Western Front - 2003 April 8

              Oh, for 'Kids' Sake!'
Big Brothers Big Sisters organizes
bowling tourneys to prevent cuts
See Story, Page 9.
Conquering the classic
Western's track and field teams
shine at Veriiacchia Team Classic.
See Story, Page 10.
TUESDAY, April 8, 2003
Western Washington University Volume 125 Issue 2 Bellingham, Washington
Michigan school
cases question
admission ethics
By Cailin Long
THE WESTERN FRONT
On April 1, the U.S. Supreme Court heard
arguments for the Grutter v. Bollinger and
Gratz v. Bollinger cases, which attempt to
ban affirmative action at the University of
Michigan. Barbara Grutter, Jennifer Gratz
and Patrick Hamacher are white applicants
to the undergraduate and law schools of U of
M, who said they were rejected due to reverse,
discrimination — a problem Western stu­dents
do not face.
Using affirmative action for admissions cri­teria
in Washington is illegal under Initiative
201. Director of admissions Karen Copetas
said an affirmative action policy is not neces­sary
to achieve diversity at Western.
"Students of color can compete very well on
their own hi admissions processes," Copetas
said. "In college admissions, people are a
whole lot more than a number."
Although race is not considered during the
admissions process at Western, multicultural
experience is taken into account, Copetas
said. These multicultural experiences include
interaction with different cultures through
speech, such as bilingualism, or through time
spent in a migrant community or foreign
country, she said.
Michigan's admissions processes give spe­cial
consideration to black, Latino and
American Indian applicants by allotting 20
points on a 150-point scale for belonging to
minority races. The goal is to create a "critical
mass" of minority students on Michigan's
campus, which would admit enough minority
students in a university community so indi­viduals
do not feel as if they are token stu­dents
who must represent every member of
their race.
Justices Sandra Day O' Conner and
Anthony Kennedy questioned the definition
of a "critical mass" last Tuesday, fearing that
the policy is a quota system in disguise. The
court outlawed quotas for minority college
applicants in 1978 with the Regents of the
University of California v. Bakke decision.
President Bush filed a brief with the U.S.
Supreme Court opposing affirmative action
policies at the U of M. His ad^ministration has
called on the court to replace race-based affir­mative
action in the nation's colleges and uni­versities
with race-neutral approaches that
offer admission to a percentage of top students
See ADMISSION, Page 3
Phone threat raises security
during student-led walkout
Keith Boiling/Trie Western Front
As part of hightened security at a student rally Friday, Bellingham Police Officer Henry Ortega stands guard.
F\M^ir\m
By Leslie Sugiura
THE WESTERN FRONT
Despite death threats called in to the
Bellingham Police Department, the
University Police and Western, protest­ers
still participated in a walkout, a
rally and a march to the Bellihgham
Federal Building on Friday afternoon.
Approximately 750 anti-war protest­ers,
including students from Western
and surrounding high schools as well as
Bellingham residents, filled Red
Square to show their disapproval of the
?warin|fraq; . / / ^ ;^: - : V ; ' ^ " -
• ..Ah anonymous^caller threatened to
shoot one male and one female protest­er
at the rally or march, Bellingham
Police lit. Craige Ambrose said.
"We got the information just before our
scheduled meeting," Ambrose said. "We
decided to disseminate the information
~ See WALKOUT, Page 3
County fends off contagious respiratory disease
By Matt DeVeau
THE WESTERN FRONT
Whatcom County residents are at a
very low risk for acquiring Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome unless they have
recently traveled to specific areas of Asia
or have come in close contact with some­one
who has, said Regina Delahunt,
Whatcom County Public Health Director.
"(SARS) is not in our community,"
Delahunt said. "We haven't identified
any suspected cases yet."
SARS is a respiratory illness that has
recently been reported in Asia, North
America and Europe according to the
Centers for Disease Control and
-Close contact with people suffering
Prevention. As of Thursday, 2,601 cases
of SARS had been identified worldwide,
and 98 people have died from the illness,
according to the World Health
Organization.
Seven cases of suspected SARS have
been identified in Washington, none of
which are in Whatcom County.
Catherine Barnhart, Western special
assistant to the provost for International
Studies, said some students have
expressed concern about SARS, but she
does not see a high risk at Western. The
most prevalent incidences of SARS have
been hi Hong Kong, the Guangdong
province of China, Singapore and Hanoi,
Vietnam, according to the CDC.
"We do not have many students in any
case who are from the affected countries,"
~ ~ See SARS, Page 4
Medical centers prepare for war emergency
Photo courtesy of St. Joseph Hospital
Nurses at a Seattle Puget Sound Blood
Center drive collect donations.
By Shanna Green
THE WESTERN FRONT
As many people worry
about the possibility of a ter­rorist
attack in the coming
months, Western political sci­ence
.professor Adam Resnick
offers some different advice
for staying safe.
'Tf you want to live through
the summer don't go to
Whatcom Falls," Resnick
said.
Resnick said- the odds of
being killed in a terrorist
attack in Bellingham is far
lower than drowning at
Whatcom Falls.
Despite Resnick's logic,
local medical centers are
preparing in case of a war
emergency. As a member of
America's Blood Centers,
Puget Sound Blood Center
has agreed to help the U.S.
Army by supplying blood to
the military in case its supply
is exhausted, said Steve
McLean, the center's director
of Public Information.
McLean said the biggest
concern would be an over-donation
of blood.
"People can only donate
every 56 days," McLean said.
"So if people rush the blood
banks right now and then
there is a crisis, we're out of
blood for the next 56 days."
He said another problem
with, over-donating is that
blood only has a shelf life of
42 days and must be thrown
away after that time, usually
through incineration.
"After Sept. 11, we had the
See SUPPLY, Page 6
For news tips, call (360) 650-3162 or. e-mail The Western Front at wfront@cc.wwu.edu www.westernfrontonline.com Please recycle