Whitman Pioneer Fall 2012 Issue 4 by Whitman College Wire

E WH TH

The

EX AMICITIA VERITAS

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PIONEER

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ASWC 18 9 6

overhauled

CAROLINE CARR

Senior Senator Student Affairs Committee

RANIA MUSSA

Junior Senator Student Affairs Committee

ISSUE 4 | September 27, 2012 | Whitman news since 1896

AL-RAHIM MERALI

FERNANDO MEDINA-COREY

Senior Senator Finance Committee

Junior Senator Student Affairs Committee

Thirteen out of sixteen ASWC senators (in blue) are brand new.

Only three (in gold) are returning.

How will they govern?

by MAEGAN NELSON Staff Reporter

W CLAIRE COLLINS

ERIC SCHMIDT

TATIANA KAEHLER

Senior Senator Finance Committee

Sophomore Senator Finance Committee

MCEBO MAZIYA

MATT TESMOND

NATE HIGBY

Sophomore Senator Student Affairs Committee

Senior Senator Finance Committee

Sophomore Senator Student Affairs Committee

JAMES LAVERY

ANDREW LA CAVA

GEORGE FELTON

First-Year Senator Student Affairs Committee

Junior Senator Finance Committee

Sophomore Senator Nominations Committee

JACK PERCIVAL

ANYA TUDISCO

ALLISON KELLY

First-Year Senator Student Affairs Committee

First-Year Senator Finance Committee

Junior Senator Student Affairs Committee

First-Year Senator Nominations Committee

ith results of the 2012 Senate elections in, major changes are in store for ASWC. In addition to the freshly elected firstyear senators, this year’s ASWC has an unusually high proportion of new members in the Senate and on its Executive Council. “We are having a major overhaul in the senate,” said ASWC president Kayvon Behroozian. Over 80 percent of the members of this year’s Senate are new senators, and over 55 percent of the non-first-year senators are new. Including the new members in Executive Council positions, over 73 percent of ASWC members are brand new to their jobs. “This is really unusual,” said Behroozian of the situation. The influx of new senators is mainly due to the high number of upperclass senators who chose not to run for re-election last year. Behroozian noted that several senators have vacated their senator positions for positions on ASWC’s Executive Council, while others decided to give up a chance at re-election due to other extracurricular commitments. In addition to the number of vacated seats, interest in running for Senate was at an all-time high, especially among upperclassmen. ASWC elections have not always been so open to the student body. A few years ago, the only way a student would be placed on the ballot was if they were nominated. As a result, friends of already elected individuals ended up accumulating most of the ballots and the majority of the student body had little to no knowledge about the upcoming elections. Through the work of Behroozian and other ASWC members, this system has changed.

“I made it my personal goal to increase student involvement,” said Behroozian. “[Now] we have a lot more people running for elections and because of that we get a higher quality of people who are elected into office.” Returning junior senator Fernando Medina-Corey hopes to continue work on improving the election process this year. “[One of the things I want to focus on is] working to change the way ASWC runs its elections to make it more socioeconomically equitable to run for office,” he said. As for the ways in which ASWC’s new makeup will affect the coming year, both current and past members of ASWC are hoping it will prove beneficial. “In terms of our ability to function, it doesn’t change [that]. In terms of new viewpoints, it will allow for new ideas and new viewpoints to be discussed and possibly decided on,” said Behroozian. “The new senators have less knowledge of precedents for passing budget requests and legislation, so their perspectives won’t be colored by those past decisions.” Senior Sally Boggan, newly appointed ASWC executive director of communications, agreed that fresh perspectives should improve ASWC’s effectiveness. “I think it’s really exciting ... We don’t know how things were done in the past, and I think that allows for a lot of creativity as far as what we plan to do for this year,” she said, while adding that the role of veteran members is also vital. “A lot of the people that are leading [ASWC] right now have a lot of experience and can help us institutionalize our ideas.” Some non-returning members acknowledged the advantages of a fresh senate, but also cautioned against completely forgoing methods used in the past. see ASWC, page 3

Students bring hip-hop to campus by KAILI MASAMOTO Staff Reporter

heat fields. Sunsets. Sweet onions. These might be some of the words you associate with our small college in the middle of Walla Walla. But hip-hop? Rap? While it may sound surprising, there is, in fact, a growing influence of hiphop and rap music within our community. Sophomore Sayda Morales and juniors Cam Young and Kyle Moyes share their personal connections to these genres and illuminate the surprising relevance of hip-hop and rap to everyone’s lives. Morales grew up in South Bronx, N.Y., and was drawn to spoken word poetry, with its rhythmic qualities and performance elements akin to rap music, as a 12-year-old girl. Spo-

ken word poetry became the outlet through which she could express her deepest secrets and feel supported by a captive audience. She grew to love the “feeling of going on stage when you’re so vulnerable and open and the crowd feels it too,” and currently performs with the slam team at Whitman. Young is fresh on the DJ scene. His best friend and DJ, junior Kyle Moyes, introduced him to DJing and although he only recently received his first taste of playing a set for a rave, he is hooked. Excited to learn more, he enjoys the aspect of DJ-ing which allows you to “express yourself through the songs you play.” Moyes started playing at parties as a sophomore. He dreams of eventually producing his own music and touring/DJ-ing, although for now, he is happy to be

in charge of “getting a party going and kind of being a catalyst for people having a good night.” Trace these students’ lives and passions back in time and one would discover their rather surprising origins in hip-hop and rap music. Most students will admit the predominant music taste on campus is indie. “That’s an overstatement, definitely a generalization, but I feel like we listen to a lot of indie music, and if you look at the bands we’ve brought, like St. Vincent and The Head and the Heart, it’s very much indie music,” said Morales. Moyes agrees and describes the music scene here in Walla Walla as “organic.” “Whenever I picture it, I envision downtown on Main Street and there’s all the wineries and

Cam Young ‘14 and Kyle Moyes ‘14 perform at the TKE house. Photo by Bowersox

wine dispensers and stuff and then there’s the people playing outdoor music in the summer,”

said Moyes. “People here like the small, homegrown sort of music.” see HIP-HOP, page 6

Anderson renovations come after a decade of delay by LACHLAN JOHNSON Staff Reporter

his summer Anderson Hall underwent its largest renovation since its construction in 1954. Improvements include the removal of fire doors which divided the building’s hallways, improved lighting in hallways and lounges, and the removal of built-in cabinets in two sections of the residence hall, as well as remodeling of the bathrooms, a new paint job, and new carpeting. The remodel of Anderson, one of two residence halls at Whitman reserved exclusively for first-years, has been planned for years. Normally, renovation projects at Whitman are planned five years ahead, but Anderson’s renovation has been delayed for almost a decade. “There wasn’t any debate that Anderson needed to be renovated. There was a lot of debate on whether to remove the built-in [closets and drawers] that were in there ... it took a few years to work through that, but I think everybody finally went in to the agreement [to remove them],” said Construction Project Manager Jeff Donahue. Due to time constraints

this summer, built-ins were removed in only two sections. Further work on Anderson in 2013 will remove the built-ins from the other four sections. Reno-

vated rooms contain new wooden closets and dressers to replace the built-ins which date from Anderson’s construction in the ‘50s. “There’s a lot more space

Anderson bathrooms recieved a long-overdue renovation this summer. Photo by Bowersox

and we can move things around a lot more,” said first-year Sarah Blacher, whose rooms was one of those remodeled over the summer. “While [the built-ins] seem to have a lot more space than our closets do, these are nice and new and nothing’s stuck.” Construction this summer prioritized improving public spaces. New lighting and paint in the hallways create a warmer atmosphere, and some of the pipes for the sprinkler system are now hidden in the walls. In addition, the fire doors which previously divided the second and third floor hallways in half have been removed. “This semester you’ll notice a lot of students walking through [the hall] and there’s no physical changes from one section to the next,” said Anderson Resident Director Cory Kiesz. “I think that’s really good. It gets people venturing out more. [It’s] a lot more cohesive, especially in the middle. There’s not this great divide—this Great Wall of China—between the two sections.” All of the renovations to Anderson were planned by the Lifecycle Committee, a group of alumni and staff tasked with maintaining buildings and infrastructure on campus.

“I serve on [the Lifecycle Committee] as a staff member, not a voting member because the voting members are all alums, [retired faculty, or community members]. Staff serve as resources to the committee, they thoroughly look at everything on campus, [and] most of them have expertise in building,” said Associate Dean of Students Nancy Tavelli. In order for a project to take place it must first go through the Lifecycle Committee, which meets once a month to review possible renovations needed around campus. After listening to reports by faculty and touring buildings, the voting members then debate which projects to add to the committee’s Five-Year Plan, a document used to plan renovations around campus five years in advance. Once a year, the fiveyear plan is sent to the Building and Grounds Committee, another group of alumni which oversees all construction on campus. After being debated and revised, the plan moves on to the Board of Trustees, who decide the budget for each committee and have the final decision on all renovations. see ANDERSON, page 2

NEWS

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Campus composters regroup after setbacks by DANIEL KIM Staff Reporter

A sample of compostable material [above]. The Industrial Composting Group is working to repopulate the worm colony integral to the composting system. Photo by Felt

Whitman ranks among top contributors of graduates to Teach for America by ELISE TINSETH Staff Reporter

hitman’s recently graduated class of 2012 is the 16th top contributor in the small schools category to the Teach for America program, sending 12 students. Teach for America, a growing nonprofit program of about 33,000 members, takes employees, teachers and college graduates and places them into schools in low-income communities around the country. Each employee of the program works as a fulltime teacher in their school district. “Our main goal is to become a pipeline for teachers in low-income communities. My team [and I] recruit, train and support college graduates,” said Gaby Barahona, manager of regional communications for Teach for America. Many Whitman alumni have joined Teach for America in the past and some are still employed by the program. Current Recruitment Manager for Teach for America at Whitman and Gonzaga University Jacqueline Kamm graduated from Whitman in 2010. “Teach for America’s mission is to close the achievement gap between students in low-income communities and those in high-income communities,” said Kamm. Though it is challenging, Whitman is a constant supplier of employees for the Teach for America program. “I am proud to see so many Whitman students committing themselves to the issue of educational inequity. I truly feel that my Whitman education exposed me to issues of social injustice and instilled in me a passion to fight against those issues,” said Kamm. While volunteering with the program, Kamm taught English Language Arts and Student Leadership to sixth through eighth graders in Denver, Colo. She is currently enrolled in the Danforth Educational Leadership program at the University of Washington to receive her principal certification. “Overall, the experience was incredibly challenging, but thor-

oughly rewarding. It was not easy, but when a student made significant growth in their reading or writing, it made all of the effort more than worth it,” said Kamm. Director of Career Development Susan Buchanan helps students apply for post-graduation programs, including Teach for America. “I know that Teach for America really likes Whitman students because they track who they hire and they track what happens to them after and they have been very, very satisfied [and] very happy with the students they have hired from Whitman,” said Buchanan. Though in past years Whitman has consistently sent around seven to nine graduates to the program, the 12 that were sent this year is the largest number in history. “It never ceases to amaze me when Whitman students come up to [me] their senior year and realize that they love learning and many of them want to share that love of learning, so they say, ‘I want to go into teaching!’” said Buchanan. Though Teach for America is very successful in getting post-grads into teaching, it is a challenging program that may not be for everyone. “They put the teachers into schools where they’re having a hard time finding teachers. So, they’re poorer schools; they’re schools that have a lot of problems [with] students who are not thriving in school, so it’s hard,” said Buchanan. In Colorado, Kamm taught eighth graders who read, on average, at a fifth grade reading level. Some read at the level of third and fourth graders, and one student was reading at a first grade level. According to Kamm, the average came up to a sixth grade level by the end of a year of hard work. “I was simply someone who cared deeply for my students and was willing to work incredibly hard to ensure their success. Ultimately, this proves to me that this is a solvable problem: Students in lowincome communities can and do achieve at high levels and motivated, intelligent leaders at Whitman have the power to do exactly what I did in the classroom,” said Kamm.

n the spring of 2012, right before summer break, the Industrial Compost Group faced an unexpected hurdle: Of the 45,000 worms purchased from local worm breeder Barbara Newby for vermicomposting, only 5,000 remained alive. The setback forced the group to reformulate their plan in order to replenish the worm population and ensure its continued expansion. Now, the group is looking to the future, with new opportunities arising to grow composting on campus and educate the community about its importance. “We were given conflicting instructions on maintenance regarding our specific system, so it has been a process to figure out the best ratios of high carbon brown waste to food waste for the worms. Even though the vermicompost process takes time, we are confident that the system is continuing to progress,” said senior Hannah Siano, one of the grant writers for the composting project. Initially, the group listened to the instructions of the man who sold them the system. Many worms ended up dying because the waste was too compacted and compressed. “The newspaper covering the grate at the bottom broke through so there were holes in the bottom. All the worms were trapped in the bottom and had no air except for these holes, so the worms fell through the hole and dried out,” said senior Alicia Kerlee, a coordinator for the group. After the worms died, the group decided to implement Newby’s suggestion. “Before, we weren’t supposed to turn the compost at all because that’s what [the seller] told us, but now we turn the compost above the worm castings every single week,” Kerlee said. “We keep a little more peat moss to keep it aerated and put in more paper shreds to keep the food from compressing.” As soon as the compost was turned, giving the worms more air, the worms were living under

their needed environment and began to repopulate the compost pile. According to Kerlee, worms are able to double their population every month and recently, the population of worms has been increasing. “It really seems like it’s working. We have a whole layer of worm castings on the bottom underneath the newspaper that we didn’t have with the old way we were doing it, even though we had more worms,” said Kerlee. The group also enlisted new volunteers to help oversee the worms and prevent a similar incident from happening. “We hired a summer intern to stay here over the summer and help feed the worms,” said Kerlee. “Our summer intern, Logan [Emlet], fed the worms and checked in with [Barbara Newby] about them. He carried food from Oddfellows over to campus for the worms and made sure they didn’t dry out.” The project hired two new biology interns this year as insurance that the worm population remains healthy. With the help of Newby and Kerlee, these two interns make sure that the worms are receiving the right amount of nutrients to thrive and repopulate the compost. “The additional interns we have are volunteers. We had the interns positions in the past; I was the biology intern last fall, but we did not have one in the spring,” Kerlee said. “We just had to work harder to coordinate to be focused on the biology. We never had two [biology interns] before and we’re trying really hard to make the biology a priority.” Another new hire for the project this year was junior Matthew Akins, the education intern. His role is to educate the community of the importance of creating compost and its environmental benefits. On the weekend of Oct. 13, Akins will hold a composting workshop on the Reid Campus Center side lawn to get the community involved, in hopes of educating those who want to keep a compost off-campus or want to know more

Anderson Hall renovated for first time in half-century from ANDERSON, page 1

“[Funding is] allocated out of the budget every year, but we don’t always spend all of it. Sometimes we build up a reserve, sometimes we spend down the reserve depending on the timing of projects,” said Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Peter Harvey. Projects approved by the Lifecycle Committee, Building and Grounds Committee, and Board of Trustees are completed half a decade later, in accordance with the Five-Year Plan. A year before construction begins, Donahue oversees a bidding process to find a construc-

tion firm for the project. While large projects can attract bids from firms outside of the Walla Walla community, the typical bidding process is a local affair. The renovation of Anderson was completed by S&K Mountain Construction, a local firm with a history of working with Whitman. Though the renovations are generally appreciated by first-years, some issues remain to be solved. Noise has always carried in Anderson, and although efforts have been made to improve the situation, there is still room for improvement.

WRITING

BUSINESS

Editor-in-Chief Rachel Alexander

Production Manager Sean McNulty

NEWS

Business Manager Vincent Peterson

Managing Editor Libby Arnosti

Production Associates Stella Bartholet, Callan Carrow, Maddison Coons, Sandra Matsevilo, Madison Munn

PIONEER

PRODUCTION

A&E Editor Alex Hagen Sports Editor Pam London Feature Editor Adam Brayton Opinion Editor Alex Brott Humor Editor Kyle Seasly Photography Editor Marie von Hafften Illustration Editor Julie Peterson

Chief Copy Editor Marisa Ikert Copy Editors Katie Steen Matthew Nelson Chloe Kaplan

ILLUSTRATION Maggie Appleton, Ruth Hwang, Emily Jones, Asa Mease, Marlee Raible, Erika Zinser

PHOTOGRAPHY cade beck, Catie Bergman, Tanner Bowersox, Allie Felt, Chaoyu Li, Halley McCormick, Becca Mellema, Ben Woletz

“The floors are creaky,” said first-year Eric Underwood. “All the walls are really thin and loud. Instead of being walls they’re more like resonating surfaces.” Though many of the projects addressed by the Lifecycle Committee have to do with routine maintenance, staff examining buildings’ physical integrity also seek student input. “One of the best ways to get a feel [of what needs to be done] is to actually go over there and talk to students,” said Donahue. “People who live [where we renovate] should tell me what they’d like.”

Anderson Hall underwent several structrual and aesthetic changes over the summer to revamp the most outdated residence hall. New furniture replaced the built-in furniture in selected sections to better match other residence halls. Photo by Bowersox

EDITORIAL

News Editors Emily Lin-Jones Allison Work

about the process of composting. According to Akins, the workshop will not only be beneficial for those who want to have an off-campus compost, but for those interested in the process of composting behind Jewett. “The workshop will be run primarily by Barbara Newby, the person who bred the worms for our industrial composter, but I am excited to be a part of the workshop so that I can learn how to lead workshops like this myself in the future. My primary goal is to help spread personal composting in Walla Walla,” said Akins. The project has also begun to reach out to the Whitman community by creating a new campaign called Adopt-A-Worm to raise funds and maintain the compost by involving the Whitman students. Students can donate as much as one dollar to adopt and name a worm from the composting shed. The money raised will go towards the tools needed for processing the compost. “Adopt-A-Worm’s purpose is to have the school and the students invest in something, whether it’s a dollar or a conversation to hear how [the project is] going. We really want the school to be involved and let them know what is actually going on,” said senior Danielle Broida, another member of the founding group. The purpose of starting the compost project was to help reduce the production of food waste for every student on campus and have the students of Whitman understand that they have the power to make an environmental impact that would benefit Earth. “We want people to start thinking about their waste, thinking about how much each one of us produces. All of us working on the project together know that this industrial composting system is not going change the world, but it is a way to make people become aware of how much waste they produce on a daily basis,” Broida said. “We want the students to not only think of food waste, but other waste as well. Simply understanding how much we consume and throw away.”

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EDITORIAL POLICY

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

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Professor combines archaeology, history to analyze modern society by SARAH CORNETT Staff Reporter

IN THE NEWS by EMILY LIN-JONES News Editor

Percentage of garbage Portland is no longer shipping to landfills following a citywide change to a biweekly trash pickup and weekly composting pickup.

mong a number of new professors on campus this year is Professor Sudharshan Seneviratne, a Sri Lankan archeologist and historian serving as the J. Arnold Professor, a visiting professorship at Whitman. Seneviratne is no stranger to Whitman, having delivered the Jackson lecture on campus in 2006 discussing politics of the past. He has taught at the prestigious University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, as well as a number of American colleges and universities. He particularly admires liberal arts colleges, and recently taught at Bowdoin College, Swarthmore College and Carleton College. “Though I spent time teaching at big-name places like Cornell [University], I came to admire liberal arts schools. They are so cultured, so human, concerned about human beings and involvement of those issues, critical thinking, and have gentleness you don’t see otherwise,” said Seneviratne. “Both faculty and students are very engaged.” Professor Seneviratne is also extensively involved in global issues. “I work with Amnesty International, especially on human rights issues in my country and on issues of intellectual freedom,” he said. Sri Lanka has experienced a history of human rights issues and civil war, and Seneviratne has worked in understanding these problems as a Sri Lankan and as an academic. He values the liberal arts tradition of examining these types of problems. “Liberal arts colleges are an oasis for those kinds of things, and students are so conscious on issues,” said Seneviratne. Though he specializes in South Asian archeology, Professor Seneviratne has knowledge of a variety of other disciplines to help him in his work. “I do a lot of cross-cultural work, and I try to be very strong in multidisciplinary studies. What I try to look at is mainly social archeology,” he said.

NUMBERS

SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

Percentage of waste that the city of San Francisco reuses. SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

Percentage of waste that the average U.S. city reuses. SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

34 million

Tons of food waste generated in the United States in 2010. SOURCE: EPA.GOV

0.36

Pounds of compostable waste recovered per person per day in 2010. SOURCE: EPA.GOV

4.43

Pounds of municipal solid waste produced per person per day in 2010. SOURCE: EPA.GOV

Visiting professor Sudharshan Seneviratne (above) employs knowledge from a variety of disciplines in his work. Photo by Li

“We try to understand past societies, how they behave, trying to see how we can understand contemporary societies through that.” He stresses understanding subjects beyond books, and emphasizes gaining knowledge from

“We are stuck in the text ... text can only give you a limited quantity of information.” Sudharshan Seneviratne

methods other than reading. In Sri Lanka, he worked to bring local school children to watch archeological excavations, telling and showing them what they

were finding. Seneviratne says this type of education is valuable because it gives us a physical reminder of things we learn. “We are stuck in the text, but now we have gone beyond it. Text can only give you a limited quantity of information, but if you fill in the gaps with material remains, you might be able to get a better picture,” he said. Seneviratne has published works dealing with cultural identities, diversity, conflict resolution and the role the past plays in the present world. “To understand the present, you need the past. I’m trying to teach my students how you give life to dead material things. All of these carry a fingerprint in human

thought and action,” he said. This semester Professor Seneviratne is teaching City, State, and Social Ideology in Early South Asia and Issues in South Asian Archeology. He is already thinking about ways to increase cultural awareness on campus, including a possible new or expanded campus museum, in addition to the one already in place. “Museums can be educational and training centers for students,” he said, adding that Walla Walla’s rich history could allow for many artifacts in such a museum. “The cultural awareness, diversity and connectedness with all things are paramount in liberal arts colleges,” he said. “I see all that at Whitman.”

Average cost in dollars to build a vermicomposting (earthworm) recycling bin for a family of four to six. SOURCE: SOLIDWASTE.ORG

1000

Adult earthworms in one pound. SOURCE: CALRECYCLE.CA.GOV

Percentage of efficiency of earthworms in removing arsenic from old industrial sites. SOURCE: SCIENCEDAILY

Years in the lifespan of an average earthworm in captivity and in the wild. SOURCE: COMPOST-BIN.COM

Whitman in China program celebrates 30 years of cultural exchange with lecture, alumni panel by EVAN TAYLOR Staff Reporter

lumni of the Whitman in China program gather this weekend, Sept. 28—30, to celebrate the program’s 30-year anniversary. Since its creation in 1982, the program has been sending Whitman graduates to China to teach English for one year. “It’s one of the first programs administered by a small liberal arts college to send alumni to teach English in China since China’s opening up to the west in 1978,” said Director of Off-Campus Studies Susan Holme Brick. So far, almost 200 alumni have participated in the program. The program not only sends students to China, but is host to teachers and students from three Chinese sister universities. The students, known as Sherwood Scholars, attend classes of their liking, and the teachers act as native speakers and commonly help teach in the Chinese department for a year. Kevin Nie, a Sherwood Scholar and resident of Lyman Hall, is visiting this semester from Shantou University. An English major, Nie discussed his motivation to undertake this study abroad opportunity. “The curriculum of the English major in China is relatively limited. If you want to master a language, you must know the culture, and the best thing is to come to an English-speaking country and get cultural experience firsthand,” he said. Whitman is also host to native speaker Jiangli Qu, a teacher from Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi’an, in the

Shaanxi Province, who is helping teach in the Chinese department. Before the Whitman in China program—or for that matter, Asian studies at Whitman— a modern Chinese historian by the name of David Deal was hired as a history professor. Deal was the catalyst that grew the Asian studies program and later created the Whitman in China program. Initially, he taught an array of history classes about different Asian countries. Later he became the dean of faculty and hired more Asian studies professors to expand the department. Deal passed away in 2001. Each year, a lecture is held in Deal’s honor focusing on a topic in the field of Asian studies. This year the speaker is Orville Schell, author of Virtual Tibet and Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society in New York. Schell’s lecture concerns the lens through which the U.S. views Tibet. The lecture, originally scheduled for Sept. 29, will be held later as Schell was prevented from speaking due to illness. One of the weekend’s events is a panel, “China’s Transformation: Three Decades Through the Lens of the Whitman in China Program,” in which alumni of WIC and related faculty and staff will more intimately elucidate and reflect on their experiences. The possibility of a Whitman in China program opened up in 1976 after Chairman Mao Zedong died and China began to open up to the United States. Many were curious about the previously exclusive China, and in 1980, Deal took a group of fairly wealthy wheat farmers from Walla Walla. The farmers, Donald Sherwood

It’s still summer in here! Come get a

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a place to eat

509-522-9991 Sunday 10-3:30 Monday-Saturday 10-7:30

among them, were impressed by the trip, and decided to give money to foster a program connecting Whitman to Chinese universities. With the help of the farmers’ funds, Deal created the Whitman in China program, with its first sister school in Yunnan. “The goal of [the program] was to develop cultural exchange between the United States and China at an academic level,” said Charles ‘Chas’ McKhann, professor of anthropology and chair of the WIC committee. “There was very little exchange going on at that point in time.” While in graduate school in 1982, McKhann went on the first WIC trip to Yunnan University in Kunming, the program’s first partner school. A few years later, Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi’an was introduced as a partner school, and about 10 years ago Shantou University in the province of Guangdong was added. Students aren’t required to be Asian studies majors to participate in the program. In fact, any alumnus with an interest in teaching can apply. After being chosen by the Whitman in China committee, participants go through an intensive three-day orientation on campus, including teacher training, learning about cultural differences and taking “survival Mandarin.” They also take a TEFL (Teaching English in a Foreign Language) certification over the summer preceding their trip. Whitman alumna Cindy Chen ‘12 is teaching this year at Shantou University. “As a recent college grad, I’m so excited to be able to take on a lot of responsibility and

Corrections to Issue 3 The student attributed as John Lee in “Voices of the Community” on page 7 of Issue 3 was senior Sam Couey. In the article “Playwrights give guidance, inspiration to Instant Play Festival participants” on page 4 of Issue 3, the first performance date should have been Saturday, Sept. 22. In the Corrections Box on page 3 of Issue 3, Charlie Li’s name was misspelled.

have my own classroom. It’s been an adjustment going from being a student in college to teaching college students, but I’ve enjoyed it so far because we’ve received a lot of training here,” said Chen in an e-mail. “There [are] quite a few foreign teachers here in the English department so it’s been great to learn from their years of experience.” Alumni make serious impacts on the Chinese university students during their year in China. Whitman in China’s teach-

ers venture to schools that American teachers wouldn’t usually go to, as opposed to universities in globalized Shanghai or Beijing. “We wanted to give Chinese students in those cities that are a little off the beaten path an opportunity to study with native speakers of English,” said Brick. “It can be a really powerful experience for [these students] to study with a native speaker and hear about what life in the U.S. is really like, instead of just hearing about it from local media.”

Newest ASWC members to reevaluate old methods from ASWC, page 1

“It’s important to reference back to past years and what the senate did then; that way you learn what things went well and where [and] how to improve in the future,” said junior Brian Choe, a former senator, in an e-mail. Although there will be many new ideas coming into the ASWC office, all members, new and old, agree that staying in touch with the student body is a crucial priority for this year. “I think that some of the problems with ASWC in the past have been due to people being so entrenched in the system and not really being able to think outside of the box or see what ASWC looks like to people who aren’t a part of ASWC,” said Boggan. “I see that as a big part of my job this year.” Newly elected senior senator Eric Schmidt echoed that sentiment, while noting that it would take effort on the part of non-ASWC students as well. “I would like to encourage Whitman’s students to really get to know ASWC,” he said in an e-mail. “ASWC is a reciprocal process, and many of these new senators want to get out and meet, talk and represent their friends, but all the Whitties have to help that happen.” “I firmly believe that all governing organizations should be as transparent and accessible as possible, and that students should have a larger voice in these administrative committees,” said

first-year senator Jack Percival. Newly elected first-year senator Allison Kelly said that she is interested in creating good study breaks that will be “an awesome bonding experience” for first-years. “Pretty much I want to strengthen campus unity, help create tools for students to maintain academic excellence, and give everyone the best experience possible at Whitman,” she said. To help accomplish these goals, the Executive Council hopes to empower both new and old senators to make real changes. “A lot of times, senators don’t realize how much say they have in the meetings ... in the past, that’s been an issue, and I [also] want to change that this year. They think that they have very little say on what actually goes on for the ASWC meetings, but they do,” said Behroozian. “Basically, our meetings will be looking different this year … not only with all the new people but also [with] our procedure.” And there will be a lot of senators to teach. Of the twelve senators last year who did not graduate, only three are returning to office. With these exciting new changes in store this year, it’s no wonder that so many of the senators can’t wait to get started. “I LOVE WHITMAN! And I want everybody to have the opportunities and ability to love Whitman just as much as I do!” said Kelly in her platform.

A&E

Sep

27 2012

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Book review: Gaskell’s ‘North and South’ by DANA THOMPSON Staff Reporter

ILLUSTRATION BY JONES

Cooking for college students Spicing it up, keeping it balanced, going beyond basics by SAM ADLER Staff Reporter

t’s no longer the very beginning of the school year, which means that many upperclassmen have settled into their quirkily-named off-campus houses and are perhaps coming to terms with a new challenge: finding food and then eating it. While the less ambitious may be content with sucking on dried blocks of ramen and the more social types have already befriended enough potential guest swipes for each day of the week, others might aspire toward something more: actually cooking. With scant professional restaurant experience and my Jewish proclivity towards finding things to complain about in what-

ever it is I’m supposed to be enjoying, I thought I’d pass on some tips for budding home cooks who aspire to make food that doesn’t suck. And without further ado: 1) Learn to use salt. Too much of it makes your food salt-flavored, but too little makes it taste bland. You can even use this little test: Taste your food. Does it suck and is it bland? If yes, add salt. 2) Brown the shit out of your shit. Seriously. And what do I mean by that? Sear, sizzle and sauté the bejeezus out of your food products; Mario Batali isn’t one of the baddest boys in the business because he steamed every piece of broccolini he ever met. Give your food mad, fast heat over

stainless steel, cast iron, wood fire, charcoal grill or what-haveyou (not Teflon!) and watch flavor make itself. Charring, brown crust, caramelization and the like all lead to flavorful tidbits. 3) Keep things simple. If you’re cooking for friends, you can impress them by making a simple dish well instead of failing at the most unforgiving, souldraining recipe. And the same goes for presenting your food. You just cooked up a beautiful piece of salmon? Your friends won’t appreciate it if you attempt to pick out every bone for them, because then it will look like crap. And individual plating just isn’t worth it if you are A) bad at it, and B) are going to put extra time

into it. If you made something tasty, throw it on the table, serve it family-style, and let it speak for itself. It will still look good. 4) No, pesto and balsamic vinegar shouldn’t be added to everything. There are some ingredients out there that people just assume positively scream “gourmet.” This is often a lie: You don’t think Big Pesto has an agenda to push? Slathering pesto on your chicken breasts will certainly make them taste like pesto, but there are a lot of other cool things you could do with them. Work to expand your taste and culinary vocabulary, and don’t use certain ingredients as crutches. You’ll become a better cook because of it.

The Judge splatters justice in ‘Dredd’

ILLUSTRATION BY MEASE

by NATHAN FISHER Staff Reporter

lthough sticking with three-dimensional viewing again this week, I decided to shake up the movie genres and traded last week’s bub-

bles of “Finding Nemo” joyfully popping off the screen for the major blood and guts splattering on at least the first three rows of the theater watching “Dredd.” “Dredd” was almost 100 minutes of blood, violence, drugs, slow-motion deaths, guns,

bombs and then more blood. And I enjoyed this futuristic thriller. “Dredd,” based on a British comic book series, is set in Mega City One, a post-nuclear wasteland of a city that spans from Boston to Washington, D.C., where 800 million people live. The “city” consists of mega-blocks of 200-story high-rises housing thousands of people living in a world of drugs, gangs and chaos. The only people fighting for law and justice are the “Judges,” men and women from the Hall of Justice who are the judges, the jury and the executioners all rolled into one. Judges do not hesitate to pull the trigger and deliver the death sentence. Dredd (Karl Urban) is one of these bloody “police” officers; his reputation spans the city, and we certainly see how good he is at his job. Dredd gets paired with Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a rookie officer who can read people’s thoughts. Surprisingly, Anderson—the psychic mutant—is the most normal person in the movie! When responding to a triple homicide, i.e. three people being skinned alive and thrown off the top floor of the mega-block highrise quaintly called “Peach Trees,” Dredd and Anderson stumble upon the center of a drug cartel run by Ma-Ma (Lena Headey). Ma-Ma,

a scarred ex-prostitute, manufactures and supplies Slo-Mo, a drug that slows the user’s brain down to one percent of its normal speed. Slo-Mo provides outstanding visual effects including very long bullet-entering-body or body-fallinghundreds-of-stories-and-hittingthe-ground death sequences. To kill Dredd and Anderson, Ma-Ma shuts down the high-rise, leaving no escape and no place to hide from the thousands of Peach Trees denizens trying to kill the two Judges. This story sounds totally corny, but I was enthralled by Dredd’s Clint Eastwood personality crossed with a Christian Bale Batman voice. Urban, no longer playing Dr. McCoy (Bones) of “Star Trek,” seems to have a permanent frown on his face, donning a helmet that covers everything but his upper lip and chin. A true almost-faceless killing machine, Dredd delivers some hysterical one-liners! “Dredd” is not for the faint of heart—in fact, if you are squeamish at all, this is not the movie for you. That being said, the 3-D slow-motion action is awesome! “Dredd” is a sarcastic and violent thriller that made me laugh. As Dredd says, just remember, “MaMa’s not the law. I’m the law.” Justice of the future? Hope not!

his I believe: When Charles Dickens is your editor, you pretty much cannot go wrong. Such a lucky bug was Elizabeth Gaskell, who reportedly wanted to name her fourth novel “Margaret Hale,” after the main character. Dickens advised her that the book would be better summed up by the basic conflict within the novel: north versus south. Just to be clear, this refers to the North and South of Great Britain, where in the 1800s, the North was considered rough and overrun with low-class merchants, while the South was more refined and proper: sunny hillside villages. Rose bushes. Marmalade. And what happens, you may ask, when marmalade strays into the concrete jungle’s British prototype? Gaskell, fascinated by the class struggles of the industrial revolution, explores this phenomenon ... and throws in a little romance for those of us who can only take so much angst before needing a little love break. The basic plot rundown: Margaret Hale is the daughter of a parson living in the idyllic and flower-ridden village of Helstone. When her father finds himself doubting certain aspects of the Church of England, he decides that it is his moral duty to give up his post in Helstone and find employment elsewhere. That Elsewhere is in the industrial, smoky North: a fabrics town called Milton. There Margaret experiences the most aching sadness of her life as she watches her family break down and the masters and workers of Milton collide. One of the masters, John Thornton (who is perfect in every way except for the fact that he takes “mama’s boy” to a whole new level), has a certitude and stubbornness that absolutely irks Margaret to no end. But that’s the perfect start for a romance, isn’t it? Mayhaps, my dear reader, mayhaps. In all honesty, though, this is a seriously important book to read for many reasons: First of all, it’s an industrial novel written by a woman in the 19th century. This is reason enough to crack it open. However, it’s also an incredibly solid and engrossing story that is able to be both a romantic drama and an elucidation on the points of view of both the upper and the working classes, with the headstrong Margaret as the liaison between the two. I guess what I’m trying to convey here is that reading “North and South” is like killing two birds with one stone: It takes care of both the guilty pleasure and the intellectual whatever. Also, be sure to see the movie; it’s almost better than the book. But it takes about the same amount of time to get through.

‘Love This Giant’ full of life by EMMA DAHL Staff Reporter

L Camille Liedtka ‘16 often uses found items, recycled jewelry and estate-sale finds to add a more personal touch to her colorful, eclectic wardrobe. Photos by Mellema

keys a lot and ... my family goes to estate sales sometimes, and I was looking for cool, antique keys and we found this whole little ... bowl full of these keys, so I found this in there and I was like, ‘I love it,’ and bought it. And then my mom—she makes jewelry, so she gave me this chain.”

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: firstyear Camille Liedtka. Style Soundbites: “This one [necklace] actually has a pseudo-story: I really like

“[The] shoes [were] a present for Christmas. I think [my mom] got them probably at, like, Macy’s or something ... you know, ‘Land of Various Items.’”

found randomly or given to me ... I don’t seek out clothing specifically for reasons. So, I just kind of wear what I like and what I find, and if I see something [that] I like that I find, I’m going to go for it.”

ove This Giant is an eclectic, exciting, flamboyant album that eludes any kind of categorization. While it could be lost in the sea of other great albums that came out this September, Love This Giant stands out because of the unexpected but brilliant partnership that produced its vibrant sound: the collaboration between David Byrne (best known for his work with the Talking Heads) and Annie Clark (also known as St. Vincent). Byrne and St. Vincent both are at the top of their game, and it’s evident in Love This Giant. You can feel elements of both of their styles that end up synchronizing perfectly into these songs that kind of feel like they speak to an older version of yourself. Each track shudders with this life that St. Vincent and Byrne poured into it; they shiver with the energy of the incredible brass band and the strength of the esoteric lyrics. The chemistry of the partnership between St. Vincent and Byrne is tangible and creates a beautiful album. Music is kind of like art that you find in museums. Some pieces are

mediums for the artist to send a message, and this kind of art requires insight from the viewer. Then there’s art that is aesthetically pleasing, art that is simply pleasant to look at. In the same way, there is music that requires analysis and careful listening to discern what the songwriter is trying to say, but there is also music that is just fun to listen and dance to. Usually, it seems like any given artistic style or musical album can tend towards one end of this spectrum or the other, and to me, the best art and music are the pieces that embody both types at once. Love This Giant hits that binary on the head. Byrne and St. Vincent have created songs that are not only toe-tapping and pleasurable on the surface, but have a message as well. Their music tells of the human experience, of simple circumstances and the deeper meanings that lie within them. Their songs ask you to love this giant. Love this thing that I am, whether it’s weird or out of whack or whatever I may be. Love me anyway. “Who wants to climb aboard?” the duo asks the listener in the opening track. I encourage you to accept their invitation and dive into the incredible soundscape that is Love This Giant.

“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how people are constantly trying to show people who they are through various means. Instead of people dressing for how they want, they dress for how they want people to see them. I personally dress for how I want ... I’ve never been a fan of fashion magazines or anything, ever, ‘cause it’s so ‘plastic.’” “And again, it’s people ... being encouraged to buy items so they can be seen a certain way, where obviously all [of] my stuff is kind of either recycled or ...

SPORTS

Sep

27 2012

BATTLE OF WHITS : by PETER CLARK Staff Reporter

he Missionaries versus the Pirates—or, in the joking words of many Whitties, good versus evil—has developed into a healthy rivalry between two schools that are similar in some aspects, but polar opposites in others. The two teams are travel partners on the road in the Northwest Conference and the distance between Walla Walla and Spokane is a short 118 miles, but the schools could not be more opposite in their religious affiliations. Whitman prides itself on its liberal arts identification while Whitworth is devoutly affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. One thing is for sure: The combination of similarities and differences make for an impassioned rivalry. Whitman biology professor Delbert Hutchison, who is also an avid Whitman sports fan, believes that the rivalry has escalated in recent years because of Whitman’s commitment to improving athletics. “The rivalry has become more fun and intense. Part of that is going to happen when we keep getting better and better. The athletic department has been working hard. There has been improvement all

who are also the reigning NWC champs. Senior opposite hitter Rachel Shober said that the win was extra satisfying because of how much the team respects Whitworth. “We definitely respect them as an opponent. We enjoy playing them and it’s always a competitive match, but we really prepared for that game because we know how good they are,” said Shober. Baseball coach Sean Kinney has seen the rivalry both as a player and now as a coach, and he sees it as a peak to the season.

ILLUSTRATION BY ZINSER

this season, the Whitman volleyball team knocked off Whitworth,

WOMEN’S TENNIS

TONE SET FOR SEASON AT USA/ITA REGIONALS by KYLE HOWE Staff Reporter

ver the past weekend the Whitman women’s tennis team was hard at work at the USTA/ITA Fall Regional Tournament, their first major tournament of the season. The stakes at this competition are high, as every participant competes for the few available positions in the USTA/ITA Fall National Tournament in Mobile, Ala., and All-American recognition.

team to show their true colors and how well they will function as a team. “We all showed a lot of our mental and physical capacity as individuals and as teammates. As a freshman, I think the results really showed the level of strength our team brings to the table against the other schools in our conference and it has given me a lot of belief that we will do really well in our upcoming season and hopefully win our conference [and] make it to nationals as a team,” said first-year Katrina Allick.

Alyssa Roberg ‘13 and Courtney Lawless ‘15 are headed to USTA/ITA Fall Nationals after a long weekend of tennis at Bratton Indoor Tennis Center. Photo by Woletz

The Missionaries found success on their home courts throughout the weekend, as Whitman played host to the prestigious tournament. Both singles and doubles competitions had all-Whitman finals: sophomores Courtney and Morgan Lawless faced off in singles, while Courtney Lawless and senior Alyssa Roberg teamed up against Morgan Lawless and first-year Jenna Dobrin in doubles. The end results: Courtney Lawless beat her twin sister 6-0, 6-1, and then Courtney Lawless and Roberg took the doubles crown with a 6-1, 6-2 win. These results mean both Courtney Lawless and Roberg are headed to Mobile, Ala. for the USTA/ITA Fall National Tournament Oct. 11-14. “The [regional] tournament was amazing,” said fifth-year coach John Hein. “We go in looking to see where we’re at but also where we can improve, and we showed that we are the team to beat in the Northwest but we also learned how each player can still get better for the spring. Obviously, having all Whitman finals in singles and doubles to win both draws and the consolation doubles is a dream for any coach.” The results of this tournament have firmly established Whitman as a serious contender in the region, as well as nationally. “We’re aware that we’re capable of moving up in the national rankings and making a run at the NCAA finals in Kalamazoo, Mich., so we know we’re on track with our goals but we also know we have a lot of work to do to get there. This weekend showed us specifically what each player can work on,” said Hein. The team has high hopes for the spring season and aims to win the Northwest Conference and West Region. “With everyone playing so well, we should be able to win Conference,” said Courtney Lawless. The tournament allowed the

the team’s new players—including first-years Allick, Dobrin and Kate Rubinstein—as it helped introduce them to collegiate-level tennis. “I have had a harder time mentally adjusting to playing here, but I think with a little time off and more work I can get back to where I was over the summer and come in strong during our season in the spring,” said Allick. The transition from last year has been smooth, as the team will only gain experience. “Each year is different. Last year, we were very talented but incredibly young. This year we have amazing leadership in every class. I’m especially proud of our sophomores Erin, Courtney, Maddy and Morgan, who are not just putting in great efforts with their tennis, but have a much better concept of how to lead, which is huge. So I’d say we have improved in our areas of strength, especially with confidence and team cohesion,” said Hein. The entire team is excited and ready to go as they anxiously wait for the spring. “We have for the most part all the players from last year’s team

Kate Kunkel-Patterson ‘13 (above) and doubles partner Maddy Webster ‘15 won the consolation bracket at USTA/ITA Fall Regionals. Photo by Woletz

The results of this tournament will only help to bring the team closer together, as players gained experience that will help them as they progress through the rest of the season. “I’m so happy with how the team helped each other out, was responsible for their preparation and put themselves in positions to focus on each match,” said Hein. The tournament was an especially helpful stepping stone for

Whitman vs. Whitworth

around,” said Hutchison. With Whitworth enjoying their fifth consecutive NWC all-sports title–an award recognizing the school with the most compiled points earned at the end of the year based on the success of all the varsity sports teams— this past year, they obviously still are the team to beat in the

NWC. As a result, every win against the Pirates is coveted by any Missionary. Earlier

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and it can only get better adding in the amazing freshmen we have now,” said Courtney Lawless. The entire team will practice for the remainder of the week and then take a break until the spring season, while singles and doubles ITA All-American Courtney Lawless and her partner, doubles AllAmerican Roberg, prepare for the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships next month.

“The Whitman-Whitworth battle is always at the end of the year, base-

ball-wise. Both teams have gone through their seasons, and whether they’re in postseason play or not, there is that added emphasis of eastern Washington teams going at it and deciding who is the better ‘Whit’ out there,” said Kinney. One of the other benefits that the rivalry has noticed in recent years is the increased amount of nonconference opponents from different states who are more willing to travel to eastern Washington knowing that they will play two quality athletic programs. Athletics Director Dean Snider believes that the benefits of having Whitworth in such close distance to Whitman are crucial. “Having a scheduling partner like Whitworth is invaluable. If we are going to play non-conference opponents on our campus, we have to do something extra to encourage people to come here,” said Snider. Aside from the benefits and improvements that the Whitman-Whitworth rivalry brings to both schools, the athletic competitions themselves are what really make the rivalry special. Whether it be the trash talk between players or the chants yelled by fans, both schools competing at a high level is what creates such memorable moments for both athletic communities.

DYAR LEADS WHIT MEN TO THIRD PLACE FINISH AT BOXER CLASSIC by TRISTAN GAVIN Staff Reporter

his past weekend, the Whitman men’s golf team headed to Pacific University to compete in the Boxer Classic golf tournament. Following a third-place finish in the Quail Ridge Invite one week prior, the team looked to bounce back with a strong showing. Whitman finished third as an overall team, scoring at the six-team Boxer Classic with a two-day, 36-hold score of 609. Corban University and Linfield College shared top honors for the tournament, carding identical final scores of 599. First-year Evan Dyar led the Missionaries in the first round, shooting a 73 on the first day, finishing just one stroke over par. Senior captain Geoff Burks followed Dyar closely with a 74 in the first round, overcoming a triple bogie on the 10th hole to finish the day two strokes above par. “His game is in great shape and his confidence is growing every day,” said head coach Peter McClure of Burks, who entered the tournament coming off of a team-leading 74 at Quail Ridge. Sophomore Scott Martin and first-year Daniel Hoffman each finished the day with a score of 79, persevering through inconsistent first rounds. Firstyear Connor Hood “struggled to find his game,” according to Coach McClure, rounding out the day with a 91, but looked to Sunday to prove himself. Martin was Whitman’s most consistent player for most of last season and will be looking to build upon an AllNWC first-team performance. Dyar continued to shine in Sunday’s round, shooting a 73 en route to a second-place tournament finish. Dyar’s performance impressed McClure, who believes “it won’t be long until he wins a tournament.” Burks came out driving the ball well, but struggles with his short game led to a disappointing 77 on Sunday. “Nothing was going in,” Burks said in reference to his putts. Hoffman had his best round as a collegiate on Sunday, ending the afternoon with a 76, showing his coach that he “continues to improve” as he adjusts to college-level golf. Hood bounced back from his first round by shaving off nine strokes for an 82 on the next day. “He is growing more accustomed to playing at this level,” said McClure, noticing the adjustments the firstyear made in just his second collegiate tournament. Martin rounded out Whitman’s team with a 78, conceding that he “made a couple of mistakes that pushed [his] score up.” Martin remains optimistic and, sharing the sentiment of his teammates, “can’t wait to get out to Wine Valley this weekend” to build upon the Boxer Classic.

Next weekend’s Whitman Invitational will be the team’s only hosted tournament of the year. The tournament will take place at the Wine Valley Golf Course, where Whitman hopes to build upon back-to-back third-place finishes at the Quail Ridge and Pacific Invitationals. After next weekend, the fall season will consist of only two more tournaments, one being the Northwest Conference Fall Classic held Oct. 27 and 28 in Ridgefield, Wash.

Sports factoid of the week: Both Whitman golf teams are exactly one month away from competing at the Northwest Conference Fall Classic. This will be the first and only tournament during the fall that will count towards the 2012-13 NWC golf standings. The Fall and Spring Classics count for one quarter of teams’ total final points, while the NWC Tournament next spring counts for one half.

SCOR EBOA R D SOCCER

Men’s v. Pacific University Sept. 22: L 1-0 v. George Fox University Sept. 23: W 3-1 Women’s v. Pacific University Sept. 22: L 1-0 v. George Fox University Sept. 23: W 2-1

VOLLEYBALL

v. Willamette University Sept. 21: W 3-0

GOLF

Men’s Boxer Classic, 3rd

UPCOMING SOCCER

Men’s v. UPS Sept. 29, 2:30 p.m.: HOME v. PLU Sept. 30, 2.30 p.m.: HOME Women’s v. UPS Sept. 29, 12 p.m.: HOME v. PLU Sept. 30, 12 p.m.: HOME

GOLF

Men’s Whitman Invitational Sept. 30-Oct. 1: HOME Women’s Whitworth Invitational Sept. 30-Oct. 1: AWAY

CROSS COUNTRY

Charles Bowles Invitational Sept. 29: AWAY

VOLLEYBALL

v. George Fox University Sept. 28: AWAY v. Lewis & Clark College Sept. 29: AWAY

BASEBALL

Alumni Game Sept. 29, 10 a.m.: HOME

Sep

27 2012

FEATURE

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WALLA WALLA

RAPS At first glance, hip-hop culture may seem underrepresented at Whitman and in Walla Walla. However, new opportunities and personal stories prove just the contrary: hip-hop is everywhere.

Joaquin Avalos throws down a rap at La Ramada, Walla Walla’s sole venue for hip hop artists to perform. Photo by Bergman

Local performers get stage time at cantina by HANNAH BARTMAN Staff Reporter

trolling down Main Street and looking in the quaint boutiques of Walla Walla, one would be surprised to find out that there are battles raging just a mile from Whitman College campus. However, these are not battles of blood and gore, but battles of wit, speed and accuracy. They are rap battles that take place every month at La Ramada. Thus far, four shows have taken place on Friday nights at La Ramada, a Mexican restaurant and cantina on Isaacs Ave. They have drawn a large audience of hip-hop enthusiasts during the short time they have been running. Beginning at 9 p.m., the night includes a rap battle, breakdance performances, and hiphop performances by local artists. “It’s not anything that we’re profiting from; it’s just an opportunity for people to get their art out there,” said Alberto “Beto” Sanchez, organizer of the rap battles. “We just want to make music and be heard.” According to Sanchez, hiphop has four central elements: DJ, MC (rapping), breakdancing and graffiti. The MC and breakdance artists of Walla Walla have not been given a chance in the past to display their skills. Through this opportunity offered by La Ramada, they hope to find a way to shine. “This is my main idea: to work with these people and give them

the opportunity to do something good,” said Gustavo Guerra, manager of La Ramada. “I like to work with the local people because you have to support your own people.” One reason that the hip-hop culture is so unrecognized in Walla Walla is because of the negative image that goes alongside hip-hop culture. Hip-hop is usually coupled with the stigma that accompanies gangs, violence and drugs. Popular media has manipulated the image of hip-hop into a seemingly aggressive and confrontational mode of expression, but according to local hip-hop artists, this gives the public a false view of the culture. “It’s so easy to turn on the radio and hear the saturated rap that’s out there,” said local hip-hop artist Joaquin Avalos. “If you really look for it, there are people out there, like me, that are doing something for the culture, and that means doing something that’s going to last.” By creating this lasting music, the local artists are resolute in their resolve to promote positive messages. “Hip-hop is seeing someone else struggle and reaching out and making their life better,” said Avalos. Avalos believes that this mentality can be achieved through music or through any sort of activism against poverty and suffering. Avalos and Guerra both cite Tupac as a pivotal hip-hop artist who wrote about the truth and the “keep your head up” mindset.

“When someone speaks on a subject about something that you really went through, it’s a totally different connection with the music,” said Sanchez. “I think that that’s been taken out of hiphop because now it’s mostly focused on what makes money.” Avalos cites his inspiration as the difficulties that he has encountered in his life growing up in Walla Walla. Supported by his mother who rose five kids on her own, Avalos says he received inspiration from his own struggles and he hopes to create music that can speak to other people. In one of his songs that he recorded in his own studio, “Celebration of Life,” Avalos sings, “It’s a celebration of life, we’re staying alive/ If you’ve been through hard times then you know what it’s like.” In this way, Avalos hopes to connect with people and speak to their struggles. At the same time, hip-hop is also a performance art with a main objective to entertain. In a rap battle, each artist is given a random beat and one minute to freestyle against the opponent. The point is to extemporaneously create lyrically clever lines while insulting your opponent. The battles at La Ramada are judged by three breakdancing artists, as they have the background knowledge needed to issue an executive decision on the winner of a battle. The battles are conducted in a bracket style, with the winner ultimately rap-

ping against the champion from the last battle. Whoever wins this last battle receives half of the cover charges ($5 is paid at the door for each audience member). This is followed by performances by the breakdance artists, who bring their own music and rehearsed dance. Then, the hip-hop artists are given an opportunity to perform raps in front of the audience. The set-up of the show creates a diverse mix of talents and performances to watch. “Not all of the performances are the type of music that everyone is going to listen to, but there’s got to be a little part of the show that everyone is going to like, whether it’s the freestyling, breakdancing or rapping,” said Sanchez. Avalos described hip-hop as a movement that arose out of the social activism that was present in the ‘60s. Whether it was through the struggles bred by the anti-war movement, civil rights or student protests, the ‘70s produced a generation of oppressed artists who used hip-hop to get their message across. The media then took hold of this new form of music and popularized it on a global scale. With this newfound fame and at-

tention, hip-hop artists could force the world to pay attention to their struggles. These struggles included discrimination, police brutality and other social injustices. “There [are] different categories within hip-hop, but the biggest thing is that it’s the voice of the people. The voice to say that something is wrong and what can we do to fix it,” Avalos said. Hip-hop still serves as a tool for artists to get their message across, which is what Avalos and Sanchez hope to do through their music. Sanchez is a member of the rap group ‘2 Sick’ in Walla Walla. 2 Sick has performed in 12 shows around the area but has only been given the venue of La Ramada in Walla Walla. Avalos creates his own songs, and has also only been given the chance to perform at La Ramada. The next show hosted by La Ramada will take place on Friday, Sept. 28. Local artists hope that through their proof of civility in their form of artistic expression at La Ramada, other restaurants will open their doors to their music. In this way, hip-hop can both entertain the public and project the messages of local artists.

Hip-hop drives individuals, fuels campus music culture from HIP-HOP, page 1

Hidden under the haze of Mumford and Sons lyrics and Young the Giant vocals, the addictive pounding beats of the oft-forgotten rap genre are still audible. One example of rap’s pervasive nature is the popular slam poetry team on campus. Morales actually did an independent study project her senior year of high school focusing on the spoken word and slam poetry movement which grew out of the hip-hop/ rap movement of the 1990s. Beginning in the South Bronx, minority black and Latino youths used poetry to talk about their feelings of oppression. The first slam poetry was performed in a bar where poets read their work while drunk patrons shouted and hurled bottles at them. “The poets would get angry and before you knew it, the poems became real and were written in a way that got people’s attention,” said Morales. Eventually, people began taking notice and the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York opened. The owner preserved the concept, but gave the performances rules and standards and eliminated the belligerently drunk people. Thus, slam poetry was born. In the end, Morales believes in the close ties between spoken word poetry and rap, although not all rappers can write slam poetry and vice versa. “Spoken word is very closely linked to hip-hop and rap. They have a lot of the same goals, they

have a lot of the same rhythmic patterns to them where you have your words flow together, and a lot of it is presentation,” said Morales. Slam poetry’s growing popularity may be one contributing factor in rap music’s increased presence on campus. Whitman Events Board also played a role in increasing rap exposure. On March 3, 2012, WEB brought the Seattle-based rap artist Macklemore to campus, where he performed for a sold-out crowd. “I think ever since Macklemore came to Whitman, that kind of opened the eyes of a lot of students [about] rap and what it can be,” said Young. Morales also pinpointed Whitman’s move towards a more rap-open culture to Macklemore’s performance. “A lot of people are from Seattle so they were really eager to identify with him, so I think that it got a lot of attention and a lot of people came out for it,” said Morales. “I mean, when you go to frat parties and parties in general, you hear a lot of hip-hop and current music.” DJ junior Cam Young knows from personal experience. “When the night life comes around, you’re playing [hip-hop] songs and you can definitely tell that people know the lyrics so maybe there is a little bit of a stigma surrounding rap music on the Whitman campus,” said Young. While students tend to avoid playing this genre during the day,

at weekend parties, Lil’ Wayne and Pretty Ricky make frequent appearances. Before a big party, Young and Moyes will make a general playlist, picking out points in the songs which will serve as transitions into the next song. However, some of the work is improvising on the spot. “The best DJs are able to read a crowd and they’re able to mix different genres and subgenres of music together, whether that be hip-hop and then going to more electronic music, or coming back and playing some song that nobody’s heard in a while from middle school,” said Moyes. Most of the songs he plays are familiar songs from the radio or top 40 hits—in short, mainstream hip-hop. “People enjoy dancing to songs they’ve heard. For the most part, you can’t really play a bunch of songs in a row that people have never heard of, even if they’re good,” said Moyes. “Especially at Whitman, people like singing and dancing, so in order for that to happen, they need to know the songs they’re singing.” From the faint strains of rap woven within a spoken word poem to the mass of bodies grinding/jumping/ Gangnam style-ing to a hip-hop song at each frat party, it seems the hiphop and rap genre is alive and well. At Whitman College, we have awesome fountains, Missionaries, Styx, an abundance of Chacos and, yes, rap and hip-hop. You just have to know where to look.

Cam Young ‘14 (left) and Kyle Moyes ‘14 (right) enjoy their work providing the beats for campus parties, even if it means playing a lot of top 40 hits. Moyes started DJing his sophomore year, and introduced Young to it just this year. Photos by Bowersox

OPINION

Sep

27 2012

PAGE

Apple’s finances provide confidence in its future BLAIR HANLEY FRANK Senior

TECH TALK

“I

t’s almost here.” That’s how Apple invited members of the press to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for its announcement of the iPhone 5, along with other updates to its iPod line. For those of us who follow when products are usually released, it’s nothing unexpected. Apple always holds an iPod event in the fall, and as of last year, that event has expanded to contain the iPhone. In a press release issued on Monday, Apple announced that the iPhone 5’s weekend sales numbers had topped five million units.

To make that perfectly clear: In the first weekend since Apple released the latest iPhone, it has sold more than five million units. The amount of profit generated by those sales will be added to Apple’s already considerable war chest (during the dark days of debt ceiling negotiation, Apple had more money than the federal government). This, of course, has a certain correlation with Apple’s stock price. Before the weekend, it was trading over $700 per share. According to Tim Cook’s presentation at the iPhone 5 announcement, Apple’s share in the tablet market has grown, even as the number of Android tablets has exploded. iOS has become a major driver of Apple’s profits, but the Mac side of their business is growing as well. Tim Cook seems to have grown into his role as chairman and CEO admirably. By all accounts, Apple is doing very well. But that transformation means that the way the tech press looks at the company has changed considerably. While this month’s announcement of the iPhone 5 marked the

phone’s sixth iteration in as many years, it also came on the heels of an important anniversary. In August of 2011, Steve Jobs resigned from his job at Apple. Jobs has been hailed as a visionary for good reason. His leadership is what brought Apple out of the hole it had dug for itself in the early-to-mid ‘90s and gave Apple the competitive edge that it has held on to. Now that Steve is dead, his absence has spawned a nearly incessant chorus about whether or not he would have allowed even the most mundane of decisions. I can understand, then, why commentators and analysts might be inclined to hearken back to the days of Steve Jobs as the halcyon days of Apple, when nothing could possibly go wrong. And while I’ll agree that there was more good than bad, it’s worth remembering that Steve was at the helm of a number of poor decisions (remember the hockey puck mouse from the old iMacs?), and his seal of approval was not the automatic home run that nostalgic writers seem to think it was. It’s time to face the music: Apple’s success isn’t just about Ste-

ve Jobs. You don’t hit $700 a share without making good products and providing value to the market. Tim Cook, Jony Ive and the rest of the folks in Cupertino are responsible for the rampant suc-

cess of this new phone, and they deserve credit for it. In order for Apple to move forward, they need to focus on the future. Everyone else ought to do the same.

ILLUSTRATION BY HWANG

‘normal’ Coal facility threatens Seeking sex limits variety, region, demands action increases anxiety SAM CHAPMAN Sophomore

A MOVING FOREST

here is a blight on the planet that is not in Washington D.C., Alberta or China. It’s called the Port of Morrow, it’s squatting ninety minutes away in Boardman, Ore., and we have a responsibility to shut it down. Coal giant Ambre Energy has proposed a “water transloading facility” at Morrow which would be one cog in a larger shipping machine: Coal mined in the Power River Basin of Montana and Wyoming would be shipped to the port by the Union Pacific Railroad, whereupon it would be loaded onto barges and sent down the Columbia towards markets in Asia. In a way, it’s good to see them shipping internationally. The fact that it’s more economical to send coal across the Pacific means that demand in the United States is falling. On the other hand, using Morrow as a coal terminal will lead to disaster. First, the overland shipping will clog the local rail system, leading to costly delays for

local farmers and infrastructure costs for the state. Then the dust from coal in the open cars will seep into our water and our lungs. Looming above it all is the threat of further climate change that will result from our continued enabling of China’s coal addiction. It’s clear that Morrow needs to go, and local nonprofits are mobilizing against the entire export scheme. But how can we interfere with the project, and why is it our duty? First, because it’s nearby. We can’t save the entire Northwest. The big players in Powder River Basin have proposed nine terminals from Oregon to British Columbia, and only Morrow is accessible to a Whitman student without losing a whole day to travel. Others will work to target the other eight, but it’s Morrow that’s threatening our home and way of life. However, we’re not only stuck with it nearby; it’s also stuck with us. Second, because it affects us. Climate change’s major effect on the Northwest so far has been a decrease in average rainfall—this summer, Seattle tied their record for number of consecutive dry days. It’s this change that has allowed what seems like half of Washington, Oregon and Idaho to catch on fire. After this week, all of us know how much fun it is to go around breathing in particulates; wait until it’s coal dust instead of ash. If Whitman students and Walla Walla residents let the Morrow project go through, it will

come back to bite us. On, then, to what we can do as busy college students tied to our campus. To start, we can put pressure on the Army Corps of Engineers. The USACE’s Portland office is conducting an environmental assessment for the project, which, according to The Oregonian, “are typically completed within months.” USACE Portland’s environmental phone number is (503) 808-4761; they can be written at P.O. Box 2946 / 333 SW First Ave., Portland, OR 97208-2946; and email is handled through their website. With enough vocal support, we can get them to consider a full environmental impact statement instead. This can often take years—and Ambre Energy’s hands would be tied the whole time. They’ll also need a permit from the Oregon Department of State Lands (dsl@dsl.state.or.us; 775 Summer St. NE Suite 100, Salem, OR 97301-1279). Their public comment period has technically ended, but we are the government, and we will decide when we voice our opinion. For a stronger statement, it’s not difficult to get a group together, bring banners and signs, and show your displeasure in public. If you aren’t afraid to get arrested, you can even do this in the port’s restricted, sensitive business areas— and let me know if this is your plan; I’ll be right there with you. You can go at any time, but if the permit goes through and conversion of the port begins, this direct action will need to become our plan of attack.

SPENCER WHARTON Senior

SEXCETERA “So I have not had sex ever. I like the idea of sex; I respect it. However, certain things such as blow jobs and miscellaneous practices that don’t involve vaginal penetration sound quite unnatural and even perverted to me. However, they seem to be frequently practiced. I guess my question is, in heterosexual sex, what is normal, and what isn’t? Is there even such thing as normal sex practices?” -Wondering What’s Weird

his is a whopper of a question, WWW, and I won’t be able to address it all here. Check out my blog on The Pioneer’s website for a more detailed answer later this week. Today, I just want to talk about the idea of “normal” sex. When it comes to sex, what’s normal? This is a dangerously tricky question, because “normal” can have two meanings here. The first meaning is “typical”: When it comes to sex, what do the majority of people do? It would take some research, but we could come up with a definitive answer to this question. But there’s another meaning to the word “normal”; it can also take on a moral tone and be interpreted as “natural” or “right.” In that sense, “normal” means “not weird.” The trouble arises here when we conflate the two definitions: equating what the majority does with what is right and suggesting that if you’re doing something unusual, you’re doing something wrong. When you ask if something sexual is “normal,” you have to ask yourself which definition you mean. Asking if something is common is one thing; asking if it’s natural is something entirely different.

In terms of sex, there is no “natural.” There may be things that many—even most—people incorporate into their sex lives, but that means nothing. Everyone has their own individual likes and wants, and as long as it’s practiced in a conscientious, ethical way, there’s nothing about a niche, kinky fetish that’s less legitimate than plain intercourse in the missionary position. But there’s more to it than the problems involved in arbitrarily deciding that certain sexual practices are natural. If you define “normal sex” by listing a standard package of activities, this easily leads to feelings of obligation or expectation. For instance, if your idea of normal sex includes a blow job and intercourse, then you’re likely to feel as if something’s wrong when a sexual encounter doesn’t include both. This is particularly relevant in Whitman’s hookup culture, where communication has a risk of ending at “Want to have sex?” If we just assume that we and our partner(s) share the same understanding of what normal sex entails, we’re less likely to ask them what they do or don’t want. If we feel like it’s weird to not do a certain thing in bed, then we’re less likely to raise personal objections. What’s more, being distracted in bed—say, by worrying about how normal you are— is a surefire way to make sex less enjoyable for everyone involved. Sex is better when everyone involved is at ease, and the more nervous you are during a sexual encounter, the harder it is to feel in the moment. In addition, many people with penises find that distraction makes staying hard, well, hard (not the end of the world, but certainly frustrating). You don’t want to be trapped in your head fretting over what’s normal; you want to be totally comfortable with yourself and your partner(s). Screw normal. Normal— in the sense of “what everyone else does”—doesn’t matter. WWW, if you don’t want blow jobs in your sex life, they have absolutely no place there, regardless of what anyone else thinks. Sex isn’t about “everyone else.” Sex is about the people who are involved, no more and no less.

Anonymously submit questions for Spencer at http://is.gd/sexcetera/.

Political Cartoon by Maggie Appleton

Voices from the Community

What iPhone app could you not live without? Poll by CATIE BERGMAN

JANAE EDELSON

BEN SKOTHEIM

ISABEL SEIXAS

NATHAN SANY

Junior

Senior

Junior

“Probably the mail app. I love being able to check emails 24/7.”

“My fingers are too big to use an iPhone.”

“You couldn’t pay me enough to use an iPhone.”

“The sleep-talk app because I can hear all the weird things I say when I wake up.”

Sep

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8 Fraternity recruitment to switch to sorting hat D 27 2012

ILLUSTRATION BY MEASE

espite notching another successful year of buying friends through the fraternity recruitment process, the Interfraternity Council (IFC) has moved to change the structure of recruitment for years to come. “The current system offers the first-years too much choice,” said IFC Vice President Marshall Davis. “We want to take the variability of choice out of the equation.” The new equation is designed to place first-years where they belong, rather than where they want to be. To do so, the fraternities pooled together all of their money and the crayon-drawn “Beta Bucks” that President Zach Johnston uses. After spending the majority of their money on candy, the fraternities bought a hat at Goodwill that is alleged to have sorting powers. “It doesn’t look like much,” said Phi Delta Theta president Andy Falcon, confessing about the tattered headwear over a piping-hot plate of brotherhood. “It was incredibly successful in the trials we did last week, though.” Testing of the sorting hat began on goldfish from the Hall of Science, most of which were determined to be Sigma Chi mem-

bers. After the animal testing created an uproar in the Whitman community, the fraternities shifted to testing on independent students. Gathered in the great Jewett Dining Hall, students watched the first human trial with great anticipation. First-year Harry Frotter walked boldly up to the hat with only one thought in his mind: “Anywhere but TKE ... Anywhere but TKE.” Although the hat thought Harry could have been great in Tau Kappa Epsilon, it conceded that he was a better fit in Phi Delta Theta. Despite only seeing a small sample size, the hat’s decision pleased the Greek community greatly. “If he’s not a Phi, then I don’t know what a Phi is,” said President Chrandrews of Tau Kappa Epsilon, adding that although he looks forward to peeing on his lawn, the first-year was “not [his] Frotter.” The optimism for a more efficient system than the sheep-herding ways of the past has the Greek system abuzz. The women’s fraternity system has even been perusing magic mirrors on Craigslist, and the Pan-Hellenic group has started an agency to protect the sheltered ignorance of the “Muggle community.”

Pinging hazing accusations Senior math major declares bring dead issue back to life he’ll graduate in 7 dog years A S couple weeks ago, investigative reporter Tristan Gavin brought forth several accusations regarding the forced “pinging” in which Whitman first-years are forced to engage. The hazing accusations have led to immediate action on the part of the administration calling for an end to the ancient tradition. Strange reports have begun surfacing all across campus, leading some to believe that pinging was in fact an ancient ritual to keep the restless ghost of Chief Hololsotetote from rising from his grave. Students and faculty alike might have seen the monument erected to him to the right of Lyman House. What people may not know is that he is in fact buried next to his entire army under the Amphitheatre. Further surprising many is the fact that Whitman was constructed on a millennium-old Native American burial ground. “I was lying in my bed, and I heard this banging and yelling seemingly coming from the ceiling. It was terrifying,” said one 2-West resident. Another sophomore said she saw zombies stumbling across An-

keny Field after Sigma Chi’s rave. “They had strange glowing halos around their heads colored neon pink! I had to hide on the ground to avoid them seeing me!” she said. Perhaps most frightening were reports of a strange gathering during one night last week in the Amphitheatre. “I was walking home and I saw a circle of what looked like robed figures standing in a circle chanting about something to do with The Pioneer! Something about initiation?” said a senior. It is clear there is something strange at work on campus. These reports of walking dead, strange gatherings and ghostly moans from within Jewett are certainly discomforting. Has investigative journalism gone too far? If the result is a rise in a long-dead Native American chief and his army, then I would have to say it has. Luckily, undercover informants have told this reporter that a certain detachment of students has been considering holding pinging rituals at least bi-weekly. If you happen to see this anti-zombie ritual, give these brave students a salute and carry on.

According to ancient legend, Chief Hololsotetote was buried on the land which is now referred to by the Walla Walla community as Ankeny Field.

Comic by Erika Zinser

enior math major Dhavan Cue’s thesis has had a serious impact on the greater math community and “also the world.” “We see the world through such a narrow lens, man,” he said over a couple too many “Hurricane Bernies” at the Green. Cue’s journey to his thesis started around a year ago when he took a girl on a date to the Humane Society. He was letting a dog lick his face, because “she certainly wasn’t going to,” when he remembered that old saying about dog years. That’s when he knew what he was going to write his thesis on. He ditched his date, got on his kayak, began paddling for home and began his work. “Yeah, that date didn’t go so hot ... but I got my thesis idea so it all worked out,” he said. “[One] dog year is equal to 1/7th of a human year,” says www.dogyears.com. The formula was so simple. X=7Y. He went to his thesis advisor, Dr. Clause, for approval of his idea. “Dhavan ... you’re barking up the wrong tree,” said Dr. Clause at first. But as Cue began to explain his idea of investigating time through a dog’s lens, Clause was intrigued. “Like, we’re all on human time, right?” said Cue to

The U.S. Army has been successfully using Cue’s thesis to test nuclear weapons.

Clause. “Einstein was talking about how time was the fourth dimension for humans, right? But there’s a different variable for dogs. We’re not in the same dimension as them, man! They’re on a completely different formula!” Clause apparently tried to reason with Cue by explaining that using “dog years” was just a way of explaining to kids that dogs don’t live as long as humans, and it wasn’t an exact science. But that night, after eating too many cookies, Clause was kept up by indigestion. He looked at his dachshund and wished the indigestion would pass quicker. “Around seven times quicker!” he said, and that’s when he realized Cue was on to something. Cue and Clause set out to work and developed a formula for life itself. The actual formula has yet to be revealed. “It’s pretty chill,” said Cue, however.

Cue’s concept of time remains popular around campus. A common response to “wanna hit this, dude?” is “nah, dude, that’ll put me on dog time,” meaning the world would speed up around seven times faster than normal. The “dog time” concept is also popular among soccer players, who manipulate the 48-hour rule, using dog years, albeit poorly. When asked why he was drunk at his soccer game, junior Mitch Swordselson confronted his coach. “I thought you meant dog hours. You [have] to specify this kind of thing!” said Swordselson. The “time” principle also can be manipulated with other animals. When Cue’s relaxing, he likes to joke that he’s on “sea turtle time, dude.” Sea turtles live up to 200 years, Cue explained, making their formula X=.5Y. Cue’s thesis will be unveiled at the national math conference this October.