Western Front - 2009 February 13

              RECESSION ROMANCE:
14 SWEET, SIMPLE
SUGGESSTIONS
FOR VALENTINE'S DAY
PAGE 6
FOREIGN-BORN ATHLETES:
DIFFERENT PATHS,
SAME DESTINATION
PAGE 10
Friday, February 13, 2009.
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SINCE 1970 I W E S T E R N F R 0 N T 0 N L I N E . N ET
Bruce sees tough times ahead
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photo by Zack Hale THE WESTERN FRONT
Western President Bruce Shepard addresses the Western community Thursday afternoon
in his first mid-year report. Shepard discussed many issues regarding Western's future.
Despite challenges/Shepard remains optimistic in mid-year report
Dan Balrfier
Josh Stilts
THE WESTERN FRONT
Western President Bruce Shepard de­livered
his mid-year report to the campus
community on Thursday, discussing how
Western should prepare for the future
while facing significant budget cuts.
After more than 90 listening sessions
with Western faculty and staff, student
leaders and community members, Shepa­rd
outlined 15 priorities for how Western
can maintain its excellence in the upcom­ing
biennium.
Areas of emphasis included: market­ing,
risk-taking, international and extend­ed
degree programs, diversity, waterfront
advancement and the most important and
pressing need, Shepard said, academic
quality.
During a board of trustees meeting
Thursday afternoon following his speech,
Shepard said Washington State's budget
shortfall could still increase from the $5.8
billion Gov. Chris Gregorie suggested, to
as much as $8.5 billion.
"The public doesn't [understand] the
hurt this state is in," Shepard said. "We
are in a period of transition in American
higher education." •
One thing that stuck with Steve Gam­mon,
chair of Western's chemistry depart­ment,
was .the*realization that more uni­versity
cuts will need to be made.
In the foreseeable future, Western
students could face an increase in tuition
and a longer time to-graduate.
Due to the $32.7 million budget cut
proposed by Washington State Senators
Derek Kilmer and Rodney Tom, Western
could lose 11,906 classroom seats. With
see MID-YEAR page 3
Search for new
dean results in
three finalists
Kipp Robertson
THE WESTERN FRONT
Since Sept. 25, 2008, Western has
been searching for a new dean of the Col­lege
of Humanities and Social Sciences
(CHSS). That search is now nearing its
end, as three finalists, selected by a com­mittee,
are scheduled for final interviews.
Of the. 40 applicants, the search com­mittee
selected Nicol C. Rae, professor of
political science at Florida International
University; Jeffrey W. Gilger, professor of
special education and courtesy professor
of the department of Psychological Sci­ences
at Purdue University; and Western's
current CHSS interim dean Brent Carba-jal,
Spanish professor and former chair of
Western's department of modern and clas­sical
languages.
Carbajal has been interim dean since
Ron Kleinknecht retired on July 1, 2008
and will continue as interim dean until
Sept. 1,2009.
Kleinknecht said the biggest prob­lem
the new dean will face is managing
the college's budget. The 2009 budget
for the College of Humanities and Social
Sciences is approximately $14.9 million,
almost $4 million more than the depart­ment's
original budget in 2003. However,
the department has many more expendi­tures
now than when it was first started,
he said.
"There have always been budget
challenges," Kleinknecht said. "But noth­ing
like they are today."
see SEARCH page 4
Facilities Management tears up section of Red Square
Michael Johnson
THE WESTERN FRONT
With St. Patrick's Day just around
the corner, Western's Facilities Manage­ment
is taking measures to avert potential
pollution to Bellingham Bay from harm­ful
chemicals and contaminants draining
from Fisher Fountain
Last year, vandals deposited green
food coloring into the fountain in Red
Square on St. Patrick's Day, causing green
water to drain from Western's facilities
into a local creek.
When Western noticed this colorful
drainage, it immediately contacted the
Washington State Department of Ecology
who concluded that Western needed to re­route
Fisher Fountain's drainage pipe.
In order to reach the drainage pipe,
workers have dug a trench approximately
4 to 5 feet deep in Red Square on the south
side of the fountain.
Currently, water flowing from Fish­er
Fountain drains into Western's storm
drain which connects with the city of Bell-ingham's
storm drain and eventually flows
into Bellingham Bay, said Tim Wynn,
Western's director of Facilities Manage­ment.
After construction is complete, wa­ter
draining from the fountain will flow
through a sanitary line that drains into a
sewage treatment plant, he said.
Western contacted the department of
see RED SQUARE page 5
photo by Carolyn Copstead THE WESTERN FRONT
Utility workers and plumbers work Wednesday afternoon to reroute Fisher Foun­tain's
plumbing system. The water from the fountain will now drain through a sewage-treatment
plant in order to avoid pollution, Western plumber Jason Sprinkle said.