LOOK BEYOND
DIVERSITY
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Medicine for the Soul Guest column by Jampa Dorje
Zoltan Kaszas shares laughter and mental health awareness
OPINION
Valve’s Steam Deck timed to revolutionize gaming
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Vol. 123 NO. 4
October 19, 2022
The win comes home for Wildcats! Recreation Sports Complex eliminates drop-in hours
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Evan Couch News Editor
CWU awarded silver STARS in sustainability
Megan Rogers Senior Reporter
CWU received silver STARS in sustainability from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) on Sept. 16. The Sustainability Tracking, Rating and Assessment & Rating System (STARS) was created for higher education. There are five ratings a university can earn: Reporter, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
To receive a STARS rating, universities must collect data and submit a report. Susan Kaspari, professor of geological science, led the efforts to submit CWU’s report this year. Kaspari said there were lots of different stakeholders on campus that contributed data to help complete this report. “There’s a lot of things that they [STARS] ask of operations related to greenhouse gas emissions and water use,” Kaspari said. “There’s things related to human resources
in terms of equitable pay. What is the difference in your lowest paid employees and your highest paid employees, just in terms of discrepancy in wealth.” Kaspari said in the report, the STARS program also asks how the universities are working with the community, state or on the federal level to promote sustainability.
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The start of the 2022 fall quarter brought many new changes to CWU and what campus has to offer for students. The Recreation Sports Complex (RSC) on campus is no exception to these changes. The complex, which features a running track and a synthetic turf field, is no longer available for student drop-in hours. The change means that students who are not members of clubs, classes or any recreation programs that utilize the sports complex are no longer able to use the field for general recreational purposes as of right now. Interim Recreation Director, Michael Montgomery, said there were multiple reasons the department made the decision to stop drop-in hours. Montgomery said the department had been gathering usage data of the sports complex over the past couple quarters and found that usage was down. Montgomery said there were many times they had staff working the facility with no one using drop-in hours. Combine that with the low enrollment numbers and increase in minimum wage, the department was forced to shift focus on the program’s usage of the field and track, according to Montgomery. “With the increase in minimum wage and other stuff, the decision had to be made to stop drop-in hours and just be about the programs,” Montgomery said. Having no more drop-in hours for students means that the programs that use the field currently are the RSC’s main focus. “We had to switch to being more geared around the pro-
grams that are operating at the RSC,” Montgomery said. “It is a shared use facility that recreation manages, so we still have athletics, PE classes and then ROTC, both Air Force and Army that use it.” The recreation has set up an alternative for those who do want to use a field for general recreation purposes. They have set up alternate fields with lines for football and lacrosse at Alder Three to allow for drop-in hours for all students. “We’ll keep it lined, we’ll rotate lacrosse goals, soccer goals,” Montgomery said. “That’s our drop-in field for the year.” According to Montgomery, the alternate fields being used from drop-in hours have no lights so they will be available for daytime use only. Some students are unaware of the change and have had to find out through other outlets on campus. Vice President of CWU’s club baseball team, Colby Davis, said he found out from hearing it within the club program. Davis said not allowing drop-in hours has a big impact on students. “Some people I know, if they want to work out, they don’t want to go to the gym because it’s always packed,” Davis said. “I know people who walk around that track and just work out there and now they can’t do that.” Montgomery said overall they are trying to work within their budget and match usage of the field to the cost of running the field. Although the changes are set for now, Montgomery said he wants to revisit the decision in the future and find ways to bring back drop-in hours for the RSC.
Ellensburg School District issues vote of no confidence for superintendent Kat Cardenas Staff Reporter The Ellensburg School District issued a no confidence vote concerning superintendent, Jinger Haberer. The concern arose due to several major points that were presented by the Ellensburg Education Association (EEA) in late September. The concerns included school day start time
and school day end times, attendance zones and confusion with the maximum amount of paper copies teachers can make for their classroom. According to a recent article published by the Daily Record, the start and end time has changed every year for the last three years. The article also stated the number of paper copies allowed to staff personnel is only a concern to decrease the
amount used and cost overall. “Attendance zones and the detoured starts were necessary for multiple reasons including the transportation and our shortage of bus drivers,” Haberer said. “Some of these decisions were very complex.” The superintendent addressed the concerns at the next board meeting on Sept. 28, responding to the vote as the first order of business.
“I acknowledge … how hard it was to go through these major changes all in one year,” Haberer said, addressing the board and referring to many of these changes beginning last school year and still changing this year. Despite the changes, the board and faculty have congregated closer together to seek a more positive outlook on the matter. “I see this as an opportunity for growth to strengthen our part-
nership with EEA,” Haberer said. “I think one of the positives that was shared with me at this meeting is that teachers…are overall excited about the work we are doing around professional working communities.” “We’re already brainstorming ways to strengthen that partnership,” Haberer said. “I’m optimistic that working together we can really accomplish a lot for kids this year.”