Hannah Bartman contributed reporting.

*Some of the names in this article have been changed to protect the identities of students.

Armed police officers approached the French House as sophomore Sami Carrillo, a student of color, stood in the doorway. It was 2 a.m. the night before Thanksgiving, and Carrillo was being accused of trespassing in his own home after refusing to present identification when he opened his door to a Whitman security officer.

According to some students and alumni, racial profiling has been an issue on campus for years. But since the incident at the French House during this year’s Thanksgiving Break, Carrillo has been organizing students and faculty of color to pressure the administration to take action.

Sami Carrillo (’17), photo by Annabelle Marcovici.

“It was really weird to have that happen here to me because the whole time over the break I was dwelling with some of my friends over how we felt so removed from these sort of things. Yet here it is, pops up, wakes me out of bed,” said Carrillo.

Carrillo was watching movies in bed the night before Thanksgiving when he heard a knock on the door. He went downstairs, thinking he would find housemates who forgot their keys, grateful to be let inside. What he found instead was a Whitman security officer who told him an upstairs window was open and asked for Carrillo’s identification. After Carrillo refused to search for his ID, the officer called the Walla Walla Police Department to request back up.

Two police cars arrived on campus. According to Carrillo, the officers who stepped out remained calm and defused the standoff in the doorway. Carrillo agreed to search for a form of identification; his wallet was lost, so he had neither his driver’s license nor student ID. Instead, he managed to find his passport. A WWPD officer looked at it and told the Whitman security officer Carrillo belonged there.

Whitman Security declined to comment on this specific incident.

According to President George Bridges, the security officer in question claimed to have seen someone through a window of the French House. Because there had recently been several break-ins in the vicinity of the Interest House Community, the officer knocked on the door. Carrillo was required to comply with the officer’s request for identification, as the Student Conduct Policy states that all students must comply with the direction of college employees in the course of doing their job.

There are currently no clear guidelines in the student conduct policy for when a security officer is justified in asking for students’ identification or what response should be taken if an individual refuses to provide ID. According to Bridges, the college is in the process of drafting these guidelines and plans to implement them by the end of the semester.

Students speak out

In early December, members of For Us By Us (FUBU), an informal mentoring program and discussion space for Whitman students, faculty and staff of color, met to speak about issues surrounding the August shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo. After Carrillo told the meeting about his experience at the French House, over 30 other students and faculty spoke about their own experiences being profiled on campus.

One of these students was first-year Penny*, who was asked for her ID by a security officer as he held the door to Prentiss Hall open for her. According to Penny, as she was walking away from the officer, she saw a white student enter the building and walk by the same officer without being asked to show ID.

“It wasn’t that surprising, but it was shocking to know … We’re not initially looked at and thought of as students. We’re [seen] as outsiders,” said Penny. “It was Sami’s experience that represented everybody’s experience of it. Most people of color have gone through racial profiling.”

Sophomore Brenna Two Bears had a similarly uncomfortable experience with a security officer during Thanksgiving Break. Two Bears and her friend, both students of color, were sitting outside of Prentiss when a security guard approached them

Brenna Two Bears (’17), photo by Annabelle Marcovici.

and asked for their IDs. While Two Bears was searching through her bag, the officer began to question them, asking where they lived on campus and if they could point to their home.

“It happens in other places as well to me. It was bound to happen here too. But now I’m mad because I came here specifically so I wouldn’t have to deal with that anymore,” said Two Bears.

Senior Mcebo Maziya recalled an incident from his sophomore year in which he was approached by a security officer and asked to produce his ID while studying with other white students in the Olin Hall Computer Lab at 9:00 p.m.

“He demanded to see my student ID and I was like, ‘Are you serious right now? You want to see my ID? Specifically?’ I was looking through my bag, and as I was, he was being obnoxious, like, ‘See, you don’t have it,’ and eventually I found my ID and … he looked regretful but he didn’t say anything,” said Maziya.

Community support and administrative response

Following the confrontation at the French House over Thanksgiving Break, Carrillo wrote a letter to President Bridges describing the incident and denouncing racial profiling on campus. Sami and dozens of his supporters, including students and faculty, gathered in Memorial Building outside Bridges’ office on Thursday, Dec. 11. Together they read the letter aloud to demonstrate that Carrillo was not alone in his experience.

“I decided to support [Carrillo] on the tentative grounds that his narrative seems to be motivated by nothing other than facts, and if indeed it was a function of facts, then those facts suggested massive ethical problems, which I thought a protest would seek to counter,” said Associate Professor of English Gaurav Majumdar.

Since the public reading of the letter, Carrillo has engaged in one-on-one conversations about profiling with President Bridges and Chief Diversity Officer Kazi Joshua. Carrillo and other members of FUBU hope to push the administration to publicly acknowledge racial profiling as an issue that must be addressed on campus, and they hope to introduce a required training for security staff on racial profiling.

Currently all college employees, upon their initial hiring, are required to take a short online course. This course describes different forms of harassment and discrimination, but it does not contain a specific definition or thorough explanation of racial profiling. Employees are asked to redo the course every three years, though they may choose not to participate.

Security staff will receive additional training in the upcoming months; the trainings are not in direct response to recent allegations of profiling, but administrators hope they will help address those concerns.

Within the next couple months, security officers will attend three courses hosted by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department. Some of the topics these courses will cover include conflict resolution, body language, authority ethics and communication skills. Additionally, by this summer, all officers will have attended 40 hours of training at the The Basic Law Enforcement Academy. In the upcoming semester, Dr. Thacher Carter and Rick Baez of the Counseling Center will meet with security staff to discuss conflict in interpersonal relations, and on Apr. 16–18, Tamara King from Washington University will conduct a workshop on how to identify and prevent racial profiling.

“Ultimately this is about respect: Do [we] respect the other person for their accomplishments and for their intellect, for their contributions to the college?” said Bridges. “I don’t think [training] should just be [focused on] racial profiling. There should be training on every dimension of discrimination.”

Mcebo Maziya (’15), photo by Annabelle Marcovici.

Not trusting the system

Though many Whitman students of color have stories of being targeted for their racial identity on campus, relatively few choose to file complaints through official channels. The only known complaint of racial profiling filed since at least 2012 was filed by Carrillo for a separate incident at a concert last year.

According to college policy, complaints of racial profiling are categorized as “racial harassment” and are handled through the Grievance Policy. The Grievance Policy is part of the faculty handbook, but it is not clear who holds the ultimate authority in revising and updating the policy. Responsibility for updating the policy is shared by some combination of the Office Dean of Students, the Committee of Division Chairs, the Faculty Senate, Human Resources, the provost, the president and the Board of Trustees.

Some students have argued that the Grievance Policy is relatively unpublicized compared to other official avenues of complaint, such as the Sexual Misconduct Policy. The policy as it currently stands also lacks a specific definition for racial profiling.

“Up until now, I had no idea the Grievance Policy exists. No one tells you that [it exists] when you get to campus … Racial profiling needs attention on campus and its own policy and system of handling this matter,” said Karina* in an email to The Pioneer. Currently a junior, she claims to have been profiled by students at Greek events but has never filed a formal complaint with the college.

Under the current Grievance Policy, any complaints of racial profiling filed against Whitman security officers are investigated either by Director of Human Resources Dennis Hopwood or a member of his staff.

“Profiling to me connotes intentional discrimination. As a human resources director for Whitman, I would need to be convinced that the facts either prove or are highly suggestive of a particular group being targeted and called out and treated differently in order for me to reach the conclusion that profiling happened,” said Hopwood.

Many students who have stories about being racially profiled believe that the complainant should not have to prove there was a conscious intent to racially profile. They argue proving intent can be too difficult and that it is possible for students to be profiled due to internalized biases.

According to President Bridges, rather than prove that an individual made a conscious decision to profile someone, college investigators must discover if there is a larger pattern of discrimination.

“I believe that if there are allegations that individuals or groups of individuals have engaged in a consistent practice of discrimination, we have a legal obligation to look into that. I think we have a responsibility to look into what happened, and why it happened, and to correct [discriminatory practices] as quickly as we can,” said Bridges.

As Carrillo’s complaint was the only one of its kind filed in years, it was ultimately not found valid by the investigatory process. Carrillo believes that students not using the Grievance Policy to report profiling has created a cycle of inaction.

“If people are not reporting stuff, there’s nothing to go off of. But people are not reporting stuff because the results are not coming through. At some point it feels like there’s no purpose for going through the grievance process,” he said.

Searching for answers

In recent weeks, the college has taken steps to improve conversations about diversity on campus and to improve training about racial profiling for security officers. According to President Bridges, these programs were planned before Carrillo came forward with his experiences and are not a direct result of recent actions concerning racial profiling.

“I’ve been wanting to move in this direction for a while, and I think what we’re seeing and hearing is greater expression of concern by students and faculty about these issues. I wouldn’t say [the actions being taken are] a direct response to [the concerns], but I would say they’ve underscored the importance of doing this. It’s simply something that we talked about doing a couple of years ago, and we’re launching it now,” said Bridges.

Bridges said he hesitates to use the term profiling in relation to what happened to Carrillo. Though he published a letter to the editor in the Feb. 19 issue of The Pioneer about the importance of tolerance on campus, the letter did not address Carrillo’s incident, and no official college statement has yet acknowledged racial profiling as a campus issue.

“In order to [create change], you need to acknowledge these things are happening … How can you work on something you aren’t acknowledging as an issue?” said Carrillo.

Fast Facts: The future of printing

Many students uses GoPrint to bring handouts and reading to class, but change is coming. User Support Services Consultant Cate Lyon and Campus Sustainability Coordinator Tristan Sewell are considering ways to make printing on campus less wasteful and more cost-efficient. Some possibilities being considered are:

• Changing pricing and printing quotes.
• Incentivizing two-sided printing.
• Having leftover GoPrint money roll over at the end of the semester.
• Creating another authentication step to prevent unwanted prints that waste money and paper.
• Encouraging faculty to allow students to digitally access readings for class.

Want to give feedback about GoPrint? Lyon and Sewell are gathering feedback using a survey for students! Email Tristan Sewell at sewelltt@whitman.edu to get involved.

For almost 120 years, The Pioneer has reported on news from the Whitman campus and surrounding community. Pio Past pulls old articles from past decades from the Penrose Library archives to give modern readers a glimpse of campus history.

Originally published March 13, 1986

By Randy Edison

Easily the most visible demonstration of divestment support at Whitman yet, a shanty town of hand constructed shacks and tents has been erected on the front lawn of the Memorial Building. Constructed Tuesday morning by members of Whitman Students for Social Change and other concerned students, the shanties will remain standing and inhabited until Friday when the Board of Trustees meet and consider the standing of Whitman’s $10 million invested in companies that do business in South Africa.

According to WSSC representative Ann Pelo, Shanty Town is “making concrete the black South Africans’ experience under apartheid.”

“I think the purpose is twofold,” elaborated Susan Bonner, another WSSC member. “One is to bring the issue close to home for Whitman students.” Its obvious physical presence “forces people to make a choice one way or the other. But it also puts pressure on the administration. It lets them know that students support divestment strongly. We want our views represented.”

Shanty town huts were constructed from lumber scraps and plastic sheets which were donated by local supporters and “pretty much whatever we could find on the side of the road or in backyards,” stated WSSC member Stafford Squier, to a national AP reporter. The shanties have been occupied 24 hours a day, with students trading off shifts so to not miss classes. Tuesday night ten students spent the night in Shanty Town, despite rain and cold winds.

Before construction was started, Shanty Town met with college approval. Dean of Students Russel DeRemer explained that “it doesn’t violate college policy and we see it as an expression of free speech. It is built in a location and a manner that complies with college policy and doesn’t interfere with college business of activities.”

The Board of Trustees meeting this Friday is expected to consider the recently established Investment Advisory Committee’s proposal for partial divestment. This proposal asks for Whitman’s divesture of shares from corporations that do not adhere to the Sullivan Principals, which maintains a policy designed to improve employment conditions for non-whites. Pete Reid, Whitman College Treasurer and Investment Advisory Committee head, stated that in addition the committee will recommend “that we don’t invest in businesses that deal directly with the South African police and military.”

The construction of Shanty Town has attracted some attention from Eastern Washington’s media, such as a news article appearing in Spokane’s Spokesperson Review and receiving television coverage in the Tri-Cities.

On Feb. 22 ASWC passed an act renewing the sustainability director position for next year. When it was created last spring, the job of the ASWC sustainability director was purposefully vague. Over the last six months, the first two sustainability directors, sophomores Margo Heffron and Dani Hupper, have worked to define how future sustainability directors will go about connecting environmental groups and facilitating their cooperation.

Heffron and Hupper were elected as sustainability directors on a split ticket last September, with Heffron acting during the fall semester and Hupper taking over in the spring. Next year the sustainability director will be appointed by the ASWC president instead of being elected by the student body.

The Sustainability Summit, which took place on Feb. 25, was the result of Heffron’s efforts to organize a gathering of environmental clubs, and Hupper recently completed work on an ASWC sustainability website that increases online communication between clubs and the student body.

When she began her term as sustainability director, Heffron knew that she wanted to create a regular social gathering to connect sustainability groups with each other and with the student body. Campus Sustainability Coordinator Tristan Sewell recommended a formal Sustainability Summit based on his experience at other colleges.

“It was something that I recommended they do because it’s something I had seen when I was a student. I thought it was really useful for these clubs, both to interact with each other and to air what they’re up to,” said Sewell.

Next year the sustainability director will be required to put on a Sustainability Summit every semester. The Sustainability Summit is a variation on the ASWC Town Hall which focuses on environmental issues and includes an update from campus environmental groups before beginning discussions.

“While there’s tons of environmental sustainability initiatives going on on campus, there’s not a resource or communal forum that ties them all together,” said Hupper. “We feel the Sustainability Summit is a good way to come back, check in, see what the other clubs are doing and build off of each other.”

In addition to completing the Sustainability Summit and website, Hupper has worked on several other projects this semester. As the liaison between ASWC and environmental groups, she played a large role organizing the upcoming divestment referendum. Going forward, Hupper plans to create a listserv for leaders of environmental groups and monthly meetings to increase cooperation among the clubs. She is also working with a group of physics students to prepare a proposal for the installation of a wind turbine at the northwest corner of the library.

“The purpose of [the turbine] is actually not to generate electricity. We have minimal wind,” said Hupper. “The purpose is more education … so we can take what we learn in class and see it in action.”

While Heffron and Hupper collaborated on the Sustainability Summit, Heffron is going to take a back seat for the rest of the year.

“The Sustainability Summit was my big project that I didn’t have time for last fall, and it really helped that Dani [Hupper] was here and was a good transition project for us.” said Heffron.

A new environmental group on campus, Rethink Dams, is advocating for the removal of the four dams on the lower Snake River.

Sophomore Fiona Bennitt formed Rethink Dams after she was inspired by the documentary “DamNation.” The new group will work to raise awareness both on campus and in the wider Walla Walla community and to educate people about the potential benefits of breaching the Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams. All four dams are located in the southeast corner of Washington.

“I see this as an issue of science, with wild salmon runs just not coming back despite the tremendous efforts that the Army Corps has made to [encourage] their return. They have done a fantastic job, they have tried really hard, but [the salmon] are just not coming back,” said Bennitt.

Breaching the dams is an ambitious goal. Rethink Dams hopes that its efforts will not only inspire Whitman students and Walla Walla residents to support breaching, but also inspire the creation of chapters at other colleges and universities in the region.

Photo contributed by Bob Carson.

“As a campus, it’s our hope that we inspire … other schools in the Northwest to form their own groups, and [it will] eventually become a big enough issue that enough people know about that the dams will come out,” said sophomore Godwin Peck.

The debate over whether to remove the lower four dams on the Snake River is not new. In the early 2000s, the Walla Walla District Army Corp of Engineers conducted a six-year long, 30-million-dollar study on how to address the damage done by the dams to populations of wild salmon, which are on the endangered species list. The Army Corps decided at the time to install expensive measures to help fish move past the dams.

Jim Waddell, once the top civilian at the Walla Walla District Army Corps of Engineers, has recently advocated for the corps to reconsider dam removal. After retiring, Waddell reviewed the thousands of pages of the Lower Snake River Juvenile Salmon Migration Feasibility Report and found a number of errors. He is now convinced that removing the four dams would not only save wild salmon runs but may save the corps money in the long run.

Waddell met with Bennit in late January and encouraged her to start Rethink Dams.

“It is great to see your generation wanting to take an active and meaningful role in solving some of the nation’s challenges. Many of the challenges we face can no longer can be put off onto some later generation by my generation. It is very important that we approach the solutions to the challengers as a multi-generational team,” said Waddell in an email to The Pioneer.

Alongside saving the salmon and economic sense, members of Rethink Dams cite increased recreational opportunities as another reason to support breaching the dams. Breaching would open up 200 miles of free-flowing river for rafting and kayaking.

In response to recent advocacy for breaching the dams, the Walla Walla Corps of Engineers issued a statement that they have no intention to further examine the economics or environmental benefits of dam removal, and that any decision to remove the dams must be made directly by Congress.

“What you have to do is convince people that the benefits of removing the dam are greater than the costs … The most important thing would be to get the support of the Washington legislators from eastern Washington, and that’s about impossible,” said Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies Bob Carson, who has worked toward the removal of various dams around the Pacific Northwest for 40 years.

Opponents of dam removal argue the dams are needed to generate clean energy and allow shipping up and down the Snake River. The four dams on the lower Snake produce five percent of the energy used in the Pacific Northwest. In addition, the reservoirs formed by the dams provide water for a few large agricultural producers.

“I don’t necessarily think that dams are a bad idea, and I don’t think that every dam should come out, and I don’t think that most dams can come out,” said Bennitt. “But I think when we come across a dam or set of dams where it’s really starting to become questionable why they’re kept in place … that we should investigate those structures and look into whether they should be breached or not.”

Students’ only voice in tenure decisions is through course evaluations. ASWC wants the Personnel Committee, which makes tenure decisions, to also consider evaluative letters by students. If the faculty accept the proposals made in an ASWC resolution passed Sunday:

• Professors will provide a list of five students or alumni they would like to write letters.
• The Registrar will provide a list of the professor’s major advisees who have taken a class with the professor in the last several years.
• The Provost and Dean of Faculty will choose at least five students to write letters.
• Ideally, three of these will be from the professor’s recommendations, and two from the registrar’s list.
• The professor will be notified which students wrote letters before they are considered by the Personnel Committee.

The Whitman Fencing Club has nearly doubled in size in the past month after an unprecedented 10 new first-years began regularly attending practices. To equip the new recruits, the Fencing Club received emergency funds from the ASWC contingency fund.

Though one of the oldest student activities on campus, with various incarnations existing as far back as the 1940s, in recent years the Fencing Club has had fewer than 20 members who regularly attend practices. Of the 27 regular members who showed up for practice in January, 15 are first-years, and 10 joined at the beginning of the spring semester.

“Usually at the beginning of the year we get 20 to 25 people that show up, and anywhere from two to five stick around. Spring semester we may get one or two more people,” said senior Morgan Dienst, who serves as the captain and lead instructor of the Fencing Club. “This year it’s unprecedented, we’ve got 10 [recruits since January] and they’ve kept coming, so we’re hopeful that many of them will stick around.”

ASWC approved a request from the fencing team for 750 dollars of contingency funds to buy new safety gear and swords, known as foils. For the first several practices, new members had to rely on older equipment normally kept in storage.

“The equipment that we had was pretty old. The swords were more prone to breaking, the equipment armor wasn’t as safe as it could be,” said first-year Grace Pyles, who joined the Fencing Club in the fall.

The Fencing Club was formed eight years ago, replacing the Fencing Team. As a club, the organization focuses on helping members improve their technique and explore different types of armed combat.

“Everybody comes and we learn, but it’s not really competition-focused. I think that’s helped our club because people aren’t worrying about their ranking within the club or worrying about going to a tournament and presenting well. They’re more interested in having fun and learning skills,” said Fencing Club President senior Kate Seiberlich.

The Fencing Club practices the Italian style of fencing. However, more advanced members experiment with a variety of weapons, including the Spanish saber, daggers, longswords and quarterstaffs.

The Italian style of fencing is very different from sport fencing, the style seen in Olympic competitions. In sport fencing, the sole goal is to hit one’s opponent first; matches are often decided by fractions of seconds, as both competitors strike simultaneously. The Italian style of fencing prioritizes self defense.

“In classical Italian, because it’s coming out of more of a dueling tradition, you didn’t want to get stabbed. Because if you’re stabbed you’re bleeding, it’s painful, it could get infected. So you really want to defend yourself first,” said Dienst.

New members joining the fencing club begin to work their way through five ranks of instruction. To achieve each rank, fencers must pass an exam that includes theory, demonstration of technique and sparring with an instructor.

When they reach higher ranks, students begin instructing new members themselves. Lessons and practices are organized by the fifth-rank students, who refer to “The Science of Fencing” written by William Gaugler, an Italian fencing maestro, for guidance. This book is referred to by club members as their “fencing bible.”

“These are some of my best friends at Whitman, and it’s a really great place for people who are interested in this sort of thing to get together and stab people with shiny objects,” said Dienst.

Originally published March 18, 1965
Author unknown

For almost 120 years, The Pioneer has reported on news from the Whitman campus and surrounding community. Pio Past pulls old articles from past decades from the Penrose Library archives to give modern readers a glimpse of campus history.

Three-thirty this past Sunday afternoon marked the culmination of the hastily formed and highly successful memorial march concerning Selma. The march was the idea of the college “Y” advisor, Dr. McKenzie and Bruce Jones, chairman of the campus friends of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee).

The march from Ankeny Field to the County Court House involved some four hundred participants and numerous other observers, sympathizers, and sceptics.

Student and faculty interest was tested on the Friday preceding the march with positive results. On Saturday, faculty members were called, students were contacted through fraternity and sorority presidents and by people socially concerned, ministers were asked to announce the march to their congregations and Dr. Pfuhl, president of the Human Relations League of Walla Walla, contacted its members.

The Walla Walla radio stations were advised of the march as was KEPR (Tri-cities television), the Union-Bulletin, and the Walla Walla Police Department (which issued a parade permit).

People started congregating on Ankeny Field at 2:15 Sunday afternoon and before leaving for the Court House Jones instructed the three-hundred marchers that the march concerned a memorial recognition of James Jackson and Boston minister Rev. Reeb; both were murdered by racists. The march was to demonstrate the general sympathy for the civil rights movement and was silent so that each individual marcher could consider his personal responsibility or commitment.

The march was led by Doctors McKenzie, Ball, Pfuhl and Professor Don Blake. The marchers proceeded silently and slowly to the Court House under the excellent supervision of the Walla Walla Police.

An additional one-hundred people joined the marchers at the Court House and heard Dr. Ball speak. The second speaker was Blake, biology professor at Walla Walla College who reminded the listeners that concern for civil rights was not an end in itself but required a commitment of action.

Blake reminded the audience that discrimination is not a unique Southern characteristic and that its subtle forms exist in Walla Walla as well as throughout the North. Blake led the audience in “We Shall Overcome” as four-hundred joined hands.

The demonstration, emotional for some and significant to all, ended after the traditional civil rights song.

Voters in the City of Walla Walla voted Tuesday, Feb. 10 to pass a 5.83 million dollar bond measure to rebuild the Walla Walla public pool. Preliminary results from Tuesday evening show 4,323 votes in favor of the bond (63.6% percent) and 2,470 against (36.4% percent). Bond measures in Washington State that raise taxes must pass by a supermajority of over 60 percent.

The money raised by the bond measure will be used to construct a “standard pool” (50 meters by 25 yards), a kid pool with zero-depth entry to accommodate new swimmers and people with disabilities. Other improvements will include a new bathhouse and locker room facilities, a new concession stand, new mechanical systems for both pools and community spaces for special events. Construction is expected to finish in May 2017.

“It has always been the plan of the city to have a pool … A pool’s vital to the community. The temperatures we have here versus the ones you have in Seattle — kids need a place where they can be safe, enjoy themselves and cool down. They also need a place to learn how to swim,” said Jim Dumont, the director of Walla Walla Parks and Recreation.

This year’s bond measure was the fourth attempt to raise funds to rebuild the public pool. Three previous attempts failed to achieve the supermajority needed to raise taxes in 2004, 2006 and 2012.

The decision to make a fourth attempt to pass a bond measure for the pool was made following the release of a report by Rowley Pool Consultants in May 2014. The report found the old pool, which opened in 1972, was not salvageable. The old pool was closed in 2006 due to poor maintenance and low attendance. The design for the new pool was based on Rowley Pool Consultants’ report, which determined from a survey of Walla Walla residents that a two-pool plan stood a strong chance of passing in a bond measure and would meet the needs of the community at a minimal cost to taxpayers.

The bond measure to rebuild the pool was supported by the grassroots organization Rebuild Memorial Pool, which distributed materials in favor of the bond measure and canvassed voters. Their arguments in favor of the pool focused on the needs of children. Drowning is the second-highest cause of unintentional injury death for children ages one to 14 in the United States. Pool supporters believe a public pool would provide swim lessons to young children who are currently unable to learn. The Walla Walla YMCA provides swim lessons at their indoor pool, but the public pool will provide more space and lower costs.

“We have almost a generation of kids who don’t know how to swim in Walla Walla…. The Y does a good job, but they can’t serve the needs of the entire population,” said Becky Kennedy, who serves as the secretary and part of the leadership of Rebuild Memorial Pool.

Pool supporters also believe the new pool will provide a positive space for local teenagers to gather during the summer. The pool is expected to create 25 new jobs, most of them positions as lifeguards during the summer months.

“[Rebuild Memorial Pool] hopes to fundraise [after the vote] to form a non-profit and potentially reduce some of the taxpayer cost, or if there is a gap when we get the final design to cover that gap,” said Kennedy.

While there was no organized opposition to the bond measure, many voters were opposed to the increase in taxes the bond will create. Opponents also voiced concern over whether the new pool will be properly maintained.

Pool maintenance is estimated to come to 200,000 dollars per year. While the pool is expected to raise 100,000 dollars from entrance fees, programming and concessions, the city will still need to contribute 100,000 dollars in maintenance.

Voter turnout in Tuesday’s elections was low, with only 43 percent of voters mailing in ballots. Final results will be certified on Tuesday, Feb. 24.

Originally printed April 18th, 1968.

Author unknown

Two Whitman students were arrested Monday in connection with a demonstration against the appearance of military recruiters on campus. Charles Lawrence and Mike DeGrasse were taken into custody after refusing to halt obstruction of the Navy Air vehicles in the SUB* driveway.

Approximately twenty-five students joined in a protest that covered two days and included nonviolent obstruction in the driveway, and demonstrations in front of the recruiter’s table in the SUB and by Dean Knopf’s office in Memorial Building.

In addition, 13 other students were suspended from school after joining in obstruction with Lawrence and DeGrasse. All but the two arrested moved when Chief of Police Watts offered the last chance to avoid arrest.

The fifteen were suspended until they agreed not to obstruct the open-campus policy expressed in an Administration statement. As of noon Tuesday, 3 of those suspended had expressed compliance with the college and were again enrolled in school. The others were in the process of appeal and faced a 2 p.m. deadline before facing possible eviction from college housing.

Monday dawned sunny but brisk as the demonstrators confronted the Naval Air recruiters as they drove up to the SUB. Dean Scribner arrived on the scene to find a peaceful tableau: approximately 25 students sitting in front of a parked station wagon convertible.

Scribner stated the policy of the college, that the administration supported the right of expression and the goals of the protest, but that they were not in sympathy with the action being taken. He urged the demonstrators to move aside and stated they faced dismissal or suspension if they carried on their present actions.

All but Lawrence and DeGrasse stood up and moved and the two remained their 2 1/2 hours until finally arrested. After the two refused to move the Council on Student Affairs was convened to consider the charge against Lawrence and DeGrasse and that they “did intentionally obstruct the access of military recruiters to the College and thus knowingly contravened the office college policy regarding the principle of the open campus.”

At 12:30 Dean Knopf returned with the unanimous decision of the CSA, that the two would be suspended until they submitted a statement they would comply with the college open campus policy. Knopf went on to say the same policy would apply to anyone who took their place, and civil authorities would be called if they still refused to move.

They maintained their post and were joined by 13 others who waited until the police arrived. Their names were taken and they were placed on suspension on the same terms as Lawrence and DeGrasse.

All 15 were willing to be arrested, but bail money was available for only two, and when Chief Watts gave the final warning all but the two stepped aside. Both were escorted quietly to a waiting police car and charged with unlawful assembly and disobeying an order to disperse and released the same afternoon on $100 bail.

The recruited drove through the crowd and set up a table in the SUB opposite a SDS booth dispensing information on the draft. Throughout the afternoon 30-40 students lay in front of the table, leaving 18 inches of access to the recruiters.

The action stretches back to Jan. 17 when the ASWC Student Congress unanimously approved a resolution stating that, “in order to protect the constitutional rights of freedom of speech of the students of Whitman College, the ASWC Student Congress requests that military recruiters henceforth be banned from the Whitman Campus until recision of the Hershey statement is made .  . .”

The statement referred to an Order from Selective Service Director that allows local boards to reopen the classification of those invovled in disruptive demonstrations interfering with recruitment into the armed forces. The resolution was reaffirmed by a vote of 7-2, Feb. 21, and given final, unanimous approval on March 1.

While the Academic Council and the administration considered the matter, recruiter visits were suspended.

On March 4, the first to state their position was the Academic Council, a position in effect supported subsequently by the administration. The declaration pointed out a long-standing Whitman tradition of maintaining an open campus to representatives of all beliefs, and opposed recruiters on campus only if they were persuaded that Whitman students involved in protest were actually reporter to their draft boards.

That afternoon saw the dropping of two simultaneous bombshells with the announcement of an Administration policy statement ignoring the ASWC resolution and supporting recruiter visits and the scheduling of an appearance by the Air Force.

The administration announcement stated in part, “We believe that we do not have the authority to ban any lawful activity from access to the campus of Whitman College, and we further believe that it would be unwise for us to condone any attempt to do such a thing.”

A protest meeting of concerned students was called and a course of action planned similar to the protest carried out in the SUB Monday. This action proved unnecessary as the appearance was cancelled due to the visit of the inspector-general to the recruiter’s Pasco office.

Following spring break, two organization meetings were called last Friday and Sunday to decide on the nature of demonstration against the appearance of the Air Force this week. From these meetings emerged the idea of actual obstruction, “We felt it was the only effective way to protest the action and convince the administration of our view-point,” stated Lawrence. “It was an act of conscience, as the situation had reached the point where this was the best way to register our disagreement. We had decided on the course of action and anybody who wished to join was welcome.”

Following the Sunday night meeting 10-15 expressed willingness to face arrest in the act of obstruction.
* = Student Union Building