Western Front - 2008 May 15

              NEWS
Students collect money
for cancer research
» page 5
ART&LIFE
KVIK airs student run
sketch comedy show
» page 8
JL
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OPINION
The WASL is a waste of
student time
» page 12
SPORTS
Students train for
Ironman competition
» page 14
Friday, May 16,2008
THE WESTERN FRONT
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SINCE 1970.
Solar panels to be installed on the Viking Union
photo illustration courtesy of Ron Bailey
The Viking Union with digitally added solar panels to illustrate what
the project will look like when completed.
Charlotte Wilson-Murphy
THE WESTERN FRONT
A set of rooftop solar panels
and an interactive, educational
kiosk will be installed in the Vi­king
Union Friday or Monday.
The 12 panels will gener­ate
between 1,900- and 2,300-
kilowatt hours of electricity per
year, depending on sunlight lev­els,
and will help offset West­erns
electricity costs.
The purpose of the kiosk
is to explain the solar demon­stration
project and show how
much power the solar panels are
generating.
Students for Renewable
Energy, an Associated Student
club, is responsible for the in­stallation.
Club President Rose
Woofenden said the project
began two years ago when the
club began organizing and plan­ning
for the solar panels.
Since fall 2005, Western
has been using 100 percent
green energy.
Green energy is energy that
has been created in an environ­mentally
friendly way, such as
through wind farms, Woofen­den
said.
The club is currently re­vamping
its criteria for green
energy, noting that Western
recently switched from a wind
farm in eastern Washington to
one in South Dakota because
see SOLAR page 3 •
Sections of
parks scheduled
to close for
construction
Andrew Frazier
THE WESTERN FRONT
With warm summer weather
finally here, many Western stu­dents
flock to one of Bellingham's
many parks to soak up the sun and
scenery. But this summer, park
visitors will have to change their
plans to accommodate • mainte­nance
and construction projects
starting at the end of May.
The Bellingham Parks and
Recreation Department plans to
close sections of Big Rock Trail,
Cornwall Park and Whatcom
Falls Park in addition to other
popular park areas to build new
playground structures, maintain
worn-down trails and add parking
spaces and restroom facilities.
Bellingham Parks and Rec­reation
engineer Terry Gobo and
landscape architect Jonathan
Schilk are coordinating the eight-park
project. Gobo said the clo­sures
will only affect a portion of
the parks, and detours will be pro­vided
to ensure the easiest public
access.
"Besides being a place to
play, Bellingham parks are pop­ular
for people holding special
events," Gobo said. "Before
people's plans are underway, we
want them to know there will be
construction that they may have
to plan ahead for."
Schilk is overseeing play­ground
construction at Cornwall
and Carl Lobe Parks and trail con­struction
in Big Rock Trail Park.
He said the eight-park project
started in 2004, working its way
Gas prices top $4 per gallon in Bellingham
Western students, employees may be forced to hang up the keys
Farah Hirji
THE WESTERN FRONT.
As gas prices climb to more than $4
per gallon, Western students and Bell­ingham
residents are forced to find alter­native
means of transportation.
Western junior Kelly DiJulio said
she is driving less because of the gas
price increase and because walking in
Bellingham is simple.
DiJulio said she travels home to Se­attle
some weekends, but with gas prices
increasing, she will start carpooling and
splitting the cost with her brother, who
also lives in Bellingham, to save mon­ey.
.
DiJulio said she hopes people will
stop buying gas in order to drive prices
down. If the prices don't stop increas­ing,
people will slowly start using other
modes of transportation, she said.
Western senior Laura Hoagland
said she looks for more opportunities to
carpool with friends as well.
Hoagland said she remembers gas
prices in Bellingham being 97 cents per
gallon in March of 2001.
"I've found a new joy in coasting
down hills, so I have to accelerate less
and thus save a couple of pennies," Hoa­gland
said.
Western sophomore Cora Glass
said she drives down to Seattle regularly
and doesn't usually carpool, but if gas
prices continue to soar, she said she will
be forced to carpool in order to split the
cost.
More than 90 percent of Western,
students have bus passes, which means
Whatcom Transit Authority has seen a
dramatic ridership increase, said Carol
Berry, Western's sustainable transporta­tion
program manager.
Every student taking six or more
credits can get a bus pass from the uni­versity,
therefore Berry said she thinks
students are riding the bus more due to
the increase in gas prices.
Berry said the gas price increase not
only affects students, but Western em­ployees
as well. She said her colleagues
see GAS page 3 •
photo by Alex Roberts THE WESTERN FRONT
Gas prices have climbed to more than $4 per gallon at
the Shell station on Meridian Street.
Buy/sell/trade clothing stores
becoming increasingly popular
see PARKS page 4 •
photo by Michael Leese THE WESTERN FRONT
Western freshmen Brittany Iverson and AH
Cochrane shop for deals at Buffalo Exchange
in downtown Bellingham on State St.
Amanda Winters
THE WESTERN FRONT
Juicy Couture jeans: $25. Steve Madden
high heels: $12. Buying these items with money
received from the clothes outgrown freshman
year: priceless.
In the past few years, the number of buy/
sell/trade clothing stores has increased in Bell­ingham.
Plato's Closet, a store offering gentfyr
used, brand-name clothing, opened its doors
across from the Bellis Fair Mall, near Home
Depot, April 27.
At buy/sell/trade stores, old clothes can be
sold, traded for other clothes or bought.
One good thing about the stores, unlike con­signment
stores, is the seller doesn't have to wait
for the clothes to sell before getting the cash, said
Plato's Closet store manager Kelly Howe.
A pair of Abercrombie and Fitch jeans sold
at the mall for $70 can be brought in to Plato's
Closet, bought for $8.25 and sold in the store for
$25, Howe said. All items are sold at 30 percent
of the retail price, and the seller gets 30 percent
of the new selling price.
Plato's Closet, a chain with more than 800
stores in North America, specializes in selling
gently-used clothing from brands such as Hol-see
CLOTHING page 6 •