Mount Hood

Championships will be held May 8-9 at McArthur Field in Monmouth

By Rachel Shelley
 Staff Writer
PHOTO BY RACHEL GOSNEY
PHOTO BY RACHEL GOSNEY

Wolves track divided into three separate meets this past week along Oregon and Washington.

The team brought home four individual titles at the Titan Twilight in Eugene, including a 1-2-3 sweep in the men’s 800-meter run and a provisional qualifying mark in the women’s javelin.

Badane Sultessa, Josh Hannah and Josh Dempsey finished 1-2-3 in the 800 in 1 minute, 51.67 seconds, 1:52.29 and 1:52.79. Dempsey set a career best and Hannah set his season best with these times. In the 1,500, another individual title came from David Ribich who won in 3:53.19, a career-best time. Kaleb Dobson would win the last individual title for the men in the 110-meter hurdles. This was his third title during the outdoor season, winning in 15.16 seconds.

For the women’s javelin, Shila Limas De La Cruz became the second Wolf to earn a NCAA Division II provisional mark with a 40.65-meter throw. She finished third overall in the meet and moved her up to eighth place in the GNAC rankings. Rebecca Laible would take home the last title winning the triple jump in 11.37.

In Bellingham, Washington all 10 athletes competing placed in the Top 10 in their events, set four lifetime personal bests and won the women’s shot put.

Emmi Collier won the shot put with 13.35, winning by two feet. Liable improved on her triple jump mark, increasing to 11.50, placing second in the event.

Kenny Klippel set a pair of lifetime records in the shot put and discus. His marks were also GNAC provisional marks of 14.32 and 43.25, respectively. Zach Holloway placed second overall in the 3,000 steeplechase with a lifetime record of 9:16.39. Jeremy Moore would throw towards two GNAC provisional marks in the discus and shot put with distances of 43.99 and 14.44, respectively.

Sam Moore would be the only Wolf to compete at the GNAC Multi-Event Championships, finishing eighth overall, a lifetime best with 4,048 points. She set lifetime best marks in the long jump with 4.95, earning her 546 points. In the javelin, she set a personal best with 31.36, earning 502 points. Her last lifetime best would come in the 800 when she ran 2:39.55 to earn her 578 points. This was a lifetime best by more than six seconds, concluding the heptathlon. Her point total was 66 points better than her previous lifetime best of 3,982 at the Mt. Hood Multis.

The Wolves compete at the Oregon State University High Performance meet and the Mt. Hood Track Festival before the GNAC outdoor Championships on May 8-9 in Monmouth.

Dr. Rex Fuller set to take over Western presidency

By Jack Armstrong
 News Editor

Western has announced Dr. Rex Fuller as the new president of the university, effective on July 1, 2015. Fuller will be taking over for president Mark Weiss, retiring June 30, 2015.

Weiss announced his retirement at the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic year and a committee was appointed to find his replacement. Members of the committee included representatives from the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, the Western board of trustees, and the president’s office.

Fuller was selected from a group of four finalists which also included Dr. Fernando Delgado, Dr. Margaret Madden, and Dr. Christopher Ames.

The four finalists were further vetted after their announcement on March 30. All of the candidates were interviewed both behind closed doors, and in an open-to-the-public, town hall style forum.

Once the interview process was completed, Western’s committee passed their recommendation for selection on to the OSBHE. The State Board voted Fuller in as the official replacement April 16.

Fuller received his undergraduate degree from California State-Chico, and proceeded to get his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Utah.

Fuller will begin his time as the 23rd Western president this summer by leaving his current position as provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Eastern Washington University, which he has held since 2010.

“Being a provost and serving as a vice president is a full time job,” Fuller said. “It can be all consuming.”

The transition to his new position is promising for Fuller, who said, “being a provost is almost exclusively an internal administrative job, but the presidency gives me a chance to work out and about on campus.”

While the title of president will be new, Fuller is no stranger to the administrative side of university life. He started his current carrier path serving as a full-time dean for more than 20 years at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Colorado State University.

Fuller has made his way to EWU, which has around 13,000 students, more than double the size of Western’s student body. Fuller said he believes that this smaller size can be advantageous to Western’s approach to recruitment.

“Western is small enough to have conversations with all of the faculty and students on a regular basis,” Fuller said. “But, we are still large enough to have the academic diversity of a regionally comprehensive university.”

Regionally comprehensive universities like Western typically offer a broad spectrum of academic programs from science to the liberal arts. They were originally created to service a specific region within a state, but always have more of a focus on teaching as supposed to research.

Western still remains a unique challenge for Fuller though, and he looks forward to expanding the university in any way he can.

“Western has the opportunity to draw students from throughout the I-5 corridor,” He said. “We have to make the case for why Western is the best choice, a very positive choice. We have to reach out to the community.”

Overall growth is a long term goal for Fuller; in the interim, he intends to focus on getting to know the new board of trustees that will take the place of the Oregon University System board here at Western.

“My first few months will be working with the new legislative board and getting to know my new team,” he said. “I think it’s an advantage to work with the new independent board; I’ve worked in both systems and the independent universities have more control over their own destinies.”

Fuller added: “I’ve always aspired to be a university president; it is the right moment for this opportunity for my wife and I, and we are really excited to have been selected. Western has a great tradition of success and excellence and we look forward to being a part of that.”

ASWOU election deadline extended

By Jenna Beresheim and Madison McCammon
 Staff Writer and Freelancer

This year’s ASWOU elections have seen low enough initial turnout rates to cause the original close date for the polls to be extended from Friday, April 24.

This extension was put in place until enough votes have been submitted to have a legal election. Speaking on Thursday, April 30, ASWOU elections director Cat Bracken said that “turnout has improved enough that the elections will officially be closed on Friday, May 1, 2015 at 3 p.m.”

“We technically passed the turnout percentage required for the elections to be legal as of Thursday,” Bracken said, “but we wanted to keep the polls open longer to increase student representation.”

“In order for the election to be valid, we need 10 percent of the student population [to vote]…As of Friday, we didn’t have the 10 percent,” Alyssa Little said, a third year community health major.

“In an election that only has roughly 5,000 eligible voters, every single vote can make a difference. Please vote and make your voice heard,” said Megan Habermann, assistant director of the student leadership and activities board.

She added, “If you want to see change or see things continue, make that opinion known. ASWOU cannot represent students fairly and accurately without their input and involvement.”

The current candidates and incumbents alike have increased their efforts to encourage students to vote. OrgSync has been a notable change to ASWOU elections this year as students are required to cast their votes through OrgSync rather than through the portal as in years past. OrgSync is a relatively new platform for Western.

Some have found OrgSync difficult to use to the extent that it has prevented votes. However, other students have found the process easy. “I honestly think that elections were extended due to the difficulty of voting through OrgSync,” Alyssa Brooke Chiampi said, a second year public policy and administration student.

Third year business major Dacota Ashwill, said that voting involved “too much work; it is just too much effort to use,” when talking about the switch to OrgSync as a platform for organizing other events and campus info.

“It was really difficult to get to the voting page, it is kind of a doozy to find,” Kyler Freilinger said, a first year Integrated Science and Teaching major.

“College students thrive for simplicity, and I believe OrgSync created a difficult barrier,” Chiampi said, who is also running for ASWOU president.

She added: “I think OrgSync is great, but it is not so great for students that have not had the OrgSync training provided by the student leadership activities board.” Conversely, some students reported little to no difficulty in voting through OrgSync.

“It was pretty simple to use,” Becca Hazel said, a third year community health major. Hazel added that she felt the process was “pretty fast,” for it being her first time using OrgSync.

Many students also reported difficulty in attempting to find information concerning the candidates and bills before making their decision.

This process has been particularly difficult for off-campus students, such as Allissa Phoenix, an ASL studies fourth year student.

“I feel like this year there were not as many advertisements attracting students to vote,” Phoenix said. “This is unfortunate, but as college students we have a lot going on and need reminders around campus to compel us to participate and inform us on the issues in question.”

As the elections have reached their required turnout, results will be reported in next week’s Journal issue as well as the ASWOU OrgSync page.

Breaking the Silence

Addressing sexual assault on campus
By Laura Knudson
 Editor-in-Chief

With national discussion building in response to the 89 colleges under investigation for mishandling sexual assault cases, one thing has become glaringly hard to ignore: sexual violence can happen anywhere.

Since the start of this school year, half a dozen sexual assault cases have been reported at Western, according to Dr. Gary Dukes, vice president of student affairs.

“So far we’ve had the most consistent amount of referrals we’ve ever had,” said Andrea Doyle Hugmeyer, assistant director of Abby’s House, a resource and referral center available to persons of any gender for a number of issues.

In previous years, Doyle Hugmeyer said reports were scattered, with some months yielding no reports. So far, Abby’s House has had weekly referrals from sexual assault survivors since fall term started.

In 2013, six reports of sexual assault were filed with Campus Public Safety, and seven anonymous reports were filed with the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs, according to Campus Public Safety’s published statistics, indicating that there may have been as many as 13 reported sexual assaults in 2013, or as few as six.

Although there is a rise in consistent reports already this year, it does not necessarily mean it’s happening more on campus. Doyle Hugmeyer said she hopes it means people are using Abby’s House as a resource more than before.

“I don’t know if people are reporting more because there is more support, but I think there is more awareness because of the culture,” said Nancy Minnick, Campus Public Safety Committee Scribe.

Students acknowledge sexual assault as a reality on campus. Whether it is sexual, verbal, or on social media, “assault happens here,” said Brittany App, Senior ASL major. “It happens everywhere.”

“Our campus doesn’t differ from anywhere else,” said Bryan Kelley, junior Humanities major.

Studies conducted since the 1980s have shown a consistent figure of one in four college women reporting that they survived either rape or attempted rape, at some point in their lifetime, according to oneinfourusa.org.

“Until that number is gone, it will always be an issue,” said Marissa Onshus-Womble, Advocate of Abby’s House.

A 2007 national rape study funded by the Department of Justice found 11 percent of college women who experience rape, report it to the police.

Rape is the least reported of all violent crimes according to a 2009 National Crime Victimization Survey.

DEFINING SEXUAL ASSAULT

In attempts to diminish sexual assault, the Obama administration launched their “It’s On Us” campaign in September, aimed at engaging men in prevention measures, effectively responding to assault by increasing transparency in the federal government’s effort to enforce laws.

However, campuses like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found students were unsure of what constituted sexual assault. An MIT survey showed 17 percent of female students fit the sexually assaulted description, but only 11 percent checked yes on the survey when asked if they had been.
Dukes said victims are not always sure if they have been assaulted.

According to Western’s sexual misconduct web page, sexual misconduct is defined as non-consensual sexual contact. Sexual contact includes “touching of any private body part, including, but not limited to genitalia, buttocks, anus or breasts of another or causing such person to touch genitalia, anus, buttocks or breasts of another.” It also includes attempts to have non-consensual sexual contact, the threat of such contact, sexual exploitation, emotional/psychological abuse, sexual harassment and stalking.

The webpage categorizes behavior non-consensual if “no consent is freely given, the person is substantially impaired by alcohol or drugs, or the person is otherwise without the physical or mental capacity to give clear consent.”
When it comes to consent, Abby’s House supports the “Yes means yes” campaign. “Yes means yes” legislation adopted in states like California, put the focus of sexual consent on mutually agreed-upon sexual activity. Consent is mutual and continuous and requires partners to pay attention to physical and emotional cues as well.

Verbal consent should be repeated often, said Onshus-Womble.
“Just because you consented one time doesn’t mean you will the next,” she added.

“And you have the right to change your mind,” said Jessica Fontaine, another advocate for Abby’s House.

Both said students should consent every step of the way whether it be kissing or having sex.

For students who may still be unsure of whether or not they were assaulted, Fontaine said it was simple.

“The difference between someone who was raped and someone who wasn’t is that the person who was raped was in the presence of the rapist,” she said. “That’s the only factor.”

THE SURVIVORS YOU DON’T HEAR ABOUT

When most people hear the word rape, they visualize a woman being assaulted by a man, Doyle Hugmeyer said. But there are other victims we fail to acknowledge.

Males can be sexually assaulted, as can persons in same-sex relationships.

One in six men are found to have experienced sexual assault before age 18 according to 1in6.org.

 

“Abuse and assault is linked with asserting power and trying to control power happens in various forms,” Doyle Hugmeyer said. “You can be assaulted by someone of any gender or any sexual identity.”

The reason we don’t hear about male sexual assault is because men are typically viewed as physically stronger and more powerful than women, Doyle Hugmeyer said. “To be sexually assaulted means that the victim is put in the position of being controlled,” which is something we associate more with women, she added.

When men report sexual assault it “basically feminizes them,” she said.

Similarly, one reason we may not hear about same-sex relationship violence, is due to the “the layer of additional stress and barriers because some people are homophobic,” said Doyle Hugmeyer.

Despite stigmas and myths that sexual assault only happens to women, students acknowledge that it can happen to everyone.

“I believe that men can and sometimes are sexually assaulted, be it by men or by women,” said Isaac Golden, Junior Psychology major.”

Jenna Beresham, senior ALS major agreed saying, “Anyone of any race, gender, sexuality and so forth can be sexually assaulted.”

“I think that there are a lot of men on our campus that share these beliefs in the sense that they want to see change happen,” said Doyle Hugmeyer.

SURVIVING IN A VICTIM-BLAMING CULTURE

Victim blaming culture refers to an attitude that the survivor is at fault for their assault because of their behavior.

Deborah Thompson, executive director of Sable House, an organization in Dallas, serving domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, said, commonly used excuses for assault include: “She shouldn’t have been wearing that low-cut blouse,” “She was out late,” and “She didn’t fight it off.”

“I absolutely do not think any girl alive has asked to be assaulted,” said Bridget Conklin, senior English major.
Yet, some feel clothing options do play a role.

“Sexual assault can be intensified by choice of clothing and is a factor, but if someone intends to sexually assault, it doesn’t matter what is being worn by others,” said Jennifer P., senior.

The drug enforcement agency of the Department of Justice lists alcohol as the number one most common used drug in sexual assault

Dress attire and alcohol consumption could be reasons why some colleges aim sexual assault education at risk reduction, teaching students how to be safe.

Doyle Hugmeyer says while discussions of risk reduction are important in terms of staying conscious of safety, instructing potential rape victims to dress more modest or drink less should not be the only way to address sexual assault. It takes responsibility off the perpetrator, she says, and can be difficult to identify when discussion boarders on blame, ultimately making things worse for survivors.

“It’s a hard line to identify and try not to cross,” she said. “On one end it’s important to acknowledge how to stay safe on campus. But if that’s the strongest method that prevails in our community, we aren’t doing it the right way.”
In terms of improving how sexual assault is addressed on campus, “Eliminating the victim-blaming culture is the biggest thing we can do that,” said Fontaine.

PUTTING FOCUS ON THE PERPETRATOR

Focus should be placed on “not raping,” Doyle Hugmeyer said, and focusing on the offenders.

“We get a lot of models of sexual behavior from the media and often times sexuality is tied to power and control,” she said. “So if we were to change the model to reflect different behaviors like getting consent every step of the way, that would be huge in seeing sexual assault diminish.”

Most importantly, “If a woman tells you she was sexually assaulted – believe her,” said Doyle Hugmeyer. “That’s a big step in putting the attention on the perpetrator. It means that we are validating the experience.”
These conversations have occurred for quite some time, said Doyle Hugmeyer. “I think now is an appropriate time to formalize the conversation and put things into action on campus.”

Combating assault with campus-wide conversation

A men’s social justice group is in the works for Abby’s House, lead by advocate Kevin Gutierrez, in attempts to start a conversational group, discussing topics related of masculinity and gender norms.

“The goal is to create a campus discussion, said Doyle Hugmeyer. “We hope that clubs emerge out of that group that would essentially do educational programming and activism related to meet these issues from a male ally standpoint.”

After receiving grants from the WOU foundation, advocates also put together a media campaign, creating sexual violence posters and informational video clips.

A phone app will also be available on iTunes in a few weeks, providing campus and community resources and information on what to do if you experience sexual violence.

Through Western’s Campus Against Sexual Assault grant (CASA) from the U.S. Department of Justice, Abby’s House is looking into funding a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. Doyle Hugmeyer said they would hire a “SAME” nurse on campus or in

Dallas to be available for “safe kits.” When a person is sexually assaulted they are able to seek a safe kit, which includes DNA swabbing, vaginal examination, urine samples and other forensic procedures.

“As of right now the closest nurse to do that is the Salem hospital,” Doyle Hugmeyer said, which can be a problem if the student does not have transportation.

In creating campaigns and starting discussion groups, the hope of Abby’s House is to create many opportunities for students to seek help. “It’s something every campus should be moving toward,” she said.

“Ideally we’d like to have an environment where sexual assault doesn’t happen,” said Dukes. “I generally feel like we are doing a good job, but clearly we can always do a better job.”

REPORTING SEXUAL ASSAULT

When asked what the first thing a victim should do after being sexually assaulted, Doyle Hugmeyer said, “It’s going to vary by victim, but go to a safe place.” She said this could be the counseling center, or to a member of the CARE team, a friend’s house or even to an Resident Assistant.

Abby’s House is also a place where victims can seek help from trained members in regard to referrals for sexual assault or just to come in and talk, Fontaine said.
The first step is confiding in a campus resource or someone you trust, Fontaine said. “We can’t have justice for our survivors if we don’t know that it happened to them.”

To report a sexual assault or seek help regarding sexual/domestic violence, contact Abby’s House at 503-838-8219, abbyshouse@wou.edu or stop by their location on the bottom floor of the Werner University Center, room 106. To file an official report for criminal action, call Campus Public Safety at 503-838-8481, or the Monmouth Police Department at 503-838-1109. To file a student conduct report, contact the WOU Office of Student Conduct at 503-838-8930.

IFC final decision sets fees for 2016 academic year

By Jack Armstrong
 News Editor

Below is the breakdown of student fees per term for the 2015-2016 school year. Students will pay $327 per term, which will be allocated to the following funded areas. The values listed below are based on the average of the projected enrollment for the 2015-2016 school year and the final decision from the IFC. Values were rounded up.

Screen shot 2015-04-24 at 3.33.09 PMAffordability for our students is paramount, and fundraising relieves the student body from increased cost to attend.”

Western’s incidental fee committee has had their proposed budget for the 2016 academic year officially approved by President Mark Weiss. This version of the budget is now set to take effect fall term of 2015-2016.

The IFC is a group of student leaders supervised by staff advisers. The only voting members of the process are the students who sit on the committee.

Incidental fees are collected separate from students’ tuition every term and are used for student clubs and activities that fall outside the realm of academics.

IFC voted through their final version of the budget Monday, Feb. 16. The proposal was then ratified by the Associated Students of Western Oregon University senate Wednesday, Feb. 18.

Once the budget was agreed upon by both student organizations, the decision was moved to President Weiss for final approval.

“I respect the diligence of the IFC members and the role of student senate in reaching a conclusion,” Weiss said. He approved the budget on first viewing within the five days allotted to him though the by-laws.

Now that the budget has been finalized by the administration, the per-term fee for 2015-2016 will increase $5 from 2014-2015 to $327, or $981 per year total.

This year’s decision was met with resistance from students and staff alike in departments who were chosen to take cuts. The athletics department received the heaviest cut, taking a 5 percent overall reduction in their budget.

Many student-athletes reacted angrily to this cut in the series of open hearings held by the IFC Thursday, Feb. 5, and Monday, Feb. 9. In fact, the majority of the students at the meeting were athletes looking to affect change in the committee’s course.

When Weiss was asked whether this turn-out had made his decision more difficult, he said, “I was made aware of certain changes to past funding levels, but I deferred to the democratic process in place.”

In addition to looking at a reduced budget, the athletics department also had some requested enhancements turned down.

Enhancements differ from the overall budgets because they are a one-term increase in funding for an organization to be put towards a specifically requested item.

The athletics department had been initially approved to receive a replacement on-field headset for the football program with a one-time enhancement priced at $43,712.

IFC decided to remove this enhancement in the final version of the budget in an attempt to keep the overall fee increase as low as possible.

During IFC’s presentation to the ASWOU senate Wednesday, Feb. 18, IFC member Jessica Hand said, “We have a responsibility to the entire student body to keep costs as affordable as possible, and any enhancements we approve should benefit as many students as possible.”

President Weiss said, “My experience has been that the approved budget is representative of views for those students that participate in the process, but the result may not necessarily represent the views of the student body as a whole.”

Similarly, IFC also decided against granting the enhancement that gives students free tickets to most of the school-run theater productions at Western.

“There wasn’t enough data provided by the department about student attendance to provide approval,” Hand said.

Now that the budget for next year is set, some clubs are already turning to fund raisers and other alternative forms of filling in the financial gaps.

Weiss believes that this approach is a good compromise and said, “I encourage all clubs to fundraise as much of the cost of their programs as possible.

2015 Pastega Award winners announced

By Jack Armstrong
News Editor

Western has announced the 2015 winners of the Pastega awards. Dr. Kevin Walczyk has been selected for the Excellence in Scholarship award and Dr. Maureen Dolan has been selected for the Excellence in Teaching award.

The Pastega awards are an annual honor given to two professors selected by students, faculty and the administration. According to Western’s website, the awards were created by “noted Oregon philanthropist Mario Pastega.”

Pastega donated to Western annually and part of that money was used to recognize educators who strove to push the students and the university to higher levels of excellence. The first recipients of the awards were honored in 1985, and it has been an annual ceremony since.

According to the Pastega Award website, the Pastega family made a $40,000 donation that was matched by the Oregon University System in 1997 to maintain the awards well into the future.

The Excellence in Teaching award is given to a professor who “engages, inspires and educates students to the greatest possible learning.”

The Excellence in Scholarship award is given to a professor who maintains “significant and enduring scholarly or creative achievement,” alongside their professorial duties. This can include ongoing research or publishing articles.

The decision on which professors will be honored is handled by the Pastega committee.

Chair of the committee Tom Bergeron said, “the work of choosing is done by the recipients from the two previous years,” in addition to a member of student government, and President Mark Weiss.

Last year’s winners were professor of history David Doellinger, awarded for Excellence in Scholarship, and the director of the writing center, professor of English Katherine Schmidt, was awarded for Excellence in Teaching.

The award is accompanied by a $1,000 honorarium.

Dr. Kevin Walczyk: Professor of Music

Dr. Kevin Walczyk grew up in a musically diverse family, and as a result he was exposed to an array of musical knowledge and styles from an early age.
This knowledge and exposure soon turned into a passion and he continued his musical pursuits throughout his time in college at Pacific Lutheran University and University of North Texas.

While attending university, Walczyk shifted his interests from playing and enjoying music to composition. Walczyk said that composition seemed “unexplored and invigorating.”

Upon his graduation, Walczyk looked for a way to translate and convey his passion for composition to the younger generation, which pushed him to move into teaching.

As a first generation college graduate for his family, Dr. Walczyk said he chose to teach at Western in 1995 largely because of its reputation for excellence in serving first generation college attendees such as himself.

He also said he expressed interest in helping to build Western’s fledgling music program, and as a result he was given the opportunity to help orchestrate program development. The chance to involve himself in the new program featuring modern music composition and jazz techniques was both challenging and intriguing.

Walczyk said, “I am not only training future musicians, I am training future teachers, future mentors, and future role models of our society who will pass on their passion to future generations.”

Speaking about the award itself Walczyk said “this is a very humbling honor, particularly when one considers the number of outstanding faculty on the WOU campus.”

Dr. Maureen Dolan: Professor of Sociology

Earning a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1993, Dr. Dolan specializes in Latin American studies, class analysis, state theory, and gender studies.

Having graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Maureen made her way to Western in the same year, and she began teaching a wide range of classes under her umbrella of specialties.

Many of these attribute back to her interest in Latin America, which stems from a study abroad opportunity in Chile taken during her own years as a student.

Being taught by exiled Brazilian scholars was just the start of an in-depth trip in the South American country. While there, Dr. Dolan immersed herself in the local customs and agriculture, collaborating with the Nicaraguan Ministry of Agriculture in regards to agrarian development.

In this case, agrarian development is a set of factors, including technological and economical, that may have an effect on agricultural practices.

In relation to the entire trip, Dolan said “it was important in my formation of an understanding of sociology as a discipline that is critical, public, and engaged in the practice of social justice.”

Today, Dr. Dolan lives in Salem with her family following the creation of a service-learning course known as the Latino Mentor Program in 1996. Through educational and community outreach like the mentor program, Latinos are helping areas in Oregon that are underserved.

This community movement can involve tutoring programs in schools locally, and now even internationally since the program has spread to Mexico, Nicaragua and Argentina. The groups working with the international segment of the program focus on incarcerated youth and even the LGBTQ community.

“It is also a great honor to work with WOU students who bring their energy and insight to the Latino Mentor Program,” Dolan said. “In the development and expansion of the program, I have listened to my students and followed their lead in identifying our involvement in community projects.”

Dolan said she considers the Pastega Award “a great honor to be recognized by the WOU community for developing a curriculum that links teaching, research and service in the Latino Mentor Program.”

Summary of Bills 1.15, 4.15, 6.15

In addition to the breakdown of ASWOU’s relationship with OSA and Oregon Senator’s Letter to the Editor, here is a summary of the amendments concerning ASWOU’s involvement with OSA:

 

Bill 1.15

Senate Bill 1.15 pertains to the operations of ASWOU and ASWOU senate, specifically the ASWOU president’s ability to use executive orders. Bill 1.15 would give the ASWOU president a broader scope in which to use executive orders, and it would modify the current standards for communication between the president and the senate when utilizing executive orders.

A vote of YES on Bill 1.15 would expand the ASWOU presidential power to use executive orders as explained above.

A vote of NO on Bill 1.15 would maintain current standards for use of executive orders by the ASWOU president.

Bill 4.15

Senate Referendum 4.15 asks the Western student body whether or not they want to maintain ties to the Oregon Student Association (OSA). OSA is a student-run organization that works with state legislators to increase the access to, and affordability of higher education in Oregon. Currently membership to OSA costs Western students a total of $28,839 per year, and the total will increase to $29,679 in the 2015-2016 academic year.

A vote of YES on Referendum 4.15 would end Western Oregon’s relationship with the Oregon Student Association.

A vote of NO on Referendum 4.15 would maintain Western Oregon’s relationship with the Oregon Student Association.

Bill 6.15

Senate Bill 6.15 proposes the creation of the ASWOU Representative Assembly. The ASWOU Representative Assembly would be a monthly gathering of student groups, clubs, and service departments (NonTrad, Veterans, etc.) to discuss issues and concerns around Western’s campus. These meetings are intended to address concerns of ASWOU interaction and representation of student groups and organizations.

A vote of YES on Bill 6.15 would create the ASWOU Representative Assembly.

A vote of NO on Bill 6.15 would maintain current ASWOU representation of student groups.