Western Front - 2009 January 13

              Q&AWITH
WESTERN'S NEW
REGISTRAR,
SUSANNA YUNKER
PAGE 2
LGBTA HOSTS
QUEER CLUB
SUMMIT
PAGE 6
SKI AND
SNOWBOARD
SEASON GETS
A LATE START
AT BAKER
PAGE 10
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SINCE'1970 ! W E S T E R N F R 0 N T 0 N L I N E . N ET
BACKTO SQUARE ONE:
Provost position remains unfilled
Ashley Mitchell
After six months, countless back­ground
checks, multiple interviews in
Seattle and visits by three top candidates
to campus, the search for Western's new
Provost/Vice President of Academic Af­fairs
(VPAA) continues as neither Rex
Gandy, Elizabeth Paul nor Shirley Clark
Scott were hired.
A proposal was offered to one of
these final candidates for the position, but
for what appeared to be reasons that did
not involve Western, the candidate turned
it down, Western President Bruce Shepard
said.
He said he believes the candidate has
personal reasons for not accepting the of­fer.
Out of respect to the other candidates,
the name of the candidate offered the po­sition
will not be released yet, said Craig
Dunn, chair of the search advisory com­mittee.
"It's disappointing when you spend
so much time and money to bring these
people to campus and it doesn't work out
like we planned," Dunn said.
After months of investigating each
applicant, the search advisory committee,
which helps the university narrow down
see PROVOST page 3
photo by Katie Grenhe THE WEST-Western
dance majors Laura Aschoff (front left) and Sarah Schermer (front right) audition for "Glacial Decoy/' Western received an Ameri­can
Masterpiece Grant, which allowed the dance department to reconstruct the renowned work by Trisha Brown, see DANCE page 8.
Grad students
offer counseling
for community
Hannah Bostwick
THE WESTERN FRONT
Graduate students in Western's psy­chology
department are providing free
counseling to community members in the
Counseling Training Clinic during winter
and spring quarters.
While Western students are not eli­gible
to use the clinic, they can receive
free counseling at the Counseling Center
on campus. The Counseling and Train­ing
Clinic helps to train graduate students
while providing free counseling to the
community.
The clinic, located on the fourth floor
of the Academic Instructional Center, is
open for individual counseling Monday
.through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p,m., and
for couples and family counseling Tues­days
from 4 to 6 p.m.
Western's psychology department
has offered free counseling to community
members for more than 20 years in a small
space in Miller Hall, assistant professor of
psychology Diana Gruman said.
"The new facility provides a more
than adequate space to train the graduate
students and provide counseling for the
community," she.said.
Prior to receiving counseling,.all pa­tients
sign a consent form allowing each
session to be videotaped and supervised.
The tapes, which are locked in a secure
area to ensure privacy, are reviewed and
discussed by the students and professors
see PSYCH page 4
Huxley receives $140,000 grant to study local farms
Western's Institute for Global and Community Resilience to study food security and disaster planning in Whatcom County
Dan Balmer
THE WESTERN FRONT
Nature dealt another challenge to
Whatcom County farmers last week by
flooding countless acres of farmland.
Heavy rain, along with melted snow,
flooded more than 10 acres of John
Belisle's farm, BelleWood Acres, off the
Guide Meridian. The flooding forced him
to play catch up, shortening the time he
has to prune his 22,000 orchard trees in
preparation for spring harvest.
"The snow has put me three weeks
back, but that's the business I'm in, wres­tling
with nature," Belisle said.
To help local farmers with situations
like this, a $140,000 grant was awarded
to the Institute for Global and Commu­nity
Resilience, (IGCR) a program within
Western's Huxley College of the Environ­ment.
The grant is aimed at researching
ways to help local farmers prepare for ex­treme
weather events and rapid environ­mental
changes.
The two-year grant from the United
States Department of Agriculture (USD A)
will be used to study the resilience of small
and medium-sized farms in three north­western
counties, said Rebekah Green,
IGCR research associate.
"This is the first large federal grant
we have received and it's unique because
it combines the study of food security and
disaster planning together,".Green said.
The study plans to test indicators of
see HUXLEY page 5
photo by Katie Greene THE WEST-The
$140,000 grant awarded to Huxley College will give Western students and faculty a
chance to help local farmers find effective prevention plans for natural disasters, much like
the recent flooding that occurred at BelleWood Acres, a Lynden farm.