Mount Hood

“Don’t forget, don’t ever forget”

By: Conner Williams
Editor-in-Chief

Powerful feelings accompanied all those that traveled through campus May 4-5. At a glance or from a distance, the scene appeared to be a beautiful display of blooming flowers under the springtime sun, with all colors of the rainbow glimmering in the expanse of the fresh, green landscape encompassing Western’s serene setting.

But upon further inspection, the scene changed drastically.

What first seemed to be a colorful spectacle of a springtime botanical pleasantry was, in fact, a brutal reminder of one of the greatest tragedies in human history: the Holocaust.

27,660 miniature flags poked out of the grass along the walkways carving their way through the heart of campus as part of Western’s role in Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Each flag represented about 500 people killed during the Holocaust.

True figures are impossible to measure, and all that we have are approximations; an estimated 13.8 million people.

The flags were separated out by color to represent a different denomination of people:

Yellow for Jewish adults – 8,534 flags representing 4,267,000 deaths

Small yellow for Jewish children – 3,500 flags representing 1,750,000 deaths

Brown for Roma and Sinti (Gypsies) – 1,000 flags representing 500,000 deaths

Pink for homosexuals – 30 flags representing 15,000 deaths

White for Jehovah’s Witnesses – 6 flags representing 3,000 deaths

Orange for mentally/physically disabled – 500 flags representing 250,000 deaths

Red for Soviet prisoners of war – 6,600 flags representing 3,300,000

Blue for Polish Catholics – 6,000 flags representing 3,000,000 deaths

Lime for Spanish republicans – 40 flags representing 20,000 deaths

Green for Serbians – 1,400 flags representing 700,000 deaths

Jennifer Murphy-Schwanke, a senior sociology major, has experienced tragic loss herself. She lost two of her three kids.

“To think that each flag doesn’t even represent one [person], it represents that many more … I’m a parent and it just hits me that there’s that many people that have lost family and it hasn’t even been 100 years yet,” said Murphy-Schwanke.

“There are parallels today, and if I could tell anyone one thing – not that I’ve been touched by it myself but to just think of the families that have been – take five minutes and attempt to put yourself in their shoes,” Murphy-Schwanke said. “Don’t forget, don’t ever forget.”

As part of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Deb Mrowka, whose family largely survived the events of the Holocaust, spoke on May 5 about her family’s incredible journey through the internment camps, particularly her mother’s amazing unbreakable willpower in the face of immeasurable odds.

Mrowka used to bring her mother, Eline Hoekstra Dresden, with her when they traveled to different speaking events in order to offer commentary and answer questions, but Dresden is now unable to do so since she has reached 93 years of age.

Mrowka spoke of the history of World War II and the conception of the Nazi Party’s rise to power as Germany attempted to rebuild after economically shattering war reparations pulsed through the country after World War I.

Perhaps one of the most compelling moments of Mrowka’s presentation was when she commented on the carefully orchestrated psychological manipulation the Nazis executed on their victims. She spoke of how they were “so smart” in the way they allowed for slight glimmers of hope to be allowed in the Nazi Party’s captives for the sole purpose of ripping it away later on. In one instance, Mrowka spoke of people who were forced out of their homes but were allowed to bring a suitcase full of whatever they could fit in it, which allowed for a small sense of hope that the victims might be able to trade something they owned for their life.

“The difference between being a victim and a survivor is your attitude,” Mrowka said. “If you keep the attitude of being a victim, you’ve let the perpetrator win.”

Mrowka’s family hailed from Utrecht, in the Netherlands, and upon realizing that some parts of western Europe were no longer safe for Jews when the war began in 1939, they took in two Jewish refugee children whose parents had sent them way from Germany.

After the Netherlands was invaded, German authorities found the two orphans and forced their relocation back to the orphanage, where they were ultimately deported to the Auschwitz concentration camps and murdered.

Dresden graduated from high school in 1940 and was forced out of college in 1941 when the Nazis expelled Jews from all schools, afterwards seizing Dresden’s family home in the Netherlands.

Dresden became pregnant in 1941 and had to walk to the hospital to give birth since Jews were not allowed to use any other forms of transportation. She bore a son, Daantje, who she gave up when he was three months old to a non-Jewish family that volunteered to hide him for safekeeping.

Somehow, the family was kept in contact with and Dresden was reunited with Daantje when he was three years old after she was liberated from an internment camp in the Netherlands called Westerbork on April 12, 1945.

In 1958, Dresden, her husband, and their five children, including Mrowka, emigrated from the Netherlands to a rural area near Portland, Oregon.

Brianna Martinez, a sophomore exercise science major, touched on her feelings of the presentation and about Western’s contribution to Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“I’ve always been interested in the Holocaust, and to hear someone’s story is so much different than reading about it in a textbook in a history class,” Martinez said after Mrowka’s presentation.

“[The flag display] definitely makes me sad, to think that each one represents 500 people, it’s crazy to think about,” said Martinez.

Amanda Owren, a sophomore psychology major, noted Mrowka’s overall lighthearted tone when discussing the events that her family endured.

“It says a lot about the person that they’re able to go through that and still have a positive attitude and look back on it without just negative thoughts,” said Owren. “I know if I went through that, I couldn’t do it.”

“She’s definitely like her mom, she’s so strong,” Martinez added.

Towards the end of her presentation, Mrowka alluded to similarities between the rhetoric of her family’s past and that of the current political climate in the United States.

“It scares me the way that some people are voting … Just like in Germany in those days, people had to blame somebody,” said Mrowka. “And so, if you follow that rhetoric and you blame other people in regards to immigration and these other things, that’s just not American.”

“We are an awesome country and we should celebrate the differences in people instead of negating them,” stated Mrowka.

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

Obama surprises students

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

On April 28, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary was busy speaking to a crowd of college journalists gathered in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room when the President of the United States showed up for a surprise visit.
“I hear there’s some hotshot journalists in here,” said President Barack Obama as he approached the podium where Earnest stood. “I heard you guys were around today, so I wanted to stop by and say hello.”
The event, which hosted college journalists from across 28 states, was held in Washington D.C. within the White House itself. Issues relevant to college in the United States, such as Title IX initiatives and student loan debt, were covered as part of the process.
Going with the theme, Obama stated that he had some breaking news for the new generation of reporters.
The President stated that he intends to enroll 2 million more individuals into the Pay As You Earn program. This program caps the amount of student debt loans that a borrower has to repay to 10 percent of their monthly income. This plan would hopefully take place by April 2017.
Community colleges were not forgotten either, being approached as an item that may become free in the future with federal support.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done in education to make sure that millions of kids who previously couldn’t afford to go to college can,” the President said.
To see the official White House recording of the event, visit http://1.usa.gov/1TuZZN7
Contact the author at Jberesheim11@wou.edu or on Twitter @WOUjournalnews

Oregon Senator cosponsors campus sexual assault bill

By: Conner Williams
Editor-in-Chief

A bill formed last year addressing sexual assault on college campuses is being urged in part by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and 34 other cosponsors to be passed by the Senate immediately.

After being idle for about nine months, the bill, titled the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, would “ensure campus sexual assault cases are handled with professionalism and fairness to better protect and empower students, and would provide colleges and universities with incentives to solve the problem of sexual assault on their campuses,” according to a statement from Hank Stern, Wyden’s press secretary.

“Ensuring the most basic protection – safety – for young people trying to get an education ought to be foremost in our minds,” Wyden said in the statement.

Of the bill’s 35 cosponsors, 22 are Democrats, 12 are Republicans, and one is an Independent. The bill is being pushed as a strongly bipartisan effort to address many of the issues relating to sexual assault on college campuses. The bill was originally introduced to the Senate in February 2015, was then reviewed by a committee in late July 2015, and has since gained some headway in being brought back into the spotlight in hopes of being passed.

If passed, the bill would do the following: establish new campus resources and support services for student survivors, ensure minimum training standards for on-campus personnel, create new transparency requirements, require a uniform discipline process and coordination with law enforcement, and establish enforceable Title IX penalties and stiffer penalties for Clery Act violations.

Data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that college campuses reported more than 6,700 forcible sex offenses in 2014. However, a study from the Department of Justice claims that that figure may be underreported by at least four times the true amount.

For Western, data shows that there were five occurrences of rape on campus in 2014, and one case of rape in on-campus student-housing facilities.

Rebecca Chiles, director of Campus Public Safety at Western, said that the main goal to combat sexual assault is to provide tactics that address preventative measures, rather than simply resources for after the fact.

“We have so many resources available for people here on campus,” said Chiles. “We want it to be confronted before it happens and to be stopped, we don’t want it to just be a resource place for after it happens.”

Chiles also noted that if a student reports an instance of sexual assault to Public Safety, the department cannot legally report it to the local law enforcement agency.

“The victim has to say, ‘I want this reported.’ They have to decide if it will be reported to the police or not,” said Chiles.

Chiles said that Public Safety works with student leaders on campus, including Resident Advisers, PLUS Team leaders, and Summer Bridge leaders, among others.

“It’s about education, and it’s about encouraging people to report [instances] that may not rise to the level of sexual assault, but could still be considered inappropriate,” said Chiles.

“I would encourage people to speak up and speak out, and to not let this stuff go unnoticed,” said Chiles. “Call out people’s behavior that is inappropriate, unhealthy, and, especially, criminal.”

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

This week in WOU history

By: Alvin Wilson
Staff Writer

May 3, 1998, CampuScreen Shot 2016-05-01 at 8.50.35 PMs Public Safety responded to a report of a man wielding a handgun outside of Valsetz Dining Hall. Five police cars promptly arrived on campus only to discover that the handgun was a toy cap gun. The cap gun was a prop being used by actors for WSTV, Western’s former student-produced television station. The students involved, despite having a reasonable excuse for possessing the gun look-alike, faced charges of inciting a riot and disorderly conduct.

May 6, 2005, students in professor Jordan Hofer’s Anthropology 399 class prepared fundraisers in an attempt to figuratively adopt a chimpanzee. The final project for this Primatology course, instead of a paper or speech, was to raise funds to sponsor an orphaned chimpanzee with the Jane Goodall Institute. One fundraiser was a raffle for a gift basket which included a stuffed chimp, candy, and a movie coupon from Blockbuster.

Oregon DHS fails all 13 federal child care standards

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

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Recent federal report findings regarding Oregon’s Department of Human Services’ responsiveness to child welfare concerns show the department is failing in all 13 standards.

Originally, a 2008 review reported that the state’s department was failing in 11 of 13 standards. With the new 140-page assessment is required every six years and directly impacts federal funding.

After the results of the 2008 assessment, Human Services was given an implementation plan to bring the department back up within standard range.

However director Clyde Saiki wrote an email to all state legislators stating that it was clear the agency did not appropriately implement or track the plan.

The assessment covers areas of child welfare such as the amount of child maltreatment cases, how many of those cases were recurrent, cases that were not conducted with sufficient investigations, and the timeliness of how cases were handled.

Current assessment results, reported by the Statesman Journal, show only 50 percent of cases were addressed in a timely manner, with some of these cases receiving timely responses 15.5 percent of the time.

Due to the shortcomings within the department now presented with this recent assessment, Governor Kate Brown stated that she is disappointed with the review and has ordered an investigation.

Becca Philippi, a 2016 WOU graduate in early childhood education, reported having her own difficulties with Child Protective Services.

“I worked with preschool age children from at-risk families, and we worked closely with [Child Protective Services] on several issues,” said Philippi. “They are severely understaffed there and have way too much on their caseload.”

Philippi mirrored the problems stated in the report, saying, “… issues are not responded to in time or sometimes fell through the cracks completely.”

“When I worked in the public schools, there wasn’t a system in place, and there were multiple instances where I was concerned for a student but frustrated that I couldn’t help the child farther than reporting what I noticed,” said Philippi.

Multiple times within her work, Philippi dealt with students coming into class exhausted or hungry with stories of not eating or sleeping.

Brandon Sherrard, a 2015 Western graduate with an education degree, now works as a licensed substitute teacher who is a mandatory reporter.

“I have no experience with reporting cases as of today,” said Sherrard. “This news is a shock. [It] makes me feel like we’re failing our children.”

If it is suspected that a child is being abused or neglected, please contact your local Department of Human Services office or the police immediately. Polk County has a dedicated child abuse hotline, which can be reached at 503-378-6704 or the Toll Free Marion County Human Services office at 800-854-3508.

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

What’s in a delegate?

By: Conner Williams
Editor-in-Chief

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If you’ve been paying attention to this election cycle, you’ve likely heard the term “delegate” being tossed around quite a bit. The process for electing a new president is quite complex, and there are many moving cogs in the machine that is our democratic system.

To start, we’ve got the presidential primaries. These decide which candidate from each political party will be selected as that party’s nominee for the presidency. The voters cast their votes, and those votes are then converted into delegates. Those delegates are party officials from each state that are pledged to vote for the candidate represented by the people’s votes. Each state has a different amount based on its population, and if a candidate reaches a certain number of delegates before their party’s national convention, they will have secured the party’s nomination for the presidency. For the Republicans, 1,237 delegates are needed in order to secure the nomination; for the Democrats, 2,383 delegates are needed.

However, the process for how a candidate earns the votes of the delegates is a bit strange as well. For example, if a candidate wins delegates in a state and then later drops out of the race, what happens to those delegates? Well, they are then awarded to a different candidate.

In addition to regular delegates, there are also superdelegates that are a part of the system, and this is where things get a bit more complicated. First, a quick definition: superdelegates are restricted to the Democratic Party, and they are delegates that are free to support any candidate at the party’s national convention. So, even if one candidate won the delegate count for a certain state, that state’s superdelegate count could, in turn, vote for a different candidate than the one the voters cast their votes for during the primary.

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.”