Western Front - 2004 May 18

              I
PADDLIN' STRONG
ISSUE 14
VOLUME 129
Western women's crew wins
regionals by one point.
Sports, Page 14
HIP-HUGGIN'
The crusade for low-rise jeans
starts in New Orleans.
Opinions, Page 18
ALOHA SPRING
Luau transforms VU Multipurpose
Room into a tropical paradise.
Features, Page 11
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington —
The Western Front TUESDAY
MAY 18, 2004
Officials drain parking fund
Plans for parking garage scrapped in favor of refitting drive-in
Editor's note: This is the first
of a three-part story examining
parking at Western.
By Matthew Anderson
The Western Front
From fall quarter '92 to fall
quarter '03, full- and part-time
enrollment at Western grew
by 2,530 students, to 12,680.
Yet, during that time, the
-number of available parking
spaces increased by only 323
spaces, to 3,545.
The university has stated that
providing access for single-occupancy
vehicles is among its
lowest transportation priorities.
The 2001 Institutional Master
Plan, a contract between
Western and the city of
Bellingham, promoted a circu­lation
plan designed to accom­modate
pedestrians, bicycles,
transit and. single-occupancy
vehicles, in that order.
The Institutional Master Plan
— developed to facilitate stu­dent
population growth to
12,500, which is 825 more stu­dents
than are enrolled spring
quarter — requires that
Western provide a minimum of
3,400 on-campus parking
spaces for students, faculty and
staff. The plan allows off-cam­pus
spaces to constitute as
much as 20 percent of the 3,400-
Ma^ew Anderson/The Western Front
Western graduate student Kevin O'Brien gets into his car to grab some workout
equipment before heading to the Wade King Student Recreation Center on
Monday..O'Brien says he pays a little more than $60 per quarter to park in the C
Lot on south campus.
space minimum, provided that
a free or low-cost shuttle carries
passengers between campus
and any satellite lots during
peak-usage hours.
The Civic Field Park and
Ride, which meets those
requirements, can accommo­date
approximately 300 vehi­cles,
said George Pierce, vice
president for Business and
Financial Affairs. Because the
city is raising the rent oh the
site, Pierce said, Western soon
will abandon use of the Civic
site, which it has used since
1995. The university is refitting
the former Samish Twin Drive-in
on Lincoln Street for use as
a replacement beginning in
fall. That lot can hold approxi­mately
500 cars, Pierce said.
Western's parking facility
reserve fund, which would
have supported a parking
garage if Western had decided
SEE Parking, PAGE 3
Rec center
sees rampant
towel theft
By Anastasia Tietje
The Western Front
Students may find themselves high
and damp at the Wade King Student
Recreation Center in the future. The cen­ter
has had a huge problem with towel
theft in recent weeks, said Pete Lockhart,
assistant director of programming and
services at the center.
Approximately 300 small towels and
100 large towels went missing in April
alone, Lockhart said.
"Lost" has a lot of meanings, he said,
but not all the towels were stolen. He esti­mated
that nearly 10 percent of missing
towels get lost in the washing process,
wear out or become rags. But Lockhart
said the number recently has spiked — to
the point in which the center staff has had
to take measures to save towels and
money without charging students.
- ssgach large towel costs $1.45, and each
small towel costs 70 cents, Lockhart said;
In total, the center spent $8,400 on towels
in August 2003. He said it has not had to
buy any new towels to replace missing
ones, but if that happens, the center will
take the money out of the operating
budget, which the $80 per quarter stu­dent
fee contributes to.
For now, the towels are behind the
equipment desk, and students have to
ask for them, Lockhart said. If the theft
continues, the rec center staff will have to
take further measures. One possibility is
a check-in and check-out sheet. A more
SEE Damp, PAGE 4
Western reclaims dot-com
site from unknown person
By Claire Ryman
The Western Front
Mangled, aborted fetuses no
longer will appear on computer
screens when people type
www.westernwashingtonuniver-sity.
com into a Web browser.
In December, Internet users
searching the Web for information
about Western found anti-abor­tion
messages instead of facts
about the university. An unknown
person had purchased the domain
name, westernwashingtonuniver-sity,
and linked it to www.abor-tionismurder.
org, an anti-abortion
Web site that displays graphic pic­tures
of aborted fetuses.
Numerous other universities,
including Washington State
University, Utah State
University and several commu­nity
colleges, have experienced
the same linkage to the anti-abortion
Web site under their
respective domain names.
On Dec. 12, Wendy Bohlke,
assistant attorney general for
Western, sent a letter of demand
to www.abortionismurder.org,
offering the site's founders an
opportunity to relinquish the
name without further legal action.
The site's founder, Thomas PA.
Fitch, denied any involvement in
linking the sites, although he said
he was responsible for actions of
the same nature in response to
complaints from banks, police
departments and universities.
After the management of abor-tionismurder.
org failed to
respond, Bohlke filed a complaint
on Jan. 21 with the World
Intellectual Property Organization
Arbitration and Mediation Center,
commonly known as WIPO, an
international inter-governmental
organization based in Geneva that
assists governments, states and
organizations in intellectual-prop-
SEE Domain, PAGE 4
Youth conference teaches leadership
Migrant and bilingual youth gather to learn skills
By Tara Nelson
The Western Front
Approximately 96 migrant and bilingual
youths from Whatcom and Skagit counties
crowded into the Viking Union
Multipurpose Room to learn a variety of
skills as well as the ropes of college during
the 4th Annual Migrant Youth Leadership
Conference on Thursday.
The conference included workshops about
finding financial aid, compiling resumes,
applying to colleges and learning about lead­ership
and community-building.
One workshop used theater techniques to
educate students about health and social-justice
topics, said Brian Pahl, coordinator
of the Men's Violence Prevention Project
and supervisor of Will Act for Change, an
acting club that encourages emotional heal­ing
through movement.
During one of the exercises, Pahl
instructed students to act as if they were Tara Nelson/The Western Front
biting into a lemon. Stephany Hazelrigg, Co-director of HASTA,
"Now imagine your whole body has a a d d r e s s e s , o c a , m | g r a n t a n d bilingual Students dur-lemon
in it, Pahl said. jng W e s t e r n , s 4 t h A n n u a | Migrant Youth Leadership
SEE Youth, PAGE 6 Conference. Hazelrigg coordinated the event.
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