Western Front - 2000 February 15

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TUESDAY, February 15,2000
The Western Front
Western Washington University Volume 111 Issue 11 Bellingham, Washington
V.P. for Diversity resigns
Hepfer cites lack of support as reason he chose to step
down from position; appointed office a possible alternative
Chris Goodenow/The Western Front
Morgan Hepfer takes notes during last week's A.S. Board
meeting. He walked out later in the meeting.
By AnnMarie Coe
THE WESTERN FRONT
Associated Students Vice
President for Diversity Morgan
Hepfer walked out during an
A.S. Board executive session
Thursday.
He walked out because the
board said he was not fulfilling
bis duties as vice president for
Diversity, Hepfer said.
A.S. President Victor Cox said
because the meeting was not
open to the public, he is not per­mitted
to disclose details of the
discussion.
While Hepfer admits he hasn't
accomplished the goals he set
during his campaign last year,
he said a lack of cooperation and
support from the board made it
impossible for him to do his job.
"This job is frighteningly polit­ical,"
Hepfer said. "And it's
about personal relationships ...
between myself and con­stituents.
If half of the equation
doesn't want to play ball, there's
nothing I can do.
"If I'm guilty of anything, it's
guilty of being intimidated," he
said. "I let myself worry too
much about what other people
thought, and that's instilled a
fear of actually putting my neck
out and trying to resolve issues
... to resolve issues of personali­ty
conflicts."
He said he felt intimidated
because he is a white male hold­ing
the position of vice president
for Diversity.
"And how do you go about
resolving (that issue)?" he asked.
"You've got to show yourself to
be an ally; you've got to show
yourself to be cognizant and
aware of the issues that minori­ties
are facing. And beyond that,
you have to be an advocate for
minority concerns. I confess; I
let my intimidation get the bet­ter
of me and didn't make the
necessary efforts to show that."
Hepfer won the 1999 election
with 53.55 percent of the votes.
He said he felt pressure to quit
from a number of students since
he signed up to campaign.
Monica McCullum, co-coordi­nator
of the Women's Center, is
one of the students who pres­sured
Hepfer to resign. But she
said the pressure didn't begin
until November 1999, after she
realized Hepfer wasn't available
to address the Women's Center's
issues. He only visited the cen­ter
once within the past two
years, she said.
"Personally, I think he's a very
nice person, and I think it was
very nice for him to come to the
office," she said. "But what he
portrayed was that he didn't
understand the issues that the
Women's Center faces and that
he was interested in learning.
more„about that, and that was
the last we saw of him."
One of Hepfer's duties as vice
president for Diversity is to rep­resent
the Women's Center at
the A.S. Board meetings, and he
wasn't equipped to do that, she
said.
"We hadn't established a sys­tem
with him where we could
bring up our issues and know
that they would get introduced
to the board at all," she said.
"We were finding that it was
really hard to get in touch with
See DIVERSITY, page 6
Students, faculty trained to raise
community awareness of prejudice
By Siobhan Millhouse
THE WESTERN FRONT
Speak-outs and role-playing
highlighted the second day of a
three-day National Coalition
Building Institute training
workshop at Western.
Thirty-five Western students,
staff and faculty participated in
the workshop Friday, Saturday
and Sunday.
This group attended a one-day
workshop Jan. 28 as partici­pants
expressed their interest in
the NCBI.
After completing the first
workshop they applied for the
trainers workshop.
The purpose is for this group
to lead one-day workshops on
campus and in the Bellingham
community.
The NCBI is designed to
reduce prejudice in a community
and increase people's diversity-building
behaviors.
The new trainers will help
people tackle issues of oppres­sion
on all levels. They will go
into the community to start dis­cussions
about prejudice.
"All it takes is one person to
decide to make a change," said
Deborah Terry-Hays, chief
trainer for the Washington
chapter of the NCBI. "We have
daily opportunities to make a
change."
Every type of discrimination
is open for discussion in the
workshop. Some areas discussed
are sexual orientation, wealth,
gender, ethnicity and race.
The first half of the day was
focused on speak-outs in small
groups.
A person volunteered to stand
in front of the group and relate
an instance of discrimination
toward them.
See NCBI, page 6
Angela Smith/The Western Front
Deborah Terry-Hays helps Western students diversify.
Former students honored with flowers, music at memorial
By Travis Phelps
THE WESTERN FRONT
Friends and family gathered
Saturday to pay tribute to eight
Western alumni and three for­mer
students killed in Alaska
Airlines Flight 261.
The memorial service was in
Western's Performing Arts
Center Concert Hall and later
adjourned to Boulevard Park,
The memorial began as Rev.
Glenn Newton, the master of
ceremonies, welcomed everyone
and expressed his condolence.
Member of the community,
including Maureen Enegren,
executive director of the
American Red Cross, Bert Van
Boer, dean of Western's College
of Fine Arts and Rev. Bob
Christie, made remarks about
the former students.
At Boulevard Park the
Western Woodwind Quintet
Student Ensemble played
"Taps."
"The music allowed me to
reflect in a way that was per­sonal,"
Connie Copeland of
Western's Student Affairs and
Support Services said.
Once at the park, 88 flowers,
representing the number of vic­tims,
were loaded on to a U.S.
Coast Guard Cutter to be scat­tered
at sea as the Bellingham
Pipe Band played "Amazing
Grace."
"It is with great respect and
reverence that we commemo­rate
the crash of Alaska Airlines
Flight 261 on the afternoon of
Jan. 31, 2000," a member of the
US Coast Guard said. "On
behalf of the United States
Coast Guard, Alaska Airlines
and the American public, we
cast these flowers in loving
memory."
Similar services were orga­nized
in Los Angeles, Seattle
and Bellingham which united
the friends and family of the vic­tims,
Copeland said.
"One of the things I valued
about it was the collaboration
between the Red Cross — the
Whatcom County chapter and
Western," Copeland said.
The former students and
alumni killed in the crash were
Robert Thorgrimson of Poulsbo;
Michael Paul Bernard, 31, of
Seattle; James Joseph Ryan, 30,
of Redmond; Ryan Busche, 29;
Abigail A. (Miller) Busche, 26;
Russell Ing, 29; Colleen
Whorley, 35, of Seattle; Monte
Donaldson, 32; Deborah Penna,
28; and Bradford "Pat" Patrick
Ryan of Redmond.
The crash occurred Jan. 31
after the horizontal stabilizer,
the device that keeps the air­plane
level, malfunctioned pos­sibly
due to a lack of lubrication
between the jackscrew and gim-bal
nut.
The Federal Aviation
Administration has since told
operators to check the jackscrew
and gimbal nut on more than
1,000 MD-83s after damaged
parts retrieved from flight 261,
and similar problems were
found in two more of the carri­er's
planes.
The FAA said Monday it had
23 reports of problems with the
gimbal nut and jackscrew after
completing the visual inspection
of the 1,027 registered U.S. air­planes.
IN THIS ISSUE
Cool as ice
Western stu­dents
took to
the ice at
Mount Baker
last weekend
for an Outdoor
Center ice-climbing
trip.
See story, page 11.
Shoot 'em up
People with a taste for gun­powder
make their mark at
the Custer Sportsman Club.
See story, page 8.