Western Front - 2009 February 10

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Tuesday February 10,2009
THE WESTERN FRONT
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SINCE 1970 1 WESTERNFRQNTQNLINE.NET
Special education
graduate program
halts enrollment
Kevin Minnick
THE WESTERN FRONT
Western's Special Education Gradu­ate
Program is going on an indefinite
hiatus due to low enrollment and budget
cutbacks.
The department sent out an official
e-mail to students and faculty notifying
them of the hiatus two weeks ago. While
current Master of Education students can
arrange to finish the program, all prospec­tive
students are now being turned away.
Students hit hardest by this cancella­tion
are those who have just enrolled in
the Post-Baccalaureate Special Education
program, said Kris Slentz, special educa­tion
graduate adviser.
Many of the students enrolled with
the intention of switching over to the Mas­ter
of Education program-upon meeting
class requirements, but due to the sudden
announcement, students now have to look
to other schools for further education, she
said.
The decision to halt enrollment in the
program was not handed down by West-em
President Bruce Shepard. It was a gen­eral
consensus of the senior faculty of the
special education department, department
chair Keith Hyatt said.
Putting the program on hiatus al­lows
for the possibility of future revival,
Hyatt said. Canceling the program en­tirely
would require state approval to
restart the program later, which would
doubtlessly be a lengthy process, he said.
One problem with the graduate pro­gram
was that the department accepted
students at all times of the year—despite
low enrollment levels—making the vari­ous
levels of student progression hard for
the department to juggle. Hyatt said they
offered this flexibility in enrollment to
help work around students' schedules be­cause
many students were teaching at the
same time.
"We have tried to be everything to ev­erybody,"
he said.
Graduate student and professor assis­tant
Lauriel Bybee lauded the flexibility of
the department.
"One thing that's been really great
about the grad program is that it's totally
individualized to what you already came
in to the program with," Bybee said.
"They create a plan of study that's differ­ent-
for everybody."
This individualization, however, was
difficult with such a small number of stu­dents.
Due to low enrollment in the graduate
program, the majority of graduate-level
classes were partnered with undergradu
see GRAD page 5
Jailed deserter sparks
Western students and local activists rally outside the Whatcom County jail Thursday in support
was detained by the U.S. border patrol and sent to Whatcom County Jail after he attempted to
David Gonzales
THE WESTERN FRONT
When Private Cliff Cornell joined the
Army, he said his recruiter promised him
he would never be shipped overseas. Two
years later, his artillery unit received or­ders
to serve in Iraq.
Cornell refused to fight. He fled to
Canada, and he now faces a court-martial
and jail time for going absent without
leave (AWOL).
"This war is bogus," Cornell said. "I
didn't sign up to kill innocent people."
Situations such as this are why West-em
students and the Whatcom Peace and
Justice Center are lobbying the Belling-ham
City Council to pass an ordinance
photos by David Gonzales THE WESTERN FRONT
of Cliff Cornell (below), a war resister who
turn himself in to the U.S. Military.
%•
that will declare Bellingham a sanctuary
city for war deserters.
: Western sophomore Nick Spring, stu­dent
organizer of the sanctuary city cam­paign,
said most Western students do not
realize to what extent the war in Iraq is
actually affecting them.
"Bellingham has spent more than
$130. million on the war," Spring said.
"That money could have paid for every­one's
tuition that is going to school this
year. We should be funding tuition, not
dropping bombs."
If passed, the ordinance will protect
AWOL.soldiery such as Cornell and en­sure
that no Bellingham tax money will
see AWOL page 8
Missing belongings frustrate Gamma residents
Residents still struggle to recover items damaged or lost after December's burst pipe
Jeremy Perry
Kevin Minnick
THE WESTERN FRONT
Nearly six weeks after a burst radia­tor
pipe in Ridgeway Gamma Residence
Hall forced Western to gut and restore
stack four, displaced students were finally
able to move back in to their rooms start­ing
Friday, but some have yet to receive
all of their belongings.
Freshman roommates Tyler Nichols
and Yahn Gentry, both displaced from the
flooding, said they thought the whole or­deal
was disorganized and confusing.
The flood was discovered Dec. 23
and Western quickly contracted Michi­gan-
based BELFOR Restoration for the
repair work.
In order to begin the repairs imme­diately,
BELFOR boxed up the student's
belongings left during winter break. The
boxes were first sent to a cleaning center
in Fife, Wash, and then to a storage ware­house
in Femdale for the displaced resi­dents
to retrieve.
Residence Life Associate Director
John Purdy said BELFOR inventoried all
property in order-to minimize the chances
of losing any belongings. When the af­fected
students returned from winter break,
Purdy said he arranged for transportation
to assist them with retrieving their belong­ings
from the warehouse.
Students received a copy of the in­ventory
sheet listing the personal property
removed from their respective rooms, and
see GAMMA page 4