Whitman Pioneer Spring 2013 Issue 6

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Issue 6 | February 27, 2013 | Whitman news since 1896

Have you ever taken medication for a mental health issue?

57.5

percent of Whitman students report having experienced a panic attack Data for Whitman students based on a Pioneer survey of 272 individuals

47.8

percent report having experienced insomnia

by SAM CHAPMAN Staff Reporter

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mental disorder can be almost as difficult to spot as it is to live with. Many students who suffer from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other conditions are doing so in silence, at Whitman and at schools across the country. These conditions can arise from a multitude of causes—some biological, some from experience, some compounded from other disorders—but all have one thing in common: When people realize they are struggling, their first instinct is to fight the battle alone.

The 2009 National Survey of Counseling Center Directors, collected by the University of Pittsburgh, recorded that 60 percent of college students have at least once felt too depressed or anxious to function. According to a recent Pioneer survey of 272 students, over one in four Whitman students has been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, PTSD or a

27%

Staff Reporter

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hitman’s performance of William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” set to run from Feb. 27 through March 3 at Harper Joy Theatre, is one of high drama, suspense and action. The large cast of characters is able to synthesize all of these aspects, but the play would not be complete without the crew behind the scenes.

“The Tempest” tells the tale of Prospero and the controlled chaos he creates on his island when he seeks vengeance upon his brother. With elements of romance, humor and fantasy, the play’s mood and direction often change swiftly. The general feel the audience can get from a scene is not only a product of the acting, but the lighting as well. Two members of the light crew are firstyears Quinn Lincoln and Jacob O’Connor. Both feel that lighting is an integral part of the show.

“Lighting is great for highlighting certain pieces within the play that are important,” said O’Connor.

This is certainly the case in “The Tempest,” when eerie blinking lights often serve to accentuate scenes involving Prospero’s use of magic. The lighting also gives the play a sense of place. Since the play is set on an island, blue and green lighting is often used to give the stage the feel of a beach or forest. see TEMPEST, page 4

diagnosable mental illness according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness

Suffering in silence Stigma surrounds mental health issues on campus panic disorder in their lives, and as many as two out of three believe that they have suffered from one of these but not sought medical attention. Out of 272 respondents, 39 percent report having had a panic attack, 22 percent have engaged in self-harm and 18 percent have suffered from an eating disorder. While these percentages may not be representative of the student body as a whole, the fact remains that mental health is a concern for a significant number of Whitman students.

A susceptible population Junior Tara Mah has suffered from PTSD, bipolar disorder and bulimia since before arriving at Whitman. She said starting college made her more susceptible to mental health issues because the unfamiliarity of her surroundings and the pervasive silence about mental problems caused her to regress from the therapy she received in high school.

“Individual therapy was helpful for a long time, but it stopped being helpful in college when I was sep-

arated from my support network,” said Mah. “When I got to college it felt like many people were completely silent. So few people were willing to even acknowledge their struggles unless I opened up first.”

Mah continued her behaviors, including self-harm, in secrecy. She said that her downward spiral was exacerbated because she berated herself for not being able to defeat her disorders on her own.

“You suddenly are overcome with these feelings that you can’t do it and are not good enough,” she said. “You tell yourself you are a failure, you can’t do anything, you’re weak. Those thoughts are not only what cause the depression, they are what keep you there.”

Another leading cause of depression among college students is stress. The typical student lives under several simultaneous pressures: to keep up with an academic workload, to remain social and to prepare for his or her future. Of all these, none is so difficult as the pressure to

Delve into ‘The Tempest’

by QUIN NELSON

of people between the ages of 18 and 24 have a

make all of the other tasks look easy.

“I was one of those overachievers in high school. I was a perfectionist. I worked myself too hard, and the stress didn’t go away when I expected it to,” said first-year Arden Robinette, who has received counseling for stress-induced depression.

The stress eventually led to a breakdown.

“It was my junior year of high school. I thought I’d get through it and the stress would go away, but weeks before my senior year started, I freaked out and told my mother I couldn’t go back,” she said.

In other cases, students carry trauma with them from home and suffer as a result. Sophomore Emma Nye has been diagnosed with PTSD from a childhood trauma, and found the symptoms more difficult to bear when around people who weren’t familiar with her history.

“I’m very open about it, but there’s a difference between being open and being able to accurately convey what it’s like. Part of being depressed was feeling like nobody understood. I think it’s not that nobody actually understood, but I didn’t expect anyone to understand. My friends here are super sympathetic, but when you’ve only known people a year, it’s harder to explain,” she said.

Robinette, who describes herself as a private person, said that a different problem kept her from opening up to others. She believes that there is stigma surrounding those with mental health issues, especially those who seek counseling.

“It’s not something that’s socially accepted. It’s like if you go to counseling, you’re admitting you’re crazy. It’s sad because it could really help people, but it’s ingrained in our collective mentality.”

According to statistics from the Welty Counseling Center, 93 percent of college counseling center directors said in 2009 that students have been coming to them in greater numbers with more severe problems. Dr. Tracee Anderson, who works at the center, said that an increase in their number of clients reflects this trend.

“I’ve been here for 20 years, and every year we have had an increase in the demand for services,” said Anderson. “For example, last year, we saw 27.5 percent of the student body; in 2006, five or six years before, we saw 22 percent. This year, without a doubt, we’re seeing more than 27.5 percent.”

Silence Almost all of the students with mental health conditions who responded to the survey described having hidden feelings from everyone or nearly everyone in their lives. While some said that trusted individuals are privy to these experiences, others said that they have gone through things about which nobody knows.

Even when people are able to be candid about their feelings, the struggle may not end. Although friends who hear somebody’s story are usually supportive, several misconceptions have become part of the common view of mental illness, even among Whitman students. Chief among these is the response that their issues are all in their head and that they should “buck up.”

Junior Matt Alder* has received this answer several times after opening up about his depression. He has had intermittent symptoms for around five years, and claims he has been depressed continually since arriving at college.

“I feel like, in the instances where I have opened up, people just have the same things to say in different ways. ‘Stop being depressed. Just act happy. Get over it.’

It drives me insane. I can’t act happy because I’m depressed,” he said.

Simply reverting to a sci-

% are 14.9 currently

7.2

have in the past

77.9 have not Of those who have taken medication,

67.1% found it effective entific explanation for depression also bothers him.

“Another thing I hear a lot is that depression is simply a chemical imbalance in the brain. This one comes from counselors. I understand that they’re correct, but it’s not like the sudden realization that chemicals are screwing me over makes me feel any better.”

Alder has tried counseling and medication but has never been able to continue with either for very long. In his sophomore year, he began to contemplate suicide. He said that his claims that he thinks of killing himself have also not always been taken seriously.

“I think most people assume that I’m only using the word ‘suicide’ for attention. I’m not,” he said.

“I’ve created so many plans and evaluated each and every single one for its possible lethality that I’ve developed a theoretical hierarchy of which method would be the best. I’ve evaluated the cost of some plans as well as the difficulty in executing others.”

Mah also said that she has heard things from other people that parallel the negative lines of reasoning she has said to herself in her darkest moments. A transfer student to Whitman, she spent a year at the University of North Carolina, where she opened up to friends about her history of selfharm. One day, a peer took her aside.

“She said, ‘I’m sorry, I want to help, but I can’t be around you because you’re so negative. You couldn’t possibly have tried everything. You need to work harder.’ That’s a really common message. I’ve had people claim I was just doing it for attention or that I should just choose to be happy. Some people honestly think that by being sad, you are choosing it, and that makes you weak,” said Mah. Sara Williams* finds it almost impossible to share her experiences with loved ones because she is afraid they will treat her differently once they know. Williams deals with both chronic germophobia and PTSD from an abusive relationship. She said that people who have not gone through trauma or lived with phobias can never truly understand the sensation of something interfering with living your life the way you want to.

“I’ve grown up in a society that says it’s not okay to have these things or be affected by them,” she said. “Sure, I get a little more leeway with the trauma because you’re supposed to respect that, but basically, it’s almost like if I talk about them, I’m afraid that the person I’m talking to will treat me as subhuman. They’ll treat me in a way that they think they’re supposed to treat me, rather than as the person I am and they’ve known me to be.”

Some students choose to remain silent for reasons other than a fear they will be misinterpreted.

Senior Walter Leitz, who suffered from anxiety and depression in elementary and middle school, has not required counseling or medication since eighth grade. He said he doesn’t talk much about it because he very rarely has days in which he is unable to function.

“My depression ties in with sleep deprivation, so I’m careful to get enough sleep,” said Leitz.

“There are occasions where I don’t feel like doing anything because I feel really down and apathetic, but I rarely feel like it’s so bad that it starts screwing up my work habits.”

The students on the survey who said they elected not to seek counseling gave a variety of reasons. Of these, the most common were a belief that it wouldn’t be helpful or that their condition was not serious enough to merit counseling, as well as a fear of social judgment.

see MENTAL HEALTH, page 2

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Awareness, counseling aid in recovery process from MENTAL HEALTH, page 1

Leaves of absence If students decide that their mental health problems are interfering with their ability to function in college, they can take a medical leave of absence. According to Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland, the procedure for this is similar to a medical leave for a physical illness or a major surgery.

“Students have a right to take a leave as long as they’re in good standing,” said Cleveland. “The board of review approves virtually all of them. If they’re on probation, they’re not supposed to take a leave, but mental health reasons are a mitigating factor. Often there is a relationship between psychological health and academic trouble, and the board understands that.”

He stressed that the college never sends students away as a disciplinary action, but can grant them leave if they are “not acting as a student” by not attending class or by disrupting their residence hall. In some cases, the administration requires clearance

“I didn’t want to bring my depression with me, and the way I decided to do that was to not talk about it.”

Kristen Wiseman ‘15

from a medical professional to allow a student to return; this is usually asked in response to concern from the student’s parents.

Depression is the condition most commonly cited by students looking to take leave. In a survey conducted by the Office of Institutional Research of the incoming freshman class in 2012, 47.1 percent said they had felt depressed occasionally in the past year. 6.7 percent said they felt depressed frequently in that time span. This is significantly higher than the percentage of working adults with the same problem: In a 2010 survey done by the National Institute of Mental Health, only 9.5 percent responded that depression had kept them from functioning.

“There’s nothing inherent in being a student that causes depression, but being depressed makes it difficult to be a student,” said Cleveland. “Medications enable students to come to college who couldn’t have 15 or 20 years ago. Sometimes students stop medication because it interferes with how they want to live.”

The difficulty of reconciling academic life while fighting mental illness on the inside led sophomore Kristen Wiseman to request a medical leave last semester. Like Robinette, Wiseman found that the emphasis on achievement in high school and college engendered depression by forcing her to put herself second to her efforts.

“I didn’t want to bring depression with me, and the way I decided to do that was to not talk about it.

But the things that triggered me as a senior triggered me again freshman year,” said Wiseman. “It can be paralyzing. Writing papers was really triggering for me because it was part of me—my thoughts on paper. If you’re constantly putting down your academics and how you’re thinking and your abilities, writing a paper is not easy.”

At last, Wiseman decided that she needed to take time off from school if she was ever going to put her mental health before her work.

At spring break last year, her doctor told her that her depression would become harder to manage if she returned to school. Due to the administration’s clearance policy, her doctor’s approval was required for Wiseman to be able to return, and her doctor ended up making the decision that she should remain on leave for the rest of 2012.

“I’m changing 18 years of hab-

its and thinking. A couple months of practice helped, but it wouldn’t be super effective,” Wiseman said. “I took a semester off to focus in on coping skills and DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, a type of psychotherapy that incorporates meditative techniques).

I did as much as I could at home, but I knew I had to come back.”

Despite the fact that taking leave wasn’t originally her decision, Wiseman ultimately found the time she took off helpful to her well-being. Senior Jessica Asmus, however, took her leave of absence under rougher circumstances. Before her leave, Asmus developed a habit of using anxiety medication to sleep for days on end. She was sometimes rushed to the hospital because friends were unable to wake her up.

“I know that a lot of other students were worried and others had talked to the administration about being worried,” she said. “Their reaction was asking me to leave so I wasn’t disrupting other students.”

However, Asmus’s circumstances were complicated: She grew up in foster care, and did not have a home to go back to. Despite knowing this, the administration insisted she take a leave anyway.

Asmus recalled being escorted to her room by security and given 20 minutes to gather her belongings.

“I left campus with literally nowhere to go, and that made everything so much worse,” she said.

“That definitely made it worse and ultimately is what made me enter an inpatient facility. At the University of Washington Medical Center, I did a lot of behavioral therapy. It taught me how to deal with things better on my own instead of trying to get angry or self-harm.”

After three weeks at the inpatient hospital, Asmus lived for the rest of the semester with a couple who worked with one of the programs that helped pay for her education. Even after undergoing effective treatment and counseling during that time, she said that the college was reluctant to let her return.

“The school required me to get medically cleared by a doctor. I was cleared at UW before I was discharged,” she said. “When I gave them that paperwork, they required me to be psychiatrically cleared.

Margaret and Greg (the couple she stayed with) took me to a counselor, and I was psychiatrically cleared.

Then the school said it wasn’t a good idea. Margaret and Greg said they didn’t have that authority.”

Cleveland said that a leave of absence has never been worked out between only the student and administration. In situations in which a student does not have parents, the terms of leaving and returning are discussed with a relative, guardian or significant other. He stressed that the college is not exercising power over students trying to return to campus, but is involving them and their support networks in a cooperative endeavor.

“I’m not comfortable categorizing what’s going on as a power relationship,” he said. “The goal is to help the student face whatever issues there are and come back strong. There’s all kinds of people involved, including significant others, the student themselves, sometimes the counseling center and sometimes the health center.”

With Margaret and Greg advocating on her behalf, Asmus was permitted to return to campus. Since then, things have dramatically improved: She now sees a counselor once every six weeks, accepts more help from her friends and no longer requires medication.

Recovery About half of survey respondents have sought counseling at some point in their lives, and onefifth have been prescribed psychiatric drugs. A vast majority, 75 percent, of those who sought counseling described it as “effective,” and 65 percent of those who took

Dr. David Kessler (far right) speaks to his colleagues about the scientific and sociological causes of obesity. Photo by Bergman

Panel ruminates on food issues

by Keenan hilton Staff Reporter

T

his Saturday, Feb. 23, students, faculty and community members met in Maxey Auditorium to participate in the fifth annual Global Studies Symposium. The topic of the day was food.

According to Professor of Religion and Ball Endowed Chair of Humanities Jonathan Walters, director of this year’s symposium, food came up repeatedly during the annual Global Studies Faculty Development Seminar, so it was chosen as a fruitful topic for the symposium.

Walters brought together a panel of experts to deliver lectures and engage in discussion.

There were three speakers on the panel. David Kessler, the former commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), delivered a lecture on the social, political and scientific bases of the rapidly growing trend of obesity in the United States. Peter Rosset followed with a lecture on La Via Campesina, a movement connecting the millions of small, family-run food producers of the world, outlining the challenges faced by small agriculture which still produces 70 percent of the world’s food.

Jon Rubin, the third panelist, discussed an art project that intervenes into public life. His piece, “Conflict Kitchen,” is a functioning food stand in Pittsburgh, Penn. that serves food from countries that the United States is in conflict with, literally wrapped in statements

medication said the same. However, there are some exceptions.

Asmus’s current therapist works off campus, and she acknowledged that she still has trouble with the counseling center at Whitman.

“I sought counseling off campus because I was embarrassed walking into the counseling center. I was stressed going there and stressed leaving. I think that’s why I didn’t get better with that

“What our campus needs to acknowledge is that a lot of our students are struggling with mental health issues, here and everywhere.”

Tara Mah ‘14

help,” Asmus said. “Sometimes there are other students there and you think, ‘you are also here because you have issues.’ It’s a really awkward atmosphere, especially because you see them later.”

While some students avoid on-campus counseling, others have had positive experiences.

Nye said that the counseling center has “helped her a lot.” In particular, visiting new director Thacher Carter, whose specialty is therapy that teaches patients to accept and overcome trauma, has aided Nye in her dealings with PTSD. Though Robinette has never sought counseling on campus, choosing instead to take advantage of a program in her hometown in Oregon, she was effusive about the boon that a therapist can be to one’s mental health.

“Usually, I have to reach a crit-

made by people in those countries.

Walters looked for a diverse group of speakers to make up the panel.

“We wanted to create some real clash, some real distinction of perspective ... [The symposium] creates a forum to bring these disparate voices together,” he said.

Each of the panelists has worked with food in extremely diverse capacities. Kessler delivered a dynamic speech covering food on the scale of the neurotransmitter dopamine, as well as in terms of our built environment. Corporations exert pressures for us to overeat via vending machines and the patterns of reward in our brains.

Rosset, on the other hand, spoke of food as the labor of the small-scale farmers around the world. He presented corporately produced food as an active force of death as it harms environments, drives traditional food production out of the market and is correlated with heart disease and cancer.

Lastly, Rubin engaged with food as his material rather than his topic. He focuses on the inherently social dimension of consuming food in a city.

“You’re the performer, and thus you’re constructing the institution itself,” Rubin said. He actively engages people just living their lives through food as art.

In addition to the three panelists, seniors Haley McLeod, Suzanne Jaszczult and William Newman-Wise; alumna Katherine Deumling ‘96, chair of Slow Food USA; and Associate Professor of Politics Aaron Bobrow-Strain all offered respons-

es to the panelists’ presentations.

McLeod did research over the summer with Assistant Professor of Biology Leena Knight that related to Kessler’s work on how sugar, fat and salt affect patterns of the brain. She gave a response speech to Kessler’s presentation at the symposium.

McLeod was excited to add a student voice to the symposium.

“It will hopefully facilitate a discussion around food issues that might bring in some new ideas for Whitman students,” she said.

Global studies is not a course of study or a program.

Walters describes it as an effort to spread this common t h e me — g lo b a l i t y — t h r o u g h out all disciplines of the college.

“Our idea is that global studies is something that is a metalevel kind of thing. It’s infusing the whole curriculum,” he said.

In addition to the symposium, the Global Studies Faculty Development Seminar has led to the creation of interdisciplinary courses such as “Violent Subjects” in Spring 2012, “Raw Geographies” and “Reading India,” which are being taught for the first time this year. The interdisciplinary approach exposes points of tension that might otherwise go unnoticed and demands that students grapple with the subject matter.

Walters believes that Whitman’s unique approach to interdisciplinarity is at the heart of the liberal arts approach to education, and anticipates continuing success. “[Whitman is] ahead of the game in this. We’re actually helping shape ... how this discussion [of globality] proceeds.”

ical level before I feel like I have to go back. It’s when it gets to the point where I feel I can’t handle it on my own anymore,” she said. “Over the summer, a couple weeks before I came to Whitman, I was really stressed about it. I was worrying about every little thing that could go wrong. So I went back to counseling and sat down for half an hour and cleared everything up.”

Mah, too, got to a point at which she had to seek intensive psychiatric help. She joined a partialday group program and a weeklong treatment program which focused on the role of family and birth order in the development of disorders. For the first time, she began to feel like she was not alone.

After that, she checked into residential treatment in Chicago for a 30-day stay. While there, she witnessed the state of the American mental healthcare system firsthand, as one-third of the 36 patients on the ward were sent home when their insurance companies withdrew coverage.

“Our mental healthcare in this country is incredibly underfunded. We are not willing to acknowledge that depression and bipolar are common illnesses. As a society we view mental illness as a choice,” said Mah. “I had so many battles with my insurance company trying to get into programs. They have the power to make health choices for me, against the advice of several doctors. But those companies couldn’t possibly know how much effort I’ve put into getting better, and how much I truly need the help.”

Since attending group treatment, Mah has continued to participate in 12-step programs. She has been clean of self-harm for nine

months, and of bulimia for six; she is also currently taking medication for bipolar disorder. She said that the view of the American public parallels the view on college campuses.

“The reality is that a good chunk of us are faking being happy, doing well and feeling fulfilled. It creates an atmosphere that isn’t real,” she said. “What our campus needs to acknowledge is that a lot of our students are struggling with mental health issues, here and everywhere.”

In order to expose the illusion, Mah, Robinette, Wiseman, Nye and others are attempting to open a local chapter of a national organization called Active Minds. The purpose of an Active Minds support group is to open conversation and alleviate the pain of suffering in silence with a mental disorder.

“I’m hoping to work on the feeling of not having anyone who’s been through the same situation or who really understands how dark your life can look,” said Nye. “Bipolar made it harder to get up, literally and figuratively. Just knowing you have people that completely understand what you are going through is such a motivating thought.”

Wiseman, who said that her life at Whitman is gradually improving and teaching her not to isolate herself, is involved in the club to foster connections between individuals who went through the same things she did.

“It surprises students that they’re not alone,” she said. “There are so many people coming out of the woodwork, people I’d never have expected to have mental problems.

No matter how much you think you can do this by yourself, you can’t.” *Names have been changed.

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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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Photos by Bergman

Sparkler bomb found behind tennis center by shelly le Web Content Editor

M

onday evening, Feb. 25, a sparkler bomb was found on campus in the alleyway between Bratton Tennis Center and the Department of Social and Health Services.

At 5:32 p.m. the Walla Walla Police Department received a call from an individual who had found a device that resembled a homemade bomb.

“The person who identified the object picked it up. When he realized what it was, he threw it,” said Officer Tim Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth, along with two other police officers, arrived on campus and determined that the device was a sparkler bomb.

WWPD then immediately notified Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland, Chief Financial Officer Peter Harvey, Whitman Security and President George Bridges.

Because the device was determined to be a sparkler bomb, the Washington State Bomb Patrol from the Tri-Cities was also contacted to arrive on scene about an hour later.

“These are handmade and homemade devices. A bunch of sparklers are bunched together and taped; they can make a lot of damage.

I’ve seen some that can take down a brick wall,” Hollingsworth said.

“Luckily, this one hadn’t gone off.”

WWPD proceeded to cordon off the areas east and west of where the bomb was found and to notify Clarette’s Restaurant and the Department of Social and Health Services. They also evacuated Bratton Tennis Center.

After Whitman Security arrived

on scene, Director of Security Terry Thompson and Associate Director of Security Craig McKinnon walked around the perimeter of Bratton Tennis Center, Baker Ferguson Faculty Center, Harper Joy Theatre and Sherwood Center to see if there were any other threats or devices.

“We found nothing suspicious and at that point we deemed the situation not dangerous,” Thompson said.

Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland, Chief Financial Officer Peter Harvey and President George Bridges were all notified of the situation by the police shortly after the bomb sighting was called in.

Since police and security had secured the area and found no immediate threats, Cleveland said they made the decision to not use the mass-text notification system and sent out a campus-wide email explaining the situation instead.

“We felt using the emergency warning system would only heighten anxiety when it wasn’t necessary to do so,” he said.

At about 8:30 p.m. the same night, the device was removed by the Washington State Bomb Patrol to be taken to an undisclosed location and destroyed. The area was soon after declared clear.

According to Hollingsworth, although the investigation is ongoing, the police department currently has no leads or suspects. Thompson also noted that the college is not currently involved with the investigation.

“If we don’t find or receive any leads or information on a suspect, we will close the case,” Hollingsworth said.

ASWC MINUTES 1/27 Passed motion to hold ASWC Divestment Hearings on March 6, 10-8-1 Confirmed Shelly Le for Pioneer Editor-in-Chief for academic year 2013-14, 18-0-1 Approved request by Gillian Friedman for $600 from Travel and Student Development Fund to fund Salsa 101 classes Approved request by Climbing Club for $1100 from Contingency Fund and $550 from T&SD to fund Spring Break trip to Red Rocks, Nev. Passed resolution calling for gender-neutral housing for first-years, unanimous

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Seattle storyteller shares true tales of civil rights movement by lachlan johnson Staff Reporter

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embers of the Whitman and Walla Walla community filled the Glover Alston Center on Monday, Feb. 25 to hear storyteller Kathya Alexander speak about the civil rights movement.

Drawing on both her personal experience growing up during the civil rights era as well as her work as a writer, actor, poet and playwright, Alexander presented a series of short narratives and songs to communicate the important role played by ordinary people who stood up for their rights in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

“I don’t think that people [who didn’t live through the civil rights movement] have a realistic [view of it]. It was more than Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. People don’t know about ordinary people, college students, who basically changed this country,” said Alexander.

Alexander’s visit to campus was the third installment in the Intercultural Center’s Storyteller Series, which was funded through a cooperative effort between the Intercultural Center and the Black Student Union (BSU) as part of Black History Month. The event was organized by Intercultural Center Director Matt Ozuna and BSU president and Intercultural Center intern Alisha Agard.

“There’s always the fear ... of people not wanting to come because they’re not interested in the subject matter. Because the campus isn’t as racially diverse, it seems sometimes you have to really try hard to get people to come to events about ethnicity ... I’m happy; there was a huge turnout and I was really surprised but [also] really satisfied with the turnout tonight,” said Agard.

Agard worked to spread pub-

licity about the event throughout the Walla Walla community, and more than half of the attendees of the speech were from beyond the Whitman campus.

Along with Whitman alumni and members of the broader Walla Walla community, several students from Walla Walla University came to hear Alexander speak on the civil rights movement as part of a philosophy course

by Professor Linda Emmerson.

“The really good thing is how she can deliver her stories. Her method of doing that is kind of grasping,” said Walla Walla University sophomore Roger Williams.

After the performance, attendees had the opportunity to ask Alexander questions and speak with her informally during a dessert reception. Alexander hoped her performance raised awareness of the important role played by normal people in bringing about civil rights.

“Youth ... have the energy to really make changes in this

country, and I certainly saw that during the civil rights movement. It was a lot of young people who got together and demanded change when older people were kind of complacent. I certainly think that youth today could take a lesson from that,” she said.

Corrections to Issue 5 The article “New voices enter divestment debate” on pg. 1 misspelled David Nirenberg’s name.

The article “Permanent sustainability coordinator position approved” on pg. 3 should have said that the position is a staff, not a faculty position.

The infographic on pg. 1 should have credited Marlee Raible.

The article “Concert to present student compositions” on pg.

1 should have specified that composers work on their pieces for a semester, not a year, prior to performance.

ASWC wants gender-neutral housing for first-years

by Emily Lin-Jones News Editor

O

n Sunday, Feb. 24, ASWC Senate adopted a resolution calling for a gender-neutral housing option for first-years.

Senators showed unanimous support for the resolution, passing it through a vote of acclamation.

The gender-neutral housing option, as it is currently defined in the resolution, would allow incoming students the option to room with another person regardless of how they identify in terms of gender.

Sophomore Evan Griffis, copresident of GLBTQ and the current GLBTQ intern at the Intercultural Center, has been advocating for a gender-neutral first-year housing option since he returned from a conference last semester that focused on GLBTQ

issues in the college environment.

Griffis said he envisions the gender-neutral housing option as a way to create a more welcoming and safe environment for GLBTQ students, specifically students who identify as transgender or outside of the gender binary.

“I kind of started this mission because we don’t have a very present or active transgender student community here. I’ve heard a lot of stories of people transferring because the school doesn’t provide the right kind of accommodations for these students,” he said.

Griffis and other proponents of the resolution pointed out that the resolution ties into some of the college’s major long term goals and stated concerns about diversity and retaining students.

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doesn’t back up what they’re claiming,” said senior senator Caroline Carr at Sunday night’s Senate meeting. “If we want a more diverse school, we need to attract more students who are diverse ... We don’t want people who bring a new perspective to be leaving campus.”

The current housing system allows returning students to room with anyone they choose, though financially dependent students must obtain parental acknowledgment if they wish to room with someone of the opposite gender. First-years, however, are automatically assigned a roommate of the same gender if they’re placed in a double or triple. Alternative housing arrangements must be worked out on an individual basis with Residence Life coordinators.

Griffis pointed out that the current policy could put students into uncomfortable situations or make them feel ma rg i na l i zed.

“I feel like that’s not the best system. If we [have] a gender-neutral housing policy, it takes the onus off of the student and puts it more on the school to have that in place,” he said.

Nearly 100 other institutions of higher education have adopted gender-neutral housing models. In drafting the proposal, Griffis said he particularly looked at schools that allow students to state the preferred gender of their roommate on their student hous-

ILLUSTRATION BY HAMPTON

ing application, like Pitzer College.

The resolution also calls for the college to state on its website the current policies of gender-neutral housing for returning students.

“I think one of the strengths of having a gender-neutral housing policy is that it does put Whitman up a level in the eyes of prospective applicants ... by not making our current practices public, it kind of weakens it a little. Right now you have to be a current student and know the system to use the [gender neutral housing option], and I don’t think it should have to be that hard,” he said.

Director of Residence Life and Housing Nancy Tavelli said Residence Life will add statements to its website and housing materials making the current policy for returning students more clear.

Though ASWC’s resolution rep-

resents the desires of the student body, it’s ultimately up to the Office of Residence Life and Housing whether any change will take place in the housing system. Adding a gender-neutral first-year section or dorm, Tavelli said, will be a complicated process.

As housing assignments have already been sent out for the coming year, any change to the housing process for incoming students can’t occur until at least the next academic year.

“It’s a fairly big puzzle because there’s five different places to live and we match people by roommates ... [even if] two people want to live in a gender-neutral room, they might be a terrible match,” said Tavelli. “There’s a lot of factors, and it’s a lot different for returning students because they’re choosing who to live with. We would have to take all that into account.”

A&E

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FEB

27 2013

Junior music major prepares for recital

by MALLORY MARTIN Staff Reporter

T

his week, The Pioneer sat down with violinist Katherine Lee. A junior English/music double major who hails from Honolulu, Hawaii, Lee spends most of her time adjusting to the cold, practicing her violin, learning piano and helping out Professor Sharon Alker as a Writing Fellow for the Encounters program. Lee’s recital will be Saturday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Chism Auditorium.

Pioneer: How long have you been playing the violin?

Katherine Lee: Since the third grade, so how many years is that? (Laughs.) Twelve years, I think. My elementary school had a violin program, and it was free.

You just had to sign up and they had a violin there ready for you.

You just had to turn in a form. For me, it all sort of snowballed from there. It’s been a long ride, but it’s been good.

Pio: So, tell us some more about your upcoming recital; you’ve had a couple road bumps.

a fun little introspective piece, and then the big one, which I’m a little nervous about, is a Paganini.

KL: Yeah, the timing has been a little off. You pick your recital repertoire over the fall, sometimes even the spring of the previous year, and you practice over the summer, winter break, whenever you can. But you just never know what you will be dealt academically—you might get hit with an extra hard semester. And when that happens, for me, the playing kind of goes down. So it’s a kind of give and take thing. We had originally planned for my performing on Feb. 2, but we ended up moving it just to make sure it would be a comfortable performance.

Pio: Wow! So, would you say that Whitman has helped you to grow as an artist?

Pio: I’m sure you’ve done a lot of recitals over 12 years, though.

KL: It’s really interesting, actually. In high school, I really only did performances where I sort of got up and played a piece, and then a whole bunch of other people got up and played theirs. So I’ve never done my own recital. It is different when you have to think about the various changes between the pieces, memorizing three or four different songs and such. It’s a whole new experience for me.

Pio: Would you tell us what you will be playing?

KL: Yeah, we have a bunch of different composers; you try and pick things from different genres. The major pieces I’ll be doing are by J.S. Bach, a really religious and strict composer, and then Amy Beach, who is a famous female composer who tends to be really underperformed. Then a piece by Igor Stravinsky, which is

KL: (Laughs.) That’s not a big question or anything! I couldn’t really tell you how it’s helped me as an artist, but I do think it’s really helped me to grow as a person. The music department here at Whitman is so supportive. As I’ve been trying to work through this recital in particular, they’ve just been so understanding and helpful. It’s been amazing to know that whatever I chose, like when I decided to push [the performance] back, that they would have my back and be behind me all the way.

Pio: Where do you see yourself after Whitman?

KL: I think I’ll be teaching somewhere. The details are kind of more up in the air about that, what age group and such, but I think I’d like to teach college students, either English or music. I think music will always be in my life, though, in some capacity. I can say that it’s always been nice, to have the balance between English and music. They are so different, and I react to them in different ways. English is so much more logical for me, more confined, and music pushes me to be more in touch with my emotional side.

Pio: What makes a student recital special?

Along with her recital, Katherine Lee ‘14 (above) is having quite a year in the Music Department. She is also the Concert Master for the orchestra. Photos by Bernstein

KL: Performing has made me realize just how much support you can get from people. So I really encourage everybody to go to a recital this year, anybody’s. Peo-

ple have really different performing experiences, some people like performing for their friends, other people are more comfortable performing for strangers. I think

STRFKR continues to surprise with third album

it’s really special to be performing for a room full of people, I appreciate it if people come, and I know other performers do as well.

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

Here are this week’s picks: Mayan Hot Chocolate Join MECCA for traditional Mayan hot chocolate, s’mores and homemade truffles by the fire.

Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. at MECCA

“The Tempest” One of Shakespeare’s last plays, “The Tempest” is a magical tale full of romance, political intrigue and drunken louts. Prospero, after being trapped on an island by his power-hungry brother, finally gets a chance for revenge when a ship carrying his brother passes by on its way to Naples. An enchanted tale filled with humor, romance and adventure.

Behind the scenes of ‘The Tempest’ from THE TEMPEST, page 1

“I think lighting is one of the most important jobs in theatre,” said Lincoln. “People will always notice bad lights, but good lights can add a lot to the performance.”

The sound crew also adds significantly to experiencing “The Tempest.” First-year crew member Heather Gaya has worked on several plays this year as well as in high school.

“I was always more drawn to the technological aspect of theatre,” she said, a sentiment shared by Lincoln and O’Connor.

The sound crew is especially vital to the performance in moments of suspense when the audience will hear pulsating rhythm in the background of the scene.

The beat is far from overwhelming, instead serving to build on the emotions conveyed by the actors.

“Sound can create subtle mood enhancement that can underscore what is happening onstage,” said Gaya.

The sound and light make “The Tempest” a more complete and encompassing experience. Since it is being performed on Harper Joy’s smaller stage, the Freimann Studio Theatre, the audience is given a very intimate look at the actors, who perform all around the crowd. With the light and sound serving as background to all of this action, the crowd gets to fully immerse itself in the play.

The light and sound crew in the same way have immersed themselves in the play.

“We’ve put a lot of time into this. We’ve been rehearsing about five hours a night since January,” Gaya said, showing the commitment it takes to be on the crew.

Despite this commitment, the crew will not get to soak in the applause received by the actors, but they are content to toil behind the scenes. While they remain in the background, the crew members for “The Tempest” play significant roles in making the show great.

*

Like these photos?

See more online at www.whitmanpioneer.com

ILLUSTRATION BY EMORY

Shows start Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. at Harper Joy Theatre

by Emma Dahl Staff Reporter

M The crew of “The Tempest” created sound and lighting that helped convey the intimate and often tense atmosphere of Shakespeare’s last play. Photos by Bernstein

iracle Mile, Portland, Ore. band STRFKR’s third full-length album, is a colorful continuation and development of the band’s percolating electronic style. The last two albums that the band released were great, of course— but it is this reporter’s humble opinion that Miracle Mile is their best yet. Dynamic, sugary and poppy in the best way possible, this is an album that is a pleasure to both listen and dance to.

I think it’s safe to say that STRFKR’s former albums were pretty experimental; their sound at the time felt a bit amorphous, as if the band were still working to find the right tempo. But Miracle Mile, while retaining the edginess of their older releases, is much more polished and focused; the work the band put into every song is tangible. STRFKR is really finding its groove, and Miracle Mile is a testament to that.

One standout track is “When I’m Alive,” a song I’d describe as quintessential STRFKR. It’s a seamless blend of synth, wailing vocals and bass guitar; it’s a catchy-as-hell mantra on the simple task of going on living despite daily setbacks and letdowns. “Leave It All Behind,” my favorite track from the album, deserves a lot of attention.

It’s one of those songs you can’t help but head bang to. Sometimes a song is so well-crafted that you can almost feel its emotion act on you in a physical way, and “Leave It All Behind” does absolutely that. It feels like a wave ebbing in and out, with the dynamic synths sort of pulsing throughout the melody. The lyrics declare independence from heartbreak by refusing to give oneself over completely to a sig-

Concerto Competition Concert Join Whitman College Department of Music’s Concerto Competition winners for their premiere concert with the Whitman College Orchestra.

Flutist Minseon Song and bassist Adele Thornton will perform their pieces following a performance by the Orchestra.

Friday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Chism Hall

Building a Movement to End Poverty Anti-poverty activist and Green Party 2012 Vice Presidential Nominee Cheri Honkala offers an insider’s look at leading a poor people’s social movement and discusses practical, impactful ways to create social change and battle poverty.

Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7:00 p.m. in Olin Auditorium

nificant other, but the song itself is anything but a downer.

Also notable are the bonus items I received along with my pre-ordered copy of the album: Tucked into the envelope along with the CD was an Airhead and a temporary tattoo. Whether the compliments of Polyvinyl Records or the band’s own personal touch, STRFKR continues to surprise me, and in a very good way.

STRFKR is a band that is having fun and making great music at the same time, and it comes through in their music.

The groovy bass lines, infectious melodies and simplistic yet thoughtful lyrics make for a solid album. Saccharine, upbeat and anything but formless, Miracle Mile is an impressive release from a band that I’m excited to hear more from in the future.

FEB

27 2013

SPORTS

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Championship victory qualifies Sweets for Stanford Invite spot by tristan gavin Sports Editor

A

fter graduating several key seniors last year, the Whitman men’s ultimate Frisbee team, the Sweets, did not get an invitation to the powerpacked Stanford Invite, a Bay Area tournament held yearly to showcase the best teams in the country. Although their personnel losses led the Sweets to be overlooked nationally and snubbed from one of the top collegiate tournaments, the Sweets earned their own invitation over the past weekend by winning the Stanford Open, the precursor tournament to the invite.

By the end of last season, Whitman had earned its rank amongst the top 25 Division I schools in the nation, despite being a Division III school in all intercollegiate sports. Whitman competes using a vastly smaller student body than most of the premier programs, like the Wisconsin Hodags, Oregon Ego and Texas Tuff, the current top three teams nationally according to Skyd Magazine. This year, Whitman entered the season unranked, having to reaffirm its status

as a premier program nationally.

“We lost a lot of seniors last year. We knew our success wasn’t going to depend on one person stepping up, but on everyone playing their part on the team,” said senior captain Peter Burrows.

The team managed to come together in the Bay Area this weekend and emerge as the champions of a 30-team tournament. Whitman rallied from a loss in pool play to Las Positas College to handily beat Occidental College and UC-Santa Barbara and reach the semifinals, where it narrowly edged out University of Victoria (British Columbia) 12-11. In a final match that showcased the Sweets’ unyielding focus and commitment to a well-honed game plan, Walla Walla’s best summoned the energy to beat UC-Santa Cruz in their eighth game in just two days.

The weekend marathon of games took a physical toll on the team and it took effort from all of the Sweets and a few alumni to maintain enthusiasm.

“I’ve never been part of a more cohesive team effort. Everyone killed it,” said sophomore Russell Arkin, who was

one of many players who filled an important role in the Sweets’ first tournament of the spring. “[Junior] Eddie [Hill] and Russ [Arkin] had standout tournaments and stepped into bigger roles to tap into the potential that they have always had,” said junior Nathan Sany, who played a new role himself. Sany battled through painful bursitis in his heel to play an unfamiliar handler role in the tough, windy weather of the Bay Area.

Players were able to rise to the occasion because the graduating seniors left voids to be filled.

“Unlike other years, there are not set expectations for any players, which means everyone gets a chance to grow into their own,” said Sany.

The team is not without great talent, but strong performances from players like Hill and Arkin allowed standouts like senior captain Jacob Janin to play comfortably within the team.

“Jacob Janin had an incredibly average tournament, but even on his average day he is better than everyone else,” Sany joked about his talented teammate, who toured with the Nex-

The Sweets put their hands in to wrap up a practice (left). At practice, Jacob Janin ‘13 sneaks a backhand past the arms of Nathan Sany’14 (above). Photos by Johnson

Gen all-star club over the summer, showcasing his talent against the best club teams in the nation.

The team will take little time to recuperate before heading back to California for the Stanford Invite, which they qualified for with the first-place finish.

The competition in the tournament will be tough, but not anything Whitman hasn’t seen before.

When healthy, the Sweets are capable of going toe-to-toe with any team in the nation. Just one week prior to the Stanford Open,

the team played University of Oregon’s Ego, the second-ranked team in the country, on universe point in a scrimmage in Eugene, Oregon.

“There’s always someone who brings the fire when we need it.

There’s always someone who steps up at the right time,” said Burrows.

The Sweets hope to bring the fire to the Stanford Invite March 9-10, where they will kick-start their spring break with a chance to earn a bid to the Division I Nationals.

“Let’s go, Sweets!” said Sany with a boyish grin.

Men’s soccer coach finds inspiration while abroad by kyle howe Staff Reporter

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Coach Mike Washington got to tour Manchester United’s stadium and meet with team personnel as part of a coaching clinic. Photos contributed by Washington

ven though the soccer season is over, Men’s Soccer Coach Mike Washington is hard at work preparing for the upcoming season.

For the first few weeks of February, Washington traveled to Manchester, where he was enrolled in a course for the education of coaches. There Washington, who is originally from England, worked with one of the biggest clubs in soccer, and one of his favorite teams, Manchester United.

“In soccer there is a lot of coaching education required as far as coaching licenses. Every once in a while we get an opportunity for a special course, and this is exactly what this was. A special topics course with Manchester United,” said Washington.

Washington continues to educate himself by taking different courses to reinforce his coaching strategies and learn new ones.

“I take a course every year.

[Manchester United] was a huge experience because it is one of the top clubs in Europe and just to hear what they do with younger players was really interesting because it is very basic. It was all about discovery and letting the players play. It has great correlation to our older players. I think we are missing some of that here at the collegiate level as far as tactical knowledge and mental knowledge,” said Washington.

In Manchester, Washington worked with René Meulensteen, the first team coach of Manchester United. “[René Meulensteen] was Dutch, so there was a lot of information coming from the way the Dutch look at the game. He brought a format where the players would learn things about the game themselves,” said Washington.

Through the course Washington worked with children, and he was able to see the impacts of the mindset being taught by Manchester United.

“We worked with six-, seven- and eight-year-old boys— just watching them train was unbelievable. They are very skillful. It was amazing watching the kids play and [do] stuff that we do,” said Washington, who was surprised to see children pushed at such a young age still enjoying the game.

A large part of the work they did was focusing on player development, something very transferable to Washington’s role at Whitman with new players coming in every year. “[The program was] regarding player development and youth development. It gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the professional club and how they work with little kids up to adult players,” said Washington.

The course stressed that players need to start developing their skills at a young age and should

Baseball team faces adversity in Idaho series by cole anderson Staff Reporter

A

s players reflected back on the Missionary baseball team’s four-game series this past weekend in Caldwell, Idaho, battling adversity was the main theme. Following an untimely bye week, in only the second week of a long season, the team traveled to the College of Idaho for two doubleheaders.

In a tight first game delayed three hours due to snow, Whitman came up short, losing by a final count of 4-2. After a disappointing second game ending in a 9-0 loss, the team was ready to bounce back in the next two games. Unbeknownst to most players, the College of Idaho Coyotes wouldn’t be their only opponent. Overnight, multiple players started to

feel the effects of the seemingly unavoidable norovirus infection.

“I wasn’t able to play Sunday, and I was too sick to even go to the game, so I did what I could in just encouraging the other guys to do their jobs and trust we’d get the job done.

The other guys who were too sick to play were all really supportive,” said sophomore Spencer Hobson.

Despite having multiple key contributors sidelined, the Missionaries were able to rally, taking the third game by a 10-1 margin. On the shoulders of a huge first inning, Whitman jumped to an early 4-0 lead and never looked back.

Led by a huge game from junior Aaron Cohen, who got hits on three of his four at-bats, knocking in four runs and scoring two more, the Missionaries showed strength in every facet of the game. Senior pitcher Justin Weeks combined with junior

catcher Jonny Lari for a complete game win aided by solid defense.

“I think it really speaks to the close bonds within the team.

It shows that it really doesn’t matter which nine are going to show up on that starting lineup but that we’re all playing for each other, and for Whitman College. It’s an all-around group effort,” said junior Cam Young.

The Coyotes took the second game of the day to win the series. Whitman’s win earlier in the day snapped an 18-game losing streak against the strong NAIA opponent and showed resilience of this year’s revamped team.

Tough wins on the road could become the story of the Missionaries’ season this year, with only four home series scheduled out of a total 12, including the four-win road trip the team

got back from two weeks ago.

Adversity is nothing new to the Missionaries, and the team seems poised to translate all the hard work thus far into more strong performances away from home.

In the coming week, the team will be nursing lingering health problems while preparing to set the tone for their regular season when they open league play at University of Puget Sound this weekend.

“The overall attitude so far has been a central focus on building team morale and camaraderie in an interest to use each others’ energy, given a constant absence of a home crowd. That’ll be a big focus for us this season,” said first-year pitcher Robert Maislin.

The Missionaries’ record stands at 5-5 and their first home game will be on March 23, a doubleheader starting at noon.

be allowed more freedom. This mindset is something the coaches in Manchester implemented more strongly in their country to improve soccer on a national scale. “[The course] reaffirms that younger players need to play more. Soccer is not a game that is controlled as easily by coaches as some other sports, which is great if you’re a player. Too much of the coaching in the U.S. is about the coach rather than player development. Educating the younger players [is important] so that when they get to be 16, 18, then the national team for the U.S. is in a better position,” said Washington.

Washington has already been using the techniques that he learned in Manchester on the men’s team at Whitman.

“Since I have been back, what we decided to do with that spring training is just let the players play, so we are setting up environments for them to play, and what they called it was ‘discovering the game again.’ So we are letting our players discover the game again without hearing my voice,” said Washington.

After the course, Washington and the other coaches who attended were treated to a Manchester United match against Everton.

Over the summer, the men’s team will travel to Europe for 19 days to play soccer and learn more about the game before getting back to Walla Walla early to prepare for the 2013 season.

upcoming Basketball

Women’s v. Cal Lutheran University Mar. 1: AWAY

tennis

Men’s v. Spokane CC JV Feb. 27, 4:30 p.m.: HOME v. UPS Mar. 1, 4:00 p.m.: HOME v. Whitworth Mar. 2, 1:00 p.m.: HOME Women’s v. Whitworth Mar. 2, 10:00 a.m.: HOME v. UPS Mar. 3, 9:00 a.m.: HOME

Baseball

v. UPS Mar. 2, 12 p.m. (doubleheader): AWAY v. UPS Mar. 3, 11 a.m.: AWAY

Sports factoid The women’s basketball team qualified for the first NCAA Division III National Tournament berth in school history.

FEATURE

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Making

VOWS

FEB

27 2013 While many students navigate the world of hook-ups or casual dating, others are signing up for lifelong commitments. Where exactly does marriage fit into campus culture?

Whitman, Walla Walla University accept personal marriage views

by Adam Brayton Feature Editor

W

hen junior Jamie Edison first came to Whitman, he had a certain preconceived idea of how college relationships worked.

Both his parents had met and hit it off in college, and so did his grandparents—at Whitman, no less. There seemed to be a big difference between his expectations of Whitman and reality.

“All of the married figures in my life met in college,” said Edison. “I guess I see the stereotypical Whitman student not finding a marriage partner at Whitman, but going on and getting married after school.”

Whitman might not feel like a school where finding a soulmate is as common as the urban legends would have students believe. Usually Whitman students see the neighboring Walla Walla University as a school where students more commonly get married before graduating.

Walla Walla University is the other private hub of tertiary education, located just a few miles away in College Place with an enrollment very close to Whitman’s, coming at 1,602 students.

The biggest distinction that is often drawn is that Walla Walla University is tied to Seventh Day Adventist religion in its roots, student body and policies. The most notorious of these is the drinking policy.

“At the University, we actually have a policy on drinking—we sign a piece of paper that says that we will not drink alcohol, and if anyone is caught drinking, that is grounds for

Marriage Statistics 31%

Percentage of married Whitman alumni who are married to other Whitman alumni.

getting kicked out,” said Alyssa Seibold, a Walla Walla University junior.

Seibold notes that while spirituality guides the social scene at the University, not everyone fits the quiet student stereotype that Whitman students might assume.

“There are people that party, and people that have chosen not to,” she said.

As for marriage, Seibold has no illusions that for many students, she jokes, Walla Walla University’s initials (WWU) can stand for “Western Wedding University.”

“A lot of people come here and they try to get married. Because of the community that we are in, I feel like people can find someone they are compatible with because we all come from similar backgrounds,” she said.

Walla Walla Academy is one of these backgrounds, as College Place’s private Seventh Day Adventist Church. Community member Kaitlynn Vickroy went there for high school and graduated in 2006.

Though she herself did not, many people from her high school matriculated to Walla Walla University.

“Because it’s so close, if you went through the private school, a lot of your friends ended up going there,” she said. “A good 50 percent end up going to the University; it’s an easy transition.”

According to Vickroy, the religion’s and community’s emphasis on group social activity provide a great chance for people to meet and get to know each other before making things more serious.

“We’ll have vespers where we’ll meet on Friday nights. We’ll come together and you sing and you worship and you have a little talk and then you break off, and sometimes you’ll go over to somebody’s house for game night,” she said. “As far as relationships go, it’s always encouraged through being friends first, and then interest sparks from there.”

Despite this reputation, many Walla Walla University students might start their relationships in college, but will wait until after graduating to actually get married.

“This isn’t back in the day Walla Walla University. Nowadays, people are focusing on their careers first and foremost and then getting married after they’ve graduated and found a stable job,” said Seibold.

While it might be easy to lump all Walla Walla University students or Seventh Day Adventists into one category, even on the topic of marriage people differ. Even though both of Vickroy’s sisters married when they were 20 years old, Vickroy has not followed that same path herself.

“There is no time limit for when you have to get married. You’re always encouraged to wait,” she said.

“But when you get married, you get married, for better or for worse.”

While Edison might see the Whitman dating scene as bleak, Vickroy believes that the lack of dating scene isn’t necessarily a Whitman affliction but something more problematic with our generation.

“I feel like that sort of behavior in our generation is absent,” she said. “If you just go on a casual date, like going to coffee, it’s not a date. It’s hanging out.”

While the dating scene might seem absent, that doesn’t mean people aren’t tying the knot at Whitman. There is a handful of students who are married or are engaged to be married among Whitman’s ranks.

Junior Alecia Kaer is slated to marry her fiancé Matt Lindsay this coming spring break in their home state of Alaska. When they hit it off, marriage was always in the question.

“We basically decided that if getting married wasn’t going to be an option, we wouldn’t be dating,” said Kaer. “We decided to make love a choice, not just a feeling.”

Lindsay added that though it

Alecia Kaer ‘14 and her fiancé Matt Lindsay collaborate on their wedding invitations and planning. They are getting married over spring break. Photos by Krikava

might sound strange, it made the commitment and connection stronger. Both had had enough with relationships where people’s hearts weren’t completely there, so they took this relationship quite seriously.

“You’re pretty much like, ‘will you marry me, but in the future.’

But just by doing it that way, it definitely just helps keep things going in that direction,” said Lindsay.

When asked about how people react to her upcoming wedding, Kaer isn’t all that ostentatious about the whole thing.

“I don’t usually go out and straight up tell people; I usually wait to see if they see my ring on my hand,” said Kaer. “This doesn’t happen very often, because people wear rings on their ring finger all the time.”

There is a little bit of disbelief when they realize that Kaer is in fact getting married.

“When they do find out, they are like, ‘What? Really?’ and then their first response is always ‘Is it a Whitman student?’”

Lindsay is not a Whitman student; he is on a fire crew in Alaska and doesn’t get much time off. In explaining all of this, Kaer doesn’t feel so much like she is judged for her unusual decision, but anxiety does set in.

“I don’t think I feel judged, but I do feel self-conscious,” she said.

“That feeling of ‘if I can’t figure out how to tackle my homework, how can I figure out how to get married?’”

Even though each school has its own norm, when it comes to finding a soulmate, it seems to be an individual-by-individual incidence.

Whether lovers meet at church, in class or in the workplace years later, when it happens, it just feels right.

“When I met Matt, I just kind of knew,” said Kaer.

Military spouses bridge distance

SOURCE: NANCY TAVELLI, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF STUDENTS

80%

The alleged urban legend percentage of Whitman students who will marry someone from Whitman.

SOURCE: NANCY TAVELLI, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF STUDENTS

1,151

Current total number of Whitman alumni marriages.

SOURCE: COLLEGEPROWLER, “URBAN LEGENDS”

21.5

Median age for marriage in the United States in 1960, averaged between genders.

SOURCE: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

27.6

Median age for marriage in the United States in 2012, averaged between genders.

SOURCE: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

by Serena Runyan Staff Reporter

M

any students make sacrifices to be in long-distance relationships when they come to school. But the distance becomes very difficult to maintain when the relationship turns into marriage, and their spouse is scheduled for deployment in military service.

Senior Lea Baker is recently married to her high school sweetheart, and after three and half years of a long-distance relationship through college, is finishing her last semester in San Diego to be with her husband. This is a welcomed change to the separation they’ve worked with for a long time. Even before college, when Baker and her husband began dating in high school, they had to work over a distance, as they lived in two different towns.

The two still haven’t closed the distance gap they’ve worked with for

years, and Baker’s husband is due to deploy in the upcoming months.

So while her husband’s military occupation still doesn’t allow the two of them a regular day-to-day connection, she appreciates the change.

“I don’t get to see him a lot, but its better than we’ve ever had,” she said.

Senior Sarah Schaefer is another student married to a member of the military. After their wedding in December, she now resides outside of Seattle. She recently finished her thesis for an environmental sociology major; she plans on coming back before long.

“My husband deploys in about a month, and then I’m probably going to go back to Walla Walla,” she said.

Of course, keeping up a longdistance relationship is difficult, especially in college years.

“I always say that people who say distance makes the makes the heart grow fonder haven’t been in a long distance relationship,” said Baker. “I

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wouldn’t wish distance on anyone.”

Baker, well-known around campus for her annual letter-writing campaign for soldiers, wrote a letter to her then-boyfriend every single day.

“Staying in touch, that was the most important thing,” she said.

“We always took it step by step.”

They worked together to maintain a healthy relationship. They communicated well, and even set apart days to bring up anything they weren’t completely happy about.

Baker, after a moment’s thought, said, “I think just knowing that we would be together eventually made it worthwhile to be apart for however long we had to.”

Now that she lives in San Diego, Baker has other adjustments to make for her relationship. In the face of her husband’s inconsistent schedule, she focuses on her own daily routine for grounding.

“I work on my thesis, read and work out every day, and as long as I do those three things I have some sort of sanity and consistency,” she said.

The transition from Whitman to a new place away from her friends hasn’t been easy.

“It’s a little bit of a harder transition than I anticipated,” said Baker. “Leaving the Whitman bubble is pretty hard; everyone at Whitman is really friendly, and I’ve been struggling to find a job and do all the real life stuff.”

College also provides a pretty sound social safety net and routine.

“When you’re at college it’s very easy to meet a group of people quickly. Here it’s been more of a struggle to meet people,” said Baker.

She now faces the responsibility of being far more independent. “Now I’m in a world where I can’t write everything down in my planner,” she said.

So in the face of the new challenges that come with leaving Whitman, Baker appreciates having the company of her husband during the transition.

“I’m glad I have the opportunity to do all that while he’s still here, and I have someone to kind of help me out and show me the city,” she said.

Schaefer echoed Baker’s sentiments, noting the support system found at Whitman is unrivaled anywhere else.

“It’s a lot harder when you’re not surrounded by 1,400 other like-

minded students trying to be your friend,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it was any different than the transition any other student goes through.

I just did it at a different time.”

Though both students miss Whitman life, they are happy with the decisions they made.

“I’m really glad to be here, but I definitely miss Whitman,” said Baker.

Whitman misses these students as well. A tough part about leaving for Baker was leaving her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta.

“As a chapter we all really miss [Lea],” said junior Olivia Bates, a fellow Theta. “But we know her choice to be gone is more of a life decision and less of a school decision, so we’re sad but we understand.”

And they’ve been good about keeping touch with friends back on Whitman campus.

“Theta’s been wonderful; I’ve been Skyping with my apartment mates and the girls,” said Baker. “Whitman students are very good at keeping in touch.”

Rather surprisingly, neither Baker nor Schaefer found it was too much trouble to finish their senior year off campus. Baker learned of the possibility after talking to Schaefer, as they both found themselves in similar positions.

“It was fairly easy to finish off campus, especially since I was already a non-traditional student,” said Schaefer, who had already transferred credits and started as a Jan-start.

This was doable for both students due to their flexible schedules. Schaefer had finished most all of her classes the semester before, and Baker only had distribution requirements left.

“The reason it was so doable is that all I have left is my science credits, so I’ve been taking that science class here,” said Baker. “And I’m an English major so the thesis isn’t required.”

Both agreed that Whitman made the process fairly painless.

“Whitman actually made it ridiculously easy; I didn’t think it’d be possible at all,” said Baker.

Through the difficulties of long-distance relationships, having a partner in the military and having to leave both school and community at Whitman, Schaefer and Baker can be both happily married and able to finish their degrees.

OPINION

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7 Lives of black youth are disposable in America 27 2013

Gladys GITAU First-year

WHINY BLACK GIRL

I

n light of recent mass shootings, it seems as if America is really adamant on preventing the slaughter of innocent lives. No one wants to see the horrific stories of young children dying on their morning news.

Except young innocent children have been dying and continue to die even as we “recover” from Sandy Hook. According to social justice news magazine Colorlines, gun violence is an epidemic in Chicago, taking 506 lives last year alone.

Because of Chicago’s heavy segregation, most of the violence happens among youth of color, specifically black youth. An overwhelming majority of these deaths happen

before the victims’ 25th birthdays.

What is fascinating to me is that I did not hear about this until the new year. Considering the fact that mass shootings are covered to the point that experts think that media attention is inspiring consequent shootings, it is disturbing what little coverage these kids get. No major news source was talking about the deaths of these black youth. Furthermore, this is happening in U.S. President Barack Obama’s hometown, and he wasn’t saying anything about it. In fact, I only learned of this tragedy when a young African-American girl from Chicago, 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, was killed as a result of gun violence after performing at Obama’s second inauguration. She died within a mile of the president’s Chicago home.

I’d hate to keep comparing these shootings to the Sandy Hook incident, but it does suggest certain conclusions about how disposable the lives of black youth are in America. Mr. President was quick to fly out to console the people of Newtown, Conn., but not to neighboring New Haven where inner city youth had been dying from gun-related deaths for years.

To his credit, Obama did visit

Chicago, where he gave a 26-minute speech about faith and keeping families together. He has also acknowledged gun violence aside from Newtown as an issue. But little has been done since. Speeches can only do so much to stop bullets.

The issue is indeed complicated. Chicago, like many urban cities, bans civilians from attaining both assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, so the weapons are mainly brought in from out of state and will not be solved by gun regulations. Also, the violence is often gang-related, so it is not as easily cured.

The blame often lands on the communities that these kids belong to, leaving black communities in a cycle of violence with no outside help but plenty of stigma.

The claim that Americans don’t care about black youth as explained through this tragedy is a bold one.

If youth of color are killing other youth of color, can it be called racism? And if the problem is that the is-

Kinky sex demands caution, skill Spencer Wharton Senior

SEXCETERA

I

’m no stranger to kink. I’ve got a bag of crimson hemp rope stashed away in my closet. I’ve browsed the sex toy selection at Babeland in search of toys to cause a partner just the right amount of (completely consensual) pain. Hell, I’ve gone to parties at Seattle’s Center for Sex Positive Culture, which, among other things, serves as a sprawling BDSM “dungeon.” So it’s not because of any aversion to kinky sex that I say I absolutely loathe “50 Shades of Grey” and everything it stands for.

With the advent of the Internet, the explosion of personal blogs and discussion groups, the instant accessibility of porn and the recent popularity of “50 Shades of Grey,” Americans are now more aware than ever of kinky sex—that is, sex that involves power play, bondage, pain or any number of other activities outside of the conventional realm. At least, they used to be outside of convention.

Lately, kink—which once kept to itself in quiet, largely secretive sub-

cultures—has recently been dragged into the mainstream spotlight, and while I’m all for sexual openness, this “mainstreamification” of kink has dangerous implications for how people think about and have sex.

It doesn’t help that kink had a bad rap to start with. Many wellmeaning people go pale at the idea of power or pain play in the bedroom, believing it to be a sign of an unhealthy relationship or a damaged psyche. Hell, until 1994, consensual sadomasochism was still classified as a psychological disorder by the American Psychological Association. But the truth is, kinky sex can be just as safe, sane and consensual as any other sex practice, when done right.

With kink in the mainstream, however, it becomes far more likely that people will try to mimic what they’ve seen or read about and do it horribly, horribly wrong. Take physical safety. Far more than with “vanilla” sex, kinky sex offers so many more ways to cause pain to someone.

For many, that’s the point. I’ve seen people flogged and whipped. I’ve seen someone set on fire. I’ve even seen someone squirm as his back was traced by a thin arc of electricity. But all of this was done by people who knew precisely what they were doing. They’d carefully learned how to practice their kinks without putting anyone in serious danger. Even to tie someone up, you need to know how to avoid pinching nerves, how to distribute weight evenly and how to get them out

of the ropes immediately if something goes wrong. You learn these things from skillful people who’ve come before you, and as you get better, you pass your wisdom on to others in order to keep everyone safe.

However, when kink is packaged and sold as something anybody can immediately pick up and try out, there’s no such guarantee of skill or physical safety. It gets even scarier when you talk about power play. Dominant-submissive sexual relationships, like any aspect of BDSM, can be healthy and consensual for everyone involved. It’s even possible for people to enjoy what’s called “consensual non-consent”— fantasy scenarios that involve one partner’s lack of consent. These can be done safely, but they require immeasurable work behind the scenes to build trust and establish limits.

When kink is reflected in the mainstream, none of this behind-thescenes work is shown. Porn that incorporates power play like this, for instance, never shows anyone using a safeword to immediately and unconditionally end the encounter. Instead, viewers see a façade, with all the sexy allure but none of the foundational work of the real thing.

Kink can be practiced safely precisely because of the safeguards, communication and trust embedded in its context. Mainstream kink, however—kink without context— is nothing but a model for dangerous sex and harmful relationships.

In skillful hands, a whip is a toy.

In the wrong hands, it’s a weapon.

Political Cartoon by Asa Mease

sue is not receiving media attention, does it really help to have media always circulating about how hopeless and dire these communities are? These are all questions that further complicate the issue.

At the end of the day, American kids are dying but America at large

ILLUSTRATION BY LUND

likes to think that it’s a coincidence that these kids are of color. Or worse, if these kids are killing themselves off, soon gun violence will no longer be an issue in places like Chicago.

The real tragedy lies in the idea that this issue is too complicated to solve, that the black community is already plagued with many other issues that make it impossible to isolate and stop gun violence. But to the black children living in these areas, that sentiment sends the message that “your life is not as valuable as those white kids’ lives.” I guess we’re all American, but some American blood is more precious and deserves more attention than some others.

Those suffering from mental illness need not suffer alone

by Arden Robinette Guest Columnist ‘16

L

isten. You may not want to. You may not want to even be speaking to anyone right now. You might just want to be alone with the struggles and fears that have begun to haunt you. But listen. Really listen.

Maybe you’ve been feeling off lately. Maybe it started with a failed test that you spent hours studying for. Maybe it was the realization that you don’t know what you’re doing with your life. Maybe it was a friend abandoning you, or a loved one passing, or just a day where nothing went right. Whatever it was, it changed something; the world doesn’t look as bright as it used to.

Maybe you’re feeling depressed. Anxious. Fearful. Maybe your self-esteem has plummeted to an all-time low, and you’re coping by eating too much or too little. It could be that you just don’t want to get out of bed anymore.

You don’t believe that any of this could happen to you. And even if it did, you wouldn’t be looking for help, because only crazy people need therapy. Right?

Society places such a massive stigma on mental illness that it’s hard for anyone affected by it to get help, or even recognize that something is wrong. We are trained to believe that happiness is a choice, and good mental health is just a test of will. If you stay positive and think happy thoughts, you will avoid mental illness, just like taking vitamins and sleeping for eight hours a night will prevent physical illness. This generalization is not only wrong, but harmful.

There have been very few studies on mental illness on college campuses nationwide, so it is difficult to provide statistics. Much of this is because mental illness is a problem that is often overlooked due to its intangible nature. Mental illness is not a statistic that can be measured. The type and severity of mental illness is unique to each person and is therefore hard to recognize. Another reason mental illness is not discussed is because people are unwilling to discuss their possible mental ill-

ness, either because they do not recognize it or they are ashamed of it.

Again, because severity varies from person to person, someone may not recognize their own illness because it does not fit with the “traditional” diagnosis. Others feel that mental illness is a sign of weakness, and do not want to admit their “weakness” to friends or family members.

Though the current “Information Age” has made communication easier and faster, our society still remains silent on some important issues, including mental illness. As a society, we focus so much on physical health, staying fit and eating a healthy diet. Yet we forget how to take care of the mind. However, there are resources for this— family, friends, professors, mentors, peer support groups on campus and especially the Counseling Center. Despite the cultural pressure to “suffer in silence,” it has still produced many survivors of mental illness, and people struggling with mental illness would be surprised to see who else has dealt with those same problems.

To anyone who is currently struggling with a mental illness: Whatever you’re feeling, it’s okay. You don’t have to struggle alone. Your struggle is a real problem, and you have the right to ask for help in getting through it.

Be open to receiving help and be ready to commit to healing. People may tell you that your illness is not a real illness. They’re wrong.

Know that we, your friends and peers, are here for you. We believe you, we believe in your problems and we believe in your ability to overcome them. So long as you take that first step and ask for help, you are not alone, and never will be.

Active Minds is a nationwide organization working to encourage dialogue on mental illness on college campuses. We meet on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. in the Glover Alston Center; meetings are open to anyone interested in raising awareness, whether or not they have been personally affected by mental illness. Visit our table in Reid Campus Center at lunch this week, or contact co-presidents Tara Mah and Kristen Wiseman via email for more information.

Letter to the Editor

M

y thanks to The Pioneer and to [first-year] Jacqueline Rees-Mikula, who wrote the article about the Whitman Student Composers Concert in Chism Recital Hall on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, featuring new musical works by five talented young composers.

Ms. Rees-Mikula’s coverage provided an excellent view

of the background and purpose of the concert, produced twice yearly, once in each semester.

In addition, she afforded your readers a fine musical portrait of [first-year] Aaron Stern, one of the composers whose work was premiered at the concert.

In the interest of fairness and balance, I would like to augment Ms. Rees-Mikula’s ar-

ticle by including the names of the other composers programmed on the concert, and a brief remark about each of them.

Will Ekstrom, now in his third year as a music composition major, is also a tenor and percussionist; his concert premiere was “Phantom Variations” for string quartet.

Erik Feldman, a third-year music composition major, is also

Voices from the Community Madi Peters First-year

“I think that they handle mental health really well. They have Louis the dog, whom I love to go and pet because he is very friendly. They also have the UV lamp and I’ll just go there sometimes and sit by it; it is very helpful.”

Professor David Carey

“I had a student who seemed very depressed, almost suicidal. I contacted the Whitman Counseling Center and simply told them my feelings about the situation, and it was a relief [to know] the Counseling Center had my back on that.”

a cellist, trombonist and bass/baritone; his concert premiere was a choral work, “Moonrise,” for the Whitman Chamber Singers.

[Senior] Ethan Maier, a jazz-piano performance major, will complete his music degree this year; his concert premiere was “Pieces of Washington” for bassoon and bass.

[Sophomore] Aleksand-

er Maricq, a math major, whose concert premiere was “The Lost Cities” for alto flute, clarinet and piano, is also a clarinetist.

All five composers were assisted by the excellent performances of their fellow music students.

John David Earnest Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music

What are your impressions of Whitman’s Counseling Center? Poll by Skye Vander Laan

Julia Wood

Jonas Myers

First-year

Senior

“I know a girl who had a really good time talking to someone; it really helped her out.

I’ve never been there myself but I’ve definitely considered it before as a healthy option—stay sane in these hectic times.”

“I know where it is. And I know that it’s free. And that you can make an appointment by calling or emailing.”

27 BACKPAGE Top 5 places to poop on campus FEB

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2013

2

Photos by Bernstein

5

Tong Head in Tau Kappa Epsilon. Not only does it provide a great view of the majestic TKE parking lot, but it also has awesome shower curtains instead of stall doors. That way, you can pilot and co-pilot the pooper with someone. Plus, you’re literally shitting on TKE! And let’s face it, some of those guys really deserve to be shit on...

4

The Pit. Even though most of us know girls don’t really fart and just make fluffies, turns out they actually do poop. Guys pooping here is even more hilarious, just because of the illegality and potential loud noises (especially after taco night at Jewett) of the situation.

3

Top Three Overused Phrases at Whitman TH T ʼS S WH TT Whitman Phrase

W

ILLUSTRATION BY RAIBLE

hitman students love using hip phrases almost as much as vegans love to remind us that they don’t eat animal products. Naturally, hip phrases move quickly through our small school, and chances are, if you’ve heard the phrase from more than two students, it will catch on and become “the cat’s meow”—in other words, completely ineffective and utterly obnoxious until you reach a point where if you hear the phrase one more time you swear on your life that you will abandon your studies and willingly lock yourself into a room that only has Enya music playing until the world has become a more tolerable place again.

1) Phrase: “Gender exists on a spectrum.”

Why it’s annoying: People toss this phrase out like businessmen toss out cash at a cheap strip club— all the time, without really thinking about the reason or the consequences. It’s essentially used as an ultimatum to make others feel uncomfortable or less open-minded, e.g., “Well, gender exists on a spectrum, so STFU,” or something to that effect.

2) Phrase: “That’s so Whitty!”

Why it’s annoying: Because it is meant as a pun about Whitman’s students’ wittiness and every single time it is used, two things happen.

The first is that the person who says it acts as if he or she is the first person to realize that Flo Rida’s name is Florida if you put it together and then laughs to his or herself about his or her own cleverness. The second thing to occur is the collective sigh and a half-hearted attempt to laugh and make the person feel better, like a half-hearted attempt to make a friend feel special on their birthday by getting them a gift that ultimately results in the giving of a partially used iTunes or Starbucks card.

3) Phrase: “Hey, we should hang out sometime. I’ll let you know when.”

Why it’s annoying: Because 99 times out of 100 the “hanging out” doesn’t happen. This phrase is used with little to no thought whatsoever, and for all intents and purposes could easily be changed to, “Hey, we should shoot up sometime and then drop an infant off a roof—I’ll let you know when,” because it honestly wouldn’t make a difference; each version is just as unlikely to materialize. And so help me God, if I hear this shouted out one more time in a passing conversation near Ankeny Field or at a party, I will literally lock myself in my room and watch reruns of “The Crocodile Hunter” until I hear of an instance of an agreedupon hangout actually happening.

2

Some random stump. Love “Game of Thrones”? Love

Fourth floor of the library (but only after a steak and egg breakfast). No one groans like all the NERDS on the fourth floor when someone interrupts their serenity of studying with a loud one.

It’s also fun to make fart noises with your mouth while you’re going for gold, just to add some extra zest.

1

1

Bowl on top of Fish Structure. It’s really just asking for it. I mean, what is the purpose of that thing, anyway?

ASWC President Sex Tape Scandal

T

his past week, a sex tape of Associated Students of Whitman College President junior Beemon Shethmoozian surfaced. The video of the ASWC president, a plate of kale, a giant stuffed teddy bear and multiple members of the Whitman Events Board in what is presumably an empty Town Hall meeting has spread across campus like wildfire.

It all began when ASWC decided to raise the student fee.

“We started getting these threatening emails. They said they had a tape of Beemon doing illicit activities at a Town Hall meeting with members of WEB.

All of us simply didn’t believe it—no one goes to Town Hall meetings,” said ASWC member junior Tom Road. ASWC moved forward with the plans to increase student fees and continued receiving strange warnings.

“There was this one time when I walked into our office late at night because I had forgotten my pencil bag there, and I found a plate of kale with a note addressed to Beemon. I thought maybe he was on a health kick and hadn’t had time to snag dinner, so I left the plate there,” said ASWC member sophomore Dan Daggenti. The note was an ominous warning: “Does this turn you on, Beemon?”

Tom Road was there to witness

ILLUSTRATION BY JONES

3

just thrones in general? Your feet get to dangle off of this hawt toilet seat to make you feel like a kid again.

Nothing gives me wood like shitting off of a stump.

Beemon finding the plate of kale the next morning.

“He picked it up, read the note and dumped the whole dish, plate and all, in the garbage. It was weird, but I just assumed he was having a bad day,” said Road.

At first, ASWC was unclear as to why the student group threatening them was so upset, but a few days before the decision they received an anonymous email.

“WEB and ASWC are like the church and the state. Put them in a bed together and we are back to monarchy. All hail King Shethmoozian. Raise student fees and I’ll raise student eyebrows,” said the email.

ASWC went through with raising student fees and $14 later, the video went viral. The video was tagged # s e p a r a t i o n o f A S W C &W E B #BeemonlovesKale. Shortly after the release, an investigation into the relationship of WEB and ASWC began. It found years of inappropriate overlap between WEB and ASWC. In the ‘90s, WEB wined and dined ASWC at the Whitehouse Crawford for more funding. In early 2000, WEB threatened to cancel the Millennium Party. But, unlike in the past, in 2013 WEB used its bodies to get funding because wining, dining and threats weren’t working with Shethmoozian. Enter the leak. Since the release of the video, many have expressed negative opinions of Shethmoozian and WEB, boycotting pizzamaking workshops and friendship bracelet weaving alike.

A coalition is growing to protest the $14 student fee hike because of its crooked origin.

S h e t h m o o z i an declined to comment.

Whitman Crossword ACROSS 1. what ankeny turns into when it rains or sleets 3. the most famous horse on campus 5. the ultimate ankeny sport 7. the building with clocks that are delayed by five minutes 9. the street that divides campus based on NoBo or SoBo DOWN 2. the only building on campus that’s shaped intentionally like a letter 4. the best weekend meal 6. the most silent room on campus (2 words) 8. the frat that’s farthest west on Isaacs 10. the class that all first-years/transfers are required to take ILLUSTRATION BY SCHUH