Mount Hood

Hamersly Library adapts to student needs, extending hours

Due to suggestions from students, Hamersly Library extends hours, ensuring students have access to facilities

Stephanie Moschella | Digital Media Manager & Cora McClain | Editor-in-Chief

Starting Sep. 27, Hamersly Library opened its doors past closing to Western students and affiliates. In addition to the 24-hour room being available, Hamersly will be open for additional evening and late night hours: Monday – Wednesday 6 p.m. – 12 a.m., Saturday 4 p.m. – 9 p.m., and Sunday 4 p.m. – 12 a.m. 

Students have already begun using these extra hours and resources, found across all three floors of the library.

Pre-nursing first-year Finn Jennings explained that the extended hours would give more access to library resources. “There are more opportunities to check out books,” Jennings said, “if you forget, you can come in late.”

Along with increased access to library resources, these hours also give students another place to go to get work done or gather safely for group work. The study rooms in the library have been reopened with mask requirements, even if students use them alone. Reservations for study rooms can be done online or by calling the library. Walk-ins are available, but they work on a first come first serve basis. 

First-year education major Alexis MenkeBowers said she will be using the extended hours a lot. 

“I only get stuff done if I’m in a third location,” MenkeBowers explained, “I’m not very good at keeping myself accountable in my room.”

Jordan Bell, first-year psychology major, agreed that the ability to study in a different location is beneficial, “especially for students who have a roommate who isn’t quiet, or who can’t work in their room.”

Run entirely by student employees, Hamersly will only be available for people affiliated with Western. Working closely with campus security, student employees ensure a Western-only library during the nighttime hours. Before entering the building, all must show their Western IDs in the lobby. If students do not have their IDs on them, they can also successfully log in to their portal on a shared laptop at the new concierge desk. 

The additional hours also created new student employment opportunities, such as the peer advocate. A peer advocate is the stand in lead of the library once all Western faculty leaves. They are the most trained person that can aid anyone coming into the library and are essential in training new student employees as well. Peer advocates perform regular walkthroughs of the entire library, establishing safeguards to check that patrons are adhering to mask mandates and the Western exclusive rules.   

Public services librarian Janeanne Rockwell-Kincanon described how, during the 2020–21 school year, multiple groups of students criticized the shortened library hours. Many students explained how they were in need of the free and public resources. The additional hours were opened because students showed an interest in late night hours. 

For instance, sophomores Lindie Larson and Kaiya Leamy, social science major and biology major respectively, explained how Western athletes benefit from these hours. 

“We’re both student athletes so we can fit (these hours) around our schedules with practices,” said Larson; “especially on the weekends,” Leamy added. 

Hamersly Library is taking steps to adapt to students’ needs with these extended hours. Not only are the resources available, but they are being managed in a safe way. As Rockwell-Kincanon described, it is “a student run library, for students.” 


Contact the authors at westernhowleditor@thewesternhowl.com and digitalmediamanager@thewesternhowl.com.

Letter from the Editor

Fall transitions for Student Media’s 99th year

Cora McClain | Editor-in-Chief

Hey, Western. Here we are again, the start of another year, this one my last. 

Going into my fourth year on “The Western Howl,” third year as Editor-in-Chief, and the 99th year since the conception of Student Media at Western, there are a lot of expectations for us at the Howl, as well as for me. 

Since it’s my senior year and I will not be able to return next year, it’s my job to find and prepare the next Editor-in-Chief for producing the centennial volume of the Howl. 

So, while I am focused on this, I might make a few errors along the way. For instance, this letter.

I’m so sorry for my letter from the Editor not making it into Volume 4, Issue 1. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t room in Issue 1 for this letter, as the issue was overwhelmed with an amazing flood of creativity and passion from the new writing staff. 

You should know the drill by now Western: new year, new staff. 

I’m so very excited to be working with all of the fresh perspectives from senior integrated English studies major Sarah Austin, junior English studies major Mikayla Coleman, and senior political science major Camille Lenning. I am especially looking forward to sophomore English studies major Mirella Barrera-Betancourt pioneering the new position of staff writer and helping to develop what this position entails.

At the same time, I am very lucky to have some key returning figures to help train and guide our staff through some major transitions. Senior interdisciplinary studies major Rylie Horrall returns as our Managing Editor and currently designs our issues in the absence of a designer. Stephanie Moschella, senior social science major, is once again our Digital Media Manager and taking over as photo editor in the absence of one. Allison Vanderzanden, senior English studies major, takes up a new role as Copy Editor this year. 

Overall, this staff looks very strong in creativity and passion, as well as skill and experience. Just looking at Issue 1, I can already tell that this is going to be a great year for the Howl to expand and build after surviving heavy budget cuts, staff reductions and product downsizes.

Speaking of expanding, let’s get back to those transitions I mentioned. 

Firstly, I am overjoyed to welcome our new adviser, William McDonald-Newman, to Student Media. Though he’s learning the ropes, he has already proven to be a big help to me and the staff. 

Secondly, reading through this issue, it is pretty noticeable that we are expanding back to a 12 page issue. However, this could fluctuate back to eight pretty regularly. 

Thirdly, flipping through this issue, it’s obvious that we are printing once again. New weekly issues will be found at newsstands and on tables around campus and Monmouth. Be on the lookout for these issues and don’t be afraid to pick one or two up; after all, they are for you, Western. Find a full list of our on and off campus distribution locations on our Instagram @thewesternhowl and website wou.edu/westernhowl.

Fourthly, we will not have a Sports section again this year, at least not a regular weekly section. Instead, the Howl will feature more special or limited sections; Issue 1 featured a Culture section, and Issue 2, a Homecoming section.

Finally, we are using new emails with our own domain, something we are very excited about. These will be the official Western Howl emails from now on. Please be patient with us while we are figuring out some technical issues with emails bouncing back.

That’s all for the changes we have made so far. If any more come up, Western, you will be the first to know. 

Big things are coming, Western, and I am so excited to share them with you.

Contact the author at westernhowleditor@thewesternhowl.com

Opinion: New Year’s resolutions are meant to fail

Making resolutions is nice, but fixating on our flaws is not

Cora McClain | Editor-in-Chief

Exercise more, eat healthy, keep to a study schedule, read 30 books by the end of the year, etc. — typical resolutions like these permeate throughout little (or long) lists we use for yearly self-improvement. Each year, we look in the mirror and list out all of our flaws and make meaningless lists on how to improve upon those flaws. Jokes have been made time and time again, but New Year’s resolutions usually last about as long as the holiday — one day or less. The way we construct our list of resolutions makes them so breakable.

Our New Year’s resolutions are reflections of our “perfect” selves: the ones who rock climb, the ones who cook, the ones who keep houseplants alive, but they are not ourselves. We create unattainable goals that are pass/fail with no wiggle room. Changing behavior doesn’t happen overnight, and too often we expect to be able to be at the level of our “perfect” selves by Jan. 1. It is simply unattainable, and only adds to a self-deprecating culture in which we don’t hold ourselves accountable.

That being said, I don’t hate goal setting; in fact, I think goal setting is the key to success. I just think that we put way too much pressure on ourselves to force ourselves to change who we are. Good positive change takes time and work, starting small and building towards that big change. Otherwise, forcing a huge change from the get go will only lead to lackluster results. We need to move towards kinder and more attainable goal-setting in order to facilitate change and improvement in our lives.

I have found a lot of clarity in how to create attainable resolutions in Leena Norms’ video on the topic, “Lies you’re told about new years resolutions.” She gives many tips on how to break the New Year’s resolution mold and look at the yearly tradition in a more creative and positive light. While watching her video, I discovered a trend — people aim too high and are far too harsh on themselves by believing New Year’s resolutions have to look a certain way. In reality, you can make anything a resolution, decide anyway to measure it and give yourself as much wiggle room as you need. It doesn’t always have to be “go vegan or go home.”

Contact the author at cmcclain17@mail.wou.edu

Nostalgic spooky movies to watch this Halloween

A list of spooky movies that are sure to please

Cora McClain | Editor-In-Chief

Stephanie Moschella | Digital Media Manager

Halloween is fastly approaching, but with social distancing guidelines, it seems as if the holiday has essentially been cancelled. Since there’s not much to do on All Hallow’s Eve this year, a movie marathon would be a nice alternative. Here are a few nostalgic movies to get comfy and watch on Oct. 31.

Classic

“Beetlejuice” (1988) (Amazon)

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1992) (Amazon)

“Casper” (1995) (Amazon)

“Corpse Bride” (2005) (Amazon)

“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) (Amazon)

“Ghostbusters” (1984) (Amazon) 

“Goosebumps” (1998 ) (Netflix)

“Gremlins” (1984) (Amazon)

“Halloweentown” (1998) (Disney+) 

“Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge” (2001) (Disney+) 

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001) (Amazon)

“Hocus Pocus” (1993) (Disney+) 

“House on Haunted Hill” (1999) (Amazon)

“Matilda” (1996) (Amazon)

“Mean Girls” (2004) (Amazon)

“Return to Halloweentown” (2006) (Disney+) 

“Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” (1969) (Amazon)

“Sleepy Hollow” (1999) (Amazon)

“Teen Wolf” (1985) (Amazon)

“The Addams Family” (1991) (Netflix)

“The Craft” (1996) (Amazon)

“The Haunted Mansion” (2003) (Disney+)

“The Night Before Christmas” (1993) (Amazon)

“Twitches” (2005) (Disney+)

 

Horror

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984) (Amazon)

“Annabelle” (2014) (Amazon)

“Blair Witch Project” (1999) (Amazon)

“Carrie” (1976) (Amazon)

“Child’s Play” (1988) (Amazon)

“Children of the Corn” (1984) (Hulu) 

“Halloween” (1978) (Amazon) 

“It” (2017) (Amazon)

“Monster House” (2006) (Amazon)

“Paranormal Activity” (2007) (Amazon)

“Pet Sematary” (1989) (Amazon) 

“The Amityville Horror” (1979) (Amazon)

“The Conjuring” (2013) (Amazon)

“The Conjuring 2” (2016) (Amazon)

“The Exorcist” (1973) (Amazon) 

“The Nun” (2018) (Amazon) 

“The Shining” (1980) (Amazon) 

“The Sixth Sense” (1999) (Amazon) 

“The Ring” (2002) (Amazon)

“Scream” (1996) (Amazon)

 

Honorable Mention

“The Haunting of Hill House” (2018) (Netflix)

Contact the authors at howleditor@wou.edu and howldigitalmediamanager@wou.edu

Review: “The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope”

Good jumpscares, well-written plot and new mechanics makes “Little Hope” a big success

Cora McClain | Editor-In-Chief

Stephanie Moschella | Digital Media Manager

It’s hard to follow up on the explosive popularity “Until Dawn” had on the gaming community, which is why The Dark Pictures Anthology had a lot of hype to live up to. When “The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan” seemingly fell flat as a glorified movie-turned-video game, “The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope” had to blow its audience away in order for Supermassive Games to regain traction. “Little Hope” is an interactive horror survival video game released on the PS4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on Oct. 30 for $30. 

Watching the trailer for the game, creepy kids, ghost towns and terrifying monsters were a given. However, there was a huge piece of plot that was well guarded and added a mysterious paranormal layer beyond what was already there. For spoiler purposes, we will not be disclosing this plot point, but know that it was a good spin on the “time-traveling” plot. 

Along with this, the ending was completely unexpected, at least for us. While some people might heavily dislike an ending like this, we found it an interesting twist with little clues all the way though. In fact, I would go so far as to say the plot of “Little Hope” far surpassed most horror genre video games and movies. 

Each new piece of information changed our perceptions and theories of what was going on; it was an intricately-woven tangled mystery that the game unknotted organically, without giving away all of the surprises too early. At the same time, the twists didn’t come out of nowhere and were based in the already-established lore and plot of “Little Hope.” For us, the story of “Little Hope” hit the mark.

Another high note for “Little Hope” was the great atmosphere of the game. As a person who played the game all the way through in five hours, there wasn’t a moment where the tense mood or suspension of disbelief was broken. Straight from the get-go, the player is thrown into intense action ⏤ unlike “Man of Medan,” which had a very slow build up. From the moment the characters arrive in “Little Hope,” tensions are high, and it feels as if anything can happen at any moment. 

The real sense of danger begins in act two, after all the monsters have been introduced; there is scene after scene of fighting monsters that don’t let up for about an hour of gameplay. The characters are in constant danger, and this adds to the sense of urgency for them and the players. 

Our consensus on the monsters are that they are some of the best monsters to be featured in a Supermassive Games title, even better than the infamous “Until Dawn” wendigos. They were varied, had a story-driven purpose for existing and were scary as hell — players don’t have a set of rules for them, they have to figure it out and infer along the way.

A main part of horror games are the jumpscares, which is where a lot of horror video games disappoint. But for “Little Hope,” they do an amazing job keeping it not only plot driven but continuously scary. Most games go back to the tropey and cheap jumpscares, but this game really drives it home with their abundance of well thought-out scares that keeps the player on the edge of their seat through the whole game.

As for the mechanics, “Little Hope” followed its predecessors by relying on choices, quick time events, aiming events and investigating the environment. There was a new implementation of warnings that let the player know that a QTE was coming up. It’s a nice addition that helped with the accuracy of making QTEs, but it takes away that constant edge of danger present in other Supermassive Games. 

Along with this, a player could control another character during a scene, in which they could very well kill another player’s character. While it does add to the importance of the multiplayer feature, it can also be quite devastating to lose a character when it is not even that player’s turn.

One new mechanic involved the characteristics featured in previous games; instead of just floating around the character’s head aimlessly, there were “locked” characteristics. A part of this mechanic is that through very specific and certain choices, more characteristics can be locked or broken. This mechanic is not explained at all during the game like all the others, even though it has the most devastating consequences. The fact that this mechanic leads to automatic character death in the third act without being explained in any way soured the game a bit for us.

Another problem the game presents is the obvious lack of diversity. In Supermassive Games’ previous installments, they made an effort in hiring women and people of color. However, in “Little Hope,” there is one throwaway Asian character and a Black man who is perceived as a danger to our white heros the whole game. This doesn’t deter from the plotline, but it does beg the question: why would they go with something like the witch trials and not mention the people of color that were also tortured and killed during them?

 

Overall Review: 

Stephanie: I would recommend this video game to anyone who is ready for some good jumpscares but are okay with mediocre endings. I commend their skill for being able to scare some eager horror gamers with a rating for 8/10. 

Cora: Before the auto-kill mechanic, I would have rated this game a 9/10, but it spoiled the game for me a bit. I would recommend it for any avid fan of the horror genre who doesn’t care too much about a bum ending. Overall, it is a great horror game that I thoroughly enjoyed and want to play again, and it gets an 8/10 from me.

Contact the authors at howleditor@wou.edu and howldigitalmediamanager@wou.edu

Midterm letter from the Editor

A midterm look at the changes the Howl has made since issue one

Cora McClain | Editor-In-Chief

Well Western, we’ve made it halfway through the term and now stand on the precipice of a monumental election. As a way to manage my staff, I conduct what we call “midterm reviews,” where I sit down with each member of staff and talk about their progress so far, things that have changed and need to change. Think of this letter as a midterm review for The Western Howl, to you, our most valued readers.

More than most years, beginning this term and finding a routine has been difficult. Here at the Howl in particular, we have made some changes from what I had laid out for you in “The Western Howl: Vol. 3 Issue 1.”

Rather than reduce our content through only designing bi-weekly, the Howl staff have adjusted to continue designing each issue through the year. We are very happy with this, as we can continue to bring to Western the feeling of a produced, printed paper in an online format. 

These designed weekly issues can be seen on the right side-bar of the main page of our website and like always, the stories will still be uploaded online on the website.

With administration announcing that winter term will have similar modality to fall, the Howl will be distributing just as it has this term — we once again will not be printing. 

While IFC is still in deliberation and has not yet made their preliminary decisions, it is looking like our operating budget will not change much from fall. We will most likely be operating at the same capacity as we are now. This means we will only have the News, Entertainment and Lifestyle editor sections. Along with those, we will unfortunately not be able to meet one of our goals to expand to a 12 page paper by 2021, and continue to produce an 8 page paper into the new year. While I wish we could give you more content, Western, I hope that our current reporting is up to your standards.

Thank you, Western, for your continued support through these difficult weeks. Being able to serve this community and keep everyone informed makes all of this difficulty worth it. The Howl staff and I, appreciate you, Western; without you, our work would be meaningless. 

Once again, thank you Western, for making us at the Howl feel like we aren’t alone.

Contact the author at howleditor@wou.edu

Letter from the Editor

Adapting The Western Howl in the face of uncertainty

Cora McClain | Editor-In-Chief

Hey Western, I’m glad to be writing to you once again. While I am overjoyed to be returning as The Western Howl’s editor-in-chief, I’m also worried beyond belief. I won’t lie to you; it has been a stressful month leading up to the beginning of fall term. I may have a year of experience under my belt, but nothing could have prepared me for the uncertainty of fall 2020. 

Many changes within university funding have put IFC funded areas, like Student Media, in a tough spot. Suffice to say, we had to adapt many moving pieces within The Western Howl. We had to reorganize everything within our organization, and for a while there, it looked like there wasn’t going to be a Student Media for fall term. We got lucky, and get to uphold our promise to report to you, Western.

The story is confusing — everything leading up to this term has been confusing — but I’m here to lay it all out for you.  For clarity’s sake, instead of weaving some thematic elements here and there, I will just be explaining these larger changes, since they are so drastic and different from previous years.

Firstly, like many other IFC funded areas, Student Media was hit with damaging budget cuts, 45% to be exact. This led Student Media to no longer be able to pay for an adviser position, so we lost our adviser once again. 

So, I ask that you bear with us Western, as we will have little support from administration as we transition into an even more difficult time than we did last year. We may make mistakes along the way, and for this, I ask for your understanding.

Along with this, The Western Howl staff, like many other people affected by COVID-19, are receiving a reduced pay, cutting hours of work out of staff paychecks. The ability to pay less hours means we won’t be able to create as much content as in previous years. 

Furthermore, the way we produce the paper changed to reflect these budget cuts. Our weekly issues have been reduced from 12 pages to 8 pages, without a Sports section for the foreseeable future. We will not be distributing printed issues, possibly for the whole 2020 to 2021 academic year if the online trend continues. Though our red newsstands will be empty, The Western Howl will continue to write and report stories for online editions.

Since we are unable to print, we have also decided to only design an issue every other week. These bi-weekly designed issues will be uploaded to The Western Howl website in pdf form and through Issuu. Rest assured, we will still offer weekly stories directly uploaded to our website, with ongoing stories updated as information reveals itself. 

Though these less desirable changes are underway, the Howl has also looked into ways to expand in other areas. Because the website is becoming increasingly more important — and our only point of traffic — a redesign is underway. 

On top of that, our digital media manager is working hard to increase social media and online media content creation. We are hoping to engage more with you, Western, whether you are here, on campus, or remote.

Part of this expansion includes a bi-weekly podcast alternating from serious topics to more fun and entertaining casts. Along with this, the Howl is going to engage in more organizational integration within Student Media by hopping on KWOU to report a news hour every Wednesday, talking about the stories that came out that week.

I understand how jarring these alterations to the Howl may seem, and they are equally as disorienting for the staff. All of our lives are going through transitions we didn’t expect, however with flexibility and perseverance we can all get through these unexpected times. 

Stay strong, Western, you’re not alone.

Contact the author at howleditor@mail.wou.edu