Whitman Pioneer Spring 2013 Issue 9 Feature

FEATURE

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Photos by Bernstein

In the

DRIVER’S SEAT Students find freedom through cars

by Emily Williams Staff Reporter

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enior Shannon McCarty is very accustomed to the 274 mile trek from Walla Walla to Seattle. She has been driving to and from school since the second semester of her sophomore year, filling her big SUV with other Seattle-bound friends, some extra gas money and a lot of luggage.

McCarty decided to bring a car to school because her family wasn’t using it and it made transportation to and from Whitman a whole lot easier. In addition to transportation to and from school, McCarty also finds that having a car allows for spontaneity and adventures.

“It’s very convenient to not worry about asking someone if I want to go somewhere; if I want to go somewhere spur of the mo-

ment I can and that’s nice,” said McCarty. “If I want to go just way out somewhere, sometimes just going for a drive with someone, not really knowing where I’m going to go, just driving for a while and then just stopping and sitting and looking because it’s really beautiful out here.”

For McCarty, the car means escape from the confines of Whitman College.

“It’s really nice to get outside of campus because campus is beautiful but it can kind of get to be a little bit constricting and it’s nice to go out to the open spaces and see the things that are there, watch the sunset or just going on some random adventure, just taking roads and seeing where they take you,” she said.

In addition, McCarty likes not having to depend on other people for a ride home.

“It makes it a lot less stressful before breaks. I don’t have to worry about reserving a ride with someone in advance because I just drive myself, but it also can be burdensome when things go wrong with the car or just always having to drive,” she said.

According the McCarty, having a car comes with the responsibility of always driving for different events around town or even out of town.

“Sometimes it just gets tiring always having to drive,” she said.

McCarty is glad that she didn’t have a car her freshman year because she feels that it would have been too much of a burden, but Freshman Kevin Obey thinks having a car his freshman year has opened many door for him.

While McCarty hails from nearby western Washington, Obey hails from New York. He got his

CAR spotlight After spending last semester repairing his car, Steven Klutho ‘13 and his ‘74-ish Volkswagen Beetle are now taking to the streets and driving around town. After driving his orange automobile to the library, he gave The Pioneer the grand tour of his car—new engine and all.

car as a graduation gift, brought it because he wanted to be able to go off campus and have his own adventures, and started off his freshman year adventure with a 2,870 mile road trip with his dad from New York to Whitman.

“I think that was possibly one of the best experiences we’ve had. I mean, it’s not very often that it’s just two people in a car, just 2870 miles, sitting there talking,” said Obey.

Obey’s favorite part of having a car, like McCarty, is the ability to be spontaneous. Obey, who didn’t go home over Thankgiving or spring break, used his car to road trip around the Pacific Northwest with a group of friends.

“I want to be able to stay here, and instead of feeling trapped on campus, this is enabling me to be here and enjoy it, and enjoy more than just the go-

Car Soundbites: “Albert Schueller, the math professor and my advisor, inspired me to get a bug because he got one a couple of summers ago with his daughter and they converted it into an electric car. So I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s awesome,’ that it would be really cool to do.”

“I found it on Craigslist from a guy out in Kennewick, so I drove out there, test drove it, then bought it. Then 15 miles outside of Kennewick, it broke down cat-

ing to school aspect here, but the whole being in the Northwest and that’s pretty awesome and lucky.”

Although Obey loves having his car on campus, he foresees that it could become a burden if he needs to get home quickly and make the drive in three days, but Obey thinks that the times that he can take his time and really experience America will truly make up for any burden that having a car on campus might cause.

“The times when you don’t really have to get home, you can just take your time and experience all of the country,” he said.

“Besides, [I don’t just want to focus on] where I am right this second and where I want to be; a lot of time we are just worried about getting from point A to point B and we don’t really appreciate everything in between, and I think that’s kind of the best part.” astrophically. Irreparable engine damage, smoking on the highway: It was a big mess. I had owned it for all of ten minutes, then it was already broken to the point where I couldn’t drive it anymore. But, I thought, maybe this is a good thing. Now I’ll have to learn how to fix it.”

“The engine is actually in the back. It’s an upgrade, it’s got dual carburetors, that’s not stock.

It’s a little bigger than a stock engine, and has a little bit more kick to it.”

“The odometer on these models only goes to 100,000 miles, and then goes back to zero again, and this odometer is broken, and stuck at 90-thousand-something.

I have no idea how many times that’s turned over—it could have 90,000 miles, or it could have 390,000 miles. I have no idea.

Through putzing around and going to get groceries, I’d say I’ve only put 50 miles on the car since fixing it up.”

“The most we’ve ever had in here is four [people], to go to Big Cheese customer appreciation day. That was the big event.”

“I’m a big fan of the orange color. That’s the first thing I want to do when I get home is to take it to a body shop, work out the dents and give it a nice new paint job.”

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FEATURE CAR spotlight Zack Strater ‘14 took The Pioneer for a spin through the wheat fields in his snazzy Volkswagen Cabria. (We promise, this isn’t product placement for Volkswagen.) He then took

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a moment to chat about his ride in the beautiful sunset.

and it gradually became my own after time.”

Car Soundbites:

“Its name is Herb. It’s kind of an old car now, and I wanted an old guy name and Herb seemed pretty good ... I think if Herb was a person he would be much different than I am, but I think we work well together.”

“It used to be my dad’s car for about eight years, and then he had his little midlife crisis thing and got a smaller, sportier looking car.

This was around the time I was sixteen and started driving and no one was using this car, so I decided to learn stick and drove the car,

“Well, when I first started driving, I didn’t realize that it’s very important when the car is parked to keep it in gear. Once I forgot to leave the car in gear and just put the parking brake on and at some point in the night it rolled, and then rolled into our other car.

It turned out that my car was fine, not even any bumper damage, but it destroyed the axel on the other car. That was pretty funny! Well, not for my parents, but for me. I was learning.” “[I use the car] mostly so I can go home to Portland and back during breaks, but it’s really nice being able to go to the grocery store when I need to, and I really like being able to drive out into the wheatfields for the sunset.”

“I drove it this winter in some icy snow conditions with chains and it was good. Mostly because it’s a little brick.”

Photos by Bernstein

Zipcars considered for campus use

by Hannah Bartman Staff Reporter

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hether it’s a ride to the airport or a weekend Portland getaway, accessibility to a car would give spice to the small-town Walla Walla life.

Even though Whitman is a reputedly isolated college, it remains behind the increasingly popular trend of campus Zipcars.

However, after three years of discussion, Zipcar may be making an appearance on Whitman campus in the next couple of years.

Zipcar is a car service that would allow students, community members and possibly members from the surrounding Walla Walla colleges to rent and use a car on an hourly or daily basis.

The driver of a Zipcar specifies the amount of time a car is needed, and insurance and gas money are included in the reservation charge. Currently 11 out of Whitman’s 12 comparison schools use some sort of car rental service.

“The more we move towards our comparison schools, the less unique we become as an institution, and that can be applied to Zipcars,” said first-year ASWC Senator Jack Percival. “Before we pursue it more, we need to evaluate the value we place on our community. We need to ask ourselves, do we want [Zipcars] or do we want to maintain that solidarity as a campus?”

One of these comparable schools is Lewis & Clark College, which offers car rentals for five dollars an hour. These “UCars” are accessible and used by students to go downtown and for transportation to the airport.

“I really like U-Car; it’s easy, affordable and super convenient,” said first-year Lewis & Clark student Elizabeth Valadez.

“It’s nice to be able to rent a car and not have to be 25 years old.”

Senior ASWC Senator Caroline Carr has been an active member in attempting to implement Zipcars on campus. After emailing Zipcar, she reached a dead end when they asked to be put in contact with Whitman’s sustainability coordinator or business office.

Though there was no sustainability coordinator at the time, as of Feb. 21 the sustainability coordinator staff position that ASWC has pushed for will be filled beginning in the Fall of 2013.

“I’ve done a lot of research on it, but now I need the administration to pick up the slack,” said Carr.

“With the sustainability coordinator coming in, it should be pretty easy for people to do it next year.”

The sustainability coordinator would be a staff position based

on implementing long-standing green initiatives for Whitman. Attaining this staff member creates a link between administration and students and will be helpful in creating contacts with organizations such as Zipcar.

“Zipcar would fall in line with a greener goal for Whitman because it would reduce the amount of carbon emissions emitted by people going out on the weekends,” said Percival.

Similarly, Zipcar services would reduce the amount of cars that people bring to campus, which would enhance the goal of a greener campus.

“I think it could be a great resource to Whitman students in that they wouldn’t feel like they would need to bring their cars from across the state or from California or Washington, because they would have access to cars here,” said senior Sustainability Intern Zoey Rogers in an email. “This would hopefully encourage less driving overall, and people would be more conscious of when they chose to drive a car because they would have to rent it through Zipcar.”

At the present time, the main means of transportation for students is through sharing of friends’ cars. Cars are also available through the OP, but only for students who are certified and are typically for outdoor pursuits. This leaves the remaining population with limited weekend getaway options.

“Zipcar would fall under the umbrella of this urban adventure program that I have. I think it would be really cool to have more cultural community-based things,” said Carr. “We need more outlets for students who want to go to a city now and then.”

Carr’s idea of an urban adventure program involves a structure similar to that of the Outdoor Program, but with off-campus activities such as concerts at The Gorge and trips to art galleries or other museums. The accessibility of Zipcars would allow students to not only take short, errand-like trips, but also longer weekend getaways to Portland or Seattle. However, this would also lead to more transportation and perhaps result in a converse affect for Whitman’s goals of a greener campus.

“On the other hand, I think it could potentially encourage more people to drive who normally don’t,” said Rogers. “If there is easy access to cars, people who may normally walk or bike to the store would be more inclined to rent a Zipcar.”

The Zipcar could be a positive or negative change for stu-

dents and Whitman’s green goals, and is a discussion that will continue to develop and produce re-

sults within the ensuing year. The next step in this process is receiving student opinion on this isADVERTISEMENT

sue, and ASWC plans to reach out to students to find and represent the majority opinion.