Western Front - 1999 October 1

              D
FRIDAY, October 1,1999
Western Washington University Volume 107 Issue 2 Bellingham, Washington
BBC films VRI cars on
By Melissa Miller
THE WESTERN FRONT
An electric car, a solar car
and a British film crew caused
quite a traffic jam as they
blocked South College Drive at
5 p.m. on Wednesday in front of
the Visitors Information Booth.
Western's Vehicle Research
Institute was setting up the
cars to be filmed for a science
program that will air on the
British Broadcasting Company.
"Tomorrow's World," a weekly
half-hour science program,
reports it is covering in
Western Washington and
Vancouver, British Columbia.
The report will air on the pro­gram
in two weeks to two
months from now for about 6
million viewers, said Tanya
Kerstiens Rowe, media coordi­nator
for the Public
Information Office.
Eileen Seal, grant develop­ment
specialist for the VRI,
said they received a call at 5:30
p.m. on Tuesday to set up for
filming at 8 a.m. the next day.
"This whole thing was put
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Above: Bronwen Ley, producer, and her cameraman Mike
Garner set up a shot. Right: Peter Snow, "Tomorrows
World" host, is filmed crawling out of VRI's Viking 29.
A.S. Board votes to
increase scholarships
in Red Square meeting
By Millissa Macomber
THE WESTERN FRONT /;.
The Associated Students
Board, which met for the first
time in Red Square, voted unani­mously
to increase student schol­arships
from $500 to $750 per
year at the Sept. 29 meeting.
The new amount will be effec­tive
for fall quarter of 2000. The
A.S. awards scholarships related
to academic achievement, cam­pus
activity, diversity, A.S.
employment, leadership, political
and community involvement, and
student life.
This was the first increase
since the creation of the scholar­ships
four years ago, A.S. advisor
Jack Smith said.
Money for the scholarships
comes from ad sales in the "Big
Blue Bonus Book" distributed by
the Student Co-op Bookstore,
Smith said.
The creation of the
Transportation Advisory Task
Force was also approved. This
task force works on the develop­ment,
revision of ideas and pro­motion
of an all-cartipus trans-r
portatioh pass program^ accord­ing
to the task force charter. The
pass development process began
last year and Vice President of
Legislative and Community
Affairs Dave Tbyer, said he hopes
to get the ball rolling again this
year.
"I hope to have something rela­tively
concrete by June," Tbyer
said.
The task force will be chaired
by Tbyer and include five stu­dents
and the legislative liaison.
The task force is set to disband in
the spring of 2000.The hiring of
an election coordinator will be
considered at the next meeting.
The coordinator will help with
the planning of a special winter
election concerning a new recre­ation
facility. The coordinator will
also assist in the usual spring
elections.
Matt Jaffe/ The Western Front
A.S. Officers meet in Red Square for their first meeting.
Photos by GhrisTGoodenoW TherWestern Front
Western centennial celebrated on Web
By April Busch
THE WESTERN FRONT
"When the meals became
gruesome to some of us, we
would invite the president of the
college to lunch — unan­nounced.
It was amazing how
the lunches subsequently
improved," said Rose L. Van Ess
in the Edens Hall Memory Book
where she lived in 1928.
The food may not have
changed since Rose L. Van Ess
lived at Edens Hall, but commu­nication
definitely has.
She could never have foreseen
being quoted on the World Wide
Web, but her words and those of
people throughout Western's
100 year history can be found at
www.wwu.edu/centennial.
Western's centennial history
page, designed by award win­ning
Web designer Chuck
Dingee, along his company,
Psychology professors
receive $250,000 in grants
By Kim Lincoln
THE WESTERN FRONT
Sixty new top-of-the-line PCs
will replace the Psychology
Department's existing seven as
a result of more than $250,000
in grants received by two of the
department's professors.
Scott Ottaway, assistant pro­fessor
of psychology, and Dale
Dinnel, associate professor of
psychology received nearly
$84,000 in funds from Student
Technology Fees and from the
College of Arts and Sciences and
a $86,276 course, curriculum
and laboratory improvement
grant from the National Science
Foundation, Ottaway said.
Western will match the NSF's
funding as part of the grant
requirement, he said.
The money will be used to
purchase new computers, soft­ware
and more advanced learn­ing
equipment.
"This will benefit students
quite directly by allowing them
to learn about psychology using
state-of-the-art technology," said
Ron Kleinknecht, psychology
department head.
In addition to purchasing new
computers, one of the goals of
the three-year project will be to
develop a hew psychology cur­riculum
to bring technology into
the classroom, Kleinknecht said.
This will include adding three
new research courses, assigning
computer-aided homework and
using new software to help
demonstrate psychological prin­ciples.
After the new curriculum is
developed, it will be distributed
to Universities nation-wide by
2001, Ottaway said.
"The department is quite
pleased about the new possibili-
See GRANT, page 4
Media Synergy, has quotes and
photographs ~ important in
Western's history. The site also
has an order form for the cen­tennial
celebration photo album
and a calendar; of centennial cel­ebration
events and dates.
"I liked the anecdotes. They^
really brought the school to
life," said student Adam
Goldstein.
It took Dingee approximately
See HISTORY, page 5
N THIS ISSUE
Star receiver
Western's Ben Clamp-itt,
football's wide receiv­er,
is tied for the national
lead in receiving yards
per game.
See story, page 10.
Fall concert gets funky
Bands at
Westival
please the
crowd,
despite a
chilly
evening in
Red Square.
See story, page 9.