Mount Hood

Hands down

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

As of Aug. 8, 2015, the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. (RID) announced that a moratorium would be placed on their interpreter certification program.

A moratorium is a temporary prohibition of an activity: in this case, the processing of interpreters wishing to become officially certified.

Certification is required for the majority of interpreting work, although there are some rare situations where it may not be.

“RID has played a leading role in establishing a national standard of quality for interpreters and transliterators,” reads the RID mission statement on their website at www.RID.org.

“[RID] promotes excellence in the delivery of interpreting services among diverse users of signed and spoken languages through professional development, networking, advocacy, and standards,” the mission statement continues.

Western Oregon University is known for its interpreting program, which has been incorporated into the school since 1976.

As of 1993, Western has offered a bachelor’s degree in Education with a major in American Sign Language to English Interpreting.

In 2008, Western’s interpreting program won the Sorenson Video Relay Service Interpreter Education Award of Excellence, and March 2010 saw the program granted accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Interpreter Education. Western’s interpreting program graduates have passing rates higher than the national average for the National Interpreter Certification (NIC) as well.
Each cohort that enters the program takes two years to complete, and individuals interested in starting the program must pass an entrance exam based on skills and ethical practices.

The 2016 interpreting program cohort now faces a dilemma: graduating without being able to progress in a career where certification is necessary but currently unobtainable.
“I am nervous about where I will be working after I graduate if I am unable to become certified,” admits Elizabeth Holland, a fourth year interpreting major in the up-and-coming cohort. “Most of the careers I would like require certification. This would mean potentially delaying working in a field that I am excited about.”

Currently, the moratorium has no prospective end date.

An estimated timeline of when the moratorium may be lifted will be planned out in a meeting of the RID Board of Directors by Nov. 1, 2015. Although on their website, RID states “the outcome of that assessment will determine if, when, and how each exam will come back online.”

“The one major change is that in the spring, we will not be taking the NIC written or performance exams. Several of my classmates and I will still be taking the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA), as that is required for working in a K-12 setting, but [it] is not a certification for interpreting,” reports Holland.

“I was at the RID national conference in New Orleans in August when it was announced,” stated Vicki Darden, an interpreting instructor at Western. “Naturally, there were many concerns and questions from the membership, and RID has put out information in response.”

For now, the interpreting program has adopted a positive wait-and-see attitude and is still willing to sit down with students and discuss what is happening within the community. Instructors and mentors have been taking the time to alleviate fears and answer any questions students may have.

“The professors are very calm and are willing to answer what they can. They tend to sit us down as a class and also one on one to talk about our fears and questions,” affirms Holland.

A majority of ASL interpreting students receive a stipend through the school if they choose to pursue a special education minor along with their degree. Once these students have graduated, they work to pay back this stipend in a special education setting.

A.L.I.C.E. in action

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

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A.L.I.C.E (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate) training sessions are currently being offered on Western Oregon Campus in rebuttal to recent school shootings across the United States.

Several trainings have already been offered on campus this year, and a few occurred as early as Sept. 23. After the Umpqua Community College shooting, multiple trainings were initiated in response.

The reason: traditional lockdown drills in active killer situations have been proven ineffective and outdated.

A.L.I.C.E training focuses on preparing individuals to overcome the indecision in events of extreme danger on campus to increase survivability in these situations.

During the Oct. 20 training, Trever Jackson, a Campus Public Safety officer, began by noting that “I’m going to use ‘active killer’ during this session rather than ‘active shooter,’ because it’s not always a gun you’re defending against.”

The class focused on debunking the myth of what we have been taught in schools: to get down, hide, and be quiet. These methods cause more fatalities than they prevent, and the United States is responding accordingly with revamped measures of preparation.

“We need to train ourselves to know what to do,” Jackson stated.

Lockdowns originated in the 1970s in Los Angeles in areas of high gang warfare.

With gangs shooting outside, children were taught to move away from windows and lie low until it subsided or help arrived. Then the guns began to move into schools, but the tactics remained unchanged.

“The police are getting there as fast as they can, but people are still getting killed,” Jackson informed in relation to response times. The average response time being a total of eight to twelve minutes, from the original 911 call to dispatch, and finally response.

A.L.I.C.E training is re-learning what to do in these situations, whether it be securing the room with barricades to evacuating, to even countering against an armed attacker.

Over forty individuals showed up to the event hosted, with a fair mixture of both students and staff. Jackson expressed that he wished more students would attend, as the more knowledgeable people there are in one classroom, the higher the odds of surviving an attack.

“It was an excellent training. I wish more people were encouraged to attend,” noted Dr. Thomas Rand, a professor of English, writing, and linguistics.

At least ten more trainings are currently being scheduled, and Campus Public Safety plans to send out an email with upcoming trainings available soon.

For those interested, a trigger warning has been put in place as there are frank discussions about what to do in armed attacker situations and threats to personal safety.

“The school environment naturally puts people into a ‘do what we’re told’ mentality, and we need to break out of that mindset,” Rand reminded, “I’d feel better if all my students had this training.”

Thrills and chills

By: Darien Campo
Staff Writer

October is slowly coming to a close, but the horror movies keep playing in my house.
This week I watched “Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993), “Sweeny Todd” (2007), “Tusk” (2014), “The Frighteners” (1996), “Goosebumps” (2015), “Cabin in the Woods” (2012), and “Friday the 13th” (1980).

2015 saw the revival of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series with a new film starring Jack Black.

While the movie was a bit lacking in places, it was a fun nostalgia trip back into the classic series that used to occupy me for hours. I used to collect all the Goosebumps books as a kid — I loved the creepy, gross, scary, and shocking tales R.L. Stine had provided for me. I was a horror fanatic in a child’s body, and authors like Stine fed my fascination.

I used to read all the ghost story collections I could find back then.

Authors like Bruce Coville gave me plenty of chills, but there was one trilogy of books that really stuck with me all of these years. Alvin Schwartz’s “Scary Stories to Read in the Dark” trilogy gave me legendarily bad nightmares. The grotesque illustrations of Stephen Gammell were twisted beyond all belief and made those books transcendently terrifying.

I’m not alone either, adults still celebrate Schwartz and Gammell’s work, and in fact, a new documentary about their trilogy is currently in the works. Those books may have frightened us, but even as children we knew that it was fun to be frightened.
I don’t feel that enough attention is put into horror entertainment geared toward children.

We tend to assume that it’s an adult-only genre, but there’s a world of opportunity for juvenile horror. We’ve seen some great examples before with movies like “ParaNorman” (2012), and “Coraline” (2009).

These movies know how to scare children and keep them laughing. But the undisputed master of children’s horror would, of course, be Tim Burton. No one else quite has that perfect blend of wondrous, childlike fun mixed with a sick fascination with the morbid and macabre.

Movies like “ParaNorman” are usually met with opposition from parents wanting to protect their children, and the “Scary Stories” trilogy is a regularly challenged book year after year.

It can be hard to imagine horror as an acceptable genre for children. But it’s important to remember that it is a ton of fun to be scared, no matter how old you are.

“Pan” doesn’t fly in weekend box office

By: Ashton Newton
Freelancer

Warner Brother’s (WB) “Pan” was a huge disappointment at the box office opening weekend. The film cost more than $250 million to make and market, but took home about $40.5 million worldwide.

This just adds to WB’s list of recent box office disappointments with films like “Jupiter Ascending” and “Entourage” also doing poorly. Even with the upcoming Chinese release on Oct. 22, WB is planning on losing at least $100 million on the film. This makes “San Andreas” WB’s only box office success of the year.

Not only was “Pan” a box office disappointment, it was also ripped apart by critics.
Michael Philips, the Tribune Publishing critic, called the film, “The official worst-ever Peter Pan adaption of any sort,” and Peter Bradshaw in a review for The Guardian said, “Joe Wright’s fantastically dull origin-myth reboot of the Peter Pan story resembles nothing so much as a John Lewis Christmas TV ad.”

Director Joe Wright faced some controversy earlier this year for casting Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily. Since the character is supposed to be a Native American, a lot of people were upset about the apparent white washing of the role.

The Harry Potter series was hugely successful for WB as it appealed to younger audiences and adults alike, so the studio wanted to fill that gap with retold classic stories. The studio was already developing a sequel to “Pan” and has a re-imagined “Tarzan” coming next summer.

WB needs a success with a huge year coming up in 2016, featuring “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice”, and “Suicide Squad” hoping to kick off a large DC Cinematic Universe.
With the modern superhero movie craze, those films are projected to do very well for the studio.

There’s also the hotly anticipated Harry Potter Spin-off “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” coming out 2016 that looks extremely promising, but now the pressure is really on for WB with their upcoming lineup of films.

Promise Mediterranean promises excellent eats

By: Megan Clark
Campus Life Editor

Baset Shagrun, co-owner of the food cart, is an international student from North Africa, who came to Western with his brother, the other co-owner.

Shagrun said he had difficulties finding a space to lease for his restaurant, so he decided to use a food trailer.

They are open until 3 a.m., meaning they stay open the latest out of the restaurants in Monmouth, which will serve night owls and late night partiers alike.

I purchased the lamb shawarma for $7, due to all other meat options being sold out.
They packed the pita, a soft flatbread, full of tender and savory meat to the point where I couldn’t feasibly bite into it, and it was hard to pick out pieces and eat them before being able to enjoy the meal in its entirety.

I also had and order of their hummus, which was as delicious as the main course.
The shawarma came with tomatoes, lettuce, and tahini sauce, though I asked for a side of tzatziki sauce- a cucumber, yogurt, and herb mixture- that was on par, if not better, than other tzatziki sauces I’ve had.

As the only food cart in Monmouth, Promise Mediterranean drew a lot of attention from local residents and students, successfully introducing the food cart trend that has been popularized in Portland.

On their opening day, they even had the mayor of Monmouth come out and sample their dishes.

Every time I have passed the trailer, there have always been people milling around, waiting for food, or sitting on a picnic bench and enjoying their meal.

Shagrun said, “We want to have great prices for students … because we are students as well.”

They wanted to open up a Mediterranean food cart to bring something new and different to Monmouth, and it seems they have succeeded.

New restaurants sure to please

By: Megan Clark
Campus Life Editor

Monmouth is getting a flavor facelift after three new restaurants recently moved into town.

The Urban Deli tucked away on Church St., the Promise Mediterranean food cart next to the park near Main St., and Casa Burrito on Highway 99W all offer a new, wider range of tastes and aromas to entice Western’s students and staff.

While Monmouth already has options for Hispanic food, the Urban Deli and Casa Burrito provide an alternative to Koyotes, Muchas, and taco Tuesday at the Pub (if that can even be included in this list).

Urban Deli specializes in tortas and fruit juices, while Casa Burrito makes traditional Hispanic food, including tacos and, obviously, burritos.

Promise Mediterranean brings Monmouth some excitement; not only is it the only food cart in Monmouth, it serves food that other local eateries don’t, including gyros, shawarmas, and hummus.

Marimba player leaves Monmouth wanting more

By: Rachael Jackson
Freelancer

On Sunday night, Oct. 19, 2015, marimba player Dr. Wei-Chen Lin performed at the Smith Recital Hall.

Dr. Lin received his doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University in 2006 after moving to the United States.

Trained as an orchestral musician, Dr. Lin is a distinguished marimba player that has traveled and performed in places like Taiwan, Russia, and Australia.

The marimba is much like a xylophone, but is made with wooden bars instead of metal. The tones it produces are warm, the notes lingering long after the initial staccato of the mallet strikes.

The marimba’s richness of sound can be attributed to the tube-like resonators that hang below the instrument.

He began the concert by playing two pieces alongside his peer from Boston University and the Director of Percussion Studies at Western, Dr. Christopher Whyte. The two musicians hopped behind their instruments, every now and then synchronizing rhythm in unexpected ways.

The second song they performed together, “Skylark Orange Circles” by Gordon Stout, was a virtuosic Japanese piece, an ode to the color orange and the rapidly paced song of an ascending skylark.

Dr. Whyte left the stage while Dr. Lin continued with two Brazilian songs. The second solo piece was a five movement work titled “La Populaire Brasillienne” by Heiter Villa-Lobos that was adapted from guitar music to the marimba by Dr. Lin himself.

“The marimba produces deeper sounds better than the guitar, of which loses depth quickly,” Dr. Lin said, explaining his decision to adapt this song to marimba, “I play on here and you get a much fuller sound. You can hear the resonance.”

His final song was another guitar adaptation, this time from “Fantasia on Themes from La Traviata” by Francisco Tarrega.

This romantic piece used famous tunes from La Traviata, an Italian opera. When crossed over to the marimba it became a delight to experience with its whimsical and rich sound.

Faith Osterlund, sophomore and Contemporary Music major, said she drew inspiration from hearing music similar to “Fantasia.” “I’m a classical singer,” Osterlund said. “So if I was to do something from this particular concert, I would choose something along those lines.”

The Music Department is hosting a number of events in the next months. Don’t miss the next concert on Sunday, Oct. 25 in the Smith Recital Hall at 3 p.m. It is titled “Violin, Viola, Vielle, and Friends” and is free to Western students that bring their ID.

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Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR is located within the traditional homelands of the Luckiamute Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 (Kalapuya etc. Treaty), Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in Western Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.

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