ZOMBIE INVASION Humans vs. Zombies sparks creation of short-lived yet unique culture
UN-NATURAL HISTORY
THE LOST IPHONE
An in-depth look at local artist Gerald Matthews’s downtown ‘museum’
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Columnist Blair Frank debates the most important story in tech journalism history
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WHITMAN COLLEGE Walla Walla, WA Volume CXXVI Issue 12 whitmanpioneer.com A ,
Shadow Day brings local youth to campus
ASWC to offer intro to living off-campus
Club Latino brought close to 50 low-income high school students to Whitman to encourage them to attend college. The ‘shadows’ went to classes, took a campus tour and met with current students. by RACHEL ALEXANDER
by JEREMY GUGGENHEIM
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
In a nod to an increasing number of offcampus burglaries, junior ASWC Senator and President-elect Carson Burns and junior ASWC Ombudsman and Vice President-elect John Loranger are establishing a living off-campus orientation to educate juniors and seniors. The event, officially approved in an ASWC senate resolution last week and scheduled for Sept. 7, 2010, will include talks by Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland, the Safety Coordinator from the Walla Walla Police Department, a security officer and a landlord. Burglary is a problem Burns is wellacquainted with; his off-campus house was broken into three times this year. He has also dealt with a negligent landlord. Burns hopes to help other students avoid these same difficulties and believes his experiences could provide students who have never lived off campus with valuable information. A brief discussion with Burns reveals he and his housemates have had a poor renting experience. “One time my housemate was home alone when he heard noise downstairs. He went to investigate and found a homeless Vietnam veteran sitting in our dining room.” Burns said that the man did not cause any trouble. Break-ins such as this one may have been enabled by Burns’ unresponsive landlord, who failed to fix house necessities—such as door locks—despite a month of requests. Burns says he has learned from these experiences. Among other things, he now knows that landlords are obligated to provide a certain level of home security for tenants, and that if landlords don’t perform house repairs in a prompt manner, a tenant can withhold rent until the repair. One of the best things Burns thought students could do to ensure the security WORKSHOP, page 2
BOWMAN Club Latino member Erick Aguayo ‘12 shares his Whitman experience with students from Wa-Hi during their campus visit.
Students eating lunch in Jewett last Thursday, April 22, might have been perplexed to discover a line out the door when they arrived at the dining hall. Amidst the signs about cheeseburgers causing global warming were about 50 students from Walla Walla High School visiting campus for Club Latino’s Shadow Day. Shadow Day, now in its fifth year, is an annual event that aims to bring lower-income high school students, many of whom are Latino, to campus for a day and show them that college is a possibility. “The purpose of this event is to get kids excited about applying for college,” said sophomore Aaron Aguilar, president
have one of the lowest graduation rates from high school,” she said. “For me as a Chicana, this is a crisis.” Current Whitman senior Jazmin Lopez participated in the first Shadow Day five years ago. She said that although she lived in Walla Walla, Whitman wasn’t really on her radar. “Even though I grew up here, I didn’t come on campus because it wasn’t part of the town I was in,” she said. Shadow Day inspired her to consider applying to private schools by showing her there were ways to afford schools like Whitman. The Walla Walla students said they appreciated the opportunity to see campus. “The library is just incredible,” said Walla Walla High SHADOW, page 2
Ain’t no mountain high enough Last weekend, Whitman College’s new climbing wall was on display as the Climbing Center hosted the 18th Annual Sweet Onion Crank by BAILEY ARANGO Staff Reporter
While every day spent at the climbing wall is an exciting one, the last Saturday in April holds a special place in the hearts of Whitman College outdoor enthusiasts; last Saturday, April 24, Whitman College hosted its 18th annual Sweet Onion Crank, a celebration of rock climbing and outdoor culture rendered all the more special by the Crank debut of Sherwood Athletic Center’s new indoor climbing wall,
FENNELL Daniel Swain ‘13 scales one of the 55 routes on Whitman’s new climbing wall.
which opened to students this fall. The 40 foot tall, 100 foot wide indoor wall saw over 75 entrants participate in a day full of workshops, ONION CR ANK , page 11
Varsity Nordic to partner with DGs for 24-hour fundraiser by AMI TIAN Staff Reporter
It’s time, once again, for 24-hour improv. Next Friday, May 7, starting at 6 p.m. and going until 6 p.m. Saturday, Varsity Nordic will be performing improv in Olin 130 as part of its annual fundraiser for Blue Mountain Heart-To-Heart, a local non-profit providing support to people living with HIV/AIDS. Throughout the night the group will be accepting donations and selling refreshments; there will also be chances for audience members to win prizes. However, some aspects of the event will be slightly differently this year. First of all, the improv is going to be split into two-hour blocks, each of which will be directed by a different team member. Each hour will also have a theme. The themes will be chosen during the event, but possible examples include: Pokemon, “children’s hour,” pirates and Jack Kerouac, according to Varsity Nordic. Varsity Nordic is also teaming up with the Delta Gamma sorority, which will cover organizational aspects of the fundraiser this year, such as advertising and selling refreshments. In past years, Varsity Nordic has encountered difficulties in attempting to put on a 24-hour show and fundraise at the same time. Accordingly, members of the comedy group have had a much easier time preparing for the event this year with the extra help. “In the past we had the whole team split up and try and to do advertising and we are just bad at that,” said sophomore Sam Alden. “Improv is
of Club Latino. “There are kids that typically don’t go on many campus visits. They’re not really that exposed to college.” The day began with a breakfast where the high school students had a chance to meet Whitman students and ask them questions about college. After this, students were assigned to go to classes with Club Latino members and other Whitman students who had volunteered. The Walla Walla students also toured campus and had lunch with Whitman students and professors. Nohemy Solorzano-Thompson, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures– Spanish, feels that encouraging Latino students to attend college is critical. “Latinos in the United States
BULLION Justis Phillips ‘12 and Peter Richards ‘10 get ready for the upcoming 24-hour improv marathon at a recent practice session.
kind of the only thing that we seem to be able to do really well.” In addition to items donated by downtown Walla Walla businesses, prizes will include personalized “goody bags,” which senior Alex Kerr described as “a grab bag of cool foods and toys and things from downtown thrown into a bag, along with custom stuff from the person who’s coaching. So whatever it is they love or like they’ll throw in there, notes to you, stuff from their garbage can (probably not), things from their attic . . .” The main difference from previous years, according to Kerr, who has been with the group since his freshman year, is the level of audience participation. “We’re making it more personal for the audience,” said Kerr. “So there’s more prizes you can win where you come onstage, you decide what we
play, you decide what the themes are and there’s more things to win.” Alden gave an example of an audience request from last year’s show. “Somebody paid [senior Alex Cassidy and junior Kevin Klein] $20 to have them make out onstage as dinosaurs,” Alden recalled. “There’s been some talk about maybe having a $20 ‘insert a make out scene’ option but it’s still up in the air. It might not be kosher,” said Alden. Part of what gets the group through the night is the audience, which, contrary to what one might think, never disappears entirely. “I remember one guy stayed for 24 hours, staying in the same spot,” said Alden. “We’re never performing to an empty auditorium; there’s always a few guys there even at four in the VARSITY NORDIC, page 7
LOOS-DIALLO
Sweet Basil discontinues student discount night by LEA NEGRIN Staff Reporter
The Whitman tradition of going to Sweet Basil Pizzeria’s monthly $1 slice night has come to an end. The last of the discounted nights, which until last year were weekly, was Wednesday, April 7; this coming Wednesday, May 5, will mark the first first Wednesday of the month without the deal. For sophomore Julia Schneider, no discounts will likely mean fewer trips to the downtown pizza joint. “I feel like it was such a good deal. It’ll be special to go there but I’ll probably go less often,” she said. “It is very nice pizza so it can’t be very lucrative to sell it so inexpensively.” For first-year Alison Zegarra, however, the news was unfortunate but not disheartening. “It’s a pretty good price anyway in retrospect and it doesn’t change how I feel about Sweet Basil,” she said. Senior Lewis Silver recalled going weekly with friends, sometimes just to be with the hustle bustle of people. “I think that there are a lot of groups that have made it a part of their routine and I think that it will definitely end that immediate tradition although I don’t think it will stop people from going on a pretty regular basis,” he said. “There are pretty limited locations that you can walk
to around Whitman that have good food.” Sweet Basil Manager Stephanie Bowen said the original intent of dollar slice night was to encourage students to visit Sweet Basil. However, in recent months, the sheer volume of customers on discounted days was not only stressful on the facilities, but also for customers who often turned away due to the line. “We just don’t feel we have the space or the time to adequately get the product out in a timely fashion,” said Bowen. Many students were curious as to why Sweet Basil would eliminate the discounted night completely rather than simply adjusting it. “Whenever I’ve gone there . . . it has been packed, line out the door, and so it seems like even if they were to slightly raise the price they would still get to keep that rise [in customers] if they had a discount,” said Silver. Though the dollar a slice night has ended, there are still student discounts available at Sweet Basil. “We really appreciate the students,” said Bowen. Sweet Basil’s decision, though not popular, does not seem like it will result in too much of a change for students. “I think people already really like [Sweet Basil] and it has already established a name for itself so people will still go,” said sophomore Alyssa Breetwor.
ASWC 2011 Budget From $75 for the Medieval Society to $147,000 for the Whitman Events Board, see what each club and student-funded organization is set to receive for fiscal year 2011. page 2