Stonewall

Brought to you by your Gender and sexual diversity advocate Hillevi Johnson 

Come check out the Stonewall Center, Western Oregon University's GLBTQ resource center! Located downstairs in the Werner University Center across from Abby's House, the Stonewall Center houses movies, tv series, literature, magazines, condoms, dental dams, and information brochures that are available to EVERYONE! While focused on GLBTQ-related issues and items, this center is welcome to staff, faculty, students, and anyone who identifies within the community or is an ally. It remains open with the help of student volunteers, and is open 38 hours per week this term! Check out and like "WOU Stonewall Center" on Facebook, email aswougender@mail.wou.edu to become a volunteer, or simply stop by and see what it's all about! 

Interested in learning more about the GLBTQ community or making connections? Join the Triangle Alliance club, a student-led group that hosts events, discusses GLBTQ-related topics, and has fun! Meetings are held every Monday in the Santiam room of the Werner University Center. Also, learn more about our Safe Zone program, as well as its Ally trainings. Check out www.wou.edu/safezone for more information!

Favorite Quote

Brought to you by your ASWOU J Board member Travis Meuwissen

"Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence.

Maturity is patience.  It is the willingness to postpone immediate gratification in favor of the long-term gain.

Maturity is perseverance; the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging setbacks. 

Maturity is the capacity to have unpleasantness and frustration, discomfort and defeat without complaint or collapse.

Maturity is humility.  It is being big enough to say, “I was wrong.”  And, when right, the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, “I told you so.”

Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it.  The immature spend their lives exploring endless possibilities; then they do nothing.

Maturity means dependability, keeping one’s word, coming through in a crisis.  The immature are masters of the alibi.  They are confused and disorganized.  Their lives are maze of broken promises, former friends, unfinished business and good intentions that somehow never materialized.

Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which can be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference."

- Ann Landers

What is ASWOU up too??

Brought to you by your ASWOU Vice President 

What is ASWOU up to this week???

The real question is what AREN’T we up to!!

While we are approaching the end of our second week of Winter Term we have been busy! Whether that be prepping for Lobby Days in the capital, working in the food bank or getting the word out about our next bike workshop!

This past weekend a few of us attended the Oregon Student Association Board Meeting that happens every month. At this meeting Oregon State University proposed a campaign that they will be doing on their campus.

“Wear the Square” is their campaign.

With the successes of registering 50,000 students to vote across the state we also want to make sure that we are holding our legislators accountable for affordable tuition. This campaign is to raise awareness as well as educate the student body at Oregon State University and on different campuses in Oregon that are in support of this campaign. WESTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY supports “Wear the Square” so look out for information regarding this campaign!! We will be handing out squares and hoping that students will support in spreading awareness on tuition costs and how they are in constant rise.  

WHY THE SQUARE??

In February 2012 in Quebec, Canada there was a threat in raising tuition in public university students by $100 per year for five years in order to balance the budget. To symbolize their protest, they wore RED fabric squares on their clothes and backpacks. The color RED is used in ledger books to show that your balance is negative, so the students chose RED to show that they were “squarely in the red”.

ALSO!!

ASWOU will be taking a group of students that would like to Lobby in the capital on issues like:

·         Tuition Equity

·         Tuition Affordability

·         Cultural Competency

·         Schools not Prisons

·         Student Parents

·         University Governance

IF THIS IS SOMETHING YOU ARE INTERESTED IN GOING WITH US TO THE CAPITAL PLEASE EMAIL aswoustate@mail.wou.edu

If you are interested in sharing your story with any of these priority issues we are also collecting stories.

From me to You

Brought to you by your campus relations advocate Tyler Potter

ASWOU this term is doing a lot more tabling upstairs in the Warner center. We are going to be trying to be more visible at Western. If you’re interested about any events this term or anything that ASWOU is doing please come to the info desk 11-1 Mondays and Wednesday’s.  Also elections for positions across campus are coming soon. If you’re interested in running for a position please contact someone in ASWOU or email aswoucampus@mail.wou.edu.

On another note if you’re thinking about joining ASWOU but aren't sure yet, let me tell you what ASWOU has done for me. I live off campus, and its Oregon… so not the funnest place in the world to be walking around especially in winter. ASWOU lets me have flexible office hours that I’m about to schedule around my class schedule. I also love having an office to go on campus where I feel that I belong whether I have to do work or I want to do homework, I like the feeling of walking in having a computer I can use and working in a place where I would call all other ASWOU members my friends. It has been a great experience as far as work goes, my social life goes and my future goes. So in the theme of this year’s ASWOU members YOLO.

Campus Food Bank

Hello everyone. 
Fall Term 2012 was the first term that the Campus Food Bank was in operation. The term has been a great success, the Food Bank has served over 85 students, had close to 40 volunteers and raised over 1,800 pounds of Food. There was great volunteer support and many of the Food Bank's events were a great success. In the past few weeks the partnership between Marion Polk Food Share and the Food Bank was formed which was an important step in being able to now get large volumes of food donations. The Food Bank looks forward to the future where it hopes to communicate with other local Food Banks to figure out ways they can help one another to help support members in the community that are in need of food assistance. The Food Bank already has hopes of expanding and one day becoming a Food Bank that will serve the entire community. I hope everyone had a nice holiday season. 

Kind Regards,
Colin Albi    

               

Brought to you by your Director of Student Oringations; Laura Walmer

We went to the Oregon Students of Color Coalition (OSSC) conference this past weekend in Corvallis at OSU!
What an incredible experience to develop as a leader, person and ally! 
The various selections in workshops made it enjoyable and fun as we developed ourselves. 
Thanks to everyone who came! 

Oh, and I tend to doodle when I'm given paper (if you didn't notice). 

We are not in Kansas anymore Toto!

Brought to you by your student body president; Jonathan Farmer.

First of all I know nothing regarding the 'rules of blogging', if such a thing even exists, but in my mind blogging is merely an arena to expound on self indulging Facebook posts. As such the following is a self indulging rant where I use the term artistic liberties to justify my disregard for punctuation, spelling, etc... and I've included a random title so it looks more official. :) 

  We are not in Kansas anymore Toto! 

 
      I used the famous Wizard of OZ catchphrase as the title of this blog because I love the thought that once we have gotten outside of "Kansas", which in this sentence for me represents the traditional way of looking at things- ourselves included, that at the end of the day we are all able to find in ourselves the very things we have been looking for while out in the world. ie Courage or Confidence, Heart or Compassion, and Brains or Wisdom. Sometimes we just need to take a step back and sometimes it is a step up but either way everyone needs to get out of the normal and realize that we, and those around us, are extraordinary and can do extraordinary things.

Close positive sappy Facebook type post and insert angry argumentative post-

 

     While I am sure there is little doubt that we are not in Kansas I have had some doubts recently that we all made it out of high school. For example this week in discussions with Gary Dukes, Darin Silbernagel, and Megan Habermann I was told that my opinion as Student Body President mattered little in relation to what administration felt was an appropriate course of action, that what students and I wanted to do was merely an "optional" endeavor and they would not allow us to pursue it...No rules were to be broken, no policies neglected, and no procedure circumvented, just students participating in the entirety of an educational conference as they have for years and paying for it with student approved funds. Although our "optional" cause would create a greater sense of community, solidify and secure knowledge of social justice issues, and ensure the safety of students it was still not going to be allowed.

     I felt as if I was back in high school and was being patted on the head for trying my hardest but that the grown-ups were now going to step in and make the "correct" decisions for me. It was no different than in high school where the student's decision making power was merely administrators giving lip service to an idea of students knowing what was best for students and then forcing students into making the decisions they themselves want to be made. In my aforementioned meeting there were no add-visors in the room who could add to the conversation and assist in making the students vision reality but instead there were super-visors who's power and opinion would continuously super-cede the students.

     I did everything I could to satisfy the concerns they expressed by citing those with more power than myself, not to mention the administrators, and did so with great success... but to no avail... there was still one concern that I could not address  I cannot satisfy a concern that is not fully expressed or one that is based on the belief of inherent superiority. Since I was not given an explanation I cannot tell you why our choosing to attend a documentary regarding how increased education levels lower incarceration levels is considered an "optional" part of the conference.  I can tell you that in my experience when an explanation is not given, after one has been sought, it is either because they do not have one or they only have one that is unjustifiable to the public... or at least those of us that are being held down.  I believe the term that first came to my mind was... well let's actually discuss the second term that came to my mind which was "Institutional Oppression". 

    Portland Community College taught me that Institutional Oppression, which is based on the belief in inherent superiority or inferiority,occurs when established laws, customs, and practices systematically reflect and produce inequities based on one’s membership in targeted social identity groups and happens regardless of intent. I believe there is little doubt that these administrators believe that inherently their judgement is more relevant than ours as students.  I believe this because when finding themselves no longer with policy to quote or a system to blame, the decision came down to a judgement call and the administration judged that their reservations- what ever they may really be- were more important than our request stay the night in Corvallis and safely obtain information from among their peers at the Oregon Students of Color Coalition Conference... and there is nothing now that I can do about it... But there is something YOU can do... Get Involved- Stand Up- and Shout Out-loud. Institutionalized Oppression goes on all the time and a conversation cannot be had to address it unless you are willing to share your voice. 

PLEASE provide us with ANY comments, questions, or concerns you may have.

You can also get directly involved by stopping by the ASWOU office and picking up an application to become involved. I am looking for a Presidential Intern... Just stop by and ask us how you can make a difference.