Whitman Pioneer Spring 2012 Issue 1

This Week On Web

Pioneer survey results on students’ relationships with food and body image www.whitmanpioneer.com

A&E pg. 6

Food critic Ellie Newell reveals her tips and tricks for keeping your healthy eating resolutions in the New Year

Feature pg. 5

Recent study abroad returnees share stories, eye-opening experiences through photos and memories

The

PIONEER

ISSUE 1 | January 26, 2012 | Whitman news since 1896

CONSUMING CONTROL Eating disorders show up in popular culture, but their presence

Infographic: The Naked Lunch The plate on the left is a standard lunch based on a 2000 calorie diet.

On the right is a meal based on an anorectic diet of 375 calories a day.

Infographic by Hendershot

at Whitman is rarely discussed. Here, students and professors speak out on the personal politics of eating—and not eating.

Garlic Bread 150 Calories

2c Romaine Half Tomato 25 Calories

4 Strawberries 16 Calories

2c Spinach 13 Calories

Lemon Juice 4 Calories 2tbsp Balsamic Vinaigrette 50 Calories

1c Pasta with Arrabiata sauce 215 Calories

Half Tomato 12 Calories

Total 45 Calories

Total 445 Calories

by R ACHEL A LEX A NDER Senior Reporter

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ast fall, junior Maggie Appleton took a medical leave of absence from Whitman to seek treatment for anorexia. Before leaving, she talked with friends about the disease and found that many of them had very little idea of the reasons people develop eating disorders.

“It’s like, ‘Kate Moss caused this’ and you’re like, ‘Well, it’s more complicated,’” she said.

The line between healthy behavior and disordered eating can be razor thin. Physical fitness and healthy eating habits are presented as an ideal to aspire towards, and women in particular are bombarded with advertisements telling them that they can be perfect if they just count calories diligently and work hard to shed those last few pounds.

Whitman students are taught in class and the dining halls that our food choices have broad political and environmental implications that we should be conscious of. Added to this information are the challenges of trying to be healthy in a culture where most food sold in grocery stores is processed, packaged and full of chemicals, and it’s not so hard to see how people end up developing pathological relationships with food and their bodies.

Yet eating disorders resist the simple explanations so often used to explain their prevalence. While some people in recovery from eating disorders say that they wanted to lose weight or resemble the “ideal” Western body, just as many point to fears of food, general stress and anxiety, depression, or a desire to control some aspect of their lives.

Food as control Appleton said that her anorexia was triggered by stress and other psychological factors, but that a fear of processed foods also played a significant role.

“They just do this thing where they take all these foods and put fat and salt and sugar in everything and put a cute cartoon character on it, and that’s all that the Safeway shelves are stocked with,” she said. “[I felt like] there was nothing I could put in my body that was produced in this country that wouldn’t give me diabetes and a heart attack and destroy my immune system and have high fructose corn syrup in it. It got down to where I didn’t think I could eat anything anymore if it wasn’t just an apple, because everything was going to be dangerous and processed and awful.”

During her worst period, when she was eating less than 300 calo-

ries a day, anorexia dominated her thoughts.

“When your rational mind isn’t getting enough calories to function properly, it just defaults to the irrational, unconscious eating disorder mind,” she said. “It was a very physical thing that happened in my brain. You’re not really there. You just stop existing.”

Eating disorders can serve as a distraction from other problems in a patient’s life because of their allconsuming nature.

Eating disorders resist the simple explanations so often used to explain their prevalence.

“When you’re dealing with it, you can only see it,” sophomore Katie Tertocha said. “It covers up everything else that’s unmanageable.”

Tertocha struggled with anorexia in high school. For her, the eating disorder started as an effort to exercise more and be healthier.

Then it became an obsession. She eventually wound up in the hospital for treatment, and was able to start gaining weight again. But she said during the worst phases of the disease, it was hard to think rationally about her body.

“There’s never an endpoint for it,” she said. “You can always be thinner. You can always be better.”

Normalizing disorder Cultural standards of beauty do play a significant part in many disordered eating behaviors.

“Though eating disorders are complex psychological and physiological phenomena, body image is the piece that is especially influenced by social norms,” Associate Professor of religion and Director of the gender studies program Melissa Wilcox said in an email.

“There has been research, for instance, that tested women’s body image before and after reading a popular fashion magazine like Cosmo, and found a significant drop in their satisfaction with their own bodies.”

Junior Avery Potter has struggled with bulimia since high school, though she has mostly recovered.

She said that she started purging largely because she was afraid of becoming fat.

“I felt horrible when I ate so much,” she said. “I couldn’t not eat, but I could control what stayed down.”

Senior Sarah Johnston* said she also felt pressure to be thinner throughout high school, and would sometimes go to pro-anorexia web-

sites to get inspiration for losing weight.

“There were definitely times when I would look at these [sites] and say, ‘That’s a good idea. That’s how I’m going to lose weight,’” she said. Although she didn’t develop an eating disorder, Johnston went through a period of depression and self-harm, which she said was largely influenced by dissatisfaction with her body.

Appleton stressed that eating disordered behavior can’t be understood only as a desire to be thin.

“Never in my life have I sat around and said, ‘If only I was a size zero . . . ’ Never did I want that,” she said. “Everyone paints [anorectics] as obsessed with their bodies and not able to see beyond the value of how they look, but [in some cases] it’s an issue of food and not an issue of how you appear.”

Peers can often influence the way eating disordered people perceive their disease. Senior Ellie Newell was bulimic for several months in high school, and said that she felt eating disordered behavior was normalized by her classmates, who were thinner than her and frequently discussed their own body image insecurities.

Appleton said that she’s had

see EATING DISORDERS, page 3

Whitman celebrates Dr. King’s legacy, civil rights

by EMILY LIN-JONES Staff Reporter

S

Walla Walla community member Ben Workman purchased a Hadrosaur bone from a Blackfeet reservation in Montana. Photo by Bergman

‘Rock-hound’ donates Hadrosaur hip bone to geology department

by MOLLY JOH A NSON Staff Reporter

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t’s been a long journey for Whitman’s new Hadrosaur fossil to get to its place in the atrium of the Hall of Science. From Montana to Walla Walla, the fossil has traveled in not one, but three pieces. A donation to the college, the fossil has been on display since this summer.

The fossil is the actual bone, not a cast of the ischium, or hip bone, of a Hadrosaur dinosaur, and was donated to the Whitman Geology department in 2010 by Ben Workman, a retired machinist and self described rock-hound

who lives in Walla Walla. Workman brought the fossil to Assistant Professor of Geology, Nick Bader.

“I was excited when Ben [Workman] showed up with [the fossil]. We have a few [fossil] fragments, but no dinosaur bones as large as this. It’s a nice thing to have. You have to have the right circumstances to have a fossil, [you] can’t just get one,” Bader said.

For Workman, the right circumstances came accidentally. About five years ago, Workman was helping transport it and other fossils at a shop, which had purchased the fossil from a Blackfeet reservation in Montana. The fossil broke in Work-

man’s hand, causing him to drop it, where it broke into three pieces. Workman was devastated, but it was because of this accident that Workman was able to purchase the fossil at a reasonable price—$350.

From that point onward, because Workman did not have the means to repair it, the fossil sat in a box for many years, until shortly after Workman moved to Walla Walla two years ago.

“This [fossil] needs to be out where people can see it [and] appreciate it. The college deserves something like [the fossil],” Workman said. see HIP BONE, page 3

amuel McKinney, a contemporary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will share his colleague’s legacy with the Whitman community in a lecture on Thursday, Jan. 26. His lecture will mark the end of a series of events sponsored by the Intercultural Center and the Black Student Union.

In past years, Whitman has celebrated with a peace march on King’s birthday. This year, the decision was made to accompany the march with several related events.

This extended program coincides with the introduction of the ‘Teaching the Movement’ program at Whitman, in which student volunteers teach about the Civil Rights Movement in local public schools.

Intercultural Center Program Advisor Matt Ozuna discussed this year’s changes.

“We took into consideration what the Student Engagement Center was doing with ‘Teaching the Movement’ and wanted to kind of snowball all these events into one week,” he said. “The march is usually done when students aren’t on campus. It’s always problematic. We want to have this march, it’s an integral part of our activities and our way to honor MLK’s legacy. But how do we capture that and bring that to a larger audience?

The only way was that [the events need] to span a week, when the students are actually on campus.”

A student panel was held on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 18 in Jewett Hall, featuring eight panelists from the Black Student Union, and moderated by Associate Professor of History, Nina Lerman. The panel covered topics

ranging from modern attitudes toward the Civil Rights Movement, to race relations on campus. Panelists shared their experiences learning about the Civil Rights Movement in school, and discussed ways to combat the absence of any conversation about race at Whitman.

The panelists came from varied backgrounds. Some with very personal investment in the history of the Civil Rights Movement and its future at Whitman.

“I really identify a lot with the civil rights movement because I’m from South Africa and I’ve had to see the ramifications of apartheid on my mother’s generation and even on my generation . . . I’ve had a real encounter with what racial discrimination is like and [with] the fact that it still exists,” said first-year panelist Mcebo Maziya. “At a community like Whitman, which is unfortunately not as diverse as we would like, I think the emphasis of this week creates a lot of awareness of such issues . . . I want to contribute towards letting people know what minorities still face in this country, and draw parallels with other countries.”

Maziya and other members of the club stressed the need for an ongoing dialogue about race and diversity at Whitman.

“I find it really important to have these kind of discussions because it’s not talked about a lot,” said Co-President of the Black Student Union, first-year Alisha Agard.

The Black Student Union’s other Co-President, junior BaoTram Do agreed, also pointing out the lack of attendance at the panel compared to other events.

“It’s interesting to note that at our march, there were more than 60 people, but at something like

see CIVIL RIGHTS, page 3

NEWS

Jan

26 2012

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PHOTO BY PARRISH

EXPERIMENTAL CAMPUS PUBLICATION LAUNCHES

by K A R A H K EMMER LY News Editor

I

f there’s one thing that all Whitman students have in common, it’s writing papers. Regardless of major or year, all Whitties have stayed up writing an essay or research project. Despite this commonality, many students don’t feel they have a vehicle to publish their work on campus. Bluemooner, a new companion publication to blue moon, aims to create a medium through which students can share their essays with other members of the campus community.

Members of last year’s blue moon prose staff noticed that most prose submissions were fictional short stories. Inspired by Lyotardian postmodernism, several

members of this year’s staff created the ‘bluemooner Manifesto,’ a set of rules urging students to be experimental with submissions, in hopes of encouraging students to submit more creative pieces.

Senior and Editor-inChief of blue moon, Nick Michal was part of that group.

“I think bluemooner allows for a publication that is obsessed with creativity above all else. Lyotardian postmodernism stresses the essay, the attempt, as a way to continually make meaning and define the world around us,” he said in an email.

The new publication differs from blue moon primarily in that all work submitted to it will be published, and all authors will use pen names. All work published

in bluemooner is also put in the submissions pool for blue moon.

Because work won’t be rejected from bluemooner, senior and prose editor Alex Pearson hopes that bluemooner will be more accessible to students.

“We’re hoping to demystify some of the elitism surrounding blue moon,” he said.

Michal agrees.

“It can help deflate any myths there might be about how ‘serious’ literature has to be, or how ‘serious’ pieces need to be for them to get submitted to blue moon. We want creativity above all. Your story could be about two hamsters stuck in the same rolly-ball. If it’s creative, and well written, and works on its own terms, we’ll like it,” he said.

Pearson hopes that students from a wide variety of fields will submit.

“Students shouldn’t feel like they have to write crazy artistic pieces. A lot of stuff we write for classes could be interesting for a small group of readers, and that group is probably at this school. It makes sense to have a space to put work out there, especially for those who aren’t English or art majors,” he said.

Bluemooner also gives staff members a chance to experiment with layout. Current Layout Editor and Prose Staff Member, junior Bo Erickson, discusses the layout goals for the project.

“Blue moon gets entered in contests. It has to be formal and glossy, so we wanted to do some-

thing that was the opposite. Something that was less formal.”

Pearson thinks the publication could have potential for the future, but he is more concerned with the ideas behind it.

“It could happen again if it does bring about a wider variety of prose, but if that doesn’t happen, I’d rather see [blue moon] try something else.”

Michal would like to see bluemooner become an annual project.

“I hope it becomes an annual tool for future blue moon editors to use, as it allows people to submit weird, wacky, creative things that will get published in it, but that also have a chance to get published in blue moon.”

Bluemooner should be on the shelves before Jan. 30.

RMS to split into 2 departments, 3 State of the State combines majors after faculty vote Wednesday research, community outreach

by JOSH GOODM A N and SHELLY LE Web Content Editor, News Editor

T

he faculty voted Wednesday, Jan. 25 to split the Rhetoric and Media Studies Department into two new departments with three majors. Film and Media Studies will be a new interdisciplinary major with two dedicated faculty members, plus film courses in other departments. The new Rhetoric Studies Department will feature a rhetoric studies major and a political and legal rhetoric major. Both departments will also offer minors.

The change is made possible due to a new rhetoric tenureline and by the return of a film media position that was suspended during the economic downturn.

“It somewhat has worked to have the two together, but it’s not been ideal,” said Professor of Forensics Jim Hanson. “Now students can really get the major they want.”

For instance, sophomore Alyssa Goard noted that some students had complained that courses about film and law were not very related to each other, even though she personally was interested in the fusion of rhetoric and media.

“I have heard students say who’ve gone through the major that they’ve been confused in how rhetoric is paired with some of the more film-specific classes,” she said.

With the split, senior RMS majors will not see any changes, while sophomore and junior majors will have the opportunity to select the film and media studies major, se-

lect one of the rhetoric studies majors or continue with the RMS major as was. Hanson said that some students are waiting to find out the status of the majors before declaring.

Goard is one such person.

“I’m really not sure yet,” she said, regarding which of the majors she would choose. “I’m going to have to see what the requirements for each of departments are.

There’s a lot of students waiting to see what the department looks like.”

Hanson said that the new departments may help clarify a student’s interests or area of focus when they apply for jobs and graduate school.

“The thing I’ve heard over and over from students is, ‘I’m applying to film graduate school and my diploma says rhetoric; this is not good.’”

Professor George Ball passes away, remembered at Whitman College

D

r. George Ball, one of Whitman’s most beloved and influential professors, passed away on Jan. 1, 2012 at the age of 96. Ball came to Whitman as a religion professor in 1960. He taught for 20 years and then worked as Whitman’s Stuart Coordinator of Religious and Spiritual life.

Alumna Meda ChesneyLind ‘69 took a religion class with Dr. Ball when she went to Whitman. She feels that he set an example for his students.

“He was about education and living a good life. In a true sense of the word minister, he ministered to others. I think that was what was very memorable about him,” she said.

A memorial service for Dr. Ball will be held on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 2:30 in Cordiner Hall. A reception will be held in Reid’s Young Ballroom following the service.

For more on Dr. Ball and his contributions to Whitman College, see whitmanpioneer.com.

Contributed photo.

by R ACHEL A LEX A NDER Senior Reporter

A

s Friday and classes start to wind down, most Whitman students start planning their weekend activities—hanging out, going to parties, or catching up on homework. For a select group of 16 students, though, a typical weekend might involve interviewing community members about their access to social services, or heading to Olympia to educate legislators about the challenges facing the Latino community in Washington State.

Whitman’s State of the State class, which has existed since 2005, does community research on a variety of issues affecting Washington Latinos, including political participation, immigration policy and bilingual education in Walla Walla schools. Each research group is paired with a community organization which has a research need, and they spend fall semester collecting information and doing interviews related to the selected topic. Students write extensive summaries of their research and dedicate spring semester to publicizing their findings. The work sometimes involves long nights in the library, but it’s also a rewarding experience.

“It’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done at Whitman, and one of the hardest,” said junior Spencer May, who is researching immigration policy.

The State of the State class dates back to an attempt to unionize the Tyson meatpacking plant located near Pasco, Wash., which began in 2002. Many Whitman students were involved in the effort, which also included attempts to educate the mostly Latino workforce about their rights and political power. Professor of Politics and Paul Chair of Political Science Paul Apostolidis was put in contact with a voting rights lawyer who was working with the Teamsters Union, and said the idea for the class came out of discussing the ways in which problems facing the Latino community were interrelated.

“There were a whole range of issues where, if you could mobilize more public policy power, you could solve more of the problems,” he said.

A clear example of this, is the

low representation of Latinos in political office. Latinos make up 21.6 percent of the population in Adams, Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Franklin, Grant, Okanogan, Skagit, Walla Walla and Yakima counties, but have only been elected to 2.7 percent of city council and school district seats. Washington’s at-large voting system, which allows for people to vote for every seat on a council, instead of separating them into districts, is partially responsible for this. Because elections aren’t divided into districts, majority-Latino areas are often outnumbered by the white majority, meaning that their political concerns go unaddressed.

“At the end of the day, the electoral system just isn’t working,” said senior Seth Dawson, who was part of the political participation research group. “It’s leaving out important voices.”

Apostolidis said that as State of the State has grown, it has become more rigorous in its research and advocacy work.

“Our standard of excellence has gone up every year,” he said. “We started to get more and more requests to share the research with different groups.”

The influence of State of the State research is evident in Washington politics. The group maintains a website, walatinos.org, where in-depth research findings can be found. Senior Zach Duffy, who participated in the class last year and is currently the State of the State scholar, said that language from his group’s research made it into voting rights legislation in the Washington State Legislature. The connections made as part of the class can also lead to future careers in related fields.

“There’s this really great network that grows out of being a member of the class,” he said.

The class also allows students to step outside the classroom and get involved in the community, something sophomore Julia Stone found especially valuable.

“I can’t imagine my experience at Whitman not having that experiential component,” she said.

For a longer version of this article, with summaries of each group’s findings, check out whitmanpioneer.com

EDITOR I A L

PRODUCT ION

W R I T ING

BUSIN ESS

EDITORIAL POLICY

Editor-in-Chief Patricia Vanderbilt

Production Manager Ted Hendershot

NEWS

Business Manager Hailun Zhou

Managing Editor Cara Lowry

Production Associates Katie Berfield, Maddison Munn, Molly Olmsted, Cara Patten, Allison Work

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 weekly Letters to the Editor in print and online.

News Editors Karah Kemmerly Shelly Le A&E Editor Caitlin Hardee Sports Editor Libby Arnosti Feature Editors Alyssa Fairbanks Kelsey Kennedy Opinion Editor Alex Brott Humor Editor Cari Cortez Photography Editor Ethan Parrish Illustration Editor Binta Loos-Diallo

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Alex Bailey, Kelly Douglas,Emily Johnson, Julie Peterson

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Maddy Bell, Sarah Debs, Kyle Howe, Pamela London, Sylvie Luiten, Matt Tesmond

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Letters to Editor may be submitted to The Pioneer via email at editors@ whtimanpioneer.com or sent to The Pioneer, 345 Boyer Ave., Walla Walla, WA, 99362. All submissions must be received by 4 p.m. on Saturday prior to the week that they are intended to appear. All submissions must be attributed and may be edited for concision and fluency.

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The code of ethics serves as The Pioneer’s established guidelines for the practice of responsible journalism on campus, within reasonable interpretation of the editorial board. These guidelines are subject to constant review and amendment; responsibility for amending the code of ethics is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief in conjunction with the editorial board.

The code of ethics is reviewed at least once per semester.

To access the complete code of ethics for The Pioneer, visit whitmanpioneer.com/about.

NEWS

Jan

26 2012

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Matt Dittrich shares ASWC goals

by SHELLY LE

sent for Board deliberation on the you passed last semester go? versation among Whitman alumni.

Undocumented Students Statement. MD: I’d like to take a hard look at External to Whitman, I think it’s The plan now, at this semes- alumni resources and network- about time that Whitman had a seriter’s Board meetings, ous social media presis to have more student ence. One thing I’m gogroups visit the difing to be challenging my ferent committees and senators to do, and that give larger student presI plan to have a hand in entations. I think the authoring, is a resolution true success lies in the that clearly articulates sheer amount of conthe features and benetact between students fits of a Whitman owned and the Oversees in LinkedIn program that the past few months. would connect graduPio: Last year when you ating Whitman seniors were the Finance Chair with Whitman alumof the Finance Comni in a more formal way. mittee, you lowered the I think it’s about ASWC student fee. Do time that Whitman had you think ASWC will a serious social media do so again for the uppresence. One thing coming academic year?

I’m going to be chalMD: I don’t want to lenging my senators speak for the whole Fito do, and that I plan to nance Committee, but I have a hand in authorwill say this: We have a ing, is a resolution that substantial surplus again clearly articulates the this year, although a features and benefits large part of that is due to of a Whitman owned the fact that we had large LinkedIn program that incoming class again. would connect graduHowever, we’ve dedicatating Whitman seniors ed a lot of dollars to realwith Whitman alumly awesome projects and ni in a more formal way. we’ve spent a lot of monI also think it’s ey this year on really imabout time students portant things . . . But if became more inwe do want a more ausvolved with promottere budget next year, I ing and sustaining think it would be com- ASWC President Matt Dittrich ‘12 pushes Whitman networking. Archive Photo the financial well-bepletely reasonable. ing of the college. I Pio: Does ASWC have any specif- ing that take place inside and out- think it’s important for us to articuic goals for this semester? What kind side Whitman, and see how ASWC late and define our role in building of bills would you like to see pass? can help the Student Engage- the financial strength of the college.

Where would you like to see the bills ment Center facilitate more con- Pio: What do you feel were some

major weaknesses of ASWC as a governing body last semester?

MD: I think as much as we were trying to communicate with the student body, it wasn’t as effective as possible. That being said, we’re poised to bolster communication.

In the next two weeks, I plan to call a media summit of the media heads of campus to talk about bolstering communication, stirring the dialogue about what it means to promote communication across campus.

In addition, we’re intending to send out a little note to the community, every other Friday proceeding our senate meetings, to inform the broader public of the few more intriguing items on the agenda, just so if anyone wants to contribute to the agenda they can.

Pio: Anything else that you would like to mention?

MD: In terms of the Undocumented Students Statement, I just stress that as we make sense of this really important statement that we’ve made, that we need to have a very critical eye toward opportunities to improve and support civil rights. One thing I’m going to be asking my senators to do, is to make contact with 50 local businesses or non-profits. To let them know that we’re here and that we care, and to see if there are opportunities to partner to improve opportunities to the disadvantaged. It starts here, right here in Walla Walla. We create ripples; we are obviously the most impressive and prominent leader, in terms of colleges, in the Northwest.

Society obscures distinction between health, perfection

Dino bone placed in atrium display case

News Editor

A

SWC will be reconvening next week to govern over the Spring 2012 student body. The Pioneer had the opportunity to speak with ASWC President Matt Dittrich about challenges his administration has faced this year and what he expects to accomplish this semester.

The Pioneer: Last year when you were running as a presidential candidate for ASWC, The Pioneer asked you what you believed to be the biggest issue facing Whitman students.

How would you answer that question now?

Matt Dittrich: I think I have to give a more general answer: How do students take ownership of their college? How to actually feel comfortable giving back and earn the right to give back . . . Although, in certain circumstances, it can be difficult for students to feel capable and they have the right to assert their rights within the college.

Pio: Last semester, you ran on the platform of increasing student representation on college committees and governing boards. Do you feel that you have accomplished this goal?

MD: I’m going to officially say yes. The reason why it’s so difficult to support, is that the only governing board meetings held so far were in Seattle, which can be difficult to involve students. That being said, we had all of our student representatives present at board meetings via phone conversations . . . I was also allowed, for what I believe was the first time in historical memory, to be pre-

from EATING DISORDERS, page 1

periods of eating disordered behavior since she was 14, and agrees that her peers normalized obsessions with diet and weight.

“It was seen as the norm, almost,” she said. “You would go through a rough period and you would abuse food and you would gain a few pounds and then you would sort yourself out.”

Wilcox believes that our culture sends mixed messages about disordered eating.

“In many ways, I think there is a subtle affirmation—even while we claim to disapprove—of anorexia in our culture,” she said. “Bulimia is less favorably looked upon, I think, while compulsive overeating is often popularly associated with gluttony, and is blamed on a lack of control on the part of the overeater—again, connecting back, I think, to the subtle cultural valorization of anorexia. This also sends the message that there is appropriate control of one’s food and one’s body, and then there is inappropriate control.”

Although body image and weight concerns are often perceived to only affect women, men also feel pressure. In a Pioneer survey of 192 students, 75 percent of male respondents said they felt pressure to be thin from American popular culture, and 42 percent felt pressure from their peer group.

Sophomore Brad Larkin* said that he has been influenced by the images of men presented in American culture.

“Even if you’re not outright saying, ‘That guy has a great body and I don’t,’ it’s in the back of your mind,” he said.

Larkin became anorexic in high school and struggled with the disease for a year and a half, eventually dropping to a weight of 85 pounds. Although he has since recovered, he doesn’t like to talk about it, and says that having an eating disorder is often perceived as a sign of weakness.

“A lot of times, it’s hard to talk

about with people because it goes against the expectations of what an eating disorder is,” he said. “The amount that it affects guys is ignored.”

Nationally, approximately 10 percent of individuals seeking treatment for eating disorders are men, according to the National Eating Disorder Association.

The Whitman effect Assistant Director of Counseling Tracee Anderson said that the gender breakdown of Whitman students who seek treatment for disordered eating roughly corresponds to the national average. According to her, eating disorders are the fourth most commonly discussed problem during counseling sessions (after depression, general developmental issues and anxiety). Anderson believes that eating disorders are often a symptom of people defining their self-worth in terms of outside forces, such as grades or athletic ability.

“A lot of people talk about the word ‘control’. When somebody has very high expectations of themselves and their sense of value is defined externally, their sense of themselves is fragile, and they can often be very insecure. The need for control is born out of that. People believe, ‘If I control all these things outside of me, then I’m gonna be intact. I’m gonna be ok.’ It’s an effort to try to keep themselves together,” she said.

Newell believes that Whitman culture can play into these expectations by creating an environment where high achievement is expected.

“Whitties are pretty tightly wound as a bunch. We’re expected to be everything—amazing athletes, amazing scholars, both the responsible scholar student who will be in the library at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning and also the person who was out until 3 a.m. the night before drinking. There’s a lot of balls that we’re expected to keep juggling.”

The survey results agree with Newell’s assessment, with 83 per-

cent of respondents saying they feel pressure from the Whitman community to be involved in many activities, and 71 percent that they feel pressure to be accomplished.

With so many potential causes for stress, most Whitman students need coping mechanisms. Appleton said that her anorexia came out of a need to manage her stress.

“You would go through a rough period and you would abuse food . . . and then you would sort yourself out.”

Maggie Appleton ’13

“It’s a really dark place inside you trying to find any way to be destructive,” she said. “This dark thing inside you that latches onto any way it can to express itself. It might happen to be food, but other people do it with alcohol or other ways that are more socially acceptable and just kind of seen as normal. All the people that binge drink every weekend to deal with their problems; they’re just seen as college students.”

Because of the misconceptions surrounding eating disorders, most Whitman students who have struggled with them are reluctant to share their experiences. Potter said she felt that she would be alone if she opened up about her bulimia.

“I feel like a lot of people here would have sympathy, but they wouldn’t have empathy,” she said.

All of the students interviewed for this article said they felt that Whitman students were generally concerned about eating disordered behavior, and likely to notice problems with their friends. However, they also said that information and discussion about eating disorders is almost completely absent from the campus environment. Johnston attributed this absence in part to the fact that eating disorders don’t gen-

‘Movement’ kicks off with Q and A session

Professor of Rhetoric and Film Studies Bob Withycome, President George Bridges, Leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance Program Maureen Costello, and Walla Walla Public School’s Superintendent, Mick Miller team up to introduce the ‘Whitman Teaches the Movement’ program and to answer students’ questions about civil rights education. Photo by Li

erally come up in classes, in the way that many other social problems do.

“There’s not really much academic literature or scholarship about it,” she said.

Anderson encouraged students who are struggling with food and body issues to come into the counseling center and seek help.

“I wish more people would come in when they’re starting to struggle, because the earlier you intervene, the greater the prognosis,” she said. “It just kills me to think they’re carrying that burden alone.”

Tertocha hopes to start a body image discussion group to help raise awareness and provide a safe space for students struggling with these issues to talk. Although it wasn’t the only factor that contributed to her eating disorder, she believes that positive body image can help people who are working through eating disorders.

“If I’d been able to accept my body for what it was, the eating disorder voice would have gotten less powerful,” she said.

Appleton also wants to raise awareness by speaking honestly about her experiences. For her, the first step is not being ashamed.

“This isn’t a moral failing on my part,” she said. “This is a complicated thing that wasn’t a choice.

No one would choose this. I want to challenge people’s assumptions about what kinds of people have this disease.”

She said that reactions from her friends and peers have been positive, and that she’s optimistic about her recovery.

“I feel pretty confident that it’s not going to go south again,” she said. “I have a lot of support.” *Name has been changed As part of the research for this article, 192 students participated in a survey about their relationships with food and body image. View the results at whitmanpioneer.com.

Samuel McKinney to lecture on Dr. King from CIVIL RIGHTS, page 1

this, there’s barely anyone. Why are people open to a march and celebrating and all of that, but scared of getting their hands dirty and talking about kind of uncomfortable, realistic things?” she said.

Maziya agreed that more student participation was needed.

“Education does happen outside the classroom. Something [students] need to realize is that Whitman College is not all about what you’re going to get out of a textbook. They need to be involved in things that are happening [here], especially about race and minorities,” said Maziya.

Despite relatively low attendance, Do said she was pleased with the outcome of the panel.

“I think the conversation went really great,” she said.

The final event of the week, a lecture by Samuel McKinney, a contemporary of Dr. King and a Seattle native, was planned for Jan. 19, but postponed due to weather issues. The lecture will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 26 in Maxey Auditorium.

For a full version of The Pioneer’s Q and A session with Matt Dittrich, go to whitmanpioneer.com

from HIP BONE, page 1

Alumna Katie Rouse ’10, who was the Geology Technician at the time of the donation, was charged with repairing the broken fossil. The restoration took Rouse about two weeks, during which she did research on how to repair the fossil and ordering materials such as paleo epoxy.

“Being able to take on the project of reconstructing the bone was an incredible learning experience,” said Rouse in an email.

Rouse, along with Bader and Larry North, the technician for Science Instruction, planned how the fossil would fit into the geology display in the Atrium. Rouse figured out the angle at which the fossil would hang, and whether or not the fossil was structurally sound enough to be hung.

Because other items housed in the display were either heavy, fragile, or both, the reorganization had to be carefully planned and executed. Carpenter John Groom built a wooden box to protect one of the large crystals in the geology display. The fossil was finally put on display Wednesday, June 22.

“I think having the fossil in Whitman’s Geology Department collection is a wonderful addition—especially with its prominent display in the Atrium. It is a great learning tool for younger students visiting the Science Building—if only to display simply how large dinosaurs were!” said Rouse.

Additionally, the fossil has fostered interest in those who frequent the Atrium.

“It’s fascinating that you can put something so complex back together and know it’s history and where this bone fits in with the rest of the supposed skeleton,” said sophomore Kerry Streiff.

NUMBERS IN THE NEWS

by SHELLY LE

60

News Editor

Percentage of instructors teaching history in grades 7-12 in public schools who have neither a history major or minor.

16

Number of U.S. states which do not require any instruction at all about the Civil Rights movement, including Oregon, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

2

Percentage of 12,000 high school seniors in 2010 that took the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam that could fully answer a basic question about the Supreme Court’s decision on Brown v.

Board of Education case.

0

Number of requirements for the study of the Civil Rights movement in Washington state’s elementary and middle school curricula.

SOURCE: THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER’S TEACHING TOLERANCE PROGRAM, THE HUFFINGTON POST

SPORTS

Jan

26 2012

Women ride 6-game streak

by M A DDY BELL Staff Reporter

T

he Women’s basketball team didn’t just finish a 1,300 piece puzzle over winter break, they began a six game winning streak that they hope to continue in this coming weekend’s games against Lewis & Clark and George Fox, Jan. 27 and 28. This series of wins takes the women closer to their season goal of reaching the NCAA national tournament in March.

Despite playing well-fought games at the beginning of the season, an early losing record posed a mental challenge to the team.

“We were kind of discouraged.

We played five nationally ranked teams early on and we were only losing by very small margins,” said junior guard, Mary Madden.

But playing teams ranked in the national league in December only better prepared the women for tough games in their own conference, and their dedication to improving their record over break is now spelled out in six bold “W”s, beginning with their January 2 win against La Sierra University.

After graduating their senior center, Rebecca Sexton, last sea-

Kelly Peterson ‘13 chases the ball at a game last fall against Lewis & Clark. The women hope to upset the Pioneers when the two teams face off again this weekend. Archive photo

son, the team has shifted their dynamic and with the New Year in full stride, so is their game. “[This season] . . . we’re playing a different pace… we lost Bec, so now we’re running the same stuff, but we have a quicker pace with faster breaks. [Now] we can push up more defensively,” said sophomore guard Tiffany Traver.

“We had to buckle down. If we want to make it to the NCAA tour-

nament—our goal for the whole season—we have to keep reminding ourselves we need to come together. [Time off] at home allowed us to recollect and know that we had to come back and do really well,” said first-year forward Heather Lovelace.

“We have been working on our plays a lot and have required play study, so we memorize them and know them down to a T,” [the how] said sopho-

more forward Sarah Anderegg.

With their next two conference games Friday, Jan. 27 and Saturday Jan. 28 against Lewis & Clark and George Fox, the women have a chance to take second or first place standings in conference, putting them at a significant advantage heading toward playoffs in February.

“Lewis & Clark and George Fox are going to be really challenging; there’s high expectations, [but] we’ve seen ourselves play well enough to beat them,” said Anderegg.

“The biggest difference this season is that we’re in the close games and finishing them,” said Madden.

For the three seniors on the team: Anna Forge, Jennifer Keyes and Jenele Peterson, hosting a playoff game in their final college season makes the prospects of these next two games that much more important.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our team; we are in sole possession of third place in the NWC and if we keep playing the way we’re capable, I think we have a great chance to host a playoff game or two. And in my senior season, I couldn’t ask for more,” said senior guard Anna Forge.

Sports survey: Nutritional facts on favorite pre-workout snacks

by SY LVIE LUITEN Staff Reporter

F

ruit! The number one food that Whitties like to eat before heading to the gym to work out or practice, according to a recent Pioneer survey of Whitman athletes. Nutritionally speaking, the 30 percent of respondents who much on fruit are making a wise pre-workout choice: Easily digestible and high in glucose, fruit is ideal to eat one hour or less before a workout. According to sportsmedicine.about.com, endurance athletes perform best after eating some glucose 35 to 40 minutes before exercise.

Energy bars, second-most popular among the 83 polled athletes, are also an excellent pre-workout food—as long as they are high in carbohydrates and low in fat and fiber. Active.com recommends bars that have 25 to 40 grams of carbohydrate and 100 to 200 calories.

Twenty-four percent of polled Whitman athletes reported dipping into peanut butter before heading to practices. According to active.com, however, this creamy favorite is not a good food to eat pre-workout for those with sensitive stomachs. Additionally, peanut but-

ter and high-fiber dry cereals are best eaten as post-workout recovery snacks rather than pre-workout boosts.

When choosing what snack to grab before hitting the gym, it is best to remember that foods that are high in carbohydrates help increase glycogen stores, and are good to eat before a workout. Foods rich in fat, fiber and protein are best saved for after working out.

Illustration by Bailey

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4

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SCOREBOARD Basketball Men’s vs. Whitworth University Jan. 17 Women’s vs. Willamette University Jan. 17

Win 77-66 Win 66-49

UPCOMING Swimming Men’s and Women’s vs. University of Puget Sound and Whitworth University Jan. 28

Away

Basketball Men’s vs. Lewis & Clark College Jan. 27 vs. George Fox University Jan. 28 Women’s vs. Lewis & Clark College Jan. 27 vs. George Fox University Jan. 28

Away Away Away Away

Tennis Men’s vs. Eastern Washington University Jan. 28

Away

Whitman sports weekly factoid First-year swimmer Karl Mering and basketball senior David Michaels both recently earned their second NWC Athlete of the Week awards of the season. Mering has taken three individual school records this year; Michaels posted a scoring average of 21 points for the men’s last two games.

Following a weekend of weathercancelled swim meets, Whitman swim teams will head north to face off against Whitworth University and the University of Puget Sound this weekend. Both men’s and women’s teams from Whitman and Whitworth are unbeaten this season.

FEATURE

Jan

26 2012

PAGE

5

Reflections from Whitties abroad Fall study abroad students share their memories & experiences

Atop the world in Norway

by RYA N NESBIT Contributing Reporter

M

y travels took me to the mountains of Norway, where I found myself alone amongst rocks, patchy snow, frozen lakes and some truly beautiful, expansive and vast terrain. The seemingly harsh isolation was tempered by roaring rivers and cascading waterfalls, stunning sunsets, starry skies

Exploring temples in Tibet

Chilling with Kiwis

by MIRIA M KOLK ER Contributing Reporter

O

by K ATHRY N COLLINS Contributing Reporter

A

t the end of September, eight IES Beijing students, including myself, experienced the trip of a lifetime: a two-week journey to the Tibet Autonomous Region. The trip was incorporated into one class of IES Beijing’s Culture and Contemporary Issues program which focused on ethnicity and

Tibetan studies. The trip included a six-day camping excursion into rural areas around the regional capital of Lhasa. We camped at Namtso, “Heavenly Lake,” and Drepung Monastery, where we explored cultural landmarks, interviewed locals and experienced traditions that date back to before the introduction of Buddhism.

Each of us focused on a research topic during the trip and prepared a study for our final project. Many

and sunrises. And I experienced unexpected encounters with the extremely friendly, welcoming and outdoorsy Norwegians. Trekking to a wilderness hut, I found myself enjoying a three-course meal of reindeer stew, lingonberry and cloudberries (yes, berries are a separate food category) served with brunost, a caramelized goat cheese and a traditional dessert of tilslørte bondepiker (“veiled shepherd’s girl”) with a dozen Norwegians. Awe-inspiring.

of us used this opportunity to investigate aspects of Tibetan culture that we could relate to previous studies. As a biology major, I focused on local medicinal resources and the importance of this market to rural Tibetans.

Other projects included a study on Tibetan-Hui relations in Lhasa and another on state-run education in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

In addition, we took the world’s highest railroad on our way back!

ne of my favorite adventures abroad occurred during a rare New Zealand snowstorm. A group of friends and I took an early morning bus to the Otago Peninsula, a breathtaking strip of land in Dunedin. We ignored all premonitions of the day’s forecast, including the disturbingly fast-moving clouds chasing the bus along the coastline. Soon enough, the snow cloud caught up to our location and elevation. Coming from Florida, I had never seen snow fall horizontally. We decided to walk to the bay—why not see what the bay looks like in a blizzard?— when a car driving by stopped

and rolled the window down. A very nice old man with ruddy cheeks and a thick white mustache inquired if we needed a lift. He explained how we were not within walking distance of anything substantial and that we would probably die of hypothermia.

Clearly we needed that lift.

Our hero, who wore a stingray brooch on his jacket collar, took us to the Peninsula’s aquarium.

We spent the day coloring in the kids’ area and playing with sea stars while the snowstorm made its way across the water.

In the picture we are enjoying a quiet break from the frequent snowstorm blasts on the walk from the aquarium to the tiny town of Portobello, where I got stranded once more, but that’s another story.

by JOH A NNA OTICO Contributing Reporter

Telling Maori legends

Crafting family in Mendoza

by K ATH Y NGU Y EN Contributing Reporter

S

omething that never ceased to fascinate me about Argentina was the assembly of artisans lined up and down the streets. Every weekend, Plaza Central in Mendoza would fill up with tons of artisanal booths.

One time, I walked through the plaza alone and started looking at the booth of an artisan and his pregnant wife. What they had did

not exactly match my criteria, so the man pulled out his tools and constructed a completely new piece right in front of me with no extra charge. While he was doing so, we spent the entire time talking about random things, and eventually, as the man was finishing, the wife told me that I was going to be their child’s aunt when the baby was born.

Toward the end of my semester, I revisited the artisanal fair, and to my surprise, I ran

23 nations

into the man and his wife cradling their newborn baby.

They remembered me just as I remembered them, and I took a picture with my new “nephew.”

Not only were the fairs a fantastic way to showcase all of the talented craftsmen, but they were also a perfect example of how friendly Argentineans are and continue to be—even after having met just once.

All photos contributed by authors ILLUSTRATION BY PETERSON

Participate as partners in study abroad programs with Whitman.

1 in 2 students Study abroad while in their junior year at Whitman.

Find out more about off-campus studies online at:

www.whitman.edu/content/ocs

T

hese are the Moeraki Boulders of New Zealand located on Koekohe Beach. They are huge concretions that broke free of the cliffside and came to rest on the beach. When the Maori first saw them, they believed the boulders to be the remnants of the Arai-te-uru, a large canoe which had crashed along the shores of Moeraki. Maori legend says that the boulders are eel baskets and kumara which had been thrown overboard in order to keep the canoe from going under. I visited the boulders on a beautiful spring day while my family was visiting me in New Zealand. The boulders are easily large enough to have several people stand on them.

Luckily for us, it was sunny all day long, and afterward, we were able to eat lunch in Oamaru, where a Victorian Days event was happening.

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A&E

6 Suggestions for healthy, tasty eating in 2012 Jan

26 2012

by ELLIE NEW ELL Contributing Reporter

I

t’s January, which means that many of us are making new commitments to our health and culinary palette. Whether you are hoping to eat healthier or just hoping to shake up the midwinter stir-fry doldrums, I’ve got a couple tips for you.

Most of my food philosophy comes from Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” “In Defense of Food,” and its derivative, “Food Rules.” Pollan’s advice is to “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” which I think is just about right. I don’t support dieting, but here are a

few things that I’ve found in Pollan’s work and elsewhere that help me make healthy choices about food. (Full disclaimer: I can and do eat entire pints of Cherry Garcia in one sitting with enthusiasm. I’m not a food saint.)

1. Eat The Rainbow! And those colors can’t be produced within two miles of the New Jersey turnpike. Carbs are generally white, tan or brown (ditto meat), so minimize the amount of space those take up on your plate in favor of colorful veggies and fruits.

If you’re an omnivore, try designating one or two vegetarian or vegan days out of the week and make up the protein with

beans, lentils, quinoa, tofu or just lots and lots of peanut butter.

2. If Your Grandma Wouldn’t, Don’t. Fear not, we’re still on edibles. Only eat things that your grandma would recognize as food. My German grandma probably didn’t eat a lot of curry growing up and that’s fine. Someone’s grandma probably did so that’s on the good list. Something full of processed corn and soy and marketed with bright packaging? Definitely not food.

3. Savor Each Bite. If you consciously think about the enticing aroma drifting up from that bowl of soup, revel in the crusty

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chewiness of that ciabbatta, and consider the seasonings in your rice bowl, then chances are you won’t feel like you need to eat as much. You’ll also enjoy food more. My mama taught me to set down my utensil between each bite and to use smaller cups and dishes, because you really do eat less if you take your time.

4. Don’t Think About It. I know this one looks a little incongruous in a list of things to think about, but really, don’t stress about food.

Put down your “3,000 Meals Under 300 Calories Ready in 30 Minutes” cookbook. Go outside, read a book, catch up on 30 Rock, whatever. Eat that extra slice of birth-

day cake. Go for the burger with bacon and cheese because food is fun and is supposed to be enjoyed, not agonized over. (Unless you’re making a cheddar replica of Stonehenge, in which case, that will probably need your full attention.)

Lately I’m craving lots of nice root vegetables like parsnips and sweet potatoes, Petit Basque (a delightful Spanish sheep cheese I received for Christmas) and let’s be honest, Lindt’s milk chocolate bars with pistachios. I hope you enjoy many delicious meals this year, Whitman! ¡Buen provecho!

Note: If you find yourself worrying about food in an unhealthy way, please talk to someone about it.

Emma Dahl ‘15 (above) incorporates accents of mod style while keeping her look streamlined and simple. Dahl cited Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn and the 60s era as her primary fashion inspirations. Photos by Beck

STYLE SPOTLIGHT Every week, The Pioneer searches out Whitties who bring an extra splash of fashion consciousness and sartorial daring to campus. This week’s Style Spotlight: first-year astronomy major, Emma Dahl.

Style Soundbites: “I got my cardigan from my mom for Christmas and the shirt I’m wearing at H&M. The socks have absolutely no significance— I’ve never been a big sock person, I don’t pay any attention to my socks at all. They’re from Costco. My shoes are from the Walla Walla Goodwill. I like boots— I think they look nice—and the green socks are a total fluke.”

“I cut off eight inches [of hair]

this summer. I thought about it for a long time and it was such a liberating experience. I had it in a ponytail and she just chopped it off and I was like, no going back from here. It was such a good feeling. It’s really easy to take care of and it’s also classy.”

“I kind of look in my closet, and I look for what I would feel good in that day. I’ll try it on and just go with it. I try to wear things that are kind of mod, like 60s, classy—I really like that time pe-

riod. [My fashion icon] probably would have to be Audrey Hepburn, who’s also from the 60s. She would always just wear like, the simple little black dress and she would just look fantastic. You don’t need really bright, bold, fancy clothes, you can just wear something nice and simple and look great.”

“Peacoats are a great thing, blazers are a great thing, tweed is a great thing. So, all of those together—I have a tweed blazer, and I have a bright orange peacoat

‘Wyoming Triumph’ brings snowy thrills

by A LEX H AGEN Staff Reporter

E “Born to Die” lacks soul, fails to find identity

by M A LLORY M A RTIN Staff Reporter

J

anuary has been a big month for singer/songwriter Lana Del Rey. With the release of a selftitled EP earlier this month, and her first album “Born to Die” due out soon, she’s been busy. And with fans singing her praises and critics panning her recent SNL guest spot, it’s fair to say she’s receiving a lot of publicity as of late. The big question here is, should you pre-order her new album? My answer is no.

While Del Rey’s deep alto and often bluesy style will find an easy audience with those searching for the next Adele or Amy Winehouse, I found myself disappointed.

Del Rey has all the potential in the world: her throwback music videos, her gorgeous appearance and her simple yet pleasing vocals give plenty to look forward to. The problem is, her album does not live up to the hype building as of late.

Best compared with Florence Welch for her lazy diction and breathy vocal style, Del Rey lacks the passion and range of her fellow redhead.

I find little diversity in the tracks of “Born to Die.” Although the songs do follow different themes such as love, identity and mortality, I found that the music all basically sounds the same. There is no crescendo, no build up; the songs are definitively bland. The few times that Del Rey does try to break the mold, such as with “National Anthem” and “Off to the Races,” I found the electro-pop and high pitches she chooses unattractive on her voice.

To be fair, I enjoyed the bluesy “Video Games” the first time I heard it. It’s just that listening to “Born to Die” and “Summertime Sadness” directly after left me bored. Del Rey needs to learn Adele’s tactic of subtle variety before she makes another album.

Lana del Rey’s “Born to Die” will be released Tuesday, Jan. 31 in stores and on iTunes. There will also be a Deluxe edition featuring several bonus tracks. You can also check out her Youtube channel “LanaDelRey” to see if you agree.

arly next month, Whitman alumni Chris Kitchen ‘02 and Sam Pope ‘01 will visit campus and screen their film, “Wyoming Triumph.” Billed as “a working man’s ski and snowboard feature,” the film is a documentary centered on skiing and snowboarding in different locations around the titular state.

Whitman’s screening of “Wyoming Triumph” will kick off a tour of screening around the Northwest, including stops in Seattle and Portland. The film will be shown in Kimball Theater at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 1, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Kitchen and Pope, both of whom collaborated on producing and directing the film, found inspiration in the film classes they took at Whitman, particularly those

taught by Professor of Rhetoric and Film Studies Robert Sickels.

In between commercial work and other small independent features, they spent two years exploring and filming the destinations featured in “Wyoming Triumph,” all of which were shot in Wyoming.

With “Wyoming Triumph,” the duo sought to create a film that differed from typical “action sports” documentaries, featuring locations that Kitchen referred to as “the un-destinations of skiing.”

“The point of the movie is kind of that everybody in the action-sports world is going to these exotic locations and doing, like, crazy things, and we’re just trying to show that, hey, you can have adventure anywhere— you could have it in your own backyard, you just need to go out and seek it,” said Kitchen.

Because the film is not a product of the studio system, Kitchen and Pope both

worked extensively on the film in all stages of production.

“On the film, I did everything from storyboarding and fundraising during pre-production and putting a tour together once everything’s done,” said Pope.

Before getting to work on future projects, the duo will continue to promote “Wyoming Triumph” for some time. Afterwards, they hope to tackle transferring a couple of books to the screen, including Fred Pearce’s “When Rivers Run Dry.” “We hope to build on the momentum created by the film,” said Pope.

For now, the two are focusing on spreading the story and message of “Wyoming Triumph” around the country. Whether or not you are involved in winter sports, the film’s message may well prove to be universal.

“It’s the story of exploration, really,” said Kitchen.

which is an ode to Audrey Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’”

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:

Arid Lands WEB presents Arid Lands, a documentary exploring the powerful landscapes and diverse people of the Columbia River Basin through the lens of history and the Hanford site.

Thursday, Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. Olin 130.

Music From Warmer Climates Whitman College Fridays at Four Recital Series presents Music From Warmer Climates, a showcase of classical guitar music from Spain, Brazil, Paraguay and Cuba, led by Dr. Paul Grove.

Friday, Jan. 27, 4 p.m. Kimball Theatre.

“Dating Doctor” David Coleman, “The Dating Doctor,” speaks on love, relationships and dating. Get in the mood for the month of love with an engaging lecture and speed dating activity.

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Maxey Auditorium.

2012 film season promises action, enormous star power

by NATH A N FISHER Staff Reporter

W

ith the 2011 movie season concluded, save for the upcoming Academy Awards, it’s time to look forward. 2012 appears to have some goodies coming our way. Here’s my can’t-wait-tosee film list in the action/adventure, comedy and thriller genres.

The first film I am looking forward to seeing is “The Avengers.” A mash-up of our favorite superheroes: Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk and Thor to name a few, are banded together by Samuel L. Jackson to save the world. A cheesy premise, sure, but in the hands of Joss Whedon (director of “Firefly,” “Serenity” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), I am confident that “The Avengers” will not disappoint. “The Avengers” hits theaters on Friday, May 4.

Next on my list in the com-

edy “Rock of Ages.” Okay, yes, “Rock of Ages” is probably more of a musical because it is based on the Broadway musical of the same title and has the same director as “Hairspray.” Centered around the height of eighties rock and roll, a rock and roll club is threatened with being torn down to “clean up the streets.” In an attempt to stall the destruction, the club tries to put on one last show. Normally I am not swayed by sheer star power, but I am psyched for this cast: Paul Giamatti, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand and Catherine Zeta-Jones, not to mention Tom Cruise playing a rock and roll star.

What could go wrong?! “Rock of Ages” comes out Friday, June 1.

Last, but definitely not least on my list is the consummate thriller, “The Dark Night Rises.”

The final chapter to Christopher Nolan’s Batman series promises to be well worth the four-year wait, and releases on Friday, July 20. Christian Bale is back repris-

ILLUSTRATION BY B A I L E Y

ing the role of Bruce Wayne, and again has the solid back-up of Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine. A new villain is introduced with the surprise casting of Anne Hathaway. How

is this great story going to end?

Get the popcorn ready because 2012 has some promising movies on the horizon! Fear not, I will be sure to give my reviews of them as they come.

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OPINION

Jan

26 2012

7

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5 fun ways to keep gaming ‘on the cheap’ while at Whitman BLAIR FRANK Junior

I

f you’re anything like me, break is a fantastic time to unwind and enjoy the latest that the video game industry has to offer. But let’s face it: being a Whitman student is a lot of work. I know I won’t have a couple hundred hours this semester to devote to a “Skyrim” marathon. This break, I sat down with some of the best works that indie developers have to offer in a quest to find some great ways for other folks to keep up their gaming habit over the school year.

In order to narrow down my list of recommendations, each of the games had to be available for less than ten dollars through Valve Software’s Steam digital distribution platform, simple to pick up and play, and available for both Mac OS X and Windows. What follows are the five best games that fit those criteria.

Beat Hazard Following in the footsteps

of games like “Stepmania” and “Audiosurf,” “Beat Hazard” is a top-down shoot-em-up with a twist: its difficulty is determined by what you pick from your music library. Of course, the game itself is better suited to certain genres than others: a library full of Barry Manilow ballads will be significantly less challenging than the latest dubstep, but the game provides radio stations for you to play with if your musical tastes don’t necessarily line up with your level of skill.

Cave Story This run-and-gun platformer has a retro aesthetic reminiscent of early Mega Man games (though without the insane difficulty) and a deep story to match.

Its core mechanics are fun and just complex enough to make for a solid challenge. If you’re looking for something to play that’s more long-form than other games on this list, “Cave Story” is great fun to pick up.

Poker Night at the Inventory “Poker Night” is a whimsical poker game featuring several recognizable characters, including The Heavy from Valve’s wildly successful “Team Fortress 2” and Strong Bad from Homestar Runner’s “Strong Bad Email” series. While the AI probably won’t challenge a seasoned card shark, the game is visually gorgeous, wickedly fun-

Letter from the Editor Greetings at start of spring ’12 semester I often ask Pioneer staff members to think about what the paper means to them: why they devote so much time and energy to The Pio, and what they hope to gain. The “why” is important; when we can’t answer the question, we know that we’re doing something wrong.

I would like to extend my questions to our readers in this, the first issue of 2012. Why is The Pioneer important to you?

What do you want from it? I challenge you to engage with The Pioneer this semester: If your friend writes a great article, let her know. When we

get things wrong, send us a complaint. Write your first Letter to the Editor or argue with our columnists online. And when you find yourself saying, “The Pio should write about this”—yeah, we’d like to know what “this” is.

We’re your newspaper. Don’t let us forget it.

Patricia Vanderbilt Editor-in-Chief editors@whitmanpioneer.com

Political Cartoon by Kelly Douglas

ILLUSTRATION BY LOOS-DIALLO

ny and decidedly fun to play.

What’s more, at a paltry $5, it’s significantly cheaper than sitting down to a real game of poker.

Trine “Trine” is one of the best games I played in the past year, hands-down. Frozenbyte has created a gem of a platformer, which requires the player to switch be-

tween three different characters (each with their own different skillset) to solve a variety of puzzles. It’s a lot of fun, with a gentle difficulty curve that will pull you in right from the start, while still providing a challenge later on. The story, while sparse, remains engaging, and the graphics are gorgeous.

It’s worth noting that several really excellent games were unfortunately left off this list due to price, complexity and space concerns. I’d strongly recommend that anyone interested in spending a few more dollars take a look at the other indie titles available on Steam. There are a lot of other gems out there.

Open source research techniques could revolutionize medicine NATHAN ORD Senior

W

hat happens when Facebook meets medicine? And I’m not talking about poking your doctor when you want an appointment.

What happens if all of a sudden, instead of pharmaceutical companies hiding their recipes behind closed doors and keeping their active compounds a closely guarded secret, they were to share?

This is exactly what Jay Bradner, a researcher at Harvard and the Dana Farber Institute in Boston, did. When his lab discovered a compound that showed promise against pancreatic cancer and other solid tumors, he asked himself the question: “What would a pharmaceutical company do at this point?” And he did the opposite. Instead of keeping it a secret, he sent the compound out to researchers around the world, who sent back their findings. Instead of keeping his success in house, as a secret until he could patent a product, he created the most competitive research environment possible for his lab.

There is a lesson here. From evolution to cell phones to arm wrestling, it’s clear that competition breeds innovation. In fact, this is the very foundation of cap-

italism. Then why do we allow organizations to hide their secrets behind layers of copyrights and hordes of lawyers? The answer is simple: money. Without profits, corporations can’t invest in research and provide the cutting edge products the public desires. However, there is something wrong with this system. If we truly care about human wellbeing for ourselves and others, we need to care about health.

And we need a system that provides the best possible health at the lowest cost. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Wrong.

Everyone agrees healthcare needs reform, but—surprise!— no one agrees on what changes need to be made. I say, forget all the rhetoric and political posturing and take a leaf from Jay Bradner’s book. Open source. Make all research done by non-military institutions free and open to scientists around the world. Tweet your data, post your thoughts, and ask your colleagues in Zimbabwe if they have had similar results while transplanting stem cells into salamanders. Bring science into the realm of social media.

Already this is happening.

Sites like Research Gate give users a place to talk about data, publish results and consult other scientists in hundreds of disciplines.

NCBI and the UCBI genome browsers freely provide millions of dollars worth of research to the public. But this is not enough.

In order to truly make scientific research collaborative, we need to change the business model behind medicine. Currently, I can’t blame corporations for hiding their secrets, be-

cause it can cost $800 million or more to bring a drug to market. With that kind of investment, a company needs immense copyright protection and the hordes of lawyers to enforce it.

With investment on such a scale, medicine will never be cheap.

But there is an answer. Unfortunately, I don’t know it.

But I do know that by sharing, by giving research freely to those with the materials and backgrounds to provide new insights, we can do groundbreaking work in a cheaper and more efficient manner. But we need the government to sign on.

This is a new age—the age of information, and, perhaps more accurately, the age of sharing information. In fact, to 3,000 people in Sweden who belong to the Church of Kopimism, information sharing is sacred. Yet we are still mired in 20th century copyright laws, still held back by antiquated business models that have failed to adapt to piracy and the vast spread of individual social media.

Perhaps last Wednesday was a turning point. Wikipedia and 10,000 other sites blacked out to protest SOPA, and the next day, under the combined mass of millions of internet users, Congress failed to be bought by corporations seeking to regain a stranglehold on the flow of information. Perhaps Wednesday was the first day that Congress realized how powerful social media has become, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll take the hint and begin developing new social structures that work with and not against the immense power of information sharing technology.

Swapping sex for communication in our Voices from the Community academic department best prepares you for the apocalypse? college relationships prepares us for divorce Which Poll by Axtell Tristan Gavin

Guest Columnist Sophomore

I

am sure you have heard the statistics on the frighteningly low proportion of successful marriages before, so I won’t bore you with numbers. What I will bore you with, however, is my opinion on the cause of this trend, specifically the role sex plays in our society.

In the last few decades, premarital sex has become something of a banality, along with divorce.

I won’t argue that having sex before marriage causes divorce, because there are millions of couples who make it work after a fruitful youth. I do believe, however, that sex is one of the world’s strongest weapons and if used incorrectly can ruin relationships.

Sex is awesome. It feels good, it provides a way to physically express love, and it creates an emotional tie between two people that

transcends nearly anything. Too often, however, young couples use sex to solve problems when their poor communication skills fail. By holding their relationships together with physical action rather than emotional connection, many couples doom themselves for failure.

Emotional connections and friendships last forever, but even the greatest sexual artists lose a step or two with age. Without sex to provide the adhesion between two incompatible people, they will realize their vast differences and take their dispute to the courtroom rather than the bedroom.

When I lost my virginity it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. I talked about it with my high school girlfriend for weeks before deciding to “take our relationship to the next level.” I would be lying if I said sexual desires played no part, but it was an incredibly calculated decision for us. We had dated for two years and were best friends, so we clearly weren’t using sex as a crutch. We decided to have sex because we thought we were close enough as friends that we could probably make it work in the long run with our emotional compatibility, but wanted to make sure we were sexually compatible before we committed to anything greater.

We were compatible. The sex was great, but not the most important part of our relationship at all.

Like many, our relationship dissolved as we went to college and changed. Yet I know that at that point in time I was emotionally and sexually connected with her so strongly that, with work, I could have lived my whole life with her.

In a college environment where alcohol and whatever else you do may lead you into relationships founded upon sexual acts at parties, it is important to step back and decide whether you would be with your partner if not for the sex. If you fail to develop a friendship with your partner, you are setting yourself up, in action and mindset, to be another number in the divorce files.

Whether or not the sex comes first or at all may not matter, but in my humble opinion you can’t “make” love. Sex can show how you feel and bring you great pleasure, but it cannot create an emotional bond as strong as love. Have sex and make mistakes if that is your cup of tea, but in the words of the great philosopher Mark Michaud, “don’t let short term wants (sex) get in the way of your long term needs (love and marriage).”

That is why people get divorced.

MATTHEW PRULL Associate Professor of Psychology

“History, because you could document the events of the Apocalypse.”

CORINNE VANDAGRIFF First-year

“Geology, because you could understand what was going on in the changing world.”

JOEL SENECAL

SARA HEERMANS

Sophomore

Sophomore

“Psychology/Politics double major, because that is the way in which you would best be able to learn how to interact with the post-apocolyptic society and organize them into an effective unit that could then go out and fight zombies.”

“Politics, because I think it would be helpful in creating a society that could coexist fairly peacefully.”

BACKPAGE 8 TIPS FOR JAN-STARTS PAGE

Jan

26 2012

ILLUSTRATION BY PETERSON

It may seem a little intimidating starting the year later than everyone else. Here at the Backpage, we’ve come up with some tips to help ease the transition.

Brain of Whitman Student Before Break

Brain of Whitman Student After Break

The true and the embellished happenings of w nter break Most people want others to think that they do insane things all the time. Who wants to tell people that over break they spend most of their time with their cat? Here’s an example of a few white lies people tell about their break:

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED • I caught up on all the latest seasons of “Dexter.”

• Went to Thunder Alley with the fam.

• My mom and I did a combined Costco/Target run.

• I did some shoveling from a monster snowstorm that hit.

• Creeped on my ex on Facebook.

• Listened to Adele and cried.

• Cleaned my room.

WHAT YOU TOLD PEOPLE • On the first night back, a group of my friends all got together. It was a huge party. It was supposed to just be a few people, and then people just kept showing up. I was out until like 3 a.m. and had to recover the whole next day.

Get to know your section. There’s a good chance that a lot of people in your section are weird. The sooner you find this out, the sooner you will branch out and meet new, cooler people.

Go to class. But if you’re not in the mood to learn, don’t go. This happens to everyone. If you skip every class at least once for no reason, that’s okay.

Meet with your professors. It’s nev-

er too soon to start sucking up for good letters of recommendation.

Find your balance. Sometimes it’s hard to find time to party all weekend and get your homework done.

Just start planning on doing no homework during the weekend and plan accordingly. Example of a typical Saturday: brunch, three-to-fourhour nap, dinner, get ready, go out . . . absolutely no time for school work.

Maybe make Wednesdays homework days.

Get involved. This can give you an opportunity to meet people with similar interests to you, academic and nonacademic.

Attempt to get good grades. That

way you will get decent grades. It is highly unlikely you will get an A, but if you try to, you may get a B-, maybe even a B. Be responsible. Always stay with your friends, that way if you get too drunk you have someone to take care of you.

Stay healthy. If you eat healthily during the day, it can balance out the alcohol and drunchies you consume at night.

You may occasionally feel overwhelmed. School is tough, so whenever you feel like you have too much on your plate, don’t be afraid to just stay in bed, watch Netflix, smoke a bowl and eat some cookie dough.

shit my chem prof says “This is a Lewis dot structure . . . sort of . . . kinda.”

“This guy, Leucippos . . . that looks Greek, right . . . yeah, he’s Greek.”

“I once read ‘The History of Chemistry’ . . . it was pretty boring.”

“Germans have always been good with science and other things that aren’t so popular.”

“The periodic table is a work of art.”

“I was wearing a shirt [with some kind of structure on it] and someone stopped me and said, ‘I’m offended by your shirt because it has women’s breasts on it.’”

“People were pretty dirty until 3500 BC.”

“I sat by a guy who looked a lot like this at a concert.”

“This guy did something stupid in lab and won a Nobel Prize for it.”

“That’s on page 43 and all over the internet.”

“Let’s say 1905, I’ll make it up.”

“This is not right . . . maybe it is . . .”

“They were spraying oil (like perfume) . . . can’t get a lot of dates that way.”

“He’s the only thing that’s ever come out of New Zealand.”

“They were going through models like toilet paper.”

“Physics was pretty easy around 1900; we could have all gotten A’s.”

“The protons were flying around all willy-nilly . . . doing whatever.”

Comic by Binta Loos-Diallo

• One night, my family got a little cray cray on the wine. My parents, aunt, uncle and cousins were all tipsy by 8 o’clock.

• I went gambling and won around $200.

• One time I went to the gym when I was high . . . the treadmill didn’t work out so well.

• Hooked up with my ex.

• Went to Kanye and Jay-Z’s “Watch the Throne” concert.

• On New Year’s Eve = cross-faded. I don’t know if I even made it until midnight. I might have kissed more than one person . . . who knows.

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