Money is a contentious subject. As students, we hope that the money we pay in tuition is going not only to pay for salaries and facility upkeep, but also to make our campus a pleas-ant and supportive place. One or-ganization directly involved in that work is ASWSUV. But what is AS-WSUV up to this year? Where does their funding come from, and who gets to decide how it is spent? The VanCougar sat down with ASWSUV President Peter Sterr, Vice President Andrea Wooster and Public Rela-tions Director, Nicole Mouslen to get some answers.

The ASWSUV budget ($246,316.06 this year) draws on a pool of funds made up of services and activities fees (S&A) that every student pays with tuition. This pool of money is then entrusted to two

different committees: the S&A Bud-get Committee and the S&A Facilities Committee. Both committees hear funding requests from students and allot money accordingly. Student ori-ented organizations are the primary solicitors. Such organizations include ASWSUV, OSI, the student resource center and the VanCougar.

ASWSUV submits their request to the S&A budget committee. This committee is made up of a handful of students, one faculty member and two administrators. Their request for funding is determined by a budget proposal put together by the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Pro-gramming Committee and the ASW-SUV president.

The budget proposal is largely based on the previous year’s expens-es, with room for growth and cut-backs in specific areas.

By Hannah WalkerThe VanCougar

n BUDGET, p6

Everything you always wanted to know about the ASWSUV Budget but were afraid to ask

Student dodgeball teams organized by the Student Ambassadors face off. Story on page 9.

Pho

tos

by

Gre

go

ry E

. Zsc

ho

mle

r

In this issue:

The fun of fitness

n SPORTS, 9-11

ASWSUV President Peter Sterr chats about the new Recreation Center.

From the President

The Eyes, Ears and Voice of the Students at WSU-V

n ASWSUV, 6

Confrontation in the classroom, cops called

STAFFThe VanCougar

n FEATURES, 14

No doubt you’ve heard the term “nickle and dime you to death.” This past week, re-flecting yet another blow to pocketbooks, half of the remaining 30-minute free parking me-ters on campus have been removed.

In their place are two-hour coin-op me-ters. The new meters replace those on the

north side drive near the C-Tran stop. The free meters on the south side of the drive remain so for the time being. At least daycare parents get a free ride. On the down-side guests and short-term parking students will continue be-ing gouged. On the up-side you can now park there longer without getting a ticket.

It’s your dimeWashington State University - Vancouver September 22, 2008 www.vancougar.com

A student, feeling threat-ened, calls campus Public Safety when another stu-dent makes a confronta-tional outburst in a Crim-minal Justice class.

Ambassador’s dodgeball tournament a smash hit

Campus security officials stood blocking the main entrance to the li-brary around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, asking people to move away from the area. Students were passing by as they left classes in the nearby VMMC building, while others were trying to get into the library to study or to at-tend other classes. An unidentified security official finally told them, “There’s been a little incident in a classroom.”

Eventually, several class mem-bers and Taj Mahon-Haft, the non-resident graduate student instructor of the Sociology 361 Criminology class, left the building. Officials got their names as they left. Most of the students were anxious to walk away, but some stopped to explain what had happened. According to sev-eral sources a student disrupted the

middle of the instructor’s presenta-tion, shouting, “I can’t believe I paid a thousand dollars for this f***ing class!” The student’s name has not been released.

“The teacher was just stunned,” said one student, who asked not to be named. “He told the guy he could leave—he could drop the class if he didn’t like it. But he stayed there, he reached in his bag like he was getting something out, he was staring down the teacher like he wanted to get in a fight.”

Others, too, identified this “star-ring down” or “glaring” look. When the student continued to stay in the classroom, students became involved and asked him to leave. “They were telling him, ‘This is an adult educa-tional institution, you should act like an adult.’” Another student, Allison Lee, told him that, “we all paid mon-ey for the class…” and that by acting this way he “was wasting our time and money.”

A c c o r d i n g to Lee when one student said that she would call secu-rity, the disruptive student said, “Oh, really?” in a mocking way. Another student says that was his response to being told he was acting like a jerk.

The instructor, she says, then asked him to leave and he stood up and said, “b**ch-a** mother f***er.” Lee said he put his backpack on the desk and “menacingly put his hand

in the bag slowly as if to grab some-thing.” He left the room saying, “This was a social experiment gone well,” but, according to some, stayed just outside, pacing up and down the hall-way, which made the other students nervous. There are about 20 students in the class. One student shared his concern about how “easily mass hys-teria” set in. One got up and turned the deadbolt, locking the door.

It is reported that at this point the instructor had a student call Pub-lic Safety. A student mentioned that she’d heard “the disruptive student has had issues before,” said Lee.

“I don’t know what the guy’s problem was,” said another student. “Taj is a great professor, everyone’s learning a lot, and he interacts well with the class.” One student who was there said it was not a big deal,

and no one should make anything of it. However, an-other said it was “creepy...”

By the time officers arrived on the scene the dis-ruptive student

was gone. According to Lt. Dave Ste-phenson, Public Safety Manager, the department is investigating a possible “disorderly conduct” charge and of-ficers were looking for the student on campus Wednesday. They are watch-ing to see if he will show up during his class schedule so that they may speak with him, said Stephenson.

...a student stood up in the middle of the instructor’s presentation, shouting, “I can’t believe I paid a thou-sand dollars for this f***ing class!”

Peer Mentor ProgramPeer mentors help new stu-dents get started by helping students achieve success dur-ing and even after undergrad-uate school.

The VanCougar2 EDITORIAL

Staff Writers & Photographers Beau Baxter Rosser, Rosann Bartel,

Robert Chu, Matt Hunter, Collin Rickman, Willy Chi Shue Tsang, Louise Wynn, Jason Garcia, Hannah Walker,

Shane Monroe, Kevin Raymond, Danielle Mosier, Ruth Zschomler, Kyle Ralston,

Jake Kleinschmidt, Isaac Madsen, Matthew Wright

Illustrators Danielle Mosier and Anita Fleming

Layout and Design Gregory E. Zschomler and Kati Hughes

Web Editor Michael Hatch

© 2008 The VanCougar

General e-mail , comments, and employment inquiries

vancoug@vancouver.wsu.edu

Letters to the editor, guest columns, and corrections

vancouged@vancouver.wsu.edu

Advertising queries vancougad@vancouver.wsu.edu

The VanCougar is a student-run newspaper serving the students, faculty and staff of WSU Vancouver. Copies of The VanCougar are available free of charge every other Monday during the school year .

We are hiring! We are always hiring. No experience is nec-essary; we will provide all the training you need in journalistic style, photography, and digital printmaking. E-mail us at vancoug@vancouver.wsu.edu or visit our office in CLS 212 for more information.

Letters to the Editor We encourage letters to the editor. Please include your full name as part of the letter, and a phone number or e-mail address for confirmation follow-up. Letters must be by a student, faculty, or staff member.

Guest Columns & Comics The VanCougar accepts guest columns and comics from current students of WSU Van-couver. Interested students should e-mail us at vancoug@vancouver.wsu.edu.

Advertising queries Advertising information and rates can be found on our website at www.vancougar.com. Advertising rate sheets are available via e-mail and postal mail. E-mail vancoug@vancouver.wsu.edu for quotes.

Corrections policy It is our policy to correct errors. Please con-tact the editors by e-mail at vancouged@vancouver.wsu.edu.

The VanCougar

CLS 21214024 NE Salmon Creek Ave.

Vancouver, WA 98686 Phone: (360) 546-9524

Fax: (360) 546-9072

Editor-in-Chief Gregory E. Zschomler

Managing Editor Kati Hughes

Ad Manager Dan Rauchenstein

Advisor Dean Baker

Copy Editor Rebecka Reed

ACE Editor Beau Baxter Rosser

Sports & Rec Editor Katie Wells

In response to Trespass Arrest (Aug 25) and the subsequent Letter to the Editor (Sept 8) on the topic: I was the faculty representative on the hiring committee along with executives from the Vancouver Police, the Clark County Sheriff’s and the ASWSUV that selected Officer Larry Raglione. All of the candidates were vetted through a process that was very thorough and I feel we selected the best candidate who happens to have had a long career in law enforcement in the public sector. I found the tenor of the Editorial to be inciteful [sic], potentially lead-ing the uninformed reader to believe that we had hired a hotheaded bungler. I know that Officer Raglione knew exactly what he was doing: he is a profes-sional. Further, I happened to see the latter part of the proceedings from my office window and the body language I observed was so casual that I wasn’t certain an arrest was being made until Officer Raglione seated an arrestee in the back of his cruiser. What I saw was not congruous with the Editorial and I did not see anyone other than the officer, deputies and arrestee within earshot at that time. I will wait for further facts to solidify my opinion but it seems to me that, as stated in the letter, the “glaring example of what unnecessary power produces” may be the power of the press in this instance. You surely incited one reader!

SteveSylvester,PhDAssociateProfessor

Letters to the Editors

Rebuttal to the above letter: As Editor-in-Chief of the VanCougar I feel a deep responsibility to accurately report newsworthy incidents. This was, and obviously still is, newsworthy. I feel fortunate that I was in the right place at the right time. Yes, I did observe the entire incident first hand from the patio of the FSC. I was within twenty feet of the confrontation at all times and could easily hear the proceedings. I, unlike Prof. Sylvester, was not viewing from some distant window. It was not my intention to cast any particular light on Raglione’s character; my only intention was to accurately report what I saw. I made every effort to neutralize my descriptors even though I personally felt that Raglione was at times less than diplomatic and upon cuffing the arrestees (there were three) was a tad forceful without cause. He was, however, more than patient—with that I credit him. As to the “casualness” of the confrontation, as stated in my article: he was so casual he did not recite the Miranda rights upon arrest nor did he state, until asked, what the arrest was for. That’s not good. Whenever (if ever) I am placed under arrest I would expect to hear, “I’m placing you under arrest for ____; you have the right to remain silent, anything you say…” Otherwise I can seek legal recourse. I don’t doubt that Raglione is professional, qualified, and—having met him—a very nice person. I think a few things fell through the cracks and that he could have performed better. I agree with you, Sylvester, that is no reason to slam him or his profession. I also agree that the tenor of the Sept. 8 letter was somewhat provoking and seemed to be written by a “cop hater.” It was still proper and in the best interest of my readers for me to publish it. After all, we wouldn’t have your letter if we didn’t. And thanks to “the power of the press” you’ve had your time in the spotlight. By the way, this has been “insightful.”

Gregory E. ZschomlerEditor in ChiefThe VanCougar

The views expressed on the editorial and opinion pages are those of the authors and do not necessar-ily reflect the opinions or biases of the writers, edi-tors, or other staff members of the VanCougar.

Got Opinion?

Free speech. It’s a right we often neglect. If you’ve got some-thing on your mind or just need to get something off your chest drop us a line.

The VanCougar is THE place and platform to voice YOUR opinion.

The VanCougar welcomes Let-ters to the Editor. Letters must be by students, faculty or staff and include name and contact informa-tion for varification purposes. Let-ters are subject to editing for length or content.

Letters are printed at the dis-cretion of the editors, but do not necessarily reflect their views.

Intentionally inflamatory re-marks and racial, sexual or religious slurs or extreme profanity will not be published.

Please email your letters and comments to:

zschomle@yahoo.com ORvancouged@vancou-

ver.wsu.edu

We are working on video, blogs, pod-casts and picture shows.

Visit us online @ vancouger.com

We want to hear from YOU!

At WSU-V we want

to celebrate “students of many backgrounds,” said Bola Majekobaje of the Of-fice of Student Involvement who specializes in Student Diversity.

Maybe you feel that your story isn’t “diverse” enough to be interesting because you don’t belong to a group that people usu-ally think of when the word “diverse” is brought up.

Think about it; do peo-ple have misconceptions about your life? Have you ever really looked into your background? If you have, were you surprised? If this sounds like you, send in your story.

How has your unique background led to your be-ing at this school? How has your being a WSU-V stu-dent affected your perspec-tive of yourself as a student of many backgrounds?

To tell your own story, contact Bola Majekobaje at majekoba@vancouver.wsu.edu, or the VanCou-gar’s managing editor, Kati Hughes at vancouged@vancouver.wsu.edu. Stories should be from 500 to 900 words.

My Own Story

September 22, 2008 3OPINION

Caffein’d Kati’s curiously captivating coffee-addled commentary

Mon Ami Café is the place to go for good coffee, crepes, and lib-eral conversation. While I never saw anyone treated as unwelcome, the customers who got the most enthusiastic greetings almost im-mediately began discussing liberal politics. So if you are a liberal, or at least don’t mind listening to leftist political conversations, Mon Ami is the place to be.

Aside from tending to attract crowds from the left, Mon Ami has a kind of neighborhood café feel. Almost everyone who came into the place while I sat sipping my soy white chocolate mocha knew someone else there. Old and new friends seemed to be bumping into one another all around me.

The out-door seating area at Mon Ami Café is what made the place special for me. Most café’s usually have a couple of tables and chairs outside of the shop in times of good weather.

I have seldom seen such a well-maintained café atmo-sphere outside of the shop than at Mon Ami. With a low fence around the tables and flowers all around, this friendly (if tiny) area reminds this hometown girl of the European neighborhood cafés in movies or books.

When asked what thing set Mon Ami apart from the usual coffee shop, barita Sara McMullin said, “that would be our crepes.” McMullin went on to explain that the café makes two different kinds of crepes, “sweet or savory,” says McMullin.

Fruit, jam, or cinnamon-sugar crepes are examples of the sweet, but the savory were by far my fa-vorite. These mouth watering meals

can be as simple as turkey and cheddar, or as rich and complex as ham, pear and brie crepes.

And they are meals. Each crepe is huge, and made folded over like an omelet, rather than rolled like the kind you see at IHOP.

As far as the coffee goes, not only is it delicious, it’s also earth- and human-friendly. Barista Kayli Becker was enthusiastic when the talk turned to coffee.

“We use Stumptown coffee, which is a local fair-trade or direct trade coffee supplier,” says Beck-er. “The owners go to each of the plantations and make sure that the workers are treated well,” Becker informed, “and the owners also

come here and do free cof-fee tastings on the first Friday of each month at 11:00 a.m.”

Becker also men-tioned that the café is thinking about switch-ing over to organic syrups. “We have an organic Vanilla syrup we’re trying out right now,” says Becker.

One of the things that draws people to Mon Ami, according to Becker, is the local art and live music.

Local artists and photographers can get

their work displayed on the walls of the café, and local bands play there often. “Saturdays we usually have live music, but we haven’t done that this summer,” says Becker.

Some of the other things that make Mon Ami a great place to be include free Wi-Fi and bio-degrad-able utensils. In addition to coffee and crepes, the café has a selection of beer and wine available for those over twenty-one years old, and a waffle breakfast on Sunday morn-ing.

To suggest your favorite coffee shop for review, email me at kati.hughes.04@gmail.com, or come by the VanCougar office during my office hours.

By Kati HughesManaging Editor

Mon Ami Cafe

1906 Main Street

(360) 750-5693

0715

08R

2933

079

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, State Farm Indemnity Co. – Bloomington, IL

40 Million Drivers Trust State FarmHARRY HOFFMAN, Agent

360-574-52221307B NE 78th St., Ste 1Vancouver, WA 98665www.harryhoffman.net

FallNow that we have a couple weeks

of school under our belts we ought to be getting into some semblance of aca-demic shape. Settling into a pattern of classes, homework, eating and sleep-ing should be becoming second nature. Maybe.

For many of us there’s family, so-cial life, and work to add into the mix. If so, chances are you’re at that point where panic sets in and you wonder if you can even pull this off with decent grades. Yeah, it ain’t easy, but hang in there, it is possible.

And yes, I am also swamped, but I’ve not yet adjusted everything to work in harmony. I’m resistant to changing my pattern. My biggest prob-lem is that I’m not a morning person. As fall wears on and works its way into a winter frenzy, the sun sets ear-lier and earlier and rises later and later. That frosty chill begins to set in and I just don’t want to get out of bed in the morning for that 9 a.m. class. Soon the infamous PNW gray skies and drizzle will begin.

Monday through Thursday it’s that same ol’ rigmarole. After class it’s off to work—from 10:30 to 2:30 I’m in the office. Homework in the evening, internship hours to put in Tuesday and Saturday evenings; seems there’s always a meeting on Friday after my afternoon class. (I’ve already had two meetings this week and it’s only Wednesday!)

As SNL’s Rosanna Rosanna Dana (a character of the late great Gilda Rad-ner) used to say, “It just goes to show you, there’s always something.”

So, are we crazy? I think some-times I’m going that way, but I remind myself that it’s worth it. I love going to WSU-V and I love being involved. If things get too out of hand and I actu-ally feel like I might slip into insanity or depression I’ll swing by and see Dr. Meeks. Or maybe just drop a class. ;o)

FitnessOne thing I know will help. Statis-

tics show it. Exercise. If I squeeze that into my schedule I’ll study better, sleep better and feel better. In this issue of the VanCougar we look at some of the many options available to the students at WSU-V within the realm of exercise.

Call it sports, call it recreation, call it fun; be it bowling, soccer, a fit-

ness workout, a walk, jog, or rousing game of dodgeball, it’s all good stuff. So forget the X-box; it’s time for X-ercise! Need motivation? Find an accountabil-ity buddy to do it with you. If nothing else, do some walking.

I spent the last two weekends walking around from dawn to dusk. Two weeks ago it was Disneyland. Last weekend I went to a Renaissance Faire in Oregon. I put in a LOT of miles, but it was fun. In fact I didn’t even notice until I fell into bed at night, leg muscles throbbing.

It was sorta like the good Luther-an woman Garrison Keillor describes in one of his “Prairie Home Compan-ion” monologues. She has a broken wrist but needs to make thirty pounds of potato salad. She says, “It only hurts when I stop.” So don’t stop then.

FreaksSpeaking of Renaissance fairs:

People are nuts! (It was like a Trekkie convention only in the past.) People all dressed up and going insane. There were pirates and pages, wenches and witches, serfs and sires, lords and la-dies, knights and knaves. Throw in a few people who are really whack dressed as elves and fairies and it’s one twisted time warp. (Get a grip folks! It’s the Middle Ages, not Middle Earth!)

Jousts and sword fights, jugglers and bards, dancers and minstrels—there was everything but the rats and disease. Okay, so it wasn’t all that ac-curate, but it was a great way to kill a weekend and, lacking the plague, didn’t kill me.

To make it all the more interesting I went a step further in order to fulfill an assignment for my Digital Diver-sity class—I went without technology (mostly). I didn’t check my email or use a watch, I didn’t use a phone or fax, I didn’t touch a computer, why, I didn’t even bathe, shave, or cook. (I did drive my car, since I didn’t have a horse, but, like I said, I still walked a LOT.)

And, BTW, I didn’t miss the tech-nology. When I got back it was there waiting for me. [Some times I think technology is the modern-day plague though it hasn’t killed me yet.] Have YOU ever gone a couple days without email, cell phones and IMing? Have you ever stopped to smell the roses? It probably wouldn’t kill you either.

I read in The Columbian this week that a large percentage of people check their email while on vacation. What kind of a vacation is that? While at Disneyland I saw people glued to the viewfinder of their video camera. That’s no way to experience the “hap-piest place on earth.” If you want that kind of experience, stay home and watch “The Wonderful World of Dis-ney” on the tube.

In a nutshell my message this is-sue is: Get out and live life first hand, not through a device. I’m a DTC (Digi-tal Technologies and Culture) major, I know. I’m just saying…well, even Prof. Dene Grigar takes yoga.

The VanCougar4 NEWS

A proposal to start a new Per-forming Arts Club on campus.

Have you noticed that this cam-pus is sadly lacking in performing arts? Theater, music, dance? Where is it? Sure, we’ve got a choir—you can even take it as a course (for a credit). But, I’m talking serious study and a genuine program. After all, what is an educa-tion without the arts?

Indeed, we have a fine arts pro-gram that showcases photography and digital “painting” as well as digital im-aging, but these are not performance arts. The DTC program also provides study in virtual “time-based media” performance. Still this program is in its infancy and relegated to a small studio allowing only small student audiences. The medium allows for some video, lighting, musical and movement inte-gration, but this is neither theater nor dance in the traditional sense.

Studies have long drawn the con-clusion that arts instruction is essential to the “education of the whole man.” The teaching of art enhances the abil-ity to learn in other areas including math and English. In fact it has been shown time and again that students who study the arts do better in school. Yet, art instruction is often the first cut when budgets are challenged.

Here at WSU-V, even though the Pullman campus has strong programs in music, theater and dance, we have virtually nothing. Not only does that

hurt our academic prow-ess, but it hinders our abil-ity to attract students and visitors to campus. A the-ater program, for example, showcases the campus by providing entertaining com-munity performances that put the campus in a popular light. The same is true for musical and dance re-citals. It’s just good publicity.

Possibly it is the thought that we are lacking in funding and per-formance spaces, and yet a small pro-gram could easily be accommodating using resources we already have. The VADM lecture hall (room 101) could be adapted for small plays with little effort. VFSC could host dance perfor-mance were proper (portable) flooring brought in.

Obviously, down the road, a pro-gram would build momentum and staff hires as well as larger, more use-ful spaces would be in order. The key is to start small, with what you’ve got, and build as interest grows. And, that is what I propose.

It is for that purpose that I am writing this piece and, thereby, “testing the waters.” Is there a genuine student interest in the performing arts on this campus? I believe there is. I’ve talked with a number of students over the past year that said in essence, “Yes, I’d be interested in a drama course and op-portunities to perform.” Well, it’s time to “put your money where your mouth

is.”If you are interested in being part

of an association for growth and change in the arts here at WSU-V, I invite you to join me in a grassroots movement that will not only address this deficien-cy, but provide needed opportunities to prove its worth. I propose we start with a Performing Arts Club (RSO) that ex-ists for three purposes.

One, to bring performing arts groups to campus. This would in-clude traveling troops of theatrical or dance performers and musicians. I’m thinking things like “Comedy Sports,” Shakespearian groups, local dance troops—possibly from other colleges—and community theater. Two, put on our own shows. Simple small cast one-acts to begin with (some student writ-

ten), moving to small ensembles stag-

ing plays or even musicals.And three, lobbying for an au-

thentic program of courses that might even become a major.

This is YOUR opportunity to get involved on campus in your area of in-terest. It takes at least six people to be-gin an RSO and I’m sure there are many time over that amount who are with me on this. I urge you, if even moderately curious, but possibly hesitant due to time constraints (we all have them), to contact me this week. Your voice—and talent—are needed. My email is zschomle@yahoo.com.

GregoryE.Zschomler Editor-in-Chief

The Arts? What arts?

Have any questions from your Algebra homework? Want study tips for your upcoming statistics, cal-culus, or physics exams? With the consistent growth of our Vancouver crimson campus, new perks are pop-ping up everywhere for students, and this week the focus is on math and science. For anyone and everyone that could use a little more help with their quantitative skills, the WSU-V Quantitative Skill Center finally has a home.

Located on the south side of the library (VLIB 19), facing the VMMC building and sharing an entrance with the Fitness Center, you won’t have to run around anymore asking where the math tutoring has moved to this semester. The expansion of our school programs over the last two years has brought on a battle for classroom space, and has been hard fought, something math tutors no longer have to worry about. The rising need for tutoring has allowed math its permanence.

Program director and math professor, Joseph Randall, is very relieved and highly motivated to be given his own space to tutor the ever growing student populace. He has a very welcoming smile that will put any self-conscious student at ease, and with 22 years under his belt as a math teacher in Oregon, and cur-rently teaching math 251 and math 140 on campus, he can supply more than enough answers for our quanti-tative questions.

His understanding that many students come from different math backgrounds with various curricu-lum focuses, often within the same level of math, allows him to “fill in the gaps” for individual student needs. With Joe’s passion to tutor and

his wife’s polyanthus (many flowers) decorating, you can’t help but feel at home in the new Quantitative Skill Center.

For the confident math stu-dents that have an extra hour to spare, Joe is looking for a few tutors to help bring numbered smiles to our confused frowns. Stop in to pick up an application and maybe a snack or two. Now is the time to master your math skills, quantitatively, at the skill center.

OPEN HOUSE with snacks and drinks on Thurs, Sept. 25, 2008 from 10:00 a.m. to noon.

Tutoring times are Mon, through Thurs, from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. and on Friday from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Math Lab addition a plusBy Jason Garcia

The VanCougar

The Chancellor’s Student Advisory Board was created to “provide a bridge of communi-cation between the Chancellor and student leaders by which student concerns and opinions may be voiced, and to provide the Chancellor an opportunity to share critical WSU Vancouver information with student lead-ers.”

The board consists of the ASWSUV President and Vice President, the ASWSUV Sen-ate Pro Tem, the ASWSUV RSO Director, the RSO Leaders with business, a Student Ambassador Representative, the Media Board Chair, the Student Affairs Diver-sity Intern, any student with per-tinent concerns (approved by the ASWSUV President), the WSU-V Chancellor, Administrators of Chancellor’s choice, the Office of Student Involvement Manager, and currently The VanCougar editor-in-chief.

The new Chancellor’s Advi-sory Board met for the first time on Wed, Sept. 17 and will meet every six weeks to discuss issues and ideas brought to the board members by students.

The meetings are currently chaired by ASWSUV President, Peter Sterr and Chancellor, Hal Dengerink. Meetings are to begin with an update from the Chan-cellor on issues presented at the previous meeting. Students will then be given “the opportunity to voice their comments, con-cerns, and interests, opening di-alogue with the Chancellor and the Administrators.”

The Chancellor will also have the opportunity to present pertinent information regarding university plans, projects, and changes that will affect students. All students seeking agenda time should approach the AS-WSUV President no later than two weeks before the scheduled meeting.

New Chancellor’s Student Advisory Board here for you

Joseph Randall, program director and math professor.

By Gregory E. ZschomlerThe VanCougar

Illus

trat

ion

by

Dan

ielle

Mo

sier

Pho

to b

y Ja

son

Gar

cia

September 22, 2008 5OPINION

For most of this year, Senator Obama has led in the polls as the clear choice of the American people. But with the extraordinary and likely last minute choice of Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, the tables are turned. For the moment, Obama has been over-shadowed by this vice-presidential choice.

Certainly, it is impressive that the Republicans are following the Democratic lead by nominating a woman for vice president more than 20 years after Geraldine Ferraro was the Democratic vice presidential nominee. The choice of Palin is very impressive as well, given her extraordinary public speaking ability. She is shrill, insensi-tive, and probably being led word for

word by her handlers, but she is defi-nitely persuasive.

With this choice, the militant right wing of the Republican Party has come scurrying into the fray of election politics in an election that had prom-ised to be one of the most enlightened in the last 12 years. Using McCain to appeal to moderates and Palin to the far right, Republicans will try to steal the presidential election for the third time in a row.

The choice of Palin does cause concern for the future, however. First, she poses a real threat to the advance-ment of women’s rights. The rights given to women with Roe vs. Wade have never been so endangered. Palin, driven by ideological beliefs shared by many of the less educated of America, would like to take away the option of abortion from women.

Palin’s choice to give birth to a baby with Down syndrome is a clear testament to her frenzied dedication to the anti-abortion movement. This particular act is harmful to America because it might encourage mothers to give birth to disabled fetuses for which they could not properly care. Such chil-dren would have a very low quality of life.

Religion is largely the source of Palin’s less attractive qualities. She is an Evangelical who strongly supports marriage: a system that is designed to subordinate women. Like many reli-gious people, she has had a lot of chil-dren- five to be precise! This is far over the necessary population replacement number. As a role model for many people, Palin should know that you lead by example. Having five children says that it is ok to destroy the planet by increasing world population.

Lastly, Palin sees the world from a hegemonic perspective. In a recent interview with Charles Gibson on ABC News, Palin said that she was prepared to take action against nations such as Iran and Russia if they should present a legitimate threat to the United States. In the same interview, she sup-ported Bush’s “War on Terror,” adding that there was room for improvement.

Such a position on global poli-tics could only hurt America’s reputa-tion throughout the world. Many na-tions during Bush’s time in office have felt bullied. Such global feelings will hurt America in the future.

In contrast, Obama clearly understands that America cannot be a Lone Ranger in the global theater.

There need to be conversations about issues- understandings of cultural dif-ferences. The United Nations needs to play a greater role in America’s inter-national relations. The military needs to be shrunk because governments like North Korea and Iran feel threat-ened, causing them to build up their own militaries while their people must starve.

Obama understands that we owe millions of people our apology for hasty wars during this century, par-ticularly the tragedy that is Iraq. We need to help the poor of the world move their homes to higher ground as the seas raise because of warmer tem-peratures caused by American intem-perance.

All of Palin’s attributes de-scribed above are like catnip for right wing fundamentalists. The last two weeks have seen them wildly singing the praises of a woman clearly unpre-pared to lead in the modern world. With this secret weapon, Republicans hope to again steal the election.

Words and learning

“’When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.’” The quote is of course from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass.”

Alice responds that the question is really “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” Apparently, human languag-es allow us to do just that.

In our last issue, I wrote about two words with particular meaning for me, the words “cancer” and “mel-anoma.” I came to associate them with pain and fear. My doctor talked to me in a new language, and I learned new meanings to ordinary words, such as “Clark’s level,” “Breslow’s depth,” and “stages” from I to IV.

I bring this up again because I’ve been thinking about how we learn language, how languages have evolved, how the human brain pro-cesses words, how we associate emo-tions with them, and how researchers study such issues and interpret the results.

Watching a toddler learn her parents’ language teaches us a lot about how our brain works. Lan-guages have rules---and the linguist Noam Chomsky asserts that humans have an innate and universal set of language rules.

I saw a four-year-old learn one of these rules one morning (some years ago) when he said proudly, “Mom, when I get hurt, I don’t say it hurted, I say it hurt.” Later that day, he did fall down and get hurt, and came home crying. He said, “Mom, I fell down and hurted my knee!”

This demonstrates another principle of language learning, the fact that even when we understand a rule, we don’t always apply it, espe-cially in a moment of pain or extreme emotion. Adults learning a second

language go through the same pro-cess.

On the other hand, though, even expressions of pain, anger and disgust follow linguistic rules. We often understand these rules when we see them broken. Have you ever heard someone curse in his second language? It can sound pretty hilari-ous when he’s learned those words but hasn’t got all the rules straight yet. (I leave it to the reader to think of some examples.)

To see how children learn the rules of forming regular English-language plurals, linguist Jean Berko Gleason came up with the wug test. She gave a child a picture of an imagi-nary creature. “This is a wug,” she said. Then she showed the child a picture of two of the creatures. “Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two _______.” (You can find the pictures at http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/topics/wugs/01wug.jpg.)

Starting around the age of four or five, children have learned to add a “z” sound (spelled “s”) to form the plural of words ending with the hard “g” sound, and they’ll say, “wugs.”

You can perform similar ex-periments. Ask a child: If something splings, and if it did it yesterday, what did it do yesterday? The child may say it splung, probably not that it splinged. Or ask what they would call a man who zibs. (A zibber? A zibman?) Why is “birthday” called “birthday”? (A young child will say, “Because you get presents!”)

The point is that children generalize language rules as they lis-ten and begin to construct their own sentences. Where do they get this ability? Are there other ways to study language and its connection to our emotions?

To answer these questions, we’ll need to explore a bit not only in linguistics, but also in cognitive psy-chology, anthropology, animal behav-ior, neuroscience, biochemistry, brain physiology, pharmacology, genetics, evolution, and molecular structure. In the next few issues, I’ll make a jour-ney through the language and archi-tecture of the human mind, looking for answers. I expect I’ll come up with new questions along the way.

Why do you ask?

By Louise Wynn

The Slag Pile By Retnuh Ttam

How the Republicans will again steal the Presidential election

In response to “Parking Problems Plauge Property” (Aug 25) :Your article, “Parking Problems Plague Property,” kicked my cynical mind into high gear. Has WSU essentially made higher education even more unattainable for low-income students? Per the Parking Services Department, “We see a pattern of Gray (permits) selling out first, then Orange, then Green.” This means for those students who depend on financial aid and do not have access to their funds until the term begins, they must pay more for parking in a closer lot even if their choice would have been to economy-park. It is not unlike the selling of textbooks. Students who have the financial means can spend weeks tracking down the best cost on used books long before the term starts. We further drain the meager accounts of struggling students by forcing them to buy pristine and exorbitantly priced texts only after their funds become available. Your article may have assumed that Orange sells out first because it is the most convenient. It perhaps did not consider that Gray goes first for those of us who are budget-minded. Access to funds translates into choice. Those with limited cash flow may not have a choice.

Rebekah Miller, Senior at WSU

Letter to the Editors

Planning to vote in the upcoming Presidential Election on Nov. 4? You must be a registered voter and have been registered at least 30 days prior to the election. If you;re 18 and wish to vote in this important election but need to register here are your op-portunities to do so on campus:

Mon, Sept. 22, 8 a.m. to noonThurs, Sept. 25 Noon to 4 p.m.

Or resiter online at http://www.rockthevote.com/

•

•

Over the past year, ASWSUV has been an integral part of the campus push to create a Student Recreation Center. As a student-driven project with widespread administra-tive support, the concept of a “Rec Center” has grown from a distant vision to an attain-able reality.

With the newly remodeled fitness cen-ter finally open and the growth of our ever expanding recreation program (through OSI), students are able to expect that the university understands the importance of both recreation and physical health. Though these services are new to us, they are quickly filling to capacity as the increasingly active student body demands more. What we need is a facility that provides top of the line fit-ness equipment, extensive recreation space, and can begin to bridge the gap between aca-

demic development and student health op-portunities.

The possibilities a facility such as this can offer are endless. Think of recreation classes, an affordable and convenient place to exercise, an increased social climate, a space specifically tailored for student events, on-campus intramural sports, wellness and nu-tritional training, and the list goes on. This is what ASWSUV is looking to provide for students. It is time for WSU Vancouver to of-fer some of the same benefits of a traditional campus, while maintaining the accessibility and class that make it so unique.

Recently, WSU Vancouver solicited the services of Brailsford & Dunleavy, a con-sulting group with extensive experience in University Recreation Centers nationwide, including the facility at WSU Pullman. The

purpose of their involvement is to conduct a feasibility study, in which they will deter-mine, with your help, what facility will best suit the students of WSU Vancouver. Over the coming months, B&D will be polling stu-dents and organizing focus groups in an ef-fort to understand our campus climate and the needs of our student body. This is an excellent opportunity for your voice to be heard.

If you have any questions or are inter-ested in participating in this process, please contact me at sg-pres@vancouver.wsu.edu.

Go Cougs!

PeterSterr ASWSUVPresident

The VanCougar6 ASWSUV

BUDGET, from p1

Ferdinand’s Creamery, maker of the famous canned cheese known as Cougar Gold and part of WSU Pullman, turns 60 this week. The creamery had it’s beginnings on Sept. 24, 1948.

The creamery makes ice cream and cheese. Cou-gar Gold accounts for 80% of cheese sales.

Of special note is the an-niversary edition of Cou-gar Gold—aged three years, two years longer than usual. Check out the Bookie for a can today.

When looking at the break-down of this year’s ASWSUV budget, it is clear that money distribution is located in three main pools. Those pools are the Student Events Pool, which contains approximately 25% of the total funding; the Activities Pool, which contains approxi-mately 18% of the total fund-ing; and Administration, which contains approximately 40% of the overall funding. The remain-ing funds are distributed over a variety of miscellaneous catego-ries.

The Student Events Pool is a sum of money that resides in the hands of the Senate. This is mon-ey that directly benefits students through the support of student clubs and other initiatives ap-proved by the Senate. The Ac-tivities Pool is money available to the activities coordinator and goes to fund programs, such as movie nights, bowling nights, and other activities available to students at no cost. The Back to School BBQ and Club fair held on Sept. 3 were the first of such activities to be scheduled throughout the year.

The largest portion of the overall ASWSUV budget is al-located to Administration. This money goes to pay the salaries of executive staff members, and also includes things like training and travel. While this money ultimately goes to benefit the student body overall, it does so in a seemingly indirect way. It is money that is allocated to the support of the elected and ap-pointed officials that represent the students at WSU-V. Whether or not this portion of the fund-ing is put to good use is directly related to how those individuals do their jobs.

Wooster lit up when asked what ASWSUV is doing to di-rectly benefit students. In ad-dition to programs such as the Back to School Barbeque, bowl-ing nights and craft nights, she emphasizes the behind the scenes work ASWSUV does to benefit students. This includes work with legislation and Leg-islators to promote student is-sues, hosting and encouraging voter registration, and meeting with faculty to promote student issues. It also includes work with policy to “really make this campus user friendly,” which Wooster says is one goal of stu-

dent government. The budgets disbursements

are decided upon by various ASWSUV staff members along with the student Senate. Sterr adds, “We are here to hear the needs of the students, and to try to represent them to anyone from faculty and administration to local and state government. We really try to work to get a feel for what students want and need and to really fight for it.” Suggestions and comments on programming and expenditures should be shared with your rep-resentative—a student Senator.

Sterr said he and his staff also work to encourage the relation-ship between the University and the community. In particular, he does this through attending var-ious events, such as the Vancou-ver Chamber of Commerce din-ner, to represent WSU-V student interests. “We want to make the local business community more inviting to students. “[W]here we can, [we] get discounts for students. Where we can, [we] get ‘Cougar Pride’ put into the busi-nesses…so that students that come to this area—whether they live in this area or not—but are using the local businesses, can really feel like this is their home, their little college town.”

Student involvement is one huge priority for Sterr and Wooster. For students interested in a leadership position, they recommend keeping an eye out because Senate openings along with other leadership positions are often advertised and avail-able. For those who simply in-terested in participating in the Cougar community, student activity nights are often free. “They [students] can just come and talk to us, and we can get a feel for what they really want to do so we can point them in the right direction…or we could even possibly develop a posi-tion for them,” said Wooster to students interested in getting involved, but who are not sure what would be a good fit.

Sterr is equally adamant about student involvement. “The more that students get involved, whether it is through leadership positions, or through just at-tending events, really builds the campus community…and that is one of our main focal points.”

The ASWSUV budget, as well as current opportunities for student involvement can be found online at http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/ss/sg/.

From the President: A Recreation Center is within our grasp

NEWS September 22, 2008 7

Story and Photos by Gregory E. Zschomler

The VanCougar

Groundbreaking for the new Mc-Claskey building took place on campus Thu, Sept. 18. The new building, to be completed for opening fall of 2010, will house a full-day Kindergarten program.

On hand were several prominent community folks including the Ange-los, the McClaskeys, Bob Schaefer, Larry Ogg, Brett and Patti Bryant, Suzanne Smith, Karen Peterson, Val Ogdan, Al Bauer and others. WSU mascot Butch also made an appearance.

Opening remarks were made by Chancelor Hal Dengerink; Larry Ogg, President of the McClaskey Foundation; and Jill McClaskey, granddaughter of the late Tod and Maxine McClaskey for whom the foundation is named. A $1.5 million grant from the foundation will making the new building possible.

McClaskey offered several anec-dotes about her grandparents and cited their interest in higher education. This is the foundation’s first grant. McClaskey said, “Today’s gift is so fitting for our sig-nature gift” because of her grandparent’s heart for education.

The event concluded with a ground-breaking that included children from the campus Child Development Program, a tour of the campus led by Student Am-bassadors, and a luncheon consisting of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cookies and milk and other kid friendly snacks.

Groundbreaking Celebration for the McClaskey Building

The leader of the “Prosper-ity Partnership” that is working to bring jobs and tourists to the Seat-tle and Puget Sound area spoke to community and business leaders in southwest Washington last week.

Bob Drewel, executive direc-tor of the Puget Sound Regional Council, was the guest speaker at WSUV’s Chancellor’s Seminar. He spoke about what people in our area can do to bring Southwest Washington from its current sta-tus, as a bedroom community, to a “regional, national and global eco-nomic force in its own right.”

“All successful regions in the world have a successful research university and public staff willing to partner with business,” Drewel said.

He emphasized that for South-west Washington to move forward economically, it needs a large edu-cated workforce, communities that welcome businesses, and a feeling of confidence that businesses will be supported.

He said the Washington state legislature has provided $93 mil-lion to help state colleges and uni-versities produce more graduates with “high-demand”—science and engineering—degrees. These are

important because they show the state is “responsive to the needs of the marketplace,” he said. “Not that we don’t need humanities de-grees! There’s a place for the hu-manities.” (Drewel holds a degree in history from the University of Washington.)

Members of the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce and local businesses, including architecture and engineering firms, attended the seminar. Most of those pres-ent paid $30 per seat for the lunch and lecture. About 20 students who signed up in the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) ahead of time also attended for free.

Chancellor’s Seminar: SW Wash. jobs future

By Louise WynnThe VanCougar

The next Chancellor’s Seminar will be held Fri, Oct, 10, with Dr. Brian Tissot of WSU-V lecturing on building sustainable fisher-ies for the future. On Nov. 14, the speaker will be Dr. Diane Cook of WSU Pullman, speak-ing on artificial intelligence and smart environments.

Students can sign up for future events in the OSI and can find out more about upcoming lec-tures at http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/css.

UPCOMINGLECTURES

VANCOUVER, Wash. – The Washington State Uni-versity Vancouver University Scholars program offers a se-ries of lectures by prominent scholars with national repu-tations. University Scholars students may attend the se-ries for credit and participate in special discussions led by the guest lecturers. The lec-ture series is free and open to the public.

This fall’s series topic is “Neurodiversity: Changing Minds, Changing World.” All lectures begin at 5:15 p.m. in the Administration Building, room 110.

Sept. 22: Howard Miller, Executive Director, Inclu-sion Inc., which supports adults with developmen-tal disabilities living in the community in Mult-nomah and Clackamas counties. http://www.in-clusioninc.org/

Sept. 29: Scott Robertson, Vice President, The Au-tistic Self-Advocacy Net-work, speaking via Skype, a nation-wide non profit organization run by and for autistics, created to im-

•

•

prove the representation of the autistic community in public policy discus-sions as well as to advance the autistic culture move-ment. http://www.autisti-cadvocacy.org/

Oct. 13: “Autism: the Mu-sical” by Tricia Regan, follows five L.A. chil-dren over the course of six months, capturing the struggles and triumphs of their family lives and observes how this musi-cal production gives these performers a comfort zone in which they can explore their creative sides. http://www.autismthemusical.com.

•

University Scholars: “Neurodiversity” Series

For more information on the University Scholars Program lectures, see http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/acadaffairs/programs/univschol-ars/lecture.htm.

Check it Out Online

Top: WSU-V Chancellor Hal Dengerink is joined by McClaskey Foundation board members, children and teachers from the WSU-V Child Development Program, and others in breaking ground for the new Kindergarten building.

Right: “Today’s gift is fitting...” said Jill McClaskey addressing the crowd before the groundbreaking.

Below: Chalk art by WSU-V’s Jeanette Altman greeted visitors.

The VanCougar8 FEATURES

Students and faculty gath-ered at the Firstenburg Student Commons Tuesday, Sept. 9 for Connections, a celebration of diversity sponsored by the Di-versity Counsel and Student Affairs. The Ed Coleman Trio played jazz while people me-ander about talking, eating and looking at international art by Li Tie, Veronica Guzman, and Yo-thin Amnuayphol.

The international cuisine featured Northwest poached salmon, Jamaican jerk chicken, spring rolls, tortilla chips with Pico de Gallo and black bean

relish, spicy samosas, fresh veg-gies and fruit, pita points with hummus and, of course, Cougar Gold cheese.

There was also an oppor-tunity to find out information about on and off campus orga-nizations. Big Brother/Big Sister and the WSU International Stu-dents Association were just two examples of the organizations present.

All of these elements were brought together in order to focus on diversity at WSU-V. Several hundred students of di-verse background were in atten-dance.

By Isaac MadsenThe VanCougar

WSU-V “Connections” celebrates diversity

By Beau Baxter RosserThe VanCougar

My Internship with the Cherokee NationThis summer, I had the

fortunate opportunity to intern at Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB) in Catoo-sa, Oklahoma. I know what you’re thinking: Why did you go to Oklahoma for an internship when there are perfectly good opportuni-ties in the area? Simple an-swer: It was my last choice.

That’s not to say it was

a bad choice. In fact, I really enjoyed my time with CNB and learned

a lot of useful things that I will be able to apply to my future job, whatever that may be.

Working in the Com-munications and Public Re-lations departments within one of the largest Native American governments in the United States was an immense privilege, but also a stressful undertaking.

For one, I was working with government is-

sues far outside my comfort zone. Add that to the 10 hours a day, 5 days a week schedule I was flexing, and you can see how

fatigued I was. While I was

there, I sat in on meet-ings regarding tobacco

taxation, Cherokee Nation

branding, hospital zoning, social networking plans and a handful of other top-ics. Being at the center of the Communications and PR departments meant I saw everything that the Cherokee Nation deals with on a daily basis.

My supervisor and the Vice President of Com-munications, Mike Miller, was a great inspiration and brought a calming sense of stability to the otherwise stressful working environ-ment. Even when he was dealing with Freedmen vs. Cherokee Nation issues—something too complex to even begin talking about—he kept a level head on his shoulders. Mike Miller is an excellent role model to look up to and I’m glad I had the chance to work side-by-side with him dur-ing my internship.

When not sitting in

on meetings, the bulk of my time was spent scour-ing the local newspapers for any news regarding the Cherokee Nation. At first, I felt this job was beneath my capabilities but soon learned of its importance.

Basically, as it was told to me, because PR depart-ments don’t make a physi-cal product for an organiza-tion, documenting all posi-tive news regarding said organization is proof that PR is capable of gaining their paychecks. I helped out with the process in its entirety by finding the ar-ticles, calculating their dol-lar amounts, and helping build and edit a final report for the payroll department of CNB. A lofty project, but I took it in stride.

On top of that project, my other main task was to help construct a viable so-cial media and networking

Attendees of the ‘Connections’ event mingle and discuss cultural events. As an entertaining addition to the conversations, The Ed Coleman Trio performs their jazz music.The international dishes served at the event were as colorful as the displayed pottery and paintings.

Photo Credit: Matthew Wright, The VanCougar

plan for the Cherokee Nation. Outside of the Cherokee Nation’s main website, they have not im-plemented themselves online in any other way.

By assisting with construc-tion of a social media and net-working plan, I was helping push the Cherokee Nation into more progressive and modern times. After all, the Cherokee people have always been a pro-gressive tribe, so it only makes sense that their online presence matches their legacy. Luckily, my experience with the Digital Technology and Culture coursework at WSU-V provided me with the knowledge and mo-tivation to help successfully im-plement a social media and net-working plan that will do well for the Cherokee Nation. I look forward to visiting their site in the future to see what improve-ments I might have influenced.

After it was all over, my three weeks in Oklahoma turned out to be one of the most valu-able and fulfilling experiences in my adult life. Even though I may never want to work in government PR due to its head-aches, I will still take all the tools I learned during my time with CNB and apply them to what-ever job is waiting for me.

My internship with the Cherokee Nation Businesses was an invaluable experi-ence.

With only three minutes on the clock, there is not enough time to hog balls or stand around. You have to be aggressive and on your toes at all times. A diving catch in the clutch could bring your team-mates back in. The practiced throw at the perfect time could win the game. You never know when an MVP opportunity is going to pop up in a Dodgeball tournament.

On September 11th, John Rentschler showed up to the an-nual Dodgeball tournament ready to play. He was determined to try his hardest, but wasn’t expect-ing to lead his team to victory in the Championship match against last years’ reigning champs, Team Eight.

Rentschler’s team, Team Ten, went head to head with Team Eight three times in last week’s double elimination tournament before fi-nally earning the 1st place trophy.

In their first match up, Team Ten dominated Team Eight in only a minute and a half. At the start of the game, Rentschler and his team rushed to the line and grabbed ev-ery single ball as Team Eight failed

to budge. What seemed to be a strange winning tactic was actually a case of miscommunication. After being called the slacker team for not leaving the back line, Khang Lam told the fans that his team “didn’t hear go!” In the final seconds of the match, Rentschler caught Lam’s ball before final teammate Mike Briggs was pegged in the leg by Team Ten’s Yung Mgyen.

Yung Mgyen failed to con-tribute to his teams efforts during the second match up when he was pegged within the first two seconds of the game. This game was impor-tant. If Team Eight was defeated, it would be their second loss and Team Ten would be the Champi-ons. If Team Ten were defeated, this match would become a Semi-Final game, with these teams going head-to-head once again. This was the game to watch; and the players all knew it.

Khang Lam and Mike Briggs’ team, Team Eight, was sure to hear “Go!” at the start of this game and

rushed to the line for the balls. Team Ten’s Blake Hunter, Khoa Truong, and Nicole Matzdorf quickly fol-lowed Mgyen to the sideline, leav-ing Sueanne McWatters and John Rentschler left to defend against every player on Team Eight. Al-though Rentschler was ready to take on the task, arming himself with two balls, McWatters ran to the back of the court yelling, “I’m scared! I’m scared! I’m scared!” As she was using Rentschler as a shield, Team Eight’s Alex Paradis, Cameron Muller, and Mike Briggs all launched balls his way.

Rentschler, yelling “Haters,” dodged every ball thrown. Shortly after, Sueanne’s ball was caught, leaving Rentschler alone for a good minute and a half. He elimi-nated both Paradis and Briggs and dodged 12 balls before time ran out. This defeat of Team Ten meant only one thing. Rematch.

With the Championship Tro-phy on the line, each team was de-termined to win. Rentschler was exhausted, but knew he had to keep playing in order to win. Back-to-back catches eliminated three of Team Eight’s players, and a throw by Nicole Matzdorf got rid of the fourth. With only two players left, and two minutes on the clock, Team Eight had a lot of work to do. Ten seconds later, another ball was caught by Team Ten and a final peg eliminated the last of Team Eight’s players, Mike Briggs.

Team Ten became the 2008 Dodgeball Tournament Champions after three tough matches against their arch rivals. With such great athleticism and effort, both teams entertained the pizza scarfing crowd and ended the tournament on a high note. Each player gave high-fives and “good games” be-fore both teams voted on an MVP. In unison, the name John Rentschler was yelled out. His name will ap-pear on the trophy, along with his team’s name.

Besides these final two teams, four other teams also competed in the tournament. The third place team, Team Two had an amaz-ing player as well. Equaling Rent-schler’s solitary reign, Jacob Art-man eliminated three players and dodged 12 balls before being hit. Team Three, who took fourth place,

kept the excitement up as well when Dan Bates caught two balls back-to-back in the final ten seconds of the game. The catches eliminated two of the other teams three players, and brought back two of his team-mates.

Bates won the game for his team after an assumed lost. The fifth place team, Team One, threw balls hard enough to knock people off their feet. Finally, the sixth place team, known as the CheapShots, consisted of faculty and staff mem-bers. They were big talkers, but failed to perform up to par with the rest of the teams. They gave it a gallant effort, but were dominated after their second match.

All in all, this tournament was intense for the players and fun for the fans. Next year, you can bet that each team will be coming out again to fight for the Championship tro-phy.

9RECREATion & SPoRTS September 22, 2008

Dodgeball tournament leaves only ego’s injured

With a vertical jump, Jacob Artman dodged this ball before pegging two players on the other team.

By Katie WellsreC & SporTS ediTor

Photo Credit: Gregory E. Zschomler, The VanCougar

For action VIDEO footage and more photos visit: www.vancougar.com

No one seemed more determined to win than, “trash-talking” staff member Michelle McIlvoy. Unfortunately the faculty and staff team went down in the end.

Yung Mgyen, seen hurling a ball toward the other players, was on the Championship Team.

Mike Briggs was a stand-out player for the second place team thanks to his great arm.

Dan Bates did a lot of dodging during the tournament which helped his team take fourth.

The VanCougar10

Apeacefulwalkthroughthewoodscouldbejustwhatyouneed to revamp after a difficult exam. Luckily for you, WSU-Vhasoverfourmilesofhikingtrailsrightoncampus.Referredto as the Cougar Trails, theruggedyetnavigablepathsofferaperfectareatojog,walk,site-see,orbird-watch.Withnaturallandscaping and waterways,these trails are home to manywildlife and fish who share the woods with those who use thewalkwaysdaily. For those who would

utilize the jogging paths ofthe Cougar Trails, you’llbe glad to hear that there is

a wide, all-weather surface torunon. If hiking isyour thing,there are “unimproved” trailsthatareexactlywhatyouwouldfind if you were actually out in a forest. Awalkthroughthetrailshelpsyouquicklyrealizethatashorthikewouldgiveyoumorethanenoughexercisefortheday.Thesceneryisnice,thetrailsaremaneuverable, and the statuesandmonumentsscatteredaboutarereallysomethingtolookat. The miles and miles of

trails were created by campusvolunteersandmanyemployeesof the Facilities OperationsDepartment. A grant was usedto pay for the Cougar Trails,thankstotheWSU-VS&AFeeAllocationCommittee. Withtheirhardworkanddonations,theseincredibletrailshave added another fitness-type accommodation to WSU-V aswell as a place to relax.A tripthrough the woods could bejust what you need for a lightworkoutoranunwindingwalk.Besuretobringwater!

Enjoy fresh air on a Cougar TrailRECREATion & SPoRTS

Story & Photos By Katie WellsreC & SporTS ediTor

September 22, 2008 11

The third week of the semester markedthegrandreopeningoftheFitnessCenterwith new equipment and on-site staffing. ThecenterreopenedonMonday,Sept.9initsformerlocation,butwithabout700squarefeetofaddedspaceandthousandsofdollarsinnewequipment. The project had been on theblocksformonthsastherecreationstaff,ledbyNeilGregory,renovatedthespaceand oversaw long and detailed biddingprocesses to bring the best equipmentfor thebestprice. Now, thehardworkandinvestmentseemstohavepaidoff:Inthe first three days of operation the new Fitness Center is close to matching thenumbersfrompeakattendancelastyear. “Our peak usage last year wasabout 250-275 people per week. Thisweek we have already seen more than200 users,” said Neil Gregory. “Gymattendance usually peaks in Januarywhen theweather isbad. Having thesenumbersinSeptemberindicateswewillseealotmoreusagethisyear.” The new equipment includestreadmills with personal televisionsets and elliptical machines that haveadjustable stride lengths. A machinecalledthefunctionaltrainercanprovide

anyworkout imaginable. Anotherhugeadditionisthefreeweights.TheywereneveravailableintheoldFitnessCenter. “Havingthefreeweightsmakesitmorelikeatypicalgym,”saidShawnRomine,arecreationspecialist. “IonlyusedtheFitnessCenterafewtimeslastyearbecausethelackoffreeweights.” The presence of free weightsmeans that the center has to be staffedduringitshoursofoperation(7a.m.to7p.m.Monday-Thursdayandclosesat2p.m.onFriday).Thehoursofoperationhavebeenreducedformlastyeartohelpoffsettheexpenseofalargerstaff,butitshouldmeanacleaner,saferenvironmentfor itsusersaswell.Onestaffmember,Ariel Richer, said that “many peoplehavecommentedthattheyfeelsaferwithstaffonsite.” Therearesevenstaffmembers,one of whom is a certified personal trainer. Another personal trainer, DeeAnn Pearler, is also available. Anystudent,staff,orfacultycansignupforfree appointments with her simply byschedulingitinthenotebook. Another benefit of the Fitness Center is the have locker rooms withthe only lockers on campus. It mayseem strange to visit a fitness center for the locker rooms,butseveralpeopleon

campus,likebikecommuters,utilizetheshowers and lockers to freshen up andchangebeforeclasses. One bike commuter, TammyLee, said, “I use the showers after myride in and it definitely makes the day morecomfortableforme.” The best news for WSU-Vstudents, faculty and staff is that theFitness Center is paid for through

tuition—there’s no extra charge toyou. The only cost of joining is a fewminutes of your time, showing yourWSU identification card and filling out the appropriate paperwork. After thatyou will be issued a Fitness Center IDcardandrequiredtosigninwhenyouusethe facilities. It’s the first steps toward makingahealthierandhappieryou.

Fitness Center finally opened and being used

The mighty cougar is known for its raw strength and power. It should be no doubt that all cougars on campus reflect the same image at WSU-V That is why this semester the students of WSU-V were given a new fitness center to keep their bodies on shape. Now the question on ev-eryone’s mind is, how are the students going to

utilize this new fitness center? The VanCougar set out to find these answers and the first place it went to find the answer was the source. We asked

Shon Neville, a graduate student from WSU and staff member at the fitness center what he thought about how often students are coming into the fit-ness center. “I think the vast majority of people (who have been in the fitness center before) keep coming in.” said Neville. Neville also believes that

they will be expanding the fitness center yet again next year.

So its obvious that the fitness center has been a success. But what The VanCougar wants to find out is just how students feel about the fit-ness center. Man on the Street went out and found those answers, below are some samples of what students said.

Story & Photos by Jake KleinschmidtThe VanCougar

Matt Brown, Finance

“I haven’t been there yet myself. I‘d like to use the free weights. I hope to go there about twice a week.”

Ariel Richer,Public Affairs

“I like that its not scary anymore, when you used to walk in there it was this cramped little place and

no free weights.”

Grace Koch, Elementary Education

“I was thinking about checking it out … see if I like it. I like classes, I don’t know if they have those.”

Tom Miller, Public Affairs

“Its nice, awesome equipment looked brand new, I haven’t been to the locker room but I hear they are nice. I like all the free weights mostly… All around a pretty nice

fitness center.”

Patrick Forrest, Public Affairs

“I want to talk to a fitness person and get an idea out of what my

goals are and that will determine how often I’ll visit. I’m really in-

terested in working out my core.”

Heather Gonzalez, Undecided

“I heard about it (the fitness cen-ter), but I haven’t actually gone and looked, I kinda have work and study to do.”

Man on the Street: What do you think of the new fitness center?

By Kevin RaymondThe VanCougar

RECREATion & SPoRTS

Phot

o C

redi

t: K

atie

Wel

ls

The VanCougar12 ARTS, CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

FOOD for Thought

Hollywood seems to be on the skids these days.

With the entertainment machine trying to forget the recent writers’ strike and desperately seeking to win back moviegoers to a sluggish box office, it seems they have plenty on their plates.

And now it seems some of the biggest stars are falling.

Francis Ford Coppola, legendary director of “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather,” was interviewed in the November 2007 issue of GQ Mag-azine. Controversy ensued after Cop-pola declared that three Hollywood icons – Robert De Niro, Jack Nich-olson, and Al Pacino – had grown complacent in their old age and were unwilling to challenge themselves ar-tistically.

“I don’t feel that [they have the] kind of passion to do a role and be re-ally great, because if it was there, they would do it!” he said.

The effective heresy of the state-ment rocked the foundation of a nos-talgic Hollywood. A legend insulting three other legends at once? What was Coppola thinking? And what have you done in the past twenty-five years that was so great?

Coppola later backtracked and insisted the quotes were taken out of context, but many began to wonder: Does Hollywood royalty deserve to take it easy onscreen, or not?

The teaming of De Niro and Pac-ino in “Righteous Kill” seemed like a marketing dream. Two tough guys at once = double the tough and double the fun. The two had teamed up twice before (a few minutes in “Heat” and connected storylines in “The Godfa-ther, Part 2”) but had never appeared simultaneously for a feature length production. Both actors said that they wanted to finally do a movie together, having been friends for many years.

The pair have always enjoyed their guns and/or badges and they get to use both here. The plot is stan-dard for most police dramas. De Niro

and Pacino play partners investigat-ing a series of murders that may or may not be connected, with later implications connecting one of their very own. All this occurs while they try to avoid the wrath of their chief, an underused Brian Dennehy. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson makes an appear-ance as one of the duo’s least favorite people, a local criminal named “Spi-der” who is in the film primarily to cause trouble.

And they make the most of it, depending on which way you look at it. If you’re a diehard fan of the ac-tors, you will smile to yourself as they go about what they do best: teaching wiseguys a lesson and smirking as they verbally spar with every person in a scene. If you’re a fan of a lovingly crafted cinematic experience, your head will ache as you sit through a needlessly convoluted plot, complete with some amateurish made-for-TV production values and a twist that anyone can see coming long before it happens onscreen.

The film is, however, striking in its stark display of the two leads. Thirteen years have passed since they both shared a restaurant table in “Heat” and discussed the finer points of playing cops and robbers. This time around, they have aged notice-ably – Pacino with a weathered and

wrinkled face; De Niro with a little extra around the middle that befalls most of us sooner or later. They do the same jumps, the same drawing of weapons – but it feels off. One al-most wishes they would take a vaca-tion, finally hang up that badge and take a nice long trip to Costa Rica. Maybe they could stay there if they started to like it. But you know guys like them: they can’t retire. They don’t know how to do anything else.

Perhaps Paul Newman is onto something. The ailing retired star, famous for his acting as well as his humanitarianism, gave a speech in 2007 announcing the opening of a new “Hole in the Wall” camp for seri-ously-ill children in Carnation, Wash-ington.

In the speech, Newman referred to his legacy, saying that it was “not going to be my films or anything I do politically. It’s going to be [the] camps.”

Maybe he’s right. Perhaps the pursuit of happiness – of personal satisfaction and the greater good lived in quiet is more important than the pursuit of artistic achievement lived in the illumination of a thou-sand flashbulbs.

In that case, you’ll have to decide if you want to give the boys a break.

By Collin RickmanThe VanCougar

UPCOMING EVENTSDIVERSITY FILM FESTIVAL

Maquilapolis Tuesday, September 23, 4 p.m.

Visions from the Inside Wednesday, September 24, 7 p.m.

A Family Gathering Tuesday, September 30, 4 p.m.

Free Bowling! Thursday, September 25, 9 p.m. Crosley Lanes - Free pizza and refreshments

Register to Vote!Thursday, September 25, 12 - 4Get registered to vote before the election deadline. Registration forms available outside of the cafeteria.

Photograms Workshop Friday, September 26, 12 p.m.

•

•

•

ACEArts, CultureEntertainment

Al Pacino (left) and Robert De Niro (right) talk things over in Righteous Kill.

Stars fall in Righteous Kill

Metallica’s newest album, Death Magnetic, breathes new life into the 27 year old rock group, offering both a shift in direction as well as a return to the innovative stylings that marked them in their heyday.

The musical style of Metal-lica shows a definite shift with Death Magnetic, none of which is bad, but might leave a die-hard …And Justice For All Metallica fan wondering what might have happened. The songs on Death Magnetic are longer than the typi-cal two-to three-minute song that hits radio waves.

The shortest song is “My Apocalypse,” the last track on the album, timing in at just over five minutes. The longest track imme-diately precedes it, an instrumen-tal, clocking in two seconds shy of ten minutes. The last Metallica album to feature an instrumental track was …And Justice For All, with “To Live is to Die,” also near-ly ten minutes in length.

For those who haven’t bought the album yet, and have heard the single released to radio, “The Day That Never Comes,” it may seem that Metallica is taking on a slightly softer edge. The sound is somewhat reminiscent of their

song, “Fade to Black” from their 1984 album, Ride the Lightning, in that it starts off a little gentler and increases slightly in intensity as the song progresses. If you’re in-trigued by the softer introduction of “The Day That Never Comes,” have a listen to “The Unforgiven III.” Its introduction can only be described as melodic… and phe-nomenally good.

Don’t be misled by the seem-ingly melodic tone set by the sin-gle, though. Death Magnetic still delivers for fans of something heavier. “Cyanide” leads in with the driving rhythm of guitar and drums, building the foundation for a solid rock song, and “The End of The Line” sets a solid pace and keeps it going for the length of the song, which is nearly eight minutes long. This would be hard to do… if you were anybody but a rock legend.

Metallica definitely delivers on their new album, which is even better than their 2003 album, St. Anger. Death Magnetic is artfully done. Each of the songs seem to fit together in the cohesive whole of the album. This may be due in part to the binding theme of death throughout the ten songs.

A more significant element, however, might be the addition of Robert Trujillo as the band’s bass-

ist. According to Metallica’s web-site, Metallica.com, Trujillo joined the band in 2003 only two months before the band finished record-ing St. Anger. Death Magnetic is the only album released so far that Trujillo may have had a sig-nificant influence on in its concep-tion.

According to Metallica’s web-site, their North American tour will kick off in October, coming to Portland on Nov. 1 with Down and The Sword at the Rose Quar-ter, and to Seattle on Dec. 1 with Lamb of God and The Sword at the Key Arena.

Music Review: Metallica’s Death MagneticBy Danielle Mosier

The VanCougar

2008

: pho

to c

ourt

esy

of O

vert

ure

Film

s20

08: p

hoto

cou

rtes

y of

War

ner

Bros

.

September 22, 2008 13ARTS, CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Greg: Oooo. That harvest moon looks so fine—so full, so low on the hori-zon and all orangey like a giant punkin’. Beautiful! Stunning I say!

Will: As I bussed to work this morning, there was fog on the ground along Burnt Bridge Creek. Distractingly beautiful. If I’d been driving, I’d have gone straight into the creek.

Greg: Yeah dude, there is that autumn chill in the night air. The days may be scorchers, but some of the wee hours of the morning have been quite nippy indeed. I went camping last weekend and nearly froze my patookas off. Change is in the air. Soon the winter frost will kiss the golden punkin’. Sounds like a movie: Kiss the Golden Punkin’. Anyway, change…”I can feel it in the earth, I can see it in the water, I can smell it in the air; much that once was is lost…”

Will: OK, I am also affected by nature’s beauty, but not to the point I need to wax rhapsodic. I just like the way the air smells in the autumn. But yeah, change is in store for the both of us. Me? I’m changing jobs. You? You’re heading to the Big House for copyright infringements.

Greg: Wait! I’ll provide attribution for my brief homage (fair use, you know): J.R.R. Tolkien, master of Middle Earth. Now, tell me about this job change (a.k.a. one of the top psychological stressors known to man).

Will: Yeah, the retail world is funny. I’ve enjoyed learning the “behind-the-scenes,” mostly. My store (deliberately not named) placed a LOT of pressure on their people to perform to constant, high standards. Leaving will feel like I stopped hitting myself in the head with a hammer. What are the other leading stressors?

Greg: You enjoyed it? High standards!? What! You complained to me day and night about the treatment one of your bosses gave you. You grumbled about the creepy hours. And you groused about standards so high even Superman could not have leapt to them in a single bound. You needed out of this job; you were getting downright cranky. And the other four of the top five stressors are: marriage, divorce, moving and death.

Will: Yeah, but I didn’t want to take this column into a negative place. I worked with some great people, and the job paid the bills (pretty much some of the time.) So I’d prefer to focus on that. So death is the highest stressor? Somehow, I just don’t think I’d get too stressed about being dead.

Greg: Not dying yourself, you fool; having some one die on you. You know, the loss of a loved one. Anyway, that’s kinda negative, so, changing the sub-ject I transition to the Beach Boys!

Will: And he hits one into left field! The Beach Boys? What do they have to do with A: Fall. B: Changing jobs. C: Being stressed. D: Barbara Ann.

Greg: E: All of the above. Dude! The Beach Boys is happy music, with the exception of “In My Room”—a melancholy song that reeks of Prozac. It’s a wonder Brian Wilson didn’t write more like tunes having the problems he did. Anyway, I digress. Fall, because they wrote about summer and summer is leaving. Job change because in Beach Boy songs no one ever works; they just lie around, and surf, and race cars. And being stressed, all this would lead to the opposite. And Barbara Ann because she and Ronda help me Ronda, help, help me Ronda enjoy the summer sun. Which is fleeting fast.

Will: That must be why the Beach Boys were so popular! And yeah, I hate the-days-getting-shorter bit, and I hate the-return-of-the-rain bit, and I hate the-aggressive-yellow-jacket-bee bit. But I like the transition before we get there. The fireworks show of fall colors is very near. Bring it on! (Especially now that I’m leaving the stressful job behind.) I didn’t want to move all that Christmas merch into the store anyhow.

Greg: Christmas! It ain’t even Halloween yet! Of course, we have begrudged that subject before: the one season of Hallothankmashanaknew. The reason we have such a string of holidays in the fall/winter is to chase the doldrums away. If it weren’t for Christmas it’d just be winter. It’d be like Narnia under the White Witch. (Another writer reference being to C.S. Lewis.) Gastly! But we get ahead of ourselves; WE have two more months of writing to do be-fore the semester is up. We must save these valuable topics for such a time as they hold relevancy. ‘Tis the season to get out of retail! I celebrate with you.

Will: I think of the boxes of Christmas trees we unloaded while kids were sharpening their first pencils of the school year. Alas, having a regular schedule again means we can see more of each other. Which means we’ll have more time to get on each others nerves. Ought to make for some in-teresting TAG columns, yo?

Greg: Certainly, yes. Familiarity breeds contempt they say. Now that you don’t work the blood-sucking hours of a vampire we may have lunch to-gether again. Chinese perhaps, not hemoglobin, mind you.

Will: Sounds good. Let me grab my cape.

Greg: You up for stake? Um, steak?

Good VIbRATIoNS By Will & Greg

By Beau Baxter RosseraCe ediTor

Game Review: Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty

Visit TAG online at http://www.creativity-unlimited.biz/webtour/twoguys/index.html

The fundamentals that make up a good Ratchet and Clank game are all present: from the whacked-out weapons, intense actions sequences, gravity-defying platforming, and head scratching puzzles to the slick dialogue, charming story, and subtle-ty perverse game title. At face value, these features would seem like a recipe for success; however, after two hours of playtime, Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty is more of an appetizer than a full course meal.

The aforementioned Ratchet and Clank gameplay staples are pres-ent, but each one of them feels stunted due to the game’s underwhelmingly short game time. The abrupt nature of this game robs the coolest features of previous Ratchet and Clanks, like upgradeable weapons for example, of their purpose. With an insignifi-cant change in damage dealt, there is no real reason for a player to in-vest the time it takes to max out their weapons.

Compared to other Ratchet and Clank games, there is only one location with legitimate puzzle solv-ing for the player to figure out. Sadly, the puzzles are bland, and they follow the generic video game puzzle struc-ture: a move-the-box-make-a-pattern puzzle, a solve-the-riddle puzzle, and a memorization-then-mimic puzzle. Those three styles would not stand out as much as they do if it wasn’t for the fact that these are the only three legitimate puzzles the game offers. That’s it; there are three of them.

The rest of Quest for Booty leans toward the action/platform-ing of its predecessors. At times, the

game has the player traverse rudi-mentarily designed platforming seg-ments, while other levels assault the player with wave after wave of en-emy onslaught.

Graphically, the game is one of the best looking downloadable titles out currently, and matches one to one with its retail counter-part, Tools of Destruction. This game showcases Insomniac’s grasp on the PS3 hardware in ways other develop-ers should imitate. I wish there was more colorful, daytime levels like the game’s Hoolafar Island, but beggars can’t be choosers.

And then as soon as it begins, it ends.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against short games, but I do get slightly agitated when short games don’t provide me with a fulfilling ex-perience. The game is so streamlined that the player is funneled through each world with little or no choice as to how to tackle each challenge that presents itself.

This is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Sure, this is not a full-fledged retail game, but I expected something meatier coming from Insomniac.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty is a solid experience and a definite must buy for any fan of the series, but I just can’t shake the feeling that this game would have been served better coming a few months before the next retail Ratchet game, instead of a year.

“Breaking Dawn”, the final in-stallment of Stephenie Meyer’s insane-ly popular Twilight series, is seven-hundred and fifty pages long, which is at least four-hundred pages too many. The book hasn’t been well received by fans or critics, mostly because of its bi-zarre plot developments, but my main quibble is its exhaustive redundancy. It’s boring.

Eighteen year old Bella Swan, the “heroine” of the series, is finally marrying her amazingly beautiful vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, since those are his terms for convert-ing her into a vampire (and consum-mating their relationship). A small price to pay, you’d think, except that Bella can’t stand the idea of getting married at such a young age. Spend-ing eternity as a vampire and never seeing her family and friends again is okay, though.

While the honeymoon is writ-ten with an attention to scenic detail both poetic and beautiful, the book slows to a crawl after the introduction of a seemingly impossible plot twist. This change of pace quickly takes one disgusting turn after another, culmi-nating in a segment of graphic violence not unlike the famous diner scene in Alien. It gets weirder when Bella’s long suffering werewolf companion, Jacob Black, is the casualty of a plot develop-ment so absurd and contrived, you’d laugh if it weren’t insanely creepy.

I’ve never been a fan of Bella. She’s sullen, selfish and pathological-ly co-dependent. In this book, when things happen to her that are both amazing and horrifying, she never pauses to respond emotionally, much less reflect. Like Edward, she becomes idealized to an extent that makes her impossible to relate to, much less care about. Even Jacob, arguably the most realistic character in the series, is re-duced to a mere caricature of himself.

As with the other books, the

plot emerges somewhere around page four-hundred. As usual, it’s merely a convoluted series of contrivances, ini-tiated by stock characters whose mo-tivations are stupid and unbelievable. As a big vampire showdown looms ahead, about twenty new vampires are introduced, possessing abilities that beg comparison to characters from Heroes. These vampires are only vaguely developed, with trite and im-possibly convenient reasons for want-ing to help.

The latter chapters are filled with boring, repetitive conversations promising a war of epic proportions, but what actually transpires is utterly anti-climatic, complete with a deus ex machina and other silliness. And don’t even get me started on the unforgiv-able final sentences, so schmaltzy and cliché, my immediate response was too profane to mention here.

Ultimately, Meyer has a wild imagination and intriguing ideas; however, she ruins it with underde-velopeda and unlikable characters, a tedious and self-indulgent writing style, contrived plot twists, and a shal-low fixation on beauty and perfection. While it should have been edited for length, frequent spelling and gram-matical errors suggest it wasn’t edited at all. The first three books were guilty pleasures, but this one is all guilt, and a complete waste of time.

Book Review: Breaking DawnBy Rosie Bartel

The VanCougar

The VanCougar14 FEATURES

“We are here to help students succeed,” says Mallory Smith, a Peer Mentor (PM) in the pilot Peer Mentorship Program (PMP) set up this year by the Diversity Council (DC) – which was first talked about a couple of years ago – to help the University with retention and recruit-ment efforts.

During their summer training, the PMs came up with a Mission Statement which is “to empower new students to achieve success in their first year at WSU and beyond by facilitating meaningful connections,” says Bola Majekobaje, co-coordinator of the PMP program. “It’s really that concept of students helping students,” she adds.

The DC – a group of students, faculty, staff, and administrators that regularly meets to assess and meet the diversity needs and goals on campus that focuses on student recruitment, retention, and graduation – found that students often went their entire first year without really knowing other students.

“Just being able to have that instant connection the first week of school is one idea that we had to enhance the retention,” explains Majekobaje. One attribute that helps PMs help others is they are motivated to give back to the community and have demonstrated academic success. “The focus of the program really is that one-on-one interaction between an experienced person and a new person,” Majekobaje elabo-rates.

One problem that previous students have had with our commuter campus is the fact that students don’t feel they belong because they go to class and then go home. “Although that’s changing, and I can feel that changing – that a lot of students are hanging around.” Majekobaje adds excitedly.

“Sometimes it does take that person to take you and walk you over and introduce you to a Professor that can assist you in that class, or talking to the student about how unintimi-dating it actually is to talk to a Professor when you’re struggling in a class. Coming from a stu-dent, that message can be louder,” asserts Ma-jekobaje, adding, “if I were to tell students that, they would say, ‘she works here. She’s probably supposed to say that!’”

“[W]e too were new students to WSUV at one point and know what it’s like not knowing anyone, any-where, [or] anything around campus,” says Cirita Hash, another PM. Indeed, some students find it very intimidating coming to a four-year institution with no prior collegiate experience. “I wanted to be involved with the PMP so that I could help even ONE other per-son learn things about WSU that I didn’t discov-er until practically my senior year,” says Hash.

Reminiscing about a PMP at California State-Long Beach, Smith says, “As a first genera-tion college student, having someone to talk to that had been through it made a huge difference to me.” This is reflective of the DC’s research of other institutions’ programs, which showed freshman, transfer, first-generation, and minor-ity students were retained at the lowest levels.

The main responsibility of the PMs is cre-ating opportunities for students to get involved, according to Majekobaje. Whether this is having coffee or lunch, showing students where things are, or just being a sounding board, PMs are “available for the needs of the new students,” she assures.

On college campuses, it is almost sec-ond-nature to help one another. For instance, if someone is lost, and they ask you where the li-brary is, you are more often than not going to tell them that it is “that building over there.” “It’s a

very natural thing that happens between people anyway – this concept of mentorship – we are just helping them to formalize it,” Majekobaje says.

The DC’s focus on retention does not fo-cus solely on one thing. Retention is having a good time both inside and outside classrooms. Yet, the DC is unable to help in one area: money. If a student is having money issues, which is an indicator that that student will not be retained, then PMs “can tell them about the financial aid office, and they can tell them about their person-al experience in receiving grants and loans. And that it’s ok to get loans because it is a long-term investment,” explain Majekobaje.

“The program is totally free for all stu-dents. Our peer mentors actually are compen-sated for their time. It’s sponsored by Student Affairs and the DC,” says Majekobaje. This, she

hopes, will attract more stu-dents, and not frighten any-one off. She also does not anticipate any foreseeable future in which this pro-gram will charge students for the services of a PM.

Since your PM won’t be giving you mon-ey for books, you might be asking yourself what else a PM does. PMs are there only to help stu-dents find other resources that the University provides, and this means they can be your main go-to person for advice, company, and leader-ship. “So, they’re not going to help students write their paper, but they are going to show students where the Writing Center is,” Majeko-baje says.

“Academically speaking, our mentors are not tutors; they won’t be giving any home-work help, but they can say, hey! Do you just want to go to the library and study together?” This could be the push some students need to actually do their reading assignments, rather than playing ultimate disc, Halo, or Rock Band.

“The person is not providing academic support directly but is helping facilitate that sup-port. Our students are resources, and they know all the resources on campus.” These knowledge-able students know the campus in and out, and they are more than happy to share their knowl-edge with new students to make success easier.

“We, in the end, really created a program that wasn’t just targeted towards specific popu-

lations – we created a program that is open to all students on campus,” explains Majekobaje. She went on to say that since we are a small enough campus to do this.

“There is a lot of diversity within our mentee group, and so we wanted diversity to be a really strong part of what the program was about,” Majekobaje says. Even though we are a small campus, we have a large non-traditional student population. Knowing how to deal with diversity later in life, work, and society and feel-ing comfortable with being who they are is a goal of the PMP for both mentors and mentees.

“It would be nice to see more people inter-ested in having a peer mentor, and having them know the real benefits,” says Hash. However, at this time, the PMP is still in its infancy, so there is little expectation of large growth in the near future.

“Our program really is geared towards new students: freshman and transfer students, and so it’s not really designed to support junior and senior students,” explains Majekobaje. This is intended to keep the PMP small, while focus-ing on the DC’s finding that freshman and trans-fer students were in need of PMs most.

However, “we did, and I think this could be an addition to the program in the future, es-pecially if it’s successful in its first few years, talk about the mentorship that’s needed in your junior and senior year, as you are trying to tran-sition into” grad school and work, Majekobaje says.

Receiving mentorship from a professional in the field, community-based mentorship can be another vital service this program can pro-vide. Majekobaje says the PMP is open to dis-cussion about the possibility of opening it up to the faculty and staff to become mentors in the future, but heard from students that mentorship was most important during early years, and stu-dents would prefer to be mentored by another student. For more information, go to www.vancou-ver.wsu.edu/mentor. Both co-coordinators, Jill Homme, Program Coordinator for Edu-cation (360) 546-9075, and Majekobaje, As-sistant Director of Student Diversity (360) 546-9568, will be happy to help you with any questions.

“It’s a very natural thing that hap-pens between people anyway – this concept of mentorship – we are just helping them to formalize it.”

Peer mentors from left to right: Cirita Hash, Mallory Smith, Blake Hunter, Khoa Truong, Amanda Cestnik, Bola Majekobaje, and Jill Homme.

By Robert ChuThe VanCougar

Peer Mentoring Program empowers and connects for success beyond WSU-V

Phot

o C

redi

t: B

rian

Bate

s

15FEATURES September 22, 2008

Portland Corp BW Ad 10x15 9/8/08 3:55 PM Page 1 Ken Bickel Brown Disk 74.5: II650ME/Portland Corp BW Ad:Portland BW AD 10x15:

Disc Golf Clinic September 24 Sign up at the OSI. Join other golf lovers on campus for this free event. Sign up on the day of the event.

Chartered Bottom Fishing (Pacific Ocean) September 27 Sign up at the OSI by September 23 $60 student price, $70 for non-students.

Open Gym @ Chinook October 1 Sign up at Chinook Gym This event is free.

Soccer Tournament October 3 Sign up at the OSI by September 30. This event is free.

Men’s Basketball begins October 5 Sign up at the OSI by September 26. Students only: $25

Archery Instruction (Archery World) October 7 Sign up at the OSI by October 3. $5 student price, $8 for non-students.

Open Gym @ Chinook October 8 Sign up at Chinook Gym. This event is free.

Hold ‘em Clinic (Firstenburg Commons) October 10 Sign up at the OSI. This event is free.

Outdoor Paintball (Woodland) October 11 Sign up at the OSI by October 7. $10 student price, $15 for non-students.

Winterhawks vs. Seattle October 11 Tickets went on sale September 22 at Student Affairs Special student price: $9 (Limit 2 per person)

Open Gym @ Chinook October 15 Sign up at Chinook Gym. This event is free.

Disc Golf Tournamet October 16 Sign up at the OSI by October 10. This event is free.

2008 Cougar Holiday Card CONTEST!

The VanCougar12 TAIL ENDThe VanCougar BulletinTo include a bulletin on this page, drop a flyer for a school or club-related event into our “Bulletins” folder outside VCLS 212 or email vancoug@vancouver.wsu.edu. Free for registered student organizations!

September/october 2008

Help design this years holiday card for the WSU-V De-velopment Office. The winning design will be made

into the card that goes out to all of our donors.

The contest began Aug. 1 and the submission deadline is Oct. 1. Each entry must include the $5 entry fee. All proceeds go to support the WSU-V Scholarship Program and the lucky winner also decides which special scholarship will recieve the entry money. All art medi-

ums (drawing, painting, photos, etc.) accepted.

For guidelines and more information see the office of Development and Alumni Relations at: 360-546-9600 (Admin 216B)

Classified Advertisment Space is AvailableYour ad here for just $3.50 an issue or two issues for $5. 50 words or less. Cash in advance. Students recieve a fifty cent discount. No business listings, please. Call or stop by the VanCougar office for assistance. 546.9524 • VCLS 212

Students Alex Kleefstra, Geoff Wallace, and Jackie Oleinik play their instruments in front of the Firstenburg Student Commons to stave off boredom during a large gap between classes.

Photos by Michael Hatch, The Vancougar