Emma Massie

How does Trix the rabbit relate to cultural anthropology? Emma Massie is a senior anthropology major whose thesis examines the major themes in children’s cereal commercials from the 1950s to today. These commercials reveal the values held in the United States around food and the role of children in the family, through characters like Trix the Rabbit and the children featured in the commercials.

Massie looked at the commercials over time for around six beloved childhood cereal brands, such as Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp and Trix. With these cereals and more, Massie found two themes of U.S. food culture present in these commercials. The first theme is restraint and indulgence. This refers to the rules surrounding food in the United States and how we give ourselves specific times when we can indulge, like dessert, and times to show restraint from eating unhealthy food.

“I kind of argue that (this idea of tempered indulgence) doesn’t serve the purpose we think it does …  I argue that by repressing desire, we only increase it. That comes out in cereal commercials. I argue that the cereal commercials themselves are a socialization process for the kids who are watching it. All of these kids watching the Cuckoo bird having to restrain himself before he goes Cuckoo, basically socializes them to this cultural idea that restraint and indulgence are linked in all of these different ways,” Massie said.

Along with the theme of indulgence and restraint, Massie noticed that there was an emphasis on children. This child-centeredness was very visible to her in the commercials and cereal products themselves.

“The U.S. in the past few decades has shifted to be very child focused. Children are no longer considered the lowest rung on the social ladder, they are put before adults,” Massie said. “We adapt our things for children instead of expecting them to adapt.”

Massie spoke about how the colorful packaging and cartoon characters designed for each cereal make it clear who the target audience is. The cereals marketed for children are also often very sugary, with the main ingredients being marshmallows or frosting.

“There’s an idea in children’s commercials that children’s food is separate from adult food, and that children have agency within these cereals that gives them the authority to request it from the parents. These commercials teach them that children’s food is sugary, and I argue that has a lot of negative repercussions on children’s health. That’s kind of the ‘so what’ of my thesis,” Massie said.

Annie Roge

Annie Roge is the only senior Film and Media Studies major doing a thesis this year, and her choice of topic is a critical analysis of the 2015 horror film, “The Witch.” Roge uses feminist theorists to examine the movie, which is a period piece set in early New England. The film uses old folklore surrounding witchcraft as the plot, examining the family unit and role of the woman in New England. Roge explores how the idea of the deviant woman can create horror historically.

“It’s been fascinating to explore the ways in which women and the female form threaten patriarchal power structures, both implicitly and–in the context of this film, and arguably, the horror genre in genera–explicitly,” Roge said. “The film locates its story in the annals of history, and as such, the power structures and figures of horror it represents might seem far removed; but this thesis has largely been an inquiry into the degree to which the themes explored in the film–namely, deviant female sexuality in conflict with patriarchy–still hold relevance today. Spoiler alert: they obviously do.”

Roge’s thesis was initially going to be something much different. Her initial idea was to connect this thesis to the oral exam she completed last fall on the music video for Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” The thesis would have been on the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s and 1980s, but Roge realized that her interest in “The Witch” would make this thesis more impactful.

“I’d seen this film the year before and raved about it pretty consistently since then, so basically, I had all these theoretical, conspiracy-theorist-type ideas bouncing around in my brain already, and they just needed to get put down onto paper,” Roge said. “It’s been great–I can’t think of a better way to spend my final semester than this: railing against the patriarchy with the help of a crazy horror film!”

Riley Jordan

Riley Jordan’s thesis brings new information to the very old field of stellar astronomy. Her thesis is the discovery of new variable stars in globular clusters M92 and M15. The goal of the study was to confirm the existence of variable stars, but in the process, Jordan discovered variable stars she hadn’t been expecting.

“M92 and M15 are globular clusters, which means a dense group of really old stars. They’re located in our galaxy and we were just looking for stars that varied in brightness over a period time,” Jordan said. “The goal of the project was to find variable stars in the two clusters, so we confirmed stars that were already known to be variable and we also found new variable stars in both clusters. By identifying these variable stars, we can learn more about stellar evolution and stellar history.”

Jordan worked closely with her advisor, Nathaniel Paust, to research and gather data for her thesis. She used data from 2003 studies, as well as gathering her own data from the Kit Peak National Observatory in Arizona during her junior year. She continued research and analysis of her data during the summer and says the thesis is almost finished now. The biggest surprise Jordan encountered in her research of globular clusters was the discovery of new stars that couldn’t be classified.

“We expected to find RR Lyrae-type variable stars because they’re common in old populations of stars and we were looking at older stars. We found a whole bunch of those, but we also found stars that we weren’t expecting to find that are variable. We’re really not sure how to classify them at this point. We think our results are valid–we just don’t know how to interpret them. That was kind of a surprise,” Jordan said.

Ben Caldwell

Ben Caldwell wrote 14 short stories for his senior thesis, each one ranging from seven to 20 pages long. The stories each represent a slightly different genre and storyline independent from the others. Some of the genres represented include detective fiction, science fiction and fantasy.

Caldwell spoke about his desire to cross the boundary between genre fiction and what is considered literary in this collection of stories. The inspiration for these short stories came from the stories that Caldwell read and enjoyed when he was younger, but didn’t see represented in his high school or college English classes.

“I grew up reading a lot of genre fiction; I grew up reading a lot of fantasy and science fiction especially. As I went through high school and started college, it became increasingly apparent that stuff wasn’t cool anymore. Professors didn’t assign that stuff very much–it just wasn’t considered very interesting or complex enough. I thought, ‘Why? Why can’t it be more serious, more sophisticated, more literary?’ I wanted to explore that, and push at what seemed like a line in sand,” Caldwell said.

Writing and coming up with material for 14 short stories is an intimidating task. Caldwell spoke about the challenges, but he mentioned that with the smallest of changes, even a widely used storyline can feel new.

“It often feels like all the books that can be written, have already been written … In this process, I’ve come to feel that with small tweaks and rearranging of familiar tropes, it’s easy to make something feel fresh,” Caldwell said. “It’s not easy, but it’s not as hard as it seemed to me before. Especially in genre-writing, stories are often very formulaic. They follow the same steps, they have the same images and same themes that come up again and again. If you get away from those even a little bit, it opens up space that feels a little more original, and a little more surprising and interesting.”

Emma Massie

How does Trix the rabbit relate to cultural anthropology? Emma Massie is a senior anthropology major whose thesis examines the major themes in children’s cereal commercials from the 1950s to today. These commercials reveal the values held in the United States around food and the role of children in the family, through characters like Trix the Rabbit and the children featured in the commercials.

Massie looked at the commercials over time for around six beloved childhood cereal brands, such as Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp and Trix. With these cereals and more, Massie found two themes of U.S. food culture present in these commercials. The first theme is restraint and indulgence. This refers to the rules surrounding food in the United States and how we give ourselves specific times when we can indulge, like dessert, and times to show restraint from eating unhealthy food.

“I kind of argue that (this idea of tempered indulgence) doesn’t serve the purpose we think it does …  I argue that by repressing desire, we only increase it. That comes out in cereal commercials. I argue that the cereal commercials themselves are a socialization process for the kids who are watching it. All of these kids watching the Cuckoo bird having to restrain himself before he goes Cuckoo, basically socializes them to this cultural idea that restraint and indulgence are linked in all of these different ways,” Massie said.

Along with the theme of indulgence and restraint, Massie noticed that there was an emphasis on children. This child-centeredness was very visible to her in the commercials and cereal products themselves.

“The U.S. in the past few decades has shifted to be very child focused. Children are no longer considered the lowest rung on the social ladder, they are put before adults,” Massie said. “We adapt our things for children instead of expecting them to adapt.”

Massie spoke about how the colorful packaging and cartoon characters designed for each cereal make it clear who the target audience is. The cereals marketed for children are also often very sugary, with the main ingredients being marshmallows or frosting.

“There’s an idea in children’s commercials that children’s food is separate from adult food, and that children have agency within these cereals that gives them the authority to request it from the parents. These commercials teach them that children’s food is sugary, and I argue that has a lot of negative repercussions on children’s health. That’s kind of the ‘so what’ of my thesis,” Massie said.

Annie Roge

Annie Roge is the only senior Film and Media Studies major doing a thesis this year, and her choice of topic is a critical analysis of the 2015 horror film, “The Witch.” Roge uses feminist theorists to examine the movie, which is a period piece set in early New England. The film uses old folklore surrounding witchcraft as the plot, examining the family unit and role of the woman in New England. Roge explores how the idea of the deviant woman can create horror historically.

“It’s been fascinating to explore the ways in which women and the female form threaten patriarchal power structures, both implicitly and–in the context of this film, and arguably, the horror genre in genera–explicitly,” Roge said. “The film locates its story in the annals of history, and as such, the power structures and figures of horror it represents might seem far removed; but this thesis has largely been an inquiry into the degree to which the themes explored in the film–namely, deviant female sexuality in conflict with patriarchy–still hold relevance today. Spoiler alert: they obviously do.”

Roge’s thesis was initially going to be something much different. Her initial idea was to connect this thesis to the oral exam she completed last fall on the music video for Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” The thesis would have been on the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s and 1980s, but Roge realized that her interest in “The Witch” would make this thesis more impactful.

“I’d seen this film the year before and raved about it pretty consistently since then, so basically, I had all these theoretical, conspiracy-theorist-type ideas bouncing around in my brain already, and they just needed to get put down onto paper,” Roge said. “It’s been great–I can’t think of a better way to spend my final semester than this: railing against the patriarchy with the help of a crazy horror film!”

Riley Jordan

Riley Jordan’s thesis brings new information to the very old field of stellar astronomy. Her thesis is the discovery of new variable stars in globular clusters M92 and M15. The goal of the study was to confirm the existence of variable stars, but in the process, Jordan discovered variable stars she hadn’t been expecting.

“M92 and M15 are globular clusters, which means a dense group of really old stars. They’re located in our galaxy and we were just looking for stars that varied in brightness over a period time,” Jordan said. “The goal of the project was to find variable stars in the two clusters, so we confirmed stars that were already known to be variable and we also found new variable stars in both clusters. By identifying these variable stars, we can learn more about stellar evolution and stellar history.”

Jordan worked closely with her advisor, Nathaniel Paust, to research and gather data for her thesis. She used data from 2003 studies, as well as gathering her own data from the Kit Peak National Observatory in Arizona during her junior year. She continued research and analysis of her data during the summer and says the thesis is almost finished now. The biggest surprise Jordan encountered in her research of globular clusters was the discovery of new stars that couldn’t be classified.

“We expected to find RR Lyrae-type variable stars because they’re common in old populations of stars and we were looking at older stars. We found a whole bunch of those, but we also found stars that we weren’t expecting to find that are variable. We’re really not sure how to classify them at this point. We think our results are valid–we just don’t know how to interpret them. That was kind of a surprise,” Jordan said.

Ben Caldwell

Ben Caldwell wrote 14 short stories for his senior thesis, each one ranging from seven to 20 pages long. The stories each represent a slightly different genre and storyline independent from the others. Some of the genres represented include detective fiction, science fiction and fantasy.

Caldwell spoke about his desire to cross the boundary between genre fiction and what is considered literary in this collection of stories. The inspiration for these short stories came from the stories that Caldwell read and enjoyed when he was younger, but didn’t see represented in his high school or college English classes.

“I grew up reading a lot of genre fiction; I grew up reading a lot of fantasy and science fiction especially. As I went through high school and started college, it became increasingly apparent that stuff wasn’t cool anymore. Professors didn’t assign that stuff very much–it just wasn’t considered very interesting or complex enough. I thought, ‘Why? Why can’t it be more serious, more sophisticated, more literary?’ I wanted to explore that, and push at what seemed like a line in sand,” Caldwell said.

Writing and coming up with material for 14 short stories is an intimidating task. Caldwell spoke about the challenges, but he mentioned that with the smallest of changes, even a widely used storyline can feel new.

“It often feels like all the books that can be written, have already been written … In this process, I’ve come to feel that with small tweaks and rearranging of familiar tropes, it’s easy to make something feel fresh,” Caldwell said. “It’s not easy, but it’s not as hard as it seemed to me before. Especially in genre-writing, stories are often very formulaic. They follow the same steps, they have the same images and same themes that come up again and again. If you get away from those even a little bit, it opens up space that feels a little more original, and a little more surprising and interesting.”

Emma Massie

How does Trix the rabbit relate to cultural anthropology? Emma Massie is a senior anthropology major whose thesis examines the major themes in children’s cereal commercials from the 1950s to today. These commercials reveal the values held in the United States around food and the role of children in the family, through characters like Trix the Rabbit and the children featured in the commercials.

Massie looked at the commercials over time for around six beloved childhood cereal brands, such as Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp and Trix. With these cereals and more, Massie found two themes of U.S. food culture present in these commercials. The first theme is restraint and indulgence. This refers to the rules surrounding food in the United States and how we give ourselves specific times when we can indulge, like dessert, and times to show restraint from eating unhealthy food.

“I kind of argue that (this idea of tempered indulgence) doesn’t serve the purpose we think it does …  I argue that by repressing desire, we only increase it. That comes out in cereal commercials. I argue that the cereal commercials themselves are a socialization process for the kids who are watching it. All of these kids watching the Cuckoo bird having to restrain himself before he goes Cuckoo, basically socializes them to this cultural idea that restraint and indulgence are linked in all of these different ways,” Massie said.

Along with the theme of indulgence and restraint, Massie noticed that there was an emphasis on children. This child-centeredness was very visible to her in the commercials and cereal products themselves.

“The U.S. in the past few decades has shifted to be very child focused. Children are no longer considered the lowest rung on the social ladder, they are put before adults,” Massie said. “We adapt our things for children instead of expecting them to adapt.”

Massie spoke about how the colorful packaging and cartoon characters designed for each cereal make it clear who the target audience is. The cereals marketed for children are also often very sugary, with the main ingredients being marshmallows or frosting.

“There’s an idea in children’s commercials that children’s food is separate from adult food, and that children have agency within these cereals that gives them the authority to request it from the parents. These commercials teach them that children’s food is sugary, and I argue that has a lot of negative repercussions on children’s health. That’s kind of the ‘so what’ of my thesis,” Massie said.

Annie Roge

Annie Roge is the only senior Film and Media Studies major doing a thesis this year, and her choice of topic is a critical analysis of the 2015 horror film, “The Witch.” Roge uses feminist theorists to examine the movie, which is a period piece set in early New England. The film uses old folklore surrounding witchcraft as the plot, examining the family unit and role of the woman in New England. Roge explores how the idea of the deviant woman can create horror historically.

“It’s been fascinating to explore the ways in which women and the female form threaten patriarchal power structures, both implicitly and–in the context of this film, and arguably, the horror genre in genera–explicitly,” Roge said. “The film locates its story in the annals of history, and as such, the power structures and figures of horror it represents might seem far removed; but this thesis has largely been an inquiry into the degree to which the themes explored in the film–namely, deviant female sexuality in conflict with patriarchy–still hold relevance today. Spoiler alert: they obviously do.”

Roge’s thesis was initially going to be something much different. Her initial idea was to connect this thesis to the oral exam she completed last fall on the music video for Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” The thesis would have been on the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s and 1980s, but Roge realized that her interest in “The Witch” would make this thesis more impactful.

“I’d seen this film the year before and raved about it pretty consistently since then, so basically, I had all these theoretical, conspiracy-theorist-type ideas bouncing around in my brain already, and they just needed to get put down onto paper,” Roge said. “It’s been great–I can’t think of a better way to spend my final semester than this: railing against the patriarchy with the help of a crazy horror film!”

Riley Jordan

Riley Jordan’s thesis brings new information to the very old field of stellar astronomy. Her thesis is the discovery of new variable stars in globular clusters M92 and M15. The goal of the study was to confirm the existence of variable stars, but in the process, Jordan discovered variable stars she hadn’t been expecting.

“M92 and M15 are globular clusters, which means a dense group of really old stars. They’re located in our galaxy and we were just looking for stars that varied in brightness over a period time,” Jordan said. “The goal of the project was to find variable stars in the two clusters, so we confirmed stars that were already known to be variable and we also found new variable stars in both clusters. By identifying these variable stars, we can learn more about stellar evolution and stellar history.”

Jordan worked closely with her advisor, Nathaniel Paust, to research and gather data for her thesis. She used data from 2003 studies, as well as gathering her own data from the Kit Peak National Observatory in Arizona during her junior year. She continued research and analysis of her data during the summer and says the thesis is almost finished now. The biggest surprise Jordan encountered in her research of globular clusters was the discovery of new stars that couldn’t be classified.

“We expected to find RR Lyrae-type variable stars because they’re common in old populations of stars and we were looking at older stars. We found a whole bunch of those, but we also found stars that we weren’t expecting to find that are variable. We’re really not sure how to classify them at this point. We think our results are valid–we just don’t know how to interpret them. That was kind of a surprise,” Jordan said.

Ben Caldwell

Ben Caldwell wrote 14 short stories for his senior thesis, each one ranging from seven to 20 pages long. The stories each represent a slightly different genre and storyline independent from the others. Some of the genres represented include detective fiction, science fiction and fantasy.

Caldwell spoke about his desire to cross the boundary between genre fiction and what is considered literary in this collection of stories. The inspiration for these short stories came from the stories that Caldwell read and enjoyed when he was younger, but didn’t see represented in his high school or college English classes.

“I grew up reading a lot of genre fiction; I grew up reading a lot of fantasy and science fiction especially. As I went through high school and started college, it became increasingly apparent that stuff wasn’t cool anymore. Professors didn’t assign that stuff very much–it just wasn’t considered very interesting or complex enough. I thought, ‘Why? Why can’t it be more serious, more sophisticated, more literary?’ I wanted to explore that, and push at what seemed like a line in sand,” Caldwell said.

Writing and coming up with material for 14 short stories is an intimidating task. Caldwell spoke about the challenges, but he mentioned that with the smallest of changes, even a widely used storyline can feel new.

“It often feels like all the books that can be written, have already been written … In this process, I’ve come to feel that with small tweaks and rearranging of familiar tropes, it’s easy to make something feel fresh,” Caldwell said. “It’s not easy, but it’s not as hard as it seemed to me before. Especially in genre-writing, stories are often very formulaic. They follow the same steps, they have the same images and same themes that come up again and again. If you get away from those even a little bit, it opens up space that feels a little more original, and a little more surprising and interesting.”

The Whitman administration has recommended not renewing tenured positions of at least five retiring faculty members in a push to increase the student-faculty ratio. The administration recommended replacing three positions in the Music, Chemistry and Economics departments.

The process of deciding which tenure track faculty positions are added or replaced is a long, intensive process. Each year, academic departments request replacements or additions for tenure track positions in their department. The Committee of Division Chairs (CDC) reviews these requests, then makes recommendations to the Provost, who makes recommendations to the President. The President makes the final recommendations to the Board of Trustees. The Board meeting next week will mark the end of this process and the final decisions about tenure track positions.

While the final recommendations come through the President’s office, the impetus behind the cuts is a push by the Board of Trustees to move Whitman back towards a 10-1 student to faculty ratio. The ratio is currently 8.4-1.

Brad McMurchie, Chair of the Board of Trustees, distributed a letter to the faculty explaining the Board’s efforts to alter the ratio.

“While the college could financially sustain an 8-to-1 ratio in perpetuity, it just wouldn’t be the best use of our resources. Whitman’s mission is student learning. Our resources are overwhelmingly committed to enhancing that learning. That’s the way it should be. The board is committed to the health and rigor of our academic program across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences,” McMurchie wrote. “We can and will provide an outstanding academic experience while also allocating resources to other priorities.”

McMurchie cited “ensuring financial access to all students and building a truly diverse and inclusive Whitman” as “vital priorities.”

Many faculty around campus have been unhappy with the recommendations. Chair of Art History and Visual Culture Studies Matt Reynolds wrote an Op-Ed on April 10, disagreeing with the Trustees’ metrics-based method of evaluation. According to Provost and Dean of Faculty Alzada Tipton, one of the factors in determining which departments would not have receive new professors was the department’s popularity among students, measured both by the number of students taking classes and the number of majors the department serves. Due in part to Whitman students’ heavy interest in STEM, a large majority of the 15 positions not recommended were in the social sciences and humanities.

According to Tipton, the other criteria for which faculty positions aren’t renewed or added includes evaluating whether the position fits the mission of the College, how much the potential loss of the position will impact the overall department and whether the loss of the position would cause the department to lose an area of expertise.

Tywen Kelly
Art History classroom of “Japanese Art and Aesthetics”. Art History is one department not receiving a replacement Full-Time Equivalent professor.

One of the most visible impacts of the recommendations will be the discontinuation of positions covering Twentieth Century U.S. History and European Art History, both of which currently attract high numbers of students. Provost Tipton spoke about the ways she hopes that the loss of these areas of expertise will be handled in each academic program.

“The loss of those positions does not end a program or a major or a department. It doesn’t have that sort of ultimate negative effect on the program to lose that position,” Tipton said. “There are ways that liberal arts colleges approach thinking about teaching the different parts of the discipline that they teach that I believe offer us some ways of understanding that European art history will still be a part of the art history program, or that we still have U.S. history represented in the History department.”

Although there are creative teaching options to consider, many members of faculty are concerned about the loss of important topics normally covered by faculty in their departments. David Schmitz expressed concern over what the history department will look like after he retires.

“All of our peer institutions have twentieth century historians. It’s obviously the consensus of historians that this is an essential part of history curriculum in the United States,” Schmitz said. “It will create an enormous gap in the curriculum with courses that will no longer be offered or available to students.”

Dennis Crockett, Professor in the Art History and Visual Culture Department, spoke about the difficulties of trying to cover topics outside of your area of expertise.

“I used to offer a class annually, and it was a very particular kind of class. It was about Mediterranean Europe in the late Middle ages. It was about Byzantine culture and Muslim culture, and Christian culture and the interactions. It was a very complicated thing. It took me probably 15 years to get it right,” Crockett said. “You can’t expect the faculty we have to drop some of the classes that they’re doing and to spend several years retooling to teach things that they have no preparation to teach.”

Despite faculty objections, the decision appears to have been made in finality. The Trustees meet on campus from May 3 to 5, where the recommendations will be presented for their approval.

This Thursday at 7 p.m. outside Cordiner, “Take Back the Night” will begin with a march around campus. The event is open to everyone, and organizers strive to bring awareness to sexual violence and show solidarity for survivors of assault.

Take Back the Night is a national event held on college campuses, and has a relatively long tradition at Whitman. The event is organized and hosted by FACE, the Feminists Advocating for Change and Empowerment club on campus. It will begin with poster making in front of Cordiner starting at 6 p.m., a march around campus at 7 p.m., and then after the march, survivors of sexual assault will tell their stories in the foyer of Cordiner. The event was organized by co-presidents of FACE, Bryn Louise and Willa Johnson.

This event takes place every year at Whitman, but organizers say the message of Take Back the Night, that is to bring awareness to sexual assault on campus, continues to remain relevant. Bryn Louise spoke about what she hopes the effect of the event will be this year at Whitman.

Caroline Ashford Arya

“Just because we do this every year doesn’t mean the outcome will be the same every year,” Louise said. “Especially concerning recent events on campus, I just hope that victims of sexual violence get the support they deserve, and hopefully this will be a catalyzing moment for stuff going forward in terms of sexual violence on campus.”

Johnson spoke about her desire that the victims and survivors of assault who attend this event will feel welcomed and supported by a community of allies.

“One of the biggest takeaways is for people to know that they’re not alone. People are out there who went through similar experiences to them, and that there’s support for them,” Johnson said. “Sexual assault and sexual violence are very prevalent here, both at Whitman and in students’ lives in general. Having that awareness, and having this not be an issue that we shove under the table or ignore, but instead bringing it out and having it be a very direct, ‘in your face’ way of confronting sexual violence.”

Louise also mentioned that people who have never attended these events may be surprised at the startling number of people that sexual violence impacts.

“I think people who don’t attend events like these or aren’t involved will be surprised at how many people sexual violence actually affects. It’s kind of heavy, as an event, as sexual violence is a heavy subject,” Louise said.

Caroline Ashford Arya

Sophomore Danielle Hirano, who attended the event last year and plans to return this year, was impacted by her experience listening to the stories of sexual assault survivors last year. She hopes that people who attend will gain a better understanding of how sexual assault impacts people.

“I feel like victims of sexual assault and violence are silenced, whether or not they choose to report their results. This is a space for survivors to have that voice … and tell the story from their perspective,” Hirano said. “For people attending, whether you’re a survivor or not, I hope that you hear some powerful stories and you walk away having a better idea and a bigger picture of what it is like to be a victim of sexual assault.”

Caroline Ashford Arya

The Whitman College Technology Center recently reached its six month mark at the new office across the street from College House, and tech employees are already seeing the positive impacts. Before July of 2016, Whitman College tech staff was spread out amongst Olin Hall, Hunter Conservatory and the other academic buildings on campus. All the departments within tech finally came together in one central location this past summer, in a blue building across the street from Clarette’s.

The shift to a new building has been in the works for a while, according to Chief Information Officer Dan Terrio.

Photo by Caroline Ashford Arya.

“I’ve been here for over five and a half years, and one of the first things I asked was, ‘Is there an opportunity for all of our staff to come together?’” Terrio said. “At the time, there really weren’t any options available.”

The new Tech Center became available when the lease of the former resident, the Washington State Department of Health and Social Services, was not renewed, and Whitman decided to consolidate all tech departments into this building. The building was built in the mid to late 1950’s and was originally an Albertson’s Grocery Store. The process of reconstructing the inside of the building took almost a year, and the Tech Department has more development ahead as phase two of construction begins this summer. This phase includes exterior construction to make the building appear more obviously part of Whitman campus, including new stucco for the outside of the building and plants added in the parking lot. Right now the building is a square, blue colored building with almost no signage indicating the building is part of Whitman campus.

Photo by Caroline Ashford Arya.

The centralized location of the offices of all the departments within tech has improved communication between departments, which include network infrastructure, client services and help desk, enterprise technology and instructional learning technology.

“We’re all together now,” Desktop Systems Administrator Cate Lyon said. “That’s been kind of a learning curve because we’ve never been together before. It’s nice because [our work] can be much more collaborative. It’s really great having the Help Desk here, because the students who staff the Help Desk can go to anyone and get help from any of the groups. Before, that was a little more challenging for them because we were distributed across campus.”

Terrio spoke about how the new location has allowed for better communication.

“We are technology people, but instant messaging, telephone and email are not always the most effective ways to communicate,” Terrio said. “Having face-to-face communication is often times more efficient, so that there aren’t misunderstandings … you can resolve things quickly.”

Photo by Caroline Ashford Arya.

The Tech Department has big things planned for the upcoming year. All the computers on campus will be updated to Windows 10, starting with the computers in the library. Additionally, the server which holds all of the power for technology on campus will be moved from North Hall to the new Tech Building this summer.

Trung Vu, Whitman student and Tech Center Intern, described the tech center at Whitman and his work environment.

“People don’t really notice IT departments unless things aren’t working, and things are usually working here,” said Vu. “There’s a lot of talented staff and really smart people working in that building.”

Voz Worker’s Rights Organization came to Walla Walla last Saturday to show their documentary “Jornaleros,” which showcased the lives of day laborers in Portland. This event was hosted and organized by Borders as Movements Club (BAM) with help from Whitman Professor of Politics Paul Apostolidis.

Voz is a Portland based nonprofit which works to protect and empower day laborers and immigrants. “Jornaleros” is a 30 minute documentary produced by Voz to showcase the lives of five day laborers in Portland. The documentary focuses on the artistic talent of the jornaleros, or day laborers, featured in the film. Voz has shown the film around Portland and in a few places on the West Coast, including in Walla Walla this past Saturday.

The screening took place at the First Congregational Church in Walla Walla, followed by a question and answer session with Romeo Sosa, the executive director of Voz. BAM hosted the event collaborating with Professor Paul Apostolidis, whose most recent article and upcoming book, “The Fight for Time: Day Laborers and the Politics of Precarious Work,” discuss the film.

The film follows the stories of five migrant day laborers living in Portland. It focuses on the art and music they produce, rather than focusing on the day to day challenges of living as a jornalero. The people featured in the film are Jesse Vasquez and Jesus Kobe, both painters, Jesus “Lolo” Rivas and Francisco Aguirre, musicians and Raul Perez, who writes and performs poetry. The film focuses on their art, but the men also briefly mention the difficulties of learning a new language and adjusting culturally to a new country.

Romeo Sosa, Executive Director of Voz and Director of “Jornaleros,” spoke about the representation of the day laborers found in the film.

“We hope that this film shows a human part of day laborers. They are not only workers, but they are also people with talents. It shows that immigrants are not coming here to destroy the country, immigrants want to build this country with their work,” Sosa said. “They bring a lot of culture from other countries, and they make the United States better with the work that they do.”

Professor Paul Apostolidis has worked with Voz in the past for research and his upcoming book. Apostolidis commented about the film and how it goes beyond one’s expectations of a portrayal of a day laborer.

“It’s an extraordinary film, it’s kind of a like a gem that no one outside this region really knows about,” Apostolidis said. “The key message here is that migrants are more than just working bodies … they’re creative, complex individuals just like everybody else. This is why they make such a focus on their works of art and music and their poetry creations. I just think that the movie does that spectacularly well.”

Senior Cassandra Otero, Budget Manager of BAM and a coordinator of the event, spoke about how going forward she hopes this film and discussion has an effect on the Latino population in Walla Walla and at Whitman. Otero spoke about her desire to create a community space at these events for Latinos in Walla Walla, and how there is a safe space at these events for difficult conversations to be had.

“There are a lot of Latinos in Whitman, in public schools and in the community. For a while there hasn’t been a whole lot of visibility of our struggles and our experiences. I think this is one more step in our visibility,” Otero said. “What I’m really hoping for is to create a space where people feel safe and supported and empowered. A space where allies can learn and show solidarity as well. That’s the huge goal.”

This past week, on Tuesday Nov. 29, Planned Parenthood Generation Action (PPGA) hosted a collaborative event with All Students for Consent (ASC), called, “What Does Consent Look Like?”

This event took place in the Reid Coffee house and featured a panel of four members of ASC discussing consent and answering audience questions. PPGA hosted this event to support the efforts of ASC on campus, and to create more conversation about different aspects of consent that often go unnoticed. The discussion revolved around how power dynamics are involved in consent, especially how race, gender and class play into consent and healthy relationships. PPGA is one of a few groups on campus who organizes events and awareness on consent, other groups leading this effort are ASC and FACE. How these clubs go about educating on consent is different, but they share a common goal of uniting Whitman students in a safe community with an understanding of what consent looks like. 

According to junior Kyla Rapp, who is the Co-President of PPGA, a goal was to bring what people learned at events like the panel into their everyday lives.

“We wanted to create a space that was a little bit more informal and little bit more conversation based, that really connected formal curriculum about consent to people’s lives and their actual lived experiences,” Rapp said.

Senior Emma Rust, Co-President of ASC, examined the effect that these events can have on bringing up aspects of consent that normally aren’t discussed.

Photo by Samarah Uribe.

“I think that because we talk about consent so much, it’s easy to think that we know it all. I hope that an event like [“What Does Consent Look Like?”], that got into a lot of really nuanced and underrepresented narratives and experiences, broadens people’s understanding of consent,” Rust said.

With so many groups working to inform the Whitman population on what consent means, the message on consent can sometimes get muddled between the different types of events and initiatives each group takes.

“I think that increasing the dialogue is really important, and the more groups talking about consent the better,” Rust said. “Where I get worried is that when you have so many groups talking about consent, it divides the community a lot. It can make it hard to really create a consent community, sometimes groups step on each other’s toes and it’s hard to build solidarity.”

While the myriad groups supporting consent education on campus can cause confusion in providing one focused effort on consent, there are also many benefits to having many groups of people talking about the same issue. The benefit of having many groups looking to educate on consent is that is relieves the pressure of consent education off of one group.

“The more people are talking about consent, the more it’s actually going to happen. A lot of the ways that big changes are made on Whitman campus really stem from the activism and energy of students,” Rapp said. “While it’s absolutely incredible that students are willing to make those changes, it’s also a huge burden to [put] on students.”

Photo by Samarah Uribe.

Rust also mentioned the positive effects of having many student groups dedicated to the same cause, especially in the aftermath of druggings at campus parties. 

“One good thing about different communities [on consent] is that you have a lot of different plans of attack. The diversity of tactics these groups provide is really useful,” Rust said. “I think people are just more aware of the fact that this community needs consent. We’ve always needed it, but now we have evidence that shows we’re not as good at this as we thought we were.”

Junior Catherine Fisher, Co-President of ASC, acknowledged that the work in educating yourself on consent is an process that takes time and commitment.

“Educating oneself about consent is an ongoing process. I know that it is an unpopular answer but I really believe that to normalize consent culture we need to talk about it, read about it, write about it all the time,” said Fisher in an email to the Whitman Wire. “There is no magical or easy solution and I know that is hard for many people to hear.”