Mount Hood

ASWOU voter guide

Western students answer the question: “What is your favorite season and why?”

Camille Lenning | Entertainment Editor

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Spring term is election season for the Associated Students of Western Oregon University — Western’s student government. Campaign Week began on Monday, April 18 with a “meet the candidate” event in the Werner University Center Summit. On Thursday, April 21, there will be a candidate forum on Zoom at 5 p.m. Students will be able to vote starting April 25 until April 29 on Presence, through their Student Portal. 

In preparation for Campaign Week, candidates were asked why they decided to run and what they plan to do if elected, find their answers below: 

 

Candidates for ASWOU President:

 

Gheraldy Bobadilla-Cruz (he/him/his/el)

Major: education 

Current class standing: sophomore

 

A current ASWOU Senator, Cruz has wanted to run for President since he arrived at Western, and wants to give a voice to all students. 

“I’m running for ASWOU President because I believe (Western) is at a pivotal turning point when considering its future. I want to come in and work alongside our new President to help (Western) flourish in this new era… I will make sure that more support is given to all clubs and organizations here on campus. I will ensure that students are being fully appreciated and acknowledged for all the work they do to make (Western) a campus full of diversity and inclusion. It’s time to hold (Western) responsible as an institution to follow through and act on its statements of being a welcoming campus for all. It’s time to make (Western) more than just a school.”

 

Kodee Harwood (she/her/hers)

Major: communication studies 

Current class standing: junior 

 

Harwood has been interested in ASWOU since 2019, and hopes to bring clubs back in full force, while also working to improve accessibility. 

“I want to improve campus and campus culture. … There’s always room for improvement and I’d like to start improving (Western) and make students feel safe on campus and proud that they go to (Western). … If I get elected ASWOU president my office will always be open to any student(s) that have concerns or questions and I will try my best to make change happen and try to support you as best I can.”

 

Candidates for ASWOU Vice President:

 

Hunter Hall (he/him/his)

Major: mathematics

Current class standing: senior

 

As a student government veteran, Hall aims to use his skills to amplify student voices, with an emphasis on safety. 

“I’m running for ASWOU Vice President for a couple of reasons. The first and most important to me is I want to find ways to improve the safety of our campus. I want to do this while also addressing accessibility issues that students face here. … I have (four) years of experience within student government where I’ve worked in various leadership positions. During that time I have been able to learn a lot about what it means to be the student voice. I plan to use my experience to act as that bridge that connects the (Western) staff and students (together).”

 

Owen Hubers (he/him/his)

Major: business 

Current class standing: junior 

 

Passionate about club engagement, Hubers (pictured left) hopes to connect students through Discord and improve event planning. 

“I want voters to know that I am listening to literally everything they say and will work my very hardest to make sure college life at (Western) is the best it can possibly be. I will use every last resource we have to help students here thrive. I will always want to and be willing to talk with any student or anybody at all who is willing to provide me with feedback. I will do the best I can to work with the various members of ASWOU and (Western) as a community. I will do my best … to solve current or future problems and implement new resources or improve existing resources.”

 

Candidate for Senate President:

 

Connor Goehring (he/him/his)

Major: ASL studies and education

Current class standing: sophomore

 

As Residence Hall Association President, Goehring aims to use his leadership skills to improve communication and make campus better for students. 

“There is so much inequity here at (Western) and I don’t plan on trying to fix the broken system we have in place right now, but to rewrite the whole system entirely to make a better, working system that supports our students. … I’m qualified to make a difference and be the advocate you need to make (Western) a safe and inclusive environment for the (campus’s) diverse community.”

 

Candidate for Senate:

 

Samy Reyes (he/him/his)

Major: business

Current class standing: sophomore 

 

As a new student at Western, Reyes hopes to use the Senate position to gain experience in student government. 

“I would like to be further involved in our school and the community of our students. I believe it is a civic responsibility as students to be engaged and involved in our school’s topics and issues. I seek to hear student’s thoughts and concerns on our campus, as I am going to be a voice that represents them. I run for the senate not only to gain experience, but to work towards new policies that will benefit the interests of our fellow students.”

 

Candidate for Judicial Administrator:

 

Coral Davis (she/they)

Major: education 

Current class standing: first-year

 

A PLUS Team member and WOU Ambassador, Davis is excited to bring leadership experience to ASWOU and work with the Justices. 

“My goal for when I am elected for Judicial Administrator is to create a more inclusive campus. I feel that accommodations for students are not being followed through. I also want to try and bring more awareness to all of the clubs that we have on campus as well as bring light to all (of) what our university has to offer to its new and current students.” 

 

Candidate for Incidental Fee Committee Member:

 

Dennis Long (he/him/his)

Major: information systems 

Current class standing: senior 

 

As an IFC Chair, Long was able to work on the IFC Funded Areas web page, allowing anyone to see who received funding and why. 

“I hope to help organize a better training schedule so that new IFC members can feel prepared to make these difficult decisions. There are changes to be made in the bylaws to make this process smoother, and I hope to actively engage in supporting the future of IFC and (Western)! After serving as IFC Chair this year, I discovered that there were many different student voices feeling left out or ignored. As the IFC, we did what we could to ensure that those voices were heard through anonymous forms and Open Hearings. I did my best to reach out to students and tried to forward their feedback to IFC.” 

headline: Recap of 2022 Masters

A summary of the Masters golfing tournament

Mollie Herron | News Editor

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu

The 2022 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Course in Augusta, Georgia finished up on Sunday, April 10. Here are the most notable things that happened at the tournament.

25-year-old Scottie Scheffler won the tournament with ten under-par claiming his first major title. He not only received the priceless green jacket but a record setting $2.7 million from the $15 million purse.

Rory McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, finished second with a score of negative seven. He took home $1.62 million from the purse. McIlroy started the final round at 1 over and 10 strokes behind Scheffler in ninth place. He kicked it into high gear and shot a front-nine 32 and ended the back-nine with an incredible hole out from the bunker leaving him with a score of 64.

Not long after McIlroy’s bunker shot, Collin Morikawa ended the eighteenth hole with his own chip-in bunker shot. Morikawa ended with a total tournament score of four under-par in fifth place.

Tiger Woods made a strong comeback after his car accident in 2021 that almost cost him his leg. He pushed through and played the full 72 holes despite his noticeable limp, finishing No. 47 overall with a score of 13 over par. The injuries he sustained did not seem to affect his swing much, but changed the way he moved through the course and followed his ball. Woods has won five green jackets and this weekend was about his comeback rather than winning the tournament.

Once a golfer wins the Masters tournament they win an invite back for every future year. So, with this win, not only did Scheffler bring home a new jacket and millions of dollars, but the opportunity to bring more home in the years to come. The 87th US Masters will be held in Augusta again between April 6 – 9, 2023.

Fields of Peace founder visits Western

Peace organization’s founder Charles Busch speaks on topics of nonviolence

Camille Lenning | Entertainment Editor

Content warning: this article discusses war and violence. 

Charles Busch, founder and executive director of the organization Fields of Peace, gave a presentation about the importance of nonviolence in the Health and Wellness Center on Feb. 17. Joined by the organization’s former board chair and current treasurer Rod DeLuca, Busch spoke about Fields of Peace and their mission to “stop the killing of children in wars” and push for lasting world peace. 

Busch began the session with a story originally attributed to Kim Stafford, an award-winning Oregon poet and conscientious objector to the Vietnam War.

The story centers on a boy that is revealed to be Stafford’s father, William, who — when faced with school bullies attacking two African American students — puts himself in harm’s way to stand by the victims in a peaceful show of support. 

Much of Busch’s presentation centered around the principles of personal transformation, moral persuasion and sacrifice — the building blocks to peace. 

Personal transformation begins when an effort is made to commit to peace. Busch’s own personal transformation began as he looked for peace vows that fit his personal, spiritual and religious needs. Eventually, he made the choice to write his own, and read a select few aloud from his book, “soft as water.” 

Moral persuasion comes when peacemakers implore others to take up peace work. Sacrifice, as Busch explained, is the hard part. 

Sacrifice in the name of peace requires one to prove they are dedicated to nonviolence, even under threat of violence. When speaking of sacrifices made in the name of peace, Busch referenced great peace advocates such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Fields of Peace created their vow called “Promise to Our Children” to uphold their mission. This promise was drafted by Busch when he founded Fields of Peace. He explained in his presentation that as war has evolved over the decades, the ratio of casualties between civilians and combatants has shifted from one civilian per nine combatants to nine civilians per one combatant. 

The majority of these civilian deaths are children, hence the need for such a pledge. Each member of the organization takes the following vow, as well as any who wish to live by the words. 

“I will not be a part of the killing of any child no matter how lofty the reason. Not my neighbor’s child. Not my child. Not the enemy’s child. Not by bomb. Not by bullet. Not by looking the other way. I will be the power that is peace.” 

Great peacemaking work continues to be an important part of making the world a better place. To learn more about Charles Busch and Fields of Peace, go to the organization’s website at fieldsofpeace.org. 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu 

Food Drive Donations Begin

WOU Food Pantry holds food drive across Monmouth and Salem campuses

Mollie Herron | News Editor

Looking to give back or get help from the campus community? The WOU Food Pantry is accepting food donations in large white barrels all around campus labeled with “WOU Food Pantry.” Students can also head to the Food Pantry in person, located in the Welcome Center by the courtyard entrance.

The donated food can be accessed by all members of the community and is not limited to students. No identification is required to use the service, it is only asked that one takes only what they need so that all visitors can have access. The food available is supplied solely from donations, so there is no guarantee that everyone will be able to grab the food they prefer. 

Donors of the Food Pantry include the Marion Polk Foodshare, which is a food bank that can be donated to in Salem, and other donations are collected from the Monmouth-Independence area.

For community members who do not need the service, or cannot donate food items, the pantry is run by volunteers and anyone is encouraged to donate their time. Volunteers have the option to sign up for one time shifts or can sign up for repeating shifts throughout the entire term. It is a great way to earn service hours or to add to one’s resume.

As well as being a place for people to pick up and donate food, the Food Pantry assists with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Money for Meals. Signing up for SNAP, also known as food stamps, can be a confusing process to go through, and the Food Pantry can assist in that process. Money for Meals is a Western program for students with a need for food that cannot be met through the Food Pantry. For any student or person in need of food assistance, the Food Pantry can help.

Give back to the community and donate time or food so that everyone can thrive. The Food Pantry is always taking donations.

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

WOU scavenger hunt

I traveled to the city for spring break and this is what happened

Cole Boeck | Copy Editor

Contact the author at howlcopyeditor@wou.edu

Western’s Board Game Club has started a scavenger hunt that encourages students to explore around campus and learn about different resources. Co-hosted by the Residence Hall Association, Star Trek Club and ASL Club, this event is composed of two sessions. The sessions are divided into weeks, starting on Mondays and ending Sundays, with new clues and puzzles introduced each week.
The first session runs through weeks one through three of spring term and the second session will run through weeks six through eight.
In addition to the physical scavenger hunts in which participants search for clues on campus, there is a virtual version for those who are remote. The virtual hunt encourages students to learn about which resources are accessible online. Each week has a different set of puzzles which can be found at bapac.club.
Week one included five individual puzzles, covering a wide range of genres including sudoku, jigsaw and nonograms. The event is ongoing and has prizes at the end for student participants, though staff and faculty are also encouraged to take part. This event provides fun trivia and an opportunity to learn more about Western’s campus. Take a breather and solve some puzzles.

Stitch Closet reopens

Western’s Stitch Closet makes a grand re-opening for spring term

Mirella Barrera-Betancourt | Staff Writer

Contact the author at howlstaffwriter@wou.edu

The Stitch Closet on campus continues to provide students with the basic human resources needed for graduation since its opening in 2021. Despite the challenges the organization has faced in recent times, they will continue to persevere and thrive. 

In February of winter term, the Stitch Closet found itself having to close temporarily due to the lack of equipment needed to care for and clean their stock. However, with the help of tenacious volunteers and the Western community, the Stitch Closet was able to make a valiant re-opening — and it’s bigger and better than ever.

Contributing by volunteering for the Stitch Closet worked in an orderly, collaborative fashion. Students wishing to help could do so by signing up for a designated appointment slot, where they were able to come in and retrieve bags of clothing to take home to wash in their own space.

“It really took a village,” said Sofie Fashana, second-year student at Western and creator of the Stitch Closet. “At some point we ran out of clothes to distribute and people were still coming in because they signed up to pick up clothes.” 

Fashana also gave thanks to Katherine Schmidt, professor of writing and Writing Center director at Western. Schmidt helped immensely with the process by sending out emails to the Western community and collecting volunteers to not only wash and dry clothes, but also to help fold, sort and organize them so they were ready to be on display.

“We had 48 people sign up within 48 hours,” said Fashana on the number of volunteers to help sort and display clothes. “That is amazing.”

In the end, the community effort that it took to reopen the Stitch Closet turned out to mean much more for students as it also served the purpose of forming bonds.

“There was a lot of friendship that was built among that interaction … We saw something a lot bigger than ourselves,” said Fashana.

The Stitch Closet is co-located with the Food Pantry in the Welcome Center on the Western campus, room 165. Although the Stitch Closet is open, it is not currently accepting donations. Students can visit the Stitch Closet’s instagram at @stitchcloset.wou to remain updated on future operating hours for spring term and on when donations open up to the community, as well as volunteering opportunities.

Free Coffee Offered in the Library

Free coffee takes the place of the Press cafe in the library

Mollie Herron | News Editor

When studying in the Hamersly Library, many students notice the run down cafe in the far north side of the first floor. The Press cafe was a place for students in the library to order coffee, pastries and sandwiches, but has been closed for quite some time. Because of this closure, there are limited places for students to buy coffee on campus. 

“It’s a funding issue, it’s not that anybody wanted the cafe to close,” Chelle Batchelor, dean of library and academic innovation said. “In fact, all of us on campus would really love to have it reopen.”

Due to the decrease in the number of students on campus, Hamersly Library does not have the funds to support the cafe. Fortunately, Caffe Allegro is still open and only a short walk away from the library. For students looking to get their caffeine fix after Caffe Allegro’s closing hour of 2 p.m., the library will be offering free coffee from 2 – 6 p.m. every week Monday through Friday.

Unfortunately, the free coffee cannot be given out until after Caffe Allegro closes so that there is no competition between the two. As much as everyone wishes free coffee could be offered at all times, there is the assumption that it would slow business and cause a negative result for both locations.

For those looking to support the library and help with upkeep as well as support future endeavors, donations to the Hamersly Library Dean’s Fund are always welcomed. These donations will help keep the library clean as well as provide funds to buy new materials and support the existing ones. With more donations, the library will also get the opportunity to award more scholarships to students that have earned it.

Donating is encouraged because it helps keep campus accessible and up to date for students, but if it is really only for the coffee, that is perfectly acceptable too.

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Looking for a place to get your booster?

Places you can get your booster shot in and around Monmouth

Mollie Herron | News Editor

Western hosted a vaccine clinic on Feb. 11 at Gentle House to give students who needed it their COVID-19 booster shot. They offered Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for any student who met the requirements for each.

For students who have not yet received their booster and are still looking for where to do so, here are some local vaccine clinics that will be popping up soon.

On Feb. 25 the Oregon Child Development Coalition will be hosting a clinic from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.

Also on Feb. 25 Western will be hosting a clinic at Gentle House from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. There will be another clinic at Gentle House on March 4 from 2 – 6 p.m. 

If those times are still hard to make, the best thing to do is schedule an appointment at a local pharmacy. Some popular spots include Walgreens, Rite Aid or Safeway. New clinics and events are being announced every day, so keep an eye out for what works with individual schedules.

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Mask Mandate Soon to Be Lifted in Oregon

Oregon’s mask mandate may be lifted earlier than expected, according to OHA

Mirella Barrera-Betancourt | Staff Writer

Big news may be coming to Oregon in response to recent COVID-19 safety updates. According to a data scientist at Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon could be reaching their threshold for lifting the indoor mask mandate very soon.

As of now, Washington and New Mexico have become some of the latest states to drop their COVID mask mandate for indoor and school environments. The Oregon Health Authority has the current mask mandate in Oregon scheduled to be lifted on March 31. However, according to various sources, this day might arrive sooner than expected. Some even speculate that it may occur before St. Patrick’s Day. 

The news became live after an observance of omicron cases and hospitalizations dropping across the state, as well as nationwide. As a result, the United States may no longer be considered to be in a state of “constant crisis.” 

According to OHA, in order for the mask mandate to be lifted, the state needs to be at 400 or fewer total cases of COVID hospitalizations. As of Feb. 22, hospitalizations have fallen to below 600 cases in Oregon, beating the rough estimate for March 4 by a week and a half.

“OHA will continue to monitor the trend and consider lifting the indoor mask requirement for public places earlier than March 31 if the number of hospitalizations decreases to 400 earlier,” said Oregon’s state epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger. 

If the statewide mask mandate were to be lifted, it would mean the removal of masks for all regardless of vaccination status. Before this mask mandate is lifted, Western and OHA remain adamant in their encouragement for all citizens to wear their masks indoors and outdoors.

Contact the author at howlstaffwriter@wou.edu

Hamersly Library introduces Peer Advocates

Western’s Hamersly Library introduces new student staff on the team, Peer Advocates

Mirella Barrera-Betancourt | Staff Writer

Hamersly Library is committed to providing a secure and welcoming environment where students can feel safe during all hours of operation. 

Earlier this year, Hamersly Library announced the inauguration of their new staff group, the Peer Advocates. This new student employee position was tasked with serving as student advocates in a peer leadership role, particularly in the evening and weekend hours when full-time staff are unavailable. 

According to Hamersly Library, the need for Peer Advocates arose due to several factors, primarily caused by campus wide cutbacks brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. In September of 2020, many staff members had to be laid off based on seniority. Before the pandemic, the library was completely student-run which provided its own challenges since services were also being provided for members of the local community.

In addition to these issues, the library heard conversations detailing concern and a sense of vulnerability among patrons, primarily students, during the 2020 – 21 academic year.

“We confirmed that late night hours and weekend hours were important in terms of study space, but also that students considered basic library services sufficient during those hours with referrals to daytime staff when necessary,” said Janeanne Rockwell-Kincanon, the public service librarian at Hamersly Library. “From our graduating student employees, we heard that while those student-staffed hours were mostly quiet, there were occasions when having a clear leader designated would be beneficial.”

From 5 p.m. to midnight on weekdays and during weekend hours, Peer Advocates will function as the “lead” student employees for students coming in and out of the library. They will not serve as supervisors to their peers, but rather as coordinators and a resource for students’ needs and concerns. 

While the Peer Advocate position is still a work in progress, with time only dictating future enrichment, the staff are committed to improving quality of service through the collaboration of ideas and showcasing their own individual strengths.

“Loki (Lyrix-Astyriel) is fluent in ASL, so I’m pleased that our Deaf and Hard of Hearing patrons have someone with whom they can fully communicate,” said Rockwell-Kincanon.

Meanwhile, Saysha Breitmeyer has experience in working with the Math Center, and Jaelynn Cocker has worked for the library since even before the pandemic. Students visiting Hamersly can find the three Peer Advocates doing their rounds wearing their new Peer Advocate white jackets.

Contact the author at howlstaffwriter@wou.edu

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