I moved back to the United States from Hong Kong and no longer contribute to Reporting from Asia.
I am working as a reporter for City News Service in San Diego, California.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Farewell
I no longer post on The Davis Report Online as I am no longer studying at Whitworth.
I am now studying abroad in Hong Kong at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Check out my new blog Reporting from Asia.
I am now studying abroad in Hong Kong at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Check out my new blog Reporting from Asia.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Structural changes planned for Core
The Core 250 program will undergo changes within the next few years.
Professor of philosophy Forrest Baird presented the changes to the Associated Students of Whitworth College (ASWC) Wednesday.
Baird said the Core 250 team began discussing changes after junior Karla Rose sent a letter with recommendations.
A resolution and addendum passed by ASWC two weeks ago provided the push to bring changes to the 250 program to fruition, Baird said.
The changes to the program will come in waves.
Baird emphasized 250 will retain the European perspective, but will seek to incorporate other world perspectives. The main areas of the world the 250 program will examine are Asia, Africa and the Americas.
“We think [European culture] is the dominant culture," Baird said. "It is the one that has shaped. It’s not the only one. We want to get at the contributions of other cultures.”
Next fall, one lecture about how Europeans responded to encounters with the rest of the world will be added to 250.
By the following spring, 250 will look at different parts of the world and their intellectual history. The focus will remain on epistemology. Baird said because this is a big change only China will added.
The following year, people will sign up for one of the three areas of the world to go in depth to, which is similar to the current structure of Core 350.
The ASWC resolution demanded Core allow representatives from different cultures present lectures on that particular culture. Baird said this is demand will not be met.
"Our experience has been outside experts don’t fit into the flow of the class," Baird said.
Professor of philosophy Forrest Baird presented the changes to the Associated Students of Whitworth College (ASWC) Wednesday.
Baird said the Core 250 team began discussing changes after junior Karla Rose sent a letter with recommendations.
A resolution and addendum passed by ASWC two weeks ago provided the push to bring changes to the 250 program to fruition, Baird said.
The changes to the program will come in waves.
Baird emphasized 250 will retain the European perspective, but will seek to incorporate other world perspectives. The main areas of the world the 250 program will examine are Asia, Africa and the Americas.
“We think [European culture] is the dominant culture," Baird said. "It is the one that has shaped. It’s not the only one. We want to get at the contributions of other cultures.”
Next fall, one lecture about how Europeans responded to encounters with the rest of the world will be added to 250.
By the following spring, 250 will look at different parts of the world and their intellectual history. The focus will remain on epistemology. Baird said because this is a big change only China will added.
The following year, people will sign up for one of the three areas of the world to go in depth to, which is similar to the current structure of Core 350.
The ASWC resolution demanded Core allow representatives from different cultures present lectures on that particular culture. Baird said this is demand will not be met.
"Our experience has been outside experts don’t fit into the flow of the class," Baird said.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Discussion on non-discrimination policy and freedom of clubs at Whitworth
Last Thursday, vice president of academic affairs Michael Le Roy, vice president of student life Kathy Storm and executive assistant to the president Dale Soden along with senior Thomas Ruble and Miles Hewitson discussed several issues surrounding the 8th of May event. These included the non-discrimination policy decision, the freedom of clubs on campus and the board of trustees in general.
The following are excerpts form the discussion on KWRS:
Non-discrimination discussion
JESSICA DAVIS: What does this decision actually mean for homosexual students?
KATHY STORM: … What that means, I would say for all students, is that the college is trying very much to continue the same ethos of exchange of ideas and freedom of conscious on this issue. So it isn’t that the recent decision reflects a change in policy, it really is an attempt to continue an ethos that we’ve had. Again it’s an ethos where free exchange of ideas is possible where freedom of conscious is allowed on this issues, where this issue is not been a litmus test on hiring. So in some ways its an attempt for all student to continue that same ethos. It allows for a range of ideas to be held and articulated.
JESSICA DAVIS: Does anyone have anything to add on that?
MICHAEL LE ROY: There is quite a bit more that can be said. That the decision, I think it’s important to point out too that the decision didn’t really come out of a vaccum that the board didn’t just decide to do this, but the administration had been asked by the board to study this issue and over the past year we have studied all the various approaches and implications. There was a legal seminar put on by a law firm in Seattle as well as the Human Rights Commission itself. They made it very clear that non-profit religious institutions are exempt but they also ran through check lists of things we would have to do as an institution if we were to adopt the legislation. Those include a wide range of things. …
The sexual orientation definition includes gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, transgender. It includes all those groups. And so even somebody, if we adopted this policy, we would have to take into account the transgender student for example and it has a huge effect on what bath rooms and shower rooms students can use. And so a transgender student who declares themselves to be a gender different from their biological gender, if they self identify as a male and they are a female, they have right access to male restrooms and male shower rooms and so on. So it’s a real challenge for all of higher education where there is housing and so on. And That’s something we would have to have a policy on or we would have to have accommodations for we would have to changes for.
We would also have to probably restrict the freedom of speech in our community. We have members of our community and our faculty, staff, students who believe that homosexual behavior is sinful. It was made clear to me from the Human Rights Commission if people were allowed to say that, that then creates conditions for what would be called a hostile work place or a hostile environment and probably we would have to limit freedom of speech in that area because we wouldn’t want to be in violation of the law if we adopted that provision. And of course, we’d never want in our community, we would never want people to express views in a way that is hostile and we have to work really hard to differential between issues of conscious where people are expressing opinion and behaviors that are in fact discriminatory, harmful threatening. We don’t want those kinds of behaviors that are discriminatory, harmful or threatening behaviors. But we do want to be a place where faculty, staff, students can freely express differences of opinion on theological issues like homosexuality or abortion, or women’s rights, women’s ordination, you name the wide range of issues. And it was our feeling after talking with the Human Rights Commission and the law firm that to adopt this provision would unnecessarily restrict the free exchange of ideas in our community on one hand.
We could have gone the other way and said we want the exemption because as an institution we believe doctrinally that homosexuality is a sin. But we’ve never taken positions on those kinds of issues before. And we’ve kept it limited to the view of trinity, and the view of the authority of scriptures being the primary issues. And we’ve wanted to keep that consistent.
Now lot’s of other Christian schools have doctrinal requirements, in fact most do, that you believe that homosexuality is a sin if you work in that place. We don’t have that. And again we don’t have that because we want the free exchange of ideas. And so this position we feel, keeping the exemption, but not because we believe it’s a sin, but because we believe that part of the free exchange of ideas is part of what it means to express our faith freely in this context. That’s what we want. That is recommendation that administration made and that is the recommendation that the board ratified.
…
JESSICA DAVIS: The other question I have, and then I will open it to Thomas and Miles is would this decision mean Whitworth can refuse to hire an employee based on sexual orientation alone?
KATHY STORM: Well I guess it could because we are automatically classified as exempt, but to do that would be to be taking a position and that’s again something we don’t want to do. So I’ve not known that to happen and again that would seem inconsistent with this desire to not take a position.
…
THOMAS RUBLE: I just wanted to know specifically whether or not faculty or prospective faculty could raise a lawsuit against the school. I hope that never would happen. If the school is in this privileged exempt status, to not have to be challenge or consider themselves in danger of any lawsuits.
DALE SODEN: I think we have discussed all year the reality of lawsuits and I think we are all aware no position we would take makes us invulnerable to lawsuits. That anyone could file a suit, and we probably expect in the future. It would be naïve to think we could avoid a lawsuit at some point. There is nothing that prevents anyone from challenging the practices we employ.
Freedom of clubs on campus
…
JESSICA DAVIS: What can’t all student all organizations become chartered and officially recognized as a campus club?
KATHY STORM: Well if we’re talking specifically about the GLBT, I can tell you how we have proceeded and to some extent on how I’ve thought about it. In this area on this issue, again the hope has been to maintain consistently as consistently as we can throughout the institution this value of not taking a formal position because of all the risks associated with that and all the limitation of conversation and freedom of conscious. So part of what has been behind the decision not to charter a position which would be an advocacy position on either point of view has been again this hope we could maintain throughout the institution a consistent stance on this.
And I suppose in theory there would be two ways to approach not taking an institutional position one would be to charter clubs on both sides of the issue and the other is not to charter clubs on this particular issue. In my own mind what has made most sense about taking the approach that we’ve taken which has been not to charter clubs on this issue has been we’re trying to balance two things. One is not taking a position. And the other concern or value is trying to make sure that the way that we think and talk about this issue and other issues like this takes into the account some of the reality of our culture and church and so forth. And that has to do with how divisive an issue this has been for reasons sometimes personally puzzling to me and certainly of great concern.
So, if we were to have chartered organizations, programming from both points of view and sort of competing on this, it’s just hard to imagine that it couldn’t ultimately be divisive or difficult for the institution and again while we want to acknowledge differences of opinion, we want to protect those differences. Again, whatever we can do to keep this from being a source of division and more difficulty and more pain for people across the institution is something that has concerned me, has concerned us. I would say at the same time, that thought we have taken an approach of not chartering clubs on either side of this that we’ve tried, some of us have met and asked ourselves, and we need to keep doing this, asked ourselves, okay given this is the approach we are taking what is the most we can do still to provide support. And so, we’ve tried to find ways of doing that and I’m sure none of them are perfect.
We’ve hoped that some of the groups or the clubs that have taken on diversity issues in general would feel the freedom to take on this as one of their issues. But the major risk to us is having a specific group advocating as a stand alone group on this issue because that put us in the greatest risk of being seen as taking an institutional stance on this. Does that make sense? Those are the values we’ve been trying to balance in all of this.
If you listened to this show and would like other parts of the conversation transcripted send and e-mail to jdavis08@gmail.com or post a comment. I will do my best.
The following are excerpts form the discussion on KWRS:
Non-discrimination discussion
JESSICA DAVIS: What does this decision actually mean for homosexual students?
KATHY STORM: … What that means, I would say for all students, is that the college is trying very much to continue the same ethos of exchange of ideas and freedom of conscious on this issue. So it isn’t that the recent decision reflects a change in policy, it really is an attempt to continue an ethos that we’ve had. Again it’s an ethos where free exchange of ideas is possible where freedom of conscious is allowed on this issues, where this issue is not been a litmus test on hiring. So in some ways its an attempt for all student to continue that same ethos. It allows for a range of ideas to be held and articulated.
JESSICA DAVIS: Does anyone have anything to add on that?
MICHAEL LE ROY: There is quite a bit more that can be said. That the decision, I think it’s important to point out too that the decision didn’t really come out of a vaccum that the board didn’t just decide to do this, but the administration had been asked by the board to study this issue and over the past year we have studied all the various approaches and implications. There was a legal seminar put on by a law firm in Seattle as well as the Human Rights Commission itself. They made it very clear that non-profit religious institutions are exempt but they also ran through check lists of things we would have to do as an institution if we were to adopt the legislation. Those include a wide range of things. …
The sexual orientation definition includes gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, transgender. It includes all those groups. And so even somebody, if we adopted this policy, we would have to take into account the transgender student for example and it has a huge effect on what bath rooms and shower rooms students can use. And so a transgender student who declares themselves to be a gender different from their biological gender, if they self identify as a male and they are a female, they have right access to male restrooms and male shower rooms and so on. So it’s a real challenge for all of higher education where there is housing and so on. And That’s something we would have to have a policy on or we would have to have accommodations for we would have to changes for.
We would also have to probably restrict the freedom of speech in our community. We have members of our community and our faculty, staff, students who believe that homosexual behavior is sinful. It was made clear to me from the Human Rights Commission if people were allowed to say that, that then creates conditions for what would be called a hostile work place or a hostile environment and probably we would have to limit freedom of speech in that area because we wouldn’t want to be in violation of the law if we adopted that provision. And of course, we’d never want in our community, we would never want people to express views in a way that is hostile and we have to work really hard to differential between issues of conscious where people are expressing opinion and behaviors that are in fact discriminatory, harmful threatening. We don’t want those kinds of behaviors that are discriminatory, harmful or threatening behaviors. But we do want to be a place where faculty, staff, students can freely express differences of opinion on theological issues like homosexuality or abortion, or women’s rights, women’s ordination, you name the wide range of issues. And it was our feeling after talking with the Human Rights Commission and the law firm that to adopt this provision would unnecessarily restrict the free exchange of ideas in our community on one hand.
We could have gone the other way and said we want the exemption because as an institution we believe doctrinally that homosexuality is a sin. But we’ve never taken positions on those kinds of issues before. And we’ve kept it limited to the view of trinity, and the view of the authority of scriptures being the primary issues. And we’ve wanted to keep that consistent.
Now lot’s of other Christian schools have doctrinal requirements, in fact most do, that you believe that homosexuality is a sin if you work in that place. We don’t have that. And again we don’t have that because we want the free exchange of ideas. And so this position we feel, keeping the exemption, but not because we believe it’s a sin, but because we believe that part of the free exchange of ideas is part of what it means to express our faith freely in this context. That’s what we want. That is recommendation that administration made and that is the recommendation that the board ratified.
…
JESSICA DAVIS: The other question I have, and then I will open it to Thomas and Miles is would this decision mean Whitworth can refuse to hire an employee based on sexual orientation alone?
KATHY STORM: Well I guess it could because we are automatically classified as exempt, but to do that would be to be taking a position and that’s again something we don’t want to do. So I’ve not known that to happen and again that would seem inconsistent with this desire to not take a position.
…
THOMAS RUBLE: I just wanted to know specifically whether or not faculty or prospective faculty could raise a lawsuit against the school. I hope that never would happen. If the school is in this privileged exempt status, to not have to be challenge or consider themselves in danger of any lawsuits.
DALE SODEN: I think we have discussed all year the reality of lawsuits and I think we are all aware no position we would take makes us invulnerable to lawsuits. That anyone could file a suit, and we probably expect in the future. It would be naïve to think we could avoid a lawsuit at some point. There is nothing that prevents anyone from challenging the practices we employ.
Freedom of clubs on campus
…
JESSICA DAVIS: What can’t all student all organizations become chartered and officially recognized as a campus club?
KATHY STORM: Well if we’re talking specifically about the GLBT, I can tell you how we have proceeded and to some extent on how I’ve thought about it. In this area on this issue, again the hope has been to maintain consistently as consistently as we can throughout the institution this value of not taking a formal position because of all the risks associated with that and all the limitation of conversation and freedom of conscious. So part of what has been behind the decision not to charter a position which would be an advocacy position on either point of view has been again this hope we could maintain throughout the institution a consistent stance on this.
And I suppose in theory there would be two ways to approach not taking an institutional position one would be to charter clubs on both sides of the issue and the other is not to charter clubs on this particular issue. In my own mind what has made most sense about taking the approach that we’ve taken which has been not to charter clubs on this issue has been we’re trying to balance two things. One is not taking a position. And the other concern or value is trying to make sure that the way that we think and talk about this issue and other issues like this takes into the account some of the reality of our culture and church and so forth. And that has to do with how divisive an issue this has been for reasons sometimes personally puzzling to me and certainly of great concern.
So, if we were to have chartered organizations, programming from both points of view and sort of competing on this, it’s just hard to imagine that it couldn’t ultimately be divisive or difficult for the institution and again while we want to acknowledge differences of opinion, we want to protect those differences. Again, whatever we can do to keep this from being a source of division and more difficulty and more pain for people across the institution is something that has concerned me, has concerned us. I would say at the same time, that thought we have taken an approach of not chartering clubs on either side of this that we’ve tried, some of us have met and asked ourselves, and we need to keep doing this, asked ourselves, okay given this is the approach we are taking what is the most we can do still to provide support. And so, we’ve tried to find ways of doing that and I’m sure none of them are perfect.
We’ve hoped that some of the groups or the clubs that have taken on diversity issues in general would feel the freedom to take on this as one of their issues. But the major risk to us is having a specific group advocating as a stand alone group on this issue because that put us in the greatest risk of being seen as taking an institutional stance on this. Does that make sense? Those are the values we’ve been trying to balance in all of this.
If you listened to this show and would like other parts of the conversation transcripted send and e-mail to jdavis08@gmail.com or post a comment. I will do my best.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Non-discrimination discussion on KWRS
Highlights from the discussion today on KWRS will posted later this evening.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Students plan demonstration for 8th of May
On the 8th of May students of all backgrounds will come together in a demonstration at Whitworth College’s Campanile.
The main platform of the demonstration is that all students should have a voice equal to the board of trustees, that all people are equally valuable and should be treated as such and that Whitworth should be responsible for its impact on the local and global environments and communities, according to a flyer distributed by the movement.
“[The movement] is unified to an absurd extent that all students from different suppressed voices are joining together with their own specific grievances where nobody is fighting for each other, but the hundreds there will be finally fighting with each other because it’s a movement of students. It’s not a black thing or a gay thing or an environmentalist thing,” senior Thomas Ruble said.
Ruble said this is not ‘his’ movement.
“We’ve run into problems quite a few times with potential protesters thinking this is Emily Hurianek’s, or Galen Sanford’s, or my movement, and they don’t agree with us as people so they don’t want to be part of the movement,” Ruble said.
Students who wish to know more about the 8th of May can attend an informational session in Lied Square on Thursday at 10:30 p.m.
--
The following is a transcript of an interview with Senior Thomas Ruble on KWRS 90.3 Spokane's Pirate radio station.
SPEAKERS: Hannah Bellinger, Jessica Davis, Thomas Ruble
JESSICA DAVIS: You are listening to KWRS 90.3 FM Spokane’s Pirate Radio Station. […]
Students may have noticed the massive amount of flyers that have been littering the campus in the last few days. Now what is this all about? Well, that is why I have senior Thomas Ruble here to give some information on what is going to be going on.
THOMAS RUBLE: Hi Jessica.
JESSICA DAVIS: Hi Thomas. Thanks for coming in.
THOMAS RUBLE: My pleasure.
JESSICA DAVIS: Now the first thing is can you explain what is happening on May 8th?
THOMAS RUBLE: On the 8th of May we are. [hmmm] This is a big question. I’ll take the best bite out of this that I can. Maybe I can start with some background. Recently, and by recently I mean the last 30 years or so, Whitworth College has not. [hmmm] It hasn’t been centered on the students. It’s like some archaic view of the solar system where the sun is revolving around the earth when it actually should be the other way around.
This year has been rollicking and riotous with, for instance, the way the administration handled racial tensions on campus. They are eons behind any way corporations would handle racism. It’s frankly appalling. We could go into specifics, but we’ll stay with generalities. Last week we had Women’s Week and Earth Week and it also was good, but was inadequate in actually getting the school up to pace. Bill Robinson was prompted with a petition to sign to increase recycling on campus and to move toward renewable energy and he rejected to sign that. The Board of Trustees claiming exemption from constitutional non-discrimination law is really reading to students, they interpret that as there is institutionalized discrimination rampant on campus. In personal correspondence between Bill Robinson and I, they are completely free to not hire perspective faculty merely on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Students aren’t free to organize clubs as they see it.
And what we want to do on the 8th of May is to show to the campus and to the administration these three tenets: that all students have a voice that should be respected, honored, listened to and of equal power to that of the trustees since we are the heart of the college. We are who makes up this environment. Secondly, everybody should be treated as equal. Everybody has rights and needs to be treated as such, which would tie into the discrimination, the racism, the lack of women and gay faculty. A rabbi is not allowed to lecture on Judaism in Core which is appalling to me as a student. And lastly, Whitworth effects their environment and their community both intellectually and physically by raising these students they send them out into the community and that affects the community and Whitworth needs to be responsible for what they indoctrinate into their students. And same with using coal fuel to run this college. That’s leaving a huge footprint on the world and Whitworth should be responsible for that as well.
On the 8th of May, we are having an incredibly large demonstration which is paradoxical in it’s beauty because it is unified to an absurd extent that all students from different suppressed voices are joining together with their own specific grievances where nobody is fighting for each other, but the hundreds there will be finally fighting with each other because it’s a movement of students. It’s not a black thing or a gay thing or an environmentalist thing. But at 9:55 in the morning on Tuesday the 8th of May, we expect half of every class to get up and walk to the Campanile. And we will rally there and then proceed into McEachran a little after 10 a.m. and sit until they understand the urgency that the school is not listening.
JESSICA DAVIS: And by ‘they’ you mean administrators?
THOMAS RUBLE: Right.
JESSICA DAVIS: Well this has been a lot of information and I do have more questions for you, but we need to have a quick break. So let’s get back to the music for three minutes and then get back to Thomas.
JESSICA DAVIS: Welcome back you are listening to KWRS 90.3 FM
THOMAS RUBLE: Your Pirate Radio
JESSICA DAVIS: That’s right. We have Thomas Ruble here in the booth and we are discussing May 8th and all that it will encompass.
THOMAS RUBLE: For the sake of the slogan/propaganda we prefer always refer to it as the 8th of May.
JESSICA DAVIS: The 8th of May. My apologies.
HANNAH BELLINGER: Is this like V for Vendetta?
THOMAS RUBLE: Without the budget yeah.
HANNAH BELLINGER: Gotcha.
THOMAS RUBLE: We didn’t spend five years laying down underground railroad tracks, dancing to Anthony and the Johnsons with a vintage jukebox. [laughter] Yes it is a lot like that. It’s a rising. It’s also like 300 [laugher] in a way since that is about how many we’ll have. And even if some of us believe it futile, we think it’s more noble to fight especially how half of the planning team are graduating seniors because we care about our values and we fight for our values. And we happen to be in Whitworth right now so this is where the fight is going to take place.
JESSICA DAVIS: And what is going to be happening is a demonstration on the 8th of May where students will come together and bring their concerns into public light. Now Thomas I have a question for you because we have limited time here.
THOMAS RUBLE: My apologies.
JESSICA DAVIS: What do you, or what does the 8th of May group hope to accomplish?
THOMAS RUBLE: There are two dominate philosophies at play here and some of them kind of go against each other in the event of certain contingencies with if the administration would ask us to move and discuss things. This is where these two philosophies get divergent. One of them is a list of specific demands, for instance, organic food, or a Gay-Straight Alliance and students will have petitions, they will be writing letters to board of trustee members and Bill. And what we hope to accomplish in that mindset is to get these specific demands met, fix the symptoms of a corrupt institution one-by-one. But then the other thing that I hope to accomplish, what gets me excited about putting this all together is demonstrating how the students have power and how students can unify and how students can trump the administration. And so we hope that it would show to both the students that do come and more importantly to the students that don’t come that a voice is possible in this place and that there is power in numbers.
JESSICA DAVIS: Okay, is the first thing you hope to accomplish?
THOMAS RUBLE: No those were the two. One of them are the specifics and one of them is the general Copernican Revolution. [laughter] This college is built on their students. So it will show those two different things. We can really upset the administration if we get unhappy.
JESSICA DAVIS: And speaking of students can you just explain what students can do specifically to get involved with this?
THOMAS RUBLE: Communication is difficult, but it is efficient and it is working. What you have to do is look around for five minutes and you will find one of our flyers. And on it toward the bottom is Emily Hurianek’s e-mail address. And please e-mail her and you will be put on the e-mail list which is already roughly 100 strong. And that is the best way to stay posted on when meetings are, when we will go and distribute flyers and what exactly this is all about. You can always get information by e-mailing her and anybody else on that list will be privy to everything. The second big thing is there is a forum information meeting. This time it will be public in Lied Square on Thursday May 3rd at 10 p.m. It’s right after the Cause at the Cove. Come to that to list your grievances, your hesitations, your optimism. That will be the largest scale open forum before this reaches its final stages of planning. So if you want to be involved do both of those things and you will be involved.
JESSICA DAVIS: Well that’s great Thomas. Unfortunately we are running out of time, but I do want to say we have welcomed Thomas back on an open invitation for Thursday. We are also going to extend an invitation to an administrator so hopefully on Thursday we will have a discussion in here about specific issues that the college has been experiencing this semester. So thank you Thomas so much for your time. We appreciate it and hopefully we’ll hear back from you on Thursday.
THOMAS RUBLE: It’s been a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
The main platform of the demonstration is that all students should have a voice equal to the board of trustees, that all people are equally valuable and should be treated as such and that Whitworth should be responsible for its impact on the local and global environments and communities, according to a flyer distributed by the movement.
“[The movement] is unified to an absurd extent that all students from different suppressed voices are joining together with their own specific grievances where nobody is fighting for each other, but the hundreds there will be finally fighting with each other because it’s a movement of students. It’s not a black thing or a gay thing or an environmentalist thing,” senior Thomas Ruble said.
Ruble said this is not ‘his’ movement.
“We’ve run into problems quite a few times with potential protesters thinking this is Emily Hurianek’s, or Galen Sanford’s, or my movement, and they don’t agree with us as people so they don’t want to be part of the movement,” Ruble said.
Students who wish to know more about the 8th of May can attend an informational session in Lied Square on Thursday at 10:30 p.m.
--
The following is a transcript of an interview with Senior Thomas Ruble on KWRS 90.3 Spokane's Pirate radio station.
SPEAKERS: Hannah Bellinger, Jessica Davis, Thomas Ruble
JESSICA DAVIS: You are listening to KWRS 90.3 FM Spokane’s Pirate Radio Station. […]
Students may have noticed the massive amount of flyers that have been littering the campus in the last few days. Now what is this all about? Well, that is why I have senior Thomas Ruble here to give some information on what is going to be going on.
THOMAS RUBLE: Hi Jessica.
JESSICA DAVIS: Hi Thomas. Thanks for coming in.
THOMAS RUBLE: My pleasure.
JESSICA DAVIS: Now the first thing is can you explain what is happening on May 8th?
THOMAS RUBLE: On the 8th of May we are. [hmmm] This is a big question. I’ll take the best bite out of this that I can. Maybe I can start with some background. Recently, and by recently I mean the last 30 years or so, Whitworth College has not. [hmmm] It hasn’t been centered on the students. It’s like some archaic view of the solar system where the sun is revolving around the earth when it actually should be the other way around.
This year has been rollicking and riotous with, for instance, the way the administration handled racial tensions on campus. They are eons behind any way corporations would handle racism. It’s frankly appalling. We could go into specifics, but we’ll stay with generalities. Last week we had Women’s Week and Earth Week and it also was good, but was inadequate in actually getting the school up to pace. Bill Robinson was prompted with a petition to sign to increase recycling on campus and to move toward renewable energy and he rejected to sign that. The Board of Trustees claiming exemption from constitutional non-discrimination law is really reading to students, they interpret that as there is institutionalized discrimination rampant on campus. In personal correspondence between Bill Robinson and I, they are completely free to not hire perspective faculty merely on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Students aren’t free to organize clubs as they see it.
And what we want to do on the 8th of May is to show to the campus and to the administration these three tenets: that all students have a voice that should be respected, honored, listened to and of equal power to that of the trustees since we are the heart of the college. We are who makes up this environment. Secondly, everybody should be treated as equal. Everybody has rights and needs to be treated as such, which would tie into the discrimination, the racism, the lack of women and gay faculty. A rabbi is not allowed to lecture on Judaism in Core which is appalling to me as a student. And lastly, Whitworth effects their environment and their community both intellectually and physically by raising these students they send them out into the community and that affects the community and Whitworth needs to be responsible for what they indoctrinate into their students. And same with using coal fuel to run this college. That’s leaving a huge footprint on the world and Whitworth should be responsible for that as well.
On the 8th of May, we are having an incredibly large demonstration which is paradoxical in it’s beauty because it is unified to an absurd extent that all students from different suppressed voices are joining together with their own specific grievances where nobody is fighting for each other, but the hundreds there will be finally fighting with each other because it’s a movement of students. It’s not a black thing or a gay thing or an environmentalist thing. But at 9:55 in the morning on Tuesday the 8th of May, we expect half of every class to get up and walk to the Campanile. And we will rally there and then proceed into McEachran a little after 10 a.m. and sit until they understand the urgency that the school is not listening.
JESSICA DAVIS: And by ‘they’ you mean administrators?
THOMAS RUBLE: Right.
JESSICA DAVIS: Well this has been a lot of information and I do have more questions for you, but we need to have a quick break. So let’s get back to the music for three minutes and then get back to Thomas.
JESSICA DAVIS: Welcome back you are listening to KWRS 90.3 FM
THOMAS RUBLE: Your Pirate Radio
JESSICA DAVIS: That’s right. We have Thomas Ruble here in the booth and we are discussing May 8th and all that it will encompass.
THOMAS RUBLE: For the sake of the slogan/propaganda we prefer always refer to it as the 8th of May.
JESSICA DAVIS: The 8th of May. My apologies.
HANNAH BELLINGER: Is this like V for Vendetta?
THOMAS RUBLE: Without the budget yeah.
HANNAH BELLINGER: Gotcha.
THOMAS RUBLE: We didn’t spend five years laying down underground railroad tracks, dancing to Anthony and the Johnsons with a vintage jukebox. [laughter] Yes it is a lot like that. It’s a rising. It’s also like 300 [laugher] in a way since that is about how many we’ll have. And even if some of us believe it futile, we think it’s more noble to fight especially how half of the planning team are graduating seniors because we care about our values and we fight for our values. And we happen to be in Whitworth right now so this is where the fight is going to take place.
JESSICA DAVIS: And what is going to be happening is a demonstration on the 8th of May where students will come together and bring their concerns into public light. Now Thomas I have a question for you because we have limited time here.
THOMAS RUBLE: My apologies.
JESSICA DAVIS: What do you, or what does the 8th of May group hope to accomplish?
THOMAS RUBLE: There are two dominate philosophies at play here and some of them kind of go against each other in the event of certain contingencies with if the administration would ask us to move and discuss things. This is where these two philosophies get divergent. One of them is a list of specific demands, for instance, organic food, or a Gay-Straight Alliance and students will have petitions, they will be writing letters to board of trustee members and Bill. And what we hope to accomplish in that mindset is to get these specific demands met, fix the symptoms of a corrupt institution one-by-one. But then the other thing that I hope to accomplish, what gets me excited about putting this all together is demonstrating how the students have power and how students can unify and how students can trump the administration. And so we hope that it would show to both the students that do come and more importantly to the students that don’t come that a voice is possible in this place and that there is power in numbers.
JESSICA DAVIS: Okay, is the first thing you hope to accomplish?
THOMAS RUBLE: No those were the two. One of them are the specifics and one of them is the general Copernican Revolution. [laughter] This college is built on their students. So it will show those two different things. We can really upset the administration if we get unhappy.
JESSICA DAVIS: And speaking of students can you just explain what students can do specifically to get involved with this?
THOMAS RUBLE: Communication is difficult, but it is efficient and it is working. What you have to do is look around for five minutes and you will find one of our flyers. And on it toward the bottom is Emily Hurianek’s e-mail address. And please e-mail her and you will be put on the e-mail list which is already roughly 100 strong. And that is the best way to stay posted on when meetings are, when we will go and distribute flyers and what exactly this is all about. You can always get information by e-mailing her and anybody else on that list will be privy to everything. The second big thing is there is a forum information meeting. This time it will be public in Lied Square on Thursday May 3rd at 10 p.m. It’s right after the Cause at the Cove. Come to that to list your grievances, your hesitations, your optimism. That will be the largest scale open forum before this reaches its final stages of planning. So if you want to be involved do both of those things and you will be involved.
JESSICA DAVIS: Well that’s great Thomas. Unfortunately we are running out of time, but I do want to say we have welcomed Thomas back on an open invitation for Thursday. We are also going to extend an invitation to an administrator so hopefully on Thursday we will have a discussion in here about specific issues that the college has been experiencing this semester. So thank you Thomas so much for your time. We appreciate it and hopefully we’ll hear back from you on Thursday.
THOMAS RUBLE: It’s been a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Admins restrict condom distribution
AS PRINTED IN THE WHITWORTHIAN:
The club Women in Society Everywhere (W.I.S.E.) was encouraged by administrators to stop handing out condoms to the student body Tuesday, students said.
After a letter to President Bill Robinson, W.I.S.E. was given permission to continue handing out condoms discretly, junior Kristen Black said.
"I’d heard about general distribution of condoms in the HUB and I knew that had created offense and misunderstanding," vice president for student life Kathy Storm said in an e-mail.
Storm said she genuinely appreciated the goals of promoting awareness of gender issues and offering information about sex, health and gender. After hearing complaints Storm said she wanted to pass along feedback to help W.I.S.E. better accomplish its goals.
"A lot of the concerns I heard during the week focused on what I guess you’d call the marketing," Storm said. "For anyone, especially for someone who’s visiting campus and may not have any context for this, having someone call out, ‘You could be raped in jeans’ or ‘We know you’re having sex’ can be jarring and also very offensive."
Robinson and Storm sent director of student activities Dayna Coleman Jones to speak to the students.
W.I.S.E. sponsored Sex On the Sidewalk everyday last week from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Hixon Union Building as part of Women’s Week.
"We were in the HUB handing out condoms and information on domestic violence, date rape, rape sexual assault and all kinds of birth control," junior Ali Hudak said. She organized Sex On the Sidewalk.
Junior Kristen Black said Coleman Jones, "began to pick up the condoms we put out on display and said something to the effect that we were not to hand out condoms to the students, as [Robinson] was very upset that it was sending the wrong message."
Storm said she understands the objectives of the group, and echoed Robinson’s concern about sending the wrong message.
"If condoms are given in the Health Center, thoughtful, private conversations can happen about life and health, and that seems more consistent with our commitments to responsible decision-making and community values," Storm said.
Coleman Jones said students could place the condoms in bags and hand them out, Hudak said.
"We were frustrated, but we just put them away and handed them out in bags," Hudak said.
The next day, Robinson came by the booth and discussed Women’s Week and Sex On the Sidewalk.
"I asked him if we were OK with the table, and he said we were doing well, ‘keep it up’," Black said.
W.I.S.E. distributed condoms and information in paper bags.
Black said sexual health cannot be ignored.
"We (W.I.S.E.) want it to be known that yes, people on campus do have sex, and we believe in advocating safe sex if they are making this decision," Black said. "Sex is a very personal choice, but something rarely addressed on campus."
Hudak said administrator’s actions sent the wrong message.
"I think it says the school cares more about its image than about health," Hudak said. "They know people are having sex just like every other place."
Black said the Whitworth health center gives out free condoms to students who need them.
"The intention and the mission of the Health Center are to keep all students safe and well," Director of the Heath Center Jan Murray said. "We do this on an individual basis that is nondiscriminatory."
W.I.S.E. member Emily Hurianek said the group declined to comment on this issue and would not go on record, but would be willing to talk about other events.
The club Women in Society Everywhere (W.I.S.E.) was encouraged by administrators to stop handing out condoms to the student body Tuesday, students said.
After a letter to President Bill Robinson, W.I.S.E. was given permission to continue handing out condoms discretly, junior Kristen Black said.
"I’d heard about general distribution of condoms in the HUB and I knew that had created offense and misunderstanding," vice president for student life Kathy Storm said in an e-mail.
Storm said she genuinely appreciated the goals of promoting awareness of gender issues and offering information about sex, health and gender. After hearing complaints Storm said she wanted to pass along feedback to help W.I.S.E. better accomplish its goals.
"A lot of the concerns I heard during the week focused on what I guess you’d call the marketing," Storm said. "For anyone, especially for someone who’s visiting campus and may not have any context for this, having someone call out, ‘You could be raped in jeans’ or ‘We know you’re having sex’ can be jarring and also very offensive."
Robinson and Storm sent director of student activities Dayna Coleman Jones to speak to the students.
W.I.S.E. sponsored Sex On the Sidewalk everyday last week from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Hixon Union Building as part of Women’s Week.
"We were in the HUB handing out condoms and information on domestic violence, date rape, rape sexual assault and all kinds of birth control," junior Ali Hudak said. She organized Sex On the Sidewalk.
Junior Kristen Black said Coleman Jones, "began to pick up the condoms we put out on display and said something to the effect that we were not to hand out condoms to the students, as [Robinson] was very upset that it was sending the wrong message."
Storm said she understands the objectives of the group, and echoed Robinson’s concern about sending the wrong message.
"If condoms are given in the Health Center, thoughtful, private conversations can happen about life and health, and that seems more consistent with our commitments to responsible decision-making and community values," Storm said.
Coleman Jones said students could place the condoms in bags and hand them out, Hudak said.
"We were frustrated, but we just put them away and handed them out in bags," Hudak said.
The next day, Robinson came by the booth and discussed Women’s Week and Sex On the Sidewalk.
"I asked him if we were OK with the table, and he said we were doing well, ‘keep it up’," Black said.
W.I.S.E. distributed condoms and information in paper bags.
Black said sexual health cannot be ignored.
"We (W.I.S.E.) want it to be known that yes, people on campus do have sex, and we believe in advocating safe sex if they are making this decision," Black said. "Sex is a very personal choice, but something rarely addressed on campus."
Hudak said administrator’s actions sent the wrong message.
"I think it says the school cares more about its image than about health," Hudak said. "They know people are having sex just like every other place."
Black said the Whitworth health center gives out free condoms to students who need them.
"The intention and the mission of the Health Center are to keep all students safe and well," Director of the Heath Center Jan Murray said. "We do this on an individual basis that is nondiscriminatory."
W.I.S.E. member Emily Hurianek said the group declined to comment on this issue and would not go on record, but would be willing to talk about other events.
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