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!

Western Oregon University

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

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