Western Front - 2003 November 4

              WORK rr OUT
Fitness trend Pilates per­formed
at Western.
Sports, Page 10
ADVICE FOR LIFE
Leam what makes Western's
Lifestyle Advisors Program tick.
Features, Page 8
KUNG FU FIGHTING
Movies inspire people to
learn kung fu in Bellingham.
Features, Page 7
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington
ISSUE 13
VOLUME 127 The Western Front TUESDAY
NOV. 4, 2003
Women attacked near
campus while sleeping
RACHEL FOMON/THE WESTERN FRONT
Western senior Erin Johnson displays the window
where an intruder attempted to break in.
BY RACHEL FOMON
The Western Front ., -
Western junior Brita Lund awoke after a man reached in
her open window, rubbed her entire body with his cold
hands and.gtared intensely into her.-eyes. After she.woke up,
she turned to her boyfriend, who was in bed with her, for
help. She said she hysterically cried for help and the the
intruderrariaway.^%, — •...'..„ ,.-....- „./.
..-Several incidences of burglary, prowling, suspicious.cir:_
cumstances and attacks on students .have occurred in houses
near Western, prompting the Bellingham Police Department
to investigate whether they are linked, BPD Lt. Craige
Ambrosesaid.
On Oct. 24, a suspect broke the window of Whatcom
Community College sophomore Rachael Birge's downstairs
bedroom at 1016 High St. She said she returned home at 3
a.m. to find her bedding missing and blinds broken.
She noticed the window was broken when she attempted
to fix the blinds, and her comforter was outside, Birge said.
"He reached in and grabbed the comforter like he had con­fidence
or something," said Western senior Erin Johnson,
whose bedroom is upstairs from Birge's.
In a third incident on Oct. 25, a sleeping female was
attacked while alone in her house.
A man came into the house on the 1000 block of N. Garden
Street through an unlocked door.
The suspect opened the door to Western senior Carly
Serrett's bedroom and walked toward her bed, she said.
Serrett said she at first assumed it Was a drunken friend
who was in the wrong room, but she realized it was not once
he sat on her bed.
"I remember thinking that I shouldn't freeze up, and I
should keep talking to keep calm," she said.
She said she questioned the man when he reached his
hand under her blanket and touched her leg.
Serrett said she pushed him off the bed, but he came back,
pulled her blanket off and started taking pictures, she said.
She pushed him again into her bookshelf, knocking things
off the shelf, she said.
The suspect then ran out of the room, stealing the coat off
SEE Suspect, PAGE 6
TTp-proot
Marysville teacher Mid-quarter
strike will have no progress report for
effect on admissions, new college deans.
News, Page 4 News, Page 5
For news tips, call (360) 650-3162 or e-mail The
lit!iill^^ '
Teachers, school reach parking agreement
BY EMILY BUTTERFIELD
The Western Front
The Unit D union, which represents
124 Western supervisory employees,
won a legal battle Oct. 27 that could
force Western acirniriistrators to negoti­ate
parking rates and accessibility with
campus employees.
The Public Employment Relations
Commission ruled last week that
Western committed an unfair labor
practice by. refusing to negotiate park­ing
issues with Western employees.
The commission ruled that parking is
a mandatory subject of the collective
bargaining process under state law, said
Marty Hitchcock, president of the Unit
D chapter of Public School Employees
union and administrative services man­ager
A for the department of account­ing
at Western.
The issue began in February 2002
when the adrninistration would not
bargain with the union over parking
issues, Hitchcock said. In order to settle
the contract, the union conceeded, but
it filed an unfair labor practice suit
with the commission to encourage
negotiations, she said.
"It gives us the opportunity to nego­tiate
with the Western to get something
more fair for workers," Hitchcock said.
According to the report, Western
must bargain collectively with the
Public School Employees, post the
report for 60 days where it is accessi­ble
to all employees and read the
notice at a regular board of trustees
meeting. Western has 20 days to
appeal the case or report the actions
SEE Union, PAGE 6
SHARAB. SMITH/THE WESTERN FRONT
Newlyweds Katie and Mike Spurrell pack Katie's Army supplies in preparation for her upcoming
deployment to Iraq. The couple rushed their wedding after receiving news of her pending deployment.
Western senior sent to Iraq
BY;TANY£ ROZEBOOM
the Western Front
Western^senior Katie Spurrell will
not be studying for finals or partying
at The Royal on Thursday nights for
the remainder of this quarter — she
will be training at Fort Lewis in
preparation for duty in Iraq.
Spurrell found out just a few
weeks ago that she will join 4,000
other citizen soldiers of the 81st
Armor Brigade, which will be
deployed for 18'months on Nov. 15 to
begin training for duty in Iraq. It is
the largest deployment of the state's
Army National Guard since World
WarH.
"My area of specialties is chemical
decontamination, and (since) there
are no weapons of mass destruction
over there, I have no idea what I will
really be doing," Spurrell said.
For Spurrell and husband Western
senior Mike Spurrell, the deploy­ment
meant getting married Oct. 24
instead of August 2004.
This meant organizing a wedding
in one week with a lack of resources
and cash, Spurrell said.
"I went down to the fabric store
and did my best to make a dress,"
SEE Iraq, PAGE 6
FASA members go 'hog' wild at dinner
BY BRAD JENSEN
The Western Front
Presenting food, dances and entertainment, the
Filipino American Student' Association celebrated the
end of Filipino Heritage Month Nov. 1 with the 10th
annual "Barrio Fiesta."
FASA is part of Western's Ethnic Student Center. It
aims to educate people about the Filipino culture, FASA
President Ronald Reboja said.
"It is not just to educate Filipinos, but other people as
well," Reboja said. "You don't have to be Filipino to join
this club."
The evening festivities included musical performances
by FASA members, cultural dances by the Ilocano
Association of Washington and a buffet full of food from
the Philippines such as meat and vegetable rolls, cake
and an entire ready-to-serve hog placed on a table.
Barrio Fiesta is a representation of celebrations that
occur.throughout the Philippines/said Christina Pettit, a
Western sophomore and FASA member.
The name comes from Spanish explorers who observed
these celebrations in small villages they named "barrios,"
Pettit said.
The entertainment was the highlight of the evening,
said Ric Acido, a Western junior and FASA member.
"It was kind of empowering to see what a group of stu­dents
could put together," he said.
Despite being sponsored by the Filipino organization,
Barrio Fiesta entertained Filipinos and non-Filipinos.
SEE Return, PAGE 6