Mount Hood

An Election Year to remember

Polk County sees almost even distribution of Republic and Democratic voting 

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor

Last Saturday, Nov. 7, media outlets across the country announced former Vice President Joe Biden as the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election. The Associated Press reported President Elect Biden had amassed over 76 million votes as of Nov. 10, surpassing former First Lady Hilary Clinton’s near 66 million votes from 2016.

Currently, the national popular vote in the 2020 election is separated by 3.3% with mail-in and absentee ballots still to be counted.

Historically known as a blue state, the popular vote in Oregon was separated by 16%, with the Democratic Party nominee receiving 1.3 million votes and the Republican Party nominee receiving around 945 thousand votes, according to results.oregonvotes.gov. 

In Polk County, the voting margins were similar to the national voting margins; Polk County, a predominately red area, had high voter turnout on both the Demoractic and Republican sides, resulting in a purple presidential race. 

In 2020, the Democratic nominees received 47% of the total 48 thousand Polk County votes in comparison to the Republican nominees receiving 49%. In 2016, current President Donald J. Trump received 47% of the total 41 thousand Polk County votes available in contrast to running mate Hilary Clinton, who received 40% of the total votes available in Polk County, with the remaining 13% spread between independent candidates.

Between each recent presidential election year, Polk County saw a 17% increase in voter turnout. Statewide, Oregon saw a 1% increase in voting from the 2016 general election to the 2020 election. Nationwide, it’s been reported that there has been an 18% increase in voter turnout from the 2016 presidential election. Trump attributes this to voter fraud, citing Pennsylvania as his most relevant example. 

“We were up by nearly 700 thousand votes in Pennsylvania,” said Trump in a White House briefing room on Nov. 5. “I won Pennsylvania by a lot and that gets whittled down to, I think they said now we’re up by 90 thousand votes, and they keep coming and coming and coming, they find them all over, our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away in secret.”

However, none of the president’s claims or lawsuits have been contested by any of the courts due to lack of evidence. Currently, Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris are projected to be the next leaders of America come January 2021 ⏤ unless Trump’s team provides evidence of massive voting fraud taking place in the major swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. 

Contact the author at howlnews@mail.wou.edu

Veteran Resource Center participates in nationwide PAVE program

The Veteran Resource Center provides veterans and their dependents with specialized academic advisors

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor

In America, the number of veterans and dependents interested in pursuing higher education rose 3% after the addition of Chapter 33: Post/9-11 educational assistance to U.S. Code Title 38—VETERANS’ BENEFITS, reported in a study by Liang Zhang of New York University.

To accommodate incoming veterans, in 2012 an organization associated with the University of Michigan known as M-SPAN — Military Support Programs and Networks — launched a pilot version of their initiative known as PAVE — Peer Advisors for Veteran Education — intending to ease the transition of student veterans from the military to college, increase student veteran retention rates and improve student veterans’ academic performance.

After their successful pilot, M-SPAN launched a nationwide campaign, gaining 42 campuses including Western Oregon University.

“I was initially interested in forming a peer advising program because I was witnessing the success of other mentorship programs,” said Western Veteran Resource Center Director Colin Haines.

Haines reported reaching out to fellow colleges that were already participating in the program; after receiving information on how the program functioned on their campuses, Haines determined that PAVE would benefit Western veterans and their dependents. Starting officially in 2019, the Veteran Resource Center began offering the services associated with PAVE.

“It’s a unique program,” said senior exercise science major and team leader of the PAVE program Adam Dryden. “Incoming veterans or dependents are paired with an upperclassman familiar with Western’s academics and the different Veteran Affairs benefits.”

In years prior, incoming first-year veterans or dependents were assigned to a general university advisor specific to their major. Dryden explained that VA benefits are different from most financial aid, so general advisors may not be as familiar with their structure compared to a member of PAVE.

Additionally, Dryden explained that while advisors are required to be upperclassmen and be a veteran or a dependent, candidates are required to go through a short certification program.

“I think it’s effective,” said Dryden. “It takes a few hours to complete. You run through scenarios and then you get a certification at the end.”

Despite the challenges imposed by COVID-19, PAVE has maintained 36 first-years using VA benefits. Dryden explained that while PAVE is meant to serve underclassmen, transfer students are also welcome to participate in the program.

“We want to help in any way that we can,” Dryden explained.

For more information or questions regarding PAVE, visit the Veteran Resource Center website at wou.edu/veterans/.

Contact the author at howlnews@mail.wou.edu

 

Men’s rugby competes virtually in rugby competition

Men’s rugby participates in COVID-19 friendly competition

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor

Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, club sport organizations like men’s rugby are not able to function under normal pretenses.

However, the rugby team found a creative alternative to normal game play: a virtual competition against other rugby teams. 

In order to compete in the virtual “season,” men’s rugby earned points by performing various challenges in workouts and training. 

“We competed in competitions against other teams to see whose times were better, who had a better push up per minute, who had a better sit up per minute and it was just basically a statewide competition,” said freshman physical education major and men’s rugby flanker Sangato Letisi. 

In addition to the physical aspect of the competition, the virtual showdown awarded teams points for self promotion as well as community service. During the event, the rugby team reached out to Western’s Food Pantry after viewing their own promotional video, and asked if the team could make another one.

“It wasn’t part of any specific task,” said senior exercise science major and men’s rugby lock Spike Ripley. “It was just we as a team decided to be more active in the community. We are actually trying to change how Western Oregon’s rugby team is looked at. This is a positive way (to) be active and participate in the community.” 

Since the rugby team published their video, the Pantry has received over $1,225 in donations, been shared 108 times (including by the USA Rugby National Team), viewed nearly 9,000 times and has reached over 20,000 people.

“My entire family … (was) asking me how they could help the Food Pantry,” said Letisi. “I told them food and money helps the Food Pantry and they said they would go donate real soon.”

In addition to helping our community, the team reported winning prizes from specific tasks they won during the competition.

“My favorite part, and I think the team’s favorite part, was winning new uniforms,” said Ripley. “We won the uniforms after giving the best answer for how we were able to stay in contact with rugby despite … COVID.”

Letisi added that winning anything during this season was motivational.

“We can’t have an actual season right now, but winning something gives us something to compete for.”

In totality, the team placed second of the 90 teams qualified to compete. Going forward, the team hopes to regain a sense of normalcy and play a real game of rugby after a vaccine is released.

Contact the author at scarpenter18@mail.wou.edu

WOU food pantry continues to provide services despite COVID

Western’s Food Pantry remains open despite the year’s circumstances

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor

At Western, there have been university-wide layoffs, budget cuts and projected program reductions. The Board of Trustees have coined the term “right sizing” for the university. Due to COVID-19, the “adjustment” has been amplified.

Despite the financial circumstances the university is facing, the Western Food Pantry has remained available to community members.

Back in March, when COVID was first documented in Polk County, grocery stores in Monmouth and Independence were cleared of sanitization products, personal hygiene goods and produce. Dissimilarly, Western’s Food Pantry shelves were filled with products for the community.

According to senior applied math major and student coordinator of the Food Pantry Josh Salsbury, the Food Pantry’s “source” — Marion Polk Food Share — donated enough food to roll over into fall term after Oregon’s Joint Special Committee on Coronavirus passed their fourth policy proposal. This proposal was designed to fund food banks. 

At the time of the food bank donation, students had mostly vacated campus; however, Food Pantry services are not exclusive to students. The Pantry welcomes all who are in need regardless if they live in Polk County or aren’t associated with Western, Salsbury explained. 

After Oregon released its COVID safety guidelines, Salsbury reported that the Food Pantry hastily adapted its services to abide by Oregon law.

“It was a really difficult transition,” said Salsbury. “To illustrate that, during winter term of last year, the Food Pantry had 30 weekly volunteers keeping it open and helping with our services. Due to COVID guidelines and because we weren’t really sure what COVID was going to look like because of how scattered the information was, we went from having 30 volunteers to having maybe four or five.”

In addition to reduced volunteers, it took two attempts to establish an effective COVID-compatible food acquisition system.

“At the start of COVID, the system we had at the time was very rushed because we were trying to make sure we had a COVID-compliant system,” said Salsbury. “We had prearranged bags or food boxes. We had three different options of bags to still accommodate the choice.”

Salsbury explained that the Food Pantry didn’t like the first system because of the fewer options a customer had when they chose from prearranged bags.

Around the beginning of summer, the Food Pantry switched to their final and current system that Salsbury referred to as the “restaurant style” system. When customers currently go to the pantry, instead of the pre-COVID “grocery style” system, they order food off a menu and a worker packs the requested food, rather than allowing the customer to peruse the shelves. This ensures social distancing and limits the amount of people touching the food.

Despite these unusual circumstances, customers have reported the Pantry is maintaining quality service during this time.

“The transition from normal to COVID was pretty smooth,” said community member Shannon Howard. “They did a really good job; I was impressed. They stayed open when I thought they would close.”

Howard reported that although the Food Pantry is receiving only 50% of its funding and reducing staff, he still has access to all the food he needs.

“(It’s a) real big help for me, especially the fresh milk, eggs and cheese,” said Howard.

Howard also commented that prior to COVID, the pantry was actually prepared, citing that the pantry provided sanitizer.

Going forward, the Food Pantry hopes to continue to provide for their community and destigmatize using the pantry. For information on Food Pantry hours and how you can donate, visit https://wou.edu/foodpantry/.

Contact the author at scarpenter18@mail.wou.edu

 

The IFC makes preliminary funding decisions

The IFC faces threats of funding withdrawal and being denied consultations for applying a fee

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor

Over the course of several months, Western administration and the Incidental Fee Committee have been in debate over the IFC’s Incidental Fee.

For winter term, it was discussed in the committee’s Oct. 29 meeting that President Rex Fuller would potentially be supplying another $1 million stimulus from the online tech fee — similar to funding supplied in fall term. IFC members briefly discussed applying a flat rate fee of $25 in comparison to their current fee system: students with one to five credits pay $265, and students with more than six credits pay $395.

In their Nov. 5 meeting, the committee announced that President Fuller changed his $1 million offer to $415,000 on the condition that the committee does not attempt to make any mid-year fee modifications and maintains their two-tier system approved back in spring 2020. 

In an email sent to ASWOU President NJ Johnson, President Fuller projected IFC expenses totaling $900,000 due to winter term being less expensive. Fuller cited that remaining funding for winter term would come from the $100,000 carryover from fall term, $85,000 from the current IFC fee and $300,000 from the $1.3 million in IFC reserves.

Despite Fuller’s conditions, the IFC has opted to carry out its normal governing processes — an extensive list — protected by OR statute 352.105.

“(There are) serious problems making our committee rely on online fee,” said junior philosophy English double major and IFC member Nick Denning in the fourth meeting transcripts. “No control over the amount of money we receive, administration is doing that all on their own and they decide what to charge and where money goes. All of a sudden we are reliant on online tech fees. (We) cannot criticize it because (our funding) will go away.”

Following their own timeline and deciding to not rely on Fuller, the IFC approved all preliminary budget proposals in their fifth meeting held on Nov. 12. Although the IFC requested areas to present budget proposal reflecting 50% funding, areas such as Student Media received an additional $1,500 to meet their needs, so they would not need to pull money from their reserves; Campus Recreation was given an additional $5,000 to increase workers to full time; Creative Arts received an additional $1,000 for student employment; ASWOU’s budget was given an additional $4,452 to allow Office Coordinator to be 1.0 FTE; Athletics requested funds for both winter and spring term in preparation for plane ticket purchases if travel is allowed.

After approving budget proposals, the committee discussed potential fee prices; in their deliberation, the IFC agreed to two possible fee scenarios. The first scenario involves all students, regardless of whether they are taking an online class, paying a flat rate fee of $150 and around $360,000 would be taken from reserves if the committee is not able to convince the Board of Trustees to lower the online tech fee. In the second scenario, if the IFC can bring down the price on the online tech fee, then all students, regardless of whether they are taking an online class, would pay a flat rate fee of $175 and around $250,000 would be taken from reserves.

Additionally, newly elected IFC Chair Makana Waikiki announced that although she attempted to request a Dec. 16 emergency meeting with the Board of Trustees, Chair Betty Komp did not reply to Waikiki. Instead, Komp only replied to ASWOU President Johnson, saying that she couldn’t endorse an emergency meeting.

At this time, due to the unwillingness of the Board of Trustees to meet with the IFC and President Fuller’s plans to withdraw funding if IFC continues its process, the committee intends to submit an appeal to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to have the IFC’s situation discussed at their Dec. 10 boarding meeting. Until then, the IFC is continuing to the next phase of their fee establishment process: open hearings being held via Zoom on Nov. 19 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and Nov. 20 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. During these hearings, members of the community can voice their concerns on fees or advocate for more funding in various areas. To participate in the hearings, visit https://wou.edu/ifc/.

As more information is released, the story will be updated.

Contact the author at scarpenter18@mail.wou.edu

Turning Point USA hosts viewing party for final presidential debate

Western students attend virtual viewing party of the final presidential debate

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor

On Oct. 22, 63 million Americans tuned in to the final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, according to nielsen.com.

Western students interested in watching the debate were invited to a viewing party hosted on Discord by Turning Point USA  — a bipartisan political club on campus. During the viewing party students could comment on how each political candidate addressed moderator  Kristen Welker’s questions about Fighting COVID-19, American Families, Race in America, Climate Change, National Security and Leadership. 

“The candidates were much more civil this time with a lot less interrupting,” said junior business major and Event Coordinator of Turning Point USA Joe White, “at least in the first half anyway. It did seem to kinda fall apart towards the end.”

For the first presidential debate, the Commission of presidential debates received a lot of criticism from the American people regarding the lack of control the first moderator, Chris Wallace, had over the candidates remaining within their two-minute speaking time and their lack of civility towards one another. In White’s personal opinion — which he explains is not reflective of the club or the members associated with it — he felt the moderator in the final debate did a great job delegating each candidate’s talking time.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of interrupting from what I saw and it didn’t feel like two little kids fighting and having a teacher come break it up,” said White. “This time around, I felt the moderator was sweet, and she also had a spine; she wasn’t getting pushed around. It felt like she knew what she was doing but she also knew when to reclaim her time in a way.”

Although candidates were socially distanced and audience members were required to wear masks, in contrast to the vice presidential debate that utilized a plexiglass covering to protect candidates Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence, plexiglass coverings were not used in the final presidential debate despite Trump testing positive for COVID weeks prior.

 “You would think the more important a person is, the more you’re going to want to protect them,” said White. “I was surprised to not see plexiglass between them. I guess I didn’t really see a point unless they are facing each other. If they’re facing each other, I would understand it being there, but if they’re not then I would understand it not being there.”

In Oregon, it’s estimated by AP Election Research and Quality Control that the percentage of votes cast in advance compared to the General Election in 2018 is up 47.8%. It’s been estimated by Michael McDonald of the University of Florida’s Elections Project that around 52 million Americans have voted early as of  Oct. 27.

White hopes that after the election people respect who is voted in as president and respect the outcome of the election, whether it’s President Trump or former Vice President Biden.

Contact the author at howlnews@mail.wou.edu

Halloween themed spirit week residents of Monmouth can participate in

Monmouth Business Association holds halloween themed spirit week for locals 

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor

In years prior to COVID-19, local businesses in downtown Monmouth hosted a family friendly trick or treating event for Halloween. Due to health and safety guidelines currently in place, the event cannot be hosted. However, the Monmouth Business Association has come up with some week-long socially distanced alternatives so residents and local businesses can participate in the fun and spooky holiday.

 

Business decorating contest: Businesses of Monmouth are encouraged to decorate their establishments in family friendly Halloween decorations; all decorations needed to be up by Oct. 26. The business will be judged by a panel of judges, and the community will vote for People’s choice.

 

Halloween costume contest: This year, residents can upload pictures of their costumes to Instagram under the hashtag #monmouthhalloween. The contest will run from Oct. 26 to Oct. 31. The winner with the most likes will win some fun treats.

 

Scavenger hunt: On Oct. 27, the Monmouth Business Association will post on their Facebook page a list of items for people to find in downtown Monmouth. They can be found on Facebook @MonmouthBusinessAssociation.

 

This year the association is discouraging business from handing out candy this year, claiming in their flyer that they want people to stay safe.


Contact the author at howlnews@mail.wou.edu

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