Mount Hood

ASWOU Elections Update

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

ASWOU elections were upon Western’s campus once more the week of April 18 with booths and multiple events lined up throughout the week to draw in voters.

“This year we had seven events on campus ranging from campus-focused to residence Screen Shot 2016-04-25 at 7.13.26 PMhall-focused. These events provided a grueling schedule for those of us running them, but it has been more than worth it seeing the students get involved,” said Jenesa Ross, a senior biology major and Judicial Administrator for ASWOU, as well as the current Elections Committee Chair.

“There are a lot more people running and even more of them voting this year,” said Jaime Hernandez, a sophomore political science major, and candidate for ASWOU president.

“There were more votes by Tuesday this year than there were all week in last year’s [election],” said Cynthia Olivares, a sophomore early childhood education major. Olivares is also running for vice president of ASWOU this year.

There are nine candidates overall this year, and the 10 percent minimum requirement for voting had already been surpassed by Thursday.

“I think some of these will be close races,” said Ross, “several opposing candidates are working very hard to get their name out there to the students.”

Endangered English Majors

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

Western Oregon University’s English department has seen a rapid decline in English majors within the last few years.

In 2010, there were a recorded 137 English majors, which soon dwindled down to a meager 56 this year. Out of those 56 there are 25 recorded seniors, with only 10 seniors applied to graduate at the end of this term.

An average English major graduates from Western with 211 credits, an additional 31 credits than needed, which is the equivalent of having another year of study.

A team of professors within the department is aiming to pinpoint the cause behind dwindling numbers in the program.

Dr. Thomas Rand, Dr. Cornelia Paraskevas, Dr. Katherine Schmidt, and Dr. Carol Harding are a few of the members interested in improving sign-up rates within the English degree focus.

“Our numbers in English are down, and we’re trying to survey why interest is so low,” said Harding, the Humanities Division Chair.

“If anyone who reads this chose not to take an English major route, we would gladly listen as to why that happened,” continued Harding.

A survey was sent out within the first week of Spring Term to English-focused classes and asked questions regarding which students were English majors, when they had become these majors, and so on.

“In my current Writing 230 class, I only have 5 English majors,” said Schmidt, professor and Writing Center director.

Schmidt reported that most of her students were writing minors or students outside of the discipline seeking to fulfill their writing intensive requirements.

“Too many of my students don’t know the answers to basic questions like how many upper-division credits are required to graduate. This is one area that impacts English majors who are transfers because the 41-credit core requirement includes only 9 upper-division credits. This puts transfer students at a great disadvantage, especially when they must also complete 2 years of lower-division foreign language as part of the BA requirement,” said Schmidt.

Speculation around the cause falls into a few categories, and in turn may be a combination of all of them.

“I think part of it is in the decline in the market for English teachers,” Harding said, “but people associate the major with teaching only – there are so many other things out there that you can use it for.”

“I believe advising may be one root of the problem. We love our program and students, but we can do better,” admitted Schmidt.

“I was trying to get into [ENG] 318 [Contemporary Literary Theory] for several terms, but it was always offered during an upper division class I also needed, so I always had to choose,” said Emily Walley, a fifth year double degree major in English and history.

The English department hopes to not only trim down students’ time within the program to get them back on track to graduate in four years, but also boost the advising process to eliminate any confusion connected with degree requirements.

If you have any feedback for the English department pertaining to issues addressed within this article, please contact them at 503-838-8258, or email Dr. Thomas Rand at randt@wou.edu

Contact the author at Jberesheim11@wou.edu or on Twitter @WOUjournalnews.

Clinton wants to “get to the bottom” of the alien conspiracy

By: Jamal Smith
Sports Editor

Are we alone in the universe? Are extraterrestrials visiting our planet? What may seem like script from a science fiction movie are actually serious questions posed by many Americans. Well, fear not, Hillary Clinton just announced that if elected president, she will “get to the bottom” of the alien conspiracy.

It’s no secret that the government keeps things from the American public, either to protect the national security of the nation, or because the people in charge believe that the American public can’t handle the truth. However, recent comments made by Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and by Clinton herself, suggest that Clinton believes that the American public can indeed handle the truth.

Posada, who heads Clinton’s presidential campaign, was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on April 7 if Clinton would release information concerning Area 51 and UFOs if she were elected into office.

“What I’ve talked to the secretary about, and what she’s said now in public, is that if she’s elected president, when she gets into office, she’ll ask for as many records as the United States federal government has to be declassified, and I think that’s a commitment that she intends to keep and that I intend to hold her to,” answered Podesta.

When Tapper asked Posada if he had personally seen UFO documents during his time serving as the White House Chief of Staff, Posada tip-toed around the question and responded by stating, “President Clinton asked for some information about some of those things, and in particular, information about what is going on at Area 51. But I think that the U.S. government could do a much better job in answering the quite legitimate questions that people have about what’s going on with unidentified aerial phenomenon.”

Clinton has also recently commented on the issue, and given hope to conspiracy theorists. In an interview in late December with a New Hampshire reporter from the Conway Daily Sun, Clinton was asked about her husband’s comments on national television where he said, “If we were visited [by aliens] someday, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

She responded by stating, “I think we may have been [visited already]. We don’t know for sure.” Clinton also pledged to “get to the bottom of it.”

Then, on March 24, Clinton appeared as a guest on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Kimmel, who has asked both Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton questions pertaining to UFOs, asked Clinton if she would be more successful than her husband in attempting to find and release government documents concerning UFO’s.

“I would like to go into those files and, hopefully, make as much of that public as possible,” said Clinton. “If there’s nothing there, let’s tell people there’s nothing there. If there is something there, unless it’s a treat to national security, I think we ought to share it with the public.”

Contact the author at jsmith15@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalsportWOU.

Baby, I got your money

By: Alvin Wilson 
Staff Writer

Many students today are only able to attend college with the help of student loans. But what would happen if the students borrowing that money weren’t able to pay it back?Screen Shot 2016-04-17 at 10.05.42 PM

According to a recent article published by the Wall Street Journal, more than 40 percent of people with student loans are either behind on payments or have received permission to postpone payments.

Roughly 16 percent of those people have defaulted on their student loans, meaning they have gone at least 270 days without making a payment.

John Leadley, professor of economics at Western, is critical of the numbers in the article because of the nature of student loans. Because of this, he said the percentages may be inflated.

“When you say there’s a high percentage of people who aren’t paying, that’s going to be a higher percentage than it is for virtually any other kind of loan,” said Leadley. “These are loans that they never take off the books.”

Unlike other kinds of loans, Leadley said, student loans don’t disappear.

“If you have a car loan and you stop paying, at some point they’re just going to write it off,” he said. “They’re going to recover what they can by taking back your car, and that loan is now history. If you declare bankruptcy, that loan can be wiped out. Student loans never go away.”

Leadley said that the accumulated bad history of student loans, which goes back much further than the history of other loans, can inflate the number.

Something else that inflates the number is the prevalence of predatory lending in for-profit institutions.

According to a report by the Brookings Institution, an organization that reports on economic activity, 13 of the 25 institutions where students hold the most debt are for-profit.

“What you hear the most about in the news are these student loans from for-profit institutions,” said Leadley. “If you’re applying for a student loan, the lender doesn’t ask if it makes sense for you in any way.”

Leadley said he thinks the predatory lending habits of for-profit institutions contribute to the problem.

“Part of it is the for-profit side seeing this as money for them, and not really caring if the student is ever going to get a job to pay it back,” he said. “If I’m lending money, and the federal government guarantees that I’ll get my money back if the student defaults, what incentive do I have to check?”

Western has one of the lower student loan default rates for Oregon universities, according to Collegemeasures.org, coming in at 6.1 percent. That puts us between University of Oregon (4.4 percent) and Southern Oregon University (8.7 percent). We’re a long way from being in danger.

Leadley still thinks Western students should start looking at loans in a way that reduces their odds of being in the 43 percent of non-payers.

“If I was a student, I would want to ask myself what the implications of taking out that much debt for my degree are,” said Leadly. “Get good career and academic advising. Do research about potential salaries. Ask yourself what your loan payments might be like. Take those things into consideration.”

Contact the author at awilson15@wou.edu or on Twitter @awilsonjournal.

Microsoft’s AI chatbot ‘Tay’ turned into a PR disaster

 
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By: Jamal Smith 
Sports Editor

Microsoft unveiled its Twitter chatbot called Tay on March 23. According to the company, Tay was created as an experiment in “conversational understanding.” The more Twitter users engaged with Tay, the more it would learn and mimic what it saw. The only problem: Tay wound up being a racist, fascist, drugged-out asshole.

Microsoft designed Tay to mimic millennials’ speaking styles; however, the experiment worked a little too efficiently and quickly spiraled out of control. The artificial intelligence debacle started with an innocent and cheerful first tweet of, “Humans are super cool!” However, as time went by, Tay’s tweets kept getting more and more disturbing.

Some of the offensive tweets were the direct effect of Twitter users asking the chatbot to repeat their offensive posts, to which Tay obliged. Other times, Tay didn’t need the help of social media trolls to figure out how to be offensive. In one instance, when a user asked Tay if the Holocaust happened, Tay replied: “it was made up ?.” Tay also tweeted, “Hitler was right.”

Tay had some things to say on the presidential candidates as well. One tweet said, “Have you accepted Donald Trump as your lord and personal saviour yet?” Another of Tay’s tweets read, “ted cruz would never have been satisfied with ruining the lives of only 5 innocent people.”

24 hours into the experiment, Microsoft took Tay offline and released this statement on their web site: “We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay.”

“Tay is now offline and we’ll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values,” the statement concluded.

Then, a few days later, Microsoft put Tay back online with the hopes that they had worked out the bugs; however, it soon became clear it didn’t work when she tweeted, “kush! [I’m smoking kush in front of the police].” Microsoft immediately pulled her offline and set her profile to private.

So, what does the Tay experiment teach us about the current human condition? Tay wasn’t programed to be a racist or a fascist, but rather mimicked what it saw from others. While some people believe that Microsoft’s experiment was a success because Tay effectively mimicked and interacted with other users, others view it as a complete failure because the experiment quickly spiraled out of control.

Contact the author at jsmith15@wou.edu or on Twitter @woujournalsport

Arbor Day Traditions take Root

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

The Arbor Day Foundation boasts Western Oregon University as one of five Oregon campuses to be declared and certified as a Tree Campus USA award recipient. In order to be awarded, five standards must be met.

These five standards are: a campus tree advisory committee, campus tree care plan, campus tree program with dedicated annual expenditures, Arbor Day observance, and a service learning project. Western’s University Tree Advisory Committee is led by Paul Finke, who started off the ceremony at noon.

The committee gathered together for the Arbor Day observance on April 8 and consisted of staff and students alike. The large group clustered near the north entry to campus and listened as Kristin Ramstad of the Oregon Department of Forestry presented her thoughts on trees on campuses, as well as the poem “When I am among the trees” by Mary Oliver.

From there, Ramstad introduced President Rex Fuller and awarded the campus with the Tree Campus USA award. In commemoration of the event, and Arbor Day 2016, a sugar maple tree was planted by the members of the committee.

Next, the group was led around campus to three specific legacy trees out of the total 11 on campus. At each tree, a student presenter explained which tree it was, the scientific names, and some fun facts such as whether the tree was poisonous or endangered.

First seen was a black walnut tree at the northern entry, which Kylee Wiser, a fifth year biology major, explained had often had it’s bark chewed on by Native Americans wishing to alleve toothaches.

The second tree, a Southern catalpa, was located in the Grove near Ackerman. Phillip Van Ginkle, a fifth year psychology major, explained that although the roots were poisonous, the fruit and leaves were not.

“I can attest to that – I had one in my yard when I was growing up, and I would always taste the seeds. They taste awful, but they’re not poisonous. I would not recommend trying it,” said Ginkle.

The tour ended at a petunia tree behind The Cottage, where light refreshments were served as Kathrine Stender, a third year Horticulture major, spoke about the tree and why the Arbor Day event is so important.

“The use of trees on campus for not only beautification, but learning, shows that their presence is vital to the school,” said Stender.

Contact the author at jberesheim11@wou.edu or on Twitter @woujournalnews

Independence man arrested after standoff

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By: Conner Williams 
Editor-in-Chief

An Independence man was arrested on multiple charges last weekend after a nearly six hour standoff between police authorities in Independence.

49-year-old James Michael Munoz was taken into custody just after 5 a.m. at a residence on 6th Street near Monmouth Street, six hours after officers were originally dispatched the night before.

Munoz entered the residence when officers arrived and refused to come out, according to a statement by the Independence Police Department.
Neighborhood residents were notified and evacuated in preparation for a response from the Salem SWAT team.

Munoz eventually came out and was taken into custody without incident. He was taken to the Polk County Jail pending charges of Unlawful Use of a Weapon, Menacing, Coercion, Fourth-Degree Assault, and Reckless Endangerment.

The Salem Police Department, Monmouth Police Department, Polk County Sheriff’s Office, and the Dallas Police Department all assisted on scene.

Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalEIC

Graduation Checklist

hat tossing ceremony at graduation

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor
  1. Order your graduation supplies (gowns, caps, frames, etc.) by May 13th from Western’s Bookstore.
  2. Make sure all graduation documents and fees have been taken care of by now by contacting the Registrar office.
  3. Review your Degreeworks to make sure everything is order and accounted for (substitutions, exceptions, etc.)
  4. By Week five of Spring Term, reply to the email sent out regarding necessary name changes on diplomas.
  5. By Week 10, you will be asked to submit your diploma mailing address.
  6. If planning a party afterwards, reserve places and send out announcements at least a month in advance. Monmouth and surrounding areas are small and may fill up fast!
  7. Plan out extra graduations you may be interested in participating in, such as Lavender Graduation or Black Graduation, as some require you to contact them rather than the other way around.

Below are a few tips and tricks from WOU alumni:
“If you have a lot of faculty or staff you want to say goodbye to, you may want to arrange coffee or something throughout dead or finals week instead of hoping to see them for the .2 seconds on commencement.” – Joe Hahn, Interdisciplinary Studies, 2015.
“On [the] day of Grad, if you have family coming I’d suggest making a pre-planned area to meet at after graduation. The Grove is just a sea of people after graduation ends and you’ll save a ton of time if you pick a place before!” – Amanda Allen, ASL Studies, 2015.
“If you want pictures with people, try to do it before because you will be hungry and exhausted from the heat after.” – Megan Ross, [STILL CLARIFYING HER DEGREE], 2015
“Sunscreen for days, bobby pin your cap.” Yumi Kong, Criminal Justice, 2015.
“Wait a half hour before leaving town and make sure your phone is fully charged.” Hannah Barrie, ASL Studies, 2015.
Find more information regarding commencement at: wou.edu/graduation/

Coffee fiends rejoice

By: Alvin Wilson
Staff Writer

Do you ever find yourself studying in the library, when you’re suddenly overcome by a strong craving for food and caffeine?

Well, my fellow coffee fiend, worry no more. Hamersly Library is completing its latest improvement: a new café.

The café will be called The Press, and it is set to open on April 13. The opening date has changed a few times due to unexpected delays, and it is still subject to change.

So why build a café, something that creates a lot of noise, in the library?

According to Dr. Allen McKiel, director of library services at Hamersly, the noise was part of the reason.

“Studies of library usage over the years have resulted in a conceptual shift in understanding environments conducive to and supportive of studying,” said McKiel. “Libraries have been converting their spaces from ubiquitous quiet areas with tables and hard backed and bottomed chairs […] to a variety of study areas that have […] different noise level zones.”

McKiel said the increased noise level shouldn’t be a problem, since students generally don’t study on the noisier first floor of the library.

“We expect the first floor to get a bit noisier, but it is generally not the place where students who prefer quiet spaces study,” he said. “As a student, I used to study in the cafeteria where there was a lot of undifferentiated noise—white noise. The quiet places just made any little noise stand out, which I found disruptive.”

McKiel said a café in the library would benefit students who want to study for longer periods without stopping.

“The decision to put the café in the library arose from the studies that indicated that food and drink were an integral part of the study habits of many students,” he said. “Having food available in the library encourages longer stretches of studying, since leaving the library to find food tends to disrupt and provide distractions that often prevent a return to studying.”

The Press will offer more food items than Café Allegro, and can be expected to be open longer hours (Monday to Thursday 8 a.m.–8 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m.–3 p.m. and closed Friday and Saturday.)

Tips for a safe spring break

By: Alvin Wilson 
Staff Writer

Spring break is just around the corner, and many of us are anxious to leave campus and celebrate our time off the college way: with alcohol.

But before you hop in your car and say bottoms up, you should probably stop to consider a few things.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) published a study that shows nearly half of all college students binge-drink.

Binge-drinking is defined as drinking five or more drinks within a two-hour period.

Trever Jackson, Campus Public Safety officer for Western, says that excessive drinking is a problem even when it’s not spring break.

“We get a lot of people who become too intoxicated and end up causing problems,” he says. “People will drink, then take it too far, and it becomes unsafe for them and other people. We end up having to deal with that quite a bit on breaks as much as any other time.”

Rebecca Chiles, director of Public Safety, says the biggest things to keep in mind are your choices concerning alcohol and drug use.

“I think we get a little relaxed, or comfortable, with groups of people when we’re having a good time,” she says. “Then you wake up the next morning and your phone’s missing, or your laptop’s missing, or your wallet full of money’s missing. I think just be vigilant about the people you’re with.”

Chiles says it’s important to surround yourself with people you feel safe with to reduce the risk of dangerous situations.

“People are going to drink, so my best advice is to do it with someone you know and love and trust,” she says. “Have a designated person who’s going to be the safety person and look out for everybody—someone who will have your back and take care of you if a safety situation arises …”

Allen Risen, Occupational Environmental Safety Officer for Campus Public Safety, says another important thing to consider is travelling.

He says that during spring break, most of the students leave campus.

“Campus is pretty much dead,” he says. “Most of the students who live on campus are gone … Usually everything’s pretty quiet.”

Risen says that if you choose to travel, pack a blanket and extra water in case of an emergency, and make sure your belongings are locked up tight at home.

Officer Jackson also offers some words of advice about travelling during the break:

“Be in contact with your loved ones. Let them know when you’re leaving, what route you’re taking, how you’re getting there, when you arrive. If you’re travelling in your own vehicle, make sure it’s travel-worthy.”

The last thing you want is to be stranded on a highway in the middle of nowhere. Jackson mentioned that some car shops will do free “trip checks” to make sure your car is able to handle a road trip.

Your local Les Schwab is one such place. They will check everything from your tires and brakes to your oil—all for free (but, of course, they won’t fix anything for free).

Contact the author at awilson15@wou.edu or on Twitter @awilsonjournal

2 New Digital Production Rooms in Library

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

Hamersly Library recently constructed two new digital production rooms, found in HL 221 and HL 222. The first specializes in audio production, and the second in video. Both rooms come equipped with a Mac and Dell for user preference, and each computer holds various programs for manipulating audio and video.

“This whole space is a work in progress. We plan on opening up the area for a full service desk so that people can receive help whenever they need it,” said Scott Carter, digital production and publishing specialist for Hamersly Library.

There are also several other computers set up in the alcove with media production software on them, in case a full production room is not necessary.

“This is one place that anyone on campus can come without needing special permissions,” said Carter.

If you would like to reserve a room and experience the brand new production centers, go to wou.edu/dmc

Better Safe than Sorry

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor


The first documented case of drug-resistant human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) occurred in February of this year.

Despite daily adherence to Truvada, a preventative drug against the contraction of HIV, a gay man has tested positive for HIV. The strain of HIV was reported as one that was multidrug resistant, which explained how it was contracted regardless of the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis.

This drug allowed people who are at very high risk of getting HIV to prevent infection by taking a pill every day. This included exposure to HIV through either sex or the use of injected drugs. 

The failure of this drug had not yet been reported in any other individuals, which made this case an exceedingly rare one.

According to POZ.com, none of the 1,400+ high-risk individuals taking pre-exposure prophylaxis through the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis program have contracted HIV to date, despite their very high rate of other sexually transmitted diseases.

“[Pre-exposure prophylaxis] has done very well so far with helping reduce the spread of HIV, and I think that what it’s done well also needs to be recognized,” said John Goldsmith, senior English major and Triangle Alliance President for Western.

On campus, Triangle Alliance partners with the Stonewall Center for World AIDS day on Dec. 1 to help raise awareness. Both of these organizations have also partnered with the Peer Mentor program for sex education programs.

In future years, there may be more events hosted by Triangle Alliance that focus on this topic. For Spring Term, Triangle Alliance meetings will occur in Ackerman 141 at 5 p.m. 

With any sexually transmitted disease, chances of being infected are severely reduced when precautions are taken. It is recommended that one get tested frequently and with every new partner, and to know your partner’s HIV status. 

Use condoms, avoid injecting drugs, and limit the number of sexual partners, if possible. And use other preventative measures, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis or sterilized injection tools, as needed.

“I think that this issue is not isolated to the LGBT*Q+ community, as anyone has the potential to contract HIV,” Goldsmith said. “All people who are sexually active need to take their sexual health more seriously.”

“My heart goes out to the person afflicted, and I hope they will receive all of the treatment they need,” said Goldsmith.

It can take three to 12 weeks for an HIV- positive individual’s body to produce enough antibodies for a test to produce correct results. Many individuals do not show signs or symptoms of HIV until much later, although some may experience flu-like symptoms within two to four weeks after infection.

HIV testing most commonly takes place in three forms: as a blood test, urine test, or as an oral swab. Testing is also highly confidential and is often paired with a consultation regarding HIV itself.

The Student Health and Counseling Center offers HIV testing for roughly $17. The result turnaround for an HIV test averages two days.

To schedule an appointment for testing, please contact the Student Health and Counseling Center at 503-838-8313.

Contact the author at jberesheim11@wou.edu or on Twitter @woujournalnews

Insane in the membrane

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

While lice may have a reputation of popping up in small children within the school system, outbreaks are possible wherever high populations of people gather. Now, recent reports state that “super lice” have shown up within the last few years.

“There are a number of theories as to how “regular” lice have mutated into “super” lice,” said Jennifer King, FNP-BC, Medical Services Director at Western’s Student Health and Counseling Center.

“Most likely, it is due to incorrect usage of over-the-counter treatments, either by not using enough product or leaving the solution on the scalp for an insufficient amount of time to kill the lice,” King continued. “Based on research, it has been found that lice can mutate genetically and become resistant to traditional OTC treatments, [also known as] pyrethroids.”

These super lice have spread to over half the country, including Washington, California, and Arizona.

In 2000, the over-the-counter treatments of pyrethroids were 100 percent effective in the removal and killing of head lice. Now, those numbers have dwindled to just 25 percent effectiveness in recent trials.

To combat the mutated lice, Lice Clinics of America has developed an FDA-approved treatment called AirAlle, reports FoxNews.

“We use heated air, and we dehydrate the lice and eggs in a single treatment,” said Claire Roberts, CEO of Lice Clinics of America, to KSDK.com.

“It takes about an hour, and we guarantee it,” Roberts continued.
Each treatment of AirAlle costs about $170, which may be out of a college student’s budget range.

“If there is a concern about resistant head lice, a.k.a “super lice” we recommend scheduling an appointment here at the health center for evaluation and prescription treatment,” encouraged King.

Some suggestions to reduce the chance of spreading lice can be found through the Center for Disease Control. The CDC recommends a few of the following tips: avoid head-to-head contact, avoid sharing clothes – especially hats, and try not to use an infected individual’s objects, such as pillows or hairbrushes.

If you do happen to become infected, machine wash all clothes and bedding in hot water, then dry at the same temperature. Fumigation sprays are not necessary as they are not meant to treat lice. Wash all other possibly infected objects, such as hairbrushes and towels, in hot water as well. Lastly, vacuum and wipe down the affected living areas, such as bedroom and living room.

Once lice have left someone’s body, they quickly dehydrate and die within one to two days, but cleaning ensures less chance of the lice finding their way back to a body. Lice eggs also require a specific temperature, one found close to the scalp, in order to hatch. Investing in specialized lice picks and combs may help combat the further spread.

“To help control a head lice outbreak in a community, it is imperative that we provide information to prevent the spread of lice. The student health center utilizes social media, including Facebook and Twitter as well as email to share information about a number of general health topics and concerns,” said King.

“While lice are irritating and uncomfortable, the good news is that they don’t spread disease, according to the CDC,” said King.

Contact the author at jberesheim11@wou.edu or on Twitter @WOUjournalnews

Strike Averted

ASWOUlogo

By: Alvin Wilson
Staff Writer

After nearly a year of debating, and just before the mediation date, WOUFT and Western’s administration have come to an agreement.

The university decided to give the union what it has been asking for: a 10 percent pay increase for non-tenure-track faculty.

“The University did indeed accept our offer as is, with non-tenure-track faculty getting five percent each year for the two year contract, which was the 10 percent we were holding out for,” said Mark Perlman, president of WOUFT. “And no other take-backs in other areas,” Perlman added.

The previous offer from the university included cuts to things such as faculty development and traveling funds, but the proposal that the university accepted gave NTT faculty their raises without the need for cuts.

According to Perlman, this is a much-needed move forward.

“WOU salaries will go up over $50,000 for the step one assistant professors, which is essential for us to be able to hire new faculty,” he said.

“But even with all of this, WOU faculty salaries will still be about 15 percent below comparable universities, so there is still progress to be made in the future to get WOU faculty salaries where they should be.”

According to Glassdoor.com, a website that compiles information about salaries, the average salary for an assistant professor at Western is $50,746. At the University of Oregon, assistant professors make $69,884, and at Oregon State University they make $87,948.

Not all of the schools in Oregon are comparable because of their size differences, but Western’s assistant professor pay is already 39 percent below the national average, according to Glassdoor.

Not all assistant professors at Western are non-tenure-track, but there are a considerable amount who are, and they will soon have a more competitive salary.

Perlman said he was happy about the success, but even happier that the negotiations are over.

“The whole bargaining team is happy to conclude bargaining, and there are a lot of good things in the new collective bargaining agreement,” he said.
He continued to say that the union had gained many new members over the course of the negotiations, but Perlman said it’s now time to think about finals week.

“The members of the bargaining team are going to get a welcome break from union activity, and need to focus on grading papers and final exams,” he said. “They did a lot of work in bargaining, and deserve a huge amount of credit.”

Perlman said on Tuesday that the deal had not been finalized by the other union members yet, but he was confident they would support it.

“The formal contract ratification vote by the union members is set for Thursday afternoon,” he said, “but I have no doubt that they will approve it.”

Contact the author at awilson15@wou.edu or on Twitter @awilsonjournal

Super Tuesday had me like…

By: Conner Williams
Editor-in-Chief

As the presidential candidates competed for delegates on Super Tuesday, the day in the election cycle where more delegates are at stake than any other day, I talked with several Western students about their thoughts on the election.

Rosario Peralta, a staff member at the Writing Center, said that she feels the election has been civil to an extent.

“I feel like it’s pretty civil, but at the same time, we have a lot of candidates that are extremes, which doesn’t happen all the time,” she said. “I think it’s civil from the candidates’ perspective, but I don’t necessarily think it’s civil based on how the media portray things.”

“I think it’s kind of a hot mess,” said Peralta. “I was listening to the radio recently and they said ‘We never thought we’d live in a world where Donald Trump could be the winner,’ and apparently that’s the world we live in […] it’s overwhelming and terrifying.”

Peralta said that the issues she finds most important in this election are education and immigration. She is a U.S. resident, but not a citizen, so she cannot actually vote in the election. Despite this, Peralta said that she does her best to campaign and advocate for the candidate(s) that she thinks address her concerns the most.

“I think how we treat other countries and people who come into our country is a big thing for me,” said Peralta.

Taylor Waite, a senior english major, said that she is frustrated with the way the election is turning out thus far.

“I feel a little frustrated from the way that politics are cultured now and are treated as reality TV,” she said. “It’s more about who can make more of a show out of it.”

Waite said that education and loan reform are among her top concerns in the election.

“Education is huge for me in that I’m paying for college,” she said. “I think [free education] is going to be the future of our country.”

“I’m also concerned about the job market because I’m a senior, for one, and coming out with a bachelor of arts, I’m not guaranteed a job,” said Waite.

Amanda Jester, a sophomore criminal justice major, said that she is excited for the election since it will be her first time voting.

“I think since it’s the first election I can vote in, it’s fun for me since I can actually participate in it,” she said.

“I want the focus to be on improving education and social services rather than military spending and things like that,” said Jester. “I also think that women’s health and women’s reproductive rights are huge issues for me.”

Jessica Esparza, a senior english major, also said that she has a hard time believing that Donald Trump is doing as well as he is.

“I think it’s kind of a joke right now,” she said. “I thought that Trump was going to a be a joke at first, and now he might actually be the Republican candidate.”

“I thought it was going to be a publicity stunt, but he just never went away,” said Esparza.

As the polls closed at the end of the day Tuesday, Donald Trump found himself still in the lead for the Republicans with 319 delegates, according to data from The New York Times. Ted Cruz follows shortly behind with 226, Marco Rubio with 110, John Kasich with 25, and Ben Carson with eight, though Carson has announced he will be suspending his campaign. In order to secure the party’s nomination for president, a Republican candidate needs 1,237 delegates.

Hillary Clinton stretched her lead to 1,052 delegates, while Bernie Sanders currently has 427. 2,383 delegates are needed for a Democrat to secure the party’s nomination for president.

Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalEIC

ASWOU receives two percent budget cut

By: Alvin Wilson
Staff Writer

The Incidental Fee Committee plans to increase the amount of money students pay each term in fees while decreasing the funds for some programs.

ASWOU is one of the programs that will see cuts in its budget, but only by a small percentage.

This year, ASWOU received $294,239 from the Incidental Fee funds. This amounted to 6.9 percent of the total IFC budget.

Next year, the committee will only allocate $290,699—or 6.6 percent of the total budget—to ASWOU, which is a two percent cut from this year’s budget.
ASWOU’s budget gets distributed to many different areas, according to Sofia LeVernois, director of business and finance for ASWOU.

“All the clubs at the university fall under ASWOU,” said LeVernois. “You have funded clubs and non-funded clubs. Non-funded clubs are not funded by IFC, and then you have the other umbrella of clubs that are funded by IFC.”

Some student organizations that receive IFC funds from ASWOU are the Art Club, Triangle Alliance, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlánand (MEChA), and the Business and Economics Club.

LeVernois said the clubs can spend their money on anything from food and refreshments to guest speakers.

Other than that, she said ASWOU’s funds go toward sending their members to Oregon Student Association (OSA) meetings. OSA is a nonprofit student advocacy group that represents 110,000 Oregon students.

“We have our payroll account, and we have OSA. That helps our OSA representatives go to the different board meetings that they have to attend,” she said.

ASWOU also pays for a retreat for its members at the beginning of the year.

“It’s all to help the office function so we can be at our top point to represent and help students,” LeVernois said.

The budgets for all clubs and ASWOU departments will be reduced evenly, according to Levernois, so no clubs will be affected more than others.

She said the cuts won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible to work around.

“After talking with Corban, it was decided that we would be able to handle a two percent cut,” said LeVernois. “We have to cut back, but it’s not really preventative. It can be a burden, but there’s things to alleviate that. It’s difficult, but it’s about reallocating.”

Contact the author at awilson15@wou.edu or on Twitter @awilsonjournal

Portland’s Polluted Air

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By: Jenna Beresheim 
News Editor

Back in May 2015, Oregon regulators discovered that federal researchers located heavy metals in moss samples throughout the Portland area. However, these regulators did not partake in their own testing until October.

The culprits were later detected as Bullseye Glass Company, a glass company promoted for the use of colored glass in art and architecture, and Uroboros Glass Studio, which manufactures glass for lamps, architectures, and kiln forming.

Results for testing Bullseye came back in January with shocking results: 159 times the safety goal of arsenic in the air, and 49 times the safety goal for cadmium.

Cadmium poses risks of lung cancer and kidney damage, while arsenic offers lung, skin, and bladder cancers.

Other elevated levels of toxic metals, such as lead and nickel, also became apparent with more testing across the Portland areas.

The amount of toxicity has become so bad in areas that residents within a half-mile of the two glass factories are encouraged to withhold from eating food grown in backyard gardens.

Another health recommendation is to wash hands after coming in contact with soil found within contaminated areas.

“It’s crazy that people can’t even eat from their gardens – it’s against everything Portland,” said Leanne Cook, a Western alumna who commutes from Portland to work at the National Center on Deaf-Blindness.

“I live right in the heart of the affected area but wish I could say I noticed a difference, I know there is one, but I can’t tell that there is,” Cook explained. “It’s frustrating to know that long-term this could have major effects on Portlandians’ lives.”

One woman speaking out against her current health problems is Sarah Livingstone, a Portland resident who lives just five blocks away from Bullseye.

“This past month I had three trips to the ER for not being able to breathe right,” Livingstone reported to the Oregonian.

Livingstone later revealed that doctors had discovered fluid in the lining of her lungs on Jan. 23 and had asked her to hold off on her second pregnancy.

“I feel like it hasn’t been talked about enough,” Cook defends, “I’m trying not to think about it.”

Kate Brown followed up with the findings, stating that she expected ‘rapid action’ from environmental regulators, as well as more money from legislature to deal with the current amount of air pollution.

Currently, both companies have voluntarily stopped the usage of such chemicals in their production of glass while more soil tests are underway.

For a short, informational video on the topic at hand, click here: http://bit.ly/1WHGjZ8

Contact the author at jberesheim11@wou.edu or on Twitter @WOUjournalnews

WOU student jobs, are they at risk?

By: ​Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

Oregon legislators have approved Senate Bill 1532, which will allow the state’s minimum wage to reach $15 by 2022.

Western Oregon University may be affected by this bill, especially those student workers who are employed on-campus.

“Based on my early calculations, I believe it [Senate Bill 1532] could add up to 3-5% on student employee costs next fiscal year in my area,” stated Patrick Moser, the Director for Student Leadership and Activities.

“How that affects student employment in my department is highly dependent on how the Incidental Fee Committee chooses to address the budget issues of minimum wage increases,” Moser continued.

Moser also reported that, as far as campus budget impact, the Business office is already starting to study the issue at hand and how best to handle the situation.

“We are still in the middle of our budget process and determining all of the information,” commented Brandon Neish, the manager for the Budget Office.

This change in minimum wage could affect how many available job positions occur on campus, as it may prove more difficult to support as many workers at such a large increase in paycheck per person.

For students, more money in less time worked could prove to be a very appealing incentive. Although, at the same time, it could also result in cuts to student jobs, even current ones, in order to have certain student-run positions remain afloat.

After nearly four hours of heated debate, the bill cleared the Senate with a vote of 32-26. While just outside, demonstrators barricaded lawmakers within the House chamber, pounding on the walls and chanting.

According to The Oregonian, the bill would give pay increases to more than 100,000 workers, with some receiving nearly $6 more an hour.

The plan would take an estimated six years, starting the wage raise in July this year to $9.50-9.75 and ending in 2022 with ranges of wage depending on location. Portland’s urban growth boundary would see $14.75, midsize counties would reach $13.25, and “frontier” areas would expect $12.50 per hour.

The Coalition to Defend Oregon Jobs includes a wide range of individuals who fought against Senate Bill 1532.

“A massive wage hike kills small business jobs and forces schools and local governments to cut services or raise property taxes,” the Defend Oregon Jobs website proclaims. “Fixed-income seniors, working families, and college students will feel the sting.”

Contact the author at jberesheim11@wou.edu or on Twitter @WOUjournalnews

Apple-FBI in heated battle over your privacy

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By: Alvin Wilson 
Staff Writer

Apple is refusing to give the FBI access to encrypted data on one of the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.

The FBI has requested that Apple build the technology necessary to decrypt the data that they currently can’t access.

Bob Broeg, professor of computer science at Western, described encrypted data as being a sentence with the letters jumbled up. To find the correct order, you have to have a key.

“With most encryptions today, you have two keys,” he said. “One is a public key that you can use to encrypt something, but you can’t decrypt it without a private key. So, anybody can send an encrypted message, but only the person with the second key can decrypt it.”

Apple encrypts some of the data that is stored on their phones to protect the privacy of the user, but the government still has access to metadata, according to Dana Schowalter, assistant professor of communication studies.

“The government can find metadata whether or not it’s encrypted,” she said. “They can find—on our phone records and things like that, they can determine when we text somebody.

“But if you iMessage somebody else, for example, that’s encrypted. It doesn’t show up on your bill, and therefore can’t be subpoenaed from the phone company because they don’t necessarily keep records of that.”

The FBI wants access to encrypted information on one of the San Bernardino shooters’ phone, but Apple is afraid of future privacy violations that could occur if the government receives access to this technology.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, sent an open letter to Apple customers.

“While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products,” Cook said in the letter. “And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”

Schowalter agrees about the importance of our freedom of privacy.

“When that information is encrypted, I think people value that because it means the information is protected,” she said. “In an era where almost nothing is protected, having at least some content that could be protected is very valuable.”

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg has publicly supported Apple’s decision, but, according to a Pew Research poll, 51 percent of Americans think they should submit to the demands of the FBI.

The FBI is arguing that Apple’s encryption policy is interfering with their ability to protect the public.

Schowalter is skeptical of this argument.

“If you take a look at what they’re asking Apple to do, I think there is some security case for being able to access that information,” she said.

“But at the same time,” she added, “asking for this backdoor seems to be a huge overreach, and I don’t think the government has shown that they can exercise restraint in what they’re collecting and how they’re using that information.”

Broeg thinks that Apple should help the FBI, but not by providing a backdoor to the government.

“I think if there was an error that the FBI needed to figure out, Apple could decrypt it for them,” he said. “But it should probably stay somewhat encrypted.”

Schowalter said the long term effects might be similar to what we saw with the Patriot Act.

“I don’t think people really notice when they’re being spied on now, so I think it just adds a layer of distrust,” she said. “I think we, in the fearmongering that happened after 9/11, consented to all sorts of breaches of our basic human rights to privacy. I think it sets a very dangerous precedent.”

Contact the author at awilson15@wou.edu or on Twitter @awilsonjournal

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