Whitman Pioneer - Fall 2010 Issue 7

IN THIS ISSUE

Soccer pushes to season’s end

Hauntings in Harper Joy

Walla Walla Bookstores

Despite a string of disappointing losses, women’s soccer remains optimistic. page 7

Students tell their eeriest tales of the specters and spooks residing in Harper Joy Theatre. page 4

Small bookstores provide used and new books to keep it local. page 5

WHITMAN COLLEGE Walla Walla, WA Volume CXXVII Issue 7 whitmanpioneer.com October 28, 2010

Alpha Phi selected to be fourth sorority

by HADLEY JOLLEY Staff Reporter

The Alphi Phi sorority will be returning to Whitman next fall as the fourth sorority on campus, pending faculty approval this spring. Whitman’s Panhellenic Extension Committee announced the decision, part of an effort to reduce overcrowding in the existing three sororities, on Monday, Oct. 25.

In early October, representatives from Alpha Phi, along with Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Gamma Delta, came to Whitman to tour the campus and make presentations about their sororities. The Panhellenic Extension Committee and other participants-largely sorority members--who attended these presentations then discussed their preferences. Alpha Phi was favored in part because it had previously been on campus until the 1980s.

“There are quite a few Alpha Phi alums in Walla Walla, and a lot of [them] went to Whitman and were Alpha Phis at Whitman thirty years ago . . . They are really going to be willing to help this chapter and get it started,” said junior Heather Smith, president of Whitman’s Panhellenic Association.

Other factors the committee considered were the strength of Alpha Phi’s local chapters at other schools, which could provide support for the new chapter, as well as how Alpha Phi

functioned at small liberal arts institutions like Whitman.

According to Smith, Alpha Phi gave a compelling presentation of the sorority in terms of public relations.

“They really showed us that they know how to market themselves,” Smith said. “They know how to change their marketing techniques based on where they are; so they were really interested, more so than the other groups, in really tailoring their marketing to Whitman’s campus, which is really important when they are a new group coming to Whitman to attract Whitman students. [The] excitement they showed to work with our Panhellenic and everyone on our campus was really impressive.”

While Alpha Phi accepted the invitation to come to Whitman, there is one more step to ensure they come to campus: a faculty vote which will occur in the spring. Smith hopes that Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland will write a letter in support of the new sorority, and believes it is likely as he has already shown his support of the process.

“We’re hoping that the faculty will see that the Dean of Students supports this and that they’ll also support this,” she said. “We could have gone to the faculty for approval during any time in the process. We could have done it in the fall or last spring. But we decided to wait to the very end to show them that we’ve done all our research and we’ve done it really well.”

HONG Contestents (from left) Ben Serrurier, Matt Bangcay, Matt Oakes, Etienne Moshevich, Etienne Moshevich, Joe Wheeler, Eliot Stone, all seniors, reherse their group dance for the Friday, Oct. 29 event.

Mr. Whitman gets personal

A student’s mother’s struggle with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, inspires her to make the disease a focus of fundraising efforts for the annual beauty pageant

by ALYSSA GOARD Staff Reporter

The eight young men contending for the title of Mr. Whitman filed into the basement of Prentiss Hall on the night of Tuesday, Oct. 26, practicing graceful slides and almost seamless spins across the dance floor for their opening number. The ninth annual Mr. Whitman competition, to be held Friday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. in Cordiner Hall, promises to be one of the most unforget-

table events on campus.

Mr. Whitman is a philanthropy event put on by Whitman’s Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, which works from summertime onward to prepare and fundraise. As is the tradition, four independent senior gentlemen and one representative chosen from each fraternity show off their bodies and talents. This year’s competition features Matt Bangcaya, Charlie Procknow, Ben Serrurier, Etienne Moshevich, Matt Oakes, Reed Ferris, Joe Wheeler and Eliot

Coalition addresses hate crimes

Teams debate dry seasons

by TYLER HULBURT Staff Reporter

“On campus you are dealing with a wet culture,” said Scott Shields, head coach of Whitman’s varsity cross country.

There is no denying it: alcohol plays a large role on the Whitman campus. This presence of alcohol can be a major difficulty when it comes to varsity athletes looking to perform to the best of their abilities.

Head Athletic Trainer John Eckel sees alcohol as a risk to athletes’ health and performance.

“It’s a diuretic. Complications with diuretics include cramps and heat exhaustion,” Eckel said. “It also leads to impaired judgment and slow reaction time.”

These impaired judgments and slowed reactivity can lead to physical injuries that can drastically affect an athlete’s entire season.

Because of the potential harmful effects of alcohol on an athlete’s body, different varsity teams have a variety of policies regarding alcohol use during season. Volleyball and women’s soccer have chosen to implement dry seasons, meaning that they do not drink alcohol at all during the season.

Other teams, including men’s soccer and women’s tennis, cross country and swimming, do not go to this extreme, but do institute a 48-hour rule. This means that athletes are not allowed to consume alcohol 48 hours before a competition.

While this does allow for studentathletes to still drink some alcohol, in particular cases it can cause athletes to effectively go dry for long stretches in their season.

For men’s soccer, which usually has DRY SE A SON, page 7

QUOTES of

THE WEEK

Stone, all strutting their stuff to the “get jiggy with it” theme: “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” “The reason why this event works so well . . . is because it brings together a broad range of guys from all areas of Whitman,” said junior Abby Neel, Kappa Kappa Gamma Philanthropy Chair and organizer of the event. “And the parody of having all the gentlemen involved with the pageantry creates a fun atmosphere and shows just MR . WHITMAN, page 3

by HADLEY JOLLEY Staff Reporter

FENNELL Walla Walla residents display political signs. Sen. Patty Murray-D is making a last-minute visit to Walla Walla on Saturday Oct. 30.

Student political involvement decreases during off-year election

by MOLLY JOHANSON Staff Reporter

Two years ago, hundreds of Whitman students were involved in efforts to elect President Barack Obama. And while there may not be as much excitement this year, many Whitman students are involved in campaigning and getting out the vote in the upcoming election which takes place Tuesday, Nov. 2.

“It’s extremely important for young people to vote,” said senior Clara Van Eck, the president of the Young Democrats on campus. “They have issues that the rest of the population doesn’t have—specifically, education.”

In this area, funding is always the issue. Van Eck points out that, in the last two years, the tuition for college has risen seven thousand dollars, while average grant and scholarship amounts have only gone up two thousand dollars.

Van Eck, who became a Washington resident this year, looks forward to voting here and paying back the state that showed her “compassion and inclusion” in the form of scholarships, even when she wasn’t a resident.

First-year Kayvon Behroozian feels that voting is essential to one’s civic duty.

“If you’re going to complain about

government issues, take part in the voting process as your civic duty to make your complaints valid,” he said.

In the Aug. 17 primary, only 46 percent of the Walla Walla area voted.

“For the amount of enthusiasm for this election and for this much education, I would expect the voting figures to be higher,” said State Committeewoman for the Republican Party Sandra Richardson.

As a way to get people voting on campus, Young Democrats set up a voter registration table in Reid Campus Center for a week earlier in October. They registered more than 50 students to vote either here or in their ELECTION, page 3

In response to the increased attention given to suicides of bullied gay teenagers and students, Coalition Against Homophobia is putting together a gallery to increase awareness of this issue.

The club decided to put on the gallery in the Glover Alston Center featuring pictures and biographies of GLBTQ youth who committed suicide, as well as YouTube videos from the “It Gets Better” and “Make it Better” projects spawned in the wake of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi’s suicide on Sept. 22. They also plan on having a discussion after the gallery.

It is currently a big time for GLBTQ issues on campus: Oct. 15 was Coming Out Day, and forthcoming in November is the annual Matthew Shepard Lecture entitled “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: How We Got It, How We Can Get Rid of It,” Transgender Day of Rememberence and the gallery at the GAC. “We want to look at and critically examine the ways that the media has been giving attention to these suicides, and how effective that has been, and the reasons behind it,” said senior Liam Mina, co-president of Coalition Against Homophobia and Whitman’s GLBTQ intern.

Both Mina and junior Mehera Nori agree that the media attention gives the false impression that the rash of suicides is something new. Nori also criticized the media for only focusing on white students.

“What I really hope to address with the gallery is one, that this isn’t new . . . this isn’t a string of suicides, this is an ongoing thing that just hasn’t been addressed until now, and two, the diversity of people who have subjected to harassment and bullying and some of them have tragically taken COALITION, page 3

{ }{ }{ } { } “The United States must be patient and also be sure that our democracy is worth emulating.”

“Bicycling and walking are sometimes not viable options, and many students find it difficult to run errands or go across town without a car.”

“The W Club is truly a complementary process combining the quest for excellence in the classroom and on the field.”

“Origami is an art form which prompts thinking beyond simple animal-like shapes.”

OPINION

NEWS

SPORTS

A&E

by Gary Wang page 6

by Shelly Le page 2

by Pamela London page 7

by Nate Lessler page 4

2

News

October 28, 2010

Whitman students not warm on idea of car-sharing

by SHELLY LE Staff Reporter

“It’s super easy getting around campus, especially since Whitman is small for a college,” said sophomore Dieter Brandner, “but I think using a carsharing program would be the same as borrowing a car from a friend, to get groceries in emergencies, except without the obligation.”

Like Brandner, the majority of students at Whitman College do not have cars. Although Walla Walla is a small city and many students live within walking distance of campus, bicycling and walking are sometimes not viable options, and many students find it difficult to run errands or go across town without a car.

Many colleges and universities have a car-sharing program from Zipcar, which offers self-service, on-demand cars by the hour or day in major cities.

Zipcar extends services to universities for college students across the nation, including Pomona College, UCLA and University of Washington. Students register for a card from Zipcar, reserve their car in advance online and pick up the car from a reserved spot on or near campus.

This fall, Zipcar expanded their service to the University of Puget Sound campus in Tacoma for students to rent at an hourly or daily rate. UPS has two cars on campus that students can rent for nine dollars per hour, or 72 dollars per day. Insurance and gas are included in that price.

According to Todd Badham, Director of Security at UPS, students at the university use the program to perform daily tasks.

“Stdents use [Zipcar] to go grocery shopping, to the bus and train station to pick up other students, and to run errands,” he said.

Badham noticed a positive response to the program, and says membership is increasing.

“Students have reacted really well, actually; we get several memberships a week,” he said.

Although there is no car-sharing system or program similar to Zipcar at Whitman, students have been able to take advantage of the rides listserv through the Whitman student e-mail system. However, for students wanting to get away from campus to take a last-minute day trip to Pasco or K e n newick, Zipcar is an asset that Whitman students may benefit from.

Zipcar and other similar car-sharing programs pride themselves on reducing the

number of cars on the road and helping to promote environmental friendliness. According to a study from the Environmental Defense Fund, American cars and pickup trucks are responsible for nearly half of the greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles globally.

Small private cars also have a history of emitting the most carbon dioxide in the U.S. because more small cars are used by citizens. Because of this, Zipcar aims to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the number of privately-used vehicles on the road.

According to Zipcar’s website, each Zipcar in use replaces approximately 15 to 20 privately-owned vehicles, although this would not necessarily apply for college students who would not otherwise

own a car.

Katrina Lin, a third-year medical student at UCLA, was grateful to use Zipcar when first arriving on the UCLA campus.

“I didn’t actually use it very often, maybe once every two months or so, but that’s what was nice about it,” she said. “I didn’t have a car, but when I needed it, it was there so it saved me a lot of money.”

Senior Nat Clarke, Whitman sustainability coordinator, feels that because most students live so close to campus and Walla Walla is so small, Zipcar or a similar program would not impact students or reduce greenhouse gas emissions created by students with cars.

“I can’t imagine that it would significantly reduce the number of upperclassman that bring cars to school,” he said. “I don’t see it as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but that being said, student ride-sharing for trips home is huge.”

Lin agrees. She believes that Zipcar doesn’t significantly reduce traffic in Los Angeles or impact traffic in other areas of the country.

“In reality it’s more convenient for the user than for the environment, because if you really need-

ed a car, then you would buy one. Zipcar is more for convenience,” she said.

However, Clarke sees Zipcar as an advantage for students who are new to Whitman and Walla Walla.

“I think it would be valuable for freshmen and sophomores that don’t have access to a vehicle,” he said. “But I think by the time you’re a senior you have found out a way to survive without a car in Walla Walla.”

First-year Nina Pascucci agrees that as a new student she would feel more comfortable with an easier transition, in terms of transportation, to college.

“I feel like you’d have a little bit more freedom with it. I would use it if I wanted to go somewhere far away from campus to get away,” she said.

As an upperclassman though, Clarke personally prefers to not use a car.

“I personally wouldn’t adapt to it; I find it much easier to ride the bus, take my bike, ride with friends.”

First-year Edward Younie, who brought his car to school, agrees with Clarke.

“I sometimes think a car is more of a hassle,” he said.

Students and other citizens who don’t own or prefer not to use a car are able to take advantage of Valley Transit, Walla Walla’s public bus system that runs weekdays and Saturdays for 75 cents each way. Routes running through campus extend from the Walla Walla Regional Airport throughout town and to College Place.

M

LOOS-DIALLO

2010 Commencement speaker Williams fired from NPR

by MOLLY SMITH Editor-in-Chief

After a ten-year stint with National Public Radio (NPR), the network terminated its contract with Juan Williams last Wednesday, Oct. 20 after Williams made a series of disparaging remarks about Muslims on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Williams, a senior news analyst for NPR, is also a Fox News analyst who appears regularly on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Williams was also the 2010 Commencement speaker, and, as is tradition, the college conferred an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters on him during the Commencement ceremony.

On Oct. 18, during a debate about the threat Muslim nations posed to the United States, Williams said, “When I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Mus-

lims, I get worried. I get nervous.” Williams also identified jihad as the “biggest threat on the planet.”

In the same segment, Williams challenged O’Reilly’s contention that all Muslims are extremists intent on attacking America with the analogy that Christians shouldn’t be blamed for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

NPR has cited a breach of editorial standards as the grounds for Williams’s termination. According to their official statement, NPR said that his comments were “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.” “They were looking for a reason to get rid of me because I appear on Fox News,” Williams said in a Fox News interview two days following his firing.

His employment by both organizations had long been a sore point for NPR who shifted his status from staff correspondent to analyst after he expressed

clear-cut positions on issues of public policy both on television programs and in newspaper editorials. “[He] tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox,” said Alicia C. Shepard, NPR’s ombudsman.

Since his firing from NPR, Fox News has offered Williams a new 2 million dollar contract for three years and a guest slot as the Friday night host of

According to their official statement, NPR said that his comments were “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

“The O’Reilly Factor.”

Each year, nominations for speakers and honorary degree recipients are solicited from students, faculty, staff, alumni and governing board members.

Nominees are ultimately voted on for approval by the faculty and trustees. Factors considered when selecting are Commencement speaker include a speaker’s relationship to and understanding of the value of a liberal arts education and accomplishments in his or her field that have the potential to inspire action and critical thinking by students.

“His contributions as a journalist, writer and public intellectual have helped shaped our collective understanding of race in American society,” said President George Bridges in an April 2010 press release announcing Williams’s selection as the 2010 Commencement speaker. “[Controversial speakers] attract attention and cause people to apply critical thinking, analyze and communicate--the very essence of a liberal arts education.

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CORRECTIONS TO ISSUES 5 & 6 In the Issue 6 Board Editorial, we incorrectly stated that a student film funded through the ASWC Travel and Student Development Fund had yet to be screened on campus. The film, “A Twin,” was screened at the Oct. 15 Douglas Hall Open Mic.

That said, however, I do not see value inh bringing a speaker to campus who hasp gained notoriety for positions that re-a flect an intent to be hurtful,” Bridges saids this week in an e-mail. d Alumni have had varying perspec-m tives on Williams’ comments.

“It’s a bit of a stain on my memories ofc Commencement. Years from now we’llt look back and remember how Juan Wil-t liams spoke at our graduation and thenW was fired from NPR for making racist statements only a few months later,” saidm Connor Guy ‘10. f “The comments made by Juan Wil-t liams and the responses by NPR and na-t tional political figures have been unfor-a tunate. Williams’ initial remarks and them ensuing responses have aggravated divi-c sions and tensions over race and ethnic-a ity in the U.S.,” said Bridges. He also saidd that in light of last week’s events he stilla supports the decision to bring Williamsv to campus as last spring’s Commencement speaker. s a u c s t a

n M o c

In Issue 5 the illustration accompanying “Bon Appétit varies from campus to campus” on page 2 should be credited to Emily Johnson.

In Issue 5 the photograph accompanying “Intramural sports offer competition, community” on page 7 should be contributed to Zach Rosenberg.

the Pioneer

EDITORIAL POLICY

whitman news, delivered.

EDITORIAL

PRODUCTION

WRITING

B U S I N ESS

Editor-in-Chief Molly Smith

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NEWS

Publisher Derek Thurber

News Editor Josh Goodman

A&E Editor CJ Wisler

Senior Production Associate Sally Boggan Production Associates Cindy Chang, Bo Erickson, Miriam Kolker, Abigail Sloan, Meg Vermilion

Opinion Editors Heather Nichols-Haining Gary Wang

Infographic Designer Maggie Appleton

Sports Editor Nick Wood

Copy Editors Maggie Ayau, John Lee

Humor Editors Simi Singh Finn Straley

PHOTOGR APHY

Photography Editor Jack Lazar

Illustration Editor Sam Alden

Senior Copy Editor Jenna Mukuno

Marin Axtell, Julia Bowman, Brandon Fennell, Isabel Hong, David Jacobson, Kendra Klag, Ethan Parrish, Zach Rosenberg

ILLUSTR ATION Jea Alford, Sarah Canepa, Emily Johnson, Olivia Johnson, Binta Loos-Diallo, Rex Rolle, Carrie Sloane, Erika Zinser

h b

Alyssa Goard, Molly Johanson, Hadley Jolley, Karah Kemmerley, Shelley Le, Joe Volpert, Will Witwer

A&E

Ellie Gold, Nate Lessler, Sean McNulty, McCaulay Singer-Milnes

Circulation Associates Aviv Bridge, Alexandra Murray, Kira Peterson Webmaster Rebecca Fish

OPINION

Dingli, Rachel Alexander, Allison Bolgiano, Zach Duffy, Blair Frank, Lauren McCullough

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HUMOR

Advertising Associates Dana Fong, Phuong Pham, Brian Vieth

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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 weekly Letters to the Editor in print and online.

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News

October 28, 2010

3

Election: Whitman students likely to vote from page 1 home state.

“I had been meaning to do it for a long time,” said first-year Phoebe Horvath. “They were very helpful.”

The club has also been canvassing for Democrat Patty Murray, who is running in a tight reelection race for her seat as a U.S. Senator.

Though Whitman’s Campus Conservative club is currently inactive, students still volunteer for the Walla Walla Republican Party branch.

This year, however, there are fewer

Whitman volunteers for both parties.

“It appears that younger voters are less likely to participate in this election than in 2008,” said Professor of Forensics Jim Hanson. “Young voters are not going to be represented as well as they should be.”

When it comes to voting Democratic Party volunteer Buddy Georgia thinks that one should “diversify your sources of information. You need to know what the other side is saying.”

In most states, ballots must be received by Tuesday, Nov. 2 to be counted.

APPLETON

Important Washington State Initiatives

FENNELL Seth Dawson ‘12, an intern at the Patty Murray campaign office, calls supporters to remind them to vote in the upcoming election.

1098: This initiative, if passed, would impose an income tax: 5 percent of the income on individuals who make over $200,000 and couples who make over $400,000. Currently, there is no state income tax in Washington. Of the money earned from this tax, 70 percent would go towards education and 30 percent towards health services. In addition, some

other state taxes, including property taxes, would go down.

1100 & 1105: Currently, all “spirits” or hard liquor, and wine above 24 percent alcohol are sold by the state. 1100 and 1105 would remove this restriction to create competitive prices and jobs. However, this competitive market would mean diverting sales away from small lo-

cal wineries, and more money would go out of state. Also, the money that Washington earns from these alcohol sales would be lost.

1107: A yes vote on this initiative would repeal the candy and grocery tax presently enacted in Washington, which affects candy, bottled water and soda. Keeping the tax would contribute to state funds.

Mr. Whitman: Campus supports fundraising from page 1 how much we as a sorority can expand our base of involvement in philanthropy.”

Neel also wanted this year’s pageant to have a fresh twist to it. Besides the anticipated performances from the contestants and Whitman’s dance team, additional segments of the show will feature a new dance group called Step One and Whitman’s coed a cappella group, Schwa.

But perhaps the reason why this year’s competition will be so unique is because the charity Kappa Kappa Gamma chose to sponsor has a personal significance to a Whitman student.

At the end of senior Julie Irvine’s sophomore year, right before finals week, doctors found what they thought was a low grade tumor in her mother’s brain. The growth turned out to be multiform glioblastoma, an especially deadly type of cancer, in her mother’s temporal parietal junction. After countless stays in the hospital, chemotherapy trials and vaccinations, Irvine’s mother defied the odds and is still alive 18 months after her diagnosis, despite an average survival rate of slightly over a year.

“But she is now pretty much trapped inside her body,” said Irvine. “She has lost the ability to speak and write but she can still understand and listen. Just recently we decided to discontinue her treatment so that she can enjoy her time, but in the last three to four months she has declined rapidly and is out of touch with reality.”

Last year, when the opportunity arose to nominate a charity for the Kappa’s annual Mr. Whitman event, Irvine jumped at the opportunity and searched for a regional charity with a personal focus that dealt

with glioblastoma. Irvine came across the Chris Elliot Fund for Glioblastoma Brain Cancer Research, an organization founded

by Dellann Elliot after her husband’s death from glioblastoma. The organization not only funds research, but also works to raise public awareness for glioblastoma and provides support for patients and their families.

According to the Chris Elliott Fund, each year 22,000 people are diagnosed with glioblastoma and 13,000 die from it.

Glioblastoma accounts for nearly one in four brain tumors in the United States.

Kappa Kappa Gamma selected Irvine’s application to dedicate this year’s philanthropy work the Chris Elliot Fund, and ever since the Whitman community has rallied behind the fund to support it.

Delta Gamma, Irvine’s sorority, has provided her with personal support and decided to donate profits from their annual formal dance to the Chris Elliott Fund.

And it hasn’t stopped there.

“The Betas shaved their heads, the Walla Walla Faces event downtown provided information on the Chris Elliot Fund, everyone is really going the extra mile to support this year’s philanthropy,” said junior and Kappa Kappa Gamma member Alyson Brozovich.

Neel believes that the prevalence of cancer contributed to this year’s fund-raising success.

“Cancer is one of those things that makes us feel vulnerable; most students here know someone who has been affected by cancer in one way or another,” she said.

“Brain cancer is particularly devastating and there is such a need to raise awareness for it. The contestants realize this and have

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made unprecedented fund-raising efforts and have gotten even more creative then we could have imagined.”

Junior and Kappa Kappa Gamma member Vanessa Casey hopes this year’s cause breaks fund-raising records.

“Each year the competition just gets bigger. Last year we came close to raising $30,000; I’m sure we will be able to fundraise a significant amount this year. The boys have really stepped it up a notch with their letter writing campaigns for donations,” she said.

Irvine admitted that she had never heard of glioblastoma when her mother was diagnosed, but is glad that Mr. Whitman is raising awareness.

“You hear about brain cancer more and more,” she said. “That sort of awareness is very important to me, because it means that we are one step closer to extending the lives of people who have to suffer with glioblastoma.”

Dellann Elliott and several ambassadors from the Chris Elliott Fund will be attending Mr. Whitman, and this year’s Miss Seattle will be making an appearance as a pageant judge.

Irvine is thankful for all the support this year.

“I’d like to think that this effort will help contribute to a cure,” she said. “I would like to know that I played a small part in making life a little better for others who have to go through what my mom did.”

After the competition, Irvine will be making a trip back home to the Portland area to show a DVD of the event to her mom, who is “very honored.”

Tickets will be on sale at lunch in Reid Campus Center through Friday.

SLOANE

Coalition: Gov’t policy hurtful from page 1 their own lives,” she said.

The timing of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” lecture and the other projects put on

by Coalition and GLBTQ is only coincidence. However, Patrick Henry, the professor emeritus who recruited Nathaniel Frank to speak on the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, said that both the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy and the recent suicides are related.

“You have a policy in the federal government that’s telling these young people-gay or straight--that there is something wrong with being gay,” said Henry.

Henry was one of the original members of the Matthew Shepard Lecture Series Committee, which was formed to bring speakers to campus to speak on issues of bias and human rights. The first speaker in 2005 was Cindy Shepard, whose son Matthew Shepard was killed in an anti-gay hate crime. Henry has not been directly involved with the series for several years, but he saw Nathaniel Frank, who wrote a book entitled “Unfriendly Fire,” on The Rachel Maddow Show and worked to

bring him to campus.

The topic of the Matthew Shepard Lecture was chosen with a particular eye towards the media.

“This year Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was so big, and we thought about how can we engage the campus with this issue,” said Jed Schwendiman, associate to the president and a member of the lecture committee.

This event also marks the last year that the Matthew Shepard Lecture series will occur, as the anonymous donation for the series has run out. Schwendiman said that Whitman will be looking for other sources of money to bring similar speakers through other programs.

Meanwhile, students are doing what they can to make Whitman a supportive place for GLBTQ students. Coalition Against Homophobia attempts to offer activities at least once a month to support its members, according to Nori. She believes that it is important to continually offer support.

“Queer harassment exists everywhere.

It exists in our community. It isn’t something that goes away--you have to keep combating it,” she said.

Trick or Canning collects food for needy

by JOE VOLPERT Staff Reporter

This Halloween, varsity athletes, members of the Community Service House and other Whitman College students will help collect food for the Blue Mountain Food Bank by “trick-or-canning.”

“Trick-or-canning is when you get dressed up and go trick-or-treating, but instead of collecting candy, we ask people to donate canned food,” said senior Sarah Reichardt, the R.A. of the Community Service House.

The Community Service House has organized this event for several years in a row and has been successful in collecting large amounts of food for the food bank.

Reichardt notes that most people have some food in their kitchen that they would be wiling to donate to support the cause.

“Most people have canned food in their pantries that they never use, so almost every house we stop at will donate at least a can,” Reichardt said.

The varsity athletes are participating in the trick-or-canning as part of Athletic Service Day. According to senior Jenele Peterson, who is organizing Athletic Service Day, over 40 varsity athletes are signed up to participate in the event.

“Varsity Athletes are helping out because this is our Fall Athletic Service Day. This is the first year that we are doing a Varsity Athletic Service Day and we are volunteering with two events:

the YMCA Spooktacular and Trick-orCanning,” Peterson said.

This event will happen on Sunday, Oct. 31 and any Whitman students are allowed to join.

“Any Whitman students can join

us—just come over to the Community Service House at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 31. It is a great way to relive your childhood, meet people in the community and support an important cause,” Reichardt said.

ROSENBERG The Community Service House, along with varsity athletes, are going trick-or-treating to collect canned food for the Blue Mountain Food Bank.

A&E

The Pioneer Issue 7 Oct 28, 2010 Page 4

MOVIE FEATURE

‘The Social Network’ depicts Facebook lifestyle

by NATE LESSLER Staff Reporter

“I’m talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online,” exclaims Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the recently released and critically acclaimed movie “The Social Network”. Directed by David Fincher (“Fight Club”, “Se7en”), the film follows the college life of Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg of “Zombieland”) and his creation of the ubiquitous social network that leads him to become the world’s youngest billionaire.

The idea of a “Facebook movie” might sound unappealing for some students, but the film is not about Facebook—it’s about Zuckerberg. However, there has been much debate surrounding the accuracy of events as portrayed in the film.

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing”) argues that the film, although dramatized, is nonfiction.

“If we know what brand of beer Mark was drinking on a Tuesday night in October seven years ago when there were only three other people in the room, it should tell you something about how close our research sources were to the subjects and events,” said Sorkin in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Zuckerberg feels otherwise. When asked by The New Yorker for his thoughts on the events as presented in the film, Zuckerberg calmly replied, “I know the true story.”

Though the controversy continues, Sorkin and Fincher set out to tell a story, and the truthfulness of the film is not as important as its depiction of the Infor-

mation Age. Fincher’s background in directing more blatantly dark films allows him to successfully illustrate the darker side of college life as well as some of the negative effects of social networking. But although the film is fast-paced, visually interesting and entertaining, Professor of Rhetoric and Film Studies Robert Sickels believes that there is not much substance behind Fincher’s style.

“It creates the illusion of telling an interesting story,” said Sickels. “I don’t hate the movie, I just don’t think it’s an important movie. I think it’s too soon [for the film to be made] . . .

Hindsight will give us a context that we don’t yet have [and] will allow for more i nt e r e s t i n g takes on this [story].”

Despite artistic drawbacks, “The Social Network” does present an interesting, albeit simple, paradox—Zuckerberg turns to the Internet to gain the attention of Harvard’s final clubs, but as Facebook expands, Zuckerberg becomes less and less connected to reality. Zuckerberg ends up with millions of “friends” but also entirely alone.

The competitive, entrepreneurial nature of Harvard is a driving force for Zuckerberg and many other characters in the film. But Whitman is no Harvard.

There are no elite final clubs here, and although the college is full of talented and passionate students, they are not entrepreneurs.

“The film is good, but it doesn’t present an accurate depiction of college life-at least as it exists at Whitman,” said sophomore Nick Leppman.

However, Sickels noted that the film’s portrayal of students’ use of the Internet

friends are sitting around a computer in the middle of the night rather than being out with other students,” said Sickels.

“The rise of social networking allows you to make connections that you otherwise wouldn’t, but . . . in some ways [that reliance] prevents you from making those deeper sorts of relationships that . . . you can only make face-to-face.”

Leppman argued that Whitman students are unlikely to sacrifice face-toface relationships for Facebook.

“Zuckerberg [is] an exception,” said Leppman, as he coincidentally browsed Facebook on his laptop. “[Facebook] allows people to communicate [with others] and connect faces with names . . . people at [Whitman] use Facebook often, but they don’t isolate themselves.

People here don’t choose to stay on Facebook instead of going out.”

However, a 2002 study conducted

by Robert Kraut suggested that while extroverts are more likely to become connected and involved through the Internet, it will likely cause introverts to become more isolated. Therefore, introverted students might be more likely to replace faceto-face interaction with Facebook.

Zuckerberg and Facebook seek to make the O. JOHNSON world a more open place, but instead of face-to-face communication “The Social Network” challenges the valmight have some relevance to students. ue of this mission. After being dumped “One of the scenes in the movie by his girlfriend in the opening scene that does portray [social networking] of the movie, Zuckerberg blogs, drinks evocatively is when Zuckerberg and his and hacks into Face Books, the Harvard

Cappella Romana melds history, music

by MCCAULAY SINGER-MILNES Staff Reporter

On Nov. 4 and 5, Whitman College students will have the chance to experience a crossover of multiple academic disciplines when Cappella Romana, an ensemble that performs music from the “Christian East and West”, visits campus to give a lecture and performance.

Combining history, music and ethnography, the Portland-based vocal chamber ensemble strives to provide people with an experience representative of times past.

“I think this is a great opportunity for students and faculty and townsfolk alike to experience Byzantine music,” said Visiting Assistant Professor of History Ethan Spanier. “For that two hours [during the concert] they will have the opportunity to almost time travel back and surround themselves in the environment of ancient music.”

Due to the age of the pieces, listeners will be able to experience something that under normal circumstances they perhaps would not encounter in their day-to-day musical selections.

“Music is something that is always contemporary; music doesn’t exist unless performed, and to perform you have to be present. But that said, this music is very old and that can evoke a sense of time and culture that is very different from ours,” said Executive Director of Cappella Romana Mark Powell.

Spanier served as “the instigator” for the event in an effort to get professors from multiple departments working to-

gether to provide new ways for students to learn material. In this case, the event will span the interests of the history and music departments.

“I am currently teaching a class on Byzantine history and civilization and part of my teaching philosophy is environmental history or experiential history,” said Spanier.

This concert will also benefit students who are taking Music 397, a class that covers the evolution of music from the medieval era to the 1700s, taught by Visiting Johnston Professor of Music John Lutterman, as well as students who are involved with choir.

“Several of the members of the choir

This music is very old and . . . can evoke a sense of time and culture that is very different from ours.

-Mark Powell, Executive Director of Capella Romana

are ethnomusicologists, and much of their approach stems from an anthropological study of the Byzantine rite, which is a living tradition that has preserved a repertoire and performance techniques that roots in medieval practices,” said Lutterman.

The concert will feature the music of the Byzantine era in order to further engage students of said classes as well as others who are interested in ancient music.

“This particular concert, we are doing

music from the Byzantine tradition, so music from composers in what is now mainland Greece and Asia Minor,” said Powell. “The music is in Greek. As a chant concert, you will hear no parts in terms of Western choral singing; just melody with a drone note underneath.”

Cappella Romana will also lead discussions before the concert to engage the audience and facilitate discussion before the show begins.

“We are also giving some talks at the [college] which is really great. I hope it will allow for some really great interactions with students and maybe we will learn about their perception of the music,” said Powell.

On Friday, Nov. 5, the chamber members will talk to students, addressing the more technical and musical components of their concerts.

“Together a small panel will give a a public lecture on Byzantine notation and the theory behind the singing in Chism Auditorium,” said Spanier.

According to Powell, the music being performed is also interesting because of the contrast between the style of music Cappella Romana will sing and the style of the other composers that are associated with this particular period in history.

“Most of the music that we are doing on this program comes from around the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. That places it in around the same time as Mozart and Hydan, but it is a very different culture that is being represented,” said Powell. “I think people will find it fascinating.”

equivalent of Whitman’s People Search.

Zuckerberg then uses student’s pictures from the Face Books to create a website called “Face Mash,” on which people rate the attractiveness of female students. The night of its creation, “Face Mash” gets 22,000 hits, crashing the Harvard wireless network. The website “Face Mash” makes the world a “more open” and honest place, but not exactly in a positive way.

Facebook asks users to reveal personal information, everything from sexual preference to their current location. Rarely would anyone run around sharing this information with strangers, a concept noted in the film when Zuckerberg’s friend asks him if a girl is single and Zuckerberg replies, “Dustin, people don’t walk around with a sign on them that says—” and at that moment gets the idea to add the relationship status feature to Facebook.

“I’m not going around and sharing or soliciting that information . . . I’m just putting it out there,” said Leppman as he opened the “info” tab in his Facebook page. Under religious views he had posted: “Badass motherfuckerism.”

“You can’t take Facebook too seriously,” said Leppman.

Regardless of artistic value, “The Social Network” presents a thoughtful snapshot of 21st century American culture and the role of social networking in contemporary society. The film allows students to reflect on if they really want to be “taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online.”

“The Social Network” is currently playing at Walla Walla Grand Cinemas.

Hauntings at Harper Joy

by SEAN MCNULTY Staff Reporter

Harper Joy Theatre has seen countless plays, actors, sets and props. It has been burnt down, rebuilt, and remodeled. This accumulated history brings a lot of stories to the theatre—and, some would tell you, a couple of ghosts.

“Several weeks ago,” said senior Devin Petersen, “I was in the props vault, alone, pulling items for the set of Government Inspector. I was at the far end and I heard a loud crash towards the door.”

Upon further investigation, Petersen discovered that a large light casing, sitting securely on the top shelf about eight feet above the ground, had fallen and shattered. “[It] had not been on the edge, I hadn’t touched the shelves, and the shelves are resistant to shaking . . . there was nothing that should make it break, and I was completely alone at the time . . . that piece of glass had been there since last spring.”

Petersen stated the event was possibly a message from one of the ghosts.

“One of [them] wanted me out of the theatre because I had been spending too much time there. It’s a reoccurring theme in our history,” he said.

Stories point to two main ghosts haunting Harper Joy. The first, a girl, is seen as a sort of guardian. Senior Trevor Cushman describes her as a “benevolent ghost.”

“An alumni girl . . . died in a car crash on her way here [to visit] . . . [she] makes a fuss when people are here too much or she needs to alert them of something,” he said.

Cushman and Petersen point to another story involving the female ghost. Alumni Burke Gardener, while still a student at

Whitman College, was hanging lights by himself one night when he saw a girl in the balcony. Seconds after, a light fell from the ceiling onto his head. The light coming loose was just as strange as the girl he saw; stage lights are usually secured with safety chains precisely so they don’t fall on people’s heads. When Burke was rushed to the hospital to check for head trauma, the MRI revealed something much worse: a malignant brain tumor.

“Had the light not fallen on his head,” said Petersen, “he would have been dead within three months.”

Aside from the girl, there’s a male specter as well—and he isn’t necessarily there to help.

“A visiting professor was directing a show and she and the cast noticed a pool of what looked like blood on the stage,” said Petersen. “There was a body in our fly loft.

They went to investigate, and when they got up there, the body was gone. But the pool of blood remained.”

Another malevolent force is said to have scared off another student from the theatre permanently.

“By the concessions booth, there’s like a little closet,” said Cushman. “A girl [was] going in there to get some item . . . and the door closed on her and she was stuck there for a while.”

When the girl was rescued from the closet, she was gibbering and covered in scratches—and, the story goes, she left school immediately afterwards.

“Not a terribly unusual type of ghost story,” said Cushman.

Students and faculty at Harper Joy have fun telling these stories, adding to and continuing the legacy of the theater.

Vancouver artist Joseph Wu challenges limits of Origami form

by NATE LESSLER Staff Reporter

After Intercultural Center Program Advisor Ben Wu ‘07 saw the PBS documentary “Between the Folds” over the summer, he was inspired to create a hands-on event on campus that would challenge common perceptions of Origami.

“I had never really done anything with Origami, but the film really expanded my [view of it],” said Ben Wu. “I kind of wanted to [create an event] that was interactive . . . I’m hoping that it will give people a different perception of Origami.”

Ben Wu, who works as an Intercultural Center Program Advisor, then did research on potential visiting guests and came across the website of Vancouver based origami artist Joseph Wu. Ben Wu soon after contacted Joseph Wu, who was more than willing to visit Whitman.

Joseph Wu visited on Oct. 26th and 27th. His visit involved a creative demonstration where he produced certain Origami at the request of audience members, a reception and gallery of selections of his

artwork in the Glover Altson Center, and two interactive origami workshops.

Additionally, a week before Joseph Wu visited campus, Ben Wu screened “Between the Folds” on campus. The film challenges common perceptions of origami not only through displaying artistic works that challenge perceptions of the medium, but also through depicting how origami is currently being used as a method for ground-breaking science.

However, only a few students showed up to see the documentary despite the film’s good press, and before Joseph Wu’s visit, Ben Wu expressed uncertainty about the amount of attendance the events involving Joseph Wu would receive.

“I have no idea if people are going to show up or not. It’s kind of the nature of putting on events; you have no idea how interested people are going to be until it happens,” said Ben Wu. “You chose dates that you think won’t have much happening [on them] . . . but sometimes it turns out to be a really bad week for people, and

there is only so much planning you can do for that, unfortunately . . . it kind of sucks because you feel like you’ve got like a really cool thing [planned] and then not that many people show up.”

In the end, Ben Wu was quite satisfied with the turnout the events received.

During the origami workshops, Joseph Wu guided students in making modular Origami (Origami using multiple sheets of paper), as well as Origami animals. The artwork created in the workshops will be on display at the Stevens Gallery in Reid Campus Center. Like the documentary, Joseph Wu worked to challenge common perceptions of Origami.

“The most common [stereotype] I try to break is ‘Oh yeah, Origami, I did that when I was a kid,’” said Joseph W u .

“Some people

just can’t seem to see past that. Modern origami is definitely an art form in and of itself, but a lot of people just here the word and they think about the birds and frogs they made when they were kids. It’s too bad because they are missing out on all the things that are possible today.”

Ben Wu was very pleased with how the events went.

“I think each person who attended took something small away from the experience and had their conception of Origami (and art) expanded a bit, which was always the primary purpose of this series of events,”

said Ben Wu. “It’s been really enjoyable to watch an artist who is genuinely passionate about his art but also equally passionate about sharing it with others in the most unpretentious way possible. His joy and the fun that he was having reflects really well on origami as a artistic medium.”

AXTELL

A&E

October 28, 2010

5

PIO PICKS Walla Walla booksellers keep business local

Each Thursday, The Pioneer highlights several events happening on campus or in Walla Walla over the weekend. Here are this week’s picks:

Día de los Muertos: La Casa Hispana in conjunction with Club Latino hosts their annual “Day of the Dead” celebration, a Latin American holiday dedicated to the remembrance of deceased family and friends.

The event includes making the traditional . pan de muerto and arroz con leche. Join s them on Friday, Oct. 29 from 5–6:30 p.m. e to celebrate. e e Haunted Hospital: Get spooked for a good s cause! North Hall residents once again put - on the much-anticipated eerie tour of the ” former hospital. The entry fee is $2 or two - canned food items, and the event is open e to all Whitman and Walla Walla community members. The tour is not for the faint - of heart, and those under 12 are discouraged m from attending. Haunted Hospital runs - from 6–9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21. Come d early as the event is very popular. , - “Pontypool”: It’s just a normal, boring day e for a radio shock-jock in Ontario, Canada e until all hell breaks loose in the form of a vim rus that turns people into zombie-like killers. e Directed by Canadian horror filmmaker e Bruce McDonald, “Pontypool” will screen in Kimball Auditorium on Sunday, Oct. 31 r at 7 p.m. This event is sponsored by the Cat nadian Studies Association in conjunction e with WEB. No charge. k - Nightmare on Boyer Ave: Dress in your spookiest garb and come to the Reid Ball- room for a night of Halloween fun! The dance will occur on Friday, Oct. 29 and last - from 10-12 p.m. A costume contest is slated l for 11 p.m., and the winner will receive two - tickets to the 7th Harry Potter midnight n movie premiere. s t Harvest Fest: The Interest House Come munity presents a celebration of the harvesting season. Complete with candle-making, y cookie decorating, leaf crafts and more. The event will occur at The Outhouse on Saturday, Oct. 30 from 2-4 p.m.

by SEAN MCNULTY Staff Reporter

Bookstores are a colorful segment of local business in Walla Walla. Two local booksellers, North Star Comics and Earthlight Books, cater to different segments of the community with unique inventories and approaches to bookselling. Both, however, share a deep connection with the area.

North Star Comics: North Star Comics sits on 2nd Avenue, a block away from the Marcus Whitman Hotel. The owner, Brice Jones, spent his high school and college years in and around Walla Walla.

Now he runs the town’s only all-comics shop.

After returning to Walla Walla from living in Los Angeles, Jones had trouble finding jobs in his chosen field of computer science. At the time, there was no devoted comics shop in Walla Walla. By starting North Star Comics, Jones turned his childhood interests into his job.

“When I was younger my brother had a comic collection and I used to read that,” said Jones. “It was always something that was interesting to me; it’s sort of a subculture that I kind of enjoyed. I’ve always been a fan of science and science fiction.”

North Star Comics stocks a few DVDs and a handful of games involving miniatures. For the most part, however, they carry exactly what the name says—comics.

North Star Comics caters primarily

to college students from Whitman College, Walla Walla Community College and Walla Walla University. They come because the comics industry—much like themselves—is getting a little older and a little smarter.

“The people who are reading nowadays are the ones who are making comics,” said Jones.

The college student of today was raised on big-budget superhero movie franchises and the pop culture obsessions of the Internet. Both pay heavy homage to comics. He or she is graduating into the comic industry and maturing the medium.

“The stories are a little bit more grownup—a little more realistic in some ways,” said Jones.

North Star attracts customers from as far as Milton-Freewater, Pendleton and Waitsburg.

“Sometimes we end up with [a] stock of things that were really popular elsewhere and didn’t go over well here,” said Jones. “Somebody from out of town couldn’t find it in Seattle or somewhere like that and ends up coming here and getting it.”

If North Star were in a hipper, more urban community, customers might buy through its stock regularly. In the niche market of Walla Walla, however, unwanted comics can settle in the back of the store and slowly become more valuable.

Who does this store sell those comics back to? The collectors, coming from

near and far, who helped to get it off the ground.

“When we first started,” Jones said, “we bought a fair number of collections from locals . . . that kind of was, I guess, the core seed of the whole thing.”

To Jones, the idea behind North Star Comics is simple.

“I try and focus more on the needs of Walla Walla,” he said. “I didn’t start it to become a millionaire. I’ve always really appreciated a good story.”

Earthlight Books: Earthlight Books, a new and used bookstore, is tucked quietly between Whitman College and the edge of downtown proper on East Main.

The store’s inventory is roughly 70 percent used and 30 percent new books; there’s also an assortment of bookmarks, greeting cards and blank journals.

For owner David Cosby, however, it isn’t just about what’s being sold. “[It’s] the people that you get to meet, for one thing,” he said. “Being able to be surrounded by books all the time, and being in an atmosphere that’s somewhat intellectual . . . not all the time, but you can be talking about Plato or you can be talking about the latest Spencer novel or something like that. But mainly the people.”

Before he had ever considered bookselling, Cosby had experienced another “somewhat intellectual” Walla Walla atmosphere—Whitman College. After graduation, he took his history major to Europe. He came back to the States

and tried his hand at a short-lived electrician’s apprenticeship. Eventually, he boomeranged back to Walla Walla on an offer to take over Earthlight with a friend.

They operated out of a tiny room in a gas station parking lot. During the day, they managed the bookstore. At night, they worked from six until two at an Asian restaurant. In five years, the store had moved to a larger location and was selfsustaining.

The community that educated and employed Cosby informs his business stance. He’s spent most of his adult life in Walla Walla, and he’s not interested in moving the roots of his business out of the community.

“I don’t have to send all my money to Los Angeles or New York or places to buy books,” said Cosby. “I can buy them from people here in the valley, and keep the money circulating around here instead.”

Originally, Earthlight sold only new books; the shift to secondhand was intended to ward off competition from large chain bookstores such as Barnes and Noble. “[We] couldn’t compete with a discounter,” Cosby said. “There was one other used bookstore in downtown Walla Walla called the Walla Walla Bookshop, run by two elderly ladies, Elmira and Almira Quinn. It had been here forever.”

Eventually, the Walla Walla Bookshop closed, and Earthlight cut their slice out of the bookselling market by turning to both new and used books.

Jazz Workshop Fall Concert: Music Professor David Glenn presents music from an innovative, new jazz studies course which incorporates both the study and practical application of jazz theory. The concert will take place in The Hall of Music’s Chism Recital Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Cinema Arts presents “Youth Knows No Pain”: Award-winning filmmaker Mitch McCabe, whose work has been broadcast on HBO, PBS and Showtime, presents her recently completed documentary, “Youth Knows No Pain”. The film documents a plastic surgeon’s daughter’s exploration of America’s obsession with beating the clock.

The film will be screened in Kimball Theatre on Wednesday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.

PHOTOS BY PARRISH Walla Walla bookseller Earthlight Books buys and trades with local and regional sellers in order to build a diverse inventory, while North Star Comics imports an excess stock of comics from regions which may not possess a similar demand. Frequently rare comics will accumulate in the back and become more valuable.

T HRIF T Y WHI T T IES

BOOK REVIEW

‘Faceless Killers’ never truly unmasked

Roasting pumpkin seeds

by ELLIE GOLD

by OLIVIA JONES

Book Reviewer

Sweden has been having a very good run lately—in terms of publishing, at least.

The creepy-cute vampire drama of “Let the Right One In” has been made into two films (one from Sweden, one from the U.S.; I’ve heard the American version is quite good, but I’m wary of seeing it after how incredible the Swedish film was), and Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy is getting the same treatment. Vintage Crime will tell you that they’ve been on this trend since the 90s, although technically it wasn’t the same trend.

Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander mysteries are very stereotypically Swedish in the sense that the style and content are remarkably similar to the works mentioned previously. The writing is bleak and sparse (although that could, admittedly, be a peril of the translation), and the environment described in the novel is cold, wintry and grey (even, apparently, in the summer). Also, people die, and rather horribly. From this collection of novels, one would think Sweden has quite the crime problem.

Kurt Wallander is a policeman in Ystad, a city in southern Sweden. He is called in one night to the site of a violent murder of an elderly couple in an iso-

lated farmhouse in the countryside. The woman’s dying words? Foreign—sparking an already-dangerous situation in an anti-immigrant Sweden.

“Faceless Killers” is a police procedural, and as such there is quite a bit of Wallander sitting at his desk shuffling paper around or meeting his fellow police inspectors to do damage control. The crime is a puzzle, and any attempt from the police to defuse the anti-immigrant sentiment is met with resistance from both the Swedish press and the citizens themselves. Wallander, at one point, begins receiving threatening calls from racist groups accusing him of being too lenient on the immigrants. The press, meanwhile, is accusing the police force of racism and failure to protect the immigrants. It’s a nasty situation. Racism in Sweden, at least in the early 90s, was a problem.

There is also quite a bit of Wallander’s personal life, which, incidentally, is a complete mess. His wife has left him, his daughter doesn’t speak to him any more and he’s become rather obsessed with the pretty ADA from Stockholm. Mankell spends a couple of paragraphs every chapter or so discussing Wallander’s bowel movements. They’re uncomfortable, to say the least. Wallander’s failure

ALFORD

Columnist

Mankell’s ‘Faceless Killers,’ 280 pages to change his diet—always brought up in the context of his uncomfortable bowel movements—is a poor reflection of his general failure as a human being. He’s managed to estrange both his wife and daughter, he’s getting nowhere on this case, his drinking is getting out of control and he can’t even manage to eat a salad. As a ploy to generate sympathy, it almost works. For the most part, unfortunately, it’s just frustrating.

Wallander’s only redeeming quality is his determination, but even this is not the type of determination that can be linked to virtue. It is closer to the determination of a squirrel digging a hole in the ground despite the fact that there is not, and never was, a nut buried beneath the dirt. He solves the mystery—this is crime fiction, after all—but the solution is strangely unsatisfactory. By the end of the novel, Wallander wants to believe that his life is better, that somehow he’s changed, but the truth is far more depressing.

My housemates and I decided to celebrate Fall Day this week. This wonderful new holiday is devoted to autumnal activities and drinking hot, spiced beverages such as mulled wine, hot chocolate and hot buttered rum.

Who would have thought that butter, spices, hot water and rum would be delicious? When I was living in Japan, I was charmed by the dedication to appreciating the seasons that is tradition over there. I often wish that America had similar cultural traditions of celebrating what is in season instead of insisting on strawberries and hothouse flowers all year round.

To begin our Fall Day, my housemates and I went to a produce stand and pumpkin patch past Wal-Mart, near Basel Cellars. This patch had more varieties of pumpkin and squashes than I knew existed, and after tromping around, petting cats and perusing rows of squash we all settled on our favorite carving pumpkins and even a few sugar pumpkins. Baking with pumpkins is an activity that has been dramatically simplified by canned pumpkin, but if you were tempted to try your hand at a baking with pumpkins from scratch, the variety you most likely want is the sugar pumpkin. Be forewarned, however, that this process will take hours longer and a fair bit more effort than opening a can.

While one of my housemates struggled valiantly with her sugar pumpkin, the rest of us happily carved faces onto our jack-o-lanterns. Once all of the large pumpkins had been gutted, I eagerly sorted the seeds from the fibrous innards, omitting any ones too small, into a bowl for roasting. Roast pumpkin seeds are the main reason I carve pumpkins. Their crunchy, salty deliciousness is irresistible and pairs very

well with hot chocolate and books on tape around the fireplace. My housemates and I devoured our first batch within minutes of removing them from the oven.

The first step to roast pumpkin seeds is to make sure that your seeds are clean. In a bowl or a sieve, wash them until all the pumpkin fiber has been removed and they feel less slimy. After draining them, pat them dry with a towel and transfer them to a large baking pan. If you have a lot of seeds, roast them in batches because they will roast best if they can lie flat in a single layer on the baking sheet. What you choose to roast them with is a matter of personal taste and ingredients on hand.

Use an oil (canola or olive), melted butter or margarine to lightly drizzle over the seeds on the baking pan and then liberally cover them in salt. Add more salt than you believe necessary or prudent. In addition, feel free to add any other spices you have on hand.

Think of them like Chex mix—you can make them sweet or savory, throw chili pepper or curry or cinnamon, or whatever else is at hand. Personally, I am a traditionalist and I am happy with just salt and olive oil.

Roasted pumpkin seeds are hard to mess up—the main danger is burning them. I recommend heating the oven to approximately 350 degrees.

After you put the tray in the oven, do not forget to check back every seven to ten minutes to remove the tray and stir the seeds. It is important to shuffle them on the tray in order to ensure that they roast on both sides. Once the majority of the seeds have turned brown (somewhere between golden and toast) take them out and taste a few. If they are satisfactorily crisp, you can begin enjoying them. I wish you all a happy Fall Day and hope you take the time to celebrate it before winter rolls around!

Opinion

The Pioneer Issue 7 Oct 28, 2010 Page 6

America’s democracy promotion U.S. media continues occurs most effectively by example to caricature China The foreign policy failures of the Bush administration in Iraq and Afghanistan have made democracy promotion out of fashGARY ion. In his second WANG inaugural address Opinion Editor in 2004, President George W. Bush declared that “it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”

These bold and perhaps combative words meant for every non-democratic regime from China to Zimbabwe ignored geopolitical reality. Yet Iraq has proven that no matter how much military might we exert or how many trillions of dollars we borrow, democracy cannot be forcibly planted in nations unwilling to accept it.

However, an alternative way of democracy promotion exists. Termed “soft power” by political scientist Joseph Nye, the United States has a capacity through the sheer popularity of American culture and American values via globalization to attract other nations to our own way of life. Soft power operates by attracting other nations to our own policy goals, while hard power operates through coercion (military power and economic sanctions).

The idea is that America, by being economically strong and politically free, can act as an example for other

peoples and governments to emulate.

Indeed, this kind of power is said to have been a prime driver in the dissolution of the USSR when millions of people living under authoritarian states rejected communism in favor of liberal democracy.

But for this to work, the United States must be patient and certain that our democracy is worth emulating. Here, my claim is not that U.S. democracy is bad or limited in its applicability to other states, but rather that our democracy is not perfect. We can always be more democratic.

We must work on how democratic we are before imposing it on others.

Felons in some states can’t vote even after serving their terms. There remain substantial barriers to full-fledged suffrage when millions of U.S. citizens aren’t registered to vote or when the registration process is designed to discriminate against the poor. However, the more problematic feature of our democracy lies not in our policies per se, but the way in which we deliberate democratically, if it can be called deliberation at all.

The polarization of American politics, which began in the 1970s, has culminated in a situation where the Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch

McConnell, recently said that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” Not tax cuts, not education reform, nor solving America’s illegal immigration quandary. Just political victory at all costs.

So when foreigners see American politics, do they see citizens actively disagreeing, debating and working together to solve common problems? Or do they see two parties flushed with billions of dollars from anonymous donors trying to win?

The truth of the matter is that American democracy is not perfect. America has not had a coherent energy policy for decades, aside from subsidizing the oil industry, even though Congress passes energy legislation every few years. America has a huge illegal immigration problem for which the solution is neither xenophobia nor ignorance.

America owes China and the rest of the world trillions of dollars, and pretending to want to cut the deficit and explode military spending at the same time does not solve any problems.

What if other countries that look to the American model of government see the polarization, the bitterness, the substitution of genuine speech with money instead of the protection of individual liberty and a government that responds to the wishes of its citizens?

Democracy can only serve as an example if it is effectively practiced. We must remain true to the spirit of democracy when we ask others to adopt it.

That means we must work on our own democracy before imposing it on others. Only then can democracy spread.

Students must vote this November to guarantee continued economic growth The current economic recession and stagnation emphasize the importance of the November midterm elections between contrasting visions for America’s future

With less than a week to go before Election Day, I have a plea to make to all of the Pioneer’s readers: please vote.

I’d like to think that it is second ZACH nature for most DUFFY Whitman stuColumnist dents to register to vote and then fill out and return their ballots when they come in the mail. But just in case there are any readers who doubt that the act of voting is of any great importance, allow me to frame the upcoming midterm elections in terms of our national economy: Three years after the collapse of the housing bubble, 14.1 million Americans remain jobless with the national unemployment rate standing at 9.6 percent. Among young people, the figures are worse. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment among students enrolled in high school and college stands at a rate of 17.1 percent.

Nearly one in three African Ameri-

can students and one in five Hispanic students are unable to find work. And just under 60 percent of black teens not currently enrolled in high school are unemployed.

Perhaps you’ve heard cable news personalities talking about these figures and opining that our generation is doomed to be the first generation in recent American history to enjoy a lower standard of living than that of their parents. The scary thing is that they may be right­—as a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development indicates, “Failure to find a first job or keep it for long can have negative long-term consequences on the career prospects [of young people] that some experts refer to as ‘scarring.’ Beyond the negative effects on future wages and employability, long spells of unemployment while young often create permanent scars through the harmful effects on a number of other outcomes, including happiness, job satisfaction and health, many years later.”

In other words, if unemployment remains as bad as it is now when any of Whitman’s current students graduate,

they can expect to make significantly less money and have significantly less job security than they would have had if they graduated in the midst of an economic boom.

I hope that in detailing the potential effects that the recession might have on our career prospects, I have impressed upon some of you that the stakes of these midterm elections are high.

Whatever representatives are elected in November will have an enormous impact on the decisions that Congress makes in the next few years. And many of us will be graduating into this uncertain job market and relying upon our congressional representatives to ensure that the American economy rights itself quickly.

I don’t mean for this column to be an endorsement for any particular candidate, although since I am a Whitman student, you can guess that I’ll be supporting the Democratic ticket. But I do urge everyone who is registered to vote this year to read candidates’ platforms and then to fill out their ballots and drop them in the mail. This is no ordinary election, and our very futures are at stake.

POLI T IC AL C ARTOON

DOUGLAS

The best way to secure the newspaper circulations in America is to carry news about China on the front page, according to a powerful AmeriDING can media owner.

LI As a Chinese Columnist person, I am supposed to feel overjoyed hearing his recognition of China’s importance.

Instead, I frowned and shook my head, wondering at the connotation of his statement.

The statement sounds plausible to a certain extent when you open the newspapers and examine news websites. “China” is the top or second top search term according to the “most popular search” in The New York Times in the last 24 hours, the last seven days and the last 30 days. With such a big demand, what else can a media group do but run after the profit that follows the demand?

The Wall Street Journal in its Oct. 18 and 19 edition reported Chinese news on its front page consecutively. China, as described by The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, and by many other American media sources, is a country where currency is controlled, the export of rare earth is regulated, demonstrations explode everywhere against Japan due to territorial conflict, people are taking American jobs and Xi Jinping, who has no personal political ideas, is the next prospective president.

The “China” described above is slow and irrational. China became a “rogue economic power”, as Paul Krugman criticized. The only positive side, if there is one, is the indirect hinting that China is economically rising and that the rise is causing fear and attacks from outside China. It resonates with the traditional Chinese saying “Shu Da Zhao Feng”, which means, “the higher you go up, the more rivalry you will face.”

Since globalization 2.0, the second phase of globalization as defined by Thomas Friedman in his book, “The World is Flat”, corporations have become an extraordinarily important role in international affairs. The cheap labor force, the huge consumption market and the low environmental standard have made China alluring for enormous American corporations. However, China’s unique political and social system determines

that corporations must administer under Chinese laws and rules. With the deepening of globalization, conflicts between American corporations and Chinese rules are increasing inevitably.

In America where almost 90 percent of the media is controlled by six massive corporations, including the Walt Disney and News Corporation, the media is apt to be regulated by these corporations behind.

Once Chinese policy goes against the interest groups’ interest, the news coverage of China will never be objective.

Once Chinese policy goes against the interest groups’ interest, the news coverage will never be objective.

Besides reflecting their requests through media coverage, the corporations are seeking government support for a change in China to meet their benefits through donations to the political campaigns. News Corporation just donated one million dollars to the Republican Governors’ Association this month.

Democrats and Republicans denounced each other in advertisements for exporting U.S. jobs to China and have made China a scapegoat for the still-high domestic unemployment rate.

Therefore, the powerful media owner is right in not being derisive, and there is no connotation in his statement. The Sino-phobia created via news coverage by him and his colleagues together with the politicians not only saves the circulation of newspapers, but also, because of the considerable audience, blinds people’s awareness of the domestic problems in America.

Finally, people receiving these news pieces start to believe that they live in a better place—America, that America has a better system that China should adopt, and that Americans should support their favorite candidate because he or she is asking for a change in China.

We forget to step back and discover how our beliefs are molded by the corporations and the government.

Got something to say?

The Pioneer wants to hear your thoughts. Comment on this and other articles on our website, whitmanpioneer.com

LET T ER TO T HE EDI TOR Last week The Pioneer published the board editorial entitled “ASWC must always be mindful when allocating student dollars.” We in ASWC are thrilled to participate in discussion about ASWC’s role in serving the student body.

As a former Finance Senator myself, I experienced the difficult process of balancing students’ well-intentioned proposals with the need for a tangible, contractually-binding plan to bring their experiences back to campus. To a certain extent, ASWC must trust in the good faith attempts of students to fulfill contractual agreements and to give their experiences legacies. Fortunately, Whitman students are exceptionally bright, passionate and motivated, and that is reflected in the confidence that ASWC has in requesting students as we approve and disperse funds. We look for requests which demonstrate a commitment to enriching the Whitman experience. Under the current Finance Chair Matt Dittrich and the Finance Committee, we have seen higher expectations for the impact that initiatives and trips will have on campus. The basic contract and the process of including contingencies were implemented during Matt’s first term and marked a huge improvement in accountability.

The three students requesting funds to attend the Jon Stewart Rally to Restore Sanity presented a strong and well-prepared presentation which put forth several different ideas about sharing their experience upon their return.

When senators had suggestions for how to better bring the experience and knowledge back to campus in an accessible and visible way—which included holding an additional event for the broader Walla Walla community, applying to present at the undergraduate conference and going through the process of starting an ASWC club—the requesting students were open

and enthusiastic about the suggestions.

Furthermore, the discussion that took place prior to the vote to allocate funds was originally expected to take no more than fifteen minutes, however it ultimately took 45 minutes—illustrating how indepth and critical the Senate was in making their decision.

Any opportunity Whitman College has to send students to a national forum in Washington, D.C. to talk about political issues, even in the context of a comedic rally, is one that we should seize. We believe that valuable political discourse can take many forms. What will unify this group of people attending the rally is an interest in the issues that are currently being debated. These students are going into the rally with a demonstrated interest in American political rhetoric and discourse and are seeking to explore what this means during their time in D.C. Even if the worst happens and these students find that the rally features Jon Stewart’s celebrity more than the underlying political debate, the rally will in and of itself typify the problem of conflating popular culture and politics. This will not be lost on our students.

ASWC applauds The Pioneer in calling students to be critically and actively involved in ASWC. Our paramount duty is to represent the student body, enhancing student life on campus. The best way we can do this is with an engaged student body. All members of the Executive Committee have office hours to talk with students, bi-weekly Senate meetings are open to all students, and your senators’ primary function is to be in dialogue with their constituents. Students are encouraged to email ASWC at aswc@whitman.edu or visit www.GoASWC.org.

Sincerely, Geni Venable ‘12 ASWC Communications Director on behalf of ASWC

Sports

The Pioneer Issue 7 Oct 28, 2010 Page 7

Women’s soccer aims to end on high note

by BAILEY ARANGO Staff Reporter

The Whitman women’s soccer team enters this weekend hoping to write a positive ending for a season defined by disappointment. The Missionaries, who entered the 2010 season with hopes of finishing atop the Northwest Conference, have a record of 5-10-1 entering their final homestand of the season, in which they face off against conference rivals Linfield College on Saturday, Oct. 30 and Willamette University on Sunday, Oct. 31.

The Missionaries have already lost to both Linfield and Willamette on the road earlier this season, in a manner representative of the close calls and near misses that have shaped Whitman’s losing record. Whitman’s loss to Linfield in McMinnville, Ore. earlier in this month was emblematic of the Missionaries’ road woes, which have seen them go 2-7 away from home. Whitman’s loss to Willamette showed how the Whitman women overwhelm the Bearcats on offense, landing 11 shots on goal to Willamette’s 7, only to come up empty-handed.

Yet despite injuries, close losses and dashed post-season aspirations, the Whitman women still maintain a desire to make the best of the games to come, as well as a shared sense of promise for the 2011 campaign, as junior and starting keeper Lauren Brougham was eager to emphasize.

“We’ve had some disappointing results the last couple of weekends with a lot of really close games, and sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce our way, but we’ve shown a lot of character and we haven’t let up yet,” she said.

Brougham, who overcame the elements to make a handful of stellar saves in Whitman’s rainy 2-0 loss to George Fox University on October 24, sees in Whitman’s disappointing season all the ingredients for a bright future.

“I’m super excited for next season, because we have an extremely strong team this year and we don’t have a large senior class to replace.”

First-year Kelsey Roehner, whose offensive efforts have been instrumental to the Missionaries’ successes this season,

Staff Reporter

Whitman College is known across the nation as a school that attains excellence in the classroom. In the past five years, a group of Whitman alumni have joined together in an attempt to reciprocate that excellence with athletic competition.

The W Club is an athletic booster group made up of alumni, parents and staff members, led by a board of 19 members. This year alone, there is expected to be between 400 and 650 alumni participating in and supporting the W Club with its endeavors. “[The alums and the W Club] want to ensure that our Whitman athletic classrooms are pursuing the same level of excellence as the other schools in the conference,” said Whitman Athletic Director Dean Snider. “They want to support the student-athletes themselves and establish a connection with [them].”

Since the W Club was founded, president and Whitman alum George Osborne ’66 has helped bring in a large contingent of support from other Whitman alums.

There have been significant increases in budget for the Whitman athletic department coming strictly from the W Club, all of which is spread across the many athletic programs. The W Club has funded the addition of four full-time assistant coaches with one apiece in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and swimming.

“Having a full-time assistant . . . has helped the team tremendously,” said assistant swim coach Anthony Russo. “The team now has another set of eyes during practice to assist them in becoming better student-athletes.”

Just in the past year, a Whitman alumnus and member of the W Club financially established the first-ever athletics endowment, which is expected to grow in the coming years. “[The endowment] will allow for increased equity across all sports, supporting all our programs and ensuring that the experience for all our student-athletes is equitable,” said Snider.

Two other growing attributes of the W Club are the flying program and tailgating. The flying program provides funds for

Volleyball George Fox 10/22 L, 3-0 Women’s soccer Pacfic 10/23 T, 2-2 (2OT) George Fox 10/24 L, 2-0 Men’s soccer Pacific 10/23 W,2-1 (2 OT) George Fox 10/24 W, 5-2 Women’s golf NWC Fall Classic 10/23-10/24 1 George Fox +75 2 Whitworth +83 3 Linfield +109 4 Whitman +113 5 Puget Sound +136 6 Pacific Lutheran +182 7 Willamette +248 Men’s golf NWC Fall Classic 10/23-10/24 1 Puget Sound +56 2 Pacific +63 3 Linfield +68 4 Whitworth +73 5 Whitman +83 6 Pacific Lutheran +87 7 George Fox +105 8 Willamette +125 9 Lewis & Clark +163

UPCOMING EVENTS JACOBSON Amy Hasson ‘12 engages with the competition as she goes up for a header in Whitman’s game against Pacific University on Oct 23. Despite outshooting Pacific 23 to 7, Whitman was unable to capitalize on early opportunities. The game ended in a 2-2 tie.

shares Brougham’s optimism for things to come.

“We’re losing two seniors, which is sad, but it means we’re going to have a really strong base of really talented people going forward into next year. We’re all keeping pretty positive; we have everything there on the field and we’ve been beating the teams we’ve played as far as possession and opportunities are concerned, but we’ve had a few mental lapses, and they cost us games. We haven’t quite been able to put one in the back of the net to even it out, but we have all the heart and we have all the talent and skill to get there, we just haven’t put it all together for a full 90 yet.”

Also added to the setbacks facing the Missionaries is the transition from longtime coach Scott Shields to first-year Whitman women’s soccer coach Heather

W Club fosters athletic excellence

by PAMELA LONDON

SCOREBOARD

teams to fly in top recruits to visit Whitman, which is expected to help build up recruiting nation-wide.

Arguably the most interactive part of the W Club between its members and the Whitman community is tailgating: the W Club puts on tailgates at multiple games each year, including soccer, basketball, swimming and tennis in the ‘09-’10 season. According to Snider, many tailgates are put on at away contests to generate interest for alumni in other regions.

“It really generates enthusiasm for the student-athletes and the parents, doing an event for their kids and their programs,” he said.

Tailgating is something that everyone can participate in, from W Club members and alums to current Whitman students and their families, all the while supporting Whitman’s varsity athletic teams.

In addition to supporting the athletic endeavors of Whitman student-athletes, the W Club aims to expose them in the community to provide them with connections in the marketplace that can be taken advantage of after school. The W Club is truly a complementary process combining the quest for excellence in the classroom and on the field. Alumni have done careernetworking panels for student-athletes, as well as students in general. This has also helped connect student-athletes and members of the athletic department to be more connected with the board of the W Club.

One of the keys to success for the W Club is the relationship between the athletic department and administration. The W Club looks to be an enduring force for excellence, and sustainability is one of the things that will be used to measure the success of the W Club. Year-to-year success on the field for Whitman athletics translates directly to success for the W Club.

“We want to build to the point where the W Club is a significant contributor to [our] athletic programs that are as competitive and recognized nationally the way the rest of our . . . programs are recognized: as outstanding programs around the country,” said Snider. “The W Club will be a long-term partner in establishing that reputation.

Cato. While team chemistry and confidence in the coaching staff are riding high, this season has not been without difficult transitions.

“We dominate almost every game, but that doesn’t show up in our overall results,” Brougham said, “and we’re also getting used to a new style of play. Whitman has always been a more defensive team and this year we’re playing a different formation that allows us to get more numbers up top, and it presents more scoring opportunities. Although we’ve adapted really well, we haven’t mastered the new formation yet, and it puts a lot more pressure on the defense on counter attacks. We have to work more on attacking and defending as a unit, but that’s something that playing with each other will fix over time.”

Despite some growing pains, Roehner

said Cato’s first year of coaching was a great success.

“We all love her,” Roehner said. “She’s really brought the team together and gotten us all on the same wavelength. We all have the same goals and we all know what we want to accomplish when we step on the field as a team, and that’s been a really good feeling. It’s like we’re all working towards the same thing, and she’s really the one who facilitated that.”

Although the Missionaries came up short of their ambitions in 2010, hope springs eternal for a Whitman women’s soccer team looking forward to fielding an experienced, highly-motivated assault on the Northwest Conference in 2011.

As Brougham put it, “We plan on proving to the conference that Whitman is not a team that should be taken lightly.”

Volleyball 10/29 Linfield (Home, 7 p.m.)

10/30 Pacific (Home, 5 p.m.)

11/3 Lewis & Clark (Away) Cross country 10/30 NWC Cross Country Championships (Puget Sound) Women’s soccer 10/30 Linfield (Home, 12p.m.)

10/31 Willamette (Home, 12p.m.)

Men’s soccer 10/30 Linfield (Home, 2:30p.m.)

10/31 Willamette (Home, 2:30p.m.)

Men’s basketball 10/31 Alumni Game (Bellevue) Women’s golf 10/23-10/24 NWC Fall Classic Swimming 10/29 NWC Sprint Pentathlon (Willamette) 10/30 NWC Relay Invitational (Linfield)

Annual Alumni Meet kicks off swimming season

PARRISH

Elliott Crane ‘14, Shunei Asao ‘14, Jacob Gavin ‘14 and Colin ‘14 show off their “STL” (swim team love) as the first-year swimmers open the annual Alumni Swim Meet with a crowdpleasing song and dance number. The meet offered the team the chance to race against former Whitman swimmers.

Swimming continues this weekend Oct. 29-30 with the NWC Sprint Pentathlon and Relay Invitational.

Dry season: Varsity teams determine balance between alcohol, athletics from page 1 games on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the team would be unable to drink Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, the nights when most drinking on campus occurs. When the team has month-long stretches of two games per weekend, it leaves little time for partying.

Just as the rules themselves vary with each team, each team has slightly different ways of punishing infractions. These punishments can vary from a warning to missing a game to possibly being kicked off the team.

While almost all varsity teams have their own alcohol policy, in most cases the policy is decided upon by the athletes as a whole or the captains of the team, rather than mandated by the coaching staff.

Shields, who is also the former women’s soccer head coach, is an example of a coach who lets his teams decide.

“For any teams I have ever had, [the athletes] are the ones who came up with the alcohol policy,” Shields said.

“I let them know how I feel, but ultimately it comes down to what they want.”

Men’s basketball coach Eric Bridge-

land also allows his athletes to come up with their own alcohol policy and sees this as being more effective than him enforcing a policy of his own.

“Them holding each other to [their standards] is 100 percent more effective than mandating it,” Bridgeland said.

Because it is difficult for the coaches to know if an athlete has broken the team’s alcohol policy, it is often up to them to catch infractions and enforce the rules. This just serves to enhance the role of the team in dealing with alcohol use.

Some athletes choose to go further than the policies that their team has set forth.

Sophomore swimmer Katie Chapman decided to go dry this season, even though the team does not have a dry

season.

“I realized how much of a negative impact the late drunken nights made, how hard it was to fully recover, and didn’t want to jeopardize my season this year,” Chapman said. “I was going to try going ‘reasonably dry,’ just having one or two drinks when I go out, but it’s way to hard for me to do that in a party atmosphere.”

No matter what the alcohol policy for a particular team is, coaches are in agreement that alcohol is only part of the larger health picture. It is just as important, if not more so, for athletes to practice general good nutrition, particularly during season.

ROLLE

The Pioneer

This page is full of jokes!

Issue 7 Oct 28, 2010 Page 8

Backpage

Robot Diaries

Yo Diary, Today I was giving my stupid presentation on the six simple machines and their influence on botciety today, you know like levers and all that shit. I was talking about the pulley and how I can relate to the importance of pulleys because my great-great-grandbot was a pulley. So there I am in front of the whole class, with some fiiiine ladybots in it, booping along like the bro I am today, "Boop boop pulleys boop BEEP." It was awful; only boybots beep.

Manbots don't beep after puboty. They are supposed to have the commanding, resounding boop so all the ladybots know what's up. And when I am booping, all the ladybots know what's up, except when I fucking beep and look like a stupid littlebot. Man I hate school, being a tweenbot is dumb. I want to be like my brobot. He is 17 and he gets all the ladybots.

Dear Diary,

Today was the most embarrassing day of my LIFE! I was in pre-algebra and I realized I was about to start my first transformation! In PRE-ALGEBRA! Next to Samuel! Only the hottest robot at school!

So I like, run to the bathroom, you know?

And I get into a stall so no one will see me.

And I just wait, because I have never transformed before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I mean Mombot gave me a book about what it would be sort of like, but I never read more than like the first chapter about how its a big moment in a girlbot's life. Yeah, more like a big EMBARRASSING moment! So anyway, I am in the stall, you know, and I hear some girls come in, and I am like, "Noooooooo" in my head because what if it happens while they are in there, you know? And as soon as I think that, it starts. First came the tires, and I hear the girls go, "Oh my god, that girl is transforming! How funny!" and while they are like applying their bot gloss I have a trunk starting to protrude from my once robogirl, now robowoman, bot body! Then all of a sudden, WHAM! I break through the sides of the stall, knock all the other stalls down, and I'm a green VW bug sitting in the little girlbots’ room! At first the other girlbots were stunned, but then they just started laughing at me for like, FOREVER! The worst part is that I wasn't even prepared, so I had to drive around school for the rest of the day, and everyone totally knew! I might as well transfer! No one transforms for the first time in eighth grade. I lied and told all my friends that I transformed in sixth grade into a light blue Audi TT. A BUG IS SO MUCH LAMERRRRR!

Whatever, Kylebot

CANEPA Diary,

Today was not a very good day. I have told you about that really attractive girl in my class, Sophiebot, right? I know I have. So today, I was in the cafeteria getting my lunch, and she was right behind me in line. My roboclaws started to sweat because she makes me nervous—most girlbots do, but she REALLY makes me nervous. And I got french fries and she did too, so I turned around and said, "Great bots think alike," and she said, "Sure," and then we were headed for the jello, and there was only one left. If my mombot had taught me anything it's that to get a nice girlbotfriend you have to treat them like a ladybot, so obviously I took the last jello and handed it to her and said, "For you, meladybot," like they do in my favorite Renaissance video game, and she just gave me a weird look and said, "Thanks, I guess," which then prompted something SO HORRIBLE! I got a botner right in front of her! She saw it and started laughing at me and calling people over to look. My lunch tray was

Goodnight diary, Cindybot

full so I couldn't even use that as a hiding mechanism. I hate being a boybot.

Stupid botners.

- Jonathanbot

Justin Bieber responds to laser tag incident:

“You’re the ones being weird about this.”

by Justin Bieber

KLAG

Prentiss booths allow more relaxed handjobs The number one complaint from students at Whitman is that the campus is not sex-accessible enough. Recently, the administration has been working harder than ever to accommodate student needs. In addition to the yearly sex talk for first-years, there has also been a sex-ed lecture from visiting expert Jay Friedman and, thanks to a big push from the student body, the addition of booths to Prentiss Dining Hall.

“Since the installment of the booths in

the cafeteria, hand job numbers have gone through the roof in Prentiss. We are all very excited about this improvement in student facilities,” Student Sex Advocacy Club President Stacy Goodman told The Pioneer this week.

The booths offer improved privacy and comfort, really setting a sexual mood in the dining hall. And students say that some sauces and foods in Prentiss can be used to make sex play friskier.

CONTINUED ON, page 1

So I know people are all upset about the move I pulled during laser tag last week. Look.

It’s important to me to maintain my skills and my image as Canada’s top teen laser tagger. I mean, really?! If I didn’t kick so much ass in the ltag arena I’d just be another hot guy with girls following him around.

But I am SO much more than that.

I never would have been able to get myself into this music thing if it wasn’t for my status in l-tag. I’d only have my looks, probably, and tons of wasted talent. This is my life. It’s serious business. High stakes. Do or die. It’s about commitment. I put in the hours and do what I have to.

Coming around this nasty corner while I was laser training last week, I see this kid in my peripheral. I was trying to keep all the action covered, 'cause I’m a pro and I know my shit. My coach, Blazr

DJ BATTLE

Halgstrom, literally wrote the book on strategic defense. Clearly I couldn’t look directly at the kid or I’d make myself way too vulnerable. This was self-defense. I could tell that this kid was holding something up to his face. I mean, as far as I knew, it could have been his laser gun or even like, a switchblade or a real gun or something. He was crouched over on the ground, in a perfect position to strike, and he was covering the thing in his hand and I couldn’t see his eyes because of the glare from his glasses and so, yeah, I did what needed to be done. Code Red Situation. I mean, what am I gonna do? NOT defend myself when I’m threatened?

We’re not at some kind of Chuck E. Cheese. If this were a goddamn McDonald’s Playplace maybe I’d give second chances, but there’s no time for that in the LASER BATTLE ARENA. You’re the ones being weird about this. How was I supposed to know he was holding an inhaler?

Let’s be real here. This is the kid’s fault for pulling out his inhaler in the middle of the laser arena.

I mean, come on, I could sense a threat, so of course I tried to knock his weapon away. I can’t help it if he wasn’t quick enough to move his face. I have lightning reflexes because I’m an ELITE BATTLE ATHLETE. He knows what’s at stake as soon as he steps onto the arena field.

Everybody’s making a big thing out of the fact that he was only 12.

But seriously, how the hell was I supposed to know? He’s already had a growth spurt or something because he was at least as tall as me. Am I gonna not take a swing at him just because he’s in sixth grade and happens to be on the ground having an asthma attack? Do you understand what I deal with all the time in training?! This could easily have been camouflage from another pro like myself. I shouldn’t be blamed for doing what makes me the best.

Questions on

SHOUT-OUTS Mermaid

Let me tell you, the DJ Battle totally raised the roof and slammed it back down on all the 15 people who attended the jamming banging DJ Battle a few weeks ago. Man, I JUST NOW got up from being BLOWN OFF MY FEET by the performance. I think the one thing that made this the best show I’ve ever seen is the fact that A) The shout-outs really added to the vibe, B) Sometimes I’m at a concert and I just feel like I’m not connecting with the performer, but the shout-outs made it so that I KNEW he wanted to PLEASE me and ONLY me, and C) The shout-outs really made it seem like he was joining the audience together, sort of like a band of brothers in that one movie “Band of Brothers” or in war. What a surge I got. Here are all the shout outs that the DJ shouted at the DJ Battle:

- Hey y’all, thanks so much for coming! Why don’t we get everyone up here by the stage. Yeah, I’m talkin’ to the three of y’all back there!

- Hands in the air! Raise the roof! Oh man! It’s like if we all lived in a small gnome house, we’d totally be raisin’ the roof!

- Hey guys! Check it! Ima play some Katy Perry mashed up with some Wu Tang mashed up with some Girl Talk. Call yo’ friends and get them to fill up this joint!

- Actually, yeah, can you get me one of those blueberry muffins or scones or whatever? Thanks. Tell the cooks to come in here and dance to these beatzz.

- Ima crowd surf! Just kidding everyone. Seriously, don’t worry, I won’t do it. Come back. You’re in no danger whatsoever of being crushed by me.

- Yo WEB, Do a BETTER JOB at DOING YOUR JOB. Go outside, get some lost freshmen, townies, stray dogs, WHOEVER to fill this place.

- Hey you, you with the yellow hat, will you go get me a muffin or something from outside? I’m really hungry.

- Okay. DJ OUT. I’m raisin’ my white flag, this DJ Battle is a SURRRRENNNNNDDDDDER. Peace.

- Wait no, don’t go, then there’ll be no point for me to be playin’ music. Text UR FRENS to come down.

- MAN, That show totally came alive! Thanks to JAY-Z for letting us borrow his DJ from 2008.

That ish was DOPE...

Sex

by A NINE-YEAR-OLD GIRL

There’s been something really bothering me lately. I was in school the other day when they had all the boys leave the room so that they could explain this thing called puberty to us and we learned about our lady parts. But then I got really confused because even though they showed us all these diagrams it still makes no sense because mermaids don’t have the same bits and pieces as us and I know this because they don’t wear pants like we do, they just go around in their bare fins and so I don’t think it works the same for everyone. I thought I knew everything about mermaids because they are my favorite and I’ve been trying to get my parents to let me keep one in our pool but they told me I wasn’t ready for a pet, but it wouldn’t be my pet it would be my friend! My sister told me that us humans are mammals and so we give birth to live babies instead of eggs but I don’t understand where a merbaby would come out. And where does a

E. JOHNSON

merman put his thingy? There’s just no space! Not even if it was really REALLY little. They must be so small it’s like they’re not even there like my sister told her ex-boyfriend his was after he broke up with her. I asked my mom about it later and she told me that mermaids were like fish so they laid eggs and that’s how they have babies. But I didn’t believe that because mermaids are people not fish and they have faces and talk like we do. It’s like someone duct taped their legs together and that’s where everything is so I just can’t see how it would work. So then I asked my teacher at school and she told me mermaids weren’t real, but she was definitely lying to me because she’s really mean and doesn’t like me anyway and so maybe mermaids can’t have children and that’s why they’re so rare and unique and beautiful and magical.