Mount Hood

Costume crazed

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

JennaColumn1

Everyone has that friend – the one who decorates for Halloween the first day of October and prepares to party on several separate occasions throughout the month. Out of those who enjoy Halloween, there are some who take our costuming a little more seriously.

As someone who falls into this category, and also cosplays on the side, I have compiled a few tips and tricks from my own personal trial and error through the years.

1. Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3
Always test your makeup and costuming accessories such as latex prosthetics before the night you intend to wear them. It would be best to know if you are going to have an allergic reaction beforehand rather than ruining your party plans. Also, most Halloween makeup rubs off easily onto clothes, furniture, and so forth, so plan accordingly.

2. You get what you pay for.
From the dollar store makeup to the thrift store wig – you get the quality of product that you pay for. The cheaper the makeups, the worse reactions your skin may have to them.

3. Know your comfort level.
In the end, it’s all about your enjoyment of the holiday. If you do not feel comfortable wearing certain items or showing skin, then don’t. Get creative with your costuming and be what you want to be, sexy version or more subtle.

4. Use your resources!
For those who wish to do their own makeup or costuming, there are hundreds of online resources, from Pinterest to Youtube. There are tutorials that will show you the most basic techniques for makeup, or completely transforming your look with latex and prosthetics.

5. Support small businesses.
There are many stores that stock higher quality products and know their stuff, rather than the major Halloween warehouses that open up seasonally. These stores are open year-round and are full of enthusiasts willing to help you figure out the best pieces for your costume.

6. Prepare for mishaps.
Uncomfortable shoes, straps breaking, seams bursting, makeup melting … the list goes on. Just be ready for them, and know your costume’s limits.

7. Better safe than sorry.
If you’re walking across town to get to your event, bring an extra jacket and a comfortable pair of shoes you can switch into for the journey.

8. Know your strengths.
Do you excel at styling hair but falter at false lashes? Focus on something that accentuates your skills, or pair up with a friend to use both your strengths!

9. Don’t be offensive.
We’re a culture, not a costume. This message has become even bolder in the past few years, focusing on how it is inappropriate to dress up as a culture for a costume.

10. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Ultimately, it’s about having fun. Whether you’re going all out or taking the store bought route, don’t worry about what others think. That “Sharknado” costume is definitely a good idea.

What are you really funding?

By: From the desk of the Journal Editorial Team

October has been branded National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in America.

All month long, we are provided with endless opportunities to support those in our country affected by breast cancer, and even more opportunities to buy pink merchandise that purports to support further research into the disease.

The force behind the Pink-Out cause is noble, and it is building. The ravages of a disease that will affect one out of every eight women in America (according to the breast cancer society) can be debilitating for friends and family as well as the actual patient.

Creating a network of survivors and supporters who drive a fundraising machine aimed at eliminating a possibly lethal disease sounds like a great plan, but the leaders in the charity research movement are frequently less scrupulous than their cause.

The most prominent example of research money going astray in recent memory is the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure.

It has been reported by Reuters that in 2011, a mere 15 percent of the money donated to the foundation actually went to fund research, with 43 percent going to education, 18 percent going towards fund-raising and administrative costs, and 17 percent to help with screening and treatment of the disease.

Even if this report isn’t 100 percent accurate – not-for-profits are subject to more relaxed financial reporting standards than for-profits – it still points to a larger, disturbing trend of misdirection used by large-scale charity organizations.

In fact, some of the most trusted charitable organizations like the American Red Cross have been embroiled in funding mismanagement scandals recently.

National Public Radio exposed the American Red Cross’s financial misdoings in a 2015 article. According to the article, after raising around half a billion dollars to build homes in Haiti following the devastating earthquake of 2011, they reported that they had built 130,000 homes, but in actuality, the total number of homes built by the Red Cross in Haiti totals just six.

Where did the rest of that money go? The debate falls somewhere between wildly out of control administrative spending, and simply an increasing cost of purchasing materials and labor to build.

Whatever the reason, it doesn’t even begin to make up for almost half a billion dollars in missing funds.

However, a few bad apples doesn’t mean that there is a shortage of reliable ways to donate to charity knowing that your contribution isn’t simply going to pay for administrator’s expenses or producing more charity gear for you to buy.

Our intention is not to dissuade you from making a donation, but we hope that our suggestions below will help you make the most impact you can.

Donate your time, not your money.

One of the simplest ways you can make a safe donation is donating your time and your abilities to charity. Organizations like Habitat for Humanity and The Special Olympics are always in need of able-bodied individuals to help in construction of houses, and set-up/breakdown of sporting events.

Donating your time is especially valuable because you get to experience your effect first hand. You know exactly what you did, and you can work confidently that your contribution made a difference. Conversely, you can simply leave if you become uncomfortable with how a charity is using its resources.

Donate physical goods when you can.

Places like the American Red Cross frequently ask for money because it is easier for donors to simply send a text or make a quick phone call to complete their donation. However, disaster relief organizations, halfway houses, and family shelters are always happy to accept physical items like canned or non-perishable food, blankets, and sealed personal hygiene items.

Playing devil’s advocate, it is difficult for physical items to be misused in the same way that money is. While money can be funneled around under the guise of “administrative expenses” or “education,” physical goods are of little value to the organization but they hold high value to the individuals on the receiving end of your charity.

Look at the publicly posted financials for charities.

All charities and not-for-profits are required to post their financial statements like any for-profit company. While these statements can be confusing at times, it is important to consider the proportion of donations that actually go to the mission of the organization.

Financial statements can be doctored to show a higher proportion of cash donations going to the cause like with Komen, but most local charities do not have the time or the resources to create the same detailed level of smoke and mirrors. This brings us to our final suggestion.

Donate to local charities rather than large-scale organizations.

Once you decide to donate, look for a charity in your area that deals with the issue you wish to address. For example, if you want to help with food insecurity, consider donating to the Marion-Polk County Food Share rather than the national Meals-on-Wheels program.

While Meals-on-Wheels is a reputable charity, their large-scale focus can create difficulty in reaching local communities. This is where Marion-Polk County Food Share steps in, and they are better able to address the specific needs of a Salem and the surrounding area.

Good riddance Christopher Columbus

By: Jenna Beresheim 
News Editor

For over 80 federally recognized years, Native Americans have watched our country celebrate a day commending Columbus, a historical figure who induced indigenous peoples’ genocide and European colonization. But it is not only the United States – other countries observe the day, such as Italy and Spain.

Now, though, there may be hope for our native peoples.
Recently, the Portland City Council officially joined the slow-moving bandwagon by declaring a shift from Columbus Day, typically recognized on the second Monday of October, to Indigenous People’s Day.

Portland joins at least seven other cities around the country that are making the change. The movement began with the International Indian Council in Berkeley, California as a protest against Columbus Day in 1992.

This shift directly ties into the fact that the Portland area reportedly has the 9th-largest indigenous population in the US.

Amongst that population are nine different federally recognized tribes, such as the Burns Paiute Tribe, Coquille Indian Tribe, and Klamath Tribes. There are at least 11 more Oregon tribes and clans that are not federally recognized.
Growing up, my elementary teachers taught our class the familiar mnemonic “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” While this was helpful to remember the date of Columbus’ so-called “discovery” of America, we were fed the sugar-coated version of what this truly meant.

We need to understand the real version, not only for our history, but for the history of those who had already inhabited the land before immigration to the area.
A key point to note is that historians are actually unclear as to who first discovered America.

History occasionally becomes blurry in the sense that there is little documentation of certain events, or those said documents come up against questions of validity.
An example would be John Smith – an English explorer who wrote of his tales in America. While some bits and pieces of his writings are fairly accurate, such as what Native Americans wore, other chapters became more about primping Smith’s ego than portraying an accurate account of his explorations.

Competing theories of who exactly discovered America are as follows: Irish Monks in the 6th Century, Vikings in the 10th Century, and The Chinese in the 15th Century. However, that last one is admittedly lacking in credible evidence.
Regardless, Columbus came, saw, and conquered.

By taking on the Western Hemisphere, good old Christopher brought the disease party train with him, complete with smallpox, measles, and influenza – effectively destroying 90 percent of the native population. The cherry on top of the smallpox sundae was that Columbus even had a hand in the transatlantic slave trade.

Maybe that is why Oregon has never officially observed the “holiday.” Hawaii, Alaska, and South Dakota must have also caught the memo of Columbus’ nefarious deeds, as they also refused to have a day off in recognition of something clearly corrupt with the celebration.

Slowly, entire states are making the change by either renaming the day to Native American Day or Indigenous People’s Day, or not even observing the day at all. For Native Americans, this proves that our country is willing to cease a celebration of mass genocide and give a tip of the hat to our predecessors on this land.

Now if only it was that easy to remove novelty Native American costumes and headdresses from Halloween or the runway.

So whether you find yourself in the Leif Erikson boat, or one of the many other possibilities for the discovery of a land already populated, remember to celebrate responsibly: sans the mass destruction of an entire race.

Democratic debate discusses the issues, not the candidates

By: Conner Williams 
Editor-in-Chief

The first Democratic debate of the 2016 Presidential Election aired on CNN Tuesday night as the five candidates took the stage to hash it out over some of our nation’s biggest challenges.

The debate was moderated by Anderson Cooper and saw a record-high 15.3 million viewers, shattering the 2008 record when Barack Obama debated Hillary Clinton towards the end of the primaries.

And that’s what made the debate such a joy to watch: it was actually about the issues, rather than about exchanging personal attacks and calling people losers.

“On this stage … You didn’t hear anyone make racist comments about new American immigrants … You didn’t hear anyone speak ill of another American because of their religious beliefs … What you heard on this stage tonight was an honest search for the answers that’ll move our country forward,” said Martin O’Malley (D), former Governor of Maryland.

O’Malley then went on to commend millennials by saying “talk to our young people under the age of 30, because you’ll never see among them people that want to bash immigrants, or people that want to deny rights to gay couples. That tells me that we are moving to a more connected, generous and accomplished place.”

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) also addressed millennials, saying, “If we want free tuition at public colleges and universities, millions of young people are going to have to demand it.”

And we have the power to demand it. We make up the largest denomination of people in the United States, and we need to make our voices heard.

Every American needs to be concerned about the state of our crumbling infrastructure, our disgustingly broken for-profit student loan system, the notion that we have more people currently incarcerated than any other country on earth, and the fact that tens of millions of Americans currently do not have healthcare coverage.

Unlike the Republican debates, which centered on socially divisive and economically insignificant issues like abortion, illegal immigration and gay rights, the Democratic debate actually addressed some of the economic issues facing the American public, including income inequality, affordable college tuition, closing tax loopholes for the ultra-rich, and providing affordable healthcare.

I’m not downplaying the validity of discussions that center around social issues, but let’s be real, should we really be asking candidates if they would or wouldn’t attend a marriage between two gay people if they were invited, as was the case in the Republican debate? Are those kinds of questions really going to help us tackle some of the great issues facing us right now?

Probably not, but they tug at the emotions of the Republican audience and sound like they’re important issues. After all, campaign finance reform isn’t as flashy or divisive of a topic as, say, abortion or immigration, which Republicans use to hold negotiations hostage and that tend to become polarized discussions, meaning that they divide people rather than bring them together over serious issues that need addressing.

There are serious issues that need discussing, not the state of Donald Trump’s hair or Hillary Clinton’s “damn emails,” as Sanders so bluntly put it on Tuesday night.

In addition to defending his fellow candidate and treating her like an actual human being instead of attacking her character, Sanders also decided to explain his stance on our economic system of capitalism.

“Do I consider myself part of the casino-capitalism process by which so few have so much and so many have so little, by which Wall Street’s greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don’t,” Sanders said.

In the wake of the horrible tragedy that occurred at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., Clinton decided to take a risk and call out one of the largest lobbying powers in Washington.

“It’s time the entire country stood up against the [National Rifle Association],” Clinton said.

Clinton also called out the Republican Party’s sense of hypocrisy when it comes to denouncing the scope of the federal government.

“It’s always the Republicans or their sympathizers who say ‘you can’t have paid leave, you can’t provide healthcare,’ they don’t mind having big government interfere with a woman’s right to choose and to try to take down Planned Parenthood, they’re fine with big government when it comes to that, I’m sick of it,” Clinton said.

When it comes down to it, our greatest social and economic challenges will not be solved by closing the border and deporting hard-working people. In fact, we would be amiss to say that we are not dependent on the cheap labor that is supplied by a largely Latino-based workforce, like agriculture and service-based jobs that are essential to growing and supplying crops that feed the populace.

We will not fix the spiraling-out-of-control issue of income inequality by debating the Constitutional validity of the federal legalization of gay marriage, or the potential federal legalization of recreational marijuana use.

We will not change the broken higher education system that sends thousands of young people into crippling debt every year by threatening to shut down the government if a women’s healthcare organization is not defunded.

We’ve got to focus on the real issues at hand, not the click-bait surface material that the outlandish Republican Party so loves to provide the media.

Each one of us needs to properly educate ourselves about the issues facing all of us, and we need to make sure that we choose to elect a candidate that represents our interests, and not the issues of a few super-rich individuals.

ASWho?

By: Brianna Bonham 
Staff Writer

According to their page on OrgSync, ASWOU promises to encompass all students of Western Oregon University and to advocate for their rights to the administration, the state of Oregon, and to the nation.

I am a first year student here at Western and I, like many others, am starting to finally settle in here on campus.

I have been writing and taking photos for The Journal since I’ve been here, and I was to write an article this week describing specifically what ASWOU does for the community of Western, and the changes they are making this year to better serve our campus community.

I went down to the office on Monday morning to interview a member of ASWOU and walked back to my dorm empty-handed. There was no one available to talk to, and the president’s hours conflicted with my class schedule.

Tuesday was the same story. At this point I was nervous because the deadline for my article was fast approaching, and I had yet to write a single word.

Wednesday afternoon I finally found two members of ASWOU and felt a wave of relief. I talked to them and was then told to talk to the president, Corbin Garner, who was in a meeting at the time, or to talk to the vice president. Coincidentally, the vice president of ASWOU does not exist at the moment as they were previously unable to fill the position in the last elections.

ASWOU, like The Journal, is funded by the Incidental Fees Committee and receives a portion of the fees collected from students every term. However, someone from The Journal is always available upon entrance to Terry House, or can be reached easily with a quick phone call. I personally believe that if a student organization like ASWOU benefits from student fees, even if that amount is small, at least one person should be willing and able to serve the students of Western.

All I know about ASWOU is that they promise to be a representative voice of the students of Western, and they encourage students to let their voices be heard.

How are we supposed to be heard when ASWOU is not listening? The frustration of not being able to complete my job should not be an issue, especially when it involves people that promise to be leaders and communicators.

Dead-lock

By: Jack Armstrong
Copy Editor

This past week my adopted home of Oregon experienced an act of unbelievable violence.

In the days since the incident, a jaded public has been searching for a sense of closure, a sense of understanding for why our nation is forced to confront senseless mass violence more frequently than ever.

The tragedy that was perpetrated on the Umpqua Community College campus has been blamed on everything from prominent loop-holes in gun control laws, to a lack of public options for mental healthcare.

In all of the soul searching, however, there is one factor that has yet to be discussed at length. That factor is freedom of speech and the World Wide Web.

The shooter took to the internet, posting about his intentions on a site called 4Chan the day before he took his own life along with the lives of nine other innocent bystanders.

For those who chose to avoid the wasteland fringes of the web, 4Chan is an imageboard based web forum (not unlike reddit) where users gather to post on a wide range of topics. While this may seem innocuous, the reality of what 4Chan has evolved into is frequently much seedier than the exterior.

Members of 4Chan were behind the recent mass leak of hacked celebrity personal photos. In fact, several boards on 4Chan are devoted exclusively to the extremely controversial practice of curating revenge porn.

The significance of the gunman posting to 4Chan wasn’t the fact that he posted about it. Many mass murderers have chosen to speak about their acts prior to committing them, and it is especially common when a student seeks to harm their peers.

The significance of the shooter posting on 4Chan is that 4Chan could speak back, and they used that ability to push a desperate individual over the edge. They spoke out in anonymity, urging this man to commit to his act, and even going so far as to give him advice about how to streamline his plan and maximize his kills.

This is horrific. The idea that a group of strangers could be so callous and desensitized as to push someone over the edge, someone who was clearly willing to pull as many souls down with him as possible. It is almost inconceivable.

The problem is, 4Chan’s right to push people over the edge is protected by the constitution. The right to free speech is one of our most well established and protected issues, and especially for members of the press, it is something considered truly American.
So how do you regulate places like 4Chan? How do you address the fact that these people may have directly contributed to the death of nine people? How do you reconcile that what 4Chan did technically wasn’t illegal, with the fact that people have been convicted of accessory to murder for less than what some of those individuals typed?

These questions are complicated and divisive.

Free speech has been used as a defense for all sorts of reprehensible words. Westboro Baptist Church uses their right to free speech to picket soldier’s funerals with offensive signs. Pedophiles sell thinly veiled how-to books on Amazon about child abduction and abuse under the guise of freedom of expression.

However, attempting to police these instances shines light on the slippery nature of free speech legislation. There have been intermittent debates about policing speech, but the consensus is always that you cannot restrict speech even if a majority of the public deem it offensive. To do so would open up avenues for anyone to seek any part of speech be restricted for a litany of reasons.

The ubiquity of the internet has only intensified this debate. As with many other discussions surrounding the constitution, technology has changed since the free speech amendment was conceived and it has drastically changed what it means to be able to say anything you want to anybody.

When our Founding Fathers created these amendments, they couldn’t envision a scenario where everyone in America would have instant and unfettered access to everyone else. They didn’t see how it would be possible for that access to be anonymous, and they certainly had no idea that the idea of free speech could one day be used to defend pedophiles and people like Charles Manson.

It is easy to be disgusted with 4Chan. It is easy to call it the cesspool of the internet. It is easy to call for the site to be shut down, and it is easy for a reasonable person to understand that what those individuals who posted support for the shooter did was no less than resigning those nine people to die.

It is hard, however, to understand that the same right that protects them also protects the discourse we enjoy here on campus. The same right protected African Americans who spoke out and marched in their quest for freedom, and protected women as one of the main precedents cited in the Roe Vs. Wade ruling.

What we need now as a country and as a community is to understand what all of this means for how we move forward in the aftermath of one of our state’s biggest tragedies. Gun control and free speech are protected by the same document, a document that was created in a different time in our country’s history, and they are equally under fire in light of this most recent shooting.

The amendments are not the important part of the constitution though.

The important part is that at one time our country came together to create a reasonable compromise of all our ideals, laying the foundation of the document we hold so dear.

If we did it once, we can do it again. We need to realize we are still that same great country, and that citizens striving for compromise are exactly what founded this country; we’ve just lost sight of what it means to be American.

Voter efficacy is key for change

By: Conner Williams 
Editor-in-Chief

The United States Census Bureau (USCB) defines millennials as people born between 1982 and 2000. As of June 2015, we make up more than one-fourth of the total U.S. population.

Those of us in that group have experienced several periods of technological innovation, including the streamlined accessibility of the Internet, wireless phones, and the creation of social media networking sites that effectively allow people to connect with anyone across the world.

Most millennials that I know, including myself, are constantly plugged in, meaning that they are constantly feeding on all kinds of different information from multiple sources throughout their day. While some among the older generations like to claim that we use technology to waste time and post selfies, we generally crave knowledge and wish to be more informed.

We now outnumber the baby boomer generation by nearly 7.5 million people. It is time for us to make our voices heard, and make a tangible impact on governmental policymaking in the upcoming election.

How do we do this? It’s quite simple: vote.

While this may seem obvious, many eligible millennials did not vote in the 2012 presidential election.

With the ever-increasing availability of technology and information right at our fingertips, why are we still seeing lackluster voter turnout for young people? There are many theories, but this is mine: young people do not feel that they can truly make a difference.

Student debt, an increasingly competitive job market, and other stressors can sometimes make people feel discouraged, like the world is out to get them or that the hole we have dug is too deep to climb out of. It is not uncommon to feel overwhelmed at times, but that is no excuse not to vote.

I’m not writing to try and sway you towards one particular candidate or political party; I simply want people to exercise their right to vote.

Voting is, in the words of the U.S. Census Bureau, “arguably the most important civic opportunity given to citizens in the United States.”

Regardless of whether or not we share similar political beliefs, I want everyone to voice their opinion by casting their vote next year.

Your vote does not mean nothing, it means everything.

Young people now make up one of the largest denominations of people in this country, yet more than half of them dismissed their right to vote in the last election.

That is unacceptable, especially in a state like Oregon where we have the luxury of mail-in ballots, so we should be much higher than the 64 percent turnout that we showed in 2012. Some states still use the medieval-era voting booths, which often result in low voter turnout overall. There is no reason that every person in Oregon should not be voting.

So whomever you support, get out there and cast your vote.

Why so high: WOU students face higher than average graduating debt

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By: Editorial Team

Recently, The Journal came across an article by The Oregonian that discussed national rankings of colleges by U.S. News & World Report. The article highlighted multiple Oregon schools and their impressive rankings, but unfortunately also noted the not-so-positive results in Oregon as well.

Western Oregon University arrived on the list at number five for Western schools in the country with the highest average debt upon graduation. The numbers were staggering: “68 percent of students graduated with debt, which averages $38,331 among those who took out loans,” according to the article on oregonlive.com.

With an overall lower tuition rate than local universities, such as University of Oregon (UO) and Oregon State University (OSU), the average debt was shocking. Western’s in-state tuition and fees, according to U.S. News & World Report 2014-2015, is $8,796, UO is $9,918 and OSU is $10,107.

To put the debt average into perspective, 50 percent of UO graduating students (receiving their undergrad) who borrowed had an average debt of $24,508, nearly $14,000 less than the average Western student. And 58 percent of graduating students at OSU who borrowed had an average debt of $21,955, nearly $16,000 less than the average Western student, according to statistics from U.S. News & World Report.

With such substantial differences in debt among state universities, are there more factors that contribute to students leaving our college with a larger debt than students who leave a more expensive university with a lower average debt?

Additional expenses apart from tuition

Tuition and fees just make up the base of a student’s expenses. According to Dr. David McDonald, Western’s Associate Provost, “For the typical WOU student, tuition and fees account for less than half their college expenses.”

A five year graduation rate

Upon deeper research into the U.S. News & World Report rankings, The Journal discovered Western has a four year graduation rate of only 22 percent. With the majority of students taking five years to complete an undergraduate degree, this increases cost of school significantly.

“Some of this is due to the large percentage of WOU students who are from low-income backgrounds requiring them to work more while attending WOU or to take closer to 12 credits per term,” said Dr. McDonald. A five year graduation rate can also be the result of changing majors, failing classes, or low credit loads per term.

Limited class availability

This issue has surfaced in a multitude of posts to The Journal’s Facebook page. Students believed that class availability, when limited, kept students from taking a certain course in time to fulfill their graduation requirements in four years. Missing a necessary course, in turn can lead students to adding a fifth year, causing more loans to be necessary.

Difficulty or confusion with financial aid

Financial aid itself, and fully understanding it, can be difficult.

When do I need to complete my FAFSA? How is a Pell Grant different from a loan? Obtaining the right amount of financial aid is important, and students might not know about the available resources to turn to for help or information.

“Students should complete the FAFSA by January 31 of each year,” said Dr. McDonald, adding students should also “note this date will change when the U.S. Department of Education moves to using the prior/prior income for the FAFSA.”

Alumna Jennifer Becker found another side to the financial aid problem: too much money being offered. Becker said, “Students are able to take loans that are much larger than what they actually need. I was lucky to have a scholarship and federal grants that more than covered fees and tuition, but I was still offered $7000 in loans each year.”

What could possibly be the solution to these issues?

Perhaps each factor needs to be addressed on its own. Maybe spending outside of the “necessary” by students needs to be looked at.

“Students can also control some of their own expenses by managing their discretionary expenses like how many coffee they buy, their cell phone expenses and entertainment costs,” said McDonald in an email interview.

But will cutting back on minimal things pay off big in the end? And with the graduation rate, how can it possibly be so low if all degrees are on four year tracks, even with the contributing factors? Maybe larger class sizes need to be considered or offered for vital courses, or more classes available online.

What’s the most effective way to let students know that a degree requirement is only offered once a year? And with financial aid, if a student’s payments are met, why is more money being offered? What’s the best way for students to become informed about what all their financial aid and the loans offered actually mean?

More questions arise when looking for a solution, but the bottom line is with a lower tuition rate – and the well-advertised tuition promise system that Western uses – than neighboring schools, the average student debt should not be this much higher.

Many factors contribute to this issue, and if even one of them can be solved, the impact on the overall debt percentage could be massive.

As students we always need to be aware of our spending and finances. Maybe we should all keep in closer contact with the financial aid office to make sure loans are acquired at the right rates and the FAFSA is completed at the right time, or talk more closely with our advisors to make sure we never miss the opportunity to take a class.

Whatever we do, we need to work in a direction that brings down this debt average.

 

For a link to the report referenced in this editorial, visit http://bit.ly/1K9u44l to view additional information.

Planned Distraction

By: Editorial Team

In light of the somewhat-recent release of several videos by the Center for Medical Progress that purportedly show a Planned Parenthood (PP) official selling fetal tissue for profit, many people have begun to voice their opinions over PP and have called for the organization to cease its receiving of tax dollars for operation.

Among these voices are many congressional legislators that have even threatened to shut down the government if PP is not defunded. Funding for the federal government was set to run out on Wednesday, but a bill has been passed that will keep the government funded through Dec. 11, according to an article on the National Public Radio’s website.

In a poll released Monday by Quinnipiac University, 23 percent of Americans support shutting down the government because of PP funding, with 69 percent opposed.

Thankfully, the majority of voters got their wish, because congress has some serious work to do.

While the issue of abortion is one that is an important social issue that should be discussed, there are three things to remember. First and foremost, abortions make up a small percentage of the essential services that PP offers, which also include STD testing and treatment, contraception, and cancer screening and prevention, to name a few.

Second, regardless of whether or not the whole country agrees with it, the right to a private decision concerning abortion for women is guaranteed under the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe vs. Wade. While defunding the government over the PP side of this issue sounds like certain politicians taking a morale stand, it is just that and nothing more. The stand is actually not accomplishing their intended goal of restricting women’s access to abortion services across the board; it is simply defunding a healthcare non-profit (refer to the point above).

Third, our congressional legislators have much more pressing economic issues to be worrying about than making defunding a women’s services organization a top priority and even the running platform of some Presidential candidates.

Our legislators have much more important issues that they need to be focusing their time and energy on.

Campaign finance laws
Under the 2010 Citizens United court ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided that the Frist Amendment prohibited the federal government from restricting political expenditures from both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

This essentially means that very wealthy people are able to donate huge amounts of money to political candidates to fund their election campaigns. Now, many candidates find themselves visiting billionaires across the country in the hopes of receiving generous donations for their campaigns. Though the SCOTUS would want you to think otherwise, money does indeed play a role in legislative decision-making.

Income inequality
 Income inequality is a term that refers to how income is distributed in a society. In the United States, income is not being distributed evenly. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average hourly wage rose 76 percent between 1947 and 1972, while it rose by just 9 percent from 1972 to 2011. In addition, the Institute for Policy Studies reports that in 2009, Chief Executive Officers of large U.S. corporations averaged a rate of pay that was more than 263 times as much as the average American worker. And while worker education and productivity have increased over the years, wages have stayed relatively stagnant when adjusted for inflation.

Healthcare affordability and availability
By now most of us have probably seen the news about the Turing pharmaceutical company CEO Martin Shkreli after he raised the price of a drug that is used to treat AIDS patients from $13.50 to a whopping $750 per pill (more than 5000%). He received huge criticism over the act and has stated that the price will be lowered, but that the company “still needs to make a profit” on the drug, because the old price was practically the same as giving it away. And that is precisely the problem. Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies aren’t in operation simply to provide essential services to those in need; they are also businesses looking to make a profit. We need to look at our healthcare system from a different approach: one that sees people as people, and not as bank accounts to be exploited.

Affordable higher education and student loan reform
Higher education has become a necessity in order to make a decent living in this day and age. In a study by the Pew Research Center published in February of 2014, college graduates ages 25 to 32 make about $17,500 more per year than people with only a high school diploma. The main concern among most college students is how they are going to pay for their education.

According to the Institute for College Access and Success, nearly 70 percent of public and nonprofit college graduates had student loan debt at an average of $28,400 per person.

But it’s not just the amount of debt that has us college students worried, it’s the repayment system that is currently being used as a for-profit system, with banks and other private organizations reaping huge profits from high interest rates on student loans, with some reaching upwards of 8 percent. While the amount of people with college degrees has nearly tripled in the last 50 years, wages have remained fairly stagnant, making the ability to repay any necessary loans much more difficult.

With all of this being said, it is important to note once again that The Journal does not wish to undermine the issue of tax dollars for abortion services, but that we wish to shed some light on much more serious and prevalent issues at hand that affect millions of people across the country on a daily basis.

 

 

 

Looking back, moving forward

ConnerColor

By: Conner Williams
Editor-in-Chief

Being called “chief” still sounds a bit weird, but I’m learning to embrace the change.

All of the things I have done in the past year have both humbled me and made me more confident at the same time.

I came to Western last fall thinking I was here to play football, but through an unexpected yet pleasant turn of events, I now find myself sitting in my own office in good old Terry House typing up my first column as chief of The Journal.

I wrote news stories for the majority of last year, and then shifted my writing abilities towards opinion pieces, and apparently I was decent at doing so, because I have been chosen as a finalist for the Associated Collegiate Press 2015 Story of the Year in the Opinion/Editorial section for my April opinion piece “Up in smoke: the ethical dilemmas of a convenience store clerk.”

There were ten students chosen from schools from all around the country, and some from much larger student media programs than ours. I am extremely humbled and gracious to have been chosen as a finalist, for it not only improves my confidence in my abilities as a writer, but it puts The Journal in the national spotlight, and that is something that I am very proud of.

I recently completed a 13 week internship with the Statesman Journal daily newspaper in Salem where I wrote and had published nearly 60 stories. I was asked to stay on as the Saturday reporter, so I will be spending the first day of my weekends in Salem beginning next week. My time at the SJ gave me an immeasurable amount of experience and knowledge in the realm of journalism, and I plan to utilize said experience to make The Journal the best it’s ever been.

The Journal is going to have a much larger online presence this year; our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages will constantly have fresh content so that you, the reader, can get all your WOU news on platforms other than just print. However, I encourage everyone to pick up a print copy of The Journal every Friday, for there is just something about physically holding paper that allows for a more intellectual and emotional reading experience. Besides, newspapers are cool!

I am extremely excited for this year and for all of the content that will be accurate, engaging, and thoughtful. If you have suggestions for topics to cover, please do not hesitate to email me or pull me aside if you see me on campus.

As always, I encourage you to send in letters to the editor whether you agree with the topic or not. It is not a matter of right or wrong, it is about discussion and the exchanging of differing views and opinions.

With that being said, The Journal and I personally will be dedicating a significant amount of space towards coverage of the 2016 Presidential election as well as the Oregon Governor election. The Journal’s news team and I will do our best to cover all sides of the political spectrum in order to present an unbiased stance. However, our newly formed editorial team may take a certain stance on an issue or a person, as is its right to do so. I hope that this will allow for healthy discussion among those interested in political ideology.

Here’s to a great year, Go Wolves!

Letter to the Editor

The following letter was submitted with the intention of informing students about the dangers of drug use and to meet probation requirements.
Submitted by Nick [last name withheld]

As everyone told you before you entered a University, you’re going to have multiple opportunities to experience new things. A lot of these experiences can be great and leave a positive outcome on your life, like trying out a new sport you end up falling in love with, or joining a club that interests you and making a handful of new friends.

But, with the positive also comes the negative. New experiences usually come with the people you meet. Some of these people may not care about your well-being and may even just want your company. These people may introduce you to illicit substances, which can start you down a dangerous road.

The obvious outcomes people usually consider are skipping class to get high and your grades lowering as a result. But illicit and even legal substances can leave you with a worse ending. The most popular drug that people use on a college campus is, more than likely, alcohol.

Even this legal drug has awful consequences. Daily use can leave you with an addiction, an addiction that has the possibility to ruin your life. Even worse, an overdose of alcohol can end up ending your life.

There’s no fixing a mistake when you’re already dead.

But alcohol isn’t the only drug that people abuse. Anything from prescription medications to, the less likely, meth and heroin are taken. All of these drugs can land you with an addiction, in a jail-cell, or dead. A lot of students are also approached with the possibility of trying hallucinogenic drugs, and while these may be difficult to overdose on, death is still a possibility.

While being completely different in a variety of ways, hallucinogenic substances are just as dangerous as other drugs. Anyone has the potential to lose total control of their mind and body while high on them.

I mentioned it could happen to anyone, even those that have dabbled with the above-mentioned drugs.

Full-blown psychosis has the potential to occur at any moment while on them and one could easily be arrested or killed while in this state. These drugs are much less predictable than others, and possibly even more dangerous.

This is what happened to me.

Because I had taken LSD before, I thought I was familiar with the drug. I believed nothing bad could happen and I would enjoy myself.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

During my experience I went into a psychotic state. I lost control of my mind and body, which is a horrifying experience. I ended up yelling down the streets about how everyone should take acid. I threw my glasses off my head and tore my shirt off my chest. I ended up outside the pub on Main Street on a weekday night. There were a lot of people there, and I was shouting vulgar things at everyone, and even grabbed a hold of the bartender who came outside to try and diffuse the situation.

His attempt to get me to leave was nothing short of courageous. Dealing with someone literally out of their mind on drugs is an incredibly dangerous situation. The police were eventually called, and I wasn’t even aware they were on the scene.

While they were in the process of putting me in their custody, I spit in a Monmouth officer’s face. After I was put in cuffs, I was then brought to a hospital where I came down off the LSD.

I received the charges and in the end had to spend three horrible days in jail on a misdemeanor charge that was thankfully brought down from a felony. I’m currently on probation and still think about the situation some nights when I’m falling asleep. I made my future as a criminal justice major incredibly difficult as a result, and every day I wish I could take the choice I made back.

There’s no legal or illegal drug that’s completely safe to use.

Your mind and body can be seriously deteriorated with the use of drugs. Just remember that it’s true when people tell you that the habits you form early on construct you as a person in your later life.

It’s more than beneficial to start forming positive habits for your well being as a person early on in life, or you could easily end up in a less-than desirable situation like I described.

2015 FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP PREPARATION

The United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) is participating in a send-off series in preparation for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup of Soccer, scheduled to kick off Saturday, June 6. The series consists of three friendlies, two of which the USWNT has already emerged victorious against the Republic of Ireland and Mexico, respectively. In their final friendly, USWNT is scheduled to play the Korea Republic at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey on Saturday, May 30.

Ireland Recap

In the first friendly of their three-game send-off, USWNT defeated the Republic of Ireland 3-0 Sunday, May 10, at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, Calif.

In the 42nd minute, forward Abby Wambach was left unmarked on a corner kick from midfielder Megan Rapinoe and easily passed one into the low left corner of the back net. Wambach scored again in the 45th minute on a flicked header, courtesy of a cross from midfielder Carli Lloyd. USWNT led 2-0 at the end of the first half.

In the 54th minute, defender Julie Johnston made a front door on a corner kick from run to barely tap the ball over the hands of goalkeeper Niamh Reid-Burke. Despite multiple shots on goal by forward Christen Press and midfielder Megan Rapinoe, which should have give USWNT a larger leader, both were unable to find the back of the net.

Mexico Recap

A week later, USWNT defeated Mexico 5-1 in their second send-off friendly Sunday, May 17, at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.

In the 28th minute, striker Sydney Leroux received a crafty through-ball from Rapinoe and cut left past goalkeeper Cecilia Santiago to nail one in from a sharp 15-degree angle just outside of the six-yard box.

In the 39th minute, forward Ariana Calderon’s header off a perfectly placed free-kick from defender Bianca Sierra tied the game 1-1. Despite peppering the goal in the final minutes of the first half, resulting in three blocked attempts by Santiago, USWNT was unable to regain the lead.

Of most interest was USWNT’s second-half performance against Mexico.

In the first minute of second half play, Mexico’s sloppy defense resulted in a goal from defender Lori Chalupny. Forward Abby Wambach’s high pressure on Santiago in the goal box allowed for a small drop pass to Chalupny who easily capitalized on her first touch. Wambach would go on to score off a penalty kick, driving the ball into the upper-left 90 and increasing U.S.A.’s lead by two.

In the 61st minute, Leroux would again cut past Santiago, this time to the right, to score her second goal of the night.

Tasked with a one-on-one in the penalty box, midfielder Tobin Heath threw down a reverse Matthew’s move to simultaneously shake her defender and drive toward the goal line. Heath served a lofty cross to Wambach, who scored the final goal of the match in the 72nd minute in typical Wambach fashion: on a header. The textbook-esque play mimicked Wambach’s header in their game against Ireland.

Analysis and Prediction

In both games, the USWNT created numerous offensive opportunities. They outshot both of their opponents: 26 to none against Ireland and 29 to six against Mexico. Both matches displayed the USWNT’s ability exploit and outsmart back lines, even without 2011 World Cup standout striker Alex Morgan.

Morgan, who plays for Portland Thorns FC, is recovering from a bruised knee bone and sat out for both matches. As a substitute in the last Women’s World Cup, Morgan came off the bench to help advance the USWNT to the championship game. Her 2011 Women’s World Cup debut put her on the radar as one of the most lethal offensive players on USWNT, joining the ranks of veterans Wambach as well as captain Carli Lloyd. With 61 goals, Lloyd is the USWNT’s leading midfield scorer.

USWNT’s ability to capitalize on offensive opportunities is easily accomplished through their relentless peppering of the goal. Prime example: Leroux.

Like Morgan, Leroux has come off the bench to complement USWNT’s already menacing offense. As a substitute, Leroux debuted 14 goals for the USWNT in her first year, setting the record for most goals scored as a reserve player.

USWNT’s seamless transition up the field stems from the resumes of slew of veteran defenders: Krieger, Becky Sauerbrunn and, most recognizably, Christie Rampone. Level-headed defenders with inborn possession skills, truly illustrate the idea of work smarter, not harder.

First-time World Cup team defenders Meghan Klingenberg and Julie Johnston have performed well in the send-off series, to say the least. As a result, Ireland was unable to get a shot on goal leaving goalkeeper Hope Solo unchallenged. Out of their 180-minutes of play, the only goal USWNT allowed was against Mexico.

Combine offensive players who apply pressure like defenders in the goal box with a back-row that can execute front-door runs to score, the USWNT is stacked, for lack of a better term.

USWNT have developed to be efficient players; moreover, they have become entertaining to watch. Incisive cuts, driven crosses, clean steals, cannon-like shots on goal, and Wambach’s infamous headers all contribute to the uproar that is USWNT.

Although USWNT prevailed 2-1 against Japan in the 2012 London Olympic games, it’s difficult to forget the stinging loss that USWNT suffered in the penalty kick shootout in the championship game of the 2011 World Cup. With such a dynamic team of offense and defense, there is no better label for the 2015 World Cup roster than to be dubbed a dream team.

USWNT is scheduled to play the Korea Republic at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey Saturday, May 30 as the final match in their send-off series. It is of great importance for USWNT to maintain the same level of confidence exuded in their first two friendly matches upon entering into World Cup pool play.

The first stage of World Cup play kicks off with a doubleheader Group A matchup at Commonwealth Stadium: host-country Canada versus China, followed by a New Zealand versus the Netherlands. USWNT will play Australia Monday, June 8, at Winnipeg Stadium in their 2015 World Cup debut match.

Ditch that winter weight and sculpt your body for summer 2015

By Conner Williams
 Opinion-Editorial Editor

As the year comes to a close and you are slowly losing the ability to process any academic information whatsoever, you might consider switching over from working your mind muscles to your muscle muscles (yeah, that’s the right term!) as the nice weather makes its way into the Pacific Northwest.

In other words, it’s about that time of year when you already have or are about to make yourself a promise that this summer is the one where you go all out and get the best body you’ve ever had.

We’ve all been there, myself included. The winter and spring seasons came to a close much too quickly, and you’ve checked the scale several hundred times trying to trick yourself into thinking that you didn’t actually put on those ten pounds. All you did was drink craft beer and eat homemade cookies all winter; what’s the big deal, right?

Hey, I’m not judging you. I’m in the same boat, and believe me, I’m ready to get down to business and hit the gym.

I have pledged allegiance to the gym of the United Plates of America, and to the lifestyle for which it stands, one weight room, under Arnold, with protein shakes and curls for all.

Ahem, excuse me, my inner gym bro took over for a second there.

So, here are a few simple general tips for shedding those unwanted pounds for your ideal summer body and overall physical health.

 

1. Stick to complex carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates are digested slowly and provide long-term fuel for your muscles. They often contain higher amounts of fiber and derive from whole grains and legumes.

Contrary to complex carbs are simple carbs, which are made up of more “basic sugars with little real value for your body,” according to Diana Rodriguez of everydayhealth.com and reviewed by Lindsey Marcellin, MD, MPH. They are digested quickly, raising your glycemic index and increasing insulin production.

This is not ideal because when your insulin has spiked too much and your body has reached its maximum amount of glycogen storage in the muscles for immediate use, the excess is stored as fat. If only we could store an unlimited amount of glycogen as muscle, this would be a much simpler process. Unfortunately, that isn’t how it works.

Simple carbs take the form of white bread, pasta, white rice, and just about anything with a starch base. Unlike complex carbs, which contain longer chains of sugars to slow down digestion and deliver energy for longer periods of time, simple carbs contain short chain sugars and are low in fiber, providing energy for short periods of time and thus leading to increases in fat storage.

It’s fairly effortless to make simple substitutions in your diet; switch white rice with brown, eat whole grain bread rather than white (Dave’s Killer Bread is the best, in my opinion), try sweet potatoes rather than regular ones, and eliminate simple sugars like candy and soda.

2. Increase and vary your cardio

Believe me, I hate doing cardio just as much as the next person, but it plays a huge role in burning fat. Try to find something active that you enjoy doing or can at least tolerate, such as jogging, playing tennis, racquetball, swimming, bicycling, or some other activity where your heart rate is elevated for an extended period of time.

These longer periods of cardio are called aerobic exercise, which means that they require the intake of oxygen to move and fuel your muscles. The sibling of aerobic exercise is anaerobic exercise, which is “any short-duration exercise that is powered primarily by metabolic pathways that do not use oxygen,” according to the Medical Dictionary of thefreedictionary.com.

This type of exercise consists of brief, interval-based activities, such as sprinting and weightlifting, which invoke the use of fast-twitch muscle fibers, as opposed to aerobic exercise, which recruits slow-twitch fibers for muscular exertion. Fast-twitch fibers are large and are utilized for power and strength, while slow-twitch fibers are used for endurance exercises like running and cycling.

Think of the contrast in body composition between a sprinter and a marathon runner, and you’ll understand the difference between the two muscle types. Both forms of cardio should be utilized, but many argue that anaerobic exercise may lead to increased fat loss as opposed to aerobic exercise.

According to an article on bodybuilding.com by Shannon Clark, an exercise science and sport performance degree recipient from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, anaerobic activities “will boost metabolism a good deal more than moderate paced training.”

In addition, this means that the body will burn more calories while at rest, thus increasing overall calorie and fat burning even when not working out. Burning calories while I’m watching Netflix? Sign me up. I’ll take 15 minutes of sprints over an hour jog any day.

3. Make sure to eat breakfast

As college students who often sleep in until the very last minute before our first morning class, we sometimes make the conscious choice to skip breakfast in order to save precious wake-up time.

First of all, if you sleep an average of eight hours per night, that is eight hours that you’re going without fuel. And if you skip breakfast, you’re sacrificing more time where you could have revved up your metabolism with a balanced meal.

Unfortunately, fat is the first stored tissue that our body chooses to use for fuel when we are sleeping, and that is why it is important to fuel your body and kick start your metabolism fairly soon upon waking.

In addition, it is not uncommon for people that skip breakfast to ingest more calories during the day to make up for their hunger and lack of fuel at the beginning of the day. I personally like something simple: three scrambled eggs, one cup of steel-cut oatmeal, and a banana.

4. Limit your alcohol consumption

This is painful for me to put on this list, but make no mistake, alcohol is a huge supplier of empty calories. By that, I mean that it is full of carbs and calories and offers hardly any other nutritional value.

Granted, many studies have shown that moderate amounts of certain alcohol, particularly red wine, can reduce the risks of cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.

According to an article from WebMD on a study by Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute, the study reported that “light drinkers who consumed wine cut their risk of dying prematurely by almost one third, and wine drinkers as a group had significantly lower mortality rates from cardiovascular disease and cancer.”

That sounds great, but remember that this is all in moderation. Doing keg stands at a party is going to bring in a significant amount of calories, all of which have no additional nutritional value. They don’t call it a beer gut for nothing.

So while you’re kicking back and sipping a Corona (assuming you’re of age and it’s a light) on the beach showing off your brand-new abs, you’ll be able to look back on this list and realize that all it took was some simple diet tweaking, creative and varied cardio work, and moderation to achieve that summer bod you’ve always wanted.

The Trans-Pacific-Partnership:

Artwork by Carly Fister
Artwork by Carly Fister
By Jerry Creasy president of the business and economics

You may be wondering why you should be concerned about some boring free trade agreement that few people know anything about, but I’m here to tell you that it plays a significant role in the future of the labor market that us college students will soon become a part of.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a relatively new free trade agreement being spearheaded by the U.S. and about a dozen other Pacific Rim countries, including Canada, Chile, Vietnam, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

The agreement on the U.S side is currently stalling in the Senate, as the vote to “fast-track” the legislation was struck down on Tuesday, which would have essentially allowed the agreement to be pushed through on a quicker agenda.

It is supposedly designed to ease the flow of goods and services in order to grow businesses and the economy, but since the legislative hearings of trade agreements occur in secret, it is difficult to tell what the text of the proposal actually says.

In order to really understand something like the TPP, we first need to understand what free trade is.

Free trade is designed to create open markets between countries. This means imported and exported goods and services should not be taxed or tariffed by countries engaging in trade with each other.

The opposite of free trade is fair trade, aptly named even though it doesn’t really create “fairness,” so to speak. The idea behind fair trade is to protect industries and services being produced within a country from being infringed upon by another country.

For example, when Hyundai, a Korean car company, exports a car to the U.S, the U.S. may impose a tariff, which is an import/export tax, so that it is closer to the price that American car manufactures can afford to charge customers in the U.S. However, this hurts the global economy because we are not focusing on something we could be competitive at. All we are doing is causing the price of cars to be higher than necessary.

The benefit to free trade is that it creates more competition between countries and can lead to specialization in the goods and services being produced. Specialization makes economies more efficient and wealthier in the long run. This is because countries are then able to focus more on a few products and services and, therefore, produce them better than one country would if it tried to make everything it wanted or needed all on its own.

If you as an individual tried to grow your own food, brew your own beer, make your own clothes and design your own computer, you would not be very well off because you don’t have the time or resources to do all of those things well.

However, if I only made clothes and you only grew food then I could trade my clothes for your food and we would both be better off. That is why when individuals, or countries in this case, trade with each other they focus on a few things and then trade those with another country for something else.

For instance, the U.S focuses on pharmaceutical drugs while China focuses on the manufacturing of consumer products such as children’s toys. This is incentive for free trade. It makes it easier for countries to trade their specialized products with those of other countries.

This is in part why the TPP is being pushed through and why many other free trade agreements in the past, such as the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement were passed. However, it may not be the only reason that this deal has been drafted.

Unfortunately, little is known about the TPP by the general public. The trade agreement has been in the developmental stages since its drafting date all the way back in 2005, and the process to put this trade act together has been all but transparent. Much of it has taken place behind closed doors with both the public and even Congress to some extent held in the dark.

Initially, four countries signed the agreement and then the others came on to negotiate while others were still in the prospective stages. In the last five years or so, negotiations have been slowly rolling along with many of the decisions occurring in secret. However, WikiLeaks has been successful in obtaining some information on the deal, but it pales in
comparison to how much we don’t know.

In more ways than one, the TPP may be particularly damaging to some industries and demographic groups in the U.S.

Back in the early 1990s, the passing of NAFTA reportedly resulted in the “relocation of some 700,000 jobs, 61% in manufacturing,” according to an article by Jana Kasperkevic of The Guardian.

However, if you buy the free trade argument on the whole, the economies of those engaged in free trade will improve even though it will result in the shifting and changing of some industries. This kind of outsourcing of manufacturing jobs is notorious for being one of the main causes of the decline of the American dream, on which a person is able to rely on the abundance of a high-paying job in the U.S. It is also seen as one of the reasons that wages have stayed stagnant in this country for so long. A loss of decent full time jobs is painfully felt by American workers, resulting in resentment of free trade agreements and the government officials who support them.

The passing of this act could be very beneficial to U.S corporations with stake holdings in any of the countries involved. According to WikiLeaks, many parts of the TPP will result in a significant amount of increased freedom for transcontinental businesses, such as Nike. In fact, Nike is one of the main supporters and happened to be where President Obama decided to speak to the public on how great TPP would be for everyone involved.

The President claimed it will help improve working conditions overseas while simultaneously creating a stronger workforce here at home. It is curious, however, that President Obama chose Nike headquarters as his platform for his speech, as has been one of the companies most notoriously known for sub-par working conditions in its manufacturing plants overseas where it outsourced a number of jobs.

It is difficult to say whether or not this agreement would actually be worth it for the global economy or, more importantly for American college students, whether or not it would stand to benefit the U.S. job market.

Another key component of this deal is that one of the largest Pacific Rim countries is being intentionally left out of the deal.
You guessed it: China.

The deal is somewhat aimed at countering China’s influence amongst the Pacific Rim, since the country is infamous for manipulating its currency so that it is worth less than others and thereby incentivizes businesses to buy products made there rather than from North America or Western Europe.

Another issue is that many of the corporations resemble oligopolies to an extent with major shares of the markets that they compete in. This means they have very few competitors and thus have a huge effect on the market. This could give them significant power and influence over the details of this agreement so that it benefits them.

With an increasingly competitive labor supply, it may become harder for graduating college students to find work. Some jobs will be shipped overseas not only in the manufacturing sector, but other areas as well. Others will have wages forced down as competition from foreign countries becomes fiercer. Additionally, when large companies have such a large impact on the economy, wages could decrease, along with employment.

We will just have to wait and see how this pact plays out, but for now it’s up in the air.

Sleeplessly coming of age

By Haunani Tomas, Editor-in-Chief
In attempting to complete a 10-page group paper the night before it was due, I ask myself the question any student asks themselves at three o’clock in the morning: how did I even get here?

Umpteen cups of Folgers medium roast later, I look out of my kitchen window: the beams signifying a new day, as well as the hourly approach of my deadline, shone down on the red doors of the Whitesell Townhouses as my eyes adjust to something other than my computer screen.

So after staying up for upwards of 36 consecutive hours to complete this report worth 60 percent of our final grade, our professor emails us to inform us of two things: first, to cancel class and second, to move the due date of our 10-pager to next week.

After making another cup of coffee, I slouch back down in front of my laptop screen, defeated and exhausted. My phone begins ringing. Mom.

“Hey, baby girl! Did I wake you up?” she asks. She greets me between sips of her first coffee of the morning. Maxwell House.

“Yeah, something like that,” I say as I close my laptop screen and rub my eyes. and curl up on the couch.

As the capstone course to complete an undergraduate business degree, students are required to enroll in strategic management. Among completing various case studies and reading Harvard Business Review articles, we are assigned a group project consisting of four separate 8-10 page papers that analyze a publicly-owned business of our choosing.

Aside from being a royal pain in my you-know-what, group papers and projects test one’s ability to collaborate with peers to work toward one goal: submitting something that doesn’t look or sound like it was done during the wee hours of the morning, around the same time as your roommates and their boyfriends are stumbling on home from the bar.

This strategic management group project is one of three groups I am involved in this term, courtesy of the remaining upper-division level classes required to graduate. So, in attempting to, for lack of a better phrase, get it over with, I parked my rear-end on our kitchen counter around nine in the evening and proceeded to analyze in great detail the generic strategy of Cabela’s and yield in-depth coverage on potential strategic options Cabela’s could pursue in their endeavor to substantiate themselves as the World’s Foremost Outfitter. Fun stuff really.

At this point in the school year, a squirrel has what seems like an endless attention span compared to mental capacity I have going on upstairs. There exists no limit to the things that hinder my ability to focus on anything academic.

The limit does not exist!

Anyway, 10 pages of single-spaced Cabela’s strategic implications later and, oh! Good morning sunshine! Literally!

Staying coherent enough to see the light of a new day is something I giddily partook in during the ages of 10 through 14. The last time I remember staying up for the entirety of the Earth’s 360-degree rotation was way back in what seems like Nam.

In my Gatsby-esque “younger and more vulnerable years,” if you will, I rejoiced in disobeying my mother’s orders to go to sleep at the reasonable hour of ten o’clock. Particularly during slumber parties, my friends and I prided ourselves in withstanding the allure of a good night’s rest. If you were anything like a normal adolescent en route to puberty, you understand.

It was implicitly understood that whoever fell asleep first would most likely end up with Sharpie tattoos, which would be drawn on bodily parts unforeseen by one’s own eye and would read something similar to “owned” or “[insert name] was here.”

Regardless of how I remember all-nighters as a child, they do not presently merit the same amusing recollections. There is no sound rationale I can think up that would gladly incline me forego an eight-hour REM cycle.

Similar to running around on the playground, summoning the energy to stay awake all night does not come as easily as it once did, nor does it occur because of the reasons it once did.
So, I concluded that my all-nighters can be attributed to a lack of proper time management.

It’s difficult to believe my mother when she tried to convince me that these days are the best of my life when I wish she would pester me to get a great night’s rest far before midnight.

LETTER TO EDITOR

I understand your perspective in your May 8 column [“Fighting hate with hate is NOT the answer”]. The Sweet Cakes by Melissa owners intentionally broke the law and discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation. It was their decision to do so and they stand by their decision. They didn’t say, “Whoops. Didn’t know that was against the law. Our bad.”

You mention that there are two sides to every story — that suggests that the lesbian couple who had been patrons of the cake shop were in the wrong to ask their local baker to make their cake, as they had done for other occasions. But the law is clear. The bakers did discriminate based on sexual orientation—a violation under Oregon statute. Would we say it’s “two sides to every story” if the bakers wouldn’t make a cake for African-American people?

There are consequences to homophobia. We do need to send a message that bigotry is not a practice endorsed in Oregon commerce. How else would you sanction a business for an egregious and intentional violation of the law?

Homophobia needs to remain separate from business practice if business owners intend to set up shop in Oregon. Sweet Cakes by Melissa chose to act on theirs and being outed about their homophobic beliefs and prejudice was what cost them their business. (You should also see this, if you haven’t:http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-20698-the_cake_wars.html)

Lastly, I agree with you, there is no excuse to belittle someone because they have a different belief system or lifestyle. People who are gay, lesbian, bi, or queer don’t have a lifestyle, they just have a different sexual orientation and in Oregon that is a protected class.

Best,
CM Hall
Project Coordinator, Western Region Interpreter Education Center
Adjunct Faculty, ASL/English Interpreting Program

NO BANG FOR MY $100

By Jack Armstrong
 News Editor

As last Saturday night approached, boxing fans across the world crowded around any available television in an attempt to catch the self-
proclaimed “Fight of the Century” between Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. and Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.

The fight went the distance lasting all 12 scheduled rounds and ending in a unanimous decision declaring Mayweather the World Boxing Organization Welterweight Champion, and maintaining his undefeated record at 48-0.

The public focus on the so-called “Fight of the Century” never seemed to center on the fight itself. Instead, the media focused on the personal differences between the fighters, turning the fight into a bout of good versus evil.

Mayweather has five separate convictions for domestic abuse and assault, while Pacquiao is a senator in his native Philippines and has recently become a self-proclaimed born-again Christian.

For everyone who follows boxing (and even many who don’t), this was the clash of giants in the sport that had gone unseen since the likes of
Ali vs. Frazier in 1971. Many hailed this bout as the return of boxing to the mainstream, the return to a storied past.

It took 12 short rounds for that dream to come to a screeching halt.

When all was said and done, the crowning of a new champion left most wanting more. For all the pomp and circumstance and all the years of anticipation, many felt that the event failed to live up to the hype or at the very least, failed to live up to the price tag.

Part of this displeasure certainly stemmed from the wider audience that this fight attracted. Even people who don’t normally watch boxing became interested in this fight. It turned into more of a social event like the Super Bowl.

As a result, the more tactical (read less exciting) display that took place in the ring was lost on many.

Mayweather used his significant height advantage to keep Pacquiao at bay, and the fight stagnated with neither fighter showing signs of stepping up. Viewers grumbled on Twitter calling the bout “boring,” “over-rated,” and compared it watching a couple of sparring partners in practice rather than the two biggest boxers of our time slugging it out for glory.

When the final bell rang and it all came to an end without a knock-out, or even a single knock-down in the entire fight, the grumble of displeasure turned into a roar.

HBO and Showtime both presented the fight live through Pay-Per-View, but in a controversial move the price of the event ticket shifted up from the usual $59.99 to a whopping $100 for a single viewing. Bars showing the event were charging $20-$30 cover just to get through the door.

Fans of both fighters agreed on one thing: the entertainment value of the main card fight hadn’t lived up to the price of admission. Many celebrities ranging from athletes to musicians took to Twitter requesting a rematch or a refund.

With two fighters and the Nevada Gaming Commission grossing more than $450 million, it is unlikely disgruntled viewers will see a rematch or a refund, and it is now unlikely that the public will see a price reduction for future blockbuster pay-per-view events.

Mayweather vs. Pacquiao has effectively put the nail in the coffin of an already declining sport. Boxing was on the uptick with viewers despite concerns over concussions. In fact, NBC recently debuted a weekly primetime selection of fights that fans with access to NBC can watch outside of the pay-per-view system.

It’s hard to place blame on one particular party in this situation. It is unreasonable to require fighters to put themselves in more danger by fighting more aggressively than they are comfortable with.

In turn, the pay-per-view cable and satellite companies owe it to their stakeholders to gain as much profit from the fight as they can, and the sports bookies make money regardless of the fans entertainment level.

Still, the bitter taste of a promise not fulfilled remains. Entertainment should be just that, entertaining. We are allowed to expect a certain level of satisfaction from the things we pay for.

However, the level of expectation for entertainment and the definition of satisfaction are incredibly individual. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and in America we hold the right of the individual opinion as tantamount.

The disconnect between these two sentiments is troubling but not beyond explanation.

Given that the only thing that has changed with the sport of boxing since the days of Ali and Frazier is the delivery system of the entertainment, our lack of satisfaction with the fight must come down to the cost of access.

The price tag of something that arrives in the home as simply as pressing a button can be deceptive. With the digital age in full swing, we have come to expect vast amounts of entertainment content for little to no cost.

Anything that borders on boring is deleted and forgotten about, but you cannot delete a $100 pay-per-view ticket the same way you delete a $10 album off of iTunes.

In this modern era of streaming services and on demand content in the home, our sense of monetary value versus satisfaction in entertainment is on-going, that evolution is shaping up to be the true “Fight of the Century.”

Fighting hate with hate is NOT the answer

By Conner Williams
Opinion Editor

There are two sides to every story and, as a journalist, it is my responsibility to shed light on both of them. Each issue has multiple points of view that must be examined and taken into consideration before a final judgment is decided upon.

So when the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries decided that the owners of Sweet Cakes bakery in Gresham must pay upwards of $135,000 in emotional damages to the Boman-Cryers, a lesbian couple, for refusing to bake them a wedding cake because of their sexual orientation, I found myself a bit befuddled.

In no way at all do I endorse discrimination. Bigotry against people with different lifestyles or principles is abhorrent in every way. In my opinion, there is no excuse to belittle someone because they have a different belief system or lifestyle. Using religion or any other basis as an excuse to spew forth hate is unacceptable.

Aaron Klein, the co-owner of Sweet Cakes, was alone when he refused service to the Bowman-Cryers.

He claimed that he discriminated because of religious reasons, but since the state of Oregon has a zero tolerance law for discrimination based on “sexual orientation, race, sex, disability, age or religion,” he had committed a crime. And even though his wife, Melissa, was not present at the time, she is also held liable for the incident.

The Boman-Cryers sued the Kleins, and are expected to receive at least $135,000 as a result.
I am all for disciplining the Kleins for their behavior. They should not be allowed to get away with their actions.

But do they really deserve to be sentenced to bankruptcy for it?

What is the formula for determining the proper fiscal amount to offset the “emotional damages” experienced by the discrimination? This whole process seems very arbitrary to me. I am curious how it is determined the way that subjective incidents like these are to be resolved.

Because isn’t this just fighting hate with more hate? After the incident went public, the Klein’s business vehicle was vandalized multiple times. I don’t see how displaying and condoning additional acts of contempt is supposed to fix the original wrongdoing. Aaron Klein made a boneheaded and intolerable mistake, but that doesn’t mean that his bigotry should be responded to with more bigotry. That makes the other side just as bad.

In response to their financial predicament, the Kleins started a GoFundMe campaign to enable people to donate money to them to help pay off the anticipated amount. GoFundMe has recently shut down the Klein’s donation fund and revised its policies, stating that it will not allow benefits go towards people that are facing formal criminal charges.

Soon after, Wisconsin faith-based nonprofit group Continue to Give has started its own fundraiser for the Kleins, which has raised about $1,000 so far, according to The Oregonian.

The controversy is widely split, with many in support of both sides. Many people say that since the Kleins own a private business, they have every right to refuse service to whomever they please, for whatever reason.

Oregon state law disagrees.

We must not tolerate this type of behavior for it only further polarizes the gay community and hinders the progress we have made thus far. According to ProCon.org, 37 states have legalized gay marriage. We have made huge leaps for the rights of gay people, and we cannot stop now.

While we should not tolerate detestable discriminatory behavior, we should also not stoop to that level by attempting to fiscally obliterate those with much more narrow-minded viewpoints. Trying to put out a fire with gasoline will not solve the problem. We should be focusing on changing the culture and learning to accept others with lifestyles and opinions different than ours, not punish to the point of bankruptcy and financial turmoil because of a stupid decision.

The Kleins are a family with a mortgage and kids to feed. While they may be narrow-minded bigots, I do not feel that they deserve to be punished this severely. Total financial chaos is not the answer to solving the problem of discrimination.

If you have any input you would like to share, please feel free to submit letters to the editor to journaleditor@wou.edu.

Placing players above the law: understanding the NFL Draft boycott

By Conner Williams
 Opinion-Editorial Editor

On last Friday’s episode of ESPN’s “Olbermann,” host Keith Olbermann called for a boycott of the upcoming National Football League Draft and the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao boxing match. The decision stemmed from the fact that Floyd Mayweather has had multiple convictions of domestic violence, yet he is still allowed to fight and make hundreds of millions of dollars in his sport. In addition, Jameis Winston, the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner out of Florida State University expected to be drafted in the early first round this year, was brought up on charges last year of rape and sexual assault. Regardless, the prosecution decided not to press charges, for whatever reason. Olbermann is sick of seeing this type of behavior in professional sports go unchecked and unregulated. Athletes seldom see penalties for similar actions resulting in more than a suspension from a few games and a fine amounting to a little less than pocket change. So, Olbermann has publicly announced that he will be boycotting the two upcoming events and that he will not be covering anything to do with them on his show.

I, for one, am right there with him.

I played football for ten years before I realized that I no longer had a passion for the game. It took me far too long to admit to and validate the inherent physical and mental dangers that loomed over me throughout my athletic career. It took me far too long to grow tired of the brutal mentality that was required to be successful in the sport. I was fed up with being regarded as a higher standard of human because I had the physical ability to violently triumph over others. I was no longer willing to risk my long term physical and mental health for temporary glory. After extensive personal research on the horrifying effects of concussions, and the subsequent complete lack of responsibility by NFL officials on the matter, I decided to walk away from the game. Being a football player was how I chose to identify myself for a long time, and I wish I would have realized my fallacies long before I finally did.

Football has long since been regarded as a strong representation of what a young man is to expect to come in his life. Football supposedly prepares one for the challenges of life through the physical and mental trials of the game. It apparently teaches such values as discipline, teamwork, mental toughness, and selflessness.

I don’t see much of those values being represented by today’s professional players.

I do, however, see plenty of cases in which mindless gladiators are unable to “turn off” the violent switch with which they play the game. Too many times does their violent and aggressive behavior carry over to their off-the-field lives. I have grown tired of the seemingly endless cases of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, and, in the rare but not unheard of circumstance, murder.

This complete lack of morality has made me fully lose interest in the sport. I no longer support or encourage the viewership and support of the NFL and its affiliates.

This is not to say, however, that there aren’t some good eggs in the bunch.

J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans and Marcus Mariota of the Univeristy of Oregon Ducks are the first names that come to mind of exemplary role models. They are active givers in the community and they set great example for young children of how to be respectful, humble, and compassionate people.

These types of players, however, are few and far between. The league is overshadowed by a absolute lack of scruples, and I no longer have any desire to support the sport with my money and viewership.

Letter to the Editor

Any attempt to withdraw membership from the Oregon Student Association on this campus is an attempt to silence students and diminish statewide student power.

The OSA is the only statewide, student-led, student-run advocacy group that works to ensure that all Oregon students have access to an affordable and accessible college education. The OSA represents over 120,000 students across Oregon, and it is with that collective statewide power that they are able to effectively advocate for students in the state legislature. Every student at Western benefits immensely from being a member of the OSA and withdrawing membership will be a detriment to all. Please help save statewide student power by voting NO on Bill 4.15 in the upcoming student government elections.

As Western alumni and former student body presidents, we know the importance of the OSA to every student on this campus. The OSA is the organization elected officials rely on to bring a student voice to issues facing higher education in Oregon. Western Oregon students have built incredible collective statewide power and fought for amazing legislative victories that have only been possible because of the work done by the Oregon Student Association.

The OSA fights every year to limit tuition increases and make college more affordable and accessible.

By leveraging its statewide power and influence, students won a tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates on this campus for the last two years.

OSA is also the only lobbying organization that fights for an increase in financial aid.

The OSA was also the leader in winning the long fight for Tuition Equity in Oregon.

The OSA ensured that students had representation in the new government structure at Western and pushed to safeguard student control over the student incidental fee on campus.

These triumphs for Western students would not have been possible without the leadership of and collaboration with OSA.

The OSA not only benefits student through legislative victories, it helps make students better leaders on campus. Through on-campus training and campaigns, the OSA developed us as student leaders and made it possible to affectively advocate for Western students on the statewide level. The ongoing training and development that the OSA provides is essential for creating good leaders at Western. Without the OSA, we would not be the leaders and people we are today and Western would not be the campus it is today.

The OSA is the only advocacy group in Oregon that always puts college students first. Withdrawing membership from the OSA is a huge mistake for Western students to make. Not only would it weaken Western students’ ability to work with other students across the state, it would severely limit students’ influence and power in the state legislature.

Since ASWOU students sit on the Board of Directors for the OSA, then changes could be made from within rather than attempting to duplicate efforts without this collaborative effort statewide. Leave nine other campuses in the state to go it alone is short sided and not strategic.

Be extremely wary of any attempts to limit the collective student voice in Salem. We need students across the state to work together in order to achieve real victories for affordable and accessible higher education in Oregon. Please support statewide student power and the continued membership in the OSA by voting NO on Bill 4.15 in the upcoming student government elections.

As a group of former Western student body presidents we ask you to vote NO on Bill 4.15.

Max Beach ASWOU President 2008-2009
Evan Source ASWOU President 2009-2010
Yasmin Ibarra ASWOU President 2010-2011
Jonathan Farmer ASWOU President 2011-13
Krystonia Kotoa ASWOU President 2013

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