Spring 2014 Issue 3

The

PIONEER

Issue 3 | February 13, 2014 | Whitman news since 1896 | Vol. CXXXI

Board of Trustees states college will not divest from fossil fuel companies

by SHELLY LE Editor-in-Chief

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little more than a year after various student and faculty discussions began regarding Whitman’s divestment against fossil fuels, the Whitman Board of Trustees released an official statement on the movement deciding not to pursue divestment at this point in time. The response was sent out in an email by the Associated Students of Whitman College on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 8.

The statement holds that the board does not consider Whitman’s divestment from companies that invest in fossil fuels to be in the best interest of the college. While members of the board agree that the impact of climate change on our environment is cause for concern, they also believe that divesting the college’s endowment from fossil fuel companies would place the college in an unstable situation to meet other obligations the college holds.

“We reviewed and talked about the ways we support the objective of the movement. We talked about ways that we could address the problem of climate change. But at this time, we didn’t think the trade-off of trying to implement this divestment would be prudent given our objective to maximize returns on

our portfolio and how it’s managed,” said Chair of the Board of Trustees Peter van Oppen ‘74.

About two percent of the college’s endowment is invested in fossil fuel companies, according to the statement provided by the board. However, the endowment itself is invested in fund managers rather than individual companies and the two percent holdings are held by fund managers that control more than 25 percent of the college’s overall investment portfolio. This means that should the college divest from the few companies that hold investments in fossil fuel energies, the college would lose a significant amount of potential return on their investments because they would have to switch fund managers completely.

“It’s very difficult for us to tell the portfolio managers to invest or not invest in specific companies. We often manage our diversity by picking managers who focus on emerging markets, or large cap stocks, or domestic stocks, or European stocks— all with very diverse criteria. But within those criteria, some of those managers’ portfolios may have some energybased holdings. So it’s very difficult for us to dictate what they hold and don’t hold,” he said. van Oppen notes that since

see DIVESTMENT, page 3

Trustees meet to address diversity, divestment

by Sam Grainger-shuba Staff Reporter

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hitman’s Board of Trustees meets four times each year to discuss the state of the college. This Thursday and Friday, Feb. 6 and 7, they met again to discuss divestment and diversity.

Due to student unrest and a protest during the last board meeting, the student representatives to the Board of Trustees’ Student Life Committee, senior David Fleming and sophomore Brenna Feeney, decided to evaluate students’ thoughts on issues relating to race, religion, socioeconomic class, gender and sexual orientation before the board meeting this past week. They sent out an anonymous survey via the student listserv.

“It was really remarkable the response that we got. In about 24 hours we got over 400 responses, which is unreal,” said Feeney.

With responses from a total of 430 students, the committee received input from over a quarter of the college. That quarter was also fairly rep-

resentative of the student body: of those responding, 35 percent were part of the Greek system, 18 percent identified as GLBTQ, 18 percent were people of color, 31 percent identified as working class and 60 percent were women. The survey found that students felt the college dealt well or very well with issues of gender and sexual orientation, but did not deal as well with issues of race and class.

“We wanted to know ‘What is the student body saying about how we could facilitate better conversation?’ or ‘What can the administration do to better facilitate better conversation?’ Not only facilitate, but educate,” said Fleming.

Feeney also emphasized the need for the administration to educate students about how to have these conversations.

“So people can have these discussions in a safe place where they can leave their political correctness at the door and speak more candidly. But not only creating those spaces, but also educating people see TRUSTEES, page 2

Whitman Athletics strive to support LGBTQ athletes

by Quin Nelson Sports Editor

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GBTQ athletes who choose to play for the Missionaries sometimes face clashing ideals. While the college prides itself on being progressive and inclusive, the sports world can often be rigid and conservative. When these perceived opposites meet, which wins out?

Although Whitman’s accepting environment has created a fairly safe place for its LGBTQ athletes, it still has a way to go before all of these athletes truly feel supported.

Alumna Amy Hasson ’12 was a varsity soccer player who came out to her teammates at the beginning of her sophomore year. The announcement went over very well with her teammates, not that Hasson was surprised.

“I think coming out to myself and learning to accept that I was gay was probably the hardest part, and coming out to my friends was the easy part.

I knew they would be supportive. I knew the team would love me no matter what and have my back,” she said.

Senior Tom Smith,* a member of the cross country team who is gay, also found support and understanding from some people on his team, although unlike Hasson, he did not feel that same acceptance from his entire team.

“My coach has been very supportive. He’s been like another dad to me. One of my good friends knows, and he’s okay with it. A lot of the other guys don’t know because I think they’d be weirded out since they make a lot of homophobic jokes,” said Smith.

The difference in their experiences could largely be due to Hasson’s finding a supportive community, which Smith has yet to find.

“I kind of wish there would have been more of a supportive en-

Students struggle with concussion aftermath

vironment because I’ve never known any gay athletes or had any gay friends in my life. All my life I’ve kind of been alone and dealing with these issues on my own,” he said.

His experiences are quite different than Hasson’s, who felt very comfortable throughout her college soccer career due to the fact that there had been several older soccer players who were already out.

She also attributes much of her positive experience to the supportive environment of Whitman as a whole.

“Being at Whitman and being on the soccer team at Whitman was crucial to my coming-out story. I think if I had gone to another school, it would have taken me a lot longer to come out, and I think Whitman was a blessing in that respect,” said Hasson.

The Whitman Athletic Department, headed by Director of Athletics Dean Snider, has worked to bring Hasson’s perception of Whitman as an open and comfortable atmosphere into the more conservative world of sports. Snider, a member of the LGBTQ sub-committee of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, firmly believes in providing a nonjudgmental environment for athletes.

“We accept and celebrate people’s differences, whether that be ethnic or socioeconomic or, in this case, sexual orientation,” said Snider. “Everyone is welcome here.”

The athletic department has a strict nondiscrimination policy that Snider does his best to uphold. He also has the help of Athlete Ally, a nonprofit organization striving to end homophobia and transphobia in sports. Senior swimmer Claire Collins, Whitman’s Athlete Ally representative, feels that the program has been both productive and rewarding. see LGBTQ, page 9

by Helen Angell Staff Reporter

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hirteen concussions were reported to the Dean of Students Office in Fall 2013, a sharp increase from previous years. This number is shocking, but it might not indicate an increasing number of head injuries on campus. Rather, students and staff believe that higher numbers were reported last semester because of heightened awareness about the seriousness of concussions and their impact on the brain.

Concussions are defined as mild head injuries, but they can be devastating for students because they must put academic work aside while symptoms persist. While some students heal in a matter of days, others continue to experience severe symptoms for months or years after the initial head trauma.

The only effective treatment for a concussion is allowing the brain to rest, so taking time off from classwork is often the only way to recover fully from the injury.

Concussions can be poorly understood, and their impact on the brain is often underestimated. When senior Hannah Fadenrecht first hit her head during a rugby game in the fall of her sophomore year, she didn’t realize it was a concussion.

“I thought I was sick with a cold,” said Fadenrecht. “I just felt a little fuzzy, and a little out of it.

The symptoms are really subtle.”

It wasn’t until she injured her head again a few weeks later and began suffering more severe symptoms that she was diagnosed with two concussions.

Concussions can be difficult to recognize because of the variety of symptoms and because they don’t show up on CT scans. The concussion discharge instructions, distributed by the Welty Health Center list headache, vomiting, loss of consciousness, confusion, restlessness and vision difficulties among the wide variety of effects a student can suffer after a concussion.

Fadenrecht experienced many of these symptoms after her second concussion and continued to suffer headaches, sensitivity to light and other troubling effects for many months. These symptoms made it a struggle to complete academic work. At first, Fadenrecht tried taking a few days, then a few weeks off from her courses. But when symptoms persisted, she decided to leave Whitman for the rest of the semester, with advice and support from the Dean of Students Office and her family.

“I realized that I needed to go home and recover,” she said.

“And it’s a really good thing I did.” Fadrenrecht will be graduating a semester late, but has recovered completely from the injury.

Because the duration of symptoms varies widely from case to case, it can be difficult for a student to know how much time they should take off from school after a concussion, if any.

“Everything is absolutely so individual,” said Director of the Health Center Claudia Ness.

“You don’t know how long it’s going to take and that makes it a little tricky to schedule your ac-

ademic life around, not knowing if you’ll be up to taking a test in two weeks or a month.”

Ness emphasized that brain rest is the “key treatment” for a concussion.

The Dean of Students Office and the Academic Resource Center offer a wide range of support to students with concussions, encouraging students to be excused from classes or take tests with special accommodations according to the students’ need.

“We do everything we can to accommodate their illness,” said Associate to the Dean of Students Donna Cummins.

But because concussions and their effects are poorly understood, it’s not always clear what support a student requires. When working with staff and faculty at Whitman to accommodate her academic work when she returned to school, Fadenrecht said there was sometimes a lack of understanding about her needs.

“They wanted to be supportive,” she said. “But person to person, they might not know anything about the effects of a concussion.”

But awareness is increasing, and the college is making an effort to give students the help they need in this situation.

“People are realizing that concussions are something that need to be looked at,” said Ness.

Senior Libby Arnosti received two concussions in 2012 while participating in Whitman’s swim team, and she had to delay graduating by a year because of the injury. Arnosti said that the athletics trainers, and the athletes themselves, are becoming more sensitive to concussions.

“Because people know more about them now, it’s easier for the training staff to identify them,” said Arnosti.

Students and staff believe that increased awareness explains the recent increase in concussions reported to the Dean of Students Office.

“I think in years past, students have had almost as many accidents,” said Ness, “but we didn’t realize that the hit on the head could have consequences down the road.” But now they do.

However, students won’t be able to receive accommodations if they don’t report their concussion to the Dean of Students Office. Because of rules about patient privacy, the Health Center cannot report a head injury to the Dean of Students Office.

“Please, come see us,” said Cummins, encouraging students who’ve had head injuries to work with the Dean of Students Office to receive academic support.

But not all students who have suffered concussions have had to ask for support or accommodations.

Senior Ethan Parrish did not have lasting impacts after he suffered a concussion while playing ultimate frisbee at Whitman. The concussion occurred at a tournament just before spring break in 2012.

“By the time I got back to Whitman after spring break, I didn’t have any more headaches,” said Parrish.

But this was the sixth time see CONCUSSIONS, page 2

NEWS

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Visiting professors balance uncertainty, passion

by ANDY MONSERUD Staff Reporter

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mong the various types of faculty on the Whitman campus, the visiting professor holds an unusual place. Though most stay for only one year, there always seem to be plenty around. As a result, the visiting professor presents something of a mystery to Whitman College students. Why are there so many? Where do they come from, and where do they go?

Whitman’s abundance of visiting professors largely stems from its extensive sabbatical program.

Tenure-track professors are permitted a one-year sabbatical after four years of full-time teaching, which leaves temporary positions open fairly regularly. This brings in visiting professors to all departments.

Visiting positions frequently attract professors in early stages of their careers. They allow aspiring professors to gain experience and buff up their resumés without being locked into longer-term contracts. Whitman also holds workshops and other professor-education programs to help visiting professors learn the ropes of employment in academia. Visiting Assistant Professor of Astronomy Cassandra Fallscheer praised these programs extensively. She joined the Whitman faculty this year following her postdoctoral work, hoping to gain experience as a professor.

“I wanted to make sure that I enjoyed teaching in a university setting, specifically in a liberal arts ... setting,” said Fallscheer.

Most visiting professors, Fallscheer included, stay for one year and move on. But occasionally, Whitman renews visiting positions, or visiting professors go on to work in other positions here. Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Susanne Altermann is in her second year as a visiting professor at Whitman. After leaving California Polytechnic State University, Altermann came to replace a professor on sabbatical, and at the end of the year, the college offered her a renewal. While this isn’t a typical situation, it’s far from unheard of.

“I am acquainted with two other people who are in their second year [of a visiting professorship],” said Altermann. “I don’t know of anyone on their third year.”

Professors with established careers also take on visiting professorships as transitional jobs. Visiting Professor of Classics David Lupher took a visiting professorship following his retirement from the University of Puget Sound. He temporarily replaced Charles E. Margery B. Anderson Endowed Professor of Humanities Dana Burgess during a sabbatical. Lupher now teaches a class at Whitman as an adjunct professor, a title usually applied to professors who, like him, work part-time.

Finally, the college occasionally takes on visiting professors who have jobs elsewhere.

Visiting professors differ from tenured professors largely due to continuity. The visiting status of a professor will affect most students only when the professor leaves.

“A visiting professor who’s teaching full-time will be pretty much indistinguishable from any other professor from the standpoint of students. They’ll be teaching the way other professors do, and meeting during office hours and so forth,” said Lupher.

That one distinction, however, is significant in the life of a visiting professor. The hiring season for colleges peaks in the spring and late winter, so visiting professors inevitably find themselves searching for jobs on top of their teaching duties.

There’s also the problem of lodging. The task of moving in and out of Walla Walla for a year can be daunting, but the college helps out. The college provides faculty housing close to campus for

new professors. Fallscheer currently lives in those accommodations.

“It’s really conveniently located, and it’s nice. It’s not furnished, [and] there are pluses and minuses of that,” she said. “We have to move all our furniture here and move it away again when we leave, but on the other hand some of us haven’t collected furniture yet that we are passionate about.”

High demand for faculty housing also poses problems for visiting professors.

“We tend to be hired later than the tenure-track professors,” said Fallscheer, “so sometimes people would like to stay in faculty housing, but they were hired late, in April or May instead of February or March, so then they might have to ... do a house-hunting trip or stay in a hotel or something for a couple of days until they find something.”

Some professors escape the impermanence of a visiting position by applying to a tenuretrack job at Whitman, but previous work at Whitman gains professors no special treatment from the college in the hiring process.

“Should a tenure-track position become available, and should we conduct a national search, visiting faculty members are eligible to apply. However, we do everything we can to ensure that we treat internal candidates the same way we treat all other candidates,” said Provost and Dean of the Faculty Timothy Kaufman-Osborn in an email.

Despite all the uncertain-

FEB

13 2014 Trustees address student representatives, survey from TRUSTEES, page 1

ty attached to being a visiting professor, Fallscheer appreciates the experience it provides.

“In the beginning it was a terrifying experience for me,” she said. “Now I don’t have to focus as much on the being new to teaching, I can focus more on the next steps.”

so that they know how to have educated arguments,” said Feeney.

Fleming and Feeney said students responding to the survey hoped that trainings on how to talk about race and class would be available not only to students and resident assistants, but also to members of the faculty and the administration. There were suggestions to bring in outside trainers that could work with the entire campus. Students said that they wanted bigger discussions of race and class in Encounters sections, as well as in other classes that may not necessarily focus on those topics. Many students also requested that the college provide annual funding for the Power and Privilege Symposium.

“Our goal is to effectively represent the student body and to make sure that the trustees are aware of what’s going on on campus so that they can more effectively make decisions that improve campus life for the students. That’s something that they’re very dedicated to,” said Feeney.

Chair of the Board of Trustees Peter van Oppen ’74 commented that the members of the Board look forward to student input more than any other part of the meetings.

“Most of [the members of the Board] will say at the end of a meeting, ‘My favorite thing was meeting with some student on some issue,’” he said.

According to van Oppen, the Board of Trustees is not in charge of changing college policy in terms of day-to-day management, but instead allocates funds to initiatives and resources in which students and faculty show interest.

“What the trustees try to do is foster an environment where resources and talent are available to do the things necessary to educate the community,” he said. “We try to empower [Dean of Students] Chuck [Cleveland], [President] George [Bridges], whoever with the resources and support to what they think is necessary to help address a problem.”

Fleming spoke to the role of the Board as well.

“It does change the conversation a bit. It’s not that we’re going up to the trustees and demanding a change in policy, because, frankly, they can’t do that. We tried to present some tangible ways that the trustees could help in allocating resources to the things students are interested in. ” On Saturday, Feb. 8, the Board of Trustees collaborated with ASWC and came out with a statement regarding divestment.

“We’ve seen intelligent discourse from students, from others, and I think the board is generally supportive of the climate change initiatives,” said van Oppen on Wednesday before the meeting. “What we’re hamstrung by is

NUMBERS Awareness of IN THE NEWS concussion effects 7 increases Fahrenheit temperature in Walla Walla late on Feb. 6.

SOURCE: WALLA WALLA UNION-BULLETIN

53 Pictured: Visiting Assistant Professor of Astronomy Cassandra Fallscheer (top), Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics David Lupher (above) and Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Susan Altermann. Photos by Marcovici

Fahrenheit temperature in Walla Walla late on Feb. 12.

SOURCE: WALLA WALLA UNION-BULLETIN

2.9

Inches of snow in Seattle on Saturday, shattering the previous record of .4 inches for the same day.

SOURCE: KOMO NEWS

200,000

Number of Georgia residents without power Thursday as a result of a winter storm in the Deep South.

SOURCE: THE NY TIMES

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the conflict between our responsibility to earn the most money for the college in a prudent and legal way to support students. We have this conflict between our obligation to maximize returns consistent with low risk versus trying to use the endowment to accomplish a social policy.”

He added that every student, whether or not they receive financial aid, is affected by the endowment. It comes in the form of an endowed professorship for your favorite professor or financial aid for your best friend, who may not have had the means to come to Whitman.

The resolution decreed that the Board would not divest from companies that invest in fossil fuels because it would not be in the college’s best interest to do so. The Board agrees with on-campus groups that climate change is cause for concern, but does not believe it to be prudent to divest, as this could put Whitman in an unstable position without having much effect on the companies at all.

“Ten to 15 percent of the global economy is tied to energy, not people who use energy, but people who produce or have a stake in energy, and to unilaterally decide not to participate in that is difficult,” said van Oppen. “This is a big ask, where I’m not sure we have the ability to have much effect.”

ASWC passed resolution SRS 13.3 a year ago, which created a committee made up of students, board members, faculty and staff to explore what effect divestment from fossil fuel companies could have on the endowment. The resolution was created in response to petitions sent to the trustees and a student panel weighing the pros and cons of divestment. SRS 13.3 was brought up again at this trustee meeting in the hope that the college would meet more of the demands in it with the decision on Saturday.

One of the original writers of the resolution, sophomore and ASWC Vice President Jack Percival, weighed in.

“I think that the resolution has definitely been taken into account by the trustees, and while they agree with the moral argument, they don’t think that it is financially prudent to divest from fossil fuels at this time. I was pleased that they did form an exploratory committee to examine the financial implications of divesting, but with regards to the first ‘resolved’ clause asking to limit new investment in fossil fuel, they really have no say over where various fund managers invest money. In short, I think that the extent of their response to the resolution has been reached.” van Oppen agreed with this sentiment.

“There is a lot of support for the thought, but it’s about balancing priorities.”

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from CONCUSSIONS, page 1

been taken to the hospital for a concussion. All of his concussions were diagnosed as severe because he lost consciousness on each occasion, but he hasn’t experienced any significant long-term impacts.

“I feel like I’ve been super lucky with the lack of symptoms given the head injuries that I have suffered,” said Parrish.

While Parrish has been able to continue playing ultimate frisbee at Whitman, other students have had to either scale back or quit their athletic participation after a concussion. Fadenrecht decided to stop playing rugby after her two concussions in 2011.

Arnosti still deals with symptoms every day, even though it’s been over a year since her last concussion.

“There have been a couple of days in the last 14 months where I haven’t had a headache,” said Arnosti. “It’s had a pretty major impact on my life.”

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The Whitman College Pioneer is a weekly student-run newspaper published under the auspices of the Associated Students of Whitman College. The purpose of The Pioneer is to provide pertinent, timely news and commentary for Whitman students, alumni, faculty, staff and parents, as well as the Walla Walla community. The Pioneer is dedicated to expanding open discussion on campus about the issues with which students are most concerned. We provide coverage of Whitman-related news as well as featured local and regional events, and strive to maintain a standard of utmost fairness, quality and journalistic integrity while promoting freedom of the press. In addition, The Pioneer strives to be a learning tool for students who are interested in journalism. The Pioneer welcomes all feedback and publishes letters to the editor in print and online.

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The

NEWS

Feb

13 2014

Divestment movement denied from DIVESTMENT, page 1

the campus began discussions of divestment, the board seriously analyzed the impact of divesting the endowment from fossil fuel companies. And while the board has decided not to divest from investments in fossil fuel companies at this time, the board agrees with the moral argument of the movement and plans to maintain its commitment to environmental sustainability in other various ways.

“We concluded that it was difficult and largely ineffective to divest from these companies given the difficulty of balancing the challenge and effect.

We reviewed and talked about the ways we support the objective of the petition and we talked about ways that we could highlight the problem,” said van Oppen. “But at this time, we didn’t think the trade-off of trying to implement this divestment would be prudent given our objective to maximize returns on our portfolio and how it’s managed.”

Following a student panel held to discuss the pros and cons of divestment and petitions and letters sent to the trustees from students urging divestment last year, ASWC passed resolution SRS 13.3. One of its the major goals was to create a committee comprised of board members, students, faculty and staff that could explore the effects of fossil fuel divestment on the endowment. Sophomore and ASWC Vice President Jack Percival, who originally cowrote the resolution, felt that although the college didn’t meet the exact goals of the resolution, he believes that the board took the resolution into consideration when coming to their decision.

“I think the resolution was taken very seriously,” said Percival. “The resolution created a moral argument stating that global carbon emissions are cause for concern, and the trustees affirmed that they agree with the moral argument—they just didn’t feel comfortable divesting at this time.”

Junior and ASWC President Tim Reed also agrees that the statement by the board is noteworthy and indicates that the board understands the concerns of the student body.

“The trustees were very engaged in this, and I feel like they very much so took the resolution as a jumping off point for this discussion,” he said. “It’s been really great to see how the development of this resolution was brought to the trustees. It was something that they engaged substantially about and I think they really took it as ‘This really is the student voice. Is this a feasible thing? Can we do this?’ To get a formal response from the trustees is pretty impressive and a noteworthy thing to happen.”

Members of the Divest Whitman campaign, while understandably disappointed with the statement, are happy that some form of formal response has been released to the wider public. Divest Whitman member and junior Audrey Vaughan, who met with the trustees on Friday, Feb. 7 to discuss the pros and cons of di-

vestment, says that she’s not entirely surprised by the decision but would like to see a concrete vision for how the college can uphold its commitment to be a leader of environmental sustainability.

“My impression from the meeting was that on an individual level, the trustees were very sympathetic to our cause. They all acknowledged that climate change is happening and that Whitman has a duty to address climate change. Many expressed support for making campus more sustainable, but they didn’t feel that divestment was the right option and that it wasn’t the right time for a committee to look at sustainable divesting,” she said.

“What I would have liked to see is tangible steps—steps that students, faculty and staff can do during that time and what we can do to make it happen.”

Vaughan also notes that while a formal response has finally given the Divest Whitman campaign substance to move off of, she wishes that the board’s process for coming to their decision had been made more public during the time the board was looking into divestment.

“I’m really happy that it took a long time [for the board to release their statement], because that indicates that it was a wellthought out decision,” she said.

“However, I wish they would let us know what they were doing more. We had no idea that they had made a committee on divestment or that research had been done. I think this would have been a really great opportunity to engage students in the process.”

Despite the board’s statement, Vaughan believes that the Divest Whitman campaign will continue its presence on campus and will look into other avenues for campus sustainability. While the campaign is still reconsidering its options, they plan to look to what other campus campaigns in similar situations have done to move forward. In addition, Vaughan notes that the board has indicated that if the campaign finds fund managers invested in green companies, the board may take their suggestions into consideration.

“This is not the end of the divestment campaign,” said Vaughan. “I know a lot of other colleges have gotten nos from their trustees, so we’re going to be looking at what they’ve been doing. We’re considering other avenues of looking at divestment. We might talk to [the Whitman Investment Company] and other faculty about it.”

Editors’ note Feb. 9, 2014, 12:55 p.m.: A previous version of this article referred to the Whitman Investment Company as “the Whitman Investment Club.”

Corrections to last issue On page 3, the corrections box should have said “Corrections to Issue 1.”

On page 4, the caption to “Capturing Insecurities” should have said “Photos by Volpert.”

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3

Student fee increase forecasts more money for clubs

by Lachlan Johnson Staff Reporter

I

n the last decade, the ASWC fee has gone from $236 in 2004 to $360 in 2014, an increase of $124. However, $8 out of the $10 increase this year was due to inflation and to a slight decrease in the size of the student body, which means an increase in the fee was required to maintain the same spending power.

Though increases to the fee have been large in recent years, students seem to be content, and no students have brought complaints about the fee to ASWC Senate.

“I feel there should be an option for people not to pay if they don’t use any of the things ASWC funds. But I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t use at least one of those things,” said

“We’re still going to have to make difficult decisions and be frugal with our distribution of funds, but we’re hoping that the extra cushion from raising the fee a little bit will allow us to fund some of the projects we weren’t able to fund last year during budgeting.”

Tatiana Kaehler ‘15

sophomore Megan O’Brien.

Last year the fee was raised by $14, but student organizations still experienced budget cuts due to the majority of the funds being devoted to the lifecycle fund, which was neglected for half a decade. A change in ASWC bylaws now requires two percent of the budget to be devoted to the lifecycle fund each year; this means a smaller amount will be needed to be placed into the lifecycle fund this year. Combined with the higher

fee, this will result in a $25,502 increase in discretionary spending.

In addition to the extra money from the increased fee and proper management of the lifecycle fund, ASWC currently has a $14,000 surplus generated by higherthan-expected student enrollment this year. While some of these funds may be placed in the Travel & Student Development Fund for this semester, most will likely roll over to next year’s budget.

After making hard and sometimes unpopular decisions during last year’s budget process, many within ASWC hope the various sources of extra funds will allow larger budgets for clubs and WEB. ASWC also hopes that the extra funds will prevent the type of conflict seen last year, when ASWC considered not funding the student yearbook, “Waiilatpu.”

“We’re still going to have to make difficult decisions and be frugal with our distribution of funds, but we’re hoping that the extra cushion from raising the fee a little bit will allow us to fund some of the projects we weren’t able to fund last year during budgeting,” said junior and ASWC Finance Committee Chair Tatiana Kaehler.

With so many funds available to increase spending, some senators suggested raising the fee less than $10. While ASWC eventually decided against this suggestion and the new fee was eventually approved without opposition, several ASWC senators raised concerns during discussion of the fee. “[With more money], the requests that we’re going to be seeing may not be as high quality,” said sophomore senator Anya Tudisco. “I think it’s important the finance committee be required to make hard decisions. It’s what we’re elected to do, and that way we spend money in a more efficient way.”

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OPINION

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Respectfully engage others when discussing issues of race by olivia hagel ‘16 Guest Columnist

L

ast semester, the Whitman community was filled with significant buzz surrounding issues of racism and privilege on campus. And now, well into 2014 and a few short days from this year’s Power and Privilege Symposium, students continue to raise important questions, including questions about being politically correct.

Being politically correct generally means avoiding speech and actions that can exclude, offend or marginalize certain individuals or groups.

However, being politically correct hasn’t created an inclusive, safe and equal atmosphere for all individuals.

The Whitman community needs to replace our language and understanding of political correctness with that of respectful engagement with others.

While many members of the Whitman community still encourage political correctness, a growing camp of students is speaking out about its limitations. Surely, using language and acting in a way that is inclusive to all people isn’t the failure of political correctness. Rather, its failure is the negative culture that it fosters on campus. Students are claiming that political correctness is stopping discussions

Today’s notion of PC focuses more on saying and doing what society tells us is politically correct rather than actually understanding and embracing why certain speech and actions are problematic. of race in their tracks, and I agree. Individuals fear they will say something perceived to be politically incorrect and be labeled a racist, so they refrain from talking about issues of race altogether. This silence can actually perpetuate racial tensions that being politically correct tries to avoid.

However, I don’t think the solution to this silence is for everybody to limit their discussions surrounding race and other hot topics on campus.

We cannot return to using politically incorrect terms, such as racial slurs, or to acting in politically incorrect ways, such as adopting parts of another culture in a way that trivializes that culture, because those things can stomp on a group or individual’s identity and history. It seems we have to choose between a politically correct culture that doesn’t talk about or solve issues in society, and a culture that rejects being politically correct yet still perpetuates issues, such as racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism and ableism.

This seems like a lose-lose situa-

tion, since important issues are not being solved with either of these choices.

But wait, there is a third choice! If Thomas Edison threw away his theory for a light bulb when it didn’t work the first time, the world would be a lot dimmer. We need to treat political correctness as a theory that we disproved. Instead of throwing it out, we need to alter our language and understanding of being politically correct.

Today’s notion of political correctness focuses more on saying and doing what society tells us is politically correct rather than actually understanding and embracing why certain types of speech and actions are problematic.

People are often politically correct not for the sake of others, but rather so they can dodge being called racists, sexists or bigots. In this way, political correctness has become selfish. The point of being politically correct should be to respect and protect those who we are engaging with. In order to affect this change, I propose a move from politically correct to respectfully engaged.

What would being respectfully engaged actually look like? Firstly, respectful engagement requires actual engagement between individuals or groups. Silence has no room in respectful engagement. Also, the most important part about these engagements is respect. If we respect others and ourselves when engaging with each other, we may be able to avoid the hurt, exclusion and inequality that our language and actions can cause.

Following are three actions I intend to work on in order to become respectfully engaged on campus: 1. Speak and act respectfully. I will recognize and respect the person I am engaged with as a human who will likely make mistakes and has a complex history and emotions. If we work to practice respect for others when talking about issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, class or disability, we may be able to reduce the hurt, exclusion and inequality on campus.

2. Listen respectfully. Whether in a social or academic setting, another person may speak or act offensively, and I will respect them regardless of their behavior. I will point out an indiscretion or racist action that I observe and discuss rather than attack. Perfection is hardly a human trait—there is a difference between doing or saying something racist and being a racist.

3. Respect myself. I will recognize that I am capable of and probably likely to make a mistake at some point.

If somebody points out a personal indiscretion, I will work to interrogate my own thinking and actions before I put my defenses into full force. Maybe I made a mistake, and that is okay.

I invite you to join me in these efforts and keep me accountable. My hope is that respectful engagement will develop further as we all create our versions of what it means to be respectfully engaged.

Have an opinion to share?

Send guest columns or letters to the editor to: editors@whitmanpioneer.com

Mease not Mooses

by Asa Mease

FEB

13 2014

Letters to the Editor Thoughts on Whitman as “unpretentious” liberal arts college I’ve often heard it said that people at Whitman don’t talk about race. It is quite true that an impoverished lexicon for discussions of race and racism exists at our institution, but this is not unique to Whitman— it is a generalized problem typifying political discourse in the United States, in which “race” surfaces to diagnose affective extremity (e.g., racial hatred), suspicious mobilizations of history (e.g., race-baiting) or demographic minoritization (e.g. “the Hispanic vote”). No wonder, then, that even faculty struggle to conceptually separate “race” (the historically contingent, political phenomenon through which categorical differences are ascribed to bodies) from “racism” (the creation or reproduction of structures of domination based on essentialized racial categories).

This reduction of “race” to extreme feeling, historical injustice or markets constrains our possible conversations. Add to this the fear that any discussion of “race” inherently means a discussion of “racism,” and avoidance of race talk makes sense.

But avoidance is precisely the problem.

I do not agree that people at Whitman don’t talk about race. By taking exception to this claim, I’m not signaling to the obvious “race talkers” on campus, those politically invested among us, who know we’re talking about race and mean to be. Everyone is “talking about race” all the time, because the way race is coded in the discourses of postracialism is through other categories. Some of these categories are big, like class, gender, sexuality, culture, religion or nation, and some are “smaller” or more nuanced, such as education, bodily comportment, taste, style, emotional state or use of language. And then there is the constitutive absence of non-whiteness that makes the presumption of whiteness possible, in which ‘race’ as non-white and excluded gives meaning to the whiteness that is always present, always the metric.

In the spirit of instigating difficult conversations, I’ll be polemical. It is too possible not to learn anything about anything other than whiteness at Whitman College. What follows is a letter that Assistant Professor of Art History & Visual Culture Studies Lisa Uddin wrote to Chief Communications Officer Michelle Ma, in response to Ma’s request for faculty feedback. The letter demonstrates precisely how what, on the surface, may not appear to be a conversation about race could productively be read as one that is. What can be gained from reading “unpretentiousness” as post-racial code? As you contemplate Uddin’s words, I encourage you to visualize various members of the faculty, and imagine how your professional respect for each might change were they to comport themselves more “unpretentiously.”

Melisa Casumbal-Salazar Assistant Professor of Politics

I

wanted to share some emerging thoughts I have about Whitman’s public and campus profile as an “unpretentious” liberal arts college. “Unpretentious” gets used quite a bit in my classroom and elsewhere as a source of institutional identity. I see, for example, that the most recent description on the Whitman College website links Whitman to “an unpretentious Northwest culture.” And while I think I understand its appeal (who wants to be called pretentious, after all? It seems like such an antiquated model of higher education), I would also like to encourage your office, and the college more generally, to rethink its value— particularly at a moment when the school is also trying to diversify its student and faculty body, curriculum [and] world views.

My sense is that the quality of having a lack of pretention is best executed by those who can afford to shed it. I see it coming from a social position of historical power and exercised most vigorously by people who are interested in disassociating themselves from that power.

But recognizing that people in the Whitman community come from different backgrounds (cultural, class, ethnic, etc.) entails asking how being casual, natural [or] unpretentious may not work equally across the board. Relinquishing a cer-

tain formality in this environment suggests you feel safe enough to do so, which is simply not the case for some. Sustaining a campus culture that encourages said informality may even feel vaguely menacing, reinforcing some of the inequalities that Whitman is invested in dismantling. I don’t know if this is the case for students as much as select faculty (me on occasion, for example!) who register a certain risk in being “unpretentious,” or who simply have trouble identifying with its virtues. I wonder if there are other adjectives that could reflect Whitman with more sensitivity and, frankly, accuracy.

Lisa Uddin Assistant Professor of Art History & Visual Culture Studies

Response to ‘Residence life shuts down Camp Whitman’

I

wanted to express my thoughts about the article published entitled “Residence Life Shuts Down Camp Whitman,” published in a recent edition of The Pio. While I understand it is unfortunate that underclassmen will find it more difficult to stay through commencement, I believe that this article does not fairly address the issue. I feel that the article was particularly shortsighted when it comes to why the decision was made to close the halls earlier than in previous years. I was a resident assistant in a first-year hall, so I experienced the logistics behind Camp Whitman first hand.

ResLife’s first priority is always the safety and well-being of all residents, which become real concerns once students are given a week of downtime at the end of the semester. Instances of disruptive behavior during Camp Whitman have become significantly more prevalent over the past couple of years, and these instances become safety issues not only for those involved in the behavior, but also for those around them. Many students must travel home during this period and need to be well rested to do so safely.

I realize that what I’m saying is my opinion justifying the early closure of the residence halls, but I also take issue to how ResLife was portrayed in this article.

ResLife is not a faceless entity whose goal it is to stop fun and tradition on the Whitman campus. Camp Whitman is not an organized event, but rather a very recent social trend on campus taking advantage of the fact that ResLife granted a few extra days for people to rest after finals period. Camp Whitman does not hinge on the fact that the residence halls are open for a few extra days— it is merely more convenient for people to party under the old policy, which is not why the halls are open through graduation in the first place. The article also included a quote implying that other Whitman traditions, such as beer mile and frat parties (which are also not official and not in any way tied to ResLife) will not occur at the end of the semester, which is simply false—beer mile occurs before finals week, which is indeed before Camp Whitman. The concern about giving students enough time to move out at the end of the semester is valid, but the residence halls are still open two days past finals, which I feel is a perfectly reasonable amount of time for such a task.

In summary, ResLife has not “shut down” Camp Whitman. Everyone is required to sign a contract at the end of the year requiring that they abide by ResLife rules after finals week, and these rules are established with the safety and well-being of all residents in mind. Those with legitimate reasons to stay a few extra days will be allowed to, which has always been ResLife’s policy. In fact, residents were technically required to leave campus the day after their last final before this recent policy change, but the majority of residents ignored this policy, taking advantage of the fact that ResLife has been flexible in accomodating the needs of residents. Please consider both sides of this issue in the future and understand the position that ResLife has been put in and that the responsibility is ultimately in the hands of the residents.

Jeremy Schofield ‘14

OPINION

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13 2014

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Open dialogue about race will allow all individuals to develop further understanding Alisha Agard Junior

THE MIND OF AN ACTIVIST

L

ast semester was tough.

The school I loved turned into a place that caused me to feel anxious when talking about a topic that resonates with me the most: the topic of race.

After the events that took place last semester, a much needed discussion about race needed to be had, but it wasn’t going to happen that easily. I’ve heard people say they were uncomfortable talking about race.

Since there are a lot of people on this campus who have never had to talk about race before, the vocabulary and understanding of how to talk about race just wasn’t there. I understand the fear some people have when it comes to talking about race—that they might offend a person of color or that their opinion might not be valued—but the more time we spend talking about how to talk about race, the less time we spend on actually having important conversations about race.

Last semester, the staff and faculty made an attempt to have a conversation about the infamous WhitmanEncounters site and how the site has become a cesspool of hatred and intolerance. The event was advertised as a safe place for Whitman stu-

dents to engage in discussion about topics regarding race, but it seemed that the intention of the event was not equal to the outcome. When I left the event, it felt like my evening was spent talking to people about why it’s important to talk about race and

Voices from the Community

how there needs to be a discussion about how to talk about race, but to me that’s not enough.

The tense racial climate that I have experienced on campus is nothing new to me in my junior year at Whitman.

The microaggressions I expe-

What is the significance of race in your life?

Senior

Poll by tanner bowersox

JAck Lazar

Maikor Pereira Azuaje

Allison Bolgiano

rience daily have been present since I stepped foot on this campus, and I feel that by dancing around the issue, the tense racial climate will not be alleviated any time soon. By spending the majority of our time talking about how to talk about race, the problems that exist on campus will continue to be present.

As young children, we learned how to do many things, such as tying our shoes, riding our bikes and reading. We didn’t spend time agonizing about how to go about these tasks; we eased our way into them and with practice were able to master these tasks.

The same approach needs to be taken when talking about race.

I understand that race and racism are difficult topics, and since it is so difficult to have these discussions, it is likely that people involved may feel some sort of guilt, anger or defensiveness—but being afraid will not allow any of us to grow as individuals. It will not allow us to understand how to live in a world and work with people who are different. If you don’t know how to talk about race, just start talking about it, and eventually you will get the hang of it. Ask questions, express your opinion but be respectful, and you’ll be okay.

You might make mistakes, but like tying shoes, riding bikes and learning to read, the mistakes you make will help you learn.

Alumnus, Class of 2013

Senior

“I don’t think that race necessarily impacts my life that much, but I realize that is a privilege that a lot of people don’t have because their daily lives are impacted by their race, so to me that says that there are still things we need to work on having to do with race.”

“What my conceptions of beauty used to be-—human beauty. I remember that when I was a kid in Venezuela, all the princes on television used to be blond and have blue eyes or red hair. I remember this Japanese anime called Candy Candy, and the male protagonist was called Anthony and was blond with blue eyes, and I think that stuck in my mind, ‘cause as a kid you’re being bombarded with these images of what beautiful is and what being beautiful means to society. Also, I remember Dragon Ball Z, which was a Chinese/Japanese anime. Whenever the superheroes became an improved version of themselves, their hair would become blond and their eyes green or blue and they would get this kind of gold aura around them. And I think that’s not true anymore for me, but sometimes I catch myself looking for those features in people.”

“I know that race has put me at a pretty big advantage.”

Student finds instances of discrimination rare inside Whitman College community

by Robert Dalton ‘14 Guest Columnist

O

f the many issues contained within this recent debate on campus regarding race and diversity, one that I’ve heard mentioned more than a few times is isolation. That is to say, some people considered diverse, be it racially, sexually or socioeconomically, feel isolated on a campus overwhelmingly comprised of white, heterosexual, upper-middle class students. While I cannot address the issue of isolation due to sexual orientation or due to socioeconom-

ic status, I can speak to the issue of isolation due to race. But before I do so, I want to clarify something.

The administration and the Board of Trustees and Overseers met recently to discuss how issues regarding race and diversity are being addressed on this campus. I spoke briefly with one of the overseers, an openly gay man with years of experience with regard to isolation due to sexual orientation, about the importance of using “I” when discussing emotionally charged issues such as this.

Not using “I” or “me” as a qualifier may imply accusation. AccusaADVERTISEMENT

tion makes an audience tense, defensive and more resistant to hearing an opinion with an open mind.

I want to make it clear that this is my experience and that I am not accusing anyone of having the wrong opinion or attitude on this subject. I only want to tell you my story, and how I see isolation due to race on campus as someone who is, and is not, white.

I’m half Filipino, but I only look it. My mom was born in Manila, but she never taught me Filipino culture. When I was growing up, we rarely spent time with her family, and as a result I’m

much closer to my relatives on my dad’s side: the Daltons, an affluent, white, southern family. I’ve spent almost every Christmas and Thanksgiving at my Dad’s parents’ house in Virginia, and I feel at home with them. But as comfortable as I am there, I don’t see myself as a southerner because of my Filipino heritage. Distanced from my mom’s relatives and separated by my appearance from my Dad’s, I can’t truly identify myself as being Filipino or white. It’s an issue that I’ve struggled with for a long time.

This inability to identify with my two sides has left me with a sense of not belonging. It distances me from either side, making me unable to have an identity as either and leaving me stranded somewhere in the middle. It isolates me in a way that is unique and in a way that is not part of the discussion at hand. But it has helped me to see isolation due to race from a unique perspective.

Growing up as an anomaly in a homogeneous student body has made me very perceptive to the fact that I am different. There are more than 42,500 college and high school students in my conservative hometown of State College, Pa., and more than 90 percent of them are white. I was always aware of how I looked different, and I knew that my friends and classmates were too. I can’t count the number of times that someone has curiously looked me up and down and asked, “What kind of Asian are you?” It wasn’t a question that I found offensive, but it stung a bit because it meant that they had noticed that I looked different than they did.

However, I found that even though people knew that I looked different, they didn’t treat me any differently because of my looks. That’s not to say that I didn’t encounter some bigots: I have had guys try and knock me down with their trucks while I’ve been out running, and I’ve watched them laugh as I was diving out of the way. But for the

most part, the people that I met on school and on the Penn State campus treated me no differently than they treated their friends.

I can’t speak to isolation from the viewpoint of someone from a different culture. But my experience as someone who does not look white and who grew up in a college town of predominantly white students has been that people both here and back home tend to treat me the same as they treat everyone else. I haven’t found the physical trait of race to be something that has alienated me from this community. The way that you look is an intimate part of what defines you, and I believe that at Whitman, nobody judges you by it.

Some of you may have stories and opinions that differ greatly from my own, and some of you may have similar ones. Again, this is only the story of what I have experienced. My opinion on the subject of isolation based on race and diversity on campus is this: I believe the isolation that some people of color feel here predominantly stems from cultural isolation, from the differences between their backgrounds and the backgrounds of the stereotypical white, upper-middle class students. I think that this is an important distinction to make.

I feel as if some white students are afraid to engage in discussion about race on campus because they feel that the issues at hand ARE, in part, about differences in physical appearance.

They’re afraid that if they do discuss race, and they say something politically incorrect, then they will be judged to be a racist, to be someone who discriminates based on physical appearance. If you are such a student, you shouldn’t let that fear stop you from talking about race or diversity on campus of any kind. Because in my opinion, even if you do say something politically incorrect to me, you probably aren’t trying to hit me with a truck.

OPINION

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13 2014

Whitman science department in need of diversity Anu lingappa Junior

THE QUIBBLER

A

t first glance, the Hall of Science, with its fancy chemistry equipment, lecture halls with built-in computer desks and display cases of taxidermy animals, might seem like it has something for everyone.

However, there is one thing that the Whitman College science department is seriously lacking: racial diversity. Many people hold the notion that since science is focused on empirical experiments and quantifiable data, social problems like gender and race must transcend the scientific world and only impact the people studying in Maxey Hall. However, when diversity in Whitman’s STEM departments is so scarce that only two out of 48 professors in astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, math and physics are people of color, something is seriously wrong.

Modern science was founded on the discoveries of white men, and Whitman is perpetuating the stereotype that being a scientist is limited to that demographic. People, especially women, of color who choose to pursue science are viewed as the rare exceptions and as token representatives of their backgrounds. The National Science Foundation has compiled several charts synthesizing these statistics in the United States, and the results are staggering. The same trends are generally applicable to undergraduate and graduate students—approximately 70 percent of bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees are awarded to white students, 10 percent are awarded to Asian students, and the remaining 20 percent are spread between black, Hispanic, Native American and “other” students.

In order to receive the same rec-

ognition as their white male counterparts, minority scientists will have to prepare themselves for overwork and constant reminders that no matter what they do right, they’re still different. In the real world, the challenges facing a minority scientist trying to receive equal recognition are manifest in Nobel Prize awards, which drastically favor white people from developed countries. This doesn’t come from a lack of capability, but a lack of opportunity. In comparison to white

scientists, who are more likely to get positions of authority and supervision, minority scientists are less likely to hold positions in research at all.

These problems are very present in academia, where students are more likely to question the authority of a professor of color—be it in explanations of material or attempts to receive more points on tests and quizzes.

Minority students, who are more likely to feel unprepared by their high schools, greatly benefit from having

racial diversity represented in their professors. If no one from their racial background is represented in the field, there is an implicit message that they fundamentally do not belong, and that no one would miss them if they left.

Compared to white students, minorities are less likely to ask for help when they need it, and almost half of minority students who plan to study science switch to another discipline. Having professors of color makes a huge difference in outcomes from this perspective. Minority students tend to feel more comfortable approaching professors of color to ask for help. Professors of color are strong role models for minority students, since they demonstrate success in a white-dominated field despite facing discrimination.

The trickle-down model, where a couple of professors inspire a handful of minority students who then go on to inspire more students to study science, is not a solution. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “There is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” Gradualism doesn’t create progress on an acceptable time scale. Minority scientists and students are being passively discouraged by their own field. There is nothing to be gained from excluding or disregarding the potential of whole demographics. Science needs these different perspectives! Experiment design requires creativity. The most exciting research stems from a scientist looking at material in a new way, approaching it from a new angle. People with diverse backgrounds might bring a revolutionarily new perspective to a problem, but not if they’re too discouraged to pursue it in the first place. Additionally, the beauty of science is in itself knowledge.

It is unfair for a large demographic to be denied the awe and wonder that comes with understanding science.

As a science major and a person of color, I am appalled and ashamed that race is so blatantly disregarded in Whitman’s STEM fields. Our school is supposed to pride itself in diversity and opportunities. The fact that most science faculty and students view this as a non-issue is both very telling and disappointing.

Power and Privilege Symposium is step in right direction

by Helen Kim Guest Columnist Associate Professor of Sociology

I

n mid-December, I, along with over 100 faculty members, attended a special faculty meeting to vote on a motion to cancel classes on Thursday, Feb. 20 in order to convene the Power and Privilege Symposium. Pen to paper, the faculty in attendance voted, and the motion passed by an overwhelming majority. The text of the motion upheld reads as follows: “We as a faculty strongly condemn racism, both structur-

al and interpersonal, on the Whitman College campus. We strongly affirm the right of all students, faculty and staff to live, work and learn in an environment free from discrimination.

In support of ASWC resolution SRF13.4, we move to cancel classes for one day next spring (Spring 2014) for the ASWCsupported, student-driven Power and Privilege Symposium.

Additionally we move to work, either within the Power and Privilege Symposium or outside it, to consider the best ways to address issues of race, racism and

privilege on campus in an ongoing manner. This may or may not include institutionalizing the Power and Privilege Symposium as an annual event, pending resolution of substantive issues regarding scheduling, funding and staffing.”

For me, this vote signified many things that bring the past, present and future together. Many of you may have read or know about the “blackface incident” that occurred during Fall 2006, an incident that also resulted in a cancellation of classes for an all-day symposium where faculty, staff and students came together for self-re-

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WHITTIES HELPING WHITTIES

flection, listening and discussion of steps to take toward improving and healing our campus. As an attendee and participant in this symposium during my second year at Whitman, this event seemed to mark a very critical moment— one that made clear our participation in a system of inequality, but one that also pointed to the possibilities for meaningful change.

In many ways, the power of that moment has been with us until today. Some may believe that it faded. I don’t think that it ever did, especially as I think about the many ways that this campus has changed in terms of the kinds of courses that are offered, the curricular and co-curricular initiatives that have been developed across campus, and the composition of the faculty, staff and students. Most importantly, the power of that moment has always been with us, since we coexist in a place that is a mere reflection of a larger society that has been and continues to be unequal.

Why should we do anything, let alone cancel classes for

the sake of a one-time event that may result in nothing with direct and immediate changes, if Whitman and our larger world will continue to be unequal?

As a faculty member who voted for the aforementioned motion, I don’t see the Power and Privilege Symposium solving our problems. No event is capable of doing that. Yet, already, the discussions leading up to and after the faculty vote have sparked shifts in thinking among the faculty and administration, heartfelt and honest discussions and movement toward possible curricular and co-curricular changes.

All of this has taken place up until now—what opportunities lie ahead with the Symposium next week?

Most importantly, I believe my vote and my participation in this year’s symposium to be my responsibility, our responsibility. It is our responsibility to ourselves, it is our responsibility to those who came before us and it is our responsibility to a future community of individuals whom we may never meet.

Mixed emotions found during Interculutural Center OP trip

by GLADYS GITAU ‘16 Guest Columnist

I Student/Alumni networking events hosted strategically in the most high-demand locations for jobs and internships

February 25th->>Whitman **OVER SPRING BREAK** March 25th->> San Francisco March 26th->>Portland March 27th->> Seattle

have thoughts about the outdoors.

A majority of these thoughts are questions.

Why would I spend time and money physically risking my comfort and health?

More importantly, I never felt that I belonged outdoors.

My family could never take time off to just enjoy nature, and I grew up internalizing that I couldn’t afford to be outside.

Recently, I gave nature a try. I went on two outdoor programs, both during the biannual Intercultural Center Outdoor Program Trip. The idea behind the co-sponsored event is to expose students from backgrounds like mine to the outdoors.

I can’t lie. I loved it. Cross country skiing especially was challenging, but there was something healing about being in the woods right after a snowfall. It was a foreign but welcome experience.

It was a foreign and welcome experience for the most part, I should say. Whenever we ran into other groups, nearly all of them white, I thought that they looked strange, too casual about the snow around them. They were comfortable, like they had some claim to that

land. They always smiled politely at us brown kids as we stumbled and made our way down the path, as if to say, “Look how cute they are—I wonder what kind of outdoor urban exposure program they’re part of.” In this moment, I felt I had to explain the presence of my brown body outside on these uncharted paths.

Growing up in urban, working class, immigrant neighborhoods, I never felt a claim to anything in nature. The land we were on was government owned, or I knew we could pick up and move any second. Why, I thought? Why didn’t I feel like this part of nature could be mine? Too suddenly, I was reminded that someone paid for me to be on this trip. Nothing was free, even the outdoors. I was reminded of why I didn’t like such activities. Even in nature, I could never just exist.

No, I thought. I had just as much of a right to be here. The sky was mine. The trees were mine. Just like the nice white people we passed on the trail, I too began to feel comfortable.

I know my brown body will always be in question, even out in nature. So someone had paid for me to enjoy these things that should be free, that I couldn’t afford on my own. For that day, the outdoors belonged to me, no questions asked.

A&E

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feb

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Spouses make musical chemistry

Each Thursday, The Pioneer highlights events happening on campus or in Walla Walla.

Here are this week’s picks:

EMMA Dahl Junior

Ok Sweetheart Coffeehouse: Come to the second Coffeehouse concert of the semester to hear sweet pop/folk sounds of vocalist and pianist Erin Austin. Reminiscent of the contemporary bittersweet tones of Jenny Lewis or Neko Case, Ok Sweetheart will be an ideal pre-Valentine’s day event.

SIMPLE HARMONICS

Thursday, Feb. 13, 8 p.m., Reid Coffeehouse

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ands tend to be conglomerates of friends and peers. Maybe bandmates knew each other in college or maybe they shared mutual interests before they started making music together. But sometimes, bands are created by married couples who work together to make great music, and the harmony in their relationship is translated through their music.

One example is The Weepies, a folk-pop singer-songwriter duo comprised of Deb Talan and Steve Tannen. Before they met, they were each fans of the other’s music. Reportedly, Tannen would play Talan’s album on repeat, and Talan felt a deep connection to Tannen’s music. Eventually, they met at one of Tannen’s shows and developed a bond through their music, which resulted in the formation of The Weepies. Their music is characterized by a simple, friendly kindness, a soft hush and an embracing tone. You can hear the tone of their relationship in the songs they write—simple, honest and caring.

Another well-known married musical couple is Jack and Meg White of The White Stripes. They were only married for about four years during their run as The White Stripes and were divorced before they found international fame. Despite their marital break, they remained together as musical partners and continued to release albums and singles that found a large, adoring audience. When Meg was criticized for her simplistic drumming style, Jack would often defend her. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he said, “Meg is the

Slam Poet Suzi Q: Reid Coffeehouse will be abuzz with the slam poet and civil rights activist Suzi Q’s fearless rhetoric approaching race and cultural identity. The event will also be opened by none other than Whitman’s Almighty Ink Club.

Saturday, Feb. 15, 8 p.m., Reid Coffeehouse

Writer’s Colony Art in Ink: Is writing an art? How do you write about art? Find the answer to these questions and more at the Writing House’s first Writer’s Colony of the semester. Delicious baked goods will be provided.

Thursday, Feb. 13, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Writing House

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator: Learn about Guatemala’s history in this powerful documentary that follows five characters and their relationship with a national history of genocide. Tuesday, Feb. 18, 7 p.m.,

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best part of this band. It never would have worked with anybody else, because it would have been too complicated ... It was my doorway to playing the blues.” Part of the appeal of The White Stripes is that their music isn’t oversaturated and overcomplicated; the simple trio of guitar, drums and vocals that Jack and Meg bring to the table is their secret to successfully producing infectious, soulful music that has appealed to a large audience.

Associate Professor of Poli-

Sheehan Gallery prepares to open Mokuhanga exhibit by james kennedy Staff Reporter

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reating art can take a lot of time and effort, but putting together a collection of art can take even longer. “Abstract American Mokuhanga,” which opens in the Donald Sheehan Gallery next Wednesday, Feb. 19, has been years in the making.

“This exhibition has probably been in the making for about two years,” said Director of Sheehan Gallery Daniel Forbes.

The exhibit showcases the Japanese style of Mokuhanga, or woodblock printing, which has gained widespread recognition in both Japan and the West over several centuries and influenced European and American art.

“From around 1890, French painters like Pissaro, Cassatt, Gauguin, Degas, Van Gogh and, most famously, Toulouse-Lautrec discovered the Japanese color print and saw in them a style that appealed to their sense of design and color,” said Assistant Professor of Foreign Languages and Literature-Japanese Akira Takemoto, a co-curator of the exhibit.

The printmaking technique remained popular in the West and went on to influence artists of different styles. However, Western artists didn’t begin to travel to Japan to learn the original Mokuhanga technique until the 20th century.

“The Sheehan Gallery exhibit will present the work of the current generation of woodblock print artists who were influenced both by traditional woodblock prints and by pioneer American woodblock print artists who learned and collaborated with woodblock print artists from Japan,” said Takemoto. “The exhibit will show how these artists have not only retained a significant link with the past, but how they have recreated and re-imagined the woodblock print process as a vital medium for expressing their thoughts and ideas.”

The exhibit is one of the more ambitious projects that the Sheehan Gallery has taken on, as evidenced by the two-year-long development period. Unlike typical exhibits, such as the Frank Munns retrospective exhibit of last semester, this exhibition features many different artists

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of a similar style rather than just one.

“We have 17 contemporary abstract artists [who] utilize a traditional Japanese wood block technique as a component for making their images,” said Forbes. “It’s really quite an astounding roster.”

The project first started when Takemoto and Professor of Art Keiko Hara worked on past Whitman exhibits and began to collaborate with contemporary Japanese artists like Ida Shoichi and Tadashi Toda.

“In 2006 ... we led a FreemanGrant-sponsored student trip called ‘Making Paper, Making Books: Exploring the World of Water Ink and Paper in Japan,’” said Takemoto.

“During the trip we met a number of American artists who were experimenting with woodblock print techniques and transferring images onto Japanese handmade paper.”

The Mokuhanga exhibit went through a number of stages in the past two years. The original plan was to showcase entirely native Japanese artists, and there was talk of collaborating with larger organizations.

“We wanted to work with certain institutions, like the Library of Congress, and that sort of thing,” said Forbes. “Unfortunately, due to issues of resources, the gallery currently doesn’t meet the requirements to bring in work from certain places.”

Although they recently finished preparing one exhibit, the Sheehan Gallery looks forward to the future.

“We have the main Mokuhanga exhibition, and in the smaller spaces, we have three smaller exhibitions going on,” said Forbes.

“It’s not uncommon for us to have five to eight exhibits at various stages ... we can have as many as 12.”

But the goal with this exhibit, as well as with all other exhibits at the gallery, is to spread awareness about art, be it for a single artist or generations carrying on a style.

“Our aim is to show how traditional woodblock print techniques and methods have inspired modern American artists and to point out how the Mokuhanga tradition can no longer be considered as belonging only to Japan,” said Takemoto. “The techniques have spread to America and Europe, leading to a new wave of international Mokuhanga awareness.”

Review of “The Lego Movie” online

Available at www.whitmanpioneer.com/category/arts

tics Jeanne Morefield and Professor of Politics & Paul Chair of Political Science Paul Apostolidis, her husband, are in a blues and bluegrass band called Piled High and Deep, along with Professor of Biology Dan Vernon and Associate Professor of History John Cotts. Morefield explained in an email interview that she and her husband love playing music together because of the unique connections they have built academically and musically.

“But at the same time, the spark of creativity that goes into making music is similar to the rhythm of teaching and writing. We both feel extremely lucky that we get to share this amazing overlap—between the life of the mind and the power of music—with each other. In fact, after all these years, neither of us really know what it would be like to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t share these things!” said Morefield.

Good music can be made from

the heart and creative impulse of a single person. But when it’s a collaboration between two people who have a deep emotional connection, it communicates a different message than a single singer or songwriter could produce. It’s not necessarily better, but it offers a different and broader perspective. Music born out of musical partnerships is analogous to the expansive worldviews you can form by integrating another person’s mindset into your own.

Creativity, Autonomy in One Acts by adam heymann Staff Reporter

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ave you ever noticed the correlation between the fun you have and the fun you see others having? For example, let’s say you’re sitting in the middle of a lecture, and the person on your right is falling asleep, while the person on your left is doodling. You’re more than likely to be infected by their boredom. Conversely, if you’re at a concert, and the guy on your one side is losing his voice from excited yelling, while the girl on the other side is dancing to her heart’s content, you’re likely to join in the festivities.

Whitman’s One Act Play Festival aims to infect its audience like the concert in the above example infected its participants. This year’s three shows include “Tooth + Nail” directed by sophomore Tyler Schuh, “Get on With It” directed by junior Theo Ciszewski and “Psychoanalysis and Its Discontents” directed by junior Josh Tacke.

The One Act Play Festival is distinct from other theatre productions because the plays are completely student run. Sophomore Vanessa Ryan, the student producer of the show, receives some guidance from Assistant Professor of Theatre Kristen Kosmas, but otherwise she must rely completely on students to make the sets, costumes, play the parts, write the scripts and bring the shows to life. This lack of professional supervision allows for more student bonding during the process and a sense of collective achievement.

“It is a show you have created with your cast and director, and

One Acts features three plays that are all student written, directed and acted. Six shows will run Feb. 12-16. Photo by Felt

when performing, you know you have brought this thing into existence, and that ephemeral nature of the performance is so magical and fills you with a lot of energy and ... a feeling of happiness,” said sophomore actor Matthew Fisher.

This independent opportunity makes it possible for students to enter as well as flourish in the drama department.

“I think some people don’t realize that the One Acts are really a way to gain experience.

Even if you haven’t done anything at all, that doesn’t bar you from getting involved,” said Ryan.

This year the drama department has expanded even further with student independence in the One Acts by incorporating a student judge into the decision-making process. The panel of judges read the scripts and chose the three plays that are to be performed. Junior Emily Krause was this year’s inaugural judge. She feels that her participation has increased the amount of student autonomy in this year’s festival.

“I really tried to bring in a perspective that came from my experiences participating in and watching the One Acts for the past two years, and that was also reflective of what is important and exciting to Harper Joy students as a community,” she said.

While being outwardly joyous, the One Act plays also aim to ask their viewers important questions. Schuh’s play “Tooth + Nail” is about a man oblivious to the supernatural forces that possess him.

“It focuses a lot on the nature of the world, how it is and is not ordered and controlled, and the play has a lot to do with teeth and cigarettes,” said Fisher.

Ciszewski says his play, “Get on With It,” tells a story of self-improvement.

“It is about two people who decide that they’re not very happy with their lives and take steps to change that.”

According to those involved, the One Act Play Festival is unique in its attempt to execute some of the best aspects of Whitman College: unity, joy, conscientiousness and creativity.

Students bring ‘Romance on Main Street’ by hannah bartman A&E Editor

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hree elements of a romantic evening—wine (for those older than 21), comedy and smooth jazz—will converge at Main Street Studios in the show “Romance on Main Street,” which takes place at 7 p.m. on Valentine’s Day. In association with Canoe Ridge Winery, this show will feature the Whitman College jazz ensemble Downright Citizens at 7 p.m. and Whitman’s comedy improvisation group Varsity Nordic at 9 p.m.

“This show signifies what is hopefully just the beginning of a new relationship between Whitman’s musical, artistic and theatrical communities and the wider artistic community in Walla Walla,” said Canoe Ridge Manager and alumnus John Klein ‘10 in an email.

This new relationship has not only provided a new space for students to perform, but it has also brought previously unrecognized Whitman talents into the public eye. Downright Citizens is a

jazz quartet comprised of sophomore Cam Hancock on drums, alumnus Jonas Meyers ‘13 on piano, junior Max Bates on saxophone and senior Nathan Radakovich on bass. All of these musicians have played together separately but never together in this particular group.

“I’m just glad to get out and play with these guys in town, because they’re really good players,” said Hancock. “It’s cool that they’re adding this element of comedy as something new. I’ve never done anything like that before.”

Hancock has played at five wineries and finds that his experience playing at wineries is often different than playing for students.

“When we do gigs at wineries, we cater a set list to what we’re doing,” he said. “This idea of soft jazz in the background and people milling around with wine glasses has a certain aesthetic.”

Varsity Nordic has performed for Whitman students every other Tuesday during the school year in Kimball Auditorium, but they have never done a show

for the residents of Walla Walla.

“We have just never pursued [performing in Walla Walla],” said sophomore Varsity Nordic member Rose Gottlieb. “We’re very casual.”

Gottlieb also recognizes that the clientele at a winery will offer a different reaction than Whitman students.

“They will be older and might not have seen improv before, so they could have a different sense of humor than students,” she said. “Maybe they’ll be less rowdy. But there’s going to be wine, so maybe just as rowdy.”

Varsity Nordic recently placed second at a college improvisation tournament in Seattle and plans to travel to Vancouver over spring break for another college tournament. Their performance at Canoe Ridge Winery will begin at 9 p.m. and last an hour and a half.

Tickets for the event are $10 at the door or online. Students 18 and older are admitted, and wine will be available for purchase for those 21 and older. The event will take place at 207 W. Main Street and doors will open at 7 p.m.

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Mertens hopes for change

by Bill landefeld Staff Reporter

*Letter from the editor: The author of this article has been friends with Conner Mertens and his family since he was 13 years old.

Mertens and the author played soccer alongside and against each other since they first met each other. At Southridge High School in Kennewick, Wash., they played soccer together and competed in Mock Trial together. Mertens is in his second year at Willamette University, where he is a kicker on their football team and has been recently credited as the first collegiate football player to ever come out publicly while competing. After Mertens came out, University of Missouri’s All-American football player Michael Sam publicly announced that he is gay.

In Conner Merten’s hometown of Kennewick, Wash., it was not uncommon for him to hear his athletic teammates, coaches or fans say things such as “you suck dick” or “fag” in response to his underperformance in athletics. On Jan. 27, after years of confusion, self-resentment and acting what his community perceived as “normal,” Mertens publicly announced via Twitter that he was bisexual and had a boyfriend, becoming the first active collegiate football athlete to come out as bisexual.

Mertens believes that by spreading stories like his own, people will learn that homophobic slurs perpetuate the problem of LGBTQ athletes feeling marginalized from the rest of the athletic community. “[Being bisexual] was something that I buried. And when you bury it and bury it and bury it, it stays there for a while. I got very used to acting like somebody that I wasn’t,” he said.

Mertens describes his high school environment as hostile, as he felt constantly surrounded by what he calls a homophobic culture. He recalls never having a role model in his life or someone who called out homophobic behavior.

“I never had anybody to look up to. Ninety percent of the conversations between your friends were inappropriate,” he said. “Homophobic slurs saying ‘oh, you suck dick,’ or ‘homo,’ ‘queer,’ ‘fag,’ and things like that were just the way people talked,” he said.

The perpetual use of homophobic language in his high school forced Mertens to suppress his emotions and sexual orientation.

He notes that the reason why he remained silent throughout his high school years was so he wouldn’t be treated as an outcast by his friends and wider school community.

“Hearing that [homophobic language] 24/7 around your friends, day-in [and] day-out, and always in a demeaning, demoralizing way, you start to believe it and you start to think that [homosexuality] is not okay. And you internalize that, and it grows as time goes on as you hear it more and more,” he said.

While at Willamette, Mertens was relieved to meet other people who were LGBTQ. He prided himself on telling people that they could be different, but when he reflected about his own life, he felt that he was being a hypocrite.

“At a certain point, you get tired of contributing to the problem. Because I was contributing to the problem by not being myself,” he said.

Mertens decided to come out to his football team now because he felt that his team was a safe community in which he would feel accepted regardless of his sexual orientation. He later sent a letter through his Twitter account directed to LGBTQ people in the Tri-Cities to address their feelings of alienation and the need for acceptance of LGBTQ individuals.

In coming out to his peers, Mertens emphasized that he was the same person that he was when he grew up in the Tri-Cities and that people should not view him differently now that he has come out.

Mertens has been interviewed

by ESPN, Outsports and other news sources, and he was featured on Fox Sports on Sunday, Feb. 9.

However, he remains adamant that the focus for these media outlets should be not on him but on the is-

“There are many athletes who have come out privately to me who wish to stay anonymous, but I can tell you they are a hell of a lot better athletes than I am and in a lot more competitive leagues than I am.

Hopefully one day they will not have to [hide].”

Conner Mertens

sue of LGBTQ athletes as a whole.

Mertens wants people to focus on his story as a fellow teammate who could be gay but never felt that he could come out because of an athletic community that did not support LGBTQ athletes like him.

“I thought I was just some [Division III] kicker in the middle of Oregon, just a splash in the sports community, but athletics are a whole other world. I just wanted to be myself,” he said.

Mertens believes he is a part of a bigger story, one that’s not unique. Since Mertens came out last month, the University of Missouri’s All-American football player Michael Sam also announced that he was gay. Sam is predicted to become the first NFL football player to have come out publicly.

“Nobody knew that I was bisexual, so you never know who else could be. It could be the kid sitting next to you, the kid beADVERTISEMENT

hind you in the batting order, the lineman who is blocking for you, the goalie that stops the goals for you,” Mertens said.

Since coming out, Mertens has received disparaging comments from individuals through email and Twitter, including comments from the Westboro Baptist Church. However, Mertens says he doesn’t let this get in his way and he realizes that society will have to work together with those who do not accept LGBTQ in order to make society more accepting of the LGBTQ community.

“I have gotten three death threats, some people telling me to kill myself and people telling me that I am going to hell,” he said. “I don’t think that responding to negativity with negativity solves anything, so I have been trying to be super positive about everything.”

Despite these reactions, Mertens says he has also received many supportive emails from athletes across the country. His teammates have also been a strong network of support.

“The team has been very supportive,” he said. “My teammates got to know me on a deeper level, and we became closer friends.

That goes back to transparency. When you are transparent and real with people, they respond to it.

They want to know more about you and be closer friends with you.”

A few days after Mertens came out, Chandler Whitney, a baseball player at Walla Walla Community College, decided to come out to his team and the wider public, announcing that he was gay and that he was dating Mertens.

To Whitney’s relief, his baseball team was extremely supportive as well. They reaffirmed that his sexual orientation had no impact on their relationship and that his coming out could only change their relationship for the better.

“The team is still the same, if not better,” he said. “We have great camaraderie, and personally, I feel like I am connecting with the guys a lot better, which makes us a stronger team. They are very comfortable with it and now joke about it. By no means is anyone awkward at all.

It has been nothing but support.”

While both Mertens and Whitney found acceptance immediately within their own teams, coming out as an athlete created a difficult situation for them, one that they think many athletes struggle with. Initially, they were both afraid that their teams would not accept them and feared being cast out and viewed as a lesser athlete.

“The perception of people who like the same sex is that they are not masculine enough. If you are not masculine, you are not as good of an athlete. People associate poor athletic performance with homosexuality,” said Mertens.

According to Mertens, society views football players as the toughest and most intimidating people, which was a reason that he was

Conner Mertens, a kicker at Willamette University, recently became the first active college football player to publicly come out. Photo contributed by Mertens

afraid to come out to his team. Whitney faced a similar roadblock with coming out as a baseball player.

“If [baseball players] think of an LGBT baseball player, [they] do not think about someone who is going to hit for power or somebody who is going to throw 90 [miles per hour], but I do not fit that stereotype,” Whitney said.

Mertens also notes that after his story hit national news, he has had various athletes come out to him to share their own stories of fear and isolation in the athletic community.

“There are many athletes who have come out privately to me who wish to stay anonymous, but I can tell you that they are a hell of a lot better athletes than I am and in a lot more competitive leagues than I am,” he said. “Hopefully one day they will not have to [hide].”

To Mertens, these stories have helped him understand that his background is not unique and that other athletes struggle with coming out as well.

“When I get an email, everybody has their own story, but the general theme stays the same, where they don’t want to be treated differently and not have the chances that they might have once had otherwise,” he said.

“It just shows you how desperate they are to be themselves. I hope that people will see the sup-

port that I have gotten and it will encourage them to come out too.”

According to Mertens, the fear of coming out that athletes experience and the silence on this issue perpetuates the isolation that LGBTQ athletes endure.

“Indifference is the worst problem. Standing by idly while allowing [homophobic actions] to happen hurts ... if you are not for the cause, then you are against it. By not standing up for LGBT rights, then you are saying what is going on in our society [is okay], instead of noticing that there are a lot of things that need to be changed” said Mertens.

While Mertens and Whitney might be getting national exposure for their public announcements, they want to make sure the focus is on their message, not on them. Mertens hopes that one day, stories like his will be commonplace and not national news. “[My story] should not be news, but unfortunately in our society it is because we do not have that level of acceptance ... the LGBT community is outcasted, alienated and miniaturized,” he said. “We are forced into hiding essentially because of the unacceptance and the persecution.

One day I pray that this is not news and that a kid coming out to his team is just seen as normal, but we are not there yet.”

LGBTQ athletes search for place at Whitman from LGBTQ, page 1

“I have had multiple individuals from the LGBTQ community, athletes and non-athletes, come up to me and thank me for my efforts with Athlete Ally. It is these moments that make me very happy that Athlete Ally exists. The program at Whitman is still very new and has a lot of growth, but overall I think its presence on campus has been very positive,” said Collins in an email.

However, Smith feels that the Athlete Ally program has not made much of a difference, and he feels some of their members may not be sincere in their efforts to help LGBTQ athletes.

“I know there’s that Athlete Ally stuff, but people don’t take that seriously. I know these people, and they may say one thing but do another thing,” he said.

When asked to comment, Collins expressed disappointment in the actions of these Athlete Ally members and insisted that there are members who are firmly behind the cause.

“I am sorry that [Smith] feels that way about Athlete Ally. I cannot control how his teammates treat him or how other athletes treat him. I understand that ‘Athlete Ally Nights’ and stickers are not enough. But I know there are athletes, including myself, that sincerely want to make sure all LGBTQ athletes feel included,” said Collins.

Although he has found a few close friends at Whitman with whom he has found genuine support, Smith’s sexual orientation has put a serious strain on many of his friendships.

“Some of my former friends, I think they got an inkling that I was gay, and I lost some friend-

ships, which is really sad. But I learned who my allies were and who weren’t,” he said.

These former friends did not treat Smith’s sexuality as a non-issue, which is all he really wants.

“I know some people who know [about my sexual orientation] and don’t care, and that’s all I want. I wish people wouldn’t make such a big deal of it,” he said.

Snider feels this is the best way to be supportive of LGBTQ athletes—be an ally without giving special treatment.

“I’ve worked with gay athletes and gay people on our staff, and in my view it has always been inconsequential, except to be a support for them in a national athletic climate that might not always be as supportive,” he said.

Despite this mutual understanding between the administration and athletes, LGBTQ athletes still sometimes feel isolated. While there are those like Hasson, who not only had a great experience, but was named soccer captain for two years after she came out, there are also many like Smith, who has not found the community he was looking for at Whitman.

“I wish I could have had a normal college experience and found a group of like-minded people, but I haven’t found them,” he said.

Hasson found a community of both gay and straight allies to make her Whitman athletic experience a positive one. Smith has no such support group. However, he hopes that by sharing his experience, he can help others like him.

“I guess I told you all this because I want other people to not feel as alone as I did. It’s rough, but you get through it, one way or the other,” he said. *Name has been changed.

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Mounier motivated by methodical mental approach

by Marah Alindogan Staff Reporter

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very night like clockwork, junior Matt Mounier, a guard on the men’s basketball team, plans out his schedule for the next day down to the hour and records it in a notebook.

The reason for this rigid schedule? According to Mounier, he constantly strives for success.

“People who write things down have a higher percentage of getting it done. When you record your plans and goals, you achieve your goals faster,” said Mounier.

For Mounier, life is approached very methodically and purposefully, on and off the court. The results are evident on the court. Mounier is having the best season of his collegiate career, averaging 16 points, five rebounds and two assists per game.

In more ways than one, Mounier’s team credits him as a pivotal component of their successful season.

“We can always count on Matt to make plays. It gives me as an individual player and the whole team confidence because you know that you’re 10 times better when he’s there,” said sophomore forward Evan Martin.

Likewise, sophomore guard Morgan Outzen expresses Mounier’s versatility as a player. “[Mounier] is one of our primary scorers, someone we look to when we need to get a basket. His presence always makes the team better. Even if he is being contained offensively, he is one of our best defenders,” said Outzen.

Surprisingly, Mounier’s success on the court cannot solely be accredited to his athletic ability. He claims they are largely due to his mental toughness and preparation, which starts before he steps out on the court.

“Before the game, I meditate. I think about all the people I have played with, like childhood opponents and friends, all the big games or game winners I have ever had, then I think about the team we are playing against—the looks I will be getting and how I am going to score,” said Mounier.

Mounier’s mental toughness continues the moment he steps onto the court. He describes his thoughts during the moments before tip-off.

“I think about the fact that I am always having to prove something. It is my motivation to play,” he said.

Junior forward Keenan Durham praises Mounier for his mental tenacity. “[Mounier] is the mentally toughest teammate I have ever worked with. He pushes himself through anything and everything,” said Durham.

Mounier’s teammates also cite his work ethic as a reason for his individual and team track record. When most students are sleeping in the early mornings, Mounier is on the basketball court or in the weight room.

“On my recruiting trip, [Mounier] had us both up at 7 a.m. shooting and doing drills with a tennis ball. I’d been on a few recruiting trips, and none of the players would have done that.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve always seen him at the gym. He is always working hard,” said Martin.

For a player who eats, sleeps and breathes basketball, the bigger question is: why work so hard?

“I am obsessed with success. My whole life I have had to prove something, and the only way I know how to do that is by being successful,” said Mounier.

Mounier also recognizes the importance of his team

in his motivation to do well.

“I wouldn’t want to let the team down. That is what upsets me the most—when I play bad,” he said.

Though Mounier will eventually leave Whitman with the pride of contributing to some of the most successful seasons the program has ever had, he will also be remembered for something so much more, even more than the stats and records he has the potential of breaking.

When all is said and done, after the last whistle is blown, Mounier will always be seen as a great teammate and friend.

“If I could describe [Mounier] in one word [it would be] outrageous. Outrageous. Everything he does, on and off the court, is just crazy. The jokes he makes, the things he does, the plays in basketball that he makes—just ridiculous. One time we went to this lake as a team, and the water was freezing cold. We bet him he couldn’t swim across it and back, and he jumped in with ease.

Need I say more?” said Martin.

Durham also describes a time when Mounier had a case of the hiccups. “[Mounier] decided that the only way to get rid of them was to do a handstand for five minutes.

He is not as serious off the court.

He is definitely a jokester,” he said.

Mounier’s seriousness on the court countered with his laid-back, cool personality off the court shows there is more to the man behind the uniform.

There is one trait consistent within Mounier’s clashing personalities: confidence.

“Confidence is a huge factor; the harder you work the more confidence you have. The difference between good players and great players [is] the ability to handle mental adversity,” said Mounier.

Guard Matt Mounier ‘15, who is averaging a career-best 16 points per game, shoots a layup as forward Evan Martin ‘16 looks on. Photo by McCormick

Student-athletes need right to form unions Mitchell Smith First-year

RIDING THE PINE

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Dan Ellis ‘14 attempts to maneuver past Cameron Penner-Ash ‘14 during practice. The team is looking forward to playing five home games this season after hosting only two games last season. Photo by Bergman

Men’s lacrosse counts on home field advantage by cole anderson Staff Reporter

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o an athlete, it doesn’t get much better than playing at home. It means no travel, no hotels, no rowdy opposing fans. It means playing in a familiar place, not losing valuable sleep from travel and, best of all, having close friends cheering for you and jeering at whoever is unfortunate enough to have to play against you on a given weekend.

Last season, the Whitman College men’s lacrosse team had only two home games, one of which was cancelled. Their record was 3-3 overall and 1-3 in league. This year, however, the roster boasts more depth and skill. They also have an improved schedule with five home games. With new talent and excitement about playing at home more frequently than last season, the team is poised to improve on the results of last year and look to compete for a playoff spot.

On last year’s team, players like alumni Charlie Kistler ‘13 and Ben Skotheim ‘13 were able to help win games with their superior talent. Though gone this season, the overall talent on the team has actually increased.

“This year, while none of our players have stood out that strongly, we have a much greater depth

and general skill level than we’ve had before. Our stick skills, ball movement and defensive communication are already looking much better than in previous years,” said senior captain Dan Ellis.

Junior Max Skotheim, who led in points scored last year, and junior Robbie Macnichol, who is currently recovering from injury, will be two players poised to step into the role left by last year’s seniors.

The team has improved partially because its returning members have improved and partially because the first-year group who joined the team have previous experience and enthusiasm.

“They offer numbers, which we really needed this year, and Evan Gallagher, our new goalie, is coming from that firstyear class and has shown a lot of promise,” said sophomore attack Will Clifford.

The addition of a talented goalie was important for the team, since their previous starting goalie graduated last year.

The addition of more home games will also prove important for the team’s success, since home games benefit the team in a broader sense. Not only will the team likely play better at home, but more home games will also lead to increased support of lacrosse on campus. In the team’s only home game last year, there

was a good number of fans, but having more home games naturally affords more opportunities for students who have never watched lacrosse to come out and be part of the action.

“I’m hoping that [more home games] makes a large difference.

This will hopefully mean more fans, which has always been one of the most fun aspects of playing at Whitman. We have no specific plans to hype them up so far, but we will definitely be spreading word about the games when they get closer,” said Ellis.

The addition of fans isn’t the only advantage the team sees from getting more home games.

“We like playing at home partially because of the support we get from students, but it also means we are used to the field since we practice there every day.

That helps us both mentally and physically, and we traditionally play a bit better,” said Clifford.

Fellow sophomore Joe Nunes offered similar input.

“Being at our home field just feels familiar. It’s also really nice not having to travel. Since we’re a club sport we have to travel in individual cars, which can be pretty uncomfortable for four-hour drives every weekend,” said Nunes.

The team’s first home game is March 8 on Ankeny Field.

he news broke a few weeks ago that Northwestern University starting quarterback Kain Colter and a few other college athlete advocates had taken the first steps to organize a union for the college football players at Northwestern. Colter worked with Player Advocate Ramogi Huma to submit paperwork to the Chicago office of the National Labor Relations Board, which included cards filled out by a majority of the Northwestern players, who are in favor of unionization.

This rebellion against the National Collegiate Athletic Association is neither the first nor the last time the influence of this allpowerful association has or will be challenged. It’s also the exact step that college athletes need.

While a groundbreaking step, this act by athletes at Northwestern does not automatically create or even guarantee that a union will eventually be formed. The proposed union, the College Athletes Players Association, will have to survive attempts by both the school and the NCAA to invalidate it. The NCAA will likely argue that the players are not even employees and have no right to unionize. In the end, the debate is over whether players are “student-athletes” or employees paid through scholarships, free housing and other benefits.

This union is the first drop in a quickly filling bucket. The current system in which the NCAA makes money, yet is not responsible for its players’ safety, is akin to working conditions in U.S. factories in the early 1900s. Colter has stated that the athletes are just looking for a voice.

“Athletes need to finally have a seat at the table when rules and regulations are determined. They need an entity in place that can negotiate on the players’ behalf and have their best interests in mind,” said Colter.

Colter is exactly right. The players make billions of dollars every year for their schools and for the NCAA; they should be given at least some of the power to decide if a certain policy benefits them.

“Money is far from [first] priority on our list of goals,” said Colter.

“The health of the players is [first.]

Right now the NCAA does not require or guarantee that any university or institution covers any sportsrelated medical expenses. Student-athletes should never have to worry about if their sports-relat-

ed medical bills are taken care of.”

This is the most important distinction; these student-athletes receive upward of $100,000 in tuition fees and room and board during their college careers. They are definitely compensated for the money they make their school and the NCAA, but this is not a sustainable income.

If Colter suffers a knee injury playing football next fall that requires surgery after he is done with school, the NCAA is not required to cover it.

In a response to the union movement, NCAA Chief Legal Officer Donald Remy released a statement in which he stressed that the student-athletes are not employees and that their participation in college sports is voluntary. This seems true, but it is not so for a player whose only goal is the NFL or the NBA. While getting to these professional leagues after not going to college is possible, the best route remains through a large institution.

In the end, college athletes are paid a lot: free education, tutors, special dorms and much more are provided by the school, but their health and safety is at risk far beyond their years in college. At least give them a seat at the table.

SCOREBOARD basketball

Men’s v. Pacific Lutheran Feb.7: W 71-57 v. Puget Sound Feb.8: W 79-71 Women’s v. Pacific Lutheran Feb.7: W 76-46 v. Puget Sound Feb.8: W 76-64

baseball

v. Whittier Feb.7: W 18-5 v. La Verne Feb.8: W 15-13 v. Redlands Feb.9: W 10-5 v. George Fox Feb.9: L 11-9

upcoming Swimming

v. NWC Championships Feb.14-16: AWAY

Basketball

Men’s v. George Fox Feb.14, 8:00p.m.: HOME v. Linfield Feb.15, 6:00p.m.: HOME v. Whitworth University Feb.18: AWAY Women’s v. George Fox Feb.14, 6:00p.m.: HOME v. Linfield Feb.15, 4:00p.m.: HOME v. Whitworth University Feb.18: AWAY

BASEball

v. Hendryx Feb.14: AWAY v. UT-Dallas Feb.14: AWAY v. Hardin-Simmons Feb.15: AWAY

TEnnis

Men’s v. Lewis-Clark State Feb.17: AWAY Women’s v. La Verne Feb.16, 11:00a.m.: HOME

FEATURE

PAGE

10

FEB

13 2014

Issues of race, power and privilege have made waves on campus recently, but some students say there’s still a long way to go.

Advocates continue to struggle against racism

by BEN CALDWELL Staff Reporter

T

he controversy surrounding race and racism at Whitman College is not limited to the incidents online last semester, the rally that disrupted the Board of Trustees meeting last semester or the upcoming Power & Privilege Symposium. According to students belonging to racial minorities, the problem of racism is not a new one on campus, nor a small one.

These individuals have not been silent, but their voices have not been heard as much as they should have been over the years, and many believe it is time we started listening.

The Current Climate “It’s not that people aren’t doing work, it’s not that people aren’t trying and it’s not like the issue of racism is just now emerging. This is something everybody has been fighting for a very long time, and we just aren’t taking the steps that are necessary to make big institutional changes,” said senior Paige Joki.

In Joki’s experience, racism is a very real, day-to-day occurrence that has largely been swept under the rug and accepted at Whitman.

Never interested in sitting idly by, Joki has long been very outspoken about these problems on campus. In addition to serving on the Board of Trustees Diversity Committee and the Presidential Action Committee, she is helping to organize the Power & Privilege Symposium this year. She has spoken on

a number of panels about race and gender, and she was the person who initially suggested the Rally Against Racism and Cyberbullying that took place on the front steps of Memorial Building last semester.

“I think the rally did achieve its purpose. I think it’s been mischaracterized as a response to singular incidents on campus, but we were protesting the climate of racism that has been here since I’m sure before I got here, and the things I’ve experienced since my first year. It’s the experiences that everyone has had that are unacceptable that we were protesting,” she said.

According to Joki, this climate of racism is expressed in countless little ways, from insensitive comments from students and faculty to what she believes to be an indecisive and untimely response on the part of the administration.

Nick Hochfeld, a sophomore and member of Sigma Chi, claims that today racism is more complicated than bullies throwing insults. Instead it comes from friends and classmates and people in your dorms, whether they realize it or not.

“It’s more subtle things, like casual nicknames that are based on your race rather than character traits about yourself ... small things you don’t even notice until people start bringing them to light,” said Hochfeld. As an Asian-American adopted and raised by white parents, he said he wasn’t really aware of racism until this year, when he traveled ADVERTISEMENT

abroad and experienced incidents of ignorance and racial prejudice.

While he doesn’t blame others for their ignorance, Hochfeld certainly found the experience unsettling and eye opening. He says it got him thinking about race as an issue.

“This whole racial conflict boiled over [last semester]. And then I was like oh, people do call me ‘that Asian kid’ or like ‘Chinese boy’ or something like that, like totally in jest, but ... now it definitely makes me uncomfortable ... I try to correct people sometimes,” he said.

Diversity and Colorblindness Should Hochfeld and others with similar experiences be responsible for correcting their peers? According to Joki and other advocates of more racial awareness and sensitivity on campus, that’s not the case.

“I don’t think it should fall on students to make their academic environment safe enough for them to feel like they can participate as a student,” she said.

Joki said that race became a much more noticeable part of her identity when she came to Whitman, often in ways that were not pleasant or affirming. Her first semester at Whitman, many people thought she was an exchange student, and she says she still gets mixed up with other people of her race on a regular basis.

To Joki, the fact that this is even possible—that there are so few students from minority backgrounds on campus—speaks volumes about why Whitman is a hos-

tile environment for them. She says she became aware of the burden placed on minority students at Whitman when she was asked to be on the Whitman Christmas card one year, and she noticed there were students of color who had been on the Christmas cards for several years in a row. She was disgusted by the way the school chose to manipulate its public image, falsely representing the level of diversity on campus to prospective students. But even more than that, she dislikes what this means for students of color on campus.

“I think it’s exploiting the people that are here. It’s not our job to pose for a Christmas card. We’re not being compensated for that, [and] it’s not our job to educate the white students about being a different race ... [but] that’s a job that we’re expected to do here,” she said.

This is just one of many ways Joki feels that minorities are burdened at Whitman.

Though she thinks she is getting a good education here, there are other factors to consider. “[My education] has come at a very high price, both emotionally and physically—the cost of doing all this work all the time,” she said. Joki’s goal this semester was to just be a student like everyone else, but she has found that she can’t do that, because there is simply too much advocating and organizing she feels needs to be done.

There are many on campus who care about these issues, but those who step up to the plate tend to be those who come under fire. Joki claims this takes away from not just advocates’ social lives, but their educational experience as well.

“You can’t just be a student when you’re defending your humanity a lot of the time, when you have to educate people a lot of the time, and when you’re expected to be a teacher and a spokesperson for your identity. That’s taxing and very uncomfortable,” she said.

Joki is not the only one who has experienced a lack of empathy and social stress related to speaking out on issues of race.

“No one wants to admit that they might be a part of the problem, so they’re not willing to look within themselves to change themselves. And also when you point it out to them or tell them the specific thing they’re doing is really harmful, people just get really defensive,” said senior Erica Nkwocha.

She is troubled by professions of “color-blindness” by some members of the community and the perceived desire to avoid talking about topics of race at all in some circles.

“A lot of people don’t want to be friends with people who will call them out on things regarding race, and it becomes divisive that way,” she said. “You should be comfortable around [people] as they are, including all aspects of their person and their reality. You shouldn’t

have to ignore a huge part of it.”

Joki noted that when she looked up her class statistics, only around 1.7 percent of the student body identifies as black as she does. According to collegefactual.com, Whitman is ranked 822nd in ethnic diversity in the nation, and 70.2 percent of the student body and faculty identify as white.

For Hochfeld, diversity and the way it is handled is one of the major problems with the racial atmosphere on campus. Everyone knows the college is mostly upper-middle class, Caucasian, northwestern and liberal, and this homogeneity is often taken for granted. Hochfeld points out that even beyond being unbalanced and unfair, this puts all students at a fundamental disadvantage.

“The lack of diversity leads to everyone agreeing with each other, or those who don’t agree not wanting to speak out, so then ... when something that people are contentious about comes up, people don’t know how to react to that because they’ve been expected to agree with everyone this whole time,” he said.

Ideas for the Future The administration is certainly taking some steps in the right direction. They are adding resources specifically for minorities at the Counseling Center and canceling classes for the Power & Privilege Symposium. Additionally, President George Bridges and the Board of Trustees have publicly acknowledged issues of race on campus. But according to some student advocates, these steps have not gone nearly far enough.

Joki suggests some of the Encounters texts be replaced or reframed with a focus on different problems of privilege and identity, including race. Hochfeld suggests similar adjustments to the Encounters program and also proposes students study the contemporary civil rights issues up for debate today, in addition to the disputes and disagreements on campus.

“The point of going to college is learning to think critically, and this is a great opportunity for Whitman to grab hold of something that actually happened [and] actually teach kids about something that matters now,” said Hochfeld.

Currently the Power & Privilege Symposium is the closest thing to campus-wide education on racial issues Whitman has, and as someone who didn’t attend the Symposium last year, Hochfeld wants to encourage everyone to go this year. He would even be in favor of making it mandatory, if possible. Joki agrees.

“We just need a lot of education,” said Joki. “I don’t think that it’s a bad thing, or something to be ashamed of, but we have to take that upon ourselves.

We can’t just pretend it doesn’t exist and hope it away. That’s not the reality of the situation.”

FEATURE

FEB

13 2014

Students want more open discussion

by ANNA ZHENG Staff Reporter

L

ast semester, two Whitman students’ Facebook conservation about cultural appropriation spiraled into a debate about race on Whitman Encounters, an anonymous forum, which eventually prompted rallies and discussions across campus. Despite the fact that most of the student body was aware of these incidents, some students felt it difficult to be involved at the time. This semester, many are reflecting on the implications of these debates and their effects on the future of the community and its goals.

When she heard about the online debates last semester, first-year Emily Long was in shock. She had expected more from a community that appears to take pride in accepting differences and in being politically correct.

“We are supposed to be all enlightened and aware of all this stuff, and these people [came] out with this ridiculous amount of racism and hatred,” said Long. “As a freshman here, it was an unpleasant introduction because I thought we were better.”

While they were in the midst of adjusting to a new environment, joining activities and maintaining a healthy balance of schoolwork and social life, many first-years felt overwhelmed by the events.

First-year Jack Lassiter said he was detached from the events as they were happening, but he also feels they were necessary to help catalyze the discussion about race on campus.

“It was an event that led us to reflect on ourselves and opened up space on cam-

pus for us to deal with a lot of issues that were very apparent but aren’t addressed by anyone,” said Lassiter.

Junior Stephen Moerane felt it was unfortunate that the community could not openly discuss issues of race without bringing malice into the discussion. As an international student from Lesotho, a predominantly black country in Africa, Moerane said he never experienced racism until he came to the United States. He found it hard to understand why students could not be more sympathetic about what is offensive and what isn’t.

“We only see the world in our own lenses, and it’s difficult to actually understand what someone might be thinking, especially if you bring in animosity to the conversation,” said Moerane. “I really don’t want to live every waking moment explaining what is offensive and what is not.”

Past controversies on campus made it difficult for senior Blythe Monoian to be surprised when faced with more recent ones. Having grown up in the Native American culture, Monoian was taken aback when a Whitman student wore a Native American costume during last year’s Halloween festivities. She recalled how some Whitman students took to Whitman Encounters to comment negatively on the student’s actions.

“I’m supposed to be the one most offended since I’m the only Native American here,” said Monoian. “For the situation, I’m glad [she] apologized. I feel like [these events] get carried too far, and sometimes you’ve just got to chill out a little bit.”

Students, especially first-years, had the opportunity last semester to at-

tend race panels offered all over campus. This semester, events like the second annual Power and Privilege Symposium are meant to offer students an open space to listen to and understand their peers. They will also let students share personal experiences that have happened to them on and off campus.

Senior Joel Senecal advocates a continuation of the symposium as a way to promote diversity of cultures. “[It] would be a fantastic addition to Whitman’s push to be more diverse [and] more culturally accepting, especially in a place that lacks in diversity [like] Walla Walla,” said Senecal.

Despite the good intentions of the Power and Privilege Symposium, sophomore Brian Acosta believes it will not be the cureall solution, but rather one step in a long process.

Acosta, who participated in a discussion about race at North Hall last fall, views open discussion about race as the most effective way to bring awareness to problems on campus, but he also believes discussion is not the ultimate solution. “[The symposium is] like a stepping-stone in the right direction,” he said. “[But] what we really need is a continuation.

Whitman should incorporate [monthly talks] into their studies and bring that into the classrooms more where most people are.”

First-year Katalina Gomez values the input of professors on controversies among the student body.

“I feel like it’s good that [some professors] think it’s important because they are a part of our community as well,” said Gomez.

“They help instill ideas and conceptions on cam-

pus, even as professors.”

While the Whitman administration is attempting to become involved in the discussion, many students note they can only do so much.

According to Monoian, professors play a larger role in the student community, since they are the ones who interact, connect with and involve students on a daily basis. But some professors declined to discuss issues of race on campus, worrying some of their students.

“Some of my professors said specifically, ‘This is an important issue, but we’re not going to talk about it in class [and that] this isn’t the place.’ Well, what is the place? Where are we going to talk about it? If you’re not going to talk about it, who is?” said Long.

According to sophomore Logan Davis, it is easy to ostracize people who do not know enough about certain issues, but being receptive and realizing that race is a realistic problem will be one of the first steps in progress.

“I hope it goes in a direction where people strive to learn more about the various issues that our campus is facing,” said Davis. “The acknowledgement could perhaps lead to change in the future.”

Recognizing that race is and always will be an issue on and off campus may not be a permanent solution, but it could facilitate awareness and help students understand the effect that racism has on society.

“Race has always been here and isn’t going to go away anytime soon,” said Lassiter. “It’s pretty relevant for the future of our country and the future of all of us in college having to deal with similar things.”

Where do you want our conversation on race to go?

The Pioneer asked the community about their views on Whitman’s issues with race and diversity through an anonymous online survey. Below is a selection of the responses.

I feel as though the constant reminder that race is a problem or that anything I say could be insulting to a person of a different race makes me nervous about ever asking questions I might have about race.

If we cannot control ourselves emotionally when we discuss issues of race or any other aspect of human identity, we will devolve into finger-pointing, name-calling and immature, emotionally driven accusations, just like last semester. That is completely unproductive for everyone.

Because racial minorities are grossly unrepresented at Whitman, I believe race discussions are all the more important. We have to create a safe and educated environment so that students can discuss race and how it has impacted the world, themselves and their friends.

I think we could all work on being more open about what really happens in our heads, why it happens and what it means. And I think it would help people feel more comfortable talking about race if some people spoke more openly about it.

I have generally seen a great deal of respect for difference at Whitman, but I know from people of color that it can be extremely exhausting to be one of the few people who identifies and must address microaggressions all around us. We must share this responsibility.

This discussion has greatly disappointed me ... Little progress was made.

Some could argue that we’ve gone backwards and are less sensitive, aware and critical of how we treat race.

I wish there was more room for people to be wrong.

I think the discussion should shift away from its myopic focus on race and focus more on wealth and socioeconomic status.

Instead of getting heated, please just listen to what racial minorities have to say. [There] is absolutely no way you could ever understand what it is like to be a person of color, but that’s no one’s fault. It’s only a problem if you refuse to listen.

Continued discussion may be uncomfortable but it is necessary and ultimately will lead to positive developments.

Whitman is way too homogenous in almost every way, but especially when it comes to race and class.

As a community of thinkers, we often suffer from talking about an issue without coming to any substantive decisions about meaningful action.

The steps taken already and proposed future steps only deal with symptoms of the problems on campus, not the deeper-rooted problems.

It is positive to talk about race and the only way anyone can learn is through discussion ...

I think it is important to reach out to people that maybe don’t think about things like race and privilege.

PAGE

11 College to promote race-related education

by LANE BARTON Staff Reporter

E

ver since the Rally Against Racism last fall provoked a campus-wide conversation about race, the Whitman administration has been keen to promote future discussions on the issue. Although the upcoming Power and Privilege Symposium provides an opportunity for students, staff and faculty to come together and have thoughtprovoking exchanges, members of the administration recognize that this is only a single step in developing the conversation of race and diversity on campus.

“One and done is not enough,” said Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland.

The administration has already taken steps to promote internal understanding of and involvement with discussions of racial diversity on campus. The college is currently looking for an associate dean of diversity and intercultural affairs to focus on issues of race, and the administration has already held a training session for the Student Affairs staff with Tamara King, an expert on race issues from Washington University in St. Louis. The session addressed how the administration has handled the issue of race on campus and what they can do to promote discussions in the future.

Additionally, the administration has ideas for students as well, such as the possibility of an opening week workshop for first-years.

“We’re looking to organize an opening week session. We’re in the middle of doing that ....

In general, the framework that I think we’re looking to apply is to have someone come in and talk about ... this issue of how to have difficult conversations over difficult issues that gives firstyear students some of the tools and then follow up with a series of sessions,” said Cleveland.

Although some might worry that this proposed session would turn into a lecture or a training of first-year students, members of the administration emphasize that events like this are about promoting discourse and trying to get people to think about the issues at hand.

“This is what some people think about it—that we’re trying to get people to think about something in a certain way—and instead we would like people to explore how power and privilege effects everyone’s lives,” said Associate Dean of Students Clare Carson.

Carson and Cleveland also reiterated the hope that all members of the Whitman community would be involved in continuing the conversation of race, especially if they feel that they have no connection or interest in the discussion.

“This is everybody’s issue, and everyone needs to be a part of the conversation,” said Cleveland. “Even if it’s trying to understand, ‘How do I, someone who seems to have it all going fine ... how do I fit into this conversation? What impact do I have?’”

Through surveys, the administration identified that splitting the focus of these exchanges to target a specific group on campus is not the ideal way to structure them. Therefore, the Power and Privilege Symposium and events like it will not be aimed at any particular group of students.

“Students all across the board have recognized when they attend [these events] that they have personal growth that they’ve experienced ... so these are not targeted to one group or another, but across the board people do benefit from being a part of this discussion,” said Carson.

Instead, the administration hopes that future events beyond the Power and Privilege Symposium will provide a space for students of all classifications, backgrounds and interests to come together and stimulate insightful conversations that make everyone involved more aware of all thoughts on the issues.

“Challenging perspectives, critical thinking, brainstorming as to how to resolve issues, identification of ... what we need to do and where we need to focus.

Those are the kind of encounters we need to have,” said Cleveland.

The administration needs to take steps to educate all of the student body in a mandatory manner, because non-mandatory methods aren’t getting the message through.

BACKPAGE

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feb

13 2014

IT’S COMPLICATED:

Couple not posting enough photos on Facebook

W

ith Valentine’s Day fast approaching, firstyear Tasha Simmons is worried her boyfriend, firstyear Dale Cane, is not posting enough pictures on Facebook to showcase their love.

“He posted a few selfies of us kissing in the wheat fields, but he didn’t post any of the matching Christmas sweater ones. How can I tell that he really loves me if he doesn’t prove it on Facebook? I’m a super private person who’s not into big public displays of affection, but this is just common relationship courtesy, you know?” said Simmons.

When questioned about his lack of enthusiasm, Cane was displeased.

“I tweeted five times about Tasha yesterday, and then posted an original poem about her on tumblr last night. I totally poured my soul into it. It goes like, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more

lovely and more hot,’” said Cane.

Simmons was not consoled by Cane’s alternative displays of affection.

“It’s different on Facebook. It’s just so selfish of him to not post more pictures of us. How else am I supposed to make my high school friends jealous?” she said.

Head of the Astrology Department Mandy Candid agreed with Simmons.

“Well, Dale’s ruler, Mars, is rising, so it makes sense that their relationship is housing some tension. The stars are quickly aligning, though, and I think that with time Dale will realize that Tasha is right.

Venus just needs to stop being retrograde,” said Candid.

Candid’s predictions proved correct. In an effort to appease Simmons, Cane agreed to post more pictures on Facebook.

“I get where she’s coming from. I’ve been posting too many

Vines of my cat and not enough pics of Tasha. I hope that I can make it up to her,” said Cane.

Simmons was thrilled with Cane’s response.

“I’m so relieved. Especially because I decided to hire a filmmaker to follow us tomorrow, so I can post a live stream of our dinner date. Photos are great, but this will really give people the opportunity to see our true love in action,” said Simmons.

Cane could not agree more.

“As long as she gets me a good present tomorrow, then I don’t really care. I’m hoping for some booze,” said Cane.

Indeed, it seems that Venus is no longer retrograde. The couple is now on its way to recovery.

“Oh my God, I’m so excited for tomorrow. I can’t wait to show Dale the matching pink sweaters I crocheted for us. Now the whole world can see too! It’s gonna be hashtag adorable!” said Simmons.

Valentine’s Day word search

Tasha Simmons ‘17 basically has to force her beaux, Dale Cain ‘17, to take selfies with her. Like, what is up with that? Photos by Emily Volpert

My perfect boyfriend

I

t’s the big day, the big date. We have been together for nearly four years now, and every minute is just as magical as the first. Our love simply grows and grows and grows, exponentially flowering out in fractals of love and roses and rainbows and unicorns. And today—Valentine’s Day—we celebrate our love with an evening of festivities and romance.

We aren’t going to do anything too fancy—I’m not that kind of girl—but we are going out for a romantic dinner for two before going home together for some dessert and a quiet night in. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make the night absolutely perfect, just to show how much love is truly in my heart. We’re going out to dinner: salad, pasta, chicken. Nothing too heavy, since we wouldn’t want to be too full for what I’ve got planned for later. Of course there will be a good bottle of wine, maybe even a glass of champagne. I’ve got a stunning dress and my highest heels to wear. I spent two hours fixing up my hair and makeup. And you should see my outfit for the “night in” por-

tion of the evening, when I casually slip into something a little more comfortable (oh la la!) before I pull out the chocolate cake I baked this morning. It will all be so delicious.

Thank goodness Valentine’s Day falls on a Friday this year, since I’m sure the two of us won’t be doing much sleeping, if you know what I mean. We will most definitely be up all night. I am just so in love, and tonight is going to be simply magical!

Oh honestly, Netflix, you are my one true love, the light of my life, the peanut butter to my jelly, the Walt to my Jesse, the Ben Wyatt to my Leslie Knope. Four years together and I couldn’t be happier, not even with a real boyfriend. Our nights in together—you playing episode after episode of “Breaking Bad,” “The Tudors,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “Don’t Trust the B----in Apartment 23,” and me in my pajamas eating ice cream—they have always been perfect. And you know me so well. Every show you have suggested to me I have adored. Netflix, you truly are my one and only, and I am so glad that you are my Valentine.

Just the tips!

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Online A NEW resource connecting current Whitman students with alumni around the globe

www.alumniconnections.com/ whitmancollege/

V

alentine’s Day is just around the corner, and you know what that means.

Some of our readers may be asked to “make whoopee” by some of our other readers. This is a daunting experience for all of us, but have no fear. Nooky needn’t be an uncomfortable chore done out of the social obligation to procreate; it can be marginally interesting! You heard me right. With these helpful tips, you can turn your roll in the hay into a roll in the yay! Find a friend and try it out for yourself today!

• Put your hand somewhere.

• Wake them up to or with something.

• Be sexy.

• Be as naked as you mutually agree is appropriate at the time.

• Invite or uninvite additional company.

• Do that thing they like but have never told you about.

• Don’t be afraid to get dirty, unless you are dirty, in which case, take a shower.

• Rub something on another thing; consume if consumable.

• Shower sex: not for dorms.

• Probably best to do it in the dark.

• Pro tip: if your condoms aren’t Patagonia, no one will do the deed with you.

• Do some Kegels—which I think is a food?

• Plan out the sex in detail beforehand—a graph is a must!

• Put on a halftime show.

• Make sure your legs aren’t in the way.

• Can you do sex backward?

Time to find out.

• Thank them for their continued participation.

• Don’t do it in the road. It’s dangerous.

• Pierce their ear so they look cooler.

• Scream like a gibbous monkey. It’s super hot, and your neighbors with think you are watching “Planet Earth.”

• Plumage. Bitches love plumage.

• Sing the “Top Gun” theme song, but make sure the words are at least 80 percent incorrect.

• Frequently mention how glad you are they are not a freshmen, even if one or both of you are freshmen.

• Say “that’s interesting” at varying intervals.

• Brand them so that you can identify them later.

• Do that thing that you know how to do. But not that one thing. That one thing is weird.

• Make some time to read the Whitman Sexual Misconduct Policy together.

• How many condoms is the right number of condoms?

Find out.

• Find the best sex food in Bon Appétit (e.g. Taste of Sicily, almond butter, mini croissants), and sneak it out.

• Combine work and fun. Read your economics textbook to them during coitus. Preferably out loud.

• Have sex on quinoa—it’s healthier.

• The best sex requires time and distance.

• And remember. Always use protection ... whatever that means. This writer suggests bear spray.