Western Front - 2000 November 3

              FRIDAY* November 3, 2000 The Western Front
Western Washington University Volume 114 Issue 10 Bellingham, Washington
Western study indicates GUR flaw
By Jen True
THE WESTERN FRONT
Western's General Univer­sity
Requirement structure is
flawed, according to a Western
report.
According to the Quality
Undergraduate Education
report, university require­ments
are "isolated from each
other and the rest of the cur­riculum,
and the current model
does not support connections of
themes and ideas or the devel­opment
of a community of
learners. The smorgasbord
approach to filling require­ments
typically leads to a frag­mented
and haphazard experi­ence
for students."
"Whatever the coherence of
the GUR structure is, it, at the
very least, is not apparent to
the students," said Jeff
Newcomer, professor and mem­ber
of the QUE task force.
"Students don't appear to be
buying into the GURs as a
meaningful part of their educa­tion.
That is a least a part fail­ure
of the system," he said.
See GURS, Page 4
Jazz major could get the axe
By C. Nicki Krom
THE WESTERN FRONT
Chuck Israels, director of Jazz
Studies at Western, was told
Tuesday in a conference with
Music Department Chairman
David Wallace, that the depart­ment
is considering dropping
the Jazz Studies major from
Western's list of undergraduate
degrees.
Western's administration and
music department recruited
Israels 15 years ago to rebuild
the jazz department.
Wallace said this proposal is
in the very early stages of devel­opment
and will not be offered
for administrative review until
the end of the current quarter.
See JAZZ, Page 7
Builders threaten local bike trails
By Stephanie Dalton
* THE WESTERN FRONT
A six-year moratorium has
been put on the highly criticized
development of a 172-home sub­division
planned to be built on a
79-acre Birch Street site south
of Lakeway Drive.
The moratorium was put in
place after a violation of the
State Forest Practices Act
occurred. Pennbrook Co. of
Bend Ore., and Bellingham 88
L.L.C., started logging the area
before obtaining a state-approved
Forest Practices
Permit.
Neighbors of the site said
they are not happy about the
sensitive area being developed:
A neighbor who has experience
in the area discovered the devel­opers'
violation and brought it to
the attention of the residents.
' I t was a gross violation," said
Larry Moss, president of
Concerned Citizens of Park
Ridge.
Moss said after construction
began, he city was made aware
that the developers had not
obtained the necessary Forest
Practices Permit and construc­tion
continued for two weeks.
The CCPR contacted the State
Attorney General in Olympia to
contact the city of Bellingham's
attorneys to bring to their
attention it is their responsibili-
_ See BIRCH, Page 5
Nader-Gore
vote traders
shut down
by court
By Brittany Sadler
THE WESTERN FRONT
With Bush and Gore neck-and-
neck in the upcoming pres­idential
election, the outcome
will depend heavily on a hand­ful
of swing states, such as
Washington, Oregon, Michigan,
Maine and New Mexico.
Nader barely lacks the 5 per­cent
of the popular vote needed
to qualify the Green Party for
federal election funding in 2004.
A plan has been developed
nation-wide on various Web
See VOTE, Page 4
Taylor Pfifer/The Western Front
Mountain bikers pause at a trail head that has been closed because of new housing construction, which could threaten
the future of the trail system.
Western crime statistics not
comparable to city, cops say
By Hollie Joy Brown
THE WESTERN FRONT
In 1986, a 19-year-old girl
was raped, beaten and killed in
her dorm room at Lehigh
University in Pennsylvania.
After her death, her parents
discovered 38 violent crimes
had occurred at the school in
the three years prior to their
daughter's death, but none of
the cases were made public.
The death of Jeanne Clery
led to the Clery Act, a federal
law passed in 1990 requiring
post-secondary institutions to
publicly post incidences of cam­pus
crime. In 1998, Congress
amended the law, requiring col­leges
to report the areas con­tiguous
to campus and appoint­ing
the education department
to make the crime statistics
more available.
Incoming students definitely
are concerned about campus
safety, Western's director of
admissions Karen Copetas
said.
"Every other campus tour,
somebody is asking about safe­ty
in general," she said.
"The value of the Clery Act is
that it requires schools to
admit 'Hey, we do have crime
on our campus,'" assistant
police chief Dave Doughty said.
"Federal law is very confus­ing,"
Doughty said. "All the col­lege
can do is report what they
know about."
The campus crime statistics
are divided into several groups,
Doughty said. The groups are
all campus, which includes on-campus
housing; non-campus
buildings and property that
include places and buildings
like fraternity houses the uni­versity
owns or controls but are
not on the main campus; and
adjacent buildings, Doughty
said.
For example, Doughty said, if
an assault occurred on Garden
Street, which is next to campus
but not campus owned,
Doughty said, it would be in the
report. If it were two blocks
away, it wouldn't be in the
report.
See WESTERN, Page 4
IN THIS ISSUE
Skating to glory
Led by a core of returning
players, Western's ice hock­ey
team prepares for league
action today in a pivotal
game against UW.
See story Page 10.
Players 'Get ouf on
stage
Performances of Marsha
Norman's
play "Getting
Out" will
occur at 7:30
p.m. through
Sunday in
PAC 199.
•See story, Page 8.
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