Western Front - 2004 January 16

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ISSUE 3
VOLUME 128
CLASHING TITANS
Sports bars offer
different atmospheres
for the game.
Sports Page, 8
UP IN SMOKE
Columnist gives up on
his New Year's resolution.
Opinions, Page 10
WINTER BLUES
Musical event livens up
the dismal days.
Accent, Page 6
: Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington — —
The Western Front FRIDAY
JAN. 16, 2004
Zoning vote
will limit the
watershed
development
By Lee Fehrenbacher
The Western Front
In an attempt to preserve water
quality in Lake Whatcom, the
Whatcom County Council decided
Tuesday that approximatly 1,400
potential houses cannot1 be built
around the lake.
The 5-2 vote, voted against by
Ward Nelson and Sam Crawford,
will change the zoning around the
lake and limit the number of houses
that people can build in the water­shed,
where all the water runs into a
single point, to reduce pollution
from water runoff. Lake Whatcom is
a drinking reservoir for approxi­mately
85,700 people in Bellingham.
"The minute you..build a house,
you add impervious surfaces (such
as asphalt roads and tile roofs)"
Councilwoman Sharon A. Roy said.
"(Water) doesn't absorb into the
soil, it goes undiluted into the lake
instead of sinking in and being puri­fied."
Contaminants such as fertilizers,
oils and dirt are common pollutants
development produces that run
from urbanized areas, Roy said.
Bill Quehrn, executive vice presi­dent
for the Building Industry
Association of Whatcom County,
said preventing future housing was
not the answer to the lake's current
water problems.
"If you never build another dog­house
anywhere in Whatcom
County, how will that impair the
water quality?" Quehrn said.
Quehrn said he thought the coun­ty
should pay more attention to
storm-water treatment, rather than
placing the burden on the waters
SEE Council PAGE 4
High prices blamed on publishers
Gil Ventura/The Western Front
Western freshman David Evans looks intently at textbooks he might purchase.
Some Western students and faculty have complained about textbook prices.
By Gil Ventura
The Western Front
Dr. Barbara Collamer's ecology of gender
textbook keeps disappearing from the
reserve room in the library.
Collamer, who teaches Psychology 119,
said she suspects ther theft problem results
from high textbook prices.
When many students e-mailed Collamer
to say they could not afford the required
textbooks for her classes, she said she
became concerned.
"I think it is a burden for students to pay
$400 a quarter for required texts," Collamer
said.
Some students said they agree the prices
of textbooks are too high.
"Sometimes I feel that I can't afford books
without financial aid," Western senior Laura
Holt said.
Along with charging high prices, the
Associated Students Bookstore undercom-pensates
students returning texts for cash,
Western junior Allison Pirret said
AS Bookstore manager Dave Mac Auley
said that for every new text students
receive a 10-percent discount from the
SEE Building PAGE 3
Surplus to pay for Bond Hall renovation
By Amanda Woolley
The Western Front
Western received an unexpected bonus
from the funds left over from construction
of the Communications Facility on south
campus— $4.9 million.
Western requested construction bids
during a recession and the Washington
State Legislature appropriated more
money than needed, director of facilities
management Tim Wynn said.
Western Faculty want to use the money
for renovations on Bond Hall.
The Legislature, however, must first
approve the usage of the money for this
purpose.
"The Office of Financial Management
retains the difference, and then the institu­tion
makes a proposal," Roberts said.
The Legislature appropriates money to
the state Office of Financial Management,
which allocates the money to a project on
campus, Roberts said
- The OFM used $1.5 million of the sur­plus
from the Communication Facility
and another $3.4 million from the Higher
Education Fund for the renovations of
Bond Hall, said Mark Webster, budget
assistant of education at the OFM.
The Bond Hall renovation will entail
removing the asbestos which has prohibit­ed
other renovations of the floors, win­dows
and fire alarms. Removing the
asbestos will cost approximately $1.5 mil­lion,
Wynn said.
Wynn assessed all the buildings on cam­pus
and used a formula to determine each
building's condition. To determine the
Facilities Condition Index, Wynn divided
the total cost of the needed maintenance
and repair by the building's replacement
value. Anything that fell between 0 and 5
percent was considered good. Anything
between 5 and 10 percent was considered
fair, and anything more than 10 percent
was considered poor, Wynn said.
Of the seven buildings Wynn assessed,
all but one were considered poor. Bond
Hall scored a 16.4 percent, but the
Humanities Building had the worst score
— 37.2 percent, he said
Kathleen Lundeen, chairwoman of the
English department, said she was unaware
Continued from Page 1
SEE Building PA^E 4
Bellingham events commemorate Martin
Luther King Jr.'s dream through seminars
By Aaron Apple
The Western Front
Groups in Bellingham have organ­ized
free events to help residents rec­ognize
Martin Luther King Jr.'s efforts
to bring people together.
Community activities began
Thursday night at the Viking Union
Multi-Purpose Room.
Many community volunteer organi­zations,
such as Western's Center for
Service-Learning, set up tables with
information on how to become
involved.
"There is a strong message for peo­ple
to get out there and take action in
the community," Steven Feinstein,
Western sophmore said. "The music
was tied nicely to the message."
The Whatcom Human Rights Task
Force will celebrate the holiday begin-ing
at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Sehome
High School.
"Reflecting on the dream half a cen­tury
later is this year's theme," said
Vernon D. Johnson, a Western profes­sor
and founding member of the task
force. "Educational issues are the
focus.".
Dr. James Banks, director of the
Center for Multicultural Education at
the University of Washington, will
speak at 9 a.m] and lead a workshop
for educators.
"We are having morning and after­noon
workshops on topics like the
legacy of civil rights, economic
inequality, youth activism, the power
o£ identity, the Patriot Act and one
called 'No Child Left Behind,' which
deals with nationwide standardized
SEE Events PAGE 4
Aaron Apple/The Western Front
Speaker Eric Davis uses rap lyrics and multime­dia
to tackle issues of race and social justice
during the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.