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The VanCougar: January 11, 2010
Issue nine of the VanCougar Student Newspaper
The VanCougar: September 21, 2009
Washington State University Vancouver Student Newspaper, Issue Three, Septemb...
WSU-V supporter and philanthropist Mary Firstenburg diedlast Tuesday, February 17, at the ageof 91. She is survived by her husbandand co-contributor, Ed and their threechildren.Ed and Mary Firstenburg donatedhalf a million dollars to WSU-V for theconstruction of the Firstenburg FamilyFountain in the courtyard and another one million dollars for the remodelof the student commons (formerlyhousing The Bookie).“This is a permanent legacy for the Firstenburg family and for WSUVancouver,” said Chancellor HalDengerink back when the gift wasannounced. “The Firstenburg StudentCommons will provide a much neededspace on campus for students. We aretruly grateful to the Firstenburgs andthe Community Foundation for their generosity.”The Firstenburg StudentCommons—often referred to asthe Firstenburg, FSC or simply theCommons—plays an important partin student life on campus. Peter Sterr,ASWSUV president represents thestudent body stating, “The Firstenburgs’generous contribution to WSUVancouver that made the FirstenburgStudent Commons a reality has greatly
inuenced the student culture on our
campus.”“The Commons,” said Sterr,“will forever stand as a memory of the care and commitment that Maryand Ed Firstenburg have shownto this community. They havetruly been a shining example of compassionate philanthropyand role models to all of usthat strive to give back toour communities. MaryFirstenburg will bemissed.”“We are deeplysaddened to hear of the lossof Mary Firstenburg,” saidJennifer Crooks, Director of Campus and RegionalDevelopment. “Our heartsgo out to Ed and the rest of the family.”“Ed and Mary havemade a huge footprint on thegrowth of WSU Vancouver by providing gifts to draw studentsand the community together,” saidCrooks. “Ed and Mary’s support of education has been remarkable andtheir contributions have supported thecampus so that Vancouver would havea stronger educational opportunityfor students. Our community is better because of all the support that theFirstenburg’s have provided—whichis threaded throughall facets of thecommunity.”
Chancellor, Hal Dengerink saidthat they have been very generous
with their money in beneting WSU-
V. “They have also demonstrated thatfor their bank to thrive so must thecommunity that they live and work in,” said Dengerink adding that thesame was true for WSU-V. Maryserved on the board of directors of the First Independent Bank for over 40 years. Her husband Ed servedas the chairman. In addition tofunding the WSU-V FirstenburgStudent Commons Buildingand the campus FirstenburgFamily Fountain they have
given signicant gifts
to other Clark County projects.According
to theColumbian, MaryFirstenburg had plannedto become a missionary before meeting andmarrying Ed Firstenburgin 1936. They weremarried 72 years and
lived in Ridgeeld, WA.
for close to 40 years.Mary Firstenburg gaveconsiderably of her timeto the community, helping
found the Ridgeeld Library and
was active in PTA, scouting, the VAand other organizations. Her gifts and
spirit have signicantly touched the
region. Perhaps she was a missionaryafter all.
By Greg Zschomler
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Mary Firstenburg leaves behind a legacy
Washington State University VancouverFebruary 23, 2009Issue 12www.vancougar.com
Page 5Page 4Page 11
Page 7
WSU-V launches newthreat assessment responseplan to address concerns
Vancouver AWARENetwork
Student Body candidatesshare some informationabout their campaigns
Meet TheCandidate
Remarkable philanthropist
passes away aer decades ofservice to her community
I n t h i s i s s u e :
Delta Drywall’s takeon the picketers fromPacific NorthwestRegional Councilof Carpenters
Undergraduate
Building
Peter Sterr goes over amendments that maybe taking place on our campus
From thePresident
MOSAIC, which stands for MeetOur Students and Investigate College,is a college outreach program currentlyheaded by Assistant Director for Student Diversity Bola Majekobaje andAdmissions Counselor Mike Reyes.They have partnered with Gear Up for College and together comprise a groupof people who are very dedicated togetting students to go on to higher education at the University level.“MOSAIC brings in a very diversegroup of students,” said Majekobaje.The participating high schools wereselected basedon student bodydemographics andthe percentageof students onfree and reducedlunch. Whilediverse, thestudents selected from these schoolsshare some common ground. Those
selected are either low income or rst
generation students, although mostimportantly, they all want to attendcollege.The name MOSAIC was inherited by Majekobaje and Reyes when the project was handed to them. Now, thename has taken on a new meaning,and has come to represent small piecescoming together to make the bigger picture. That picture is access to higher education. Although the meaning haschanged, the acronym is no lesstrue now, than when MOSAICwasn’t even intended for highschool students.For instance, at this session, unlikeother sessions, each visiting highschool student received a college buddy. When I arrived, I foundthe incoming high school studentsanxiously lined up outside of theauditorium in the AdministrationBuilding.They were nervous, timid, andclearly out of their comfort zone.They slowly trickled through thedoor and into the auditorium.When a number was called, acorresponding college buddy stood
up and agged the high schooler
down.After eachstudent gota chance tomeet his or her college buddy, theKeynote speaker,
Jorge Lizarraga came on stage. In the
spirit of the current political theme, hespoke about change.
Lizarraga started by telling about his
youth. He said, “The idea of one group being inferior and another superior,was something that permeated all of our lives growing up in this country.”He said that during his youth, bi-lingual students were hit for speakingSpanish at school, and placed inspecial education programs simply because they did not know English.In general, he painted a picture of afar less accommodating America, onewhere it was hardly frowned upon to be a racist.
Lizarraga says, “Changes are
coming, change can be scary, changecan be mysterious, change can also be amazingly wonderful, it can be afantastic opportunity.”He ended his speech telling thestudents about the kind of thingsthat college allows them to do. Heexplained that college creates optionsthat wouldn’t otherwise be available.
Lizarraga encouraged students to take
advantage of change, to seek it, and tothrive from it.After the Keynote speech wasdelivered, the visitors were given anopportunity to interview their college buddies to get to know them better.By now, even the most nervous of thenewcomers had begun to loosen up,and by the end everyone seemed to belaughing, smiling, and generally havinga good time.After the buddy interviews had beenconducted, it was time to go face the day.The rest of the event was comprised of three sessions in which students had anopportunity to choose from a varietyof workshops that served to give themknowledge about attending college,and an opportunity to broaden their horizons.
By Joe Creager
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High school students tour campus at MOSAIC
College outreach program
aids students for future
WSU-V and high school students alike gained valuable information from the MOSAIC event.
“Changes are coming. Changecan be scary, change can bemysterious, change can alsobe amazingly wonderful...”
P h o t o b y J o e C r e a g e r
C
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ASWSUV’s freebowling night wasa fun event for thosethat were involved
Bowling NightPictures
The VanCougar
2
EDITORIAL
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The VanCougar
The VanCougar, VCLS 21214024 NE Salmon Creek Ave.Vancouver, WA 98686Phone: (360) 546-9524Fax: (360) 546-9072
Editor-in-Chief
Katie Wells
Managing Editor
Michael Hatch
Advisor
Dean Baker
Assistant Editor
Collin Rickman
Copy Editor
Kati Hughes
Arts & Culture Editor
Jake Kleinschmidt
Sports & Rec Editor
Erik Cummings
Ad Manager
Dan Rauchenstein
Sta Writers & Photographers
Rosann Bartel, Matt Hunter, LouiseWynn, Hannah Walker, Shane Monroe,Danielle Mosier, Isaac Madsen, MatthewWright, Greg Zschomler, Lori Fischer,Mark Medina, Christina Frye, MatthewSouth, Charis Jensen, Perry Miller, AdamFox, Dale Flamm, Joseph Creager, Erik Jutila, Alexandria Denny, Dillon Sti er,Erik Beaulieu, René Fragall, SpringAtkinson, and Sheryl Kennon
Mermaid Music: ahidden treasure on
Main Street
A few weeks ago, myroommate Kendal Mantzkeand I were walking arounddowntown Vancouver.We stopped in this smallrecord shop to see whatit was about it. MermaidMusic, on Main Street, is
denitely eye catching.
Covering every wall insideis airbrushed artwork of anunderwater scene includingwhales, mermaids, brightshells and seaweed. Thisairbrushed paint job wasdone by the owner’s familymember who happens toalso work for Disney. Not only are the walls alot to look at, but you couldspend hours in MermaidMusic going through themass amounts of used CD’s,movies, vinyls, tapes andDVD’s. Mermaid Music has been running for 16 yearswith Brian Wassman andhis son, Michael, operatingthe business. These twoknow a thing about keepinga small business alive andit all comes down to givingthe customers what they
want. Local bands are often
featured in the store sothat customers get a musicvenue type feeling from the place.Kendal and I were able to
nd many of our favorite
old-school movies such as
‘3 Ninjas,’ ‘The TrumanShow’,
and
‘A League of Their Own.’
We askedMichael if he had
‘Dirty Dancing’
amongst the other hundreds of DVD’s theyown. Although it wasn’tavailable at the time, hemessaged us on myspace tolet us know when it came in.With customer service likethat, why would you buymovies anywhere else?Stop by the store at2312 Main Street or visitthem at myspace.com/mermaidmusicstore.
“There ain’t no
spiders in here.”
“Look! There’s a giant
spider web over there inthe corner.”
Like most commonly
used words ending in –phobia, arachnophobiaaffects a large portion of the population, and seemsridiculous to people whodon’t suffer the sameailment. Of course, a muchlarger portion of peoplewho dislike spiders don’tin fact suffer from theirrational fear.A serious case of arachnophobia is muchdifferent than someone whosimply doesn’t like spiders.Arachnophobia can dictatewhere someone chooses tolive, go on vacation, work,or what sports and hobbiesthey enjoy. When a personwho is truly afraid of spiders walks into a roomthat could possibly havespiders in it, they sweat,start breathing faster, or even experience nauseaand dizziness. However,an “irrational fear” suchas this does not infer acowardly or otherwiseweak mind; Indiana Jones,anyone?Often, arachnophobia iscaused by an incident earlier in life involving spiders.For younger people,spiders are considered to be just another interesting part of the world, withthe majority of serioussufferers middle aged or older.As with any kind of fear, the most effectivetreatment is familiaritythrough education andexperience. If you can readthe word “spider” withoutgetting squeamish, think about the image of one— eight legs, a bunch of eyes,crazy-fast movements,web-spinning, and—haveyou stopped reading yet?If not, then education isa pretty safe bet. Get onWikipedia and learn all youcan about them. Maybe thenext time you run into oneyou’ll be less afraid.
START ReAdy foR chAllengeS.START ReAdy foR leAdeRShip.START ReAdy foRThe fuTuRe.
STARTSTRong.
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©2008. paid fr by the uited States Army. All rihts reserved.
START TAKingonchAllengeS.
There’s strong. Then there’s Army Strong. Enroll in the Army ROTCLeader’s Training Course atWSU and you will be ready for life aftercollege. Because when you attend this 4-week leadershipdevelopment course, you will take on new challenges andadventures. You will also be on course for a career as an ArmyOfficer.To get started, contactCPT Lontaioremail: lontai@up.edu.
PAID LEADER TRAINING SUMMER INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE FOR WSU STUDENTS!COMPLETE THE LEADER'S TRAINING COURSE! EARN A FULL TUITION AND FEES SCHOLARSHIP!CALL 503-943-8059 OR TEXT PILOTS1 TO 76821
I mentioned last time that there aresome things we can do about global warm-ing. I’d like to start with one of the mostobvious, and the easiest: not lying aboutit. I don’t object to honest differences of opinion about the causes and possible so-lutions to the problem, but it bothers me toread outright lies reported by mainstreamnews media. The Washington Post madethe mistake in its Feb. 15 issue of notchecking an assertion made by conserva-tive columnist George Will, who claimedthat the University of Illinois’ Arctic Cli-mate Research Center thinks global seaice levels are the same now as they were30 years ago. TheCenter responded im-mediately:“We do not knowwhere George Willis getting his infor-mation, but our datashows that on Febru-ary 15, 1979, globalsea ice area was 16.79million sq. km and on February 15, 2009,global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq.km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009than in February 1979. This decrease insea ice area is roughly equal to the areaof Texas, California, and Oklahoma com- bined. It is disturbing that the Washing-ton Post would publish such information
without rst checking the facts.” The
Center’s Web site (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/) includes a fascinat-ing animation of the recent loss of multi-year sea ice.Will also misquoted a report by theUnited Nations’ World MeteorologicalOrganization (WMO). He claimed theWMO says there has been “no recordedglobal warming for more than a decade.”In fact, the WMO wrote in 2008, “For de-tecting climate change you should not look at any particular year, but instead examine
the trends over a sufciently long period
of time. The current trend of temperatureglobally is very much indicative of warm-ing.” The WMO added that 2008 is “likelyto rank as the 10th warmest year on recordsince the beginning of the instrumentalclimate records in 1850” (http://www.wmo.int/pages/index_en.html).EOS, an American Geophysical Union publication (http://www.agu.org/pubs/eos), reported last month that the more people know about climatology, the morethey agree that anthropogenic globalwarming is a fact. I have to believe that people like George Will who keep deny-ing the idea are motivated by somethingother than the search for truth, especiallywhen they resort to lies to support their as-sertions. If you want to know more aboutthe politics of denial of this issue, read AlGore’s “The Assault on Reason,” or justtake a glance at his Web page (http://www.algore.com/).But, back to where we started: Whatcan we---you and I---do about global cli-mate change? Thereare a lot of thingsthat individualscan do. You’ve al-ready heard some:turn down the heat,don’t use the AC,replace your in-candescent light bulbs with compact
uorescent light bulbs, clean your furnacelters, take shorter showers with cooler
water, wash your clothes with cold water,
use energy-efcient appliances, walk or
ride your bike to work/school (not pos-sible for everyone in this area, I know),work from home when you can, plantyour own garden and fertilize it with com- post from kitchen scraps, and recycle. Alist including these, and more, is availableat http://www.nativeenergy.com/pages/more_you_can_do/18.php. A great thingabout these suggestions is that they alsosave you money, while letting you feelvirtuous about helping the planet.If you don’t think you’re contributingthat much to global warming as an indi-vidual, try calculating your yearly carbondioxide output. One Web site that helpsyou do this is http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/. The av-erage for U.S. citizens is about 7.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year, and I found outI’m above that. But I’m working on it.
February 23, 2009
3
OPINION
Some time ago, I was listening to alecture about the teaching of history.“Up until recently,” said the professor,“we focused on dead white menin history, but we are beginning toabandon this in favor of the study of the people of the time.”“Dead white men” is a phrase I hear fairly regularly these days. It is oftenused in such contexts as this: “insteadof studying these dead white men, let’sstudy _____.” This blank is usually
lled with a progressive, cool-sounding
phrase such as “women during theDepression,” “family systems in 18thcentury Congo” and “egalitarianismamong Amazonian tribes.”The implication is that there issomething wrong with the way historyhas been taught up to this point. The basic argument is that we should knowas much about the village life of aYanomamo warrior as we do aboutthe work of Plato, Napoleon, GeorgeWashington, or Shakespeare. Insteadof focusing on the rich and powerful,we should focus on the poor, thedisenfranchised and minorities.All well and good. It’s fantastic tohave an understanding of the everydaylife of a 20th century Chinese farmer as well as an understanding of thekey players during the Cold War. Nevertheless, an educator will always run into the problem of limitations:what should we teach our students with the limitedtime and energy that wehave?And this is where modern educatorsrun into a dilemma. No matter whatsort of program they develop, theywill always be leaving out some perspective and thus will be betrayingtheir nonpartisan multicultural stance.Thus, by the time students reachcollege, the assumption is that theyhave been taught all of the traditional“dead white men” and can now beintroduced to other traditions and perspectives. This assumption is
inherently awed. As a rule, the K-12
system fails spectacularly to introducestudents to the dead white men,largely because these educators arealso interested in introducing studentsto other traditions and perspectives.Thus, high school students leave highschool with a collection of facts aboutcolonialism, American slavery andwomen’s suffrage but with essentiallyno knowledge of Shakespeare or Voltaire.
“That’s ne,” you say. “We’ve
had enough of the dead white menfor a while.” Ah, but this is a naïve perspective. For example, any English-speaking person with no knowledgeof Shakespeare is intellectuallyimpoverished. To read Hamlet is torealize how much of our daily languageand thought is indebted to Shakespeare.To not know Shakespeare is to separateoneself from 400 years of Englishthought. In the same way, Voltaire’ssneers are essential to understandingthe French Revolution: an event that
has inuenced every revolution inLatin America and Europe since.
It is an understatement to say ideasmatter. They have the power tokill hundreds of millions of peopleand the power to raise the standardof living for the same number.They have the power to tear downrainforests and the power to preservethe environment. In the wordsof Russell Kirk, “modern peopleare dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, able to see further than their ancestors only because of the greatstature of those who have precededus in time.”While it is all very well to study the poor and disenfranchised, we neglectthe dead white men at our peril. For their ideas made history and the linethat separates history from modern
dilemmas is insignicant. To not
know the movers and shakers of history is to jump from the shouldersof the giant and make our way blindlyin a dangerous world.
The Sluice Box
By Matt Hunter
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Why Do You Ask?
By Louise Wynn
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In Defense ofDead White Men
“No matter what sort of program[modern educators] develop,they will always be leaving outsome perspective...“
What’s your issue?
“If you don’t think you’re contributingthat much to globalwarming...trycalculating your yearly carbondioxide output..”
By Jake Kleinschmidt
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Man on the Street
What are you looking for in a candidatefor the campus elections?
Cara Cottingham
DTC
“I want them to think about all students, including smokers. And think about diversity overall, and get out into the community and associate all. Basically be down toearth good listeners.”
Davin Crow
Public Administration
“More responsibility of the spending of the student funds,
I want the rst two days of the
semester to be free parking.”
Roxanne Doenecke
Education
“I would like to see someone with strong leadership qualities, who’scommunication skills are excellent who has the interest of the student body especially out in front as a goal, who’s listens to the students towhat their desires are on campus,and he or she needs to encourage students to be honest to insurethe quality of learning they arereceiving on campus.”
Kathleen Delinger
Biology
“Practicality, I want them toallocate budget items to what weactually need at WSU-V. I don’t have that much time for frivolousactivities. Some of the things theyhave done in the past though havebeen interesting.”
0 7 1 8 0 8 R 2 9 3 3 0 7 6
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, State Farm Indemnity Co. – Bloomington, IL
CAR + HOME = BIG SAVINGS
HARRY HOFFMAN,
Agent
360-574-5222
1307B NE 78th St., Ste 1Vancouver, WA 98665www.harryhoffman.net
Michael Bradley
MIS/Marketing
“Concentrate more on what’s going on within the school. More activateswhether it’s concerts or stuff that’slocal. So stuff that we don’t have to go to Pullman for.”
Marianne Bash
Library
“I look for someone who is willing to work on behalf the student body,while taking into considerationthe needs and limits of a collegecampus.”
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The VanCougar: February 23, 2009
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