated because they are judged as acceptable. The belief is that it is more beneficial for topics to be presented freely. However, posts that are completely unpleasant without any useful issues backing them will be flagged and deleted, along with posts concerning vulnerable information about a specific person, slandering individuals, business promotions, recycled content from other websites or “trolling” posts, all of which are posted frequently.

A “troll” is usually a provocative post that leads away from the original topic and tends to irritates users. There are some common trolls that frequently post on Whitman Encounters—such as the user who goes by “Voice of Reason”—which either instigate more rage from serious posters or provide entertainment for those seeking it.

“It’s a fine line to walk between taking things too seriously and having fun with it and poking fun at people,” said Hagen. “It is a lighthearted, somewhat meaningful website that exists, and as long as it doesn’t become this incredibly creepy website full of very angry people, I think it’s fine.”

Although views of the website range from seriousness to entertainment value to irrelevance, the site’s administrator hopes that the website and its users progress as they take it more seriously.

“It provides the opportunity to widen the campus discourse of any given issue. The potential has only been grazed and I think that over time, hopefully the site will continue to grow in the way that it’s used [and] continue to change as people take it more seriously,” said the site’s administrator. “If people write with full knowledge of how many people are going to read it and they write carefully and with the intent of actually calling on their peers to consider something, think about something, judge for themselves, then we [can] actually have a much more honest and trusting and productive community.”

Corrections to Issue 12 In the article “Student-athletes balance music, sports” on page 5 of Issue 12, it should have been reported that Cheney Doane ’15 is no longer a varsity golfer.

ASWC MINUTES 12/2 Approved request by Coalition and GLBTQ for $2800 to attend Creating Change Conference Jan. 23-27 in Atlanta, 15-0-4, and Mock Trial budget request of $600, 15-0-4 Passed resolution commending Whitman for undocumented student support by vote of acclamation Approved amendment to campus media organization bylaws, 17-0-2, and revision of nominations committee bylaws, 16-0-3 Failed to approve resolution in support of proposed tennis court expansion, 4-13-2

Citizens attended the City Council’s penultimate public hearing on the 2013-2014 biennial budget on Wednesday, Nov. 28. The council opened several budget discussions to the public leading up to the budget’s finalization on Dec 5. Photo by McCormick

Friends of Aviary present plan to save birds before city council

by EMILY LIN-JONES News Editor

T

hanks to the concentrated efforts of a group of citizen volunteers, the Pioneer Park Aviary will be preserved for the time being—and, if fundraising goes according to plan, for years into the future.

At the final public budget hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 5, Walla Walla’s city council tentatively approved a revenue-neutral budget item presented by the Friends of the Pioneer Park Aviary, intended to prevent the closure of the aviary in the beginning of next year. The council officially adopted the proposed 20132014 budget with a vote of 6-1.

The Pioneer Park Aviary, in operation since 1983, recently faced the possibility of closure in light of the city’s projected revenue shortfall for the coming year. Originally founded by the Walla Walla Valley Lioness Club, the aviary was formerly privately funded but in recent years has depended on money from the city’s general fund to stay afloat.

“Next year will be 30 years for that facility,” said Craig Keester, a representative from Friends of the Aviary. “I’d like to celebrate that by building it up rather than tearing it down.”

In a similar situation two years ago, the aviary faced closure and was preserved only through the efforts of volunteers. These efforts managed to save the aviary in the short term but failed to provide a sustainable plan for the future.

“The people were very sincere and put their hearts and souls into it,” said Keester about the previous fundraising efforts. “We didn’t really foresee that we were going to have to take over and further

this. It’s become painfully obvi- own concerns about the plan, ous that the [financial] chasm was noting the need for benchmuch greater than we thought.” marks in order to ensure that Representatives from the any investments the city makes Friends of the Aviary’s steering won’t result in a loss of money. group presented their plan before “It would be irresponsible the council, estimating that a to- of us to put a quarter of a million tal of $176,000 would be raised dollars into a project before we over the next year. The group also know it’s financially viable,” said requested that money be released councilmember Barbara Clark. from the city’s round-up and FEMA Clark and other councilmemfunds to help keep the aviary open. bers also expressed concern about The aviary’s operating costs burnout among volunteers, and exare $55,000 per year, with ad- pressed their desire to work with ditional funds needed to ren- the Friends of the Aviary to create a ovate old structures to keep timeline for the fundraising project. birds safe from predators.

“I’m confident we can do it,” The group said they planned said Director of Parks and Recreto solicit donations from local busi- ation Jim Dumont. “It is doable. It nesses and individuals in exchange won’t happen without significant for recognition on a poster, and to work on our part and their part.” implement “friendship plans” and an adopt-a-bird program that would offer donors monthly rewards in exchange for support.

“Through ideas and innovations and a qualified group of volunteers we hope to be able to turn the aviary into a sustainable operation the community can be proud of,” said Stephanie Sellinger, another representative of the Friends of the Aviary.

The group plans to file for status as a nonprofit early next year in order to further the goal of making the aviary financially independent from the city.

C o u n c i l m e m - City employees discuss budget issues, including the fundbers shared their ing of the aviary, at a Nov. 28 meeting. Photo by McCormick

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SPORTS

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2012

Jimmy Madden dances back into baseball by tristan gavin

Staff Reporter

W

hile most of James “Jimmy” Madden’s baseball teammates go through the motions of off-season weight training and honing of fundamentals, Madden circumvents the monotony with a rather unconventional addition to preparation for the spring season. Months before the lefthander will return to belting base hits for the Missionaries, he is strapping on a dance belt and taking a more light-hearted and light-of-foot approach to getting ready for returning to the field after off-season knee surgery.

From Madden’s brawny frame it is evident the catcherturned-outfielder has not been neglecting the weight room, but beneath those rigid muscles lies the heart of a dancer. Twice a week, Madden attends a ballet class to find body control and creative expression between Rob Thaller’s smooth instrumental jazz beats.

Whitman prides itself on its efforts to avoid stereotypes and generalizations but even so, Madden was faced with skepticism when he first started the class.

“At first, I didn’t know if he was serious or just doing it to be funny,” said sophomore classmate Elenore Bastian, who has since changed her beliefs about athletes.

“He is a better dancer than me and is incredibly dedicated.”

Another classmate, sophomore Mcebo Mayiza, tweeted about Madden’s early struggles to adjust to the classical dance form, asking for “a moment of silence for the baseball players in his ballet class.”

The class has since warmed up to Madden, but it would be hard not to. Each day he takes to the floor looking to get better, yet maintains his ability to laugh at himself when he misses a beat or loses balance. As he dances in perfect synchronization with his classmates, it is easy to see how well he has overcome his “bull in a china shop” perception to fit in with a class that almost entirely consists of females. But when he pushes off into a spin, he can’t help but let loose a brazen smile, and it is evident that Madden does not just fit in. He belongs.

Ballet is not Madden’s first dance class at Whitman. He has also taken a class in modern dance, and does not plan

Jimmy Madden ‘14 works on his balance with a tendu to the back. Madden sets the bar high by balancing varsity sports, academics and dance. Photo by Bergman

to

stop here.

“If Whitman had a dance minor, I would have declared it a long time ago,” said an unabashed Madden, who is an economics major with a high supply of energy and even higher demand for dancing opportunities.

Dancing has never been about receiving recognition for Madden, though.

“It’s not a matter of credits or distribution.

I’ve definitely caught the dancing bug. I genuinely enjoy tearing up the dance floor every Monday and Wednesday,” he said.

The only thing that can stop Madden from dancing is the baseball season.

Afraid to risk Baseball player-turned dance student Jimmy Madden ‘14 gracefully demonstrates first posiinjury, Madden tion. Madden has been taking dance classes to help with his skills on the field. Photo by Bergman gives his dancing hips a break to fo- nical components of classi- occur in joints during strenucus on his other passion. cal training is the placement of ous physical actions like batMadden is not the first ath- body weight toward the front ting or pitching. In this case, a lete to look to dance for an outlet of the foot and the application stronger core can reduce strain of physical expression. Recent- of downward pressure through and, ultimately, wear and tear ly, The New York Times reported the metatarsal joints. The re- on joints,” said de Grasse.

As the semester comes to a that University of Oregon run- sult is a strengthening of the ning back Kenjon Barner takes calf and soleus. This strength is close, Madden’s ballet class will ballet. When asked about the used in the extension of the an- wrap up and the baseball season comparison, Madden humbly re- kle joint at the last moment be- will start up. The moment he lacfused to be likened to a Heisman fore a person leaves the ground es up his baseball cleats he will candidate, but was only half-jok- in a jump. This kind of strength hang up his tights and dance ing when he said that the future can make vertical jump eas- belt, but only for the time being.

Whether or not Madden’s NFL star “doesn’t hold a can- ier, and may improve acceldle to [him] on the dance floor.” eration in the first forty me- offseason dancing has preTo Visiting Instruc- ters of a sprint,” said de Grasse. pared him to take the leaps Ballet and dance can and bounds he expects of himtor of Dance Peter de Grasse, it comes as no surprise that also help Madden’s fitness self and his young team is yet baseball specifically. to be decided, but the leaps and dance and athletics have in- for “A supported core also al- bounds he took in the dance tertwined themselves in the life of James Madden. lows for a better distribution of studio this semester will car“One of the basic tech- the force and torsion which can ry with him throughout his life.

Women’s basketball looks to break into NWC title race

by Peter clark Staff Reporter

I

f early season results are any indication of what the rest of the season has in store, then the Whitman women’s basketball team should have high expectations.

After winning six of their first seven games to start the year, the Missionaries have plenty to be optimistic about. The new team will look to have a more balanced scoring attack now that alumna Jenele Peterson ‘12 has graduated and is playing professionally in Germany. While Mary Madden and Emilie Gilbert are the team’s only two seniors, head coach Michelle Ferenz is confi-

dent that the Missionaries’ youth can lead to a successful season.

“I thought our strength last year was our guard play, because our posts and our forwards were really young. This year I feel like the roles are reversed now, our first few games our forwards have stepped up and done a lot more scoring,” said Ferenz.

Ferenz was clear in saying that she expects her backcourt to quickly catch up with her forwards as the season progresses. Sophomore transfer Heather Johns will take over the primary point guard duties while seasoned junior Tiffani Traver will look to continue her solid wing play from last year.

Traver believes that the strength of this year’s squad will show through in the amount of offensive weapons that they have.

“We are a lot more diverse this year. We have so many different people who can do different things with the ball, which should make us more balanced,” said Traver.

The Missionaries boast a flurry of forwards who should help boost the Missionaries scoring and rebounding. Senior Mary Madden will lead the charge along with juniors Sarah Anderegg and Meghan White and sophomore Heather Lovelace. The depth in the frontcourt should make Ferenz’s life easier in dealing with foul trouble and potential match-up problems.

With a stable full of forwards and a growing group of capable guards, the Missionaries are setting their sights on a Northwest Conference championship. In the early going this season, Anderegg leads Whitman with an average of 14.3 points per game while White and Lovelace chip in 9.0 points. Johns bolsters point production for the guards with an average of 9.7 points per game.

Madden says that things may be aligning just right for the Missionaries to finally break through and capture the conference title.

“Winning the conference is definitely doable. Our league lost a lot of good players last year, so even though we did lose Jenele, a lot of other teams are hurting too,” said Madden.

To win the conference, the Missionaries will likely have to outlast perennial powers George Fox University and Lewis & Clark College. Both George Fox and Lewis & Clark have fin-

Sports weekly factoid

Hailey Ann Maeda ‘15 (left) drives to the basket while Sarah Anderegg ‘14 defends.

Whitman’s depth in the post will be key to success this season. Photo by Bowersox

Junior baseball player Jimmy Madden and senior basketball player Mary Madden are siblings. The Maddens hail from Huntington Beach, California, just miles from junior basketbball player Meghan White and from the same neighborhood as senior athletic trainer Kelly Peterson.

Mary Madden ‘13 leads the Whitman team in its chase to knock off perennial conference powers George Fox and Lewis & Clark to win the NWC title. Photo by Bowersox

ished first and second overall in the NWC the past two years, so a Whitman championship will become more realistic if the Missionaries have success against the two Oregon schools.

The new and improved Missionaries will look to count on an influx of new contributors combined with a successful tradition to continue their winning ways. Judging by the fourthplace finish two years ago and a third-place finish last year, the trend indicates positive results for the 2012-2013 season.

The Missionaries face the University of Puget Sound this Friday at 6 p.m. Whitman also hosts its annual Kim Evanger Raney Classic this weekend at Sherwood Center and faces Corban College in tournament competition on Saturday at 4 p.m.

SCOREBOARD Basketball

Men’s v. UC Santa Cruz Nov. 29: W 87-65 Women’s v. Pacific Lutheran University Nov. 30: W 71-51 v. Colorado College Dec. 1: W 85-45 v. Walla Walla University Dec. 4: W 92-30

upcoming Basketball

Men’s v. University of Puget Sound Dec. 7, 8 p.m.: HOME v. Pacific Lutheran University Dec. 8, 6 p.m.: HOME Women’s v. University of Puget Sound Dec. 7, 6 p.m.: HOME v. Corban College Dec. 8, 5 p.m.: HOME

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The cast and crew of “Camino Real” have worked hard to bring Tennessee Williams’ sprawling, dreamlike play to life. “I was excited to do something challenging,” said director Jimmy Maize. Photos by Mellema

‘Camino Real’

brings surreal mystery to Harper Joy Theatre

by SAM ADLER Staff Reporter

“C

amino Real,” the second major production of the year to make use of Harper Joy Theatre’s Alexander Stage, opens on Thursday, Dec. 6 for a four-day run.

Tennessee Williams’ surreal and literary play may not seem like the most obvious choice for a Whitman production, but the depth of its script was one of the reasons why it was chosen.

“It held a lot of mystery [for] me,” said Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Jimmy Maize, who is directing the play. “I was excited to do something challenging that would keep on revealing itself to me and the actors.”

Yet this prospect of challenge was not the only aspect that drew Maize to this work.

“I chose this particular play because I was interested in the themes and the form,” said Maize. “It has such a wild, asso-

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

Here are this week’s picks: Kozy Up with K-Dub: Apocalypse 2012 In honor of the impending apocalypse, KWCW will celebrate the world’s end in style with snacks and live music from Humans Being and Chastity Belt. Rumor has it that Santa himself will make an appearance.

Thursday, Dec. 6, 7:00 p.m. in Reid Campus Center Basement

Multicultural Festival of Lights Co-sponsored by the Intercultural Center and Office of Religious & Spiritual Life, this event brings together various diversity clubs and religious organizations to celebrate the winter holidays with food, crafts, music and a vigil.

Friday, Dec. 7, 4:00 p.m. in Reid Basement

The Common Truth An ensemble of five student dancers takes the stage for an hour of continuous performance under the direction of Visiting Instructor of Dance Peter de Grasse.

Friday, Dec. 7 & Saturday, Dec. 8, 8:00 p.m. in Cordiner Hall

The 39 Steps: A Live Radio Play The theatre department presents a performance of a play based on Hitchcock’s classic film. The cast of seven actors, in addition to playing twenty-six roles, is also responsible for sound effects.

Admission is $1 or one non-perishable food item.

Saturday, Dec. 8, 2:00 p.m. at Harper Joy Theatre

ciative, dreamlike form, and I’m always looking for new forms and structure in building theatre, and [Williams] was thinking about it in a really multidisciplinary way in terms of the writing and lights and how sound and music can be used to tell the story.

I’m always into using many different elements in telling a story.”

Sophomore Sabra Jaffe, a member of the 19-person ensemble cast, shared Maize’s enthusiasm for the production.

“I am really excited because it’s different from any other show I’ve done before,” she said.

“It’s been a really great learning experience and I feel that because there are a lot of challenges in the play, we’ve had to grow together as a cast and learn together what the play is about.”

Sophomore Tory Davidson, another cast member, shared a similar sense of excitement.

“The most amazing thing about the show is the enthusiasm our director has created,”

she said. “He is really meticulous but he has an incredible vision, and has allowed us to explore it while coming up with new details ourselves. I think the final product will be a culmination of ideas that we’ve explored together in a huge way because, after all, it is a huge show.”

“We also have a kick-ass cast,” said Maize. “We have a lot of veteran acting students and a lot of first-years, and I think it is a great mix of old and new. Also, everyone has become so unified. It’s a big cast, but we’ve become like an ensemble, and are very unified in making this entire machine work.”

The dreamlike show, which features characters ranging from Don Quixote to Lord Byron, also features senior Jeremy Kotler and sophomores Eli Zavatsky and Sarah Ann Wollett in leading roles along with the rest of the ensemble cast. Tickets are on sale at the box office from 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.-4 p.m.

‘Killing Them Softly’ kills audience interest

by NATHAN FISHER Staff Reporter

F

or my last review of the semester I wanted to go out with a bang, so I mistakenly picked Brad Pitt’s new movie, “Killing Them Softly.” Unfortunately, my “Ocean’s Eleven” star couldn’t save the film, and I’m left closing out the semester with a dud.

“Killing Them Softly” is a slow-paced crime drama with spurts of action. Three down-andout losers think they have found the perfect score when they hear about a Mafia poker game run by Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta). Several years before the story begins, Trattman robbed his own card game and stupidly admitted to the fact later after a few too many drinks. When the three druggie amigos hear this tale, they figure if the game were robbed again, everyone would think Trattman was the culprit.

After the Mafia card game is robbed, the Mafia chief calls in Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt), an enforcer who is hired to track, find and possibly kill. After getting permission from Driver (Richard Jenkins), the Mafia’s in-between, Jackie brings in Mickey (James Gandolfini), a more experienced hit man, for help. Mickey is only interested in ladies and booze, and is more trouble than Jackie needs as he tries to restore order to the Mafia.

“Killing Them Softly” slowly kills the patience of the audience as it tries too hard to tie together the United States’ economic crisis during the 2008 presidential election and the Mafia’s business. The splicing in of snippets of President Bush and President Obama talking about the economy through-

out the film is distracting and disjointed. The movie grinds on until about the 90-minute mark, when Pitt has an amazing monologue and the movie seems to finally hit its stride. Nope, not to be: Then the credits started rolling, the movie was over, and I was left unsatisfied.

“Killing Them Softly” is a talkative movie filled with lingering, drawn-out scenes. The movie’s saving grace were the all-star performances by Gandolfini and Jenkins, and especially Pitt’s effortless portrayal of a slick enforcer. Even with Pitt’s top-notch per-

formance, “Killing Them Softly” did not deliver the bang I expected and was just not an enjoyable movie to watch. Guess I will just have to wait until next week’s midnight premiere of “The Hobbit”—based on the previews, I won’t be disappointed.

ILLUSTRATION BY JONES

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Style spotlight Every week, The Pioneer searches out Whitties who bring an extra splash of fashion consciousness and sartorial daring to campus.

This week’s style spotlight: sophomore Lily Gibbs.

Style Soundbite: “The scarf is ... one of many that I have, but this is probably my favorite. I like how it can go with a lot of different outfits because it has a lot of muted colors.”

Lily Gibbs ‘15 individualizes her ensemble with items like overalls from her grandfather and a ring from her grandmother. She describes her look as “conscious but not overbearing,” using accessories like scarves and Chacos to display a casual, put-together style.

Photos by beck

“The overalls were my grandfather’s. They’re pretty beat up, but they’re beat up legitly by him.”

“The Chacos were the best investment that I’ve ever made in my life. I love them dearly; I wear them pretty much 365.”

“The [ring] on my left hand on my pinky was my grandmother’s. Just recently when we were going through the house kinda looking at different articles of clothing or jewelry we found this one and thought it was really pretty.”

“My hair is an epic saga that everyone who knows me knows about. Two years ago I got a pixie cut ... I had really really long hair before that. And then I cut it. And it was a great experience,

two years I kept it really short and then I decided I wanted to grow it out and it’s just been a painful, drawn-out process. But in the process I have learned that hair is just hair and despite how slowly or how quickly it grows, it does grow, and one day my hair will be back to the length it once was. I don’t [think I’ll ever cut it again].”

“Some mornings I actually want to put thought into what I’m wearing, some mornings I don’t.

When I do, I have some go-to stuff and just sort of build on that, try different things. I really like coats, so if an outfit is not working I can always put a coat on over it.”

“My look is conscious but not overbearing.”

“When I had really long hair ... as I’d go to bed I’d think about how I’d do my hair the next day; I really like doing hair. But it’s kind of the same thing—sometimes if I know that I actually want to think about what I want to wear tomorrow I’ll think about it the night before ... inspiration comes when I’m lying in bed at night.”

“I think it’s a great day when overalls can make it into the spotlight fashion. It’s pretty awesome.”

Sufjan Stevens’ ‘Silver & Gold’ overflows with Christmas cheer

by EMMA DAHL Staff Reporter

S

ufjan Stevens is no stranger to the Christmas music scene. Songs for Christmas, released in 2006, contained five EPs with a total of 42 traditional, original and instrumental tracks recorded between 2001 and 2006. Silver & Gold is its follow-up, totaling 58 tunes on five volumes recorded over the past six years. Silver & Gold is just as grand and all-encompassing in its scope as its predecessor.

The album contains both original and traditional Christmas songs that encompass a multitude of styles, sources and instrumentations.

There’s sacred harp singing (a powerful harmonic choral style), Jewish hymns, a cover of J.S. Bach and one of Prince, a cappella, reed organs and flutes, and electronic instrumentation and synths as well. The diversity of the music on the album— besides the massive number of songs—is exciting and engaging.

Stevens’ style is perfectly suited to Christmas music.

The bells, vocal harmonies and pastoral lyrics all have a traditional churchgoing, carol-esque feel to them as it is, and when he applies them to these holiday

tunes it works perfectly. Whispery vocals and wavering organ chords remind me of quiet church services; sweetly singing choirs summon memories of caroling; flurrying wind instruments and piano riffs paint images of swirling snowflakes. Stevens’ undeniably optimistic tone permeates every song and tickles those holiday heartstrings.

The standout track is “Christmas Unicorn,” a 12-anda-half-minute-long epic ballad from the perspective of a festive mystic horse, who declares to be, among other things, a “pagan heresy,” a “criminal pathology” and a “mystical apostasy.”

The song (which also samples lyrics from Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”) seems to be a bit of a critique of the “hysterically American” extravaganza that Christmas has become while also celebrating the unbridled joy that the holiday can bring.

Overall, the album is a sweeping, majestic celebration of the Christmas spirit, besides being an outstanding work of the heart. The sheer volume of the album, coupled with the beauty of the music, makes this a singular, unique Christmas album that I’d recommend to fans of Sufjan Stevens and fans of the holiday season alike.

‘The Name of the Wind’

by Patrick Rothfuss

by DANA THOMPSON Staff Reporter

S

o far in this column, I have asked you to revisit your childhood, get a bit creepy and let your inner weirdo out for a breath of fresh air. It’s a lot to ask—I know. But this time I’m going to request another favor: Embrace your inner nerd.

I know you have one. Pretty much everyone here does.

And it’s important to know that a neglected inner nerd will wither away without proper nourishment. I recommend you treat yours right and crack open a copy of Patrick Rothfuss’ “The Name of the Wind.”

A lengthy read at 700 pages (don’t get scared, now), this first installation of The Kingkiller Chronicles is a classic example of what is called high fantasy. This rather stigmatized gen-

re usually features some form of magic, a smattering of supernatural beings, a lengthy epic plotline and a healthy amount of swagger.

This last aspect may come as a bit of a shock, but let me explain.

In my numerous dabbles in nerdity, I have spent significant time wondering what makes it so appealing. I think the answer may be the same as the answer to why high fantasy is so stigmatized: It’s not pretending. It’s dead serious. You’d better believe in the evil Chandrian because they could be coming for you any time. You better take time to learn basic commands in Cealdish because Patrick Rothfuss took the time to create them.

It’s a complete sell—a window, not a picture, to another world.

Due to the massive page count of “The Name of the Wind,” I gave myself a good chunk of the school year to read

a few pages a day. And I have to say I didn’t regret it! There were certainly times when I put it down and thought, “What the cow am I reading?” But overall I was grateful for the small vacation I could take every day just before going to bed.

So, a rundown: Kote is a bartender in a tavern. When a scribe blows through one day and recognizes him as a legendary hero, he insists upon capturing his story. The bartender, now revealed to be the (in)famous Kvothe the Bloodless, at long last agrees to relate the tale of his life. What follows is a long and detailed account of all the adventures—horrible and wonderful—that have shaped both the lofty and majestic legends as well as the unassuming man telling it. Interesting and exciting, “The Name of the Wind” is a worthy addition to your bookshelf.

FEATURE

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CLIMBING HIGH

CRAWLING LOW An exploration of the nooks, crannies and heights of the hidden (and off-limits) corners of campus.

Crawlspaces generate myths, serve purpose

by Adam Brayton Feature Editor

S

ome say it was once a morgue, while others tell tales that someone managed to live there. One thing is for certain: The Catacombs do exist.

The Catacombs are a glorified name for the series of subterranean rooms that connect the basements of Jewett Hall and Lyman House, and are home to a host of storage, boilers and strange items.

In fact, Resident Director Heather Ferguson leads her staff of Jewett resident assistants and student academic advisors through the Catacombs during their training, both to dispel the myths about its existence as well as to expand the students’ knowledge of the residence halls’ layout.

“It’s really a secret, special part of the building,” said Ferguson. “We joke that we put bad students in there.”

That being said, RAs and SAs of Jewett are usually the only students who are privileged with even the slightest look at the underground connection between Jewett and Lyman.

“I got to see the Catacombs at the end of the year. They were exquisite, and they smell like history,” said senior Matt Raymond, a former RA of 3-East.

Raymond was part of one of these groups allowed to take a look at the Catacombs during his time as an RA. “First you see a bunch of old mattresses that haven’t been used for a while. And then everything gets a little more interesting,” he said.

The Catacombs are also

home to various rooms: Bon Appétit storage, with old decorations, posters, cutlery and dishes.

While Ferguson is the only Jewett residence staff member to have keys to the Catacombs, she too is at a loss as to their complete purpose.

“I really have no idea why exactly they are there,” she said.

Maintenance Supervisor Randy Coleman noted that the connection between the residence halls has been around since the two buildings have coexisted.

“It’s been there as long as I can remember,” he said.

The Catacombs seem like a mansion with high-roofed ceilings compared to the other hidden crawlspaces found around campus. One of the more aptly named of these is the “Hobbit Hole,” found in Hunter Conservatory.

Two years ago, Manager of Instructional Media Services Jon Loney and Instructional Multimedia Services Consultant Tristan Rupert came across some difficulty when trying to install the then-new 1080p projector in Kimball Theatre.

“We didn’t have the wires we needed to run to actually go HD from the little floor box,” said Loney. “We were chasing wires, trying to figure out where they go to behind the stage ... and then we found this thing that said ‘To Hobbit Hole,’ and we were curious. ‘What is a Hobbit Hole?’”

When the duo contacted a Physical Plant electrician to get more information, it seemed to come as no surprise at all.

“He knew exactly what the Hobbit Hole was. He even got on his radio and said something about needing

access to the Hobbit Hole like it’s just part of his whole lingo,” said Loney.

The Hobbit Hole is not necessarily a hole, but rather a tunnel that runs above Kimball and around the skylights.

“Only one person can go down there at a time, but there is enough room that more than one person can be in there,” said Loney.

While he discovered it on his own, it isn’t a frequent destination for Loney, though there are some fringe benefits.

“I haven’t gone in there since, and someone went in there last year because the shades stopped working,” said Loney, while also noting that the glass skylights acted like greenhouses and made the Hobbit Hole very warm.

Coleman and the rest of the physical plant staff discovered and made use of the tunnel themselves during the renovation of Hunter in 1998. It was then that the odd crawlspace earned its moniker.

“Somebody just said, ‘This reminds me of a hobbit hole,’” said Coleman. “It just kind of went around amongst the maintenance staff and we just referred to it as that. When people say ‘the Hobbit Hole,’ we know what they are talking about. It’s not an official name.”

The restricted access to the Hobbit Hole is in part due to safety reasons, but also to restrict roof access through a hatch. While these days the hatch on the Hunter roof remains bolted shut, for a while crafty students who knew of the Hobbit Hole found a way around the lock.

“They jerry-rigged them so that it looked like [the lock] was

Security, ResLife staff look down upon student ascents of buildings

by Talia Rudee Staff Reporter

W

hitman students study hard, but they also know how to have fun, which can often involve climbing onto the roofs of any and all buildings around campus.

In his time at Whitman, junior Fernando Medina has heard tell of several ways to climb to the tops of buildings, from the reachable sides of Olin East to even the use of trees in other situations. “[Apparently] there’s a tree over by the theatre that people climb to get on top of [Harper Joy Theatre],” he said.

As resident assistants of Jewett Hall, Medina and junior Kaitie Ivory have been able to learn about roof climbing through their experience of overseeing first-year students.

“You could be really stupid and climb Jewett to try and get on the roof,” said Medina, who presides over 4-East.

The RAs are keen to the propensities of students, and even common techniques for trying to get on the roof.

“With Jewett a bunch of people climb out of Lyman windows to get on top of the dining hall,” said Medina, who notes that windows in Jewett are also utilized but are a lot more obvious, especially to the RAs, as are the windows are in the section lounges.

Students don’t try to find the easiest ways to climb on a roof just for the apparent ease of it.

Sometimes, it is the more physically difficult and more foolhardy ways that attract bold students.

“One of my freshman friends climbed out of his fourth floor window onto the roof. He stood on the windowsill and did a chinup on the roof,” said Ivory.

When asked about the incident, Medina noted the very apparent physical risk that the student took, which is concerning for an RA. “It was lucky enough that he didn’t fall down and hurt himself,” he said. “So that’s the stupid way to get on top of the roof ... ‘Whoops, my hand slipped. My arms are broken.’”

But Ivory has encountered firstyears this year who seem to roof climb for the thrill of evading the watchful eyes of campus authority figures, even their own RAs. “I’ve had residents ask me if they can and ask me how often I look out my window because my window faces the Jewett roof. They told me this year that they climbed it and they were proud that I didn’t see them do it ... but I haven’t seen anyone,” said Ivory.

RAs are not the only authorities on campus that concern themselves with students attempting to get on rooftops. Fernando acknowledges this even in the case of would-be Harper Joy ascenders.

“I’ve heard some stories about

security writing people up who climb on the tree [by Harper Joy],” he said.

Associate Director of Security Craig McKinnon has encountered over a couple hundred roof climbers over his 27 years working in security at Whitman.

His experience with what may seem to be a carefree activity for students is fraught with risk beyond physical harm, turning a fun night into a night with sirens.

“There has been police involvement in many occurrences, and at least one arrest since my tenure here. Police often must be called, as security have no way of knowing whether a criminal act is in progress or not,” said McKinnon.

But it’s not always a game. Given the sheer number of students that McKinnon has encountered in the act of climbing on top of campus buildings while on the job, it is easy to be caught. Aside from being a strict violation of campus policy and harmful to the buildings in question, McKinnon warns strongly against the act as a whole.

“It’s dangerous ... It not only creates a hazardous situation for the culprits, but for the security staff who have to bring them down off the roof, and anyone else who may get involved,” he said. “Additionally, these flat roofs are not intended for foot traffic, and often damage occurs, costing the college expensive repairs ... [It] should not be attempted for any reason.”

still mounted on there and then they could just pull [it] off,” said Loney.

For similar reasons, the Catacombs are locked off to students in Jewett and Lyman. Instead of restricting rooftop access, the locked doors keep students from tampering with Bon Appétit equipment.

There is no locked door that would keep students from exploring the dining hall kitchen unattended, and the Catacombs also house important equipment for Bon Appétit.

“That’s where they have their refrigeration equipment for their walkin coolers,” said Coleman. “That’s another reason to keep people locked out, so it doesn’t get turned off.”

There are still crawlspaces in campus buildings that Coleman is not immediately privy to—such as one beneath the stage in Olin Hall 130.

“That one I’d actually never seen. Jon Loney told me about it only last week,” said Coleman.

Loney described that the discovery was happenstance, and his exploration proved that the tun-

nel was difficult to navigate.

“It doesn’t even look like a person should fit through there, but [Tristan and I] managed to get in there,” said Loney. “There are these weird crannies behind the arch of the stage that a person could go down, but there’s really no way of getting back up.”

For Coleman, the finer details of buildings that might strike students with awe are simply commonplace and part of the job, and really just another part of the school.

“It’s a mystery if you’ve never been there, but if you have been there, it’s just another space,” said Coleman. “The Hobbit Hole sounds special and unique, but all it really is is roof access.”

However, during students’ relatively short times at Whitman, even the most mundane features of the college for some can become subjects of campus mythology.

“It’s the closest thing we have to the secret underground tunnels they have at East Coast schools,” said Raymond.

The Catacombs, which connect Jewett and Lyman’s basements, are home to a trove of Bon Appetit’s old decorations, equipment and dishes. Photos by Felt

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2. Network with alumni or potential employers for internship leads.

3. Set a goal to establish contact with 2, 5 or 10

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5. Set a goal to apply for 5-10 internships, and then follow-

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OPINION

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Dropping out means new opportunities Joey Gottlieb Community Member

THE WHITEST AFRICAN

I

like saying “I withdrew” because it sounds nicer than “I dropped out.” It sounds like I am still in command of my education and prospects and that I have not forsaken the opportunity of a college education.

It sounds like the institution could not give me the education I wanted, rather than reflecting my inability to handle the education process laid out by the institution. It sounds like I maintain my pride when in fact I wrestle with deep shame.

This is an explanation of my decision to withdraw from Whitman College and some of the events and thought processes that led to my ultimate decision. I share my story because I think it personalizes some of the issues that many students grapple with and may provoke other students to meditate on the impor-

tance of education in their own lives.

Initially, my reason for withdrawing was institutionally motivated. I wanted to stay on in order to continue my extracurricular activities and jobs and to be a part of the community. However, I simply could not fulfill the college’s expectations, meaning that I was not up to the task of finishing my degree as a full-time student.

The administration felt, and I agreed, that my flimsy plan to finish my degree (two or three classes a semester) was not sustainable.

The administration did not encourage me to withdraw, but I felt that it was the best course of action because of the constant strain my academic work put on my mental health.

Health was a constant battle for me beginning sophomore year. I have struggled with depression all my life, but after lying dormant for a few years, a fresh host of problems emerged during the spring semester. The process is ongoing, but in trying to understand what about Whitman made me unhealthy, I cultivated new educational values that did not match up so well with my academic experience.

Personal relationships with teachers became pillars of support and also inspired courage. I felt I could speak more openly, and with this freedom came the boldness to

Political Cartoon by Asa Mease

ask questions that I once might have labeled as stupid or obvious but actually really wanted answered.

Sadly, though, this rarely translated into the classroom setting where my insecurities settled back in.

These insecurities were aspects of my character that I did not like. I was competitive and irritable, wanting to demonstrate my own intellectualism and becoming frustrated if the opportunity did not arise or if I did not feel validated by my teacher or peers. These traits limited my ability to think creatively and take risks as a student. I was always looking for the brilliant conclusion I thought my professors were expecting me to find, but in doing so I sacrificed a great deal of actual learning.

Finally, I came to understand the importance of time in my studies. I do my best work and experience the most joy when I am able to work with a subject on my own terms, without the pressure of an intense workload. At a leisurely pace I ask better questions, work through obstacles more efficiently and am able to savor the information as I come across it. However, any Whitman student will tell you that time

Aquaponics best way for Bon Appétit to increase local food Danielle Broida Senior

AGAINST THE GRAIN

F

ood justice has quickly become the latest environmental buzz. “Eat local” campaigns have spread across the nation, seen primarily in the rise in farmers’ markets from 1,755 markets in 1994 to over 7,864 in 2012. However, local alone does not mean sustainable or good.

Bon Appétit, marketed as “food services for a sustainable

New conceptions of parenting offer better choices for women, partners JULIA STONE Junior

MARGINALIA

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he great mothers of feminist thought and political action have advanced women’s lives and possibilities for higher education, socioeconomic independence and equality; they have expanded the opportunities and experiences of women.

But feminist thought has largely left out post-feminist discussions about how women’s relationships with romantic or life partners change or are restrained under existing social and economic expectations and frameworks, especially in the context of childrearing. I argue that we need to critique the very structures that require women to choose between careers and staying at home with children in the first place.

The choice of whether to be

a full-time mother or a careerdriven woman is a favorite debate among choice feminists. Clearly, this debate ignores class and socioeconomic barriers that would require many women to raise children and work. However, the debate highlights the problems with society’s one-sided and individual expectations of parenting.

Some have argued that by describing childrearing and raising as an assumed or natural gender role rather than comparable with wage “labor” or “work,” mothering has become devalued. Others have argued that those who choose to stay at home with children are subject to and perpetuate stereotypical visions of femininity, thereby bolstering patriarchy. Only by pursuing high-paying and highstatus jobs in the market can women expect to even the playing field.

An attitude that is gaining popularity and one heard often from conservative circles is that the push by feminists and “women” activists has not “threatened men,” but rather “pissed them off.” They maintain that feminism has gone too far; in a postfeminist world, women’s choice to stay at home and be full-time mothers and homemakers is the most virtuous feminist choice.

But what all of these argu-

ments seem to miss is the quality of relationships between parents.

I take issue with the idea that the choice of whether to raise children or pursue a career is considered by both conservatives and feminists as solely a woman’s choice. Ultimately, women’s freedom isn’t just a matter of liberating women to choose to stay home or follow a career; it must take into account social expectations for men and women, husbands and wives, husbands and husbands or wives and wives.

While I acknowledge that my argument largely ignores that the majority of women give birth to children without the support of life partners, it does concern many of the same groups of women theorized in the debates between Fox News and anti-femininity secondwave feminists—that is, middleclass women in stable relationships.

Regardless of the gender composition of the parental relationship, the role of parenting and childrearing must evolve. Why should we still accept the idea that there must be one breadwinner and one primary caregiver? Isn’t the issue at hand the relationship between parents and their relationship with their children? I believe that restricted conversations and arguments between women are neglecting the dynamics of par-

Voices from the Community Evan HeberleiN

Grady Olson Junior

future,” has noticed the necessity for sustainable food and thus created nationwide policies and campaigns to reduce their impact on the global climate as it relates to food production. They launched the “Farm to Fork” and “Low Carbon Diet” programs because many consumers are unaware that “agriculture and the food system overall is responsible for one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions.”

Going into a supermarket and having every type of fruit, vegetable and meat available for purchase on any given day of the year has completely blinded our society. Noticing the massive deception and injustice in America’s food system, Bon Appétit made it their goal “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions created by the highest impact areas of [their] business by 25 [percent].” Their campaigns aim to reduce purchases that have traveled far distances from the burning of fossil fuels in transportation.

To offset food travel and import, one of Bon Appétit’s founding principles is to purchase a minimum of 20 percent of their food from “local” farms. Walla Walla seems like an agricultural paradise, surrounded in all directions by massive fields of wheat, onions and garbanzo beans. Yet upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that the vast majority of our “local” farms are far from exhibiting environmental consciousness around the importance of local food.

But local food is not as simple as it appears: There is a catch.

To Bon Appétit, a “local” farm is not merely defined by geographic distance. In order for a farm to be eligible for the Farm to Fork program it must be within 150 miles of the Bon Appétit kitchen, be owner-operated and earn $5 million or less in annual sales.

The majority of Walla Walla farms are far from qualifying as models of “sustainable”

food production. Many farms are monocultures (a single crop is grown on the same land for a period of time), use chemical pesticides and grow produce in massive quantities to be exported to cities around the country. Their practices strip the soil of nutrients without replenishment, drown the land in toxic chemical fertilizers, increase erosion and damage the health of the environment.

In a place like Walla Walla, a large-scale agriculture Eden, Bon Appétit struggles to meet the Farm to Fork quota and thus has little room to hope that their 20 percent requirement will ever be exceeded without changing current purchasing patterns. Because our “local” farms rarely qualify as such, the only way to increase the amount of sustainable local food is to employ creative, alternative systems: I propose aquaponics.

Aquaponics is a closed-loop food production system. The name “aquaponics” is derived from the portmanteau of “hydroponics” (cultivating plants in water) and “aquaculture” (farm fishing).

In aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity for the fish. This water is led to a hydroponic system where the byproducts from the aquaculture are filtered out by the plants as vital nutrients, after which the cleansed water is recirculated back to the animals.

A subset of students in Sustainable Agriculture at Whitman (SAW) has already begun researching, planning and attempting to convince Bon Appétit that our climate crisis demands creative alternatives to local food injustices. It is time to open our eyes to the reality of where our food comes from, allow our minds to think outside of the outdated monoculture past and push for creative, alternative and sustainable solutions to increase production of local food.

enting and the necessity to transform the way we view the separation and specialization of “breadwinner” and “caregiver” roles.

These roles should not be separated and delegated; such specialization gives rise to inequality between partners and parents and serves as a catalyst for some economic and social inequalities. We need to expand the possibilities for men to stay at home and take care of children and for both parents to share child-rearing possi-

bilities. Guaranteeing state-subsidized childcare is a must so that both parents, regardless of gender, are able to realize their dual roles as workers and caregivers.

Our personal choices do matter; they can have a major effect on those closest to us, to our nation and to entire social movements.

But childrearing and raising should not be considered a solitary choice or responsibility; rather, childrearing must be taken on by a family, community and the state.

Do you view the gender gap within the Whitman faculty as affecting students’ educational experience? Poll by TANNER BOWERSOX

Michaela Lambert

Jenna Rolle Sophomore

Junior

Sophomore

“My early grade school education was pretty much all done by women, so male teachers have always had this connotation of the next level of school. While there are more male professors, it’s not like there’s a lot of misogyny happening.”

with them outside of the classroom.

I wanted to feel joy as a learner and satisfied with myself as a person, but this was often denied to me because of my own shortcomings and hectic schedule. So, I dropped out.

I still wrestle with shame, but in spite of that I realize now more than ever that I am in command of my education and my future. I have left Whitman a more learned and aware person than when I arrived, understanding that an education is something I need in my life but that this institution may not be where I choose to pursue it.

My story is my own, and is not a call for those who are frustrated to withdraw from Whitman. It is an invitation to examine the particularities of a Whitman education and what aspects of it ILLUSTRATION BY HWANG are nourishing or is one stressful. I believe that an awareluxury we do not have here. ness of the pros and cons of this edWhen the time came to decide ucational model will lead to more about my future, I took stock of my educational support among stueducational priorities and tried to ap- dents and a greater emphasis on ply them to my experience at Whit- campus health and give students man. The personal relationships with the resources to maximize their edprofessors were there, but only when ucational opportunities, whethI could summon the energy to meet er that is at Whitman or elsewhere.

“I don’t, because being a professor I think depends on your level of intelligence within that certain field and not your gender.”

“I see there being a gender gap in Whitman faculty, and that has a big effect on the diversity of opinions on campus. I’d like to see a variety of opinions expressed both by the faculty and the students, and I feel that could increase with more diverse faculty.”

“No. I haven’t noticed it in my personal experience. All of my professors have been evenly balanced between males and females.”

BACKPAGE The Phi farting conspiracy

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here is always something unique in the air as students begin to prepare for finals every December. No, I am not talking about the stress-induced pheromones or the sweet scent of Christmas cookies coming from Prentiss Hall. I am talking about a foul stench overwhelming the common smells of the season. The scent befouling the region commonly known as “the area between Jewett Hall and Olin Hall” has long been attributed to the Ginkgo tree, but field researchers for The Pioneer have found that its problem is far more complex than an endangered feces-producing tree.

“What we have here,” said Jack Costow, a first-year who thinks he wants to go pre-med, “smells like poop.” Nine out of ten scientists agreed that the trees smelled like poop, while one thought it

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lack Student Union students are to host a new radio show on KWCW. The show, “Ratchet Radio,” will feature hip hop and rap music of a ratchet variety, an aspect of African American culture lacking on Whitman campus.

Juniors MC Mariah and Alisha Aforward will host the radio show on Wednesdays at 1 a.m.,

smelled like a jar he found in the Tau Kappa Epsilon basement.

The likeness between the smell and human waste is almost unanimously recognized, but the source was more difficult to find.

After countless interviews (it was just one) and questionable interrogation tactics (waterboarding), Pio reporters finally coaxed a truthful answer out of a frightened Phi Delta Theta pledge.

“Sometimes,” said the Phi pledge through gasps for fresh, nonpoopy or water-filled air, “when Bob’s food isn’t that good ... in the winter ... when vegetables are out of season ... I get an upset stomach.”

Having captured the reporter’s attention with accusations that Phi’s chef Bob makes food that isn’t good, the pledge was untied and allowed to speak more freely.

“And when my stomach is upset, I-I-I get, you know ... farty and bloaty.”

The story does not stop there, however. In addition to the sensations of bloatiness and fartiness, the student admitted to occasionally passing gas on his walk to class in the mornings.

Further probing (a SurveyMonkey survey) unearthed the shocking news that the farty pledge was not alone in his flatulence. When pressed, every active Phi and Phi pledge admitted to the occasional toot on their way past Jewett 1-West.

“It is kind of a habit,” said Phi president Finn Patricksen. “I guess you could call it a tradition.”

Since the survey, a large number of Phi alumni have revealed that the traditions of farting between Olin and Jewett actually predate the Ginkgo tree.

“For years, it was a serious problem, but then someone planted a tree right in the epicenter, and, well, it just seemed natural to blame it on the tree. People were skeptical at first, but through persistence we were really able to make it stick.”

For decades, it seems, Phis have been passing gas and blaming it on a poor, unsuspecting tree. The news has been shocking for some and devastating for others. It appears that the Ginkgo tree is on the receiving end of one of the greatest and most elaborate “blame games” in the history of flatulence.

Following an article last week describing the drug commonly known as “jenkem,” first-years in 2-West spent hours collecting the Ginkgo fruit in attempts to create a more natural strain. Their attempts have been rendered fruitless, though

when they are tired of pretending that Whitman isn’t the whitest place on earth.

“How long do I have to pretend that I like folk music?” said Aforward, the club’s president.

For those unfamiliar with this subculture, Urban Dictionary defines “ratchetness” as “a celebration of Twitter beefs and twerking but a condemnation of swaglessness and bad weaves.”

Ratchet Radio will feature hits from Waka Flocka Flame, 2 Chainz, Lil Wayne and other mainstream ratchet artists.

The show is a part of BSU’s newest campaign, “Does my ratchetness scare you?”, an educational endeavor to enlighten Whitman students about hood cul-

ture, one of the disparities that exist between white students and students of color on campus.

“My friends don’t get me.

They didn’t know that I all I wanted for my birthday was a big booty hoe,” said a distressed Mariah.

One concern is that the show will offend people of color on campus. Aforward and Mariah have already thought ahead.

“There are not enough people of color to care,” Aforward said with a shrug. “Plus, people of color don’t listen to KWCW anyway because they only play, like, banjo music. They’ll be hyped.”

The idea for a ratchet radio show came up in a club meeting when someone noted the amount of times Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” was played at frat parties.

“Dis campus is boring AF. We finna tear this shit up #OnSomeReal,” said the official BSU minutes, which must be written in Ebonics and hashtags, according to BSU bylaws.

Big Daddy Bridges, aka Dha Boss, a rumored guest on the Ratchet Radio, approves of the show.

“Ratchet Radio is dope.

Fuck what y’all jive turkey haters gotta say,” he said.

With so much hype around

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they now have jars filled with useless fruit. The area is now barren and it is evident that the smell is not being produced by some magic farting tree, replacing the common saying “He who smelt it, dealt it” with a more succinct “Phi Delted it.”

BSU hosts “Ratchet” radio show

This article was contributed by Gladys Gitau

>>CreeplesearchTM

People Search to be converted to social networking site

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Dubblebaby by Toby & Sam Alden

Ratchet Radio, some Whitties who are less acquainted with “#thatratchetlife” want in.

First-year Alison Price, who is from a rural Washington town near Canada, is curious but cautious about the inclusiveness of the new show.

“Can white people be ratchet, too?” Price asked Aforward.

Mariah answered her with little reservation and a lot of sass.

“Girl, with the right amount of alcohol, anyone can be ratchet.”

undreds, if not thousands, of Whitman students were either appalled or elated at the news that Whitman’s People Search is becoming a social networking site. As soon as students click on the new banner (and are asked to sign a lengthy Terms of Agreement contract), users are whisked away to a page giving a list of “People you might know.” From this list, students can pick to add friends or block friends. If you choose to block someone, a pre-generated passive-aggressive message is sent to the blocked person telling them that you don’t want to be friends.

M.C. Bo, spokesman of the site and transfer student from South China, commented on the block function by explaining, “Students here are busy. We know people don’t really want to talk to each other; they just do it to collect friends and gain gossip. We just took out the step where you have to actually interact, while still maintaining the same interactions you know and love.”

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Other features include the ability to add professors, as well as the virtual library option that allows students to use each other’s webcams and study together, even if they don’t want to.

“It’s just like real life here,” said Bo. Other functionality along these lines includes a “look from across the library” option that allows you to access cameras across the library and look at that special someone before you can choose to “study with them.”

Whitman’s new CreeplesearchTM board is still maintaining that having someone’s home address, phone number, school picture and campus address simply “allows students the experience of an ever-globalizing world.”

Recall that Facebook started off in a similar fashion. Whitman’s social network will allow millions— if not billions—of people access to each other’s personal information.

But, as CreeplesearchTM president Zac Porker explicates, “If everything is public and nothing is private, then what does private even

mean? We’re trying to eliminate the public/private binary just as we did with the gender binary.”

Beta testers—coincidentally, all of whom are Phis—say their favorite feature is the chat, which allows students the ability to interact in the fashion that Bo explained.

“It’s cool, it edits out all the words that Whitman students think are bad. I don’t like homophobia or racism, and now the system shoots back a reply to the offender simply stating ‘Not here, dude. Not here.’

I love how sensitive we’re being to people’s feelings,” said one tester.

In the coming semester, all students will be forced to have their people searches changed to CreeplesearchTM. Projections show that soon, with no more need for the library, the building’s third and fourth floors will be replaced with a server room, while the lower floors will be converted into CreeplesearchTM headquarters.

Just as Facebook put Harvard on the map, Whitman expects CreeplesearchTM to do exactly the same.

Read more Dubblebaby online at http://dubblebaby.blogspot.com/