Western Front - 2004 February 10

              STEEP COMPETITION
Racers compete in the
Legendary Banked Slalom.
ISSUE 9
VOLUME 128
Sports, Page 12
BOREDOM AWARDS
People should tune out award shows
because they have become worthless.
Opinions, Page 14
THE CYCLE OF LIFE
Shop encourages people
to commute on bicycle.
Features, Page 9
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington
The Western Front TUESDAY
FEB. 10, 2004
!a>jm^
Group wants more
minority journalists
Editor's note: This is the
third in a six-part series
examining race at Western.
By Paul Nicholas Carlson
The Western Front
A vulnerability to stereotyp­ing
minorities and limiting per­spectives
are two primary
issues Ethnic Student Center
coordinator Michael Vendiola
said he is concerned with when
he examines the relationship
between the media and minori­ty
groups.
"People begin to not trust (the
media) when they say, 'They
just want to paint us in this one
picture' — but we're more than
that/' Vendiola said.
Increasing diversity among
reporters and editors became a
mission for The American
Society of Newspaper Editors in
1978. The organization's diver­sity
mission statement encour­ages
the percentage of minori­ties
working in news rooms
nationwide to equal the per­centage
of minorities in the
national population by 2025.
According to the ASNE 2003
newsroom employment census,
minority journalists comprised
12.5 percent of national news
rooms. Locally, The Bellingham
Herald leads the state in rninor-
SEE Hiring PAGE 4
Western student dies
after an eight-year
battle with cancer
By Wolfgang Deerkop
The Western Front
Former Western student Christopher D. White
died of sarcoma cancer Feb. 7,2004.
White was born Sept. 2, 1984, in Virginia
Beach, Va.
. When White was 12, doctors discovered a rare
form of bone cancer in his right shoulder.
After two years of weekly
chemotherapy treatments, the
cancer briefly dissipated but
soon returned, which required
1 operation on his right shoul­der,
removing his humerus
bone and replacing it with a
titanium shaft.
After the removal of White's
humerus, the cancer went into
remission for two-and-a-half
years but returned in November.
"It went off like a bomb—only 10 percent of his
kidneys worked," said David White, Christopher
White's father.
Christopher attended Western during fall quar­ter
when he received the Presidential Scholarship
before poor health forced him to drop his classes
prior to starting winter quarter.
Christopher's parents removed him from
Sehome High School during his final year
because he faced a diagnosis of terminal cancer.
Christopher re-enrolled himself when his parents
were out of town on a business trip.
"Despite the fact that he was ill, he continued to
go to school," David White said. "He was going to
beat this thing."
After graduating from Sehome this past sum­mer,
Christopher proposed to his high school
sweetheart, Jennifer Baxter, a Western freshman.
"We went through a lot during the year and a
half," Baxter said. "We went through more than
any married couple."
Business college changes rules
Christopher
D.White
By Lauren Miller
The Western Front
To avoid the possibility of losing
accreditation, Western's College of
Business and Economics will limit the
amount of credits general studies
majors may take next year.
The college received it& accredita­tion
from the Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business in 1990
and was last re-accredited in 1996,
which was successful, said Kelly
Miller, assistant to the dean of the col­lege.
With the number of business credits
a general studies major could earn,
people could have a hard time differ­entiating
a general studies student
completing a concentration in business
from a business major.
The college is not in danger of losing
its accreditation, but if the situation
remained unaddressed, then it may
have happened, said Maya Tomlin,
Associated Students vice president of
academic affairs.
The accreditation process is volun­tary
for colleges worldwide.
"Schools do not need accreditation
to do business courses," said Milton R.
Blood, managing director of accredita­tion
services. "However, there are
some disadvantages against schools
with accreditation for competing for
faculty, students and corporate spon­sors."
Miller said this has been the first
time problems such as these have aris­en
in the department.
"(The credits offered to general studies
SEE Data PAGE 6
KVIK begins live program
By Chris Taylor
The Western Front
Western's on-campus television sta­tion,
KVIK, broadcast the women's
basketball game live Feb. 5 for the first
time in its first year as an official
Associated Students program.
"It's great that they are now able to
go live," Western Women's interim
head coach Sara Nichols said. "It
should create a larger fan base for us."
KVTK broadcasts on EGTV channel
10, an education and government sta­tion,
and recently started airing on
channel 16, which is available to only
on-campus buildings.
KVIK broadcasts to bn-campus audi­ences
through channel 16 by using a
modulator, which sends out a live sig-
„ , . , „ , im ,.T , „ L nal which Western's video services,
™ . „ 7 u -e m £ " ™der Academic Technology and User
KVIK crew members senior Phil S e^c e s / h a s aUowed KV^5^ use.
Shuyler and senior Justin Conroy The v i d e o services department has
broadcast the Feb. 5 women's bas- h a d the,Capabilities to broadcast live for
ketball game live from Carver Gym. the past 20 years or so and until now
has broadcast only the Distinguished
Lecture Series and other productions
live on-campus, digital video services
manager Noel Newell-Andriff said.
"The time was just right," Newell-
Andriff said. "And (Shuyler) has. shown
that he has the experience."
Broadcasting live with the modulator
is a big step toward being more profes­sional
for KVTK, Shuyler said.
"Sports are always done live,"
Shuyler said. "Live is the way the world
works."
KVTK assistant coordinator Matt
Acosta said now that it has the modula­tor,
the station hopes to cover all bas­ketball
games.
By only having access to the modula­tor
while broadcasting basketball
games, the video services department
has plans to fix an older modulator that
it could loan to KVTK and the television
station could have access to anytime.
KVIK also plans to cover softball, golf
SEE Broadcast PAGE 6