Western Front - 1998 May 19

              WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY VOLUME 104 ISSUE 14
TUESDAY
May 19,1998
BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON
Karnival provides
sumo and music
Where the imagination sets sail
By Millissa Brown
The Western Front
Western students, parents
and community members par­ticipated
in a day of carnival
cheer Saturday in Red Square.
Kappa Karnival involved 25
arts-and-crafts booths and more
than a thousand people, said
Virginia Maas of New Student
Programs/Family Outreach,
which co-sponsored the carni­val
with Kappa Residence Hall.
Freshman Nova Gattman
from Kappa Hall chaired the
Kappa planning committee.
Kappa has sponsored the car­nival
for the last 10 years and
received under-
Belly Dance Fever began the
on-stage carnival entertain­ment.
The six Western women
attracted a crowd with their
trance-like movements, music
and costumes.
"Belly dancers must have a
lot of self-confidence; people
don't usually run around with
their bellies hanging out," said
dancer Kristin Longman, a psy­chology
major.
Longman and fellow dancer
Teresa Bruffey said the newly
formed belly dance club has a
lot of fun and practices once a.
week.
"You learn to use a lot more
muscles ...than^.
writing from the "We hSCl it yo u thought
Residence Hall . you had,"
Association and realty OfganiZeCI Bruffey said.
and so much the Associated
Students Activities
Council, Gattman
said.
"We had it real­ly
organized and
so much help this
year," Gattman
said.
Committee members began
planning the event in January,
Gattman said.
Participants at the Sumo
wrestling booth, sponsored by
Kappa, suited up in costumes
complete with loin-cloths and
wig-like helmets. The crowd
laughed as match after match
ended with a large Sumo-cos­tume
wearer being toppled
over as another equally unsta­ble
opponent belly flopped on
top of him or her.
The only requirement for
competition was signing a
release form in case of injury.
help this year."
Nova Gattman
chair of the Karnival
committee
Entertainment
was also pro­vided
by live
stage bands
Beats Cookin',
bugs in amber,
Bass and A Cup
of Joe and NY
Jimmy & the
Jive Five.
Booths at the event were
hosted by both community ven­dors
and campus clubs. Two
Ferndale vendors were
impressed with the size and
enthusiasm of Saturday's
crowd.
"I think everyone is in good
spirits," one said.
Asia University America
Program students served tradi­tional
Japanese food and
Western rugby players gave
away prizes for popping bal-loons
handcuffed.
See Karnival page 4
Front/Shane Powell
Sam Raney, 5 years old, plays with one of the water exhibits at Mindport. Mindport Exhibits offers
children and adults the opportunity to explore the art and science world.
See story page 10 and 11
Junior Writing Exam may be eliminated
By Ken Brierly
The Western Front
The Junior Writing Exam may no longer
be used at Western.
Western's Faculty Senate yesterday
heard recommendations from the
Academic Coordinating Commission,
based on its findings that the test is flawed
and isn't accomplishing what it was origi­nally
to accomplish.
The senate will vote on the recommenda­tions
in two weeks and will take one of
three actions: overturn the recommenda­tion,
ratify it as is or ratify it with amend­ments.
"If the vote is in our favor in two weeks,
the students won't have to take (the JWE)
anymore," said Steve a r x . , ,
Ross, who headed the Sometimes, the people
committee that drafted
the recommendations.
"This is a movement
to kill the JWE," said Jim
Hearne, faculty senate
president.
Carmen Werder, writ­ing
program representa­tive,
said this decision
hasn't come out of the blue, but has been
three years in the making.
"A lot of study has gone into this,"
Werder said. "A lot of time has been spent
on trying to fix the JWE, and it's funda­mentally
flawed."
Werder and
Ross say a pilot pro­gram
for a new form
of assessment will
begin this summer.
"If you're going
to assess an individ­ual,
one should look
at a portfolio or sev­eral
writing sam-who
most need the
Writing Center's help
are not receiving if
Jim Hearne
faculty senate president
pies, not on their ability to point out errors
on a multiple-choice test," Ross said.
That's probably how students' writing
proficiencies will be evaluated in the
future.
Ross said writing samples used in the
pilot study will be papers students have
actually written.
Werder said if the JWE is abolished, the
Writing Center's resources may be redirect­ed.
"Sometimes, the people who most need
the Writing Center's help are not receiving
it," Werder said.
Ross said students who have already
passed the JWE and those who haven't will
be able to enroll in writing-proficiency
courses, pending the senate's passage of
the ACC recommendations.