Campus Life – Page 8 – The Western Howl

By: Paige Scofield
Campus Life Editor

The Multicultural Student Union and Triangle Alliance came together to create the event, “Out and Proud,” an event that is described on Western’s website as one that, “celebrates and explores the various cultures and ethnic backgrounds that are within the LGBTQ+ community and recognizes their challenges as well as celebrates their achievements and success.”

In the late morning of Feb. 8, there was a Queer People of Color panel in the Willamette room of the Werner University Center to create a discussion about queer people of color and the difficulties and achievements they face as a double minority.

That evening at 6:00 p.m., there was a dinner themed “Let Your Colors Burst,” with keynote speaker, Maria Peters Lake, who dubs herself a “Lesbian drag queen.”

One of the planners for the event was, Katherine Macias-Torres, a sophomore nursing major, who is a campus advocate for the Multicultural Student Union. Their job is to work with other clubs and organizations on campus to see how they can work together to bring awareness to campus.

“‘Out and Proud’ is an annual event that we throw and it’s in cooperation with Triangle Alliance.” Macias-Torres stated, “It’s an important event because being a person of color within the LGBTQ+ community is like a double minority, it’s definitely something that is overlooked by a plethora of different groups. I really like the idea of having an ‘Out and Proud’ event because it’s like, ‘hey, we see you and we acknowledge you and you’re important.’ I think it’s important to bring that to light.”

After dinner was served, Maria Peters Lake took to the microphone to discuss what her life was like growing up gay in a family that didn’t acknowledge or discuss the LGBTQ+ community, and growing up to become accepted and loved by those around her. Lake is a big figure in the LGBTQ+ community and has served many different positions in the Imperial Sovereign Rose Court, one of Oregon’s oldest LGBTQ+ organizations. Lake also had various fundraising efforts to benefit the Audria M. Edwards Scholarship Fund: a scholarship for undergraduate students in the LGBTQ+ and allied community.

On Feb. 10, Triangle Alliance hosted the Black and Red Ball in the Pacific room of the Werner University Center to finish the “Out and Proud” event with a slam-bang finish. This event was to create awareness as well as to raise money for the Cascades AIDS Project.

Contact the author at journalcampuslife@wou.edu

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Get to know a major: bachelor of science in exercise science

By: Paige Scofield
Campus Life Editor

Western offers a wide variety of degrees that students can major in, many of which students don’t know are offered, or know next to nothing about. This week, in “Get To Know a Major:” receiving a bachelor of science in exercise science.

Kristin Miller, a junior, is working towards receiving a bachelor of science in exercise science with a minor in dance. Even though she originally came to Western for its dance program, she soon realized that she wanted to switch majors.

“I hope to go into occupational therapy, and exercise science was the most applicable major that I could do and I’m really interested in keeping people healthy, and the body, and how it works and the science of it,” Miller said.

Although she switched majors, Miller wants to keep dance a part of her life and try to use it in the field of occupational therapy.

“I’d like to incorporate dance into occupational therapy somehow,” said Miller. “I think a lot of people don’t see dance as a sport, but I want people to see it as a way to exercise and keeping themselves healthy.”

There are many career fields that exercise science can put students on the right track to pursue. According to Western’s website, those careers include: hospital cardiac rehabilitation and physical therapy assistance, corporate fitness centers, athletic and health focused fitness clubs, with organizations that provide fitness and activity programming such as YMCA and Boys & Girls Club, physical educators in public and private schools, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing and nutrition/dietetics.

Western’s website describes exercise science as, “the study of changes that occur within the human body in response to exercise and physical activity. Students of exercise science complete foundational coursework in general biology and human anatomy and physiology. Key areas of study within the major include biomechanics, motor behavior, nutrition, physiology of exercise, and social and psychological aspects of exercise and physical activity. Students learn how the human body adapts to various forms of movement and exercise, for purposes ranging from general health promotion and injury prevention, to rehabilitation and sports performance.”

Miller’s favorite class she took for her major was the anatomy series. “Even though it was a lot of work, I learned so much in the span of a year about the body, and I think it’s something that will help me a lot with my career.”

“Ever since I’ve changed my major, I’ve been really impressed with the exercise science major and all the professors, they’re all super nice. I think it’s a really good major for our current society, because health is such a pertinent issue and it’s a good field to get into right now because exercise is really on the rise,” concluded Miller.

Contact the author at journalcampuslife@wou.edu

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Bump, set, spike, slide

By: Paige Scofield
Campus Life Editor

To continue the beginning of WOU Accessibility Awareness Month, members of WAAM held an event in the gym of the Health and Wellness Center to play seated volleyball. Seated volleyball is a paralympic sport for athletes with disabilities. The rules and scoring aspects of the game are still the same as in volleyball. The court is the same size as a badminton court, and the net is lowered almost all the way to the ground. The ball can be hit with any limb as long as the buttocks is on the ground, the buttocks also includes laying on the back and shoulders. The movement of the sport consists of sliding back and forth across the court by using hands or elbows.

Jennifer Taylor, an assistant professor in the Division of Health and Exercise Science, led the event. Although the event was small in numbers, those participating were smiling and enjoying the activity. To begin, Taylor had the participants run drills by sliding themselves through small cones so they could get used to the movement. Then, after explaining the rules, they jumped in for a few practice games. It began with only four players on each team, but as they played, a few people began to join making each team a little bigger. Although the group that attended the event was small, that did not affect the large amount of fun the participants had while playing Seated Volleyball.

WAAM is going to be having events all this month. To find schedules and to see posts made by WAAM follow them on instagram @wou_waam.

Contact the author at journalcampuslife@wou.edu

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Don’t believe the myths, learn the facts

By: Jasmine Morrow
Staff Writer

The College of Education, the Spanish Department and the Bilingual Teacher Program at Western asked Kim Potowski, a professor of the Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago, to present her session: “Spanish in the U.S.: Myths and Realities,” in the Richard Woodcock Education Building. On Feb. 3, professor Potowski began the seminar by asking the group of people attending five facts or myths about the Spanish language.The trick was that they were all myths. The questions/statements included: “The United States is the fifth largest Spanish-Speaking country in the world,” “Spanish is not recognized in the ‘Diccionario de la Real Academia,’” “Some things that people say in U.S. Spanish is ungrammatical,” “Spanglish is a random mishmash of English and Spanish and is destroying Spanish,” “The goal of Spanish teachers should be to eliminate ‘Spanglish’ and have students pass for monolingual.”

Professor Potowski then explained why these were all myths. To begin with, the U.S. is the second largest Spanish-speaking country. It’s impossible to be agrammatical when a whole community says it the same way, this is only possible with the first rule of grammar. Second, the first Spanish word was put in the dictionary on Sept. 30, 2012. Third, Spanglish is rule governed and there is code switching, word borrowings, extensions and calques.

People usually think of U.S. Spanish as ungrammatical because it’s not preferred. The reason why people who are fluent in both Spanish and English sometimes use both languages in a single sentence is because it is a marker of their identity. Sixty percent of the population is bilingual/multilingual and 20 percent of the bilinguals are in the U.S. Studies show that two-way bilingual is the better way to learn English and Spanish, they can also be better readers and speakers. Professor Potowski concluded the presentation by saying, “Respect the language and culture of U.S. Latino Communities.”

Contact author at jmorrow16@mail.wou.edu

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Activism through education

By: Ashton Newton
Entertainment Editor

Western Accessibility Awareness Month started off with a presentation from Dr. Kathleen Bogart, assistant professor of psychology at OSU, called “Looking Beyond Face Value: The Psychology of Disability and Ableism.”

Dr. Bogart opened with a discussion of what disability was and ways that society views it. She asked the audience to imagine a community where everyone had the same disability and how society would then view someone without that disability.

Dr. Bogart went into talking about facial expression disorders. Having facial paralysis herself, Dr. Bogart has had the drive to study the psychology behind facial paralysis for most of her life.

Dr. Bogart has conducted and published research studies using focus groups to try pinpointing the emotions of individuals with facial paralysis.

One goal is to raise public awareness of facial paralysis and moebius syndrome, to teach people to see past it. Dr. Bogart talked about the idea of activism through education. Part of this idea is Moebius Awareness Day on Jan. 24, a day dedicated to educating and spreading awareness about moebius syndrome, a rare condition that causes facial paralysis.

The take home message of the presentation was to be both a thoughtful and an adaptive communicator to everyone everyday.

Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu

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Get to know a major

By: Paige Scofield
Campus Life Editor

Maressa Milat, a junior, is working towards receiving a bachelor of science in community health with a minor in human biology. Although she didn’t come to Western for that specific major, she knew she wanted to come here. “I came to Western to attend a small school rather than a big state school,” Milat stated.

Originally Milat was going to major in nursing, but she didn’t like how competitive it was, so she switched her major to community health. “You can do so much with a major in community health,” she said. “There are a lot of careers available to someone educated in that field.” According to Western’s website, those fields include: medical care facilities, colleges and universities, public health settings, non-profit community health organizations, private businesses and building a foundation for beginning advanced/graduate level work.

“I’m thinking about taking more of a social worker job, that checks in on families, children and the elderly,” she said. “That’s something that I think is a really important job in our society.”

The community health major is described on Western’s website as a program that, “… prepares students to work with individuals, groups, and communities to promote health and prevent disease and disability. Students develop professional skills and competencies that include: assessing individual and community needs, planning and implementing health education programs, evaluating the effectiveness of health education programs, coordinating health education services, acting as a resource person for reliable and valid health information,advocacy and communication of health needs and information to multiple audiences in socially and culturally appropriate ways.”
When asked what her favorite course she had taken so far was, Milat replied, “Human sexuality is my favorite so far. I like how open everything is and there’s no judgement.” She added, “Most of our classes are taught in a lecture style, and our class size is fairly small, so it’s easy to communicate with other students and my professors, I like that a lot too.”

Contact the author at journalcampuslife@wou.edu

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Club spotlight: Black Student Union

By: Paige Scofield
Campus Life Editor

Student organizations are a very important part of a college education. They allow students to branch out and find their passions, as well as meet new people and make new friends. They teach students how to organize events and meetings as well as how to work as a team.

The Black Student Union is an organization on campus that is part of Western’s University Diversity Committee. Recently, they helped end Western’s MLK Celebration Week with a slam poetry event held in Café Allegro.

Courtney Briscoe, a senior psychology major, has been a part of the Black Student Union for three years and is now president of the organization.

“The Black Student Union is a student organization that works to promote diversity around campus as well as social issues. It is meant to be a fun and welcoming environment where all members of [Western] can go to to talk,” said Briscoe.

She wanted to be very clear that this club is not exclusive, “One thing I want people to know about BSU is that you do not have to be black to be a part of it. Being part of a small ethnic group here we like to see other members of the [Western] community attend. It’s nice to feel supported by our fellow peers.”

Black Student Union has meetings every Tuesday, located in the Klamath room of the Werner University Center at 4:00 p.m. Feel free to attend to learn more about Black Student Union and your fellow peers.

“BSU is important to me, because it gives me an environment to talk to people I identify with either ethnically or socially,” said Briscoe. “It’s a place where I feel welcomed and excited to go to every week! It’s a place where I feel I can talk about issues that are dear to me and the community I am a part of, without feeling like my opinion is invalid.”
To learn more information, visit Western’s website and search University Diversity Committee.

Contact the author at journalcampuslife@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.

“Out and Proud,” a time for the LGBTQ+ community to shine

Get to know a major: bachelor of science in exercise science

Bump, set, spike, slide

Don’t believe the myths, learn the facts

Activism through education

Get to know a major

Club spotlight: Black Student Union

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