Mount Hood

Western will celebrate its 47th annual tree lighting this year

Jennifer Halley
Campus Life Editor

The 47th annual tree lighting ceremony, that has become a holiday tradition to both students and residents of Monmouth, kicks off on Saturday, Dec. 5.

The longstanding tradition began Nov. 23, 1967, when the 122-foot-tall sequoia tree – in between Todd and Campbell Halls, was lit for the first time that evening, according to the Lamron, Western’s student newspaper at the time.

For that first lighting, the tree, which was planted on campus in the late 1800s, consisted of “100 strings of multi-colored lights – a total of 2,500 bulbs. [It] will be crowned with a lighted star,” the Monmouth Herald said.

The first tree lighting was conducted by the Monmouth fire department and employees of the Oregon College of Education (OCE), what is now Western. “They used a ‘special extension ladder’ to reach the top,” The Monmouth Herald added.

A couple years after the first lighting, the fire department and Vernon McFarland, an OCE employee, received plaques to honor their hard work and diligence in keeping the tradition alive, even though it had been around for only a few years at that time.

1967_SequoiaTree12

President Leonard W. Rice, for which Rice Auditorium was named after, was given the opportunity to light to first tree in 1967.

The tree lighting tradition almost came to an abrupt halt in 1993 “when college officials announced they could not afford to light the tree, ending a 26-year tradition,” the Statesman Journal said.

The article continued, “President Richard Meyers said state
budget cuts in higher education made the $5,600 expense for lights seem wasteful.”

Due to the city’s diligent fire department and its dedicated residents, donations were made and enough money was given to allow the tradition to continue.

Then, an agreement was signed by the fire department and the college that said the college would provide electricity and the fire department would hang the lights for the tree.

For many students, the tree lighting ceremony signifies what Western is all about.

“[It] sets a precedent for the rest of the year,” Bryan Kelley, a junior at Western said. He added that the tree symbolizes “harmony,” “peace” and “good will” for both Western and the community of Monmouth.
The tree also represents what the purpose of the event is: to bring everyone together and to celebrate the holidays as a whole community, said Cheyenne Standing-Elk, senior and director of Student Activities Board at Western.

“This event brings school and community together,” Standing-Elk added. “Families travel from out of town, family members come together, elementary schools are involved, and even people who live in Independence comes to it.”

Each year, according to the Journal in 2000, “Western traditions have drawn larger and larger crowds every year and serve to unify the student body through the power of their own creation.”

This year’s tree lighting will be Dec. 5 at 6 p.m., with a holiday parade, pictures with Santa, and a bake-off sale, as well as a choir performance in the Pacific Room.

Surviving the end of term

Jennifer Halley
 Campus Life Editor

The term is coming to an end. With that comes the stress and anxiety that often accompany students as they prepare for finals.

From the first-year student to the seasoned senior, finals can throw everyone through a loop. It is a week of all-nighters, hours spent poring over books or writing papers and an over-abundance of caffeine consumption.

No matter how much students prepare for finals, that dreaded week always seems to sneak up on them – catching them off guard.

Everyone always asks: “How is it already finals week?”, as if they didn’t know it was approaching.

The last few days of term should not be this chaotic. According to usnews.com, a little bit of planning – both throughout the term and for finals week – can effectively minimize a student’s stress load.

Here are a few ways students can reduce stress and get through finals week without feeling depleted by the end of it. There may even be some energy left over to celebrate afterwards.

1. Plan your schedule.
From waking up in the morning until you go to bed at night, a list of all the day’s events should be written out in a planner or a notebook.

Don’t have one of those? Get one. Research shows that time management reduces stress, procrastination, and allows a student the chance to even sleep and eat better.

Writing out everything you have to do in a day will help you to organize your thoughts and prioritize.

2. Get at least 7 hours of sleep per night.
Mayoclinic.org said that adults need seven to eight hours of sleep every night in order to maintain a healthy body and mind.

So shut off the TV, stop playing the video games and get some shut-eye. Being well-rested clears the mind and students are able to make better decisions, focus better and feel more balanced overall.

3. Plan physical activity.
Exercise exerts a number of health benefits that can promote positive well-being and even counter negative mental states, livestrong.com said. It also increases energy levels.

Half the battle of surviving finals week is feeling mentally prepared for the upcoming tests, presentations or projects, versus feeling nervous or anxious.

Taking 20 minutes to go on a jog, do some yoga, or take a quick walk will overall benefit a student’s stress levels, energy levels and feelings of well-being.

4. Utilize the writing center.
Writing final term papers can be intimidating and anxiety-inducing. In order to not become completely derailed, visit the writing center in the APSC building, where the tutors will help brainstorm, draft and edit your paper with you.

The writing center is open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Evening hours are from 7-10 p.m. during the weekdays.

5. Take a break and hang out with friends.
Lay off the books for a few hours and take an opportunity to hang out with friends. See a movie. Go to the mall. Eat out at a restaurant. Play board games in your pajamas.

Taking a couple hours off will give you and your brain a well-deserved break, leaving you powered up and rested for the next stretch of studying.

6. Establish a good study space.
Studying in your living room amidst noisy roommates is probably not the best place to get some work done.

Whether it’s the library, your bedroom, or a quiet corner booth at Shari’s, make sure your study space allows you to focus on what you’re studying without all of the outside interference.

7. When studying, avoid social media. And your phone.
Nothing is more distracting than a Facebook post or a text message when trying to study. So shut off the phone for a while.
That way, focus can be on what is in front of you, rather than the Instagram photo of what your aunt ate for dinner.

8. Use study groups and teachers.
There is no shame in going to a teacher’s office hours to ask for help, nor is it a bad idea to get with a study group and go over notes for the upcoming exam.

Purdue University said that study groups can help to divide-and-conquer the material being studied. That way, students don’t spend all their study time trying to just organize notes.

9. Set goals for yourself.
Having goals such as getting a B on that Chemistry test, or receiving an A on that final paper, will help when you go to study. If you study with no goal in mind, your focus will be all over the place.

Set goals for studying too, such as getting through a certain number of chapters each day. This will help studying seem a little less daunting.

10. Plan a time to celebrate when it’s all over.
Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, and having something to look forward to can help students push through this hard week, knowing it will all be over soon.

Reward yourself, and breathe after that last final. You deserve it.

Campus Blotter week 9

HIT AND RUN

At 7:28 a.m. Nov. 20 in Lot R, Public Safety was contacted about a hit and run.

BICYCLE THEFT

At 9 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Alderview apartments, Public Safety took a late bicycle theft report. The bike was valued at $700.

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

At 9:21 a.m. Nov 18 in Lot A, Public Safety received a report of a mirror that was broken on a utility vehicle. It was valued at $20.

MEDIC ASSIST/ILLNESS

At 11:48 a.m. Nov. 18 at the Student Health and Counseling Center, Public Safety responded to a student having an active seizure.

At 6:29 Nov. 19 in New P.E., Public Safety was contacted in reference to an injury.

At 8:18 p.m. Nov. 20 in Heritage Hall, Public Safety was contacted by University Housing in regard to a mental health issue.

At 7:35 p.m. Nov. 22 in Spruce Hall, Public Safety responded to a mental health incident.

MARIJUANA VIOLATION

At 5:20 p.m. Nov. 19 in Heritage Hall, Public Safety contacted a room in regards to a marijuana violation.

At 2:25 a.m. Nov. 21 in Barnum Hall, Public Safety was contacted about a marijuana violation.

At 12:08 a.m. Nov. 24 in Ackerman Hall, Public Safety
responded to a report of a marijuana odor.

ALCOHOL VIOLATION

At 10:32 p.m. Nov. 21 in Butler Hall, Public Safety was contacted by on-duty resident assistants in regards to an alcohol violation.

Flashback Friday: Living on Campus in the 19th century:

By: Alisha Wenger, Freelancer

Western Oregon University has changed in a variety of ways, including what the school used to be titled, since its foundation in 1856.

When it was originally founded as Christian College, Abraham Lincoln was not yet president, and the Civil War had yet to take place.

Campus life and the student body, at what was then Christian College, looked much different back in the late 1800s than it does today.

Men wore suspenders and nice pant suits, and women wore dresses that covered the neck and reached all the way down to their shoes. Fashion was modest and practical at that time.

Three societies were held on campus and “neither sex was allowed to participate in the exercises of the other,” the Centennial Story of Monmouth said.

Despite the segregation, however, Christian College prided itself on being a mixed school, having both male and female genders in the same classroom.

“Young gentlemen and ladies exercise a refining, restraining, yet stimulating influence over each other, which nothing else can supply,” the Christian College Catalogue of 1871-72 said.

According to the same catalogue, students were to stay in their rooms at night unless given permission to leave. They were not allowed to leave class without faculty permission and they were not to go “beyond the immediate precincts of the village, without permission of the president or faculty.”

Classes offered in the beginnings of Christian College were much different than today. Students in their first term would take: “Latin Grammar and Caesar, Greek Grammar and Reader, Algebra (University), Geometry, Plane and Solid and English Grammar,” the catalogue said.

A regular morning consisted of reading “the Holy Scripture, singing and prayer, followed by a lecture on some theme connected with sacred literature.” Morals were enforced by biblical examples.

An anonymous student’s late 1800s scrapbook showed the importance of poems, music, traveling and death in this early college campus society.

According to the Jerrie Lee Parpart, Western archives and exhibits coordinator, people used to memorize poems and enter into poem recitation contests on a regular basis.

“The pride of Monmouth in the 1870s was the Silver Cornet Band,” The Centennial Story of Monmouth Oregon said. The band, which consisted of solely men, had concerts in the college chapel and in other neighboring towns.

Traveling was a luxury to be had. An early 1900s School of Norm said that it took an hour and a half by train to get from Monmouth to Salem, and according to the 1911 edition when traveling in Portland, it was important to “chew gum freely on the train to prevent sickness.”

In the anonymous scrapbook, the places that the student visited were shown only by black and white postcards, since people were unable to easily snap pictures on the go.

This scrapbook also contained obituaries of students, explaining cause of death and their age.

Living in a small town:

By Jennifer Halley – Campus Life Editor

Whether you live in Monmouth, Corvallis, or Dallas, you know what it’s like to live in a small town – a place that is just a blip on the map.

But small town living, despite its slow pace and lack of variety, can be a rewarding place to be a part of: less noise, everything is nearby – you don’t have to drive everywhere – and small, local businesses offer originality.

This does not mean that small towns aren’t associated with the tell-tale signs it is, indeed, a small town. But that’s what it makes it fun, right?

Here are 6 signs you live in a small town:

1. You have to drive 20 minutes just to go to the mall, and the nearest Taco Bell is 15 minutes away.

Generally speaking, small towns are secluded from everything else. And surrounded by rural land, it is a drive just to get to the next town or city. While shopping at Bi-Mart can be a convenient, one-stop trip – and you can buy everything from light bulbs to nail polish – it just isn’t the Salem Center Mall.

2. Almost everything closes after 9 p.m., and the midnight munchies are put on hold.

With small towns come early closing hours, the exception being one or two restaurants, and the corner quick stop. And from 9-midnight, those places are packed with the late-night owls, the student trying to pull an all-nighter, or the people trying to find something stimulating to do. But other than those few open-till-midnight-or-later places, your choices are limited.
Ashleigh Hawkins, a senior at Western Oregon, grew up in Medford, Ore, a city that is considerably larger than Monmouth.

“At home I am used to Fred Meyer being open until 11 p.m. and having a 24 hour Winco about five minutes from my house,” Hawkins said.

3. Everyone knows everyone.

“There is no such thing as anonymity,” Mary Eiswerth, a woman who has lived in Monmouth for 15 years, said.
Eisworth has it right. And depending on how you look at it, that can be a blessing or a curse. Everyone knowing everyone can give one a sense of community, and for Alyssa Loza, who used to live in Corvallis and now lives in Monmouth, that was what she liked about a smaller town.

“Personally, I enjoy living in a small town. I like the environment and living here to go to college helps me stay focused on school.”
That is not the case for everyone, though. Andrea Byars, a former student at Western, said that small towns are crowded and that it is “either a blessing or a curse, depending upon you, your lifestyle and where you want to be.”

4. You will get stuck driving behind a tractor. Multiple times.

Yes. You’ve all been there – just driving along, music blasting through the speakers and all of a sudden, traffic is backed up due to a tractor. Although by this point, it’s a common thing and you’re used to it.

“If you’re going to live in a small town,” Byars said, “I hope you’re prepared to stare blankly at the back of a tractor for 15 slow miles.” Small towns are known for their slower ways of life; tractor traffic is just an aspect of that.

5. “Where’s that at?” is a common question when you explain where you live.

Being a small town means that not everyone knows where you are located. Confused looks, raised eyebrows and “huh?” follow the “where do you live?” and it’s a feat to try and get them to understand where your little town exists.

Stefanie Mathers has lived in Lebanon, Oregon for the past 20 years and said she gets confused looks from people when they ask where she lives.
“I have to explain that it’s by Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis,” Mathers said.

6. You are a part of the community.

College towns such as Monmouth and Corvallis host community festivals for the 4th of July, according to Westerndays.net and downtowncorvallis.org. Monmouth has had an annual tree lighting celebration every December since 1967, the archives at Western said. You really get to know people and for Randy Caamel – a Monmouth resident – he actually knows who his neighbors are, something not seen in bigger cities.

Ashley Sigl, who lives in Amity, similarly said, “It’s kind of like growing up with a huge family. Some members are quite distant and estranged, whereas others are at your house every weekend for a beer and a campfire. But regardless of how close you are, when you need them, they’re there.”

Living in a small town can be a different experience for everyone.
“Big cities stimulate [and] small towns nurture,” Eiswerth said.
It just depends on the experience you want to have.

Building relationships, sandwich by sandwich

BY JENNIFER HALLEY
CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR

 

Valsetz Dining Hall is always bustling with people throughout
the week, especially during lunchtime.

Students mill around, trying to decide what to eat, while employees hustle to get everyone what they need. Voices rise over one another in an effort to be heard, the tinny whine of silverware echoes throughout the crowded building, and the drilling ring of the cash register all mix together in a raucous din.

Lunch time at Valsetz is a chaotic couple of hours. Through it all, however, one person stays constant. She spies her regulars right as they come through Valsetz’ double doors and waves at them, beckoning them over.

Once they arrive at the deli counter, she begins to make their sandwich, already memorized in her head – even if that student has only been to get a sandwich once.

As she makes their sandwich, she talks to them, genuinely curious about how their day is going, about who they are as a person. She interacts this way with every student she comes across, every day.

Lovingly dubbed as the Sandwich Lady by her regulars, Cathy Clark works as the deli production assistant for Valsetz Dining Hall.

She has worked there for the past 28 years, and in those 28 years, she has never missed a single day of work. “I enjoy what I do,” Clark said. “It’s not a job, it’s a privilege.”

“When I went in [to get a sandwich], she immediately said hello and asked my name before I picked up a tray,” Lara Valachovic, a sophomore, said. “It was finals week, so she asked how they were going and reminded me not to let myself get too stressed.”

“It’s definitely obvious she loves her job, or at least talking with students,” Valachovic added.

Clark’s passion for people is apparent in the way she interacts with her customers. She understands how hard college can be, and how big of a transition it can be.

“To have played a small role in making that transition a little easier, that’s special,” Clark said. “That’s why I like what I do.”

She added that everyone wants to go somewhere that they feel remembered, and where she works, “the NW corner of Valsetz”, Clark knows it is a place where students feel acknowledged and special and, ultimately, remembered.

She can tell by the students who become her regulars, or just by the student “that comes in and beams and says thank you.”

Students are not the only people Clark impacts, though.

“Cathy is great to work with; she is very reliable,” Ashleigh Hawkins, a senior who works with Clark at Valsetz, said. “She is really very funny and has a great sense of humor. [She’s] a great person to be around.”

Clark is quick to recognize her fellow co-workers in how hard they contribute to making Valsetz an inviting place for the students. They also put their hearts into their work and for Clark, that is what keeps her going.

“We are a supporting team, a community spirit,” Clark said of her co-workers. Before Clark began work at Valsetz, she went to Northwest Christian University (NCU), intending to study social work.

Even though attending NCU did not work out, “this job has kind of evolved into that,” Clark said.

She said that she can learn more from the outside world, than in a classroom, and everything she has learned in her life is valuable.

She added that, each job can be an area of opportunity, in that “we should never stop fine-tuning [ourselves].”

Growing up with a father in the Air Force, Clark has seen a lot and met a variety of people. She was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, started the first grade in the east coast and even lived briefly in Okinawa, Japan.

According to Clark, she is a certified firefighter for the forestry department and worked there for a year.

Eventually, she settled her roots in Monmouth when she started working for Valsetz and has lived here ever since. Outside of work, Clark busies herself with her two cats, interacting with her neighbors, and enjoys doing anything with her hands, whether it is landscaping, gardening or building something.

Clark has two policies she lives by: “to do no harm in my words and actions,” and “to leave it a little better than the way we found it.”

If she can still work at Valsetz when she’s 80 years old, then “let’s do it,” Clark said.

Fallout shelters? A history lesson of Western Oregon University

By Jennifer Halley

A former central hub for the public in case of nuclear threat, Western Oregon University established fallout shelters on campus to keep people safe if need be.

Throughout the 50’s and 60’s, the threat of nuclear attack was imminent and the Federal Civil Defense Administration, now known as Homeland Security, named Oregon College of Education (OCE) – what is now Western Oregon – a headquarters for people seeking a safe haven.

To prepare for an attack, OCE designed a variety of fallout shelters throughout campus containing food such as crackers, carbohydrate supplements, giant tubs of water that paired as toilets and other supplies to keep people alive until the threats were over.

According to Tony Kment, assistant director of the Physical Plant on campus, only buildings made out of concrete could be subject to a fallout shelter. Many doomsday websites also say that fallout shelters need to be built with materials that offer strength and support in order to withstand the gamma rays and radiation.

Fallout shelters were prominent in that era as the Federal Civil Defense Administration instructed homes and businesses on how to create shelters, according to U-S-history.com. Instruction pamphlets were published as guides for families to build home shelters.

It was intense time for the government as they fought to respond to heightened public anxiety that coated much of America, the article added.

Kment, who was a child during the Cold War, remembers doing drills at school – such as ducking under his desk or a cafeteria table – in case an attack was ever to occur.

“It was scary for a young kid during that time,” Kment said.

In 1974 an article was written about the fallout shelters in OCE’s student newspaper, called Lamron2.

The article, written by Liz Alcarez, describes the campus fallout shelter locations that still exist today, but are being used as storage.

According to Alcaraz, one fallout shelter is in the lower floor of the Humanities and Social Sciences building. Two others are in the basements of the library and Administration building. Many of the mechanical rooms in the residence halls, as well as in Maaske Hall, the education building and the Food Services building could have been used as shelters as well.

Some of the signs used to announce where the fallout shelters were located are still posted around campus. These signs alerted students and staff as to where they could go if an attack occurred.

In the education building, a sign can be seen on the double doors of the mechanical room. Beyond its doors are the boxes of crackers, candy and bins used for water and waste.

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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.

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