Western Front - 2004 May 7

              •
THEY'LL PLAY TWO
Both golf teams bound
for national tourneys.
Sports, Page 8
ISSUE 11
VOLUME 129
TRIEND'-LY FIRE
People can now return to their real friends — as
opposed to those they watch on television.
Opinions, Page 10
THE LONGEST HOUR
Two reporters make the
night last at 11 happy hours.
Accent, Page 6
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington
The Western Front
0*a*
FRIDAY
MAY 7, 2004
Woman attacked only
three days after rally
By Caleb Heeringa
The Western Front
An unidentified suspect assaulted a woman on
Western's campus on Sunday, only three days after
hundreds of Western women rallied to prevent vio­lence
against women in the annual Take Back the
Night demonstration.
According to a University Police press release, the
attack happened at approximately 1:15 a.m. The sus­pect
approached the woman from behind as she
walked through the Fairhaven Tunnel near the new
Communications Facility. The suspect grabbed her
pants, tried to pull them down and grabbed her shirt,
but the woman was able to escape and run to her off-campus
apartment.
David Doughty, assistant chief of Public Safety,
said that although the crime appeared to be sexually
motivated, it does not qualify as an attempted rape
because officers cannot positively identify the sus­pect's
intent when committing the crime.
"By state law, we need evidence of the sexual
intent of the crime, and there is not enough evidence
here," Doughty said. "Unless there is contact with
the breasts or genitals ... it cannot be classified as a
sexual assault."
Doughty said the attack appeared to be a one-time
attack and not related to other recent incidences on
or around campus.
"(The attack) does not appear to be connected to
(this fall's) prowlings," Doughty said. "The circum­stances
are completely"chffefen^in this crime"y& t ;
According to the press.Xel&se, the suspect^M^&
white male, approximately ^ y ^ T s old ajtd^S feet^..
inches to 5 feet 10 m c h e V t ^ ^ ^ r e p o r^
long-sleeved black sweatsdiirt; black pants,.and a
black cap, possibly knit.. -p '
Doughty said UP has increased night, patrols in
response to the attack. - :
Western junior Holly Mattson, a Women's Center
coordinator who helped organize the[TakeB&k^the
Night demonstration^s^ctthai^
appointing the assatutotci^ed/ijshow^jhat sexu­al
crimes are a constant problem.
"It is very unfortunate that this happened ... but it
is reality," Mattson said. "This happens more than
people think ... This just proves that events like Take
Back the Night are still needed."
Sarah Rankin, case manager of the Crime and
Sexual Assault Victims' Services, said the assault
demonstrated that many women's fears of sexual
assault are warranted.
"This reaffirms, sadly, some of the fears that
women have," Rankin said. "Some men don't under­stand
where women are coming from, but this just
goes to show that we are all potential victims."
Anyone with information about the incident is
encouraged to contact UP at 650-3555.
Remembering Schmitt
Tara Nelson/The Western Front
Western cycling club member Bryan Grubbs, 33, of Bellingham, places a
flower on the edge of the "Rain Forest" fountain to commemorate fellow
teammate Gideon Schmitt during a university-sponsored memorial.
On-campus memorial
celebrates late student
By Tara Nelson
The Western Front
Classmates, family and friends of
Western junior Gideon Schmitt shared sto­ries,
tears and hugs as they gathered at a
university-sponsored memorial service at
the Wade King Student Recreation Center
Thursday to honor Schmitt's life.
Schmitt, a 21-year-old industrial tech­nology
major, died April 5 after falling
four stories from his apartment balcony on
the 900 block of High Street.
Schmitt was active in Western's student
chapter of the Society of Manufacturing
Engineers and Western's cycling club, in
addition to countless other endeavors, said
Western senior Andrew Leese, Schmitt's
cycling teammate.
Immediately before the service,
Western's cycling club led a commemora­tive
"silence ride" across Western's cam­pus
beginning at the Viking Commons
and ending outside the recreation center,
where participants set white flowers on
the edge of the newly constructed "Rain
Forest" fountain.
Western's cycling club co-president
Ryan Rickerts spoke at the event.
Rickerts, also an industrial design major,
said the cycling team will wear black arm
bands at all cycling events for the rest of
the quarter.
Schmitt's younger brother, Morgan
Schmitt, who in earlier years accompanied
SEE Memorial, PAGE 3
Undergrad tuition to increase 7 percent
By Michael Murray
The Western Front
Western's board of trustees approved
a tuition increase April 19 for the '04-'05
academic school year. The cost of higher
education has increased for the third
time in three years, but the increase will
be lower than it could have been.
Undergraduate tuition will increase
by 7 percent — $227 more for resi­dents
and $840 more for nonresidents
beginning in September 2004 and
going through June 2005. Graduate
tuition will increase by 3 percent —
$142 more for residents and $459 more
for nonresidents.
"It's a lot better than it could have
been," Associated Students president
Paul Graves said. "The first number
we heard out of the governor's office
was 28 percent."
Next year, Western's annual tuition
for resident undergraduates will be
$3,465. Tuition for resident undergrad­uates
will be $4,566 at the University of
Washington and $4,520 at Washington
State University, board of trustees
Chairwoman Betty Woods said.
Some of the trustees' concerns were
faculty salaries, high-quality faculty
members and support services, student
trustee graduate student Benjamin
Casler said.
"We added up everything to main­tain
the status quo and gave it to the
Legislature," Casler said. "They didn't
SEE Tuition, PAGE 4
Historian provides perspective on the history of food in culture
Ben Arnold/The
Western Front
Food historian
and author Felipe
Fernandez-
Armesto speaks
with Western fac­ulty
Wednesday in
the Viking Union
Multipurpose
room. He also
spoke Thursday
night in the PAC.
By Anna Sowa
The Western Front
Food historian and author Felipe
Fernandez-Armesto displayed a picture of
Winnie the Pooh as a motif for his Thursday
discussion titled "Fat: A Short Global History."
"Winnie the Pooh is short, fat and proud of
that," Fernandez-Armesto said. "As you can
see, I have a great deal of practical knowledge
in fat. Indeed, I seem to have absorbed it."
The witty and self-deprecating intellectual
spoke as part of Western's Distinguished
Lecture Series at the Performing Arts Center,
where he told the story of food's history and
the evolution of high-fat diets, which came to
dominate the developed world in the context
of an obsession with thinness.
"Even if you are a (Pooh) bear nowadays,
it's hard to be fat," Fernandez-Armesto said.
"We have come to demonize fat, and we go to
further extremes than any other culture in the
course of history to do it."
Fernandez-Armesto said the modern obses­sion
with thinness rims counter to human evo­lution.
Some explanations he gave are the rise
SEE Food, PAGE 4
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