Vol. 30 # #.#.#
2 • as.wwu.edu/asreview People sailing boat out at Lakewood. Photo by Hailey
Event Calendar
Hoffman // AS Review
Zarifa Roberson “Sexuality and Disability” May 21 // 7 p.m. // FR 201 // Free Viking Union 411 516 High St. Bellingham, WA 98225 Phone: 360.650.6126 Fax: 360.650.6507 Email: as.review@wwu.edu as.wwu.edu/asreview @TheASReview facebook.com/theasreview © 2018. Published most Mondays during the school year by the Associated Students of Western Washington University. The AS Review is an alternative weekly that provides coverage of student interests such as the AS government, activities and student life. The Review seeks to enhance the student experience by shedding light on underrepresented issues, inclusive coverage, informing readers and promoting dialogue. We welcome reader submissions, including news articles, literary pieces, photography, artwork or anything else physically printable. Email submissions to as.review@wwu.edu. We welcome letters to the editor. Please limit your letter to 300 words, include your name, phone number and year in school, if you’re a student. Send them to as.review@wwu.edu. Published letters may have minor edits made to their length or grammar.
Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Lead Photographer Writers
Erasmus Baxter Kira Stussy Hailey Hoffman Josh Hughes Gwen Frost Julia Berkman Hailey Murphy Photographer Jaden Moon Adviser Jeff Bates
As a part of Disability Awareness Week, Zarifa Roberson will be giving a talk on sexuality and disability. The primary focus will be on the intersections of disability and sexuality.
Disability Social May 22 // 4-6 p.m. // VU 565 // Free This will be a space for people with disabilities and from the community to come and talk about experiences. There will be refreshments.
Nothing About Us Without Us May 23 // 3:30-5 p.m. // VU 567 // Free This presentation will focus on the lack of disability in the media and what both negative and positive representation in the media looks like. There will be refreshments. This is a part of Disability Awareness Week.
Petting Zoo
What Are The Solutions to the Housing Crisis in Bham? May 23 // 5-7:30 p.m. // AW 210 // Free This will be a solutions focused panel comprised of housing policy experts and advocates. There will also be free ice cream! More info on the Facebook event page.
Mental Health Poetry Night May 24 // 7-9 p.m. // UGCH // Free Hosted by NAMI on campus and the Sustainability Representatives Program, this Thursday will be an open mic night for mental health poetry. Come to share or to listen.
Womxn of Color Empowerment Dinner May 24 // 5-9 p.m. // Wilson Library Reading Room // Free This is a night to lift one another up and talk about experiences. The event will raise money for scholarships and create
May 23 // 11 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. // Comm Lawn // Free
networking opportunites.
The annual petting zoo is back! There will be sheep, a wallaby, a Patagonian mara, a mini pig, pygmy goats and bantam chickens. All are welcome.
Art Therapy May 25 // 4-5 p.m. // VU 462 A/B // Tickets online This event will teach students about how to use art as therapy. Supplies and snacks provided.
5.21. 2018 • 3
Voyeurism victim questions sanctions
EVENTS
Wonders why perpetrator not expelled BY ASIA FIELDS A student who had photos taken of him while using a Wilson Library restroom in June 2017 says he’s dissatisfied with Western’s lack of communication with students about the incident and feels the perpetrator received a lenient sanction. Western found the perpetrator, Christopher Jarod Weathersby, 20, responsible for sexual misconduct on Dec. 29, 2017. Weathersby was suspended through January 7, 2019 or until the victim graduates, whichever is longer, according to disciplinary records. Weathersby pleaded guilty to voyeurism in the second degree, a gross misdemeanor, on Dec. 20, 2017 for the incident. He was sentenced to 364 days and spent 30 days under home monitoring with the rest suspended, but did not have to register as a sex offender, according to court records. The victim doesn’t think Western’s discipline was severe enough. “I just don’t see why it’s so hard to expel someone who’s convicted of a sexual crime on campus...” the victim said. “What else does someone have to do to get expelled?” The victim also said the punishment seems light considering Weathersby told University Police he had taken photos of students in campus restrooms on two previous occasions that school year and masturbated to those photos, according to records from the Office of Student Life. The victim said it doesn’t make sense that his friend who was dismissed from Western for bad grades had to leave school for the same amount of time as Weathersby. The AS Review does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent. When Paul Cocke, director of communications and marketing, was asked if the other two incidents were taken into account when determining the sanction, he said he had no comment. Cocke said Western doesn’t comment on individual student conduct situations, but that the reporting student’s desired outcome is a factor when conduct officers make disciplinary decisions. The victim said he told the Office of Student Life his desired outcome was expulsion, but he knew it wasn’t likely given how Western has handled other sexual misconduct cases. He told the office he at least didn’t want to be at Western with Weathersby. “[Western officials] say there’s a zero tolerance policy but that’s a lie,” the victim said. “A zero tolerance policy is that someone who is convicted of a sexually-related crime should be expelled.” It took Western more than six months to determine a
sanction. During this time, Weathersby said he took an online course from Western, but did not attend classes on-campus due to a no-contact order from the victim. The victim said Western never explained why the process was taking so long, and at the time, he assumed that’s just how long the process took. According to Western’s procedure for handling complaints, taking in, investigating and determining sanction are supposed to take no more than 90 days total, but the vice provost can extend this. Cocke said he would not comment on why a case might take six months because that deals with the specifics of a student conduct case. In an interview with the AS Review, Weathersby said he’s grown and doesn’t want people to just associate him with what he did, as he hopes to return to Western. He has been attending Whatcom Community College during his suspension. He said he recognizes his actions made the victim feel unsafe, as well as others who heard about it, especially as other voyeurism incidents were occuring around campus at the time. “I can say with 100 percent certainty this is something I will never do again,” he said. Weathersby said he’s been in therapy since August. While he can’t pinpoint exactly what led to his actions, he said therapy has shown him how to cope with stress and his mental health, which he said were contributing factors. At a meeting in December, Weathersby told the Office of Student Life he was in sex offender-specific psychotherapy, which he’s required to complete before he reapplies, according to disciplinary records. He must also write a paper discussing what he’s learned. The victim said while he’s glad Weathersby has been in therapy, the punishment still wasn’t severe enough. After the incident, the victim said it took a while before he felt comfortable using public restrooms again. He said the nature of voyeurism is that victims don’t know the perpetrator. While in this case, the voyeur was caught, he said Weathersby shouldn’t be allowed back on campus so soon, especially because his other victims may still be on campus then. Weathersby said he understands if students are afraid and uncomfortable with him returning to Western, but he said he feels ready to return. “If someone has spent the time and done the work to CONTINUED PG. 7
Top Ten Records: May 6-12 1
Little Dark Age MGMT
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Twin Fantasy Car Seat Headrest
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Offerings Typhoon
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Clean Soccer Mommy
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The House Porches
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Always Ascending Franz Ferdinand
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In A Poem Unlimited Us Girls
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Loma Loma
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LONER Caroline Rose
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Quit the Curse Anna Burch KUGS is the Associated Students’ student-run radio station. Listen online at kugs.org. If you’re interested in getting on the waves, pick up a volunteer application in the station’s office on the seventh floor of the VU.
4 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
ASP petting zoo draw criticism from animal rights supporters BY HAILEY MURPHY
Goats at the 2015 AS Petting Zoo. Trevor Grimm // AS Review
A
SProductions’ annual petting zoo is coming up this Wednesday, May 23. The event draws large crowds of students to the Communications Lawn each year. However, the event page on Facebook has sparked discussions between students and AS Productions on the ethics behind the petting zoo. Rosa Rice-Pelepko, a senior in environmental and social justice, expressed her disappointment with ASP’s “exploitation of animals”, and asked ASP to reconsider hosting the event. The comment drew many reactions, with the majority of the 30+ students that interacted with the post agreeing that ASP shouldn’t hold the event. “I’m opposed to petting zoos inherently, and I’m also opposed to the AS specifically supporting petting zoos as an event,” Pelepko said. “I’m a vegan, and I believe in animal liberation, which to me that means that I don’t think nonhuman animals exist for human use whether that be food, clothing or entertainment. I think that nonhuman animals have a right to live their own lives, free of that exploitation by humans, and I think a petting zoo is an example [of that].” Max Boock, a sophomore, said she’s also opposed to the petting zoo, particularly because there are other options for interacting with animals. “If you went to an animal sanctuary, those animals have the freedom to come up to you and say hi, and then also leave if they feel uncomfortable or don’t want to interact with you,” Boock said. “Animals are just like humans– and humans are animals– where some are more sociable than others. Some are more introverted. Some hate being touched. Some really love being touched… And this petting zoo just doesn’t allow for that freedom for the animals.” Not everyone criticized the petting zoo. Eric Wilson, a senior, believes the petting zoo is a great opportunity for students to interact with animals “outside their dinner plate.” He said that, at his small town’s county
The petting zoo always draws a crowd with the various animals they bring in. Trevor Grimm // AS Review fair, animals sold off for slaughter were well-fed, healthy and happy. ASP responded to a message to their Facebook page saying that, while they took the concerns into consideration, they will still hold the event. They said the petting zoo will feature information on organizations such as the Pigs Peace Sanctuary, as well as how to donate to them. They also defended Animal Encounters, which provides animals for the petting zoo. “We care deeply about all our animals and consider them to be family members and co-workers,” a statement from Animal Encounters, provided by ASP, stated. “They are also working animals. Their job of helping to educate the public can sometimes be stressful as any job a human would have. Our carefully crafted protocols help mitigate this stress to provide a rewarding working environment for our animals and a memorable experience for our guests.” Also according to their statement, Animal Encounters are members of the Humane Educators Association of America, and are licensed with both the USDA and the Animal Protection and Health Inspection Service. However, Pelepko was disappointed not only in ASP’s decision to hold the event, but in their lack of communication as well. “They didn’t say how that decision was made, and they didn’t say who was involved in that decision making process,” Pelepko said. “And they also didn’t say if they were going to do this in the future, which part of my original comment had been: this is a reoccurring event, you continually do this year to year to year.” ASP held an open forum on Friday in the VU to address student concerns. The online version of this story will be updated with details from the forum. ASP didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
5.21. 2018 • 5
Battle of the Bands round two comes to Underground Coffeehouse BY TOMMY CHA
We are back again would laugh at emo with another round of stuff ! Good joke, right? the Sounds of the UnYeah, I know, it was not derground! The second worthy of a joke. Well, round happened on Laughingstock did play Wednesday, May 16, at with great EMOTION the Underground Cofthough! feehouse of course. Just Check it out: https:// like Cat Valley, last week’s laughingstockmusic. winning band, the bands bandcamp.com/ in the second round face At the end of Round 2, off against each other and the winner was selected get a chance to play at by the audience. But this year’s annual Lawnwait! We can’t forget stock. The bands who about the wildcard vote performed at Round 2 that was mentioned were Middle James, Dirty from last week! A band Ferns, Great Snakes and from Round 1 was able Laughingstock. to move in to the list Middle James is an to battle for the spot of indie band that is based performing at Lawnhere in Bellingham. stock. And the winner There are four members: of the wildcard vote two guitarists, a bassist was India Glover! and a drummer. Collin And to conclude, Crose, Dawson Vanthe winning band of Cise, Gideon Wolfe and Round 2 was… LaughMichael Hughes are the ingstock! Laughingnames of these talented stock won Round 2 of folks. If you were to see Sounds of the UnMiddle James play, you derground and get to can see the confidence in move on to the finals their performance. in order to open for Check out their website Lawnstock! But for the CLOCKWISE STARTING TOP LEFT: Dirty Ferns, Laughingstock, at: https://www.middlejames.com Final Round, there can Great Snakes, Middle James. Hailey Hoffman // AS Review Dirty Ferns, a soul, jazzy, funk only be one winner who band, also based out of Bellingcan open for Lawnstock. Ligon, Augie Ballew and Sam Stringer. I would say, to ham, played at the Sounds event as well. They contain Stay tuned and join in on the Battle! Sounds of the me, they played very soothing and relax music for the six members in total: Rainey Aberle - Trumpet, GaeUnderground FINAL Round will happen next week, audience members to listen to. The Great Snakes did tano Demartino - Guitar, Lincoln Humphry - Drums, Wednesday, May 30, at the Underground Coffeewell! Kendall Lujan - Vocals, Jacob Kleiman - Bass and house. You can listen to their work at: https://soundcloud. Ben Mead – Keys. This band is very unique as you For more information about the event, contact: com/thesegreatsnakes/sets/1-16-18demos may not see very many bands in Bellingham with a VU 422 Laughingstock is yet another amazing band from trumpet, but they are a soul kind of band. I guess you 360-650-6803 here in Bellingham. The members are Aiken Muller, could say that they can lift your soul as you listen to as.productions@wwu.edu Josh Hughes and Alex Eaves. Laughingstock is a boy them! band who plays “sometimes folky, sometimes emo” Great Snakes is another great band hailing out works of art. I guess you can tell why they are called of Bellingham. The members of this band are Paul Laughingstock; because back in the day, people
6 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Memoirs
A gathering of intersectional bodies
BY GWEN FROST The annual Memoirs student art gallery kicked off their two-week showing this Monday, May 14. The Memoirs showcase is derived from the famous spoken word performance, ‘The Vagina Memoirs,’ which is derived from ‘The Vagina Monologues.’ Seventeen students have come together to produce a collection of art reflecting their individual experiences with their own gender, race, sexuality and experiences as womxn, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people. The students have met weekly through Fall, Winter and half of Spring quarter to work on developing their projects and this event. The Memoirs art gallery is outside the post office on the fifth floor in the Viking Union, accessible by elevator or the stairs next to the information desk on the sixth floor. This year pulled in a large number of people, a total of 18 students including junior McKenzie Bolar, the organizer and director of Memoirs. Bolar is also the AS Womxn’s Identity Resource Center assistant coordinator for identity expression. “Not all the students did put out projects,” said Bolar. “But the main purpose of memoirs is to help the students involved in memoirs build community.” The Vagina Monologues were a spoken-word event, which has now evolved to a gallery event. Bolar said the name changed because “we at the Womxn’s Identity Resource Center realized that vagina isn’t inclusive to all the people who we would want represented in the event, so we got it shortened to ‘Memoirs.’” Senior Josephene Dean contributed to Memoirs last year as well as this year. “I think the artwork is just representative of that community building that happens during Memoirs,” they said. Dean has gone to Memoirs since Freshman year, back when it was called ‘Vagina Memoirs,’ and said it was all women back then.
Freshman Daniela Tierra displayed a work titled ‘Emotional Baggage.’ Gwen Frost//AS Review
“It was a very raw, emotional event,” Dean said. “This one is much easier to take in, but the raw emotion is still there, it’s just a bit more accessible, because not everybody is able to just get up there and talk about their life story.” Freshman Daniela Tierra found healing through Memoirs. “Throughout the year, it’s been a really big journey for me to openly talk about my own life and the things I’m dealing with,” she said. Tierra’s piece titled Emotional Baggage is a suitcase filled with things that are “representative of (her) life.” The tangible function of the art led to internal healing that Tierra found through putting butterflies over identifying information on the pill bottles and her old high school transcript. “I gradually realized that it was actually really healing to be able to put something that’s a sign of hope on the things that I found to be inherently so negative to me,” Tierra said. Attendee Xana Gilman talked about Dayjha McMillan’s collage poetry piece.“It’s really powerful how she chose to collage images and words to create this piece that expresses so much about her and her experience,” they said. This was Gilman’s first experience with Memoirs, and said that “it’s really cool to be surrounded by so many queer people.” “It’s nice to know that there are so many of us,” said Gilman. “I hope to feel more connected to the queer community on campus. To feel empowered and inspired to create my own poetry and art. Seeing other people actually do it, I want to become more inspired to do it myself.” The gallery will be up until Friday, May 25.
Senior Josephene Dene created a book where attendees could fill in the dialogue. Gwen Frost// AS Review
5.21. 2018 • 7
Letter to the editor
BY ANNA KEMPER, GIOVANNA ORECCHIO ROSA RICE-PELEP-
Washingtonians know the pain of traffic all too well - especially those of us from King County. We understand, on a spiritual level, how terrible it is to sit in your car for hours trying to get across town. In fact, we’ve given up measuring distances in miles and instead talk in hours. You want to drive from Seattle to Redmond to meet your friends for tacos at 5:30? Cool, you better leave at 3:30 because even though it’s only 15 miles it’s going to take you 2 hours. But there’s good news! There’s a better way: light rail. True to Washington’s innovative and forward-looking character, voters in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties approved the massive $54 billion Sound Transit 3 light rail funding in 2016. We voted to expand light rail (which currently runs from UW to Sea-Tac) all the way to Everett, Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Redmond, and Issaquah. With this vote we chose to knit our communities communities together, fight climate change, reduce congestion, and create thousands of well-paying construction jobs. We voted for a better future full of reliable mass transit which Initiative 976 threatens to rip away. With election season upon us, initiative signaA light rail train seen Aug. 23, 2016. ture-gatherers are already stationed
Commons
Voyeur continued...
learn from their mistake, keeping them out of the community they need to be in to solidify their stability is not the best way for them to learn how to move on from their mistake,” Weathersby said. However, the victim said he doesn’t think what happened can be called a mistake, as Weathersby knew what he was doing was wrong. “Some mistakes are not forgivable or should be punished more severely than others and I think this is one of those,” the victim said. “It’s an inconvenience for him to be out of school for a year and a half, it’s not a punishment. It’s a minor inconvenience. Especially since he admitted to doing it to two other people.” The victim said he was upset Weathersby asked to be allowed back on campus in September 2017, despite the no contact order. The motion was denied by the court, according to court records.
around campus. They’re mostly independently hired and paid to ask for signatures. There’s nothing wrong with that, but some initiatives deserve your signature and others don’t. For example, the new carbon pricing initiative certainly deserves your signature! But some, like I-976, are totally awful. I-976 is the brainchild of conservative anti-tax activist Tim Eyman. Eyman makes his living off filing ballot initiatives, and is hardly the guy from whom we should take public policy advice. This year, he’s decided to gut the prime source of funding for the biggest public infrastructure project in the state: light rail. Sound Transit 3 (light rail) gets most of its funding from car tab fees which are calculated based on the value of your car. If you drive a fancy new Mercedes, you pay more. If you drive a 2003 used Honda Civic, you pay less. All in all, it’s a decently equitable system. Instead, I-976 would make everyone pay a regressive flat fee of $30. At the end of the day, I-976 will cut car tab fees for people with fancy cars and slash funding for our light rail expansion. That’s not fair, not smart, and not what we voted for. We encourage you to stand up for jobs, mass transit, and the will of the voters: don’t sign I-976!
David Wilson//Creative
When asked why he tried to do this knowing the victim would still be on campus, Weathersby told the Review he didn’t expect to be able to return early, but was guided to by therapists and his lawyer at that time. He said he wanted to see if it was a possibility to have space between him and the victim and still attend Western. The victim said this shows he doesn’t seem to understand the full scope of what he did. He also said Western hasn’t done enough to inform other students about what Weathersby did. A Western Alert was sent the day of the incident noting the suspect was arrested, Cocke said in an email. The alert did not name Weathersby. “The Western Alert is fine,” the victim said. “But what’s the point of Western Alerts if you’re not going to update Western about the outcome of the case and if you’re embarrassed of the
Giovanna Orecchio is a AS Legislative Affairs Council member at-large, Anna Kemper is the AS local liaison, Rosa Rice-Pelepko is the AS legislative liaison.
outcome of the case and you don’t want people to question the punishment?” The victim said Western should have updated campus with the name of the student once he was charged. He said if not for a Bellingham Herald article about Weathersby being charged, there wouldn’t be a record of what he did, which he thinks students have the right to know about if Weathersby will be returning again. Western does not release the names of students found to have violated the student conduct code for sexual misconduct, citing federal privacy law, or FERPA. However, FERPA contains a provision allowing schools to release the final results of disciplinary procedures (including the name of the perpetrator) for violent offenses or non-forcible sex offenses, if the institution finds that the student responsible.
8 • as.wwu.edu/asreview
Disability Awareness Week
Pickle-nick
BY GWEN FROST
This Wednesday, May 16, Students for Sustainable Food held a Picklenic on Old Main lawn! That’s right, a Picklenic. Or pickle-picnic for those out of touch with the lingo. Hosts Maddy Gehr and Emmaline Bigongiari discussed with attendees how animal agriculture relates to colonialism, both historically and today. Bigongiari brought up how veganism does not belong to white people, even though white veganism pretends that it does. The dozen attendees entered a discussion about how people can work to decolonize their diets. Over an array of pickle-macaroni salad, Gehr’s mom’s homemade pickles, hummus and schomrgasboard of other pickled treats, guests mingled discussing the political and societal consequences of the food we eat and where it comes from. In bringing about food justice, the topic of ending WWU’s relationship with Aramark and supporting farmworker justice both came into the event. Kyla Garlid asked the group about diet culture, feminized labor roles and what it means to be healthy. And then everyone learned an invaluable lesson: how to pickle red onions. This invaluable picnic Emmaline Bigongiari teach-in is a good example presents at Pickle-nick. of how learning could be; Hailey Hoffman // AS sitting on blankets in the Review grass with pickled goods and excellent listeners.
Pickle-nick brought together fermentation fans for a night of fun. Hailey Hoffman // AS Review