Western Front - 1992 November 3

              The Western Front November 3,1992/Volume 85, Number 11 Western Washington University please recycle
President Mortimer
may move to Hawaii
Photo by Jonathan Burton
Perot supporters rallied last week In Bellingham to gain support forthe Independent
candidate.
By Scott Tompkins
staff reporter
Western President Kenneth Mortimer
is one of four finalists for the presidency of
the University of Hawaii. Mortimer will
travel to Honolulu today to meet with the
University of Hawaii Regents on Nov. 4.
Mortimer has been president at West­ern
since September 1988. Af that time he
told the Board of Trustees he was committed
to at least five yedrs at Western and that he
had interests in being president of the Uni­versity
of Hawaii.
"I told the board when I came here I
wouldn' t be talking to other institutions with
the exception of the University of Hawaii,".
Mortimer said.
In a release from the public information
office,»excerpts from a letter to the board of
trustees outlined Mortimer's early interests
in the University of Hawaii position.
"The Hawaii situation is unique for
family and professional reasons. I want to
help the University of Hawaii find a good
president and I have agreed to have a conver­sation
with the Regents in Honolulu on the
fourth of November. That conversation may
lead to a request that I become a candidate."
Mortimer said he was first approached
as being a possible candidate for the Univer­sity
of Hawaii position last summer.
According to the Bellingham Herald,
Esme Infante, education reporter for the
daily Honolulu Advertiser, said that
Mortimer interviewed for the position, as
did 10 other semi-finalists for the job in
September. Mortimer did not want the visit
publicized because it could have jeopar­dized
Western's fund-raising.
Mortimer's letter to the trustees men­tions
that his wife, Lorrie, has family in
Hawaii and thathehas been an observer and
analyst at the University of Hawaii fornearly
25 years.
"In 1959, I married a girl from the
islands," Mortimer said of his wife Lorrie.
"We used to visit the islands pretty regu­larly
and we still go every Christmas."
Mortimer said he has been involved
with the University of Hawaii as an adviser
and has had several opportunities to speak
at the institution.
During the Oct. 2 Board of Trustees
meeting, Mortimer discussed the condi­tions
under which he would become a
candidate during an executive session.
"I can not say that if the University of
Hawaii offers me the job I will take it,"
Mortimer said. "I still feel I have a lot to do
here at Western."
Mortimer will return Thursday after
meeting with the University of Hawaii
Regents.
A.S. studies Sinclair Island's accessibility
By Laura King
staff reporter
Not many students know about or have
access to Western's Viqueen Lodge, located on
Sinclair Island in the San Juan Islands. Chris
Kradjan, Associated Students secretary/trea­surer,
is working with Western's accounting
society to change that.
Kradjan said the Viqueen Lodge is located
on property Western purchased in the 1920's.
Theproperty has a lodge that comfortably sleeps
ten people in bunk beds. It has a fully equipped
kitchen, a wood stove and a fireplace. Western
previously hasn'tbothered to advertise the island
to students because of the costs to get to the
island.
Kradjan said the main problem with the
property is it is not easily accessible to students.
Access to the island is either by private boat or
private airplane from Bellingham or Anacortes.
This makes it difficult for students to afford the
cost of chartering transportation to the property.
Kradjan estimates a weekend could cost a couple
of hundred dollars. He said the property is now
generally used by faculty.
"Access to it (Sinclair Island) is very diffi­cult
right now. It's very costly to get out there.
And because it is property owned by the students,
it's not very effective for student access. Pri­marily
we serve faculty and alumni, which de­feats
the purpose of having it, in the sense of
students," Kradjan said.
There is ferry service to the island, but it
only operates from May through September.
Kradjan said at one point Western thought
about purchasing a boat to transport students to
the island, but it was too expensive. He said it
was unrealistic to put student money into a boat
that couldn' tpay for itself. In addition, he pointed
out that the expense of a maintenance crew and
someone to skipper the boat could become very
costly.
Kradjan then decided to pursue the idea of
contacting local boat contracting services in the
area. He thought if he could show a boat con­tractor
that they would have a guaranteed amount
of use, the contractor might give Western a
discount.
Kradjan, in an effort to save time and include
students in A.S. affairs, invited the accounting
society to partake in what he calls the "cost
accounting project." Kradjan said the project is
a way to include students in the internal work­ings
of the A.S. He also said he chose the
accounting society because they had a back­ground
in surveying costs and determining what's
financially realistic in solutions to costs.
"I thought the ... Associated Students ...
historically has focused internally in dealing
with student issues. It doesn't go out to the
majority of the population, but relies on its
employees. So you go somewhere like the ac­counting
society that is external from the Asso­ciated
Students, but is still student-run. My
intent was to expand beyond the A.S.," Kradjan
said.
The cost-accounting project's job is to as­sess
the number of people likely to use Sinclair
Island. Kradjan said this entails going to resi­dence
halls, talking to R.D.'s and R.A.'s, faculty,
and talking to students in different areas on
campus. The task would be to find out who
would use the property and how often. Kradjan
Sinclair, continued on page 6
JWE catches many
students off guard
By Kristi Welch
staff reporter
Students who have yet to take
Western's junior writing exam (JWE)
ought to seriously consider getting
prepared. Results from last spring
show the failure rate was close to 60
percent. Outcomes this severe have
forcedWriting Center staff to become
extremely concerned.
"Students aren't failing because
they aren't competent," said Carmen
Werder, assistant director of the
Writing Center. "It's just that they've
misunderstood what the test is all
about," she said.
It seems as though many students
have been told different stories about
the test, Werder said. They are com­ing
into the test totally unprepared
and have no idea what is expected of
them.
The JWE consists of two parts.
The first part is a 30-minute objective
test that constitutes reading through
sentences and picking out grammar
and spelling mistakes. Most students
don't have a problem passing this
portion of the test, Werder said.
The second part, the one most
frequently failed, contains a one-hour
summary exercise. Students read a
short article and are then expected to
restate what the article was about in
their own words.
Werder said there are two major
problems in the summary portion
keeping students from passing. Stu­dents
are totally missing the thesis of
the article. They either don't include
one in their summary, or the one they
do include is entirely off-base- from
the central idea.
The second problem deals with
students who are putting their own
interpretations into their summaries.
Instead of simply explaining what
each paragraph of the article is saying,
they tend to throw in personal im­pressions
and try to explain what the
author is feeling.
Students need to realize the JWE
must be passed before taking a writ­ing
proficiency course. Western re-
JWE, continued on page 6
Halloween meant
lights out for Lynden
Halloween, for Lynden, was a dark affair. Some tossed coat hangers were
responsible for knocking out power to two-thirds of Lynden and large areas
to the north and west.
Lynden Police Chief Jack Foster said three 17-year-old males were
arrested for throwing coat hangers into a Puget Power substation at approxi­mately
7:21 p.m. on Oct. 31.
Power was not restored until 12:30 am. Sunday, said Fred Arnold,
superintendent of operations for Whatcom County Puget Power. Arnold said
damage is estimated at $40,000 for the substation and damage to local
businesses has not been totalled yet. Dairyland Supplies and Cascade Frozen
Food both reported losses of their products due to the power outage, Arnold
said.
Arnold said the coat hangers' hit two circuit breakers damaging them to
the point that they needed to be replaced. This accounted for the amount of
time it took for power to be restored.
A respirator assisting a 22-month-old child shut down when the power
went out and the parents took the child to the hospital, Foster said.
Foster said local churches had their Halloween parties ruined because of
the blackout.
"It kind of ruined the parties, plus it's dangerous," Foster said. "We have
a large senior citizen population and a large rest home here and power is
essential for their medical equipment and for them to eat."
No serious injuries were incurred during the blackout, Foster said.