Western Front - 2006 November 3

              FRIDAY
ISSUE
Whistle — or sing
— while you work
Riding along with
B-ham police on
Halloween night
pur
Western students
saddle up
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W E S T E R N W A S H I N G T O N U N I V E R S I TY
Looking beyond disaster
photo courtesy of David Sattler
Tom S., a guide in Phuket, Thailand, stands in front of a fishing boat washed one mile
inland by the 2004 tsunami. Western psychology professor David Sattler and five seniors
are working to establish a museum in Thailand to educate survivors and boost tourism.
Western students team up with professor to create tsunami exhibit
Jenny Leak
THE WESTERN FRONT
L Dr. David Sattler, disaster researcher and
Western professor of psychology, collaborated
with five Western psychology students this
summer on a museum-in-the-making that, will
be located in Thailand.
The museum will show survivors of the
Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami and tourists visiting
Khao Lak everything
from how an earthquake
triggered the tsunami to the
worldwide relief effort of
volunteers, organizations and
governments.
The exhibits will explain
the impact the tsunami had on
the land and community, how
survivors are recovering and
the magnitude of aid through
pictures, videos and personal written accounts.
"We want people who go to the museum
to see hope, optimism, resiliency, and the
human spirit," said Sattler, who has researched
responses to disasters for 15 years. "People from
more than 100 countries quickly mobilized to
provide immediate assistance to help individuals
rebuild their lives and communities."
The team of Western students — seniors
Kelly Highsmith, Jaime Reeder, Andrea
Reinholz, Brittany VanLant and Kate Weinberg
— plus the Bellingham restaurant Thai House
helped Sattler cultivate his museum proposal
with research and connections to contacts in
Thailand.
Sattler came up with the idea when he
visited Thailand in March 2005 and March
2006. Sattler conducted surveys of more than
200 people each year for his research on the
mental health of natural disaster survivors. The
majority of survivors were fearful of another
tsunami coming, Sattler said.
The Western team's main goals for the
museum are to educate survivors about tsunamis,
bolster the Thai economy by attracting tourists
who have questions about the. damage, and
recovery and to inform the museum's visitors
about the new tsunami
warning systems being
built along the coast by
governments from around
the world, Sattler said.
The missing piece
to Sattler's plan was
finding a location for the
museum.
Nimnual Toom,
owner of Thai House,
met Sattler through Dr. Dale Dinnel, chair of
Western's psychology department. Toom's
brother Lim Phong lives in Thailand in an area
affected by the tsunami. Toom helped Sattler
contact her brother, who had a vacant 13-by-39
-foot room next to his restaurant in Khao Lak.
"I asked him, 'What if I build a museum and
we can accomplish all of these goals?' " Sattler
said. "And he said, 'Let's do it.' "
The Western team spent last summer in
the computer labs on the sweltering top floor
of Miller Hall gathering information online
about the tsunami, and later researching specific
aspects of the museum, said psychology major
Brittany VanLant.
"This is a very exciting project that I think
"We want people who
go to the museum to
see hope, optimism,
resiliency, and the
human spirit."
- Dr. David Sattler
Western psychology professor
see MUSEUM page 5 •
Dr. David Sattler (right, center), professor
of psychology, meets with his research
team in Khao Lak, Thailand in March
2005. The team surveyed 250 survivors
living in temporary shelters about
psychological distress and resiliency.
photo courtesy of David Sattler
NOVEMBER 3.2006
ISSUE 10, VOLUME 139
David
Sedaris
sells out
PAC
Ryan White
THE WESTERN FRONT
Armed with his sardonic
wit, author and public radio
humorist David Sedaris will
speak to a sold out crowd at 8
p.m. on Nov. 4 at the Performing
Arts Center Mainstage, in
association with Western's
Really Big Weekend.
Tickets
for the event
went on sale
Sept. 2.5 for
$20 but sold
out Oct. 11,
ticket office
supervisor
J e s s i e
Phillips said.
In response
to the sold-out performance,
Sedaris agreed to a live video
feed of the event to an audience
in the adjacent concert hall.
Tickets for the video feed are
still available at $10 for students
and $15 for general admission,
David Sedaris
Humorist
see SEDARIS page 4 •
Western
eases off-campus
residence
Rigis Vincenti
• THE WESTERN FRONT
Western added five
townhouses to the list of options
for on-campus housing this fall,
offering a new alternative for
interested students.
Adrik Place, located just off
of Harris Street, was available
to students who applied for
residency at Western's Birnam
Wood apartments fall quarter.
"This is the first time we've
done anything like this in the
eight years I've been here," said
Karen Walker, assignments
manager for University
Residences.
Western is leasing the
units that include 19 residences
from Landmark Real Estate
Management, a local property-management
company, Walker
said. Western opened a bid last
.TOWNHOUSES, Ke 5 •
w e s t e r n f r o n t o n l i n e . c om