The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) hosted multiple open forums on March 6, 9 and 10 inviting staff members to share concerns and continue communications between the Board of Trustees (BoT) and faculty concerning the vote of no confidence and repairing the relationship between President Jim Wohlpart and faculty.
“The Faculty Senate Executive Committee has heard many questions/concerns from faculty and staff since the Board of Trustee’s email about securing an external consultant in response to the Vote of No Confidence,” the FSEC announced in an email to faculty the week leading up to the open forums. “We want to ensure that we hear from as many people as possible about current questions and concerns so that we can relay the themes and topics to the BoT Academic Affairs Committee next week.”
Multiple faculty members from different departments spoke at the March 6 forum, airing frustrations including feeling their vote was ignored by the BoT and the President, continued spending during a deficit and Wohlpart’s “zero accountability.” Multiple Executive Committee members were absent from the forum, including Chair Natashia Lindsey and Provost Patrick Pease.
The first to speak at the March 6 open forum was Senior Lecturer and Law and Justice Advisor Robert Claridge. “We must find ways to encourage and support a demoralized faculty … we will ultimately need to make difficult decisions regarding university leadership,” Claridge said. “We will either have to replace
FACULTY EXPRESS
WITH PRESIDENT WOHLPART, BOARD OF TRUSTEES FRUSTRATION FRUSTRATION
IN OPEN FORUMS, FACULTY REFLECT ON WOHLPART’S RESPONSE, REMOVAL OF DEI, FEMALE FACULTY.
the university president or find ways to repair and heal years of dysfunction, broken trust and suspicion, either of course, will prove extraordinarily challenging … In the week since the result of the vote became public, neither the president or other members of the administration have publicly addressed the vote or even recognized that one has occurred.”
Claridge went on to voice his support and reiterate the severity of the vote of no confidence. “The vote was a great expression of faculty concern, undertaken seriously and supported broadly as a measure of last resort. The vote was made necessary by a continued dismissal of faculty voice,” Claridge said. “Over the course of years, the water has been brought to a boil, and the temperature continues to rise. Trying to put a lid on the pot will only close it to boil over. University leadership needs to express clearly that the vote of no confidence is an appropriate and legitimate expression of faculty discontents and take it seriously. The faculty have spoken.”
During the forum, Professor of History and Former Interim Dean, College of Arts and Humanities Jason Knirck spoke about his history of working with the university’s leadership. “I was on the Dean’s council. One of my experiences that I took away from that was that, and I’m trying not to personalize this, but let’s say, the ‘very highest leadership’ had difficulty admitting when something didn’t work. We had a billion initiatives, and when they didn’t work, they just got dropped. And then we were never able to have a sort of honest post mortem of why this didn’t work or why that didn’t work. And honestly, that
came from the top,” Knirck said.
Knirck recalled Wohlpart’s email that was sent to the Faculty Senate the day before the vote of no confidence, stating the email “was zero accountability, zero even bogus statements of ‘I’m learning from this.’ It was an attack on people for spreading misinformation and lying, it was an attack on the processes of the Senate, and it was an attempt to make the highest paid, most powerful person in the administration into a victim. And it spoke to me of a person who, in the quite literal terms, doesn’t have confidence in the outcome of mediation. There was no responsibility there.”
Knirck continued, “I’m very pessimistic, in addition to the concerns of the money being spent on it, about the outcome of mediation, because that email, to me, closed some doors.”
It was an attack on the processes of the Senate, and it was an attempt to make the highest paid, most powerful person in the administration into a victim.” “
A common complaint found during the forum was the BoT spending money on an outside consultant at a time where the university is under constraints of a deficit. “The decision to spend more money on consultants, after one of the criticisms of this administration was excessive spending on consultants, was a disappointing one,” Claridge said at the March 6 open forum.
March 12, 2026
Parker Wood & Kyley Glenn
LETTER from the EDITOR
I have had an insane, crazy and way too jam packed couple of weeks. The Observer, of course, is a part of that craziness, but at this point, it’s the structure that I look forward to the most. And as part of that structure, I took on a couple more deep dive and scene stories this week, tapping back to my own roots at this paper which was really enjoyable for me.
Also worth noting, this our last issue of the quarter, which means you’ll have to return in Spring to see what we’ve been working on for the next issues to come. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of developments over spring break on a variety of campus issues, and even if there aren’t we’ll be there to cover that as well. So enjoy this issue, and enjoy this quarter’s latest PULSE issue as well, which should be on stands by the time this Observer is!
Issue 5 Recap
News this week a little bit of everything. On front we have some further coverage following the vote of no confidence against President Wohlpart, as responses from the BoT and Wohlpart himself face criticism from faculty across campus. We also have stories about the Ellensburg community, Black history in The Observer
and more to be read online.
Scene also saw its first couple re-entrys into our print issue this week, with stories covering the MCC’s a Taste of Soul, Theatre’s Twelfth Night and CWU’s own Mock Trial team. All of these stories are great reads, and I truly think our scene coverage this week offers a little bit of something for everyone.
We also have two opinion stories this week, one that I wrote and one written by our Scene Editor Ethan. If you’re a fan of Hip-Hop, rejoice, because Sound Bite is back! At the same time, fans of Prime Video’s “THE BOYS” should check out Ethan’s theories about the final season and what’s to come.
Last but certainly not least, we have to talk about this week’s design. We have really fun, interesting and informational designs throughout this issue. Our amazing team of designers has worked hard to put together a really good issue, and I can’t wait for you all to flip through it!
looking scary. (Photo courtesy of Kyley Glenn)
Department of English and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program Senior Lecturer A.I. Ross also spoke about the spending. “Their decision to retain an outside consultant seems dismissive of faculty’s concerns that led to the overwhelming vote of no confidence in President Wohlpart altogether, and comes across as financially irresponsible at this time of budgetary strain, when our university cannot even offer enough sections of general education courses,” Ross said.
Changes in DEI Language
In early 2025, the Department of Education worked in line with the executive orders of the Trump Administration to terminate DEI offices on a college level. It was also expected of universities to remove any language that was considered to be part of “harmful Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.”
“What we have been doing is in compliance with federal and state law,” Wohlpart said in a 2025 interview with The Observer. “We don’t exclude people, we don’t segregate people, we don’t stereotype people, all of which is listed in the Dear Colleague letter, so we feel confident that the path we have gone down is one that fits with federal and state law.”
CWU’s mission, vision and values statements were further altered to remove all reference to DEI language.
A person who identified themselves as a faculty member reached out anonymously to The Observer via text message on Tuesday, stating, “Myself and others typically have no problem going on the record. But given the current situation, there’s a lot of trepidation.”
The anonymous faculty member stated they spoke with former employees with the goal of accurately reflecting their experiences following the removal of DEI language and sharing them with The Observer. “DEI, then Equity and Belonging, were a priority at CWU from at least 2015 onward under former President Gaudino, with a rapid expansion in 2020 … Until the hasty closure of the office of DEI, which seems to be attributed to one administrator’s choice and one student quote,” the faculty member alleged.
“CWU had robust DEI options that touched everyday life for students, faculty and staff, from curriculum options, to employee research groups, to training to certifications. We were on track to truly become a model of equity and belonging,” the faculty member claimed. “With the change in federal administration and anti-DEI policies, CWU became a model of how to rapidly dissolve equity and belonging with no clear plan, rather than find ways to ensure the work already done wouldn’t be erased or forgotten.”
The source continued, claiming the changes to the school’s DEI initiatives “eroded trust.”
“Multiple women and BIPOC faculty in particular shared experiences of being dismissed, contradicted, minimized, demeaned, talked over and ultimately gaslit by the president and upper administration,” the faculty member further alleged in the text interview. “While faculty and the BoT keep getting told that we now have the most diverse slate of administrators at the executive level, we have lost Native, Black, LGBT and older women (including older, 50+ BIPOC women) who used to operate at that level, many of whom felt forced out or used as scapegoats for the loss of momentum on projects.”
The original faculty-backed petition that led to the vote of no confidence detailed that, “in our experience, we have found President Wohlpart’s interactions with faculty to be condescending, defensive and closed to feedback. We’re especially concerned about his interactions with women and faculty of color.”
Attrition of Women in Leadership Positions
The faculty-backed petition also stated that concern was raised about the treatment of women at the administrative level during a “Faculty Senate meeting on Nov. 1, 2023, when a faculty member (a former CWU provost) brought forth a concern about the high number of women in leadership who had, at that time, left CWU, requesting, ‘Senior leadership needs to work better to understand why we lost these valuable women of our community and how can we do better in the future.’”
Hope Amason, Department of Anthropology and Museum Studies Associate Professor, elaborated on the petitioner’s concerns about the attrition of women in leadership positions at CWU in an email exchange on March 5 with The Observer, stating, “For example, a few years ago, among the academic leadership team consisting of the Provost, Associate Provosts, and Deans, there were 7 women and only 3 men. Today, this same group comprises 3 women and 7 men. Importantly, for many years the provost and associate provosts were all female; now they are all male.”
Amason continued to detail further examples of women who have left leadership positions at CWU, stating, “Additionally, we (the petitioners) know of women leaders (both in administration and faculty) who have left the institution in recent years: [the] Vice President for Inclusivity and Diversity Kandee Cleary (an emeritus faculty who is also a petitioner) and Provost Michelle DenBeste are among those,” Amason said. “Moreover, as the letter points out, there are public records that show how this concern has been brought up to the Faculty Senate as a ‘faculty issue.’”
FACULTY EXPRESS FRUSTRATION WITH PRESIDENT WOHLPART, BOARD OF TRUSTEES READ PULSE
“As part of the process for addressing ‘faculty issues,’ Faculty Senate leadership
brought these concerns to administration … therefore, administration must have known that there were worries about the marginalization of women and BIPOC women specifically,” Amason continued in the email.
Amason also stated that programs like the Diversity Advocate Program have been discontinued, alleging, “I suspect that this is because, now that we no longer have a VP of Equity and Belonging, there are not structures or support frameworks for making important things like that happen when we do a search for a new position. The decision to no longer have that VP position was made last year.”
Wohlpart’s Response to the Vote of No Confidence
The Observer was able to ask Wohlpart a question during the quarterly Presidential Fireside chat on Feb. 25, where he joined student body President Hondo Acosta-Vega in the SURC Pit to give students a chance to converse with the leaders about CWU.
In response to a question about his own personal next steps following the vote of no confidence, Wohlpart stated, “That’s one of those places where there’s a ton of self reflection, looking in the mirror, thinking, ‘How do we get here? Where are we? What are the next steps?’ What I’m doing is a lot of listening, reaching out on these things, and I’m listening,” Wohlpart said.
“[I’m doing] a lot of self-reflection on what has happened and how we make sure that we come back together. What I would say is that this institution is a great institution, and we’ve got to come together to make sure we’re putting students first and thinking about the way in which we kick down those barriers so that those students succeed. It’s an interesting time for the history of Central, to think about how we can do things better or different,” Wohlpart continued.
The Observer reached out to Associate Director of Strategic Communications, David Leder, by email on March 2, asking if either the BoT or Wohlpart planned to release any further public statements regarding the vote of no confidence in the coming week. Leder stated that The Observer should not “expect any more public statements over the next week.”
Claridge referenced Wohlpart’s fireside chat response to the vote of no confidence during the Faculty Senate’s March 6 open forum. “He spoke in a reflection and trotted out the shady leadership aphorisms about windows and mirrors. To my knowledge, during this process, he has never once attempted to meet, throughout his conversations, with either petitioners, FSEC or Senate, as the primary faculty shared governance [...],” Claridge said. “I know something about leadership and I can tell you that leadership is not about actors. It’s not about hierarchy. It does not happen from the balcony. Leadership happens where the people you lead are.”
State Mandated Climate Laws INCREASE HOUSING PRICES IN ELLENSBURG
Meisner Dunlap Staff Reporter
Ellensburg’s mayor claimed statemandated climate resilience rules, coupled with fire, flood and heat hazards, are putting a pinch on consumers. The statements came during an email interview with The Observer immediately before a town hall meeting on Feb. 2.
The climate law, established in 2019, requires every city in Washington to create a plan to take better care of the environment.
High Housing Prices
The city is working to provide resources to address Ellensburg’s affordable housing crisis while complying with state-mandated regulations. Warehouse worker and delivery driver Scott Sanders said he lives in this crisis every day.
Sanders spent nearly nine months seeking a new home. He said he lost everything after
A NEW STATE BILL MAY PROVIDE RELIEF
legislature recently responded to those high building costs by giving contractors options to work around climate regulations to help make homes more affordable for people like Sanders.
In January 2026, the 69th Legislature of the State of Washington passed a bill of climate regulations to the House (House Bill 2486).
The bill should allow contractors to appeal to the state court for exceptions to certain climate regulations that prevent them from building homes in an economically feasible way.
Business experts say the five Ls, which are labor, land, laws, lending and lumber, are the primary supply-side factors that drive up housing costs; it is not a single person or group that is increasing the cost of housing.
To answer additional questions about the increased housing prices, Ellensburg Building Official Chuck Doan gave The
Washington, but are still substantial. The document lists the base cost as $392,430.
Councilmember Nancy Lillquist defined resilience as “how we are going to adapt to a warming climate and still maintain our quality of life as a community.”
“I would add looking into what additional measures we can take as individuals and as a community to better use our resources so they have a better longevity,” Rebecca Springer, the water resources manager for the city of Ellensburg, said.
The city stated they are trying to provide resources to solve the affordable housing crisis while still obeying statemandated regulations.
When Sanders finally bought a trailer in Wilson Creek, it went way above his income level. “When I went and bought that place, my bills ended up just barely breaking even,” Sanders said. “I’m struggling for anything else. I’m struggling
‘TASTE OF SOUL’ ‘TASTE OF SOUL’
Multicultural Center brings a INTO ITS BLACK HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATION
Meisner Dunlap Staff Reporter
Sociology student Darrayl Warren went to his first cultural event during his first special dinner at Holmes Dining, not knowing what to expect. He said he felt a sense of belonging at the event because it symbolized and honored his Black heritage.
“There were extremely diverse cultures, sharing some of the same meals together, people sitting here conversing from all parts of the world,” Warren said. “Food is a major part when it comes to the culture of Black people. I thought they displayed that extremely well here with the dishes that they have.”
The Multicultural Center (MCC) brought a ‘taste of soul’ to campus to honor the richness of Black culture and celebrate the conclusion of Black History Month.
In collaboration with Dining Services, the MCC, along with the Black Student Union (BSU), the THRIVE Affinity Group and the Men of Color Affinity Group (MOCA), hosted their annual Taste of Soul Partnership dinner in the Holmes dining room. The event ran from 5-8 p.m.
A Southern-Style Dinner
Taste of Soul allowed participants to eat foods from various cultures. The menu included skewered shrimp and cheesy grits, crispy fried chicken, southern-style baked mac and cheese, cornbread muffins with honey butter, baby back ribs, vegetarian baked beans, slow-cooked collard greens with smoked onion, sweet potato pie with whipped cream, potato salad, iceberg lettuce salad and mixed melon and grapes.
“My favorite dish is the mac and cheese, all hands down, but the barbecue ribs were really great, too,” SURC Executive Chef and Campus Sous Chef Dayna Oyarzo said. “We made them nice and slow in the oven for about four-and-ahalf hours, and then we made some nice barbecue sauce to go with it.”
“We put a southern flair on [the mac and cheese] and we added some bread crumbs and we spiced up the cheese sauce a little bit so it had some Creole flavors to it,” Oyarzo continued.
BSU chose the menu items and Dining prepared the menu items as they would traditionally be consumed in Black culture.
“That partnership [between Dining and students in MCC organizations] is getting stronger and it allows that line of communication to be open and we’re flexible,” Dustin Atkinson, the assistant director overseeing the Student Union dining operation and 1891 catering, said.
“As we’re preparing the food, if [the student event organizers] want to come in and do taste
testing, we let them come in and try things out. If we need to tweak any recipes, we tweak recipes so it is a true representation of their culture,” Atkinson continued.
Black History Month Lesson
The celebration began with a brief history lesson by Lashaya Doty, the student program coordinator for the MCC.
“Black History Month is an annual observance in the United States, Canada and other countries, dedicated to celebrating the achievements and contributions of Black people throughout history, Doty said. “It originated from the efforts of historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in Chicago during the summer of 1915.”
“Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington, D.C., to participate in a national celebration of the
50th anniversary of an emancipation sponsored by the state of Illinois,” Doty continued. “Inspired by this movement celebration, Woodson decided to form an organization for both the scientific study of Black life and history.”
Games
After Doty’s lecture, BSU led a song association game, which especially impressed Warren. “I like the way they collaborated with the crowd and getting them involved in trying to solve what the actual next words of the song was going to be, bringing people together,” Warren said. “I thought that was pretty amazing.”
Warren’s favorite song in the game was “Hot in Here” by Nelly. Warren said he likes Nelly because “he’s a southern boy from St. Louis. I like his style of hip-hop.”
Next came a Black History Month-themed Kahoot. Then, a group of students played Uno, another table played War and a third group played Dominoes, while all the other participants in the room sat and ate their food.
The event concluded with a line dancing lesson. “Line dancing has been around for a long time,” MCC Director Mal Stewman said. “Black culture has created some unique ones that are relevant to our culture and songs. I think they even used to include R&B [rhythm and blues] songs, including Black songs. It’s kind of fun to do things that are more relevant.”
What Is BSU?
According to BSU Development Coordinator Dina Lako, one of the purposes of Taste of Soul was to let the community know more about BSU and the MCC.
“If anyone is interested in joining BSU, we meet every Thursday from 5-7 p.m. in the Multicultural Center in Black Hall,” BSU Secretary Imani McClain said.
BSU President Rishe Pierre added that everyone is welcome to join BSU, regardless of their identity or background. “We offer a space for students of all races, all colors, no matter what you are, we offer a space for you to find community and have a good time,” Pierre said.
BSU Event Coordinator Temidayo Brown added that Taste of Soul allowed people of all backgrounds to learn more about Black History Month as the annual observance came to a close.
“Black History Month, to me, is more of a chance to celebrate not only our ancestors that came before us and their sacrifices, but also what we, as the present Black population, can do to further educate other people about our culture, as well as building our own culture and movements surrounding Black history,” Brown said.
Brown said they felt that Taste of Soul was a successful event this year. “Everyone’s having fun in their own ways. I feel like everyone’s enjoying the food and they’re learning more,” Brown said. “I feel like it’s a good chance for everyone to sit with their friends, talk and hang out, as well as hear about Black culture. I feel like we did get a good turnout again.”
Stewman estimated that a total of about 400 guests showed up at the event, including students and faculty of all races.
Upcoming MCC Events
Women’s History Month occurs every March. To start that observance, the MCC will host a kickoff celebration on Thursday, March 5, in the late afternoon. More information about specific Women’s History Month events will be found on the MCC’s Instagram page.
Soul Food Plates.
(Photo courtesy of SoulBowls)
BSU at ‘Food for Soul.’ (Photo courtesy of Meisner Dunlap)
THE OBSERVER'S BLACK HISTORY IN A CHRONICLE OF RACISM AND
Following the ending of Black History Month 2026, The Observer dove into our own archives, which are public access on the CWU ScholarWorks page, to chronicle the legacy of Black Voices in student media, starting in the 1920s and ending in contemporary times. What was found in that chronicle, was a history of racism, prejudice and an ever changing student body that almost always mirrored the views of its time.
The Observer has been active on the CWU campus for over 110 years at this point, and its history is as long and complex as the campus itself. The societal racism prevalent in the early decades of The Observer was often reflected in its headlines, coverage and lack thereof surrounding Black Voices on campus.
The following is a chronicle of The Observer’s history covering Black voices at CWU, a chronicle of the Black students and artists who broke through the noise, and despite the immense racism in the media during their respective times at CWU, made their way into the headlines.
The 1920s
In the 1920s, The Observer had just begun printing, and at that time, was simply titled the “Student Opinion.” This era of The Observer’s history featured very little to no coverage of Black voices in the Ellensburg community.
The Observer in this era also prominently featured a recurring “humor” column, the logo of which was a racist caricature of a man in Black face. February 15, 1928 offered some of the only coverage of any minority communities in Ellensburg that The Observer could find. The coverage was titled, “Delightful Program Celebrates Negro Week,” and the story indicated the first time any Black history had been publicly discussed at CWU thus far, reading, “Negro History Week was designated by the Federated Colored Women’s Clubs of Washington, in order to spur on negro youth to further advancement.”
The 1930s
Similar to the 1920s, The Observer’s legacy in the 1930s, during which time the publication would be called the “Campus Crier,” was riddled with racism in both its style and coverage.
Illustrations featuring Black face and racist caricatures were prevalent during this era, and headlines such as “Unusually Good N---- Singers to Appear here” perpetuated racist stereotypes of the time.
It was during the 1930’s, however, that various guest Black performers were covered by The Observer for the first time, something that would become a prominent trend through the decades to come. It was also during this decade that Black performers joining CWU’s choir were mentioned for the first time in the press.
The 1940s
Black students at CWU were explicitly mentioned for the first time in the 1940s in the student press, with two students being recognized in a column then titled “Collectania.”
Edith Robertson was mentioned in print on Nov. 19, 1942. Based on research, her name was one of the first of any Black students at CWU to ever make it to print.
She was mentioned in a column for her post graduate success, with the column stating that she “[had] been appointed to a teaching fellowship at Hampton Institute, famous school for Negroes in Virginia. She will enroll as a graduate student and teach part time during the coming year.”
Similarly, in 1944, Gilbert L. Baker was mentioned by name for his post graduate success. His mention also marked one of the first times that a Black athlete at CWU was mentioned by name in the paper. His goal, the column states, was to “be assigned to an overseas Negro bomber unit so he can record by camera Negro combat flying.”
The 1950s
The 1950s saw a massive boom in coverage of Black students, culture and influence by The Observer, still the “Campus Crier” at the time.
There were also numerous articles detailing local “minstrel shows” which reflected the racism existent in the broader CWU community at the time.
During the 1950s, CWU was host to a variety of guest Black artists on campus, and the subsequent articles by student media led to some of the earliest coverage of “African American” culture at CWU.
Guest performers of this decade included the likes of American jazz pianist and composer, Count Basie, the “Wings Over Jordan” choir and American operatic soprano Camilla Williams.
It was also during the 1950s that the first photos of Black student athletes at CWU began regularly being published in print, marking a major turning point in the campus's sports coverage to that point. Bob Spearman, who played on Central's Football team at the time, regularly graced the pages of this era, laying the groundwork for much sports coverage to come. Feb. 15, 1928 Nov. 19, 1942 Feb. 28, 1958
OBSERVER'S IN THE HEADLINES AND A FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
The 1960s
The 1960s began an era of Civil Rights protests nationwide, and in the years that followed its inception, The Observer’s headlines were defined by major shifts in coverage and perspective on the Black student body at CWU.
Multiple influential Black speakers and activists made Observer headlines during this era of CWU’s history. Notably, Stokely Carmichael, one of the original Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Riders of 1961 and a defining figure of the Civil Rights movement, spoke on campus about the movement on April 7, 1961. That coverage appeared to be the first major instance of Civil Rights coverage by The Observer.
But it was not the last, as the subsequent years would feature editorials, columns, speakers, protests and more coverage of Civil Rights and Black student rights at CWU than any other decade to date.
In 1967, the words “Black Power” were printed at CWU for the first time in line with an on-campus debate that was hosted about the phrase. Similarly, local business Jerrols started taking out ads in the late 1960’s promoting their new collection of literature surrounding Black Studies, marking a major educational shift of the era.
It is worth noting, however, another major headline during this era. On Jan. 27, 1967, an article was published titled “Rockwell Amuses, Provokes, Angers.” The Rockwell in reference was George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, who had been invited to host a talk to a full house in McConnell Auditorium earlier that week.
October 29, 1965
Feb. 21, 1969
The 1970s
The 1970s marked the largest turning point in coverage surrounding Black voices and Black students at CWU so far, with headlines detailing major changes in policy, education and the end of the use of the N-word to refer to Black students in articles.
During this era, CWU was host to various guest speakers. Notably in 1970 was the visit of three Black Panthers, who spoke to the campus about "revolutionizing the people.”
Also at the end of that year, The Observer, still in that era called the “Campus Crier,” published a full front page protest issue. The front page simply featured a large Black Power fist with the word, “STRIKE!” printed in bold letters underneath.
May 8, 1970
In 1971, the Associated Students of Central voted to approve funding for Black Week, a major addition to the campus's celebration of its Black students. Black Week would soon be replaced federally by Black History Month.
But during the 1970s there was one name that appeared far more than any others of this era at CWU, and that was Ronald “Ron” C. Sims. Sims would make history in 1970 as the first Black student body president at CWU, and his time in power would prove instrumental to the beginning of a long restructuring and rebuilding of CWU’s various programs around ideas of equality and equity that are still pervasive today.
The Observer chronicled Sims’ journey in length, both pre and post win, although it's worth noting that The Observer, during his campaign, deemed him an “extreme underdog” in nearly every reference to him up until his win.
The 1980s to Today
The work that Ron Sims and his contemporaries did in the 1970s laid the groundwork for the campus that students walk on today. In the 1980s, headlines and articles discussing issues of racism, discrimination and social progress became more frequent as did articles covering Black culture and the growth of the Black student body at CWU.
During this era, programs like “Ethnic Studies” grew exponentially, eventually diverging into the various programs CWU has on campus today. In the late 1990s, CWU had its first ever Black President, Ivory V. Nelson. And throughout the 1980s and the decades that have followed, CWU has been host to numerous Black activists and voices, continuing the legacy of the guest speakers who pioneered that activism in the 1960s and beyond.
CWU now has vast and ever changing student groups and cultural centers on campus. CWU’s BSU hosts events pretty much every week and hosted a variety of events planned to be fun and educational over the course of this year's Black History Month.
May 5, 1967
Central Theatre’s latest production,
Twelfth Night, is in full swing
Brandon Mattesich Editor-In-Chief
“T
welfth Night” is Central Theatre’s latest production and, with a few successful showings behind it, the team is prepping for their next couple shows which will run this upcoming Friday the 13th through Sunday the 15th.
The production is a modern take on a William Shakespeare classic. It follows a comedy structure of hijinks and mistaken identity and involves a large cast of both first time and returning actors to the Central Stage.
Tristan Powell, a junior film major minoring in theatre, shared his biggest challenges and hopes with being on the production. “My initial reaction was excitement to finally be back in a play,” Powell said. “And to make it into a CWU production for the first time!”
“For me personally, this is my first time playing an understudy role,” Powell continued. “It was difficult to learn the lines and blocking of my minor primary role, Valentine, while also learning the huge amount of lines and blocking for my understudy role, Orsino. Lines are also harder to learn without having done the blocking yourself. But I was able to watch Dorian play Orsino most rehearsal days, and work with the other understudies to get a better idea of how to perform this role with very little rehearsal.”
Twelfth Night also features old-English dialogue, mainly unchanged from the time when Shakespeare wrote the original production. Powell
CWU Mock Trial team secures historic success
Brandon Mattesich Editor-In-Chief
For the first time in the history of the club, the CWU Mock Trial team has qualified for the Opening Round Champion ship Series (ORCS), and will be flying to Phoenix Arizona to compete. In a “historic” success at a regional competition in Seattle, the team won multiple awards, with a 6-2 record and three individual awards team members Jack Pratapas, Aidyn Sanders and Nathaniel Arango.
described this dialogue as both a blessing, and a curse, stating, “The diction can be rather hard to say, remember and understand at times. But on the other hand, once you really make the lines your own, they can be some of the most fun to perform.”
In a press release, Head Coach and Senior Lecturer R. Shaffer Claridge spoke on the success of the team, stating, “This is the best year we have had as a program. Obviously the highlight is qualifying for the Opening Round Championship Series, but we also had a historically successful invitational season, including a second-place finish at the Gonzaga tournament.”
“I’ve always said that CWU is one of the premier mock trial programs in the pacific northwest,” Claridge continued. “We now have results to support that. It’s no longer strictly a matter of opinion.”
The Mock Trial team’s President, Dana Culley, who is double majoring in both Law & Justice and Psychology, spoke on how her experience on the team has opened doors for her both socially and at the college level.
“My experience on the CWU Mock Trial Team has been fruitful in the sense that it has opened many new doors for me,” Culley said. “I have found friendship, career opportunities and interpersonal skills that are of value at every point in life. The people here are truly the most loving, supportive and intelligent people on campus. As a team, we have motivated each other to succeed at things we never thought would be possible.”
whether or not we get a bid to Opening Round Championship Series,” Culley said. “Every single person has put so much work and love into this club, it is a fact that there is no other team in the country like us.” Jay Retterer, a sophomore art major minoring in law and justice, talked about how much the team has helped them learn. “I have learned how to trust myself more often, stand my ground and think critically about what I’m saying, alongside memorization tools and teamwork,” Retterer said. “Learning I can lean on my fellow members even on a bad day. As well as learning that winning isn’t the point, it’s the skills gained, which is a little funny to say as one of our teams goes to ORCS.”
Another team member, Serenity Hendricks, a sophomore majoring in law & justice and psychology, also spoke on how being on the team has affected them. “It has been this amazing experience where I first walked in scared but was welcomed with this wonderful community who really did show me what it was to love not only what you do but who you do it with,” Hendricks said. “No matter how many times I felt unsure or scared, the members of this club always picked me back up again and reminded me that it was truly something I was capable of and something I could achieve.”
Two actors working a Tweflth Night scene. (Photo by Brandon Mattesich)
(Photo courtesy of Envato)
Ethan Kennedy Columnist
Amazon Prime’s “THE BOYS” is gearing up to release its fifth and final season, with the first two episodes set to air April 6. Created by Erik Kripke and produced by Seth Rogan, “THE BOYS” is loosely based off a comic run of the same title, co-created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.
The series follows main characters Hughie, played by Jack Quaid, and Billy Butcher, played by Karl Urban, as they form a team to take down corrupt superheroes created by the fictional conglomerate known as Vought. The most unhinged and diabolical “hero” being Homelander, played by Antony Starr, who plans to overthrow Vought and eventually the government to put superpowered individuals (supes) in charge.
Though the show has diverged a great deal from the graphic novels, a trailer released for season five hints at plot points relevant to the end of the comics. The titles for each episode were released as well, with the second to last being “The Frenchman, The Female, and the Man Called
Mother’s Milk,” alluding to members of the central team.
Comic Ending Comparison
It is not certain if the show will follow the comics, given how vastly different the universes are at this point, as there are different characters entirely on both ends. The character Kimiko, played by Karen Fukuhara, was never named in the comics, only referred to as “The Female.”
In the graphic novels, Homelander leads an army of corrupt supes to the White House, ultimately claiming his seat in the Oval Office. Promotional material for season five shows Homelander in the Oval Office. The character is known to daydream however, infamously shredding through a crowd with his laser vision only to reveal it was all in his head.
Off-brand Superman meets his demise in the comics when the character Black Noir reveals himself to be a clone, who is then killed by
Butcher shortly after. The show departs heavily from this story line, having Black Noir be his own character. The show kills off the character in season three, and passes the title to an inexperienced unknown. Both versions are played by Nathan Mitchell, as the character remains masked and silent for the majority of the series.
The Frenchman or Frenchie and Mother’s Milk (MM), portrayed in the show by Tomer Capon and Laz Alonso respectively, along with The Female met their end at the hands of their own leader Billy Butcher, after trying to stop him from killing every superpowered individual on the planet. With how unhinged Butcher has gotten in the show, and the aforementioned episode title, things are not looking good for our main cast.
The character Soldier Boy, played by Jensen Ackles, is returning for the fifth season, a stark contrast to the character being offed by Butcher not even halfway through the comic run. Ackles co-star on “Supernatural,” Jared Padalecki, is joining the cast... (Cont. Online)
Brandon Mattesich Columnist
If you guys haven’t noticed, I haven’t written a Sound Bite for quite some time. Mainly, it’s because I just haven’t really had the time, but also, it’s because for the past few months there really hasn’t been that much music that I felt the need to write about, that was, until I heard “Ca$ino” by Baby Keem the night it dropped. Because that night, I heard an album better than everything I had ever dreamed of when I hit play. That night, although I didn’t know for sure until a few re-listens later, I heard a masterpiece.
Baby Keem’s “Ca$ino” is an eleven-track, thirty-seven-minute musical feast that takes you to the highest highs and lowest lows, all while bending genre and redefining the artist that is Baby Keem. It is simultaneously one of the most emotionally vulnerable albums I’ve heard in the rap scene, as well as one of the most boisterous and entertaining feats of hip-hop, pop, r&b, rock and pretty much everything you can think of. Baby Keem, very literally, laid his deck of cards out flat
for this album, bet it all on black, and hit arguably the biggest jackpot of his career.
It’s important to look at this album as a deeply personal project for Keem, especially on the tracks like “No Security,” “No Blame,” “Highway 95 pt.2” and others that define the tone of much of this album. These tracks, combined with the documentary that was released leading up to the album’s debut, created a very similar feel to me as Kendrick Lamar’s “Mr. Morale,” just in the sense that it is such a deeply personal and reflective project than Baby Keem’s prior entries to date.
Add to that, that every single song on this album, even the deeply depressing ones, which I might add, are deeply depressing, hit’s like a nuclear blast. This album’s most energetic moments, “Ca$ino” and “Circus Circus Free$tyle,” will have you moshing even with nobody else around.
But despite the fact that every single song on this album kicks like crazy, there are still clear standouts for me for my personal favorites. Specifically, “Birds & the Bees,” “Circus Circus
Free$tyle” and “Dramatic Girl” are three songs that I think deserve so much love, and have near infinite replayability.
“Birds & the Bees”
I play this song on loop, daily, and every single Saturday since it came out. This song pumps me up, it gets me happy, it gets me in a perfect headspace, and it is genuinely one of the catchiest bumps I’ve heard this year. I cannot recommend this track enough, it is by far the standout of the album to me at least for replayability.
“Circus Circus Free$tyle”
This track, at least performance wise, is arguably the most impressive feat of Baby Keem’s career thus far. When I first heard this track opening night, I genuinely thought it had features on it, it sounded like a posse cut. But what I would come to realise halfway through the song, is that Baby Keem is just jumping through voices on this track like he’s getting possessed by spirits.
In this track I hear Kendrick, I hear Old Keem, New Keem... (Cont. Online)
Designed by Z Morris
Divined by Ethan Kennedy
Aries (March 21 - April 19): Maximum Pulse! Jarvis, give them hell. Get beamed, fire the missiles. You can fly yet you stay still in the middle of the air? Your Marvel Rivals character: Iron Man.
Taurus (April 20 - May 20): Don’t Mess With the Amazing Spider-Man! Thwip, lmao get yanked off the map. All you do is B-hop and swing around. Your Marvel Rivals character: Spider-Man.
Gemini (May 21 - June 20): Behold The God of Thunder! You only have one team up ability and it goes severely underused. Your Marvel Rivals character: Thor.
Cancer (June 21 - July 22): It’s Clobberin’ Time! My favorite time. Just make sure to do more than just punch, you have other abilities. Your Marvel Rivals character: The Thing.
Leo (July 23 - Aug. 22): Feel the Wrath of the Goddess! Some people say you’re stronger than Thor himself. Just PLEASE wait until Jeff has his ult. Your Marvel Rivals character: Storm.
Virgo (Aug. 23 - Sep. 22): Born Again! Relax bud, just cause you can fly now doesn’t mean- nevermind… have fun. Your Marvel Rivals character: Adam Warlock.
Libra (Sep. 23 - Oct. 22): Fantastic! I know you get sad when Namor is on the battlefield. I’m pretty sure you could fill the tank roll if yo u wanted to. Your Marvel Rivals character: Mr. Fantastic.
Scorpio (Oct. 23 - Nov. 21): The Moon Haunts You! Konshu guides me. The moon is pretty cool if you think about it. I mean it’s the greatest thing there is, the moon. Moon. Your Marvel Rivals character: Moon Knight.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 21): Behold: Darkchild! You know Anya Taylor-joy played her in the New Mutants movie, underrated for real. Your Marvel Rivals character: Magik.
Capricorn (Dec. 22 - Jan.19): Qi Guan Chang Hong! Nope, it’s not Danny Rand. Hold up, lemme meditate mid battle. Your Marvel Rivals character: Iron Fist.
Aquarius (Jan. 20 - Feb.18): I Release the Vishantis’ Power! With one portal you can make every PS4 on the server crash. Make sure you release the darkness. Your Marvel Rivals character: Dr. Strange.
Pisces (Feb. 20 - March 20): NOM NOM NOM! You got any bubbles? Please? PLEASE? PLEASE I NEED HEALS. NO DON’T SPIT ME OFF THE MAP! Your Marvel Rivals character: Jeff the Land Shark.
7 p.m. to 8 p.m. - Jurassic Park
5 p.m. - WBB vs Montana State BillingsNational Championships | Nicholson Pav
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8 a.m. to 4 p.m. - Grant Writing Workshop | RSVP Online
3 p.m. to 5 p.m. - CWU Libraries presents Paws & Relax | The Attic
