Mount Hood

An Accessible Pedestrian Signal has been implemented after conversations about accessibility for Monmouth’s DeafBlind community were sparked.

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow  |  News Editor

As the DeafBlind population increases within Monmouth, discussion about accessibility has increased, and small changes have been implemented to promote that accessibility. One such change is the addition of Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) at the intersection of Main Street and Highway 99, which was made possible through the advocating of several parties, including Jelica Nuccio. 

Jelica Nuccio is a DeafBlind individual who moved to Monmouth a year ago from Seattle, Washington, bringing her business “Tactile Communications” with her. Tactile Communications focuses on, “providing education to individuals that are DeafBlind as far as adaptive skills and reading in Braille. 

“For many people, if they’ve grown up visual, then when they become DeafBlind, they need to incorporate touch-based strategies to get information. So, we do a lot of training…” Nuccio said, likening the training to learning how to drive a car. 

Training also includes learning how and when to cross the road safely — now made easier through the APS system.

Nuccio credited Amy Parker, the coordinator of the Orientation and Mobility program at Portland State University, with garnering support from the City Council and the Department of Transportation to implement the APS system.   

“It became much more complex than originally anticipated,” Nuccio stated.

Despite this beneficial addition, there are still more ways to improve accessibility in the community. Nuccio mentioned adding additional APS systems along Main Street, more stop signs to increase driver awareness, bumps on the road serving as tactile markers, English and Braille combined menus and mats in front of doorways acting as signifiers as improvements that could be made. 

“We’re hoping that with more visibility, that will create more awareness, and that will create a more unified front and we can actually start making some of these significant changes, but they haven’t happened yet,” said Nuccio. 

Despite the need for improvements, Nuccio relayed feeling welcomed in Monmouth, saying that “there’s a different kind of patience here … people are just very welcoming, and they’re immediately talking about what they can do to change the community and make it more accessible.” 

She said that she moved from Seattle to Monmouth after visiting Monmouth for work-related purposes where she was surprised to enter a restaurant and have a waitress immediately begin communicating with her in protactile. 

“I immediately felt so comfortable and comforted in knowing that people understood that I communicate through touch,” Nuccio said.

For students interested in learning about DeafBlind culture and protactile communication, Nuccio recommended they take Professor CM Hall’s class in Winter Term and Nuccio’s own class taught in Spring Term, which is entirely taught in protactile. 

“Protactile is not the same as hearing a language or seeing a language — there’s no book on it. You can’t write a book on how something feels or how to communicate tactilely, so it would be very difficult to explain even in a video. So, all of the instructions has to be done in person,” Nuccio said.

For those seeking a creative, immersive experience, a PT play will be held on Dec. 14.

“In protactile theater everything is communicated by touch, so you don’t see anything or hear anything — this is a brand new thing that has just occured in our community and it’s blossoming,” said Nuccio.

Those interested can RSVP at TcPTPlays@gmail.com.

To conclude, Nuccio stated, “I’m just as human as everyone else, I just have different means of communication. But different, doesn’t mean separate. We can all communicate with each other.”

For more information on who Jelica Nuccio is and what she does, visit https://www.tactilecommunications.org/.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photo by Sage Kiernan-Sherrow

After months of preparation, Western launched several new program options in 2019.

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow  |  News Editor

This year, many new majors and minors — as well as degree options — have been added to Western’s official catalog, and future additional options are underway. Three additions in particular have opened up new pathways for student success: a master’s in Organizational Leadership, an Applied Baccalaureate in Liberal Sciences and the new major of English Studies. The following will offer descriptions about each program and detail the benefits related to obtaining a degree through these new options. 

 

M.A. in Organizational Leadership

 

As an interdisciplinary program unaffiliated with any one academic department featuring instructors from a variety of related fields, obtaining a master’s in Organizational Leadership would benefit “anyone who wants to enhance their leadership skills and be prepared to effectively lead in any type of setting,” as stated by psychology professor David Foster. Continuing, he said that the program “is designed to help people build the behavior, cognitive and social competence necessary to be an effective leader,” developing qualities sought after by human resources.

After first developing the organizational leadership minor with fellow professors Nick Baccus, of communication studies and Paul Disney of business, the three collaborated to design the master’s degree program which co-adhered with President Rex Fuller’s plan to “expand WOU’s graduate offerings by developing programs that would be appealing for people living in Salem,” said Foster. While taking courses based at the WOU:Salem campus targeted towards working adults, students have the ability to gain Operational Leadership and Executive Leadership certificates, furthering their workforce qualifications. 

“(Businesses) need programs like ours to help their people develop the competencies they need to be effective leaders,” said Foster. For more information about this program, students can follow the link to the graduate program’s page through Western’s webpage. 

 

Applied Baccalaureate in Liberal Sciences

 

Also offered at Western’s Salem campus, the Applied Baccalaureate in Liberal Sciences degree was created to provide further education to adults who have already acquired an Associate of Applied Science degree. It’s designed to give working adults the advantages of a four-year degree without them having to repeat coursework, letting them build upon their previous education. Students will “complete foundations courses, dive into the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences, explore interests, and tie it all together in small seminars with fellow students,” stated a video published by wouTV titled “WOU:Salem: What’s Next.” The video also describes the program as essentially an “upside-down degree,”  giving students who have already mastered specific trades the ability to take broader educational classes. 

 

English Studies Major 

 

Nine years in the making, the English studies major features a core of linguistics, literature and writing classes and offers students a way to virtually design their own program, while limiting the amount of credits needed to graduate. 

“We saw a pattern … that the average English major was graduating with 211 credits. That’s a lot … we were really creating barriers for our students” stated Katherine Schmidt, an English professor and the director of the Writing Center at Western. 

The English Studies program is now made of mostly classes counting as upper division credits and has gotten rid of the two-year language requirement consisting of 24 credits. The program also boasts a common core curriculum of 41 credits, allowing for students to take more electives specific to their interests. 

“Instead of being a mile wide and an inch deep, we’re encouraging students to go a mile deep and an inch wide … to do what (they) love and to spend most of (their) time doing that,” said Schmidt, providing an example of a student writing historical fiction taking history classes relevant to their craft. Although, of course, students still have to justify the course’s complementary connection to the program. 

In the future, the program is planning on reinstating a publishing class, and providing a Professional Writing Certificate, which will launch next year. The Professional Writing Certificate is 20 credits and is targeted towards “people who already have their degrees,” stated Schmidt. 

“Students have shown a desire to specialize in professional writing and we want to give that opportunity to them,” said Schmidt, citing the full grant-writing class offered Winter Term as evidence. 

Classes for the certificate will be based at WOU:Salem, and is “complementary to an Organizational Leadership degree,” said Schmidt.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Multiple new changes made to Western’s various technology outlets, a focus on security cited as cause.

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow  |  News Editor 

Recently, students have received multiple emails regarding changes to Western’s technology including student access to their portals, Adobe Creative Cloud and an upgrade to Windows 10 for all campus computers. Many of these changes have been initiated to reduce threats to security. Director of University Computing Solutions, Bill Kernan, said, “current news talks about election hacking, corporate attacks, and data breaches … It’s so easy to fall into the trap that is being set … Having another layer of protection that uses something the hacker can’t access is paramount.” 

To increase security, Western is installing the Duo program, which will act as a two-step verification process that works by sending push notifications to one’s smartphone asking for authorization. By accepting the notification, students are able to access their information; if they are not the ones attempting to gain access, they simply have to press “deny.” For students, Duo launches in February, and Kernan assures that it “doesn’t require any additional passwords … the only information Duo stores is username and the phone number associated with that username, so that authentication can work correctly.”

Similarly, Adobe has changed their login system “in attempts to protect their assets from abuse,” according to Kernan. Many individuals and departments across campus rely on Adobe for their jobs. Now, “users that use Adobe products will log in with their username@wou.edu which will redirect (them) to WOU’s portal,” stated Kernan. 

Switching to Windows 10 also benefits the university from a security perspective. According to Kernan, Windows 10 provides enhanced security through its operating system and access to improved software and apps, while also being mobile friendly. 

Kernan also said that students have the ability to learn about additional security procedures through the Information Security Training Tool that automatically notifies students through portal when there is a new lesson available. The lessons are three to five minutes long every two weeks, making “information easier to attain,” stated Kernan. 

“The training will include topics like SPAM, phishing, encryption, etc…” and, “ is totally responsive, so everyone can view it easily on phones, tablets or laptops” Kernan concluded.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photo by Sage Kiernan-Sherrow

Western to participate in Congress to Campus program this February, two students will act as ambassadors

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow  |  News Editor

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, assistant professor of politics, policy and administration, Earlene Camarillo, sent a campus-wide email advertising an opportunity for students to act as Western’s ambassadors during the Congress to Campus event set to occur from Feb. 11–13. 

According to Camarillo, President Rex Fuller and Provost Rob Winningham later collaborated with Dr. Mary Pettenger after discovering the program, stating that it “sounds like a great opportunity for Western, especially in today’s climate of strong partisanship.”

Congress to Campus is an existing government program which provides an “opportunity to interact with former Members of Congress through a program designed to attract young people to public service” and addresses “concerns about the lack of civic literacy among America’s young people and declining participation in politics,” according to its official website at stennis.gov.

Camarillo expanded on the idea of civil literacy, stating that it is “the idea that we engage with one another in conversation,” and that, in a democracy, “theoretically, everyone should feel comfortable expressing their opinions.” The Congress to Campus program supports this by sending one Republican and one Democrat representative to “promote the idea that you have to speak with one another,” said Camarillo.

Camarillo mentioned the media’s role in misinforming the public and framing the government as overly bipartisan, saying that “there is a lack of clarity on how our system actually works,” and citing the statistic that “only 30% of people can name the three branches of our government.”

Throughout the program’s duration on campus, there will be two events held on Feb. 12 that are open to the general student population. One is set to occur at 2 p.m. and will be an alumni panel dedicated to addressing the topic of public service, and the other is set for 7 p.m. and will be a public forum where students and faculty can ask questions of the president and former Congressmen. 

Camarillo hopes that this event will promote interest in public service careers and stated, “we really want to encourage people across all disciplines,” to apply and attend the panels, stressing that the information being presented will be “important regardless of what career you’re going into.” 

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

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 

(503) 838-8396

Psychiatric Crisis Center

1 (888) 232-7192

Western Oregon University

Facebook   Instagram   X  YouTube

WESTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY
345 Monmouth Ave. N.
Monmouth OR 97361

503-838-8000 | 1-877-877-1593

Tools

Campus Maps
Canvas
Find People
Portal
WOU Email
Technical Support

Resources

A-Z Index
Accessibility
Academic Calendar
Class Schedule
Jobs at WOU
News
Explore WOU
Partnerships
Student Services
Freedom of Expression

Western Oregon University’s Land Acknowledgement
Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR is located within the traditional homelands of the Luckiamute Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 (Kalapuya etc. Treaty), Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in Western Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.

Accessibility    Public Records    Privacy    Student Consumer Information

WOU prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in all programs, activities and employment practices as required by Title IX, other applicable laws, and policies. Retaliation is prohibited by WOU.