Western Front - 1998 April 14

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Smelling
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WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY VOLUME 104 ISSUE 4
April 14, 1998
BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON
De Lorme says he
asked for resignation
By Ken Brierly
The Western Front
Western Provost Roland De Lorme now says that
on March 16, he asked for the August 1998 resigna­tion
of Peter Elich, dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences; the information came to light during a
meeting with the Arts and Sciences chairs last
Thursday.
"De Lorme further stated that he understood (the
firing) to be a directive to him from President
(Karen) Morse," said the Deans and Chairs Steering
Committee in an April 10 memo to the faculty
newsletter, FAST.
Morse has been out of town lately and was not
available for comment yesterday, but she wanted to
defer her account of the matter to an April 6 memo­randum;
what Morse wrote to the chairs of Arts and
Sciences in the memo contradicts De Lorme's latest
statements:
"At no time did I direct the provost or intend to
direct the provost to either fire the dean or ask him
to resign as of August 1998," Morse wrote.
The steering committee thanked De Lorme "for
his honesty and sincerity at this difficult time," and,
according to the memo, is still waiting for "further
clarification from President Morse on her role in this
matter."
When Elich was asked to step down as dean on
March 16, the news quickly spread around campus.
Elich's termination was rescinded on March 20 in
response to enormous protest by chairs and faculty.
The protesters complained, among other things,
that such an abrupt move should not be made with­out
input from chairs or faculty or without a legiti­mate
reason.
"If you go through a regular process, you go
through a review with the chairs," De Lorme said.
"And there's never been a question about (Elich) as
a leader."
De Lorme seems content to take the blame on this
issue.
"I'm sitting on the hot seat on this one," De
Lorme said yesterday. "No one as educated as me
should have made such a dumb mistake."
"(At last Thursday's meeting) I took full responsi­bility,"
said De Lorme. "I told them I had great
respect and fondness for their dean."
De Lorme said that prior to his March 16 meeting
with Elich, Morse had talked to De Lorme about the
possibility of Elich stepping down as dean in
August.
"That was just one option we discussed," De
Lorme said.
According to a statement written by De Lorme, he
and Morse had also discussed the possibility of
Elich playing a "major role in studying the structure
of the university as a part of the faculty."
That job description implies a demotion.
Elich was not present during the first part of The
Front's interview with De Lorme and the dean, but
after he arrived, when given the opportunity to
comment, he abruptly declined.
Elich has refused to publicly comment on the
matter from the beginning.
"I made him feel like he was done," De Lorme
said. "I'm sorry for any damage I did to the dean."
"There seems to be difficulty determining what
the actual story is," said Jim Hearne, faculty senate
president. "I don't know what to think. It's a lot of
unnecessary disruption." |
Acting against hate crime
Front/Erin Fredrichs
Members of the Lifestyle Adviser group "Will Act for Change" display signs which state, "Did you know a hate
crime occurred? Monday April 5th on campus someone yelled, Dyke,' and threw a rock at a Western student.
The student suffered a concussion and had to go to the hospital. We do not accept this ...do you?" From left to
right the signholders are: Daisye Orr, Katie Accola, Monica Bastian, Shannon Simer and Michelle Blum.
Student reports hate crime
By Ernesto Cardenas
The Western Front
Sticks and stones may break bones,
but words can hurt even more. The stone
that hit a student Monday, April 5, gave
her a concussion and left her ears ringing
with one shocking word: Dyke.
The student, a lesbian who will be
referred to as Jessica because she is con­cerned
for her safety, was walking from
the Student Health Center between 4:30
and 5 p.m. when she was hit. En route to
her class in Fairhaven College, Jessica
was passing behind the Science Lecture
building when a man from the
Ridgeway hilltop yelled "dyke."
Moments later, a stone the size of a
golf ball came hurtling through the air
and struck Jessica in the side of the head,
above her ear.
"It was a miracle shot," Jessica said.
The stone came from a distance of at
least 40 yards away. It would have had to
make it through trees and bushes that
covered the hill below the Ridge.
"He could have killed me," Jessica
said. "Had the rock been a little bigger or
in the right spot, I could have been seri­ously
injured."
The only identifying information
Jessica could give the police is that her
attacker was male.
"I knew right away that they wouldn't
find the man who did this," Jessica said.
Jessica then attended class; later her
friends urged her to go to the hospital. A
physician diagnosed Jessica with a mild
. concussion.
"I am lucky that I have a hard head, I
guess," Jessica said. "The one thing I've
learned is that my head is a lot harder
than my heart."
That evening, Jessica filed a crime-vic­tim
report at the hospital. She then called
the University Police, filed a report and
received a case number.
"This goes beyond schoolkids throw­ing
rocks and moves into assault," said
Lesbian /Gay /Bisexual Alliance staff
member Yoshiko Matsui. "It needs to be
taken as a felony."
Jessica also met with the Equal
Opportunity Center to discuss the next
course of action.
"It seems that no one is really clear
what you do exactly at the university,"
she said.
Jessica said Western has responded
well to her situation.
"This was really a blow," Jessica said.
"It was a shock that it could happen at
Western."
She will meet with Western Judicial
Officer Damian Jordan to devise a clear­er
process for victims of hate crimes to
take action.
Jessica said one thing that disturbed
her was the fact that in the Cops Box
report published last Friday, an impor­tant
detail was left out.
"They said what happened but they
didn't say that someone yelled 'dyke,'"
Jessica said. "That really distinguishes
the incident from a random act of vio­lence
to a hate crime."
"This particular act of violence was
related to someone's perception of me
being a lesbian — and that's important,"
he said.
The Ridgeway Resident Director will
also hold a mandatory meeting to dis­cuss
the events that occurred and sensi­tivity
issues.
"I've had a difficult week," Jessica
said, "to say the least.
"Every five minutes my emotions
change," she said. "At some points I'm
really angry, and at other points, it just
See Hate, page 3