Mount Hood

Western Oregon staff member performs in “Dr. Dolittle”

BY JENNIFER HALLEY
CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR

 

For this weekend only, Salem’s community theatre, Pentacle Theatre, is presenting the musical “Dr. Dolittle,” at Central High School in Independence.

Patrick Moser, interim director of Werner University Center, is one of the performers.

The play is designated as a fundraiser for Pentacle, and according to Moser, all proceeds go to the theatre itself and its future productions.

“Dr. Dolittle” is an extra production by Pentacle and is produced with a limited set. It is based off the books by Hugh Lofting, as well as the Fox movies, starring Eddie Murphy.

The production starts Friday, Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m., with two performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9. A final matinee will be performed at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10.

Students Share Their Talents through Karaoke

BY AMANDA CLARKE
STAFF WRITER

Open-Mic Night was held in the Willamette Room of the Werner University Center by the Student Activities Board on Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m.

Members of the audience volunteered and sang karaoke songs.

“It gives students a break and a chance to get their talents out,” said Kara Kelsey, a member of the SAB.

There was a wide variety of music, including Spanish songs, songs by the Beach Boys and “Happy Birthday,” which was performed for one of the audience members.

“I really like to get the audience involved,” SAB Small Programs Coordinator Kevin Alejandrez said, who participated in the karaoke and let the audience pick the song he sang.

Members of Kappa Delta Chi also performed.

The next Open Mic Night will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 3.

Veteran Success Center supports ex-military students

BY ALLISON OPSON CLEMENT
NEWS EDITOR

The Veteran Success Center helps college students who’ve served in the military connect to each other and find resources they need.

It offers a space for the variety of presentations and meetings it hosts, as well as a hang-out area.

The center opened its own location in the Werner University Center earlier this year, and is growing as a resource to student veterans.

“There does need to be something out there for student veterans,” said Veterans Coordinator Kyle Rodgers. “College is hard for anybody.”

With the added challenges vets face re-entering academia, it’s important that they have somewhere to turn when they need help, he explained.

A 2012 study by the Colorado Workforce Development Council estimates that 3 percent of student veterans graduate from university; 88 percent drop out within their first year.

Rodgers says that those numbers may not an entirely accurate reflection of current trends, at Western in particular, but noted that such reports can highlight a major problem that needs to be addressed.

“Some of the stuff is pretty minor,” Rodgers said of the challenges student veterans have to deal with. “But then, some of the stuff is pretty serious.”

Cody Knight, veteran liaison, said that the age and experience gap between traditional students fresh out of high school and military veterans can create a huge divide.

The Veteran Success Center helps people navigate their GI Bill benefits gaps and caveats, which may have a significant impact on the ability of a veteran to continue their education.

Student veterans are supposed to have a full ride to college, and yet their drop-out rates are consistently above average, in some cases by a wide margin.

By and large, Rodgers said, the GI Bill is still a big advantage, but negotiating through it takes some work.

“All that stuff kind of compounds,” Rodgers said. The center can help bridge the gap to success. There are hundreds of programs to support veterans, and he can tell them where to look.

Drop in support groups and other meetings are held on Tuesday. Along with Rodgers, two work study students are paid by the VA. All three are veterans.

According to Knight, more people are coming in this term, now that news of the Veteran Success Center on campus is spreading.

Rodgers’ role focuses on the recruitment to and retention of veterans at Western. Students who are connected to campus are more successful academically, and are less likely to leave. Rodgers says he tries to put on at least one program every week or every other week.

One presenter helps with resumes; another helps with financial planning.

“Even though you’re 22, 23, and expected to know all this, you don’t,” Rodgers said.

In addition to helping individual veterans, if many people have the same problem or idea, Rodgers can help them get together and make it actionable.

“We can then bring a collective voice to ASWOU or the administration,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers said that it is important to get the Veteran Success Center and the people it supports involved in the community.
They helped with the Toys for Tots drive, and Rodgers said that he is trying to raise more awareness this term; for fall, he said, it was a learning curve figuring out what works to get veterans’ attention.

“We bring our collective knowledge here to help each other,” said Dolan Kasnick, the third member of the center’s team. The center is intended to help get ex-military students better connected to campus, and help them succeed in their time here.

Having the center also helps out the rest of campus, said Rodgers, because it frees up the registrar’s office from veterans’ questions, which helps streamline their process more, and they may be able to provide more assistance.

Veterans should come to the center, first, even before approaching the Registrar’s office.

Western’s Veteran Success Center is also home to an affiliated chapter of the national Student Veterans of America (SVA), which is dedicated to providing help to ex-military members, for graduation and beyond.
This allows the center to offer SVA-exclusive scholarships and additional opportunities to Western’s student veterans. Western’s SVA chapter has about 40 members.

“It’s nice to be able to come in here to talk to other guys who know what you’re talking about,” Knight said.

Kasnick said the goal is to collaborate to help today’s veteran students, and also to enrich the life of future returning military service members at Western.

“It’s that whole thing of not having to go it alone,” Rodgers said. “It’s nice to at least know where resources are.”

The Veteran Success Center is located in room 108 of the WUC.

Rep visit begins opening new sorority Alpha Chi Omega chapter on campus

By Allison Opson Clement
News Editor

Representatives of Alpha Chi Omega national sorority visited Western Monday, Dec. 1 in preparation for opening a chapter on campus by next year.

Jen Patterson, director of collegiate growth for Alpha Chi Omega, and Courtney Schmidt, associate director of collegiate growth, toured campus and conducted focus groups to gather a sense of the campus culture and local community.

“When we come to a campus, we want to learn from the beginning,” Patterson said. “We want to build a chapter that’s a solid part of the community.”

The national brand for Alpha Chi Omega is “Real. Strong. Women.” Founded in 1885, it has over 135 chapters nationwide.

“We partner with the university to build a plan that’s right for each campus,” Schmidt said.

Alpha Chi Omega will work on empowerment of women, social issues and increased education. Members take on philanthropic work, including raising awareness of domestic violence and helping local organizations around each chapter.

Sofia LeVernois, treasurer of Kappa Delta Chi, said that what she took away from the focus groups is the type of sorority that Alpha Chi Omega is: one with strong values that they strive to fulfill.

“We want to inspire them to learn how to be the best they can be,” Patterson said.

Patterson said that Alpha Chi Omega has a very strong, well-rounded experience to offer members. Schmidt added that they work to make Alpha Chi Omega membership exemplary, not mediocre, which includes investing in the highest quality advisors and building a very strong community.

“It’s really exciting to come to a new campus,” said Schmidt, adding that she enjoys learning about the specific culture of each. Schmidt said that she wishes she could have been at Western for the tree lighting, since that was one of the things that students seemed to be excited about.

“Western has a campus culture that is friendly and caring but also provides motivation for students to succeed,” said Cody Kollar, treasurer of Kappa Sigma fraternity on campus and participant in one focus group. “That goes along with what Greek life is all about.”

Focus groups helped Patterson and Schmidt get a sense of the current desire and need for another sorority on campus, to give them a better idea of Western’s culture and a sense of the community they are looking to join, and what Alpha Chi Omega could bring to it, as well as what it takes to be Greek on this particular campus.

“We’re familiar with this part of the country and we’re excited to grow that brand and that sisterhood,” said Patterson. Several Oregon universities have their own chapters of Alpha Chi Omega already.

These are very preliminary stages, said Schmidt. The next step is marketing to raise awareness, and eventually formulate chapter life with new members.

Eventually, the first women involved, who are the founding mothers, will create the initial interest group and work towards establishing Alpha Chi Omega on campus.

“It’s your time to figure out who you are,” Megan Habermann, assistant director for student leadership and activities, explained of the interest group, which will become a colony with more pledges.

She added of the founding mothers, “They’re going to have their work cut out for them because they’re going to have to figure out how Alpha Chi Omega will work on campus.”

The colony, after a period of about six months to one year to allow enough time for raising membership, will become the Western Oregon University chapter of Alpha Chi Omega. The fall of 2015, Habermann explained, will be the real beginning of the official chapter.

“Every organization is different,” Habermann said. “It really depends on the women who start the organization.”

According to Habermann, a sorority will maintain certain membership standards, such as in academics and professionalism, but will generally be open to all women within those standards.

Choosing potential pledges will be a matter of making sure the women’s values match those of the organization, so that everyone gets the most possible out of the experience Habermann, said.

“I think that adding Alpha Chi Omega to campus would be a good thing for women who are interested in joining a sorority because it gives different ladies on campus the chance to choose between Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Delta Chi to see which one will best suit them,” LeVernois said.

“I was excited to hear about another chapter coming to WOU,” Kollar said. “There is something out there for everyone and Alpha Chi Omega on campus will help even more students find that experience they are looking for.”

A sorority has national organization dues for its members, in addition to a $15 fee per person per term through Western; these funds go towards paying for building use and other group necessities.

Habermann said that not every organization is interested in expanding, perhaps in part because the Greek system at Western is small and young, which may make some cautious as well. Expansion may be approached carefully.

“Greek life is a great way to get to know people on campus and make future business connections,” LeVernois said. “Members get to meet many people that they possibly would not have met if they had not joined Greek life. From volunteering to just hanging out with your chapter, Greek life is a ton of fun.”

Faculty Senate approves implementation of LEAP framework

Laura Knudson
 Editor-In-Chief

The Faculty Senate approved a proposal Nov. 25 to replace Western’s existing institutional aspirations with undergraduate learning outcomes modeled after the “Liberal Education, America’s Promise” (LEAP) framework.

Started by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, LEAP provides “essential learning outcomes” and “principles of excellence” for liberal education. This creates a format to guide students’ progress through college.

“LEAP is a really clear statement of what Western students can expect to learn by the time they graduate,” said Dr. Sue Monahan, ex officio of the ad-hoc LEAP committee and dean of liberal arts and sciences.

It helps Western “communicate with students about purposes of their education,” she said.

Before LEAP, similar content called “Institutional Aspirations for Learning” was found on page five of the university course catalog and applied to major, minor and general education requirements.

Aspirations included critical thinking skills, development of advanced research abilities, ability to work effectively in teams, etc.

Students might see these learning outcomes displayed in a course syllabus. Often, professors list course objectives on a syllabus that are in line with the institutional aspirations, Monahan said.

In the LEAP proposal submitted to the faculty senate by the ad-hoc LEAP committee, it said while the current institutional aspirations reflect university values and goals, they are “difficult to assess meaningfully.”

New language in the modified LEAP outcomes will make academic aims of the university clearer.

“This just helps us communicate it better,” Monahan said. “Students learn best if they know what it is they’re aiming for.”

Modifications to language in the essential learning outcomes include student use of technology, ‘embodied’ education, inclusion of signing as a form of communication and creativity as an essential outcome.

Under Intellectual and Practical Skills, “using appropriate technology” will be added to the “practiced extensively” statement.

“Healthy course life decisions” will be added to the “anchored through” statement under Personal and Social Responsibility.

The written and oral communication outcome will include signed communication and the word “listeners” will replace “audience” in its definition.

The “critical and creative thinking” outcome will be separated into two outcomes and “and practice” will be added to the new “creative thinking” outcome.

The outcomes may be adapted in the future, Monahan said.

“The LEAP framework provides a clear and concise way to communicate these goals to our students,” university President Mark Weiss said in an all faculty/staff email Dec. 1. “It provides resources so that we can more effectively assess our work and continuously improve our curricular and co-curricular programs.”

Academic assessment, a requirement of all accredited universities, will be made easier with the implementation of LEAP rubrics.

These step-by-step guidelines will aid departments and divisions in assessing student work at the end of the year to determine if institutional goals are being met.

This will also create better understanding of Western’s assessment for outside groups working with the university, Monahan said.

Aside from clarifying learning outcomes and improving assessment, LEAP can also be used by students later in life.

“It’s not just for the sake of academics,” said Paul Disney, ad-hoc LEAP committee member and business and economics professor. “It’s what employers are looking for.”

“Students will have to make a case for themselves,” Monahan said of future postgraduates. They will need to be able to communicate what they have learned, she said.

With the move to independent governance through the board of trustees and the ongoing search for a new university president, the implementation of LEAP is “perfect timing,” Disney said.

“I think it’s really important in a time of change to know where you’re going,” Monahan said.

LEAP is something that has been “adopted and adapted by universities across the country,” she said. “We should not reinvent this; we should use these good resources that are already there.”

“I believe it’s important for our university to remain relevant,” Disney said. “It aligns us with a national standard.”

Monahan’s hope is that LEAP is institutionalized and made part of the university’s practice.

“The committee wants it to be more than just words on a page in a catalog,” she said. “We really want it to be a living thing for students to connect with.”

Though LEAP will be implemented in next year’s catalog, Monahan said they will begin using it for assessment before then.

MORE INFO:
Visit wou.edu/president/facultysenate/committees/leap
Contact Dr. Sue Monahan at 503-838-8226 or smonahan@wou.edu

New course evaluation system opens

What: Online course evaluations
Where: WOU Portal
When: Until 6:15 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12
By Allison Opson Clement 
News Editor

Western’s new course evaluation system is being used for the first time across campus, returning to students the ability to provide feedback on classes and professors for the first time in a year.

CollegeNet’s What Do You Think? program was chosen last spring, and after testing over the summer, this is the first time it will be used on a university-wide scale.

Dr. Mary Pettenger, chairperson of the Joint Committee on Course Evaluations, said that it is definitely past time to resume regular evaluations.

According to Pettenger, there were several problems with the former system and the university had a hard time keeping the program operational.

“It’s been a long process to try to come up with a new system,” Pettenger said.

The old paper system, prior to Western’s latest online evaluation system, was prohibitively expensive, and difficult to manage, according to Pettenger. Data access is also much easier with the new CollegeNet system.

According to CollegeNet.com, What Do You Think? saved the University of Oregon over $200,000 in paper, printing, scanning and labor in the first year of use.

Dr. Mark Perlman, president of the Western Oregon University Federation of Teachers (WOUFT, Western’s faculty union), said not having course evaluations is not option, because faculty members need to have a tool to judge their work.

“Students should have a voice, and we want to hear what their answers are,” Perlman said. “We’ve gone long enough without having a system; it’s kind of embarrassing.”

First year Westin Kmetz said it is good to have course evaluations, because the teachers gain a better understanding of student opinions and perceptions in their classrooms. Keeping communication open between students and teachers is important, Kmetz added.

“When you don’t get feedback as a teacher, I feel like you keep doing the same things,” Kmetz said. He feels that evaluations are useful to help the teacher understand what they are doing right or wrong.

Dr. Bryan Dutton, chair of WOUFT’s bargaining team, said evaluations are important.

“I really value it because it’s a way to make improvements,” Dutton said. “It’s clear that faculty are pleased that evaluations will be a regular part of our process.”

Yet, the evaluations can’t do anything if they’re not filled out.

“In order to get reliable data, we need to figure out a way to get students to respond,” Pettenger said.

“It also improves response rates when students believe they are being heard,” said Dr. Cat McGrew, former chairperson of the Joint Committee on Course Evaluations and current director of academic affairs. “No one wants to waste their time, so knowing you can make a difference, makes a difference.”

The university administration and the faculty union are in the beginning stages of discussing the impact of potentially using open-ended short-answer questions in course evaluations, according to McGrew.

Perlman said there are people that are skeptical of open-ended questions, and there are some who want open-ended questions.

“I wish I had more freedom in it,” Kmetz said, adding that the multiple choice questions worked for most people. He added that there may be too many meanings behind some answers, which may confuse the teacher over the kinds of responses they are getting.

To clear up communication, said Kmetz, the possibility of adding open-ended responses to the multiple-choice would be the most useful, efficient style. Students wouldn’t have to respond with more if they didn’t have anything else to say, but that would be an option for students who wanted to say more.

“I see it as a positive because it will allow faculty to have a greater understanding of what the numbers mean,” McGrew said of open-ended questions.

McGrew has a file of email print-outs from students who contacted her office, commenting that they wanted a place to explain their responses to multiple-choice questions, or wanted a place to add more about their course or professor. They want to say what they think, McGrew said; they want to be heard.

Perlman said these ten questions do provide enough information for students and professors to start with now. The rest of the discussion, such as the potential for open-ended questions, will take place later.

“We wanted to get the bulk of it rolling,” Perlman said. For now, everyone settled on ten multiple-choice questions, he said.

Faculty objections seem to be not over course evaluations or open-ended questions in general, according to Dutton, but in the implementation. Professors may be concerned about how the questions are asked, shaping the kinds of answers given, as well as what will be done with these responses, Dutton said.

According to Dutton, there is a real science behind the formulation of questions, which is part of why the faculty union has the right to approve the final draft of questions, and open-ended questions will be discussed later.

Perlman explained that there are a variety of factors that impact what kinds of questions are asked, and especially how they are asked.

“We haven’t really explored all the issues with open-ended questions,” said Dutton. He said that conversation will be taking place soon, probably through this academic year, and added that there is no real timeline that can be established until they know all the issues and all the positions that will arise.

Workshop offers understanding of dynamics for deaf & hearing coworkers

What: Deaf-hearing workplace dynamics workshop
Where: Columbia Room, Werner University Center
When: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday Nov. 21, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Nov.22
Admission:
For more information, contact: Dr. Cheryl Davis at davisc@wou.edu, or call 503-838-8053

By Katrina Penaflor, Freelancer

Deaf-hearing cross cultural conflicts in the workplace will be addressed with a workshop by Western’s Regional Resource Center on Deafness Nov. 21 and 22.

The hands-on event, presented in American Sign Language, is five hours each day and open to students, faculty, staff and community members. Dr. John Gournaris and Alison Aubrecht will be co-facilitating.

The focus of the workshop is to study and explore the different dynamics between a deaf culture and a hearing culture in a workplace, to discuss how these differences can affect each culture, and how people should learn to respect and embrace the different dynamics instead of devaluing them.

“People who are interested in psychology, social dynamics, cultural diversity, social justice, public policy and politics will all find something of interest in this training,” said Dr. Cheryl Davis, chair of the special education division at Western and director of the Regional Resource Center on Deafness.

Topics will include: why hearing people choose to work with deaf people, how deaf people sometimes approach hearing people and vice versa, and dynamics of cross-cultural conflict. Friday will be a day filled with information, while Saturday will provide more hands-on activities.

If an individual works in a field that requires continuing education units, for example interpreters or counselors, completion of the workshop will result in 1.0 CEU earned.

“I hope that people will be able to take this experience and apply it to their interactions with deaf students, and generalize the concepts to working with others as well,” Davis said.

The workshop runs from 4-8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 21, and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, in the Columbia Room of the Werner University Center.

If interested in registering for the event, contact the office of disability services or download a registration form at wou.edu/rrcd. Registration will also be taken at the door.

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