SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVALS A comprehensive guide to this summer’s music festivals
RACE TO THE FINISH The true story behind the official beer mile
HOME STRETCH Baseball drops final games of 2010 to Whitworth Pirates
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WHITMAN COLLEGE Walla Walla, WA Volume CXXVI Issue 13 whitmanpioneer.com M ,
Ralph Nader urges civic involvement
Students express registration frustration
The consumer rights advocate and four-time presidential candidate spoke Wednesday on the role of corporations in the government and what citizens can do.
by JOSH GOODMAN Associate News Editor
Nearly 250 students, largely frustrated by reduced course offerings as a result of the upcoming 3-2 teaching schedule, larger classes and a 16-credit pre-registration cap for fall 2010, expressed their concerns in a recent ASWC survey on pre-registration. Faculty and administrators, meanwhile, are pointing to statistics indicating that the effect of 3-2 on pre-registration has been minimal. Faculty approved a 3-2 teaching load in November, reducing the number of courses full-time faculty teach from six to five per academic year and reducing the number of course sections per semester by 17 percent. The number of courses offered will only fall by seven percent because many courses will continue to be offered but with fewer sections than in previous years. Class sizes will be bigger, too. Director of Institutional Research Neal Christopherson said that despite fewer course sections, there will be only 200 fewer total seats available in classes in the fall 2010 semester compared to fall 2009. “I’m hesitant to agree to the premise that people had more trouble registering than in previous years, but I certainly believe that people were more sensitive to it because of 3-2,” Christopherson said, noting the relative stability in the total number of seats available. Additionally, the 16-credit cap was created, independent from the 3-2 switch, in response to difficulties with first-year registration last year. The idea is that by preventing students from signing up for an overload and then dropping courses, more seats will be available for first-years. Continuing students will be allowed to register for additional courses once firstyears have registered. “The problem here is the tug and pull phenomenon,” said Registrar Ron Urban. “There are some students who say ‘why can’t we add one or two credits’? The opposing force is that returning students sign up for a lot of classes they don’t take . . . By restricting the enrollment cap to 16, the hope was that some spaces would be left for new students.” The ASWC survey found the overwhelming majority of respondents were REGISTR ATION, page 2
by JOE VOLPERT Staff Reporter
BOWMAN Ralph Nader spoke on Wednesday, May 5, at Cordiner Hall. Students were enthusiastic about his proposal that Whitman offer a civic skills class.
Self-described “public citizen” Ralph Nader was welcomed to the Whitman campus with not one but two standing ovations Wednesday evening when he presented “Going Green: Getting it to the Bottom Line,” a lecture on the intersection between big business, the government, the environment and civic involvement. Nader opened his speech with a call to action, asking how many college students in the room had sat in on a court case or attended a town hall meeting. Few raised their hands. “I see students today as having an obligation to contemplate their own leadership,” he said. Nader proposed that Whitman, along with colleges and universities nationwide, implement a civic skills course that would teach students how to be involved in the civic realm, rather than only address theories. Such a class would hopefully give students a passion for civic participation. The proposal was met with overwhelming support from the audience. According to Nader, fewer than a doz-
After vote, Panhellenic Association ‘95 percent sure’ fourth sorority will be added to campus by JOCELYN RICHARD News Editor
Ever since the women’s fraternity Delta Delta Delta left Whitman in 2005, Whitties have speculated about the possibility of establishing a new women’s fraternity on campus, an idea which gained momentum last spring after Greek women passed a resolution to begin researching the extension process. On April 25, members of the three current women’s fraternities voted overwhelmingly in favor of moving forward with extension, making it very likely students will see a new sorority at Whitman in the near future. “This is a big deal,” said Panhellenic President Heather Smith, a sophomore. “This is the crucial step we needed to reach in order to say we’re
95 percent sure we’re getting a fourth sorority in Fall 2011.” Early planning for extension began nearly two years ago in response to the issue of overcrowding within Whitman’s three women’s fraternities, Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta and Kappa Kappa Gamma. Membership numbers have been steadily increasing every year since 2005, when Delta Delta Delta left campus because of dwindling numbers, among other reasons. “The college is growing, but we’re also doing a really good job of recruitment and so we’re attracting a lot of women,” said Smith. “If this keeps happening, we wouldn’t be able to give bids to all the girls who want to join a sorority—not because we don’t want them, but because we just can’t
fit them. That’s one of the main reasons the administration has approved this; they hate the idea of not having enough room to give bids to all the girls who want one.” Delta Gamma is the largest women’s fraternity on campus this year with 106 members, and President Ruby Glaser explained that members were united in their enthusiasm for taking the next steps toward extension. “Whenever we go through recruitment, we always end up with a huge new member class,” said Glaser. “With such large groups, it’s hard for us to maintain our organization. When the classes are smaller, it makes it more intimate for the members because you really get to know everybody.” Sophomore Geni Venable, president SORORITY, page 2
Farmers’ Market looks New theater fest to produce ahead to busy season by RACHEL ALEXANDER Staff Reporter
VON HAFFTEN Above: Susan Hosticka of Octopus Garden Honey gives a free sample to a customer. Below: Cody Norgaard!Stroich holds a Waliser Farms chick.
Walla Walla residents walking down Main Street last weekend were treated to the smells of fresh baked bread, ripe local produce and handmade beeswax soaps. The source of this aromatic array was the Walla Walla Valley Farmers’ Market, which opened for the season on Saturday, May 1. Several dozen vendors sold everything from jewelry to apple-carrot-ginger-beet juice to a diverse group of patrons. For Whitman students, the market is an exciting opportunity to venture off campus and interact with the local community. “It reminds me of home and how I went to my local farmers’ market every weekend,” said first-year Nathan Wong. “It’s nice to get some exposure to the town.” Aimee McGuire, the market manager, said she looks forward to a good season. The market will be open every Saturday and Sunday through October 30 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. About 70 vendors have signed up so far, and she expects to see more turn in paperwork as the season goes on. “These are really good numbers,” she said. Farmers look forward to the market as an opportunity to interact directly with customers. “It’s a good way for people not to go through all the middlemen and chain stores,” said farmer Buddy Locati, who
has sold asparagus at the market for 14 years. “It brings the community together.” Proving his point, Locati was frequently interrupted in the process of answering questions by customers asking how he’d been during the offseason. Farmer John Zerba also appreciates the community element of the market. “It’s a good social occasion,” he said. “I get to meet a lot of people who I would never see.” Zerba has been a farmer his whole life, and currently sells honey, nuts, flowers, cherries, peaches, apricots and several other fruits and vegetables at the market. Like many other farmers at the market, his farm is not certified organic, though he said he uses some organic chemicals on his farms. “Organic gives you an excuse to sell at a bigger price,” he said. Locati, a third generation farmer, said his farm is not organic either. “I’m a traditional farmer,” he said. “I’ll probably stay that way after 38 years.” Organic or not, both farmers stressed that their customers were getting a better deal than they would get at chain stores and supermarkets. Locati sells his asparagus to local grocery stores, including Super 1 Foods and Albertsons, but says that there’s no guarantee the produce is fresh, and his MARKET, page 2
One-Act Play Contest rejects by AMI TIAN Staff Reporter
This Sunday, May 9, at 4 p.m. the first ever Blank by Blank Festival will feature original, student-written, studentproduced plays, many of which were not picked as finalists in this year’s One-Act Play Contest. The festival, organized by the student-run theater company 12 Stones, will be presented in various locations around campus. The audience will congregate in the amphitheatre adjacent to Lyman Hall for food and drink and walk from there to the location of the first performance. Sophomore Theo Pratt, producer of the festival, was inspired by a recent installment of 12 Stones’ serial, “Christina and the Clockwork Boy,” which employed a similar site-specific format. Walking during the show encouraged socialization and interaction amongst the audience. Pratt wanted to recreate a similar communal experience for the Blank by Blank Festival. “One of the great things about being in the audience, walking as a crowd, is you can talk to different people in between scenes about what was going on,” explained Pratt. “There is a lot of energy from being in a moving crowd going to see different things.” When asked about the individual plays being featured in the festival, Pratt 12 STONES, page 2
en schools currently offer such civic skills courses. Nader also emphasized the amount of power that corporations hold in society. He thinks that corporations have become masters of our society on a global scale. “We let [the corporations] create a corporate state,” he said. Nader also discussed his disappointment with our political system and the problems inherent in a two-party system, which he believes is one of the reasons the United States has such a low voter turnout. “I’m disappointed with the political process, and guess what, I’m not the only one,” said Nader. “The two-party tyranny is riding the myth of voter trust.” His lecture was attended by students, alumni and Walla Walla residents, and many seemed to appreciate the real-world applicability of his ideas. Students were especially receptive to his idea of a civic skills course. Politics major David Mathews appreciated Nader’s advice about entering the real world. As a senior, Mathews observed LECTURE , page 3
Bookstore to offer textbook list online by JEREMY GUGGENHEIM Staff Reporter
The Whitman College Bookstore is planning to implement a new, web-based system that will allow students to find out which books their courses require at the time of registration. The system is expected to be ready by the start of the fall 2011 semester, although this could be pushed forward to as early as the start of the spring 2011 semester. As it is envisioned now, students who are registering would be able to click on a link by the courses they are interested in to go to a page where the required books for that course would be listed. These pages would list all publication information, including ISBNs, so students could learn exactly which edition of a book is required. The pages would also list the prices from Whitman’s bookstore. The move comes as a result of a change in the Higher Education Opportunities Act made when the legislation went before Congress last year for a routine renewal. The change mandated that colleges and universities inform students at the time of registration of which books they would need for their courses. The mandate goes into effect on July 1, 2010. Although Whitman may not comply with this law for a year or more after it goes into effect, Bookstore Director Douglas Carlsen is not concerned about the legal implications of the delay. “The law has no penalties. The law has no encouragements,” he said. “It’s just a stated preference in law that we would like to see information available to students in advance of them being offered on the shelf, for as cheap a price as possible.” Carlsen said that the bookstore hoped to be in compliance with the law as soon as possible. The delay, he said, stems primarily from a planned overhaul of the college’s registration system. It is important that the bookstore’s online information system integrate well with the new registration system, he said, something that will be impossible until the registration system has been set up. Carlsen also emphasized that implementing the new information system would be logistically challenging. “Information on the titles comes from the faculty. And until the faculty tell us what they’re using, that information online will be blank,” said Carlsen. “So that’s the real difficulty—getting information in BOOKS, page 2