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Issue 13 | May 2, 2013 | Whitman news since 1896
Photo by Bergman
Jim Hanson, longtime debate coach, to step down by RACHEL ALEXANDER Editor-in-Chief
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climbers come together for sweet onion crank contest
fter coaching debate for 20 years, Debate Coach Jim Hanson announced Monday that he would be stepping down in order to take a fulltime position as Chair of the Department of Rhetoric. Debate team members and alumni have expressed shock, disappointment and frustration with the decision, which many feel will seriously damage the debate program. Junior Sean Mulloy, a current member of the debate team, said no real reason has been given for the sudden change, prompting many team members to question the reasons behind it. “Many members of the team feel very frustrated and disillusioned with this sudden announcement,” said Mulloy. “We have no idea [why he’s stepping down]. The administration has told us that for privacy reasons, they cannot comment. I think it’s only fair that some sort
“Many members of the team feel very frustrated and disillusioned with this sudden annoucement... The administration has told us that for privacy reasons, they cannot comment. I think it’s only fair that some sort of justification be given to us.” Sean Mulloy ‘14 Debate team member
by KYLE HOWE Staff Reporter
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ast Saturday, April 27, climbers from all over the Pacific Northwest arrived at Whitman for the annual Sweet Onion Crank climbing competition. The Crank allows climbers of all skills to participate in the competition against fellow climbers of a similar skill rank at Whitman’s own climbing wall. “The Sweet Onion Crank is the final climbing competition of the NC3 series, and it is the primary competition circuit for the region. So the Crank is a pretty big event for the climbing community. The competition consists of tiers of climbers: beginner, intermediate, advanced and open. Climbers compete against people in the same bracket, so experience doesn’t really matter,” said event organizer senior Matt Sellick. All climbers are given a time period to rack up as many points as possible “The climbers are allotted two and a half hours to rack up points by successfully climbing boulder problems without falling. The points are assigned based on the difficulty of the problem, and climbers record their points on a scorecard. After two heats of
climbing, and a round of silly speed bouldering, the winners are announced and prizes are distributed,” said Sellick. The environment of the entire competition was laid-back, as everyone enjoyed using the climbing wall. “It was awesome to see climbers from all over the region enjoying our facility and the problems that Whitman’s climbing community worked hard on putting up,” said Sellick. This huge event took a lot of preparation, but it ran smoothly with no difficulties. “For me, the Crank was a culmination of eight months of preparation. It was a bit hectic and stressful running the event, but it is always fun to be part of a climbing community event. The community is very laid-back and talented, so the Crank did not feel overly competitive,” said Sellick. For the event organizers, one of the best parts of the day was seeing how all of their hard work paid off, as they saw everyone having a great time. “I think that my favorite part of the Crank was seeing how excited people were to climb the problems that my friends and I spent time setting. It is always satisfying to see folks enjoying something you created, but the Crank
brings a ton of great climbers to the wall so it is interesting to see how people solve the movement of your puzzles,” said Sellick, who is part of a climbing staff that completely redid the gym’s bouldering problems. For all of the climbers, the experience of the Crank was just as great as they were able to compete in a very friendly environment. “The Crank was really fun. It was packed; it took so long that they were registering people constantly for 45 minutes. It has a really nice atmosphere where everyone tries to help each other with the problems and the people were all really accepting of any skill level,” said sophomore Quinn Piibe. When the event finally began, Whitman climbers were eager to begin after watching the event being set up for the past few weeks. “I was excited to finally get to try all of the boulder problems I had been watching people set up for weeks in the gym,” said Piibe. Each climber enjoyed climbing and pushing themselves to beat their previous records. “The Crank went well for me. It was the only NC3 competition I’d participated in this year so I didn’t have a huge
stake in doing really well— I just wanted to push myself as much as I could,” said sophomore Woody Jacobson. However, it wasn’t all climbing for the participants; they also had a lot of down time and got to meet other climbers. “My favorite moment this year was after everyone had competed and we were all sitting out on the grass hill in front of the climbing wall. We had to wait about 15 minutes for all the scores to get calculated, so during that time I picked up the megaphone and started telling everyone climbing jokes. They crowd really appreciated it and it was a lot of fun,” said Jacobson. There was even an onion eating competition between a few of the participants. “My favorite moment from this year’s Crank was watching Jack Lazar and two other climbers have an onion eating competition for a new rope,” said sophomore Greg Dwulet. At the end of the day, all of the climbers were tired and sore, but happy about their achievements from the competition, as they look forward to next year. “My final score was a lot higher than last year’s, and I was really sore the next day, so I’d consider it a success,” said Jacobson.
Small dating pool creates challenges for queer students by DYLAN TULL Staff Reporter
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or many Whitman students looking for a relationship, or even just looking for a casual hook-up on a Friday night, Whitman’s small size can feel overwhelmingly claustrophobic. There are moments when it feels as if you know every face on campus, when you despair that none of them are viable dating options, and when even the girl who used to make eyes with you in the library is taken. Fortunately, though, these moments usually pass. Even if there are only approximately 1,500 students on this campus, and even if the girl is the library is otherwise occupied, there is another girl in your economics class who is actually quite cute. This isn’t always true for members of the queer community. Queer individuals at Whitman make up a tiny, almost familial community within an already small student body,
which often makes the challenge of on-campus dating exponentially more difficult. Junior Phoebe Horvath discussed this size issue. “I think it’s hard to have a
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dating culture here because the school is small. There are only a certain amount of students, and within that subset there are only a certain amount who identify with or are open to a non-
straight relationship,” she said. GLBTQ intern sophomore Evan Griffis spoke to the same frustrations, adding that the community atmosphere on campus discourages individuals from pursuing casual hook-ups. “At bigger schools, I think it would be even more of a hook-up culture. But I think here, just because we do have a small community, it kind of forces a little bit of the anonymity away from that, and it kind of puts some pressure on actual long-term relationships. With that being said, I think the frustration is definitely from the [small size of the community].” Because the queer community is so small, queer couples are often very visible for the rest of campus. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that entering into a relationship could be incredibly stressful for someone who has not yet come out of the closet. Senior Kate Kight commented on her personsee DATING, page 3
of justification be given to us.” Hanson declined to give a reason for his departure from debate when contacted by The Pioneer, and referred back to his email to the team, which states, “Given the recent creation of a new Department of Rhetoric Studies and my role as chair in building this program from the ground up, I will be stepping aside from my debate responsibilities in order to devote my full time and attention to this new effort.” He would neither confirm nor deny that his decision to step down was entirely voluntary and had no further comment on that topic. “I’m hoping that the program will move forward and they’ll hire a good director and the program will maintain its quality,” said Hanson. President George Bridges was unable to comment specifically on the reasons for the change due to federal laws and college policies which keep personnel issues confidential. Associate Dean of Students Clare Carson also declined to give specific details about the reasons for the change. “There’s a lot of speculation and false rumors going around. I think they should respect what Jim said and go with that,” she said. Carson said that the new Director of Forensics position would be full-time, allowing the college to focus more resources on debate. Hanson currently splits a full-time position between the debate team and the Department of Rhetoric. Still, debaters are frustrated by what they perceive as a lack of clarity and transparency in the change. A “Support Jim Hanson” Facebook group created by alumni had 249 members as of press time, and several alumni have contacted the college, as well as The Pioneer, to express their support for Hanson and the debate program, and their disappointment with the sudden change of coach. A group of 28 debate alumni also wrote an open letter on Wednesday to the Board of Trustees and members of the administration expressing their disappointment for the way the decision has been handled. A full PDF of the letter can be viewed on The Pioneer’s website. Alumnus Kristofer Peterson ‘97, who was on the debate team for four years, said he will be withdrawing $5000 of planned gifts to the college in response to the decision, as well as cutting off contact with the alumni association if the matter is not resolved. see DEBATE, page 2