Monmouth’s latest edition, a new bake shop called Sugar Lilly, will be opening on Broad Street across from the Tan Republic by Monmouth resident, Sarah Lilly.
Lilly has always carried a passion for baking.
“I’ve been baking my whole life. It is something that I have always enjoyed,” Lilly said. “I think I have always had a bit of a talent for it.”
Her business originally started in her personal home three years ago. After receiving a domestic baking license, Lilly would make cupcakes in her own kitchen and sell them at the Salem Saturday Market.
Customers would flock to her homemade cupcakes that included traditional and gluten-free recipes. Some of the flavors Lilly has featured at the Saturday Market are: s’mores, gluten-free double chocolate, and strawberry with strawberry buttercream.
But weather conditions at the outdoor market only allowed Sugar Lilly to operate for a few months out of the year. When the space became available in Monmouth, Lilly could not pass up the chance to finally open her own shop.
“The opportunity came up with the owners of this place, and I could not turn it away,” Lilly said.
Lilly’s business began with cupcakes, but those will not be the only desserts available at her shop. Sugar Lilly will feature a full dessert menu consisting of pies, cheesecakes, cookies, and more. There will also be a breakfast and lunch menu that will include soups made daily, salads, and sandwiches.
Sugar Lilly will also serve coffee, teas, Italian sodas, and espressos.
Everything in the shop will be made fresh, “nothing processed, [and] everything will be made from scratch,” Lilly said. She said she likes to utilize local products as often as possible and will be able to add to her menu depending on what is available—like fresh cobblers when berries are in season.
Lilly said Sugar Lilly will be “A place you can get a healthy lunch.”
“Everything there is going to be made fresh every day. And real ingredients. We don’t use margarine, fake fats, or lard. Everything is as natural as possible,” Lilly said.
Students will be happy to learn that Sugar Lilly will offer free Wi-Fi, and include a cozy covered patio outside for additional seating. Lilly is also working to develop student and military discounts and punch cards. Free dessert will be given to customers on their birthdays.
“It sounds like a great place for students to go and get a good dessert,” said Courtney Haess, an education major.
Lilly hopes to open the doors to the Sugar Lilly bake shop around May 1.
For more information visit the Sugar Lilly Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SugarLillyGourmetCupcakes
By Jack Armstrong - News Editor
and Haunani Tomas - Editor-in-Chief
The Oregon Student Association is currently campaigning against bill 4.15 introduced into the upcoming ASWOU elections beginning Monday, April 20 through Friday, April 24.
Bill 4.15 would effectively sever the current ties between the OSA and ASWOU. Both organizations are designed to provide advocacy on behalf of students, with ASWOU being specifically centered on Western Students.
The ballot asks: “Should WOU students leave membership with OSA?”
WHAT IS OSA?
Created in 1975, the OSA is, in part, a reaction to what Oregon students saw as rapidly decreasing student involvement in higher education administrative decisions like tuition, incidental fees, and on-campus policies. Since then, OSA has become the second largest voter registration in the United States.
According to the OSA mission, their purpose is to “represent, serve, and protect the collective interests of students in postsecondary education in Oregon.” The organization collectively represents more than 120,000 college students in Oregon, and serves much like a student labor union.
OSA’s short-term goals involve working with legislators and decision makers to act as a lobbying for students to the state.
“Lobbying is an ambiguous concept to people,” said OSA Executive Director Emma Kallaway. For reference, lobbying is the act of attempting to influence the actions of public officials, especially legislators.
The 45-member non-profit organization consists of a team that firmly believes in their mission: “protect the collective interests of students in postsecondary education in Oregon.”
HOW DOES OSA BENEFIT US?
While advocating for post-secondary education affordability, OSA works to prevent sexual violence, accounting to cultural competency, increasing accommodations for those with disabilities, and collecting data about the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Queer) community to better serve the needs of college campuses.
More recently, OSA petitioned for an increase in financial aid, lower tuition and an increase in the quality of education.
The OSA’s efforts include organizing student rallies like the Rally to Restore Higher Education. Held on Feb. 12, 2015, the rally brought together students from 26 universities and community colleges to push for a reinvestment of state funds to freeze tuition costs.
OSA also sends students to Salem when the legislature is in session to speak on behalf of Oregon students. OSA has several students speaking to the legislative body concerning debt at a university budget hearing Tuesday , April 14, 2015.
Western students attended the Rally to Restore Higher Education, and some of the organization on the Western end was handled through ASWOU, but if bill 4.15 passes then Western will officially resign their membership to the OSA.
“There is an increased level of difficulty getting legislatures to support individual schools,” said Kallaway. “[OSA provides] a nearly 40-year long relationship with state officials that [Western students] have access to.”
Instead of lobbying for individual campus needs, OSA has the utilitarian lens of looking at the bigger picture.
“OSA has the ability to view what’s best for the entire student body population of Oregon versus the needs of an individual institution,” said Kallaway.
Western’s membership with OSA is funded through incidental fees, which are collected from students every term and used to fund student clubs and activities that fall outside the realm of academics – such as special interest clubs, health and wellness, athletics and student leadership activities.
These fees have been initially approved by both ASWOU senate and the incidental fees committee (IFC), but according to WOU Students Against 4.15, a student action group, “ASWOU senate recently passed a bill that was contrary to their [already voted upon] budget and decided to give students the opportunity to approve OSA membership on the ballot.”
Affordability being OSA’s chief objective, it costs students $1.49 per term to be members of the OSA.
Kallaway describes the per-term membership fee as being “less than a cup of coffee.”
“It save [students], at minimum, hundreds of dollars per student,” she said.
IF PASSED, HOW WILL BILL 4.15 AFFECT US?
This referendum would completely strip students’ ability to advocate for themselves at the state and renders students powerless. In other words, Western would be removed from OSA.
Proposed referendum measure that is being voted on next week would completely strip students of its collective power.
Consequently, OSA field organizer Brittany Duffy-Goche said this would leave Western students with “little to no power in Salem to be able to fight against tuition increases and policy that helps promote a safe and inclusive learning environment.”
“Students of Western would lose their impact,” said Kallaway.
Duffy-Goche explained that Western would be removed from the OSA, which would “sever our ability to effectively advocate for students on a statewide level.”
Some students on campus have already spoken out against the proposed changes. The student-lead group WOU Students Against 4.15 writes on their website that “withdrawing membership from the Oregon Student Association is a huge mistake.”
“If this referendum is passed, it would be detrimental on a multitude of levels,” said Duffy-Goche.
Students Against 4.15 believe that departure from OSA would severely limit Western’s ability to advocate on behalf of the student population without the power in numbers that OSA offers.
Students Against 4.15 writes: “be extremely wary of any attempts to limit your collective student voice in Salem. We need to work together in order to achieve real victories for higher education in Oregon.”
Western’s College of Education has received permission to move forward with adjusting their current curriculum to better meet student needs.
In last month’s faculty senate meeting, the proposed changes were voted through unanimously. The department aims to have the reforms fully functional within the course catalog by fall quarter 2015.
All of the changes are taking place within the undergraduate program, leaving the Master of Arts in Teaching program intact.
Dr. Mark Girod, dean of the College of Education, said the changes are intended to “improve seamless transfer from community college to Western, to shorten time to degree completion, and to more tightly align courses to state and national teaching standards.”
New courses like ED 200 – Foundations of Education will take the place of the current introductory classes such as ED 100 and ED 312.
This new class also serves to align more closely with local community colleges introductory education courses so that transfer students to Western don’t lose as much progress if they choose to make the switch.
The college has also attempted to shorten time to graduation. According to the information submitted to the faculty senate, this will be achieved through a “removal of electives,” that fall outside of the education major, but double up on material covered in other classes.
This means in part that students will no longer be required to take introductory courses like a 100 level communications class, or additional electives to the education program, like business writing.
“The changes will improve rates of degree completion as well as the preparation of future educators” Girod said.
The College of Education is also making adjustments so it will attract more students to utilize the new Richard Woodcock center, set to be completed in 2016.
“The center is designed to promote collaboration, the latest technology, and specialized learning spaces,” Girod said.
Faculty involved with the College of Education are also always concerned that standards and credit requirements placed on the current students have fallen out of step with the ever changing licensure requirements for the state of Oregon.
In an attempt to better align with state standards, some new offerings are being added to next year’s course catalog. Some of these new classes are counterparts to classes already offered, but specialize in a specific area of the topics covered.
For example, one course currently offered in the college is ED 270 – Teaching and Learning with Technology. This course will remain but there will also be an alternative, ED 326 – Technology in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings (Birth-4th Grade).
Dr. Girod hopes that this specificity will help enhance the separate tracks that future educators can train for, whether that’s early childhood development, middle school, or high school.
“We seek to make our programs better and better,” Girod said. “School districts in Oregon expect excellence from us, and we will always provide.”
Next week, April 16-18, Western theatre students will have their an- nual chance to show off their directing prowess.
Students who have completed the two directing courses on campus, Directing and Advanced Directing, both taught by Professor Michael Phillips, will be showing one act plays. This year, three students have stepped up and chosen the plays for this year.
Natalie Piper, fourth-year se- nior theatre major, has selected “A Chance Meeting” by Frederick Strop- pel, starring Janelle Davis, Zach Warner, and Nathaniel Dunaway. The show depicts a married couple attempting to spice up their love life by exploring fantasy role-playing, but when an old friend cluelessly stumbles into the picture, things get messy.
“The student-directed one acts, I feel, are really for the students, by the students, so I picked something I thought they would enjoy,” Piper said.
The second show in the program, “The Mice Have Been Drinking Again” by Cleve Haubold, starring Belladina Starr, Declan Hertel, Samantha Dunaway and Andrew Thornton, is directed by BFA acting major Nick Kintz. The show, set in
the 1970s, is filled with hippies, gu- rus, and slapstick humor.
“It is the story of a newly married couple and their attempt to get their Zen-Buddhist cousin and roommate out of the house.” Kintz said. “It has been a blast to direct such a talented and versatile group of actors, who re- ally know how to entertain!”
The festival roster concludes with “Find of the Century” by Western’s own Nathaniel Dunaway. The one act stars Lindsay Spear and Patrick Willett in a drama about a turn- of-the-century archaeologist and the mysterious young woman who knows the secret behind his latest discovery, directed by BFA acting major Trevor Jackson.
“Directing is a strange craft; it re- quires talent as well as authority,” Jackson said. “It’s the marriage of art and leadership, and it makes for a wild, student-led night.”
This year’s festival will be held in the black box theater of Rice Audi- torium, beginning at 7:30 p.m. each night. The performance is free to stu- dents with an ID.
For more information, please con- tact the theater department at theaterdance@wou.edu or call the Rice Auditorium box office at 503-838- 8462.
An intoxicated man crashed his pickup truck several times on Monmouth Avenue early Saturday, April 4, including a building and a car, according to Monmouth Police Department.
Yanel Avilla Castro, a 25-year-old, of Independence went out Friday night for drinks at Main Street Pub in Monmouth. Castro ended up causing thousands of dollars in damage on his drunken journey through downtown Monmouth as well as Western’s campus.
Castro is in custody after turning himself in around 4 a.m. the same morning. According to Sergeant Kim Dorn of MPD, he is currently facing charges of driving under the influence of intoxicants and three counts of failure to perform the duties of a driver, otherwise known as hit and run.
Castro left the bar at around 2:10 a.m. and headed toward the Shell gas station at the intersection of Main Street and Highway 99W.
“I was working inside when I saw this guy in a white truck pull up to pump one, and then he flew across the lot over to pump five where these other two guys were,” said Matt Cheney-Estes, the store clerk on shift during the incident.
“He got out of his truck and tried to get these two guys to fight him,” said Maddie Cole, a witness to the altercation at the gas station.
Cheney-Estes went outside to confront Castro, and then he returned inside to call the police, at which point the man sped out of the lot and onto Main Street in Monmouth, headed back in the direction of Monmouth Avenue.
Around 2:24 a.m., MPD started to receive multiple calls, including the one from Cheney-Estes. Castro turned right onto
Monmouth Avenue North and then crashed into 110 N. Monmouth Avenue, the building complex that houses Homestead Property
Management as well as several other businesses.
“That was the first hit and run,” said Dorn. “He then continued on Monmouth Avenue and proceeded to hit a parked car
and a tree, finally wrecking his truck in the grass area in front of the WOU education building, hitting a lamppost and a sign.”
Castro then abandoned his vehicle and set out on foot, eventually turning himself in to the police shortly afterwards.
Cheney-Estes said that a police officer came to the Shell later looking to collect witness statements and told him that Castro had caused upwards of $45,000 in damage.
“I can’t verify those figures yet, but the damage is going to be costly,” said Dorn.
If you have any additional information regarding the incident, please contact the MPD non-emergency line at-503-838-1109.
Western’s track and field team split their athletes between three separate events this past weekend: the San Francisco Distance Carnival, the Stanford Invitational, and the Linfield Jenn Boyman Invitational.
The Wolves saw the most success at the San Francisco Distance Carnival. Junior shot putter Emmi Collier won her event overall throwing 12.96 meters, beating the competition by more than four inches. Men’s shot putter sophomore Jeremy Moore finished
third in his division with a throw of 14.81.
Freshmen hurdle runners Kaleb Dobson and AJ Holberg set season best times in the 400-meter hurdles. When asked about the preparation required of hurdle runners, fellow
freshman Rihei Grothmann said: “we do a lot of technical warm ups, like bounding and other exercises targeting our specific events.”
Grothmann was quick to point to the increased intensity of college track training.
“The training has definitely intensified from high school levels, but so far it has been fun,” Grothmann said.
Grothmann placed 13th overall in the 110 hurdles at the Linfield Jenn Boyman Memorial Invitational. The Linfield event resulted in six athletes setting personal bests. Sophomore Amanda Ditzhazy broke the five-minute mark for the 1,500, a career first for Ditzhazy who finished 9th overall.
Another freshman duo attending the Linfield Invitational, Alecia Falck and Sheila Limas De La Cruz, also posted season and career highs in the hammer toss, hitting 36.40 and 39.06 meters respectively.
The Stanford Invitational saw junior Badane Sultessa finish third and junior Josh Hanna finish sixth in the 800. Senior Rebecca Laible placed ninth in the triple jump while first-year Cody Warner finished ninth in the 100-meter dash finals.
The Wolves track and field will compete Friday, April 10, beginning at 2:30 p.m. at the annual John Knight Twilight event. The meet takes place on McArthur Field in Monmouth. Tickets are $6 for adults, $4 for non-WOU students, and free for WOU students.
Kappa Sigma fraternity held multiple events for students April 6-10 during their Rush Week. Events included dodge ball, a game night consisting of video games and cards against humanity, tricycle races, and a “Sig N Slide.”
The fraternity set up a booth outside the Werner Center last week and this week to promote their events and hand out flyers to students.
Hayden Harms, a junior ASL major, said that the turnout for game night was really good.
Devyn Thurman, a junior history major, and also a Kappa Sigma member, said the process for the rush week included every member of Kappa Sigma at Western giving ideas for events “that would be beneficial for meeting prospective members as well as involving other students as much as possible.”
“The goals of Kappa Sigma are to promote leadership, scholarship, relationships with the community as well as personal growth,” Thurman said. “In my experience, all of the gentlemen in Kappa Sigma are dedicated to developing themselves, each other, and relationships with the community.”
The Western Oregon chapter of Kappa Sigma began in May 2013 and currently has 31 active members.
Thurman also said that while the events are “mainly for reaching out to prospective members of the fraternity, [they are] also to show the students at the school that are not involved in Greek life that we are still interested in providing a fun and exciting environment for everyone.”
Thurman added, “Unfortunately in my opinion, there has been a negative attitude surrounding the development of Greek life at this institution, but we are definitely motivated and dedicated to changing that.”
The events were mainly for people to “come, hang out and get to know the brothers,” said Roberto Gomez, a senior economics major, who is also involved with Kappa Sigma.
Church Street was closed Wednesday morning for the tricycle races.
Dolan Kasnick, a senior criminal justice major, raced nine times. He said he enjoyed “the chance to break away from all seriousness of college.”
Harms said the turnout was “bigger than anticipated.” The event was originally a social event put on by the Willamette Chapter of Kappa Sigma, and the Western chapter asked to borrow it from them.
Kappa Sigma also offered free hamburgers and soda to students.
Anyone was able to participate in the tricycle races after signing a liability waiver. Each participant was allowed six pushes total down the hill, and whoever made it past the duct tape at the bottom first was the winner.
The tricycle races were just for fun, but every participant received a free Burgerville milkshake coupon.
Harms also said to expect more events.
“We might do this event again next year,” he added.
