Western Front - 2001 January 30

              TUESDAY, January 30,2001
Western Washington University Volume 115 Issue 5 Bellingham, Washington
Locke's
plan calls
for tuition
increase
By Angela D. Smith
THE WESTERN FRONT
Students could face up to a
40 percent increase in tuition
during the next six years.
Gov. Gary Locke's analysts
are hashing out a tuition pro­posal
that may be dropped on
the state Senate by Thursday
at the earliest, said Ed
Penhale, communications
director for the governor's
office.
The proposal would allow
institutions to increase tuition
up to 10 percent per year.
Tuition would not be allowed to
increase more than 40 percent
— or $1,200 more than the cur­rent
$3,102 full-time tuition -
during the next six years.
The budget is tight this year
after the passages of Initiative
728, which addressed class size
reduction and Initiative 732,
which made cost of living
adjustments for K-12 and com­munity
college faculty.
This tuition proposal would
help struggling universities
increase faculty salaries.
Locke has proposed a state-funded
increase of 4.7 percent
for higher education faculty in
the 2001-03 biennium budget.
Employees covered by 1-732
would receive a 6.3 percent
increase.
Western administration,
however, would like to increase
salaries by about 3 percent per
year as it has for the past bien­nium,
said Robert Edie vice
president for External Affairs.
"Even though the governor
did as good a job as he could
See BUDGET, Page 4
High-flying excitement at Baker
Terrill Simecki/ The Western Front
Dave Sypniewski speeds through a turn in the Mount Baker Legendary Banked Slalom. In its 17th year, the race is
snowboarding's longest running contest and attracts the world's best snowboarders.
By Angie Bring
THE WESTERN FRONT
Mount Baker's 17th Annual
Legendary Banked Slalom,
which took place last weekend, is
more than just a snowboarding
^competition. It's a weekend-long
party where boarders get togeth­er,
compete, cheer each other on
and have fun.
"Although the competition is
tough, there is a strong cama­raderie
here," Martha Bengen,
Mount Baker Ski and Avalanche
patrol member, said. 'It's not
about beating each other — it's
about the experience."
A few years ago, many snow-boarders
who qualified for the
1998 Winter Olympics chose to
go to the Banked Slalom instead.
This year, the pro division drew
boarders from Sweden, France,
Czech Republic,* Argentina,
British Columbia, New York,
Colorado and other various
states.
The Banked Slalom doesn't
offer any prize money. The tro­phies
for each category in each
division are rolls of duct tape,
spray painted gold, silver or
bronze, which are attached to a
piece of stone from Mount Baker.
The duct tape symbolizes the
race's early days, when snow-boarders
had to tape themselves
into their bindings.
'It's one of the most important
Olympic pipeline reopens
By H o l l i e Joy Brown
THE WESTERN FRONT
The Office of Pipeline Safety has
given British Petroleum Pipelines,
the new operator of the Olympic
Pipe Line Company's line, permis­sion
to begin refilling the northern
section of the 16-inch pipeline
from Ferndale to Allen Station in
Skagit County.
The first round of safety checks
on the 37 miles of pipeline valves
were completed over the past
weekend.
The OPS must be satisfied with
the pipelines operation before it
can resume operation at a reduced
pressure, BP External Affairs
Manager Dan Cummings said.
Once running again, the pipeline
wJl be monitored closely.
See PIPELINE, Page 3
Frank King,
father of
pipeline
explosion
victim Wade
King, spoke
out in
response to
the last
inspection of
BP's petroleum
pipeline and
the company's
plan to reopen
the line after
meeting safety
standards.
Daniel J. Peters/
The Western
Front
snowboarding events because of
its history," Jim Taylor, a mem­ber
of Mount Baker's host pro­gram,
said.
The event is more than just a
race. It's a celebration of a moun­tain
that embraced snowboard­ing
when other mountains criti­cized
the sport. Mount Baker
supported snowboarding since
its birth, which gives it the fame
and loyalty of all snowboarders.
Taylor, who has worked at Sun
Valley, Idaho and Crystal
Mountain, said riders come to
Baker because it's a quality ski
area that's not commercialized.
"Everyone loves the terrain
and the people here," Taylor
Professor
target of
harassment
By Mary Flynn
THE WESTERN FRONT
A Western professor
received a threatening note
and phone call in the past two
weeks. The professor prefers
to remain unnamed until the
issue is resolved.
"I don't want to make
things worse than they
already are," he said.
The note was left on his
desk chair in his office. It said
his name and then the mes­sage,
'your number's up.' He
thought it was a joke at first
and even asked some of his
graduate students and other
faculty if they had done it.
"I've pretty much exhausted
. See LETTERS, Page 12
said.
Even though Mount Baker has
less snow this year, no one com­plained.
Western student Jason Speer,
20, said Mount Baker's lower-than-
normal snowfall this season
didn't affect the course's quality. •
"The snow level is a lot lower
than normal, but it's not bad,"
Speer said. "People always com­pare
it to the record season."
This year's course had a deeper,
narrower halfpipe with steeper
banks.
In the last few years, the
course has been flatter due to the
heavy snowfall. Mount Baker
See SLALOM, Page 8
IN THIS ISSUE
Fight heart disease
with jazzercize
The Whatcom County
Heart Challenge at Western
helped raise awareness of
fighting heart disease and
stroke Saturday.
See story, Page 9.
A World
of Experience
Students tell tales of trips
gone awry,
from insect
breakfasts in
Nepal to
getting lost
in Italy.
See travel insert.
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For news tips, call (360) 650-3162 or e-mail t h e Western Front at wfront@cc.wwu.edu http://westernfrontonline.com