Western Front - 2005 October 4

              THE WESTERN FRONT TUESDAY
WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
OCTOBER 4,2005
An independent student newspaper serving the campus community since 1970. ISSUE 5, VOLUME 135
'I'm very lucky because a lot of people couldn 't afford to get out. What do you do if you have nowhere to go?'
ADAM WILLIAMS
Western transfer student
IN SEARCH OF SHELTER
Loyola University New Orleans
sophomore Adam Williams finds
safety from Katrina at Western
TAYLOR WILLIAMS / THE WESTERN FRONT
Adam Williams, a sophomore at Loyola University New Orleans, will finish the year here.
BY CIARA O' ROURKE
The Western Front
Western transfer student and
Seattle native Adam Williams,
20, was at his house in the
Garden District of New Orleans
for less than 48 hours before
he and four friends were on the
road to Houston.
"I got there Friday; we left
Saturday; the hurricane hit
Monday," Williams said.
A sophomore at Loyola
University New Orleans,
Williams and his friends were
living in a house in uptown New
Orleans near the university. The
day Williams moved into his
house, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux
Blanca declared a state of
emergency for Louisiana.
"I woke up Saturday morning
. and people were starting to talk,"
Williams said. "I hadn't even
unpacked yet; I just threw my
stuffinthecar."
A SURVIVOR'S STORY
This article is part of a series about
students displaced by Hurricane
Katrina who are attending Western.
Saturday evening, Williams
and his four housemates drove
13 hours to a hotel in Houston.
Last September, Williams
had a similar experience with
Hurricane Ivan. Officials
evacuated New Orleans and
Williams returnedhome to Seattle
for a week. The hurricane did
not harm the city and Williams
returned to school.
"We thought it was going to
be like that again," he said about
fleeing Katrina.
With only his clothes and
computer, Williams expected to
hang out in Houston before going
back to school a few days later.
"Getting out of the city was
OK," he said. "But once you got
see KATRINA, page 6
New legislation
protects mail­order
spouses
BY JACOB BUCKENMEYER
The Western Front
The federal government may soon be able to
monitor American men who are seeking foreign
wives through mail-order-bride organizations
due to a bill from U.S. Representative Rick
Larsen, D-Wash., said Abbey Levenshus,
Larsen's director of communications.
Larsen's bill, the International Marriage
Broker Regulation Act, passed the House of
Representatives Wednesday and will go before
the Senate, where Levenshus said she expects it
to pass and become law by the end of the year.
This is the first piece of federal legislation
passed to regulate organizations that traffic mail­order
brides, she said.
"Largely, the marriage brokers hold all the
cards," Levenshus said. "The women have no
way of knowing who these men are — only
what the men tell them."
see BILL, page 6
Recreation center on track
In year three of 30-year payment plan,
center copes with rising operating costs
BY SUSAN ROSENBERRY
The Western Front
Although the Wade King Student
Recreation Center is on track with
paying off the debts it accumulated with
its construction in 2003, students have
had to shoulder a greater portion of the
burden than originally expected.
The rec center cost Western and
its students $18.2 million in initial
costs for construction and operation,
including all of the fitness and
entertainment equipment, rec center
director Marie Sather said.
While the costs may seem
outrageous, 82 percent of students
visit the facility three to four times a
week, rec center business manager
Mayra Vazquez said.
"To get an idea, the facility
accumulated 411,000 visits just last
year, not counting rentals or group
activities," Vazquez said.
WESTERN'S HORIZONS
This article is part of a series looking at
Western's growth and its ever-expanding
goals for developing the university.
While the center is on schedule to
pay off its debt, its staff constantly is
battling unnecessary costs, Vazquez.
"It's a sensitive issue, especially
with payroll," Vazquez said. "We
want to promote jobs for students at
Western since this facility is built for
them, while we still have to be frugal
about everything we buy and do — to
only expend what we have to spend."
But certain expenditures, such as
money for maintenance operations, are
necessary to sustain quality equipment,
Sather. said.
"There are millions of miles on the
machines so we have to have some
kind of a plan to keep the equipment
see HORIZONS, page 4
TAYLOR WILLIAMS / THE WESTERN FRONT
Western senior Justin Allyne belays
Western freshman Nathan Furst-Nichols
on one of the rec center's climbing walls.
ALUMNA TURNS 100
Western graduate celebrates her
birthday with five generations of
her family
FEATURES, PAGE 9
FOOTBALL RUNS
Western used 233 rushing yards
to defeat Humboldt State 21-16
Saturday
SPORTS, PAGE 10
PSEUDO-FRIENDS
A rash of online programs and
Web sites are limiting actual
friendships in society
OPINIONS, PAGE 14
WEATHER
Wednesday: Cloudy
Hi:58Low: 41
Thursday: Rainy
Hi: 58 Low: 44
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ l ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ S ^ ^ ^ ^ S www.westernfrontonline.com mmmHmfflmUfflHfflmHm