Mount Hood

Distance medley relay sets national record

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

Western Oregon runners won a national championship and set a national record at the Division II Indoor National Championships in Birmingham, Alabama.

The men’s distance medley relay team had a photo finish victory, beating Adams State across the finish line by .001 second. The team, composed of juniors David Ribich, AJ Holmberg and Josh Dempsey and sophomore Dustin Nading, set another school record in a record-setting indoor track season for the Wolves.

Their final time of 9:40.144 set the new benchmark for NCAA Division II.

The championship final came after a Thursday qualifier that saw Western Oregon advance in all five competitions. The team then went five for five again, earning All-American marks across the board.

Ribich and Nading both ran the men’s mile qualifier, coming in first and ninth, respectively. They went on to both garner points for Western Oregon on title day. Ribich had a third place finish with a time of 4:06.72. Nading finished right behind Ribich with a time of 4:06.85 for fourth place.

Josh Dempsey qualified for the 800 meter race with a second place finish on Thursday. He completed the Saturday race in 1:51.20 to claim sixth place.

The four finishes brought the Western Oregon men’s team 24 points, bringing them to a tie for sixth place with Azusa Pacific.

Two Western Oregon women were competing in Birmingham, as junior Suzanne Van De Grift and sophomore Olivia Woods both ran the 800 meter.

Woods previously claimed the school record in the 800 meter at the Seattle Pacific Final Qualifier on Feb. 25. Van De Grift then set the new record in the preliminary with a time of 2:09.63.

The championship race saw Van De Grift extend her school record with a fifth place finishing time of 2:09.10. Olivia Woods finished sixth place with a personal best 2:09.26.

With only two runners competing, the women’s team recorded seven points to finish in 29th place.

The championship weekend concludes the 2017 indoor track season. Western Oregon track and field now sets its sights on the outdoor track season, which opened on March 4.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Events for non-traditional students

By: Jasmine Morrow
Staff writer

Western has many non-traditional students on campus, but there are rarely events put on for them. The Student Activities Board wanted to change that, so they put on the event: Parent’s Night Out. This was an opportunity for non-traditional students of Western to be able to drop off their children at a free day care service that SAB provided in the Werner University Center. So, that parents could get a few hours for themselves to relax, do homework, hang out with friends, etc.

Matthew Ciraulo, a sophomore history major, and director of SAB, felt like,“There hasn’t been a lot of events towards non-traditional students and especially those people who have children and who are going to school,” Ciraulo said. “And their role is so much that they’re balancing having a kid and going to school and doing well, so we felt bad as a SAB for not having programs for them, so this was one of our ideas to help them get through everything.”

Although the event was only a few hours long, it’s was meant to be a time for parents to catch up on sleep, do homework, have fun in town with their friends, basically anything they want to do. Even though this was the first event like this, the Student Activities Board hopes to be able to put on more events like it, to give parents another break in the future.

Only one young girl showed up to the event, but lucky for her, because she got the opportunity to play all the activities that were planned. She was able to do some coloring, played charades, listened to Disney songs, sang and read books. The Student Activities Board hopes that parents tells their friends to get the word out for the next time there is an event like this on Western’s campus, so more children can show up and have fun, and more parents can take a break and have fun too.

The Student Activities Board is always interested if students have any ideas or thoughts on future events, or want certain events to happen more often on campus. The SAB office is located downstairs in the Werner University Center. Make sure to check out flyers and posters around campus to see when SAB is putting on more exciting events hosted on Western’s campus.

Contact the author at Jmorrow16@mail.wou.edu

Incidental Fee Committee reaches final decision

By: Jade Rayner
News Editor

After the extensive process of preliminary decisions and open hearings, the Incidental Fee Committee has reached their final budget decisions for the 2017-2018 school year. The final meeting took place on on Friday, March 3 and was approved by ASWOU Senate on Monday, March 6.

At the start of the process, the IFC committee didn’t have a set plan on what they wanted to increase, with the fee or specific program budgets. However, they did respond positively to groups that focus on student employment.

The total incidental fee that students will owe each term for the upcoming school year will be $349, an $8 increase from the current academic year; the summer 2018 fee reflects a $20 increase compared to the summer 2017 fee, which will bring the total to $153. Regarding the club’s and organization’s individual budgets, only a few faced significant changes from the preliminary decisions to the final one. ASWOU received an $11,793 increase from the preliminary decision, giving them a total budget of $277,132 for the 2017-2018 year. Student Engagement received an increase of $6,570 from their projected budget, putting them at $1,289,707 for the 2017-2018 school year.

Rather than seeing a significant increase, Athletics faced a $5,841 decrease between the preliminary and the final decision. Athletics will have a budget of $1,284,159 for the upcoming academic year.

A big change that came up during the final decision process was the enhancement that was granted to Campus Recreation. The purpose of the enhancement was to upgrade an existing part time position to full time. This enhancement was one that was not included in the preliminary decision; it was also one that received no discussion from students during the open hearing process.

Campus Recreation was given the enhancement, which added $37,126 to the final incidental fee budget: this will reflect in a $3 increase to the fee paid by students each term in 2017-2018.

Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu

A millennial takes on marriage

By: Kristin Eck
Copy Editor

There are some definite pitfalls that are related to getting married young. The most obnoxious being what people think they have a right to say to you leading up to and after your wedding. If I’m honest, I never thought I would marry young or even marry while I was still in college.

Furthermore, I never thought my wedding would end up being more for my family than for me and my husband.

That’s the realization I had about four months into wedding planning. I can honestly say that if we hadn’t already been knee deep in the process we would have eloped.

It was my husband who kept reminding me that weddings aren’t just for the bride and groom. It’s a time for the people you love, family and friends, to come together and celebrate something that transcends the superficiality of existence.

At least, this is the approach we took. We wanted to throw a party for the special people in our lives and I’d say we were very successful. Regardless, that doesn’t mean the process wasn’t thoroughly tedious and obnoxious.

Weddings are tied up in age-old social conventions, traditions and gender roles and other people are not afraid to share their opinions on these issues. It’s no surprise that older people tend to think they know what’s best in these kinds of situations, and while I respect that, I found much of the advice to be completely irrelevant.

I think the first instance was when my grandma told me that men don’t have a mind for things like wedding planning. She encouraged me not to bother him about colors, venues and flower choice.

Grandma, I thought to myself, would you not ask your best friend for help on one of the biggest days of your life? More importantly, a day that the both of you are sharing? Of course, times are much different than they were in her day. But let’s get this straight, my husband’s critical thinking ability doesn’t vanish when confronted with the “domestic trivialities of life.”

The second question that really took a few years off my life: are you two waiting to go on a honeymoon until later, I hear a lot of people your age do that? First of all, unless you’re willing to help pay for a honeymoon, it’s not really any of your business.

Secondly, this question is just downright rude, especially when it’s directed at two young people. It implies that you can’t afford a honeymoon because you’re either too young to have savings for that or you don’t have savings because you’re marrying too quickly.

This leads me into my third grievance: my age. Countless times I heard people tell me that I’m marrying too young. There’s no way I could possibly know what I want or who I am because my brain isn’t fully developed yet, right? Wrong. Certain experiences can shape a person from a very young age.

At some point during my childhood, I got a good look at the world and figured out what I wanted from it. More importantly, when I grew up I saw what I wanted and put a ring on it.

While my age is enough for some people to share their unwanted opinions, my education was another concern. Some people would ask me if I planned to take a year or two off school. This one made me laugh. When did your relationship status begin dictating your enrollment status?

School, college and classes are all just like having a full time job. Which, if I’m correct, is something normal, adult, married people do every day in lots of places. I planned my wedding while I was enrolled in school full-time. If I can plan my wedding and go to school, I think I can be married and stay in school.

This list could go on for a lifetime, and it probably will. But I’ve come to realize that most of these issues deal with negative misconceptions towards millennials. Millennials work hard, they pay their bills, they go on honeymoons and they pay off their student loans. They marry if they want to, who they want and when they want. Most importantly, millennials are redefining marriage for the first time in decades and I’m honored to be a part of the movement.

Contact the author at keck14@wou.edu

Sanctuary city proposal update

By: Jade Rayner
News Editor

On Feb. 21, the proposal to make Monmouth a sanctuary city was brought to the City Council for a third time.

Unlike the two previous city council meetings where the proposal for sanctuary status was met with less than two motions, and as a result further discussion was unable to take place, a promising turn of events took place for those pushing to have the proposal go into effect. This time, many members of the community were present and ready to discuss the topic.

Hector Virgen-Marquez, one of the six Western students that have been working on getting the community involved with the proposal, said, “I am immensely proud at how quickly and efficiently our community is willing to mobilize for topics of this matter.”

The city council decided that rather than declare sanctuary status right then, a work session will be held on March 21, which will be open to all members of the community. During this session, the details on what a sanctuary city looks like, as well as what needs to be done to follow the proper procedures will be examined.

Following the work session, another city council meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 4, at 7 p.m. to discuss whether sanctuary status will be implemented in Monmouth or not; community members are welcome to attend and speak their minds during this meeting.

Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu