Western Front - 2002 September 24

              Vikings
football preview
— The Welcome Back Edition —
Nudes, hypnotists, historic Fairhaven, Scottish
dancing and a look at Sept. 11.
See Inside.
*xl,M. <&*' ^.„ Front Western Washington University Volume 123 Issue 1 Bellingham, Washington
CS department
appeals decision
to revoke ABET
accreditation
By Sonja L. Cohen
THE WESTERN FRONT
Western's computer science
department is in danger of los­ing
its accreditation after Sept.
30, 2003. The department will
appeal the accreditation board's
decision.
After the Computing
Accreditation Commission, a
branch of the Accreditation
Board of Engineering and
Technology, did an-accreditation
visit in fall 2001, the ABET
decided it would not continue to
support the program past Sept.
2003.
"If they agree there is some­thing
worth looking at, I would
expect a visit during fall term,"
. said David Bover, professor and
chairman of the computer sci­ence
department. "If we're suc­cessful
with this, then we won't
lose accreditation at all."
According to the ABET's Web
site, accreditation assures
prospective students and
employers that an institution or
program has met certain stan­dards.
The decision to withdraw
accreditation was based on
problems with the department's
stated objectives and method of
assessing the program, Bover
said. ABET also found inade­quacies
with curriculum for oral
communication and the social
and ethical issues of computing.
"The accreditation criteria
have changed since the depart­ment
was originally accredited
and the department unfortu­nately
did not keep up with that
change," Bover said.
In a meeting Sept. 17, mem-
See APPLY, Page 14
Bellingham residents gather at Maritime Park
Sept. 11 to honor Bellingham police officers and
firefighters. "Let us not just look back at what
was bad," said Dan Tripps, who spoke at the
don't remember to thank." He said police officers,
firefighters, paramedics and pubJic service work­ers
are heroes every day, even if their hardwork
Western places second in national ranking
By Helen Hollister
THE WESTERN FRONT
Incoming freshmen have yet
another reason to pat them­selves
on the back for choosing
Western as their post-secondary
institution.
According to a U.S. News and
World Report article released
Sept. 13, Western ranks second
among public master's-granting
schools in the western region.
On the national scope, Western
ranks eleventh.
It is one of only two public
schools ranked in the top 20
comprehensive universities in
the West. The western region
stretches from Texas to
California. The only school
rated higher in Western's cate­gory
was Cal Poly- San Luis
Obispo.
Western also moved up in the
rankings to 16th place, which
brought it into the "top tier" of
all master's-granting universi­ties
in the west, public or pri­vate.
In-the same category last
year, Western placed 19th.
Western Provost Andrew
Bodman said he is pleased with
how well Western was ranked iri
the article.
"It tells us that other~people
think we're a good institution,"
he said. "Certainly we've
become more competitive over
time."
Since 1987, when U.S. News
and World Report first began
ranking colleges, Western has
been highly rated out 14 of 16
years.
Rankings were based on a
variety of criteria, including
academic reputation, student
selectivity and retention, alum­ni
giving, graduation rates, fac­ulty
resources and financial
resources. To evaluate schools,
U.S. News and World Report
assigned each factor or criteria
a specific value. The factors are
then weighed and schools are
ranked against their peers. '
"We scored extremely well on
academic reputation," Bodman
said. "We're very competitive on
admission and graduation rates."
Western is not as competitive
in financial resources and alum­ni
giving, Bodman said.
Financial resources involves
S t . Rank, Page 14
Private schools ranking
higher than Western in U.S.
News and World Report
assessment: <
Seattle University (10th),
Gonzaga University (fourth),
Whitworth College (tied for
fifth), Pacific Lutheran
University (eighth), Seattle
University (eighth) and Seattle
Pacific University (14th). .,
Western Newsline
A brief look at summer news
Western, WTA plan
Haggard bus shelter
Construction on a new north­bound
bus shelter in front of
Haggard Hall could begin as
early as fall quarter, said Tim
Wynn, Western director of
Facilities Management.
The Whatcom Transit
Authority Board of Directors
contributed $40,000 to Western
for building the new bus shelter.
The shelter will help alleviate
the congestion currently cen­tered
around the Viking Union
shop, Wynn said.
"It is just not a safe situation
to have that mix of buses, bicy­cles,
service vehicles and pedes­trians,"
said Rick Gordon, WTA
director of Service and
Development.
Barbara Alten, an architect
hired by Western to design the
shelter, started working on the
plans for the new shelter in
December. The structure will be
built out of steel and have glass
shields from all sides to protect
bus riders from the wind, she
said.
The area of the bus shelter
will cover 500 square feet and
include a dual-faced clock,
benches, vandal.resistant light­ing,
a bus route map and a WTA
phone line, Alten said.
Samish Twin Drive-In
closed, will be demolished
The Samish Twin Drive-In,
Whatcom County's lone remain­ing
drive-in, is closed and will be
demolished.
The owner, Sterling Realty
Organization, decided to tear
down the buildings and keep the
lot vacant for future develop­ment
because of financial prob­lems,
property manager Jason
Horning said.
Hdrning said the drive-in has
not been profitable for several
years.
"Even on nights when we were
full, we would still lose money,"
he said. "It just didn't make any
financial sense to keep the place
running."
Horning said Sterling leased
the company in the past two
years to Darryl Bratt of Oak
Harbor.
Bratt said he also struggled to
generate enough revenue to
compensate for the labor costs,
production costs and an increas­ingly
high property value.
"It's hard to operate a drive-in
in a city the size of Bellingham,"
he said. "The property value is
simply much higher than the
income."
Once the buildings are gone,
Sterling will keep the lot vacant
until a contractor approaches
them with a favorable proposi-
See page 12 to learn about
other important events that
happened during summer
quarter.
For news tips, call (360) 650-3162 or e-mail The Western Front at wfront@cc.wwu.edu www.westernfrontonline.com Please recycle