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Speaker discusses black women in reality TV
By The Front | October 23Professor Jervette R. Ward from the University of Alaska Anchorage spoke about her research on black women’s portrayal in reality television on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
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Emails help to fix campus
By The Front | October 23Western’s Facilities Management Customer Service Center has created an email account that students can text or email maintenance issues to.
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Programs awarded for sustainability work
By The Front | October 23Four Western sustainability programs were awarded $1,000 at the third annual Western Sustainability Awards on Thursday, Oct. 22, as a part of Vikings for Change month.
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New e-waste bin to improve recycling
By The Front | October 23A new electronic-waste bin is now inside the Associated Students Bookstore thanks to an idea by sophomore Gwen Larned and the program Zero Waste Western. The bin can be used for dropping off small electronics like broken calculators, cell phones, laptops, controllers and game consoles, Larned said. With so many students living on campus who aren’t able to drive down and drop off their old electronics, the e-waste bin makes it more convenient for students, Larned said. Larned is the Zero Waste coordinator at Western, and came up with the idea of bringing the e-waste bin to campus after this summer, Larned said. “I just walked around and saw things that I thought Western could improve upon,” Larned said. “I just took the initiative to contact the recycling center and find a way that it could distributed.” Larned was then able to get permission from the bookstore and a box from the recycling center, she said. The AS Bookstore is a good location for the e-waste bin because the bookstore gets a lot of foot traffic from people who are passing through, said Hannah-Maria Roder, a Zero Waste assistant and designer of the e-waste bin. “We are also working on expanding facilities for recycling, and that’s where electronics recycling comes from — is that we saw a need for that branch of recycling,” Larned said. Larned hopes to see the bin used and emptied at least once this year, Larned said. “I would personally like to see residence halls take on that option just because it makes it that much more convenient for students,” Larned said. “For now I think that we will wait and see how this one does.” The AS Students Recycling Center is currently working on a more permanent bin that will be a nicely decorated barrel with a lid, Larned said. Anything new that happens in the bookstore gets a lot of coverage and immediately gets recognized, which is a big plus, Roder said. Peg Godwin, the general manager at the AS Bookstore, views the e-waste bin as an opportunity for students to easily recycle material, Godwin said. It helps to support the campus effort toward sustainability, Godwin said. Zero Waste Western is designed to help educate students on how to properly recycle and compost and also conducts data collection on Western’s waste, Roder said. “Based on the data we collect we try to figure out new ways to reach the student body about becoming more aware of their waste habits and disposing of their waste properly,” Roder said. Roder was exposed to the Office of Sustainability after Larned got a job there, Roder said. “Through volunteering for certain events and helping her out at work a little bit, I grew accustomed to the happenings at the Office of Sustainability,” Roder said. The Office of Sustainability is focused on helping Western achieve its goal of sustainability in multiple ways, according to the Office of Sustainability website.
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Physics department awarded for expanding major
By The Front | October 23The American Physical Society chose Western as one of only two universities to receive the 2015 Award for Improving Undergraduate Physics Education. Western’s Department of Physics and Astronomy was presented the 2015 award in early October. The award, presented by the APS’s Committee of Education, cited a significant increase in the number of Western’s physics majors over the last 13 years alongside a consistent rate of 20 or more physics degrees awarded yearly. Western currently has about 120 physics majors and ranks within the top one percent of universities nationally in the number of physics degrees awarded among schools that solely offer baccalaureate degrees, according to the APS. The other winner of the award was California State University, Long Beach. Western Physics and Astronomy Department Chair Andreas Riemann said that the award was made possible through a two-step approach spanning a decade. The first step was increased focus on teaching techniques that directly involve the students. “Students sit in class and are active. They are working on small projects and problem solving skills together instead of the traditional lecture style,” Riemann said. Some courses also include the use of “ABCD” cards, which students hold up to visibly identify their answer to multiple-choice questions to the professor and their peers. These cards can give students and the professor a consensus as to how many are correctly solving problems and understanding concepts. Active classwork has yielded measurable positive results for the department. Riemann explains that Western’s first year students who learn through hands-on activity consistently excel on standardized physics tests. “You can figure out how much students have learned with these tests, and our faculty score usually way above national average,” Riemann said. The second reason for recent academic success comes from the department’s unique lack of a graduate program. The staff capitalizes on this trait by allowing undergraduates to become teaching assistants, a position normally held by those earning a master’s degree. For Huy Nguyen, now a junior studying math and physics, becoming a TA as an undergraduate presented new challenges and opportunities. Assisting others in the program required a deeper understanding of the field. “Being able to become a lab TA was a great experience. It helped to reinforce all the information I was learning and share it with people”, Nguyen said. “That for me makes me want to learn more, because if I learn more I can teach other people.” Physics student Andrew Headley also helped teach fundamental physics ideas as a TA, and found that it changed the way he had to think about problems. “When you’re in the higher level physics courses you have different math tools that you can use to solve problems. They have no idea what those are, so you have to bring it back to basic math concepts. You have to be more conceptual,” Headley said. The absence of a graduate program also allows undergraduates to work alongside faculty in conducting original research, exposing them to state-of-the-art facilities and techniques that may not otherwise be available to them, Riemann said. Each instructor teaches some upper-level and some lower-level classes, so all instructors within the department helped the award become a reality, Riemann said. The faculty was pleased that their long-term efforts did not go unnoticed. “We were happy to be recognized. We felt that we were doing a good job, but it’s good to have it seen that way by an outsider,” Riemann said.
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Film festival highlights local community
By The Front | October 19Bellingham’s 5Point Film Festival brought residents and students together for a three-day event featuring trivia, s'more booths, dance parties and film showings on Thursday, Oct. 15, through Saturday, Oct. 17. 5Point originated in Carbondale, Colorado, as a four-day event showcasing adventure films alongside artistic performances, guest speakers and community building events, according to their website. Bellingham was chosen as a location for the festival’s tour because Executive Director Sarah Wood believed the local values matched those of the organization. “Bellingham is a community that had the right recipe for us,” Wood said. Dana Thornton, the event’s director for the Pacific Northwest region and graduate of Western’s recreational program, said Bellingham's incredible sense of community is what drew the most attention. “People stay here because there is quality here you can’t find elsewhere,” Thornton said The festival's main goal was to connect all types of people regardless of age or favorite activity, as well as bring in profit for the city. “We hope that it builds a stronger community here that’s focused on conservation and paying attention to its surroundings," Wood said. "We also hope that it is an economic driver for the city." The 5Point Film Festival aimed to promote five values they felt should be a part of everyone’s lives: balance, respect, humility, commitment and purpose. The 5Point team selected films that demonstrated its five values and also show there is a lot more to an outdoor activity than going harder, bigger, faster or more extreme, Thornton said. “We don’t want to focus on the ego-driven side of adventure or the action-porn side of adventure.," Wood said. That’s not where we feel the inspiration lies." Film director and producer Leo Zuckerman showcased a documentary film about a friend’s battle with cancer. “It’s a great opportunity to share my work and the work of the other film makers with people in person, ” Zuckerman said. Zuckerman touched on the fact that a lot of the time it’s only possible to see the digital world's reaction to a film, through number of views and viewers’ comments. “To actually see people watch your film and to be able to actually connect with them after is a pretty unique experience in our world,” Zuckerman said 5Point is also working toward expanding their program that helps high-school students pursue their passions. The program is called the Dream Project and offers five students the chance to explore their own personal boundaries by granting them a $1,500 scholarship to go toward any dream that coincides with 5Point’s core values, according to their website. The website also showed a video of students, who have received this scholarship in the past, putting the money toward things such as developing a lightsaber and traveling across the world and volunteering at health clinics. The team hopes to bring this project to Bellingham and may even open it up to Western students, Thornton said. Often people graduate and they feel the need to go elsewhere to find a job or whatever they need to move forward, Thornton said. “If we could start by offering one scholarship, we would be thrilled,” Wood said.
