Western Front - 2003 May 16

              Rock in the garden
The Big Rock Garden Park shows
art with nature.
See Story, Page 6.
Next stop: nationals
Three Vikings earn bid for track
and field national meet.
See Story, Page 8.
Western Washington University Volume 125 Issue 13 Bellingham, Washington
AS seeks Patriot Act resolution
By Travis Sherer
THE WESTERN FRONT
The Associated Students board
of directors received support
Tuesday night from students and
locals suporting a resolution to
defend civil liberties taken away
by the USA Patriot Act, said
Kevin Stock, chairman of the stu­dent
senate.
The AS board, in conjunction
with the Western Freedom
Alliance and the student senate,
organized a public discussion to
evaluate a pending resolution
protecting student records from
the USA Patriot Act.
"We wanted to see what the
student opinion is about the
Patriot Act and the response to
the resolution," AS President
Allison Smith said.
The student senate will con­sider
the resolution, titled
"Defending Civil Liberties," on
May 27. The resolution states
that students' financial and edu­cational
records should not be
released to government agencies
without probable cause, judicial
review or student notification.
"We tried to focus the resolution
on students needs, like records
and personal information," Smith
said. "It is more reasonable than
saying we don't like it."
The resolution also stated that
the act violates personal rights,
including Internet usage, e-mail
> Justin McCaughan/The WesternJFront
Members of the student body pack ifftola (own hall meeting May 13 to discuss passing a
resolution that would defy the USA Patriot Act. The resolution addresses what students say
are violations of their civil and personal rights.
tracking and search warrants.
"There are a lot of other ways
we can make a bigger impact;
this is just the first step," said
Bryan Wokich, president of the
Western Freedom Alliance.
Western alumnus and execu­tive
chairman of the College
Republicans Toby Faber said the
Patriot Act is meant to determine
who~ is attending college class
and who is attending for illegal
citizenship. He said the act pro­vides
law enforcement with the
necessities to fight terrorism. ,
Depending on student senate
approval of the resolution, the
AS board will discuss the resolu­tion
as an' action item June 4,
Stock said. "
See PATRIOT, Page 4
Political parties split on how to shrink state deficit
ESTATE
OWN
U5GISLVTURE2003
By Abiah Weaver
THE WESTERN FRONT
This is the first in a series of
stories that will examine the
Washington State budget, recent
spending and pending legisla­tion
and its effect on Bellingham
residents and students.
Every two years Washington
state legislators become as fru­gal
as penny-pinching college
students, who cut corners and
make sacrifices, yet always
come up short.
Although the average college
student does not have a $24 bil­lion
budget to work with like
the state does, the Republican-controlled
Senate and
Democrat-controlled House are
still having trouble making
ends meet. The two chambers
are divided about how to patch
a $2.6 billion revenue hole, the
largest deficit in recent years.
"The source of revenue is the
only thing that is holding
(negotiations) up," said state
budget Director Marty Brown.
Brown said the state's econo­my
never completely recovered
after Sept. 11. Legislators are
committed to stimulating the
fractured economy, but they do
not have enough money to give
equally to all agencies, pro­grams,
institutions and indi­viduals
that need assistance,
he said.
"We have a fundamental bud­get
problem in our state," Rep.
Doug... Ericksen, R-Ferndale,
said. "We have to make system­atic
change s. We might fix
things this.year, but next time
we'll have an even larger gap.
Things won't change by simply
bridging the gap."
Although the official legislative
See BUDGET, Page 3
Attorneys,
cops inform
students of
legal rights
By Lee Fehrenbacher
THE WESTERN FRONT
The next time Western stu­dents
know they will be party­ing,
they should consider their
legal rights as well, Western
graduate and attorney Jeffrey
A. Lustick said.
Two lawyers, a police officer
and 10 to 15 students gathered
in the Viking Union on Tuesday
to discuss underage drinking
and student privacy.
The group congregated for
the question and answer forum
"Your Rights and the Police," a
fall and spring program spon­sored
by Western's Legal
Information Center.
"What I found fascinating is
that you.have all these differ­ent
spectrums of the law," said
'Micherahne~Calhoun,""Western",
senior arid Legal Information
Center coordinator. 'You have
the police officer's opinion, the
county prosecutor's perspec­tive
and the local attorney's
outlook."
Lustick said Western stu­dents
need to know their rights
in order to properly protect
them when police knock at the
door of a rowdy party.
"You may be the most intelli­gent,
quick-minded person
around, but if police knock on
your door at 2 a.m., it's going to
be difficult to think fast
enough and clear enough to
make good decisions," he said.
"It's very helpful to know your
rights."
One issue filtering through
the local defense community
concerns student privacy
rights, Lustick said.
"Students do have the right
to exclude police from their
See RIGHTS, Page 4
Local filmmaker previews upcoming Gulf War probe
By Justin McCaughan
THE WESTERN FRONT
Researcher and film producer Mindy Newby said
she is on a mission to educate people about depleted
uranium poisoning. Her weapon is a video camera.
Bellingham resident Newby spoke to a group of
Fairhaven students May 15 in the Fairhaven
Auditorium about a film she is making that investi­gates
illnesses and deaths of Gulf War veterans
caused by the use of depleted uranium in U.S.
weapons.
'Tve made a lot of films, but this is the first fea­ture-
length film made for theater distribution,"
Newby said. "I hope by raising consciousness that
people will convince Washington, D.C., to stop using
depleted-uranium munitions."
Newby began her film career in the early 1980s
and decided that she wanted to make a feature-length
documentary to expose the dangers of the
harmful effects of radioactive and toxic substances
such as depleted uranium after she learned about
them herself. .
The event was sponsored by Fairhaven College
and was part of the ongoing World Issues Forum.
Newby started filming her documentary in 1996
and has been working on it ever since.
"It made me very angry and sad to think that
the military would take these people who are so
See URANIUM, Page 3
Justin McCaughan /
The Western Front
Operation Iraqi
Freedom veteran
Alexander Mengel
talks with Mindy
Newby about his
experiences in
the recent war in
Iraq. Mengel
returned on the
USS Abraham
Lincoln on May 6.
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