Western Front - 2000 November 30

              THURSDAY, November 30, 2000
Western Washington University Volume 114 Issue 16 Bellingham, Washington
Graffiti artists spray for hip-hop week
Angela D. Smith/ The Western Front
Todd Parish works on his section of the backdrop for a Friday show featuring Rahzel, a human beatbox, Parish worked
with two others to promote a week of hip-hop events put on by A.S. Productions. See related story, Page 10.
Heroin use rising in Whatcom County
By Jessica Keller
THE WESTERN FRONT
The Bellingham Police
Department said officers
responded to a reported overdose
Nov. 14 in the 1100 block of 12th
Street in Bellingham. Medics
could not resuscitate the victim,
despite attempts.
Lt. Dae Jamison said officers
found heroin paraphernalia on
the premises. He said the victim
Interviews
required of
students
leaving with
school debt
By Erin Crumpacker
THE WESTERN FRONT
Many Western students look
forward to graduation. However,
the student loans some face
repayment of after graduation
have potential to be ignored.
By law, exit interviews are
required of all students with stu­dent
loans who are withdrawing,
graduating or transferring from
Western.
Sabrena Neff works at
Western's loan repayment depart­ment,
the department handling
the interviews this week. She said
exit interviews cover students'
rights and responsibilities con­cerning
federal loans.
She said federal direct loans
are the most common loan among
students. These loans are distrib­uted
by the federal government
and have an interest rate at 8.2
See MOST, Page 5
most likely died from a heroin
overdose, but police will not know
for certain until toxicology results
have returned.
The previous week, another
victim died from a heroin over­dose,
Jamison said. He said two
other heroin overdoses have been
reported recently, although the
victims were resuscitated.
**Heroin is a nasty drug and its
use does not appear to be decreas­ing,"
Jamison said.
Whatcom County Substance
Abuse Advisory Board member
Ward Nelson. v>saj[d. c;.Wh.atcpm^
County has a problem witti hero­in
due to drug trafficking!
"Heroin is the predominant
narcotic that is utilized in this
country just as cocaine is the pre­dominant
narcotic utilized in
Canada," Nelson said. 'Whatcom
County is the middle point
between Seattle and Vancouver,
so all herpin. being trafficked
north and all cocaine coming
south come through. Whatcom
•County".-. ' / ^ ^ - « — . .:
Substance Abuse Advisory
Board member Ben Denson said
heroin use and addiction is a big
problem in Whatcom County and
it's still growing.
"It's larger than most people
think," Denson said. "It is cer­tainly
an increasingly larger
problem than it has been."
See WHATCOM, Page 5
causes
New water line in
arboretum causes
heating oil spill on
Western property
By Jen True
THE WESTERN FRONT
Bellingham Public Works
expects to reopen a Sehome Hill
trail late next week that has
-been closed for a water main
project since mid-September,
project engineer Cape Powers
said. The completion of the
project was delayed when
workers hit an old heating oil
tank near the corner of Oak
and High Streets, he said.
Powers said the oil tank was
located at the base of the hill,
on Western property.
'We are going to clean up the
site to the accepted standards,"
Powers said, adding he was told
heating oil does not pose the
same environmental risks as
gasoline.
The cleanup is anticipated to
cost around $1,600, Powers
See DIGGING, Page 5
Angela D. Smith/ The Western Front
Construction workers place a new water pipe and conduit
in Sehome Hill above Western.
Faculty
Senate will
not support
bargaining
legislation
By Joseph Terrell
THE WESTERN FRONT
Western's Faculty Senate
passed a motion Tuesday that
Western not be included in leg­islation
the Washington •
Federation of Teachers and
Washington Education
Association plan to propose
concerning collective bargain­ing
for public university faculty
during the coming legislative
session.
The Faculty. Senate acted
after faculty members recently
voted by a .99-65 margin to
reject Western's inclusion in
the current bill. Conversely,
staff voted by a 103-62 margin
that they support the idea of
enabling legislation for collec­tive
bargaining for faculty.
Critics have labeled the
pending propbsitionas "generic
in enabling legislation," saying
the current bill fails to define a
bargaining unit, the role of fac­ulty
governance, strikes and
lockouts and the role of depart­ment
chairs. They pointed to
the California statute that gov­erns
public university faculty
in that t;tate, which defines the
four points that the critics
brought up, as an example to
be followed in Washington
state.
After deciding to pass the
motion for Western's exclusion
from current collective bar­gaining
legislation, Faculty
~"~ See FACULTY, Page 4
IN THIS ISSUE
No pain —
no gain
A group of Lifestyle
Advisors called The Fitness
Team are pushing students
toward athletic prowess.
See story, Page 15.
Rudy's Pizzeria bakes
some classic pie
Rudy's Pizzeria,
located con­veniently
downtown,
serves up
homemade
pizza for rea­sonable
prices.
See story, Page 11. *
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