Western Front - 2005 April 26

              •
HE WESTERN FRONT ISSUE 8
VOLUME 133
Y, APRIL 26, 2005 • WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY • BELLINGHAM, WASH. • WESTERNFRONTONLINE.COM
Parents discuss death
CHRIS HUBER/The Western Front
Cindy and Craig Corrie, parents of the late Rachel Corrie, a volunteer killed in Gaza, discuss their goals
of furthering their daughter's aspirations by traveling throughout the world educating people about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Family of fallen peace activist speaks at Western
. BY SARAH KUCK
The Western Front
Two days before she died at age 23, Olympia native
Rachel Corrie talked with the Middle East Broadcasting
Corp. about the atrocities she had witnessed since arriving
in the disputed territory of Gaza Strip in Israel.
As she described the shootings and demolitions she had
seen, dust-caked bulldozers pushed rubble from recently
flattened Palestinian homes in the background.
Craig and Cindy Corrie brought this footage of their
daughter to Western, along with stories of her courage
and compassion for what she lived and died for — peace.
Sunday evening the Conies showed the film about their
daughter, "Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land: U.S.
media and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," and Monday
they spoke to students in Fraser Hall.
They also enlightened the crowd with stories about the
ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Corries live in Olympia but travel frequently
throughout the country to educate people and bring attention
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"We hope to continue the work of Rachel to bring peace
to a troubled area," Cindy Corrie said. "We want to bring a
bit of Rachel to you."
The Community Human Rights Film Festival invited the
Corries to speak before the showing of its final film of the
festival, which took place at Fairhaven Auditorium.
see CORRIE, page 4
Directors agree with
code violation ruling
Editor's Note: Shannon Hutchinson was not inter­viewed
for this story, nor is her association with The
Western Front the basis for this article.
BY PETER JENSEN
The Western Front
The Associated Students board of directors upheld an election
board ruling that found Western senior Tony Russo, a candidate
for AS president, guilty of distributing false information relating
to his involvement with the creation of the AS Review.
. The board ruled that Russo's actions were in violation of the
AS election code. For violating the code, Russo has not been
able to post campaign materials, such as posters and signs, on
campus since April 21, the day after the election board's ruling.
During an appeal meeting Monday, the seven-member board
of directors failed to pass Russo's appeal,.thus upholding the
ruling. Russo's opponents, Western juniors Nick Cizek and
Shannon Hutchinson, filed the grievances responsible for the
election board's ruling.
The board voted 3-2 in favor of the amendment but failed
to garner the four votes necessary to pass it, said Rachel
Zommick, Western senior and AS president. Russo, vice
president for business and operations, and Western graduate
student Brian Gettmann, vice president for academic affairs,
abstained from voting.
"My hope is that the voters cast their ballots based on the
issues, not a board of directors ruling," Russo said.
Russo is still able to campaign by holding signs and
communicating with voters. He also participated in the election
debates Monday with the other candidates.
During this year's campaign, the election board has found
Russo guilty of violating three sections of the election code, said
Peter Graves, Western junior and.VP for legislative affairs.
"He knows the code and has had months to prepare his
campaign and prevent these errors," Gra_ves said.
Nevertheless, Graves voted in favor of the amendment
because he did not agree with the extent of the punishment. Had
the board passed the amendment, Graves said it would have
reduced Russo's punishment. The election board assigned this
punishment because of the severity of Russo's violation and
because he had two previous violations this year, said Brett
Jordan, Westerm sophomore and election board chair.
Western senior Matt Wood, the VP for activities, voted against
the amendment.
"I think the punishment doesn't fit the crime because the
punishment wasn't harsh enough," Wood said.
Major allows students to dance their way to a degree
BY KATE MILLER
The Western Front
Western is offering a Bachelor of
Arts degree and a Bachelor of Fine
Arts degree in dance for the first
time beginning this quarter.
"It is a really exciting time to be
a student," said Western junior Ty
Vennewitz, who is seeking a Bachelor
of Fine Arts degree in dance.
Western is the only liberal arts
school in Washington to offer a
Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in
dance. The dance program designed
the degree for students who intend to
pursue professional careers in dance,
said Nolan Dennett, the director of
Western's dance program. On the
other hand, the Bachelor of Arts
degree provides a general dance
.education, he said. Western still
offers a dance minor and a teaching
endorsement, which enables
students to teach dance classes after
graduation.
Developing a dance major at
Western was a five-year, incremental
process, Dennett said. The majors
received approval at the college
level two years ago, which means all
the departments at Western agreed
to support it. Then Western, as a
university, accepted the degrees as
majors.
After that, Dennett said the majors
went into a holding pattern until
Carol Edwards, the new dean of fine
arts, who the university appointed
in 2004, approved them. The
next step was for the Washington
Higher Education Coordination
Board, which monitors the activity
of colleges and universities in
Washington, to approve the majors.
The majors received final approval
March 4.
"At that point it began to take on
a life of its own," Dennett said of
the continuing success of the those
majoring in dance since the March
approval.
Preliminary enrollment in
the major has been greater than
the program creators originally
anticipated.
"As of March 4, we have 12
majors on the books," Dennett said.
see DANCE, page 4
CHRIS HUBER/The Western Front
Western students practice dance moves Wednesday during
their modern dance 2 class in Carver Gym.
4/20 ALERT
The Drug Information Center
gives students answers to
drug-related questions.
FEATURES, PAGE 6
BOOZE IN COLLEGE
College students' alcoholic behavior
OPINIONS, PAGE 10
TEAM UNITY
Western's offensive line
trains for next season.
SPORTS, PAGE 9
Y