Mount Hood

HIVAlliance partners with Abby’s House to combat misinformation about HIV and treatment.

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow  |  News Editor

HIV has a long history of stigmatization throughout the nation. Partnering with Abby’s House on campus, HIVAlliance came to Western Wednesday, Nov. 20, “to discuss the current status of HIV in Oregon, how HIV is spread and not spread, and ways to prevent HIV, including PrEP,” according to Keith Mathews, a Western Alumni and current PrEP Coordinator for the Northern Region of Oregon.

According to HIVAlliance’s website, hivalliance.org, PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, “a medication taken daily that can be used to reduce the likelihood of HIV infection by preventing the virus from taking hold and spreading throughout the body,” which, “can reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV by more than 90% and can reduce the risk of HIV among people who inject drugs by more than 70%.” 

HIVAlliance helps to educate the public about PrEP, as well as helping PrEP users navigate insurance, providers and financial support services. Additionally, HIVAlliance operates under a harm reduction philosophy which “seeks to empower individuals, remove barriers to accessing the support that they need, and offer pragmatic approaches to risk reduction in a non-judgmental/non-coercive way, that is compassionate and accepting of any positive change,” according to hivalliance.org.

Prior to the presentation, Mathews reached out to Abby’s House himself, saying that, “I knew their missions overlapped with our mission at HIVAlliance to educate about HIV and prevention. In my four years at WOU I heard very little about HIV apart from a few events highlighting awareness so I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to start that conversation at WOU.”

He added that, “despite the perception of lessened stigma around HIV, there is still a lot of misinformation around HIV which continues the stigma to this day.  The best way to receive correct information is to find medically accurate and correct information on HIV and talk to people, especially sexual partners, about HIV status and testing.”

Currently, there are various organizations which offer STI and HIV testing, including Western’s  own Student Health and Counseling Center. Polk County Public Health, Marion County Health and Human Services, HIVAlliance and Planned Parenthood all offer testing within the community.

For more information, visit hivalliance.org. 

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

After an unparalleled 2018 haul, Western’s Toy Drive hopes to maintain that momentum for the 2019 season

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow  |  News Editor

Following a record-breaking year in donations, the annual WOU Toy Drive is once again setting up collection boxes for the Christmas season. 

The campus drive has been operating for the past seven years, and developed “organically” after a foster student named Matthew Burley asked why there wasn’t a holiday program for foster-care and underprivileged students, said Jackson Stalley, a library technician at Western and coordinator for the toy drive. 

After finding campus partners, the drive has “become a part of WOU’s holiday culture,” said Stalley, “it became so popular and successful because of the generosity of our campus … people rely on us.”

Western’s Toy Drive operates separately from the Student Veterans of America’s Toys for Tots, and is the primary donor of holiday gifts to local organizations such as the Sable House, DHS and the Liberty House in Salem — organizations that provide services to those in the foster care system and to families experiencing domestic violence, as well. 

The first year that they delivered the toys, one of the organizations had about eight presents prior, Stalley recalled. Every year, “it’s stunning how happy (people) are to receive the gifts,” Stalley said.

This year, Stalley hopes to “keep the momentum” from the previous year, and wants to remind students and community members that they’re “more than just toys and gifts.” For some, “the idea that some stranger out there cared was a reminder to be hopeful,” said Stalley. 

Students and faculty wanting to donate have until Dec. 9 to do so and can find more information as well as a wishlist through Stalley’s email sent out on Nov. 12 or by contacting him directly at stalleyj@wou.edu.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

After news of low enrollment, the Student Health and Counseling Center struggles to meet the growing needs of students, sparking conversation about stigma and human connection.

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow | News Editor

According to the 2018 Marion-Polk Community Health Profile, depression ranks as the most common chronic condition experienced in our community, and approximately 1 in 10 adolescents reported having attempted suicide in the last year. 

At Western, appointments to the Student Health and Counseling Center are booked until finals week. Director of the Student Health and Counseling Center, Beth Scroggins, said, “we are aware that it is an issue, we are aware that there are students who are just now getting an intake done and it’s going to be January before they will get to be seen.”

In Monmouth, students have few options for mental health services and their coverage depends entirely on insurance. Their student fees cover the cost of mental health services on campus, but therein lies the problem: “Everything that runs (the Student Health and Counseling Center) is only provided through student fees … funding keeps going down because of lowered enrollment, but demand for services goes up,” reported Scroggins. 

However, Scroggins divulged that she is “glad we have this problem and not the other problem — that students won’t come in.” She revealed that this year in particular, she has seen a rise in students accessing services and thinks that some of “the stigma has diminished.”

“We are looking at how we can accommodate more and what that is going to look like,” she said, but as of now they’re still in the planning stages.

Despite that, Scroggins assured that the Student Health and Counseling Center will “always have crisis services available,” and emphasized the various new support groups on campus that have been created from student need and initiative. She also expressed admiration for the amount of “faculty, staff, students, and community members (who) do a great job of referring students to us,” and wanted to stress the importance of community involvement. 

Of the optional survey that students can complete after their visit to the counseling center, Scroggins asserted that she always reads “every single one of those,” and that they’ve “already made some changes to student services based on those, so (she) takes student feedback very seriously.”

And while she believes that stigma has reduced, “people are a lot more comfortable talking about depression, anxiety, self-care … when we start talking about PTSD, trauma, sexual assault, abuse, psychosis … people don’t know how to respond to that because lack of information or knowledge,” she said.

“People worry so much about saying the wrong thing … that they say nothing. Say something,” Scroggins urged.

As a community, we need to be “comfortable with hearing things that are uncomfortable,” and remember that, “people don’t have to be experts to be a support system,” Scroggins said. She followed up with that, sometimes, all it takes is noticing the differences in a person’s behavior or listening to someone and directing them towards help to make a difference. 

Regarding the student suicide that was reported in an email sent out on Nov. 6 by Western’s vice president of Student Affairs, Gary Dukes, Scroggins stated, “when there is a student death, it does affect everybody … I think that mental health is an issue for everybody; even if they aren’t directly experiencing it themselves, someone they know is.” Scroggins reminded all students to “give themselves grace,” count their support systems, engage in self-care and set healthy boundaries. 

“Things will be okay, and even when they’re not, they will be,” Scroggins concluded.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Health and Counseling Center 

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During the 2019 Oregon Special Election, Polk County passed a levy that would extend funding for educational programs

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow | News Editor

Approximately 30% of 959 eligible voters participated in Oregon’s Special Election — an election not part of the regular schedule — which took place on Nov. 5, according to oregonvotes.gov. Overall, there were nine state-wide measures to vote upon, and all aside from one passed. The measures primarily focused on education, environmental, and economic issues. 

In Polk County, community members were voting on a measure that would determine if the Falls City School District would renew a five-year levy that would otherwise terminate in June of 2020. According to the Polk County website, this levy would “continue funding for a music program, sports programs, extracurricular activities and FACES, or the Family Academics Community Enrichment for Success program.” Out of 297 votes collected for this particular measure, 180 were in support, and the measure passed.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Western alumni, Lisa Lowell, has become a prolific writer and teacher after achieving her masters. Here is her story.

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow | News Editor

Lisa Lowell has always been a writer. As a local Oregonian born into a family of artists who “don’t do competition,” Lowell said that writing became her niche. However, as a high school student, Lowell admitted that she “wasn’t a very good writer,” or rather, she held contempt for any type of writing which stifled her creative process. 

After being asked to follow a prompt for a class assignment — and failing miserably, preferring to add in her own flair of fantasy and magic — her teacher submitted her work to various scholarships unbeknownst to her. She received a scholarship to Brigham Young University, but ended up losing it as she wanted to pursue a career in teaching history rather than English, later being named the VFW Teacher of the Year in 2011. 

However, after realizing that “you can’t (become) a history teacher as a woman because they also want them to be a coach,” Lowell opted into getting a masters degree in English as a second language from Western Oregon University. 

Lowell called Western “very cooperative” in helping her basically design her own degree. Throughout this time, Lowell continued her writing, but after graduating in 2006, her husband went through a terrible accident, resulting in Lowell putting her art temporarily on hold. 

But after six years of contacting different publishers, she ultimately published three books in “The Wise Ones” series, and her fourth is set to come out in March of 2020. 

“The Wise Ones” is a fantasy series with each novel focusing on one or two stand-alone characters within the overall universe. It starts with the dragons — the keepers of the magic — going into hibernation, during which 16 Wise Ones are chosen to contain it. Lowell compared her writing to that of C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” series, in that it is “not full of smut and violence,” and “there is a higher-being” central to the plot, although the series is not “overtly Christian.” 

“Each Wise One has their own adventures focused around how they find and come into their magic,” Lowell said, “people think that it’s YA, but the characters are adults strictly controlled by their morals, or they can’t control their magic,” Lowell said.

For example, one of her characters takes the magic when he becomes 25, freezing him in time while his wife and children age in front of him. The moral issue central to the plot is him attempting to remain faithful to his wife despite prophecies of another woman being important to fostering his magic. 

Lowell’s work can be found on her website, magicintheland.com, which also includes a blog dedicated to informing not only readers about the world she has created, but also writers who might want to travel the same path as her. Her blog features book trailers, as well as videos about writing tips and the publishing process. She will also be attending the Dallas High School  Holiday Bazaar on Dec. 7, where she can be found selling her books. 

In regards to writing, she said that she enjoys it because “it’s a different kind of teaching,” and offered this advice to fellow writers: “if you’re not creating, entropy happens, and you’re going to fall apart.”

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of  Lisa Lowell

Based on the theory of transformative justice, a Japanese Healing Garden has been established in the Oregon State Penitentiary.

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow | News Editor

“Punishment doesn’t work … we need to find an alternative way to rehabilitate offenders,” said criminal justice professor, Miyuki Arimoto, during her talk, “Transformative Justice: Diminishing Boundaries through the Healing Garden Project at the Oregon State Penitentiary,” held on Nov. 13. The Healing Garden Project began five years ago as a grassroots effort combined with an inmate-led initiative centered around the idea of a “koi pond” being indoctrinated into the prison environment. 

“Prison is a boring, monotonous place,” stated Arimoto, “(the inmates) thought that nature might help to reduce altercations.”

Over time, the idea of creating a fully functional Japanese-style garden was formed. Inmates wrote grants and the project developed collective advocacy, resulting in approximately $500,000 being raised. Renowned Japanese garden designer, Hoichi Kurisu, donated his design and equipment to the project. He even advocated for inmate involvement in construction, saying that “this is (part of) the necessary process of healing,” according to Arimoto. 

Amassing a total of 13,000 square feet, the garden is only the second in the nation to exist within prison walls — the first being in Maryland — and 180 inmates spent over 12,000 hours developing it.

In a video shown during the presentation, an inmate named Johnny Cofer stated, “there was so much more at stake than just building something aesthetic; there was potential for building a space that could make a really impactful difference on the lives of people that live here … I can remember that the best times in my life were spent out in nature … this place … will be transformative.”

Professor Arimoto recalled a similar testimony, where one inmate she described as “macho” broke down after thanking her and telling her that he could not stop touching the trees and smelling the earth, after not having been able to for the past 40 years. 

“Past research suggests that exposure to nature improves certain conditions such as depression, anxiety and Alzheimers … the recovery process becomes faster,” Arimoto recounted.

Arimoto is a member of a team conducting an impact study on the effects of the healing garden on inmates and staff. Using both qualitative and quantitative research over the course of two years, Arimoto hopes to analyze not only psychological effects but also the effects of a transformative justice system. Arimoto defines transformative justice as an expansion to traditional restorative justice, which “recognizes the potential for human growth … and provides (inmates) with an opportunity to make amends.”

“They are paying back society by transforming themselves for the better,” said Arimoto.

However, Arimoto also admits that there have been some criticisms about the project, citing complaints about using the money for a garden rather than using it to help transition inmates back into society and fears of violence within the garden. 

Arimoto combated these fears, saying the garden will help “to create nice neighbors instead of angry neighbors,” and will assure that inmates must go through a strict screening process to be able to utilize the garden. 

“Without trying, we won’t know if it works or not,” stated Arimoto. “It might not be the solution, but it might help to reduce recidivism.” 

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photos courtesy of Professor Miyuki Arimoto

Western hosts a free speech discussion for open communication between students and the administration regarding last year’s controversial speaker, Joey Gibson

Compiled by Alyssa Loftis | Freelancer  &  Sage Kiernan-Sherrow | News Editor

“Hate speech is not free speech,” assured Western Oregon University’s President Rex Fuller, during the Nov. 7 event titled “Free Speech on Campus: Controversial Speakers, University Preparedness and Legal Considerations.”  Following a brief statement from President Fuller, ASWOU’s current President, Erik Morgan Jr., and Ryan Hagemann, Western’s Vice Chancellor of the Legal Counsel, allowed the audience to voice their questions and concerns. Most of the questions and concerns were regarding the controversy that stemmed from the College Republican Club inviting Patriot Prayer leader, Joey Gibson to campus last June, which was approved by the administration, despite student retaliation.

Much of the retaliation was due to concerns over safety. At the time of the presentation held on June 4, Gibson — who calls himself a “conservative activist” — had multiple court cases filed against him for inciting violence. Additionally, Gibson’s ideology clashes with Western’s student government values as portrayed through ASWOU’s statement released before the event. What’s more, students were told about the event on May 30, giving students little time to process and causing polarizing tensions to rise quickly. 

This was addressed during the free speech discussion, when one student asked: “you mentioned over and over that you had those weeks in advance of knowledge. You know that something like this is coming, and you know that there are going to be students that don’t feel welcomed … what is the administration going to do specifically to present a much stronger stance rather than just sending out a letter that sort of has these platitudes about how we value diversity (and) ensure that there is a fail safe resource available for students?”

On the day of the event, some professors urged their students to “stay at home,” in fear of violence ensuing. As anticipated, protests against the event — and against the administration who allowed it — occurred shortly thereafter, although they remained nonviolent. 

Director of Public Safety Rebecca Chiles defined her role here at Western, in addition to shedding light on the decisions and planning that goes into preparing for emergencies. Regarding future events like the one featuring Gibson, Chiles said, “we move forward with safety being our number one priority … always. The safety of our folks on campus is going to come first.” She later added that, “we need people to attend those things; first aid, CPR … get certified … that’s the best way to move forward, with all of us collaboratively to be a disaster-resilient university.”

For information regarding the June 4 event, refer to the previous article on wou.edu/westernhowl.

 

Contact the authors at aloftis18@wou.edu and howlnews@wou.edu

Photos by Mikayla Bruley

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