Western Front - 2005 April 19

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HE WESTERN FRONT ISSUE 6
VOLUME 133
Y, APRIL 19, 2005 • WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY • BELLINGHAM, WASH. • WESTERNFRONTONLINE.COM
Mallard makes a move
MICHAEL MURRAY/The Western Front
An increase in business has forced Mallard Ice Cream to pack up and move to Railroad Avenue. The store has been
at its current location on Holly Street for nearly six years.
Downtown icecream spot moves to Railroad Avenue
BY SARAH KUCK
The Western Front.
Filling the shop to capacity, ice cream
lovers lined up Friday night to experience
the variety of flavors Mallard Ice Cream
has to offer.
"I have been coming here since they
opened," said Emily Rutter, a first-grade
teacher at St. Paul's Episcopalian
Elementary School. "I have always loved
it. It's always been exceptional."
Mallard Ice Cream is located at-207 E.
Holiy St. —but not for long. Because of
booming business, the local favorite will
soon move to Railroad Avenue. Vacant
for nearly six years, the empty space
nestled between the Bagelry and Mad
Hatter Clothing will be the new home
of Mallard Ice Cream, said Ben Scholtz,
owner of Mallard Ice Cream.
The new building will be twice as wide,
an increase in size from 15,000 square
feet to approximately 32,000 square feet.
The 20-foot entrance will have sliding
doors for outdoor seating, which will
open to the street, Scholtz said.
see MALLARD, page 5
LGBTA creates
pen-pal program
with Jamaicans
BY LINDSAY HAMSIK
The Western Front
The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Alliance has
formed a new committee to organize a pen-pal program
between Western students and people in the developing
world, said Jesse Raymond, Western sophomore and
LGBTA assistant coordinator.
Western graduate student Paige Evans is organizing
the committee with LGBTA funding, the goal of which
she said is to establish 50 to 75 pen-pal connections in
the global South.
The committee will collaborate with Amnesty
International and other non-governmental organizations
to obtain contacts in the global South, Evans said. She
said she expects the majority of connections to come
from Jamaica.
"Jamaica has been deemed by Amnesty International
as one of the most homophobic countries in the world,"
Evans said. '
The, LGBTA committee may find it difficult to
find individuals to correspond with, Evans said,
because violence has forced lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender people in other areas of the world
underground.
An example of this, she said, is the recent murder
of the leader of the only LGBTA organization in
Jamaica.
"This is my way of getting people in this country to
learn about the hardships of LGBT people elsewhere,"
Evans said.
Evans said she plans to distribute addresses to
students involved with LGBTA who are serious about
having a pen pal.
Following the distribution of addresses, the
committee will meet every two weeks to talk about the
see LGBTA, page 6
University to ban club
meetings from lounges
BY NIC RILEY
The Western Front
Bible study groups and other
Associated Students clubs
accustomed to meeting in
university residence hall lounge
areas may soon have to find
someplace else to go.
Residence hall lounges are study
spaces, not gathering places for
extracurricular groups, according
to a new university policy.
University Residences judicial
officer Michael Sledge said the
university plans to implement
a campus-wide policy next
year identical to the one that
exists in Fairhaven's residence
halls. Fairhaven's policy denies
reservations to groups who want
to use the lounges for exclusive
meetings.
"Those facilities are provided
with money from people who live
there," Sledge said. "We feel the
residents should be able to take
advantage of the space they're
paying for. There is plenty of
classroom space available for
these groups to meet in and the
Viking Union."
Residence Life associate director
Peter Rosenberg said his office
decided to implement Fairhaven's
policy after receiving complaints
from residents.
Lounge spaces exist primarily
for staff and hall council programs,
for academic purposes and for
informal resident use, he said.
Students were concerned that
when they tried to access their
see CLUBS, page 5
Self-defense class teaches women
how to counteract potential attacks
BY COURTNEY WALKER
The Western Front
One in every three women will be sexually
assaulted in their lifetime, and every woman needs
to learn how to defend herself against an assailant,
self-defense instructor Gerry Ebalaroza said.
Ebalaroza said she has been a self-defense
instructor for six years and has been practicing
martial arts and Wing Chun, a form of Chinese
kung-fu, for more than 20 years. She owns her
own self-defense training company called Atura.
She said Wing Chun is the best form of martial
arts for a woman to learn because it teaches how
to attack a perpetrator at close range with hand-to-hand
combat.
Ebalaroza teaches a class from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Monday nights. Classes began April 18 at the
Bellingham Tennis Club. She also will have two
seminars about self-defense awareness and basic
see CLASS, page 6
Photo Courtesy of Gerry Ebalaroza
Two of Gerry Ebalaroza's students, Catie Burr, 24, and
Nicole Haugen, 24, practice self-defense maneuvers.
MOVING ON
Western students share
their experiences with
death.
FEATURES, PAGE 9
IHHNMBMNH WESTERN SPLIT
Western softball splits
doubleheader against
Humboldt State University.
SPORTS, PAGE 8
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