Lake Larsen, Author at The Western Howl

Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor

As the year begins winding to a close and the excitement of the quickly-approaching summer sets in, another emotion is felt by many of those who are on track to graduate this June: a mixture of stress, fear and, ultimately, relief. As if dealing with all of that isn’t enough, there’s also the need to remember several dates that are critical for graduating on time.

To help get you through this period of uneasiness, here’s a list of all the dates you should remember and prepare for. Finish the year out with confidence, knowing you’re up to date on all of the items on your long to-do list. Good luck with rest of the spring term, and make sure to stay on top of all the deadlines and dates necessary before you get that final sigh of relief this June.

Make sure that your DegreeWorks is correct and all of your necessary requirements are in order as soon as possible. If something seems off, go to the registrar to get it all worked out.
Sign up for commencement on your WOU Portal
April 20: Approved substitutions and exceptions towards your degree requirements must be fully completed and turned in by this date.
Week five: Reply to the email regarding any necessary name-changes on your diploma.
Mid-May: Make sure that all of your announcements are sent out and get any graduation party planning done well ahead of time.
Order all of your graduation supplies, such as your cap, gown, frames and graduation announcements, from Wolfstore. While they will carry these items up until commencement, they can’t guarantee they will have everything in stock that long. Order online at books.wou.edu by May 29 to avoid extra shipping charges and make sure it arrives in time.
Week ten: Submit your diploma mailing address.
June 16: Commencement Day. Students who have graduated in the previous summer, fall or winter terms are eligible to attend the spring commencement ceremony. Those who have applied to graduate in spring may participate in the ceremony. And finally, undergraduates who will be graduating in summer or fall may also participate in the ceremony.

Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu

The Western Howl

Home »

Annual One Act Festival coming to Rice Auditorium

Kevin Reed | Entertainment Editor

The One Act Festival is a celebration of student involvement in the theatre department by giving plenty of students the chance to direct and put together their own short single act plays. There are eight different plays being performed at the festival this year and each is student acted, directed and produced.

The students involved get to practice their theatre skills in whatever role they are in to better prepare them for the real world of theatre and acting. With so many different one acts, viewers can really get a taste of almost anything.

“The one-act festival is fun because there are so many different shows going up that you are sure to see something you will like,” said Rory Krehbiel, director of “Canker Sores and Other Distractions.” “Each director picked a completely different kind of show making this a hodgepodge of comedy, tragedy, and melodrama.”

Many of the plays have been selected from writers and playwrights like Mary Miller, Christopher Durang, Rob Urbinati and Sam Shepard.

Because the overall time for them to rehearse and put the acts together was a short three weeks, directors and actors have both had to use every bit of time they have to make their act as perfect as they can. Many of the plays involve simple sets and costumes because of how the festival is formatted. Each director and actor is putting their heart and soul into these one acts to make sure they captivate the audience throughout the entire act.

“Fourteen Hundred Thousand” is a short play being directed by junior Hunter Atkin that was written by playwright Sam Shepard.

Atkin shared his reasoning for choosing this playwright for his act: “Shepard is a great playwright because he has this really specific way of writing, because his characters act realistically but their actions and the things they say are out of the blue and strange. Often the dialogue doesn’t make sense because it’s less about the dialogue and more about the relationship between the characters.”

In “Fourteen Hundred Thousand,” a husband and wife move into a new home that’s 10 stories up, and instal a new bookcase that holds fourteen hundred-thousand books. Atkin is new to the directing world. Because of his recent exposure to it, he believes he has found his calling in directing. Atkin described this “This year is a really big year for directing for me, because I have never really directed. I’ve acted a lot more than I have directed … The more I do it the more I actually really enjoy it and I think I’d like to pursue directing in the future.”

“Canker Sores and Other Distractions,” a play written by Christopher Durang, is being directed at the festival by Rory Krehbiel.

Krehbiel described the play: “‘Canker Sores and Other Distractions’ is ‘bout a couple who is trying to get back together after several years of being divorced. Their reunion, however, soon dissolves into fighting.”

The author Durang has been known for his comedic playwriting bordering the extreme. Krehbiel described her thought process of choosing this play to recreate; “I knew I wanted to direct a comedy from the moment I got accepted to work on this project. My concept has definitely been the idea of perfection and then disruption interrupting it. A visual for that might be a quiet lake and then someone starts throwing rocks into it.”

“Hazelwood Jr. High” is a thriller story about a group of middle school girls whose classmate has just been brutally killed. Originally written by Rob Urbinati, this short is both dark and thrilling. Mindy Mawhirter and her crew will be recreating this chilling play.

Another play being displayed at the festival is “Ferris Wheel” written by Mary Miller, and directed by Carina Ramirez, a fifth year Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre major. This play takes you through the course of what happens when a woman, who’s scared of heights, and a man who just quit smoking are put together on an old creaky Ferris wheel.

“I’m really excited to finally see the play performed,” said Ramirez. “I’m also happy knowing that I was able to extend my experience in theatre by adding directing to my profile.”

Other acts being preformed include Roseanna Beth Whitlow’s “Thistle Blossoms,” a chilling drama between a college student and her strict professor, being directed by Alex Schlientz; “Studio Portrait,” a bittersweet comedy by Arlene Hutton about photographer and his nervous subject, directed by Nicole Gebbie; “Playwriting 101,” being directed by Tera Lopez, originally by Rich Orloff about an instructor teaching his class the art of playwright; and “The Adventurer’s Club” by Damian Woodsbeing, a story of a group of young adults putting together an adventure plan, directed by Kevin Huang.

The festival runs April 19-21. Viewers will be given a wide variety of plays to watch from thrillers, to comedy, to bizarre drama and tragedy. Tickets will be $3 at the door. Each team is hoping to showcase the work they have been putting together for weeks for attendees and take them away to a whole new place for a short time.

The festival gives anyone who attends a little bit of everything from drama to comedy and gives theatre students a chance to branch out and try taking the role of director.

Contact the author at kreed17@mail.wou.edu

April 19th and 21st at 7:30 at RA 113

Fourteen Hundred Thousand

The Adventurer’s Club

Hazlewood Jr. High

Canker Sores and Other Distractions

April 20th at 7:30 and 21st at 2:00 in RA 113

Thistle Blossoms

Studio Portrait

Playwriting 101

Ferris Wheel

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

The Western Howl

Home »

Here is what’s in a name

Stephanie Blair | Copy Editor

Every year on Yom HaShoah, these disturbing little flags are planted around campus to educate passersby about the effects of the Holocaust and — debatably — honor those whose lives were lost in concentration camps. There are different colors for different groups, and a key so you can read which groups are represented by what.

It is this sign that I take issue with. Having attended Western for four Shoahs now, I am disappointed to say that Western’s signage still uses an ethnic slur to refer to an affected group: the Roma and Sinti tribes. The word I’m referring to, which I’ll write just once in it’s full form for clarity, is gypsy.

And that may not seem like something upsetting to you. It’s a word that, as Americans, we were raised to associate simply with the idea of being a free spirited nomad. We heard it in a Fleetwood Mac song, we know the Broadway musical — even recently, Netflix has released a show under that name, Lady Gaga released a song with that title in 2013 and “Saturday Night Live” used the word freely in two skits in the last two weeks. This is a present issue even today — even on our campus, so let’s take a quick history lesson.

“Europeans imposed the word “g—y” on Romani when they came to Europe, believing that we originated from Egypt because of our dark features,” the National Organization for Women explained in a blog post. “Romani have a history of persecution in Europe; it is estimated by Roma historians that over 70 to 80 percent of the Romani population was murdered in the Holocaust, a fact that is little known or recognized. Even lesser known, Romani experienced chattel slavery in Romania for over 500 years ending in 1860.”

A name given to a racial group by white Europeans who were then oppressed by said white Europeans and whose culture is now used as a cheap costume for Halloween and “festival” season. It feels so familiar…

Not to mention that Roma women, stereotyped as sexually loose and untamable, were forcibly sterilized in Europe as recently as the 1990s. So, there’s that.

Which brings me back to this sign. If this had happened once and then been corrected, this piece wouldn’t be published. But the organizers of this event have been approached before, yet no change has come.

So now, in a free publication, I’d like to make a public call: change the damn signs. I’m in my last term of my senior year and I have 600 print credits — I’ll reprint them for you. I really don’t mind. I think it’s a negligible cost to respect the dead, as well as the living.

Contact the author at sblair13@wou.edu

Photo by: Share.america.gov

The Western Howl

Home »

Cavaliers outduel Wolves in baseball series, 2-1

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Monmouth’s rainout also moved Baseball but the team kept things in order for their first game, 6-5, on April 13.
Faced with a 4-1 deficit heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, the Wolves were down and had to settle in to inch closer. Settling in meant sacrificial plays.

It started with a sacrifice fly that led senior infielder Jay Leverett in to score, and the Wolves continued the hunt. With the bases loaded in the eighth, Leverett returned again to single in a runner that cut the lead to one. The very next play, the bases still loaded, another sac fly by senior infielder Nyles Nygaard scored to tie it.

After the Cavs restructured the score at 5-4, the game looked to be in their hands. With a full count, one more out remained for the Wolves offense before a walk-off home run scored two for the come from behind win.
The duel continued on April 16, and so did the tightly contested gameplay. Concordia loaded the bases to start game two, and a triple ensued to score three in the third inning. Western took its turn in scoring off of Leverett’s sacrifice fly to bat in senior outfielder Jacob Martinez. The previous play shortened Concordia’s lead to 3-2, but the Cavaliers continued where they left off in the fourth scoring two more.
Western tried the comeback strategy again. First-year outfielder Griffey Halle’s solo homer and RBI were just short of the 5-4 defeat.

In the final game, Western tried once again to recover, and found themselves once more in the eighth, after being down 4-1. Their comeback trail started off with junior catcher Justin Wakem’s left field double that scored Nygaard.
One out remained with three on, and it was senior outfielder Cody Dykstra’s single through the left side enabling Wakem and sophomore outfielder Torreahno Sweet to tie. But an RBI single to left field was all the Cavaliers needed for the win.

Western gets four at home against the St. Martin’s University Saints from April 21-22. They’ll hit the mound first at 1 p.m.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: Wouwolves.com

The Western Howl

Home »

Meet the candidates

Sam Dunaway | News Editor

With spring term comes the campus-wide event that decides who will represent the student body in 2018-2019: the ASWOU elections. Voting for the elections will begin on April 23 and will continue for at least a week, or until 10 percent of the student body has voted. To cast your vote, visit ASWOU’s OrgSync and read on to learn more about the candidates.

Name: Evelyn Guzman

Running for: President

“It has been the greatest experience being your student voice for the 2017-2018 year as Vice President … Your student voices matter and I truly believe that it is possible to have more of your voices represented in decision making settings but for that we need more involvement. I have attended Western since my freshman year and have continuously been involved with organizations/clubs and centers on campus, but also with initiatives within our community. I completely believe that (Western) has helped me grow as an individual and I intend on reflecting that back every step of the way. I intend on continuing to engage students into being more involved with (Western).”

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

Name: Logan Doerfler

Running for: Judicial Administrator

“You may recognize my name after serving as your 2017-2018 Judicial Administrator.

After being granted the opportunity to serve the Western community I learned just how special ASWOU is, and how fulfilling it is to maintain the integrity of our systems, via Judicial Board hearings and participating in a number of ASWOU sponsored events. Western is a uniquely diverse community devoted to fair treatment and representation of all student demographics. As a student veteran, I represent a small but impactful group of individuals who strive to leave things better than they found it. I did my best to do so within ASWOU this year and will continue this priority next year.”

Photo by: Logan Doerfler

Name: Nathan Soltz

Running for: Senate President

“I have been active in politics since I was 15 and have been working in the Oregon State Senate since I was 18. I hold elected positions in party politics at the county, district and statewide levels. In 2016, I was elected to be a delegate to the national convention, becoming Oregon’s youngest-ever delegate at the age of 19 … I want to make the ASWOU Senate a deliberative, efficient body which truly understands the responsibilities it is sworn to uphold. The Senate represents you, the students of Western Oregon University, and with every action it takes, it needs to keep that in mind. As your ASWOU Senate President, I promise transparency, honesty and responsiveness.”

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

Name: Rowan Hammer

Running for: a Senate seat

I am not running for ASWOU Senate with any specific agenda for making changes. Instead, I want to serve as an advocate for students and foster open communication between the student body and the university administration. I want to promote diversity and inclusion by working to ensure that everyone’s opinions and viewpoints can be shared openly, regardless of your personal background or attributes. If there is any one issue that I would want to try to address it would be an ongoing effort to make school more affordable for students, especially by encouraging instructors to adopt low-cost and open-source textbooks.

Photo by: Rowan Hammer

Name: Jamie Norr

Running for: a Senate seat

“This would be my second year on ASWOU Senate. I am extremely committed to improving our school for all students, faculty and staff, and community members. I believe that our student government should be an open space where everyone can voice their opinions and have their ideas heard. I plan to encourage and implement that idea if elected to this position. As a future educator, I love being involved in improving education for all and being a Senator will allow me to work on what our students want and need. I plan to increase opportunities for students to follow their passions in a healthy and positive way. I hope to assist in creating a safe and accepting school by listening to fellow students, advocating for changes, speaking out against discrimination or notions that may harm students, and working towards a better community.”

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

Name: Erik Morgan Jr.

Running for: a Justice Board seat

“I want to continue to serve on the ASWOU Judicial Board because I believe in holding organizations accountable for the promises they make to the people they serve. In ASWOU’s mission statement, the organization pledges to ‘advocate for every WOU student’s rights to the WOU administration as well as the state of Oregon and the nation.’ In order to achieve that goal, ASWOU needs to be held responsible in two ways: by the students; and by the Judicial Board … By re-electing me to the ASWOU Judicial Board, students will be ensuring that there is an experienced Justice serving on the board that will act as a stabilizing figure and will allow a measure of consistency in decision making.”

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

The Western Howl

Home »

Dynamite Designs adds shopping variety

Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor

In a small town, such as Monmouth, when it comes to going on shopping sprees, options are limited. However, the list is slowly growing, as new locations have begun popping up. On April 8, a petite boutique named Dynamite Designs had its grand opening on the corner of Monmouth Avenue and Main Street.

Offering a plethora of different items and unique jewelry, the store sells almost everything at a range of $4 to $8. Under these prices lies several different items to browse through. While they do primarily sell jewelry, they also have other products. Things such as vintage or knitted hats are sold, as well as a few items of clothing and a few colorful pillows. They have handmade cards on sale as well.

Items that begin getting more expensive are the ones created by Jo Meza, the silversmith who designs her jewelry using real gemstones. She’s the owner of the store, and this is her third location; the others are in Salem and Albany.

While they do offer a range of different products, they also provide different services and events. They are planning to occasionally host paint nights, which will typically occur on Friday nights. They will also host VIP parties that are special invitation only. At these parties, they’ll help prepare you for any event you have coming up.

“If you want to go out on the town, you can come in here and we can help dress you up.” Meza commented on how they use their jewelry and other items to add to your look. They’ll also do your makeup for you, or help pick out your outfits. “You can bring in your own clothes, or you can purchase clothes here.”

On top of their regular items sold, they also sell jewelry which is marked with an animal tag, and the proceeds go towards a project called Global Possibilities. All of these products were brought in by a woman named Adelia, a veterinary student at Oregon State University who travels around the world to continue her project of helping locations that take in rescue animals and teaching them proper care.

While jewelry can oftentimes get expensive, Beza noted that she recognizes that students oftentimes can’t afford these high prices.

“We’re just here to help people out,” she added. “We know college students don’t have a lot of funding. With just $15 you can come in and get a couple pieces of jewelry, or some low-cost gifts.”

As of now, their hours are not permanent. However, currently, you can stop in anytime Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to come take a look at what the location has to offer.

Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

The Western Howl

Home »

What We Can Learn From Nature

Kevin Reed | Entertainment Editor

“Art is really for oneself and fine art doesn’t really have one finite message that ones trying to get across,” said Jennifer Bracy, a professor of visual communications design at Western. “It’s often much more about questions and maybe there’s some kind of an answer or a message within, but it’s less important.” Bracy has been teaching at Western for eight years and recently released a new fine art exhibit called “Forces of Nature,” on display in Hamersly Library on the second floor.

In the past Bracy has mainly worked as a freelance graphic designer.

“I work often with small startups or non profit organization that need help with a campaign and they need some posters designed, or something of that nature,” said Bracy. However, she explained that this display is a new exploration for her: “There’s a specific message and specific audience that has to be communicated in graphic design … It’s much more open to interpretation.”

Though she has done art displays and shows before, this “Forces of Nature” explores new mediums and techniques — utilizing ink and printmaking to create contrasting colors, shapes and forms to make each piece beautiful and have its own personality.

“I named it ‘Forces of Nature’ because a lot of the themes that I have explored in my art, and some of my personal design projects, really came out in this body of work … the infinite wisdom of nature. What we can learn from it as humans, how we have to respect it you know the tensions between the us and the environment and the things we do to it.”

Her main focus of many of the pieces in the display was the beauty that is nature. Drawing inspiration from natural phenomena like the honeycomb and the geodesic dome to showcase the random perfection nature can achieve at times.

“The bee hive is so efficient and it represents this strong, stable and efficient community of bees and humans can really borrow from that.”

One specific series she showcased in the display is called “Number Series” where she breaks down the nature of numbers one through ten and what meaning and significance each number has around the world.

“What I love finding out is that in a lot of these human constructs with language that, inherent in them, there’s a lot of nature with a lot of those origins of numbers,” said Bracy.

Each and every day we see numbers or use numbers but nobody ever thinks about the technical side of it all and asks questions about where they come from or what they mean to other people all the way across the globe.

“I had to do a lot of research,” said Bracy. What she found was a whole new meaning for the symbols we use across the world.

Another series Bracy released in the gallery, “Color Moods” is purely experimentation art: “It’s a series of purely abstract, meaning they were really just experimental. I was just getting a handle on this new medium. It represents the first experiments I did with monotype printing … It’s called monotype because you can only do it once,” explained Bracy. “You can never recreate it … I think it kinda has a vitality that no matter how hard I try I cannot get back too. Because it was just experimenting and now anything I try is trying to hard.”

It’s a fantastic moment for any artist when an experiment comes out perfect. No matter how much effort you put in you can never recreate that first success. However, the short-lived origins of the art is what make it so spectacular and unique. It’s a one-of-a-kind piece of art and came from purely just messing around and trying new things with a new medium. Bracy found the perfect way to display the importance of experimentation in art and how sometimes it’s important to try something on a whim.

“The Forces of Nature” is, as the name implies, centered on the features of nature that we as humans could respect and learn from. There are so many little phenomena brought to light within the art and, like Bracy says, “It’s often much more about questions” and nobody really will interpret the art in the same way.

Contact the author at kreed17@wou.edu

Western Oregon University’s Land Acknowledgement
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.

Accessibility Public Records Privacy Student Consumer Information

WOU prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in all programs, activities and employment practices as required by Title IX, other applicable laws, and policies. Retaliation is prohibited by WOU.

Graduation checklist

Annual One Act Festival coming to Rice Auditorium

Here is what’s in a name

Cavaliers outduel Wolves in baseball series, 2-1

Meet the candidates

Dynamite Designs adds shopping variety

What We Can Learn From Nature

Tools

Resources