Incidental fee proposed for 2019-2020 school year shows widespread cuts
Bailey Thompson | News Editor
When students receive their bills from the university each term, there is a charge entitled “incidental fees” that appears.
According to Western’s webpage, every student who is enrolled at the university for at least 12 credits is required to pay an incidental fee, and this fee is lessened for students who are only enrolled part-time.
While this fee may seem random and frustrating for those who don’t understand its purpose, it is actually something that students can have a say in creating.
For the 2019-2020 school year, the Incidental Fee Committee met on Feb. 15 to determine the preliminary budget for this fee: $375 per term per full-time student, a $12 increase from the 2018-2019 academic year.
Rachel Rhodes, a senior communications major and one of the seven members of the IFC, shared what the purpose of the IFC is at Western.
“We do a review of the budget proposed from all the department heads. And then we decide where the money should go,” said Rhodes.
When looking at the budgets for different organizations by various department heads, Rhodes also shared that there are two different types of budgets that can be proposed.
“There’s their operating budget, and then they can ask for enhancements… outside projects, an extra travel trip, an upgrade to their building, whatever that is for them,” said Rhodes.
With the 2019-2020 IFC budget in particular, Rhodes shared that there was a significant outside voice who helped to determine how much money would be spent: President Rex Fuller.
“We were actually asked by the president not to up the fee more than five percent, and he said that if it was up more than five percent than he wouldn’t approve it. So that was our goal,” said Rhodes.
Having constructed their preliminary budget, Rhodes also noted that people who look over the spending plan may notice significant cuts.
“We cut almost every budget operationally, and that’s because the inflation was so much that, if we fully funded everyone, the fee would have gone up way more,” said Rhodes. “I think becoming the most affordable school in Oregon means you have to make cuts that scare people — like cuts to ASWOU or cuts to athletics — cuts to areas that people might question or that people might not like, but we had to make some hard decisions.”
In addition to the rising costs for both building operations and student workers, due to an increasing minimum wage, Rhodes noted another cause for the fee’s increase.
“It’s a rough subject to talk about right now, but enrollment is down,” said Rhodes. “So, we’re looking at ways to bring in more students, but it’s hard for the same number of students to pay for what more students paid for last year.”
In looking at the new funding sources that they approved for the upcoming year, Rhodes stated that IFC was very selective in their enhancements.
“We wanted to be mindful that we’re cutting operational budgets but we’re giving other organizations money to enhance their programs,” said Rhodes. “So we granted some enhancements to new clubs … because we wanted to help foster those new clubs.”
Having decided the preliminary budget, the next step for the IFC is to host hearings so that members of the community could advocate for programs that are important to them. With this process ahead, Rhodes encouraged all students to make their voices heard so that it will not merely be those directly benefitting from a certain fund who are making their voices heard.
The two open hearings will be held on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. in the Pacific Room of the Werner University Center, and Friday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. in RWEC 101. After these hearings, the IFC will present their budget to the ASWOU Senate, the Board of Trustees and President Rex Fuller before it can be finalized.
Students can also voice their opinions through a survey at wou.edu/ifc/news.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
Infograph by Brittany Figueroa
RHA hosts first ever Sustainability Month
Bailey Thompson | News Editor
For the entire month of February, Western’s Residence Hall Association has been hosting events as part of their first ever RHA Sustainability Month with the help of both Green Team and National Residence Hall Honorary.
“Eliza (Sleezer, RHA president) was the person who spearheaded this project. What we wanted to do was, as a part of our sustainability theme, we wanted to get a lot of input from Green Team on this,” said Josh Salsbury, sophomore math major and RHA finance director. “It’s really just been a huge collaboration effort.”
As two members of the RHA Executive Board, Salsbury joined with Kaiana Bradley, junior elementary education major and RHA publicist, to talk about all that went into planning this inaugural event.
For the first week’s event, each member of the Executive Board participated in a challenge.
“Last week we had a zero-waste challenge, so everyone on Executive Board carried around a bag for the day and whenever they had to throw something away — whether it was food waste, paper towels from the bathroom, … wrappers and things you would physically put in the trash can — you put in a bag,” said Bradley. “And we all made posts as a social media campaign about how that experience was for us, challenging other people to be conscious of how much waste they produce in a day and how they could change that.”
Salsbury then shared why he actually enjoyed partaking in this challenge.
“When I did mine, I think the biggest thing I noticed was that it was really fun since I had to physically carry around a bag that my friends, when they saw me around campus, could ask what I was doing,” said Salsbury. “And I was able to explain to them about what we’re doing for sustainability month.”
Reaching out more directly to the Western community, a few of the events from the month involved the team providing students with resources that could help them be more sustainable: on Feb. 7, NRHH posted sustainable living tips in the various residential communities; on Feb. 11, RHA gave out five Hydroflasks; and on Feb. 25, RHA will be passing out reusable bags in Valsetz Dining Hall from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Finally, a couple of their more interactive events are their Sustainability Craft night on Feb. 21 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the Mt. Jefferson Room in Valsetz Dining Hall and a recycling competition between each of the residence halls that is continuing throughout the entire month of February. As of Tuesday, Feb. 19, Landers Hall and Barnum Hall are in the lead for the competition.
Throughout this process, Salsbury and Bradley stated that their hope was to help provide students with tools and to cause them to think about how they can make sustainable choices.
“I’m just hoping that inspires people to maybe make changes to their life and be more conscious, and hopefully with the craft night people can see that you can upcycle and make things for your house — whether it’s decor or storage — out of things that that you already have,” said Bradley.
“It’s really important just to be aware of your impact on the environment. So, anything that we can do to make people just actively think about how they’re affecting the area around them is going to be beneficial,” said Salsbury.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Paul F. Davis
Grand opening of Western’s new Child Development Center location
Bailey Thompson | News Editor
Western’s Child Development Center has been open since 1980, but on Jan. 7, it began its relocation to a new home behind the Campus Public Safety Office, where Western’s ROTC program used to be located.
To celebrate the move, the CDC hosted a grand opening event on Feb. 13 with a treasure hunt for students, tours of the new facility, a cake, visits with Wolfie and a speech from President Rex Fuller.
“This whole project came about because of a question I was asked during the State of the University Address a couple of years ago,” said Fuller. “’Hey, what about a better space for the child development center?’ After that, we did some analysis and started the project.”
Currently serving 51 students from the community ranging from ages 18 months to 12 years old, the CDC is open to children of Western students, staff and faculty as well as other member of the community.
When asked about the reasoning behind the move, CDC Director Tammy Gardner shared that Todd Hall was lacking some amenities and safety qualifications that the new site has.
“We were just finding it very cramped over there in Todd Hall. The building is very old, so there were some earthquake safety issues with us there to be able to evacuate a building,” said Gardner.
With their new facility, which has been heavily remodeled, Gardner celebrated a number of new amenities: big bathrooms, a spacious backyard, a lobby and nicer classrooms, amongst other things.
In addition to the facility, Dr. Fuller added that another strength of the CDC is its staff.
“We currently have a director, five teachers, 11 student staff, and six volunteers,” said Fuller. “They really do great work and go above scale in terms of providing a safe and welcoming learning environment for our students. It’s exciting to see that.”
Gardner added how excited she is to have staff members who are able to connect with the diverse group of children that they serve at the CDC.
“We’re very multicultural,” said Gardner. “We’ve got three bilingual staff members that are Spanish-speaking, and we’ve got two bilingual volunteers who speak Mandarin, so that’s really helped with some of our visiting scholars.”
Throughout her remarks, Gardner reaffirmed a number of times how caring and helpful different people and organizations from the university have been towards the CDC, and how grateful she is to be a part of this community.
“We feel very very supported and loved by the WOU community, from facilities to Valsetz and President Fuller. They’re our champions who really got this project going. It’s amazing.”
Gardner also shared that, for anyone who would like to get involved with the CDC, they can email her at gardnert@wou.edu or visit the volunteer link on their webpage.
“We’re open to volunteers, suggestions, or invitations,” said Gardner.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Paul F. Davis
I <3 Female Orgasm comes to Western
Bailey Thompson | News Editor
After much anticipation and hard work from the numerous campus organizations who sponsored the event, renowned sex educators Lindsay Fram and Marshall Miller brought the program “I <3 Female Orgasm” to Western on Feb. 7. This event packed the Columbia Room in the Werner University Center, with a number of seats being added and still having several people standing in the back of the room.
“Presented over 500 times to over 100,000 people in 44 states, the female orgasm program has become one of the most popular college sex-education programs in the country,” said Abby’s House Peer Advocate and senior community health education major Keith Mathew while introducing the program.
From the get-go, Fram communicated that this event would cover things that were lighthearted, but also serious at times.
“This is a fun topic, but it’s not only a fun topic. There are a lot of really important health reasons that we all need access to good information about our bodies and our sexuality,” said Fram. “There’s this lie all around us that there’s just one way to be sexual. That all of our bodies work the exact same way — that we all want the exact same thing. Or even the lie that says that we’re all interested in being sexual. Because if we can reclaim our pleasure … that’s a huge act of resistance.”
In this way, the talk began by acknowledging the diversity of experience that would likely be in the room — both in terms of sexuality and gender identity.
“One of the questions that some people may have had even before they got here tonight is ‘how are they going to define female?’ And we define it super inclusively,” said Fram. “We’re going to talk about people who were assigned female at birth, people who identify as women — we know sometimes those categories overlap and sometimes they don’t.”
With this established, Fram and Miller set out to explain a variety of things about the female orgasm: the science behind it, the different strategies to achieve it and the myths that surround it.
One thing that the presenters said was valuable for people to note is that there is a physical difference that exists surrounding orgasms for males and females, which some women may not fully realize.
“On average, it takes someone with a vulva and clitoris about 20 minutes of direct stimulation in a way that feels good to them to reach an orgasm,” said Fram. Miller then contrasted this idea by saying that, “it takes a person with a penis two to five minutes.”
Taking this into consideration, Miller and Fram expressed that it is important that partners are willing to take the time to make sure that they are both being fulfilled when they are intimate.
“It’s really important to do the hard work and listen to what your partner is trying to say and to try and see things from their perspective. That can really give a huge boost to your sex life,” said Fram.
However, the pair also emphasized that this kind of experimentation with pleasure is also something that people can pursue on their own.
“If you have never had an orgasm before and you are interested in learning how, a lot of people say that masturbation is the fastest and easiest way to learn,” said Fram. “By the age of 15, only about half of people with vaginas have figured out how to have an orgasm, but a lot of people with penises have figured that out. So, it’s totally normal to be college-aged and still figuring out how to have an orgasm.”
The overarching message of this presentation was that there are many ways to experience pleasure, so people should not get too caught up in the rules and limitations that they have heard from society.
“We really hope that you’ll say goodbye to taboo and hello to more pleasure because, whether it is by yourself or with someone who you respect and respects you back, orgasms are awesome,” said Fram. “They reduce stress, they relieve headaches and menstrual cramps, they burn calories, they relieve junk food cravings and they are a great way to spend a Thursday night.”
For anyone who is interested in learning more about the “I <3 Female Orgasm” program, they can find additional information at ilovefemaleorgasm.com.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton
Out and Proud educates students about STDs
Bailey Thompson | News Editor
Out and Proud has been an event that has celebrated intersectional LGBTQ+ issues at Western since 2009. Ten years later, the MSU-sponsored event was able to have one of the founders of the original Out and Proud event, Joseluis “Louie” Antonio Arce, come and speak before a new generation of Western students.
“I created Out and Proud 10 years ago in 2009 when I joined MSU. I was a freshman, and I saw a bunch of things on campus — I saw MEChA, I saw MSU, I saw Triangle Alliance — and all of them were me,” said Arce. “These are all a part of who I am as a person, but there was nothing for gay people of color. So, I decided to work with my club … and I created Out and Proud. And I’m so glad that it’s (continued) for 10 years.”
Arce then shared that his journey has been one of a gay, Latino male who became HIV positive nearly 12 years ago and who is driven to use his platform to educate young people about safe sexual practices.
Starting off his story, Arce began by remembering a phone call he received on the day he was diagnosed.
“This day was different because I know it was my doctor’s office, and they had my results,” said Arce. “My honest-to-God first thought was, ‘I have it. I have AIDS, and I’m going to die.’”
After he was given the news, though, Arce shared how his perspective changed.
“All I could do to keep from losing it was laugh,” said Arce. “I felt alive. I had just received the worst news I had ever heard in my life, but for the first time I was living in the moment.”
Beyond that day, Arce shared that he invested time to learn things about HIV that he didn’t know before.
“I was learning so much. I always thought that AIDS was an actual virus, but … HIV is one thing, and AIDS is the status of your virus,” said Arce. With this in mind, he has worked to take care of himself and to keep his CD4 count low.
“I have been fighting to stay positive — both inside and out,” said Arce.
In light of this story, the organizers of Out and Proud also had representatives from Polk and Marion County Health and Human Services to talk with attendees about their sexual health.
“Because of Louie’s story, we just want you guys’s input about what we can do at the health department to promote testing and to make sure that you’re aware of STDs and HIV and what you guys can do for prevention,” said one of the health department representatives.
Overall, both Arce and the representatives wanted to make sure that students knew that there are resources available to them, including the Student Health and Counseling Center, online resources, Planned Parenthood and Marion and Polk County Health and Human Services.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton
Western holds 63rd annual Family Weekend
Ashlynn Norton | Photo Editor
Families from various locations and walks of life came to Western’s campus from Feb. 8-10 to partake in the 63rd Annual Family Weekend put on by Student Engagement.
The weekend’s festivities started off with a dinner Friday night to welcome families. President Rex Fuller began the festivities with a welcome speech and then gave the floor over to the entertainment of the night: a murder mystery improv show. Guests were given name tags displaying the names of celebrities and interacted with the actors while they tried to find out who the murderer was. In the end, when all was said and done, only one table correctly guessed that it was Taylor Swift who was in fact the murderer.
Saturday was a chock-full of events for every age.
For those 21 and up, there was wine tasting out at Eola Hills Wine Cellars. Family Weekend guests were able to travel to the winery and not only taste wine, but also be educated about the different types that were available.
Back on campus, there was rock painting, a photo booth and a caricature artist in the Summit inside the Werner University Center. At the same time, over in the Health and Wellness Center, the 2nd Annual Cornhole Tournament was underway. There were educational seminars sprinkled throughout the day where families could learn about how to better communicate with their first-year student, get a crash course in how money works, or even how to journal.
The night ended with a doubleheader of men’s and women’s basketball games.
The weekend came to a close on Sunday when families gathered once more in the Pacific Room for brunch while winners of various activities were announced.
Trina Lowther from Forest Grove, Oregon, visiting her first-year daughter Abi Lowther, a psychology major, said her favorite thing about Family Weekend was, “that we got to spend so much time together, like as a family.”
Western will also be holding its first ever Siblings Weekend in May for siblings who are in grades 8-12. Registration for this event will open in March.
Contact the author at anorton17@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton
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