In this year's Associated Students election, four candidates for vice president positions are running unopposed. These candidates spoke about their platforms and goals for their positions at the AS VP debate on Tuesday, April 21, in Academic West 204.
Juniors Jesse Doran and Patrick Eckroth debated voting accessibility and issues involved with running for Associated Students Vice President for Governmental Affairs. This position acts as a liaison between the AS and the University Relations division, the city and county governments, the State of Washington, as well as the U.S. federal government.
Junior Zachary Dove and sophomore Gabriel Alejandro Ibanez went head-to-head at a debate for Vice President of Academic Affairs, a position tasked with increasing student awareness and involvement about academic affairs of the university, as stated on the Associated Students Board of Directors website.
Designs for a new 419-tenant apartment complex for 910 N. Forest St. will be sent to the city planning director for final approval. The complex, which is aimed at students, would replace the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, according to the Design Review Board meeting.
An issue that has garnered extensive controversy on Western’s campus over the past two years was thrown back into the spotlight as two professors debated before about 40 people on the divestment movement.
Tribes from around the Pacific Northwest gathered, competed in and celebrated Native American culture with Western and the community at the Native American Student Union (NASU) Pow-Wow in Sam Carver Gymnasium.
Western’s industrial design department is turning the technology of tea steeping upside down with its original magnetic tea-brewing vessel design.
Around 30 Whatcom County residents marched from Fred Meyer on Lakeway Drive to City Hall as a way to remember the Holocaust in Bellingham’s fifth “March of Remembrance” on Sunday, April 19.
After more than 40 years on campus, the Environmental Studies building is trying to get a fresh, new look in the coming years.
Paul Merriman, president of Merriman Financial Education Foundation, asked a lecture hall full of Western students if they had their 401(k)s under control. No one lifted a finger.
Donations days for the Homeless Resource and Clothing Drive have been extended to Thursday, April 23. Dr. Tara Perry and two of her classes in the communications department are holding the Homeless Resource and Clothing Drive to provide the homeless with the necessities that they need for everyday life. The drive is looking for socks, knitted hats, toiletries, brightly colored backpacks, blankets, reusable water bottles and any other everyday use item you can imagine. Once the items have been gathered they will be organized into backpacks and distributed to the homeless community in downtown Bellingham. On Saturday, April 25, students will meet at AB Crepes to pass out the backpacks. AB Crepes will be opening early for the event and will be giving out a free crepe and cup of coffee to every homeless person that arrives. Junior communications major Colton Edwards is a student in one of Perry’s classes and feels a personal connection to this event. Growing up in a town with little to no homeless interaction, he felt a culture shock when he moved to Bellingham and saw the large homeless presence, Edwards said. “Service learning is all about getting in the community and helping out so they are definitely a community we wanted to reach out to,” Edwards said. Edwards is part of a three-person social media team that posts on the Twitter account for the event. The Homeless Resource and Clothing Drive is a part of Western’s Active Minds Changing Lives week, where different clubs and organizations around campus put on events, demonstrations and workshops in the effort to be active change makers not only on Westerns campus but in their own lives as well. Donations are being collected from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Communications Facility 294 and near the Wilson Library exit facing Old Main. For more information on the event and to follow their progress go to the event’s Twitter page @Bellingpacks.
Chuckanut Brewery has teamed up with head brewer Jason Oliver from Devils Backbone Brewing Company in Roseland, Virginia. The collaboration will bring an original lager that will be exclusively available to taste at Chuckanut Brewery in June. The product will be a low alcohol content brew, otherwise known as a sessionable beer in the brewing community. With its lower alcohol content, sessionable beer provides a better chance to taste the beer for what it is and makes for an original beverage, Oliver said. Chuckanut Brewery’s owner Will Kemper took this opportunity to broaden his lager style. “This collaboration here is kind of a new style,” Kemper said. “It’s basically a lager style of a German pilsner.” As Chuckanut Brewery’s beers revolve around lagers, the creation of a low alcohol content beer will be something new to add to the shelves, he said. The recipe will focus on the Germanic beer inspiration that both Oliver and Kemper share. “This is a small pilsner. It plays off of many of our inspirations, what we find important and interesting,” Oliver said. The interest in lagers sets both Oliver and Kemper apart from other brewers as they may focus more on ales. “We do a lot of similar types of beers, which is not what most craft brewers do,” Oliver said, “We brew a lot of lagers, more so than most brewers.” Even though the brew masters have known each other for a while, they only started talking about collaboration a few months ago. The brewers started their businesses around the same time in 2008 and met in Bamberg, Germany in 2010. On a visit to one of their suppliers, the Weyermann Malt house, Kemper won the Small Brewpub of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver in 2009 while Oliver won the same title at the World Beer Cup in 2010. “We were brand new brewers in 2009 at the Great American Beer Festival,” Oliver said. “We were competing rookies.” As Oliver was coming up for the Craft Brewers Conference in Portland this year, they decided to take this opportunity to collaborate. And because of both brewers’ success in the brewing world, they expect great feedback from the product. Their goal of creating a sessionable beer is a challenge both brewers have given themselves. “I threw this idea out there, but I didn’t know if it was going to stick,” Oliver said, “Technically [sessionable beers] are harder to produce.” Bryan Cardwell, the head brewer at Chuckanut was enthusiastic about the collaboration. “It’s really exciting. We’re actually figuring out some of it as we go.” Cardwell said. As soon as Oliver arrived at Chuckanut, both head brewers started discussing recipes and grains, keeping the Germanic beer and low alcohol content as their main inspirations. There will be more collaboration between Chuckanut and other breweries in the future, Cardwell said. “The brewing community is really small and it’s always a great excuse to meet up with peers.” As for Oliver, he plans on visiting the other breweries in Bellingham to get an idea of what the beer scene is like in the city of subdued excitement.
Every Friday since April 3, supporters of Northern Cross Collective Garden have made their voices heard outside the Whatcom County Courthouse, protesting against charges made toward the local medical dispensary in Bellingham. The trial was schedule for Monday, April 20, but has been pushed to Saturday, August 8, according to court documents.
This demonstration on Thursday, April 16, and Friday, April 17 is also asking the State House of Representatives to help fund the rest of the money needed to fully renovate the building.
A team of seven students from Western and one from the University of Washington won a $75,000 grant last weekend for their prototype of a Smart Solar Window at the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s “P3: People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability,” which was held Saturday, April 11, and Sunday, April 12, in Washington, D.C.
Author and journalist Todd Miller discussed rising numbers of patrol agents and security equipment along the U.S. border during a Fairhaven College's World Issues Forum.
Solutions by The State News
