Jasper Jones Sophie Smith News editor Editor-in-chief mgjones@willamette.edu slsmith@willamette.edu Due to the spread of COVID-19, which has made the University transition to distance learning and mostly remote working, administration has made many quick decisions to adjust to the new needs of the campus and community. The rapidly-changing situation and the University’s response to it can be monitored on Willamette’s “Coronavirus (COVID-19) Prevention and Response” webpage. American Studies Program (ASP): University President Steve Thorsett announced in an April 1 email to the Willamette community that ASP students that were planning to be on campus through next semester were sent home. This year, 90 students from Tokyo International University came to study at Willamette. Their flights home were scheduled for April 1 and 2.  Commencement: In the same April 1 email, Thorsett announced that Commencement ceremonies for all of Willamette’s schools, originally scheduled for May 17, have been cancelled. Administration is currently in the process of deciding an alternative date. Some suggestions have been to have Commencement ceremonies in August alongside Opening Days, or to conjoin it with the Class of 2021’s ceremony.  Credit/no credit grading: In an April 2 email from Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Ruth Feingold, she announced the latest updates to policy surrounding credit/no credit grading. Now, students may decide to credit/no credit classes until 5 p.m. on the last day of classes, May 4. Students may also choose to revert back to letter grading if they before decided to do credit/no credit by the same deadline.  Students can choose to credit/no credit any number of their classes this semester, and it will not count towards the three credit/no credit courses that students are allowed to take in their time at Willamette.  With credit/no credit grading, students who achieve an A to a C- in their class will receive credit for it. With a lower grade than a C-, the student will not receive credit for the course.  Students Scholarship Recognition Day (SSRD): In a March 31 email to Willamette faculty, SSRD Committee Chair Professor Josh Laison announced that SSRD will take place online. Student presentations will be conducted via Zoom, and research posters will be uploaded to Hatfield Library’s Academic Commons website. The SSRD application submission deadline was on April 1, but students are encouraged to reach out to the committee with questions or concerns. Campus closed to visitors: Starting March 23, campus closed to everyone except students living on campus, certain staff members and “allowed guests.” On the University’s coronavirus update page, “allowed guests” is defined as “parents and families assisting their students with moving out, vendors, service providers and contractors with essential campus business and food delivery drivers.”

Jake Procino Staff writer jprocino@willamette.edu While college sport competitions and practices have been suspended, preparation for the future continues. After 12-year volleyball head coach Tom Shoji retired in February, Willamette University began the hunt for a new head coach to lead the team. Willamette found its person on March 26 when the University hired former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UW-L) volleyball head coach, Lily Hallock.  While accepting the head coach decision was a career move, it was also a family decision for Hallock, who said, “Coaching at Willamette will allow me to stay close to family while pursuing the career that I love: coaching DIII volleyball.” Hallock first got into volleyball at a very young age: “My parents played city league volleyball when I was young, and I wanted to play every sport I could. I started playing volleyball in third grade, the first year it was available.”  Playing every sport she could led Hallock to her first coaching position.  “The first sport that I coached was basketball. My high school basketball coach asked me to help run our youth camp when I was 18. That really solidified my desire to coach and I continued on coaching both volleyball and basketball after that.” Hallock went on to play volleyball for four years at University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). Hallock’s coaching career has taken her across the country. A year after graduating, Hallock continued her coaching path as an assistant volleyball coach at South Eugene High School before being hired as the assistant volleyball coach at UCSC. Hallock then served as assistant coach and interim coach for Smith College (in Massachusetts) before being hired as the head coach for UW-L.  During her five year tenure at UW-L, Hallock was twice named Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Coach of the Year, and UW-L volleyball won two WIAC titles. In 2017, Hallock stepped down as head coach and moved back to her hometown Eugene with her family. She cited it as “a family decision” in a 2017 La Crosse Tribune article.  When the position became available, Hallock jumped at the opportunity.  “I was thrilled when the head coaching position opened at Willamette,” said Hallock. “It is a wonderful opportunity for me to coach at a university where student-athletes can excel on the court and in the classroom… Willamette University provides such great support for students and cultivates an environment where individuals feel comfortable being themselves. That is exactly the environment one wants for a team to be able to bond and grow.” Unfortunately, with Willamette partially closing its campus and Oregon and other states implementing self-quarantines, it is a difficult time to become a new head coach.  Hallock is still finding ways to connect with the team, saying: “It is really disappointing that we are unable to hold our spring practices. Those would have been an excellent opportunity for me and the team to get to know each other and start to make changes on the court. Instead, I am brainstorming ways to get to know the team and help them feel interconnected. I have had individual Zoom sessions with all the returners on the team to start the process. I look forward to finding more ways for us to connect with each other from around the world.” Throughout the outbreak and once the team eventually returns to practice, Hallock hopes to develop “a team culture where everyone feels comfortable contributing to the leadership. So often teams label a select few as leaders while others are expected to follow.”  Hallock believes she excels at coaching the technical and strategic aspects of the game. “I really enjoy analyzing film and finding how we can improve as a team and how we can take advantage of weaknesses of opposing teams,” she said, while admitting, “Sometimes I can get too caught up in making changes and improvements and I don't take adequate time to recognize successes.” Hallock also feels her presence as a woman coach will have an impact on the team.  “It's important for women to see other women in positions of leadership, whether they are leading men, women or co-ed groups,” she said. With all this in mind, Hallock has goals for the end of the season: “When the season concludes I hope that all members of the program feel proud and happy of what we have accomplished."

Olivia Frenkel Staff writer okfrenkel@willamette.edu For many Willamette students, March 12 marked the beginning of new personal battles with the effects of COVID-19. The email that announced Willamette’s transition to online classes made the reality of the world’s situation more clear and the aftermath of this was felt heavily across Willamette’s campus. State borders were rumored to be closing, meal points were used up, dorms were hurriedly packed and campus became more and more empty. Students listened to the news, fretted over podcasts listing the ever-rising statistics and joined the almost comical rush to buy toilet paper. Now that days and weeks have passed, the once busy and sometimes overbooked Willamette student now has free time with endless ways to fill it. For many, planning out the days ahead helps mimic the routine and structure that our normal lives once had. “I look at my week ahead and delegate specific tasks to each day, and if I’m not doing school work, Opening Days preparation or admissions work, then I’m using my time to stay healthy,” said Jack Hanscom (‘22). Hanscom has taken up learning to play the piano via online classes, saying: “I use the rest of my free time to learn new skills or improve old ones. I think the biggest thing I’d recommend is to focus on what you can control in a day by day fashion, in a way that’s productive for your time, your mental health and your heart.” Location also has an effect on the daily life of an individual. Ronan Davies (‘23) lives in Alaska and explained that COVID-19’s effects aren’t felt nearly as heavily there. “There aren’t any lines in front of grocery stores, although Costco now puts the receipts in the cart, rather than handing it straight to you,” said Davies. After homework in the mornings, “I hike up different mountains since the resorts and lifts are closed, and I’ll ski for hours every day.” Though things seem close to normal, he expressed concern for the upcoming summer. “A lot of the jobs over the summer months are all tourism-based, but since the cruise ship season has been cancelled, I don’t know what a lot of people are planning to do.” Others continue to go to work. Dana Hamilton (‘22) had just begun working at Salem Hospital before the pandemic. “I don’t have too much experience here yet, but from what people have told me, it’s actually much slower than what it used to be. They’re completely out of tests for the flu and tests for COVID-19 are extremely limited. People have to basically be on the verge of death to get one, so people with cough symptoms don’t bother coming in anymore.” She echoes the sentiments of many public health officials, saying, “Take this seriously. If an increase of cases were to happen in Salem, our hospital wouldn’t be able to handle it.”  The last few students who remain on campus fill their time with homework and friends, but are finding it more and more difficult to stay. Emilia Kaldis (‘23) and Meredith Bolls (‘23) are among the few who continue to live in the first-year dorms. “I knew I would do better academically if I stayed, so I do homework, go outside when the weather is nice and hang out with my friends,” says Kaldis. Bolls agreed, saying, “I listen to podcasts and crochet a lot more now, but I’ve found that focusing on work has become a lot harder.” Both expressed concern over how much people are still interacting on campus, yet Bolls explained that “though I feel bad about seeing people, but really there’s only so much you can do if you’re using the same bathrooms and common rooms as everyone else.” College students everywhere used to relish free time, yet now they face its surplus. Willamette students, now sprinkled across the country, are adaptable and very closely knit. So, call each other, do what you can and stay safe.

James Willis Sports editor jdwillis@willamette.edu As Willamette University moves classes online for the rest of the semester due to COVID-19, questions are being raised about what will become of future Willamette events. At the beginning of March, athletes at thousands of institutions across the country were looking forward to championships and beginning their spring seasons. However, in the time since, nearly all collegiate athletics have had their seasons or events postponed or canceled. Athletes and sports fans at Willamette and across the country are responding to the news with frustration and sadness. Last week, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cancelled March Madness outright, after initially planning to continue playing without attendees. March Madness is the Division I men and women’s basketball championship, where 68 teams play in a tournament until there is a champion. The NCAA’s decision to cancel the event was not without precedent, as multiple professional sports organizations worldwide have postponed or cancelled upcoming seasons. On March 12, the day before Willamette’s classes went online, the NCAA decided to cancel all remaining winter sport championships, along with all spring sports’ seasons.  Amidst these decisions, the Northwest Conference (NWC) decided to follow the NCAA’s lead and determined that all sporting events would be played with no fans. Hours later, the NWC came out with a statement on their website, saying: “The Northwest Conference has made the decision to suspend all Northwest Conference spring sport competitions and NWC Championship events, effective immediately, until further notice. This decision has been made in consultation with our President Council and member institutions in an effort to limit the spread of the virus and in the interest of the health and safety of our student-athletes, campus personnel, working and event personnel, and all those who attend Northwest Conference events.”  Willamette Athletics also reiterated the point, posting the news on their own website. On March 14, the NCAA made a statement that said student athletes will retain another year of eligibility. This means that if they choose to stay another term, they will be eligible to play their sport. And although this is good news, the cancellation of this season's sports is still fresh in the minds of many student-athletes. Thousands of student athletes have taken to social media in response to the suspension and cancellation of their seasons, frustrated at this new reality that they are faced with.  Yet, this goes much deeper than college athletes not being able to perform. Sports have a giant influence on our country, and thousands of athletes needed to use their seasons to work towards playing professionally or advance their careers. Millions of people across the world work in sports in some way, shape or form. The cancellation of sports means that these people can’t work, and local businesses that depend on tourism and sporting events in certain cities will have to close. Sports touch people in ways that most other things can’t. This could be seen as strangers finding a common interest in their team, a kid seeing an athlete as a hero or when a crisis occurs, a team giving back to the community that needs help. In simpler terms, sports provide millions of people with entertainment; whether it is the agony of defeat or the thrill of victory, sports bring everyone just a little closer. Although this is a difficult reality to accept, it is for everyone’s safety and is ultimately the best decision to make in the efforts to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As we adjust to a new lifestyle, reach out to any student athletes that you know and check up on them. It is important to stay positive through this unusual time. Additionally, please stay socially responsible and wash your hands.

Jasper Jones News editor mgjones@willamette.edu While the Willamette community has been experiencing many changes due to COVID-19, including a transition to distance learning and the cancellation of numerous events, the Climate Action Alliance is still dedicated to advocating for green policies and planning.  “This shouldn’t mean that we should just stop fighting and stop caring about action on climate change,” said club president Daniel Smith (‘22) about the ongoing pandemic.  The Climate Action Alliance is a new club, which was approved by Associated Students of Willamette University (ASWU) at the end of 2019, and began actively meeting this semester. In fall 2019, Smith and his friends attended a protest at the Capitol in support of the Clean Energy Jobs bill, which “is a proposed law to put a limit on climate pollution from the largest polluters in Oregon, and charge them a price for what they put in our air,” the Renew Oregon website writes. Seeing the other Willamette students that mobilized for the event made them start thinking about creating a club to organize further climate crisis activism: “We just kind of started thinking about how it would be really cool and beneficial to campus to have a place to go to organize that kind of thing,” said Smith.  The club is organized into three subcommittees that focus on different locations: campus, city and state.  For the campus and city groups, they focus on advocating for the creation of a climate action plan, as neither Salem nor Willamette has one.  “One example of something that might be in that climate action plan is steps to shift residence halls from a heating system that relies on natural gas to just electricity. As time goes on, Oregon and Salem’s power grid is more renewable, so just shifting to an electrified heating system means that the University’s carbon footprint will be reduced,” explained Smith. “We’re of the opinion that without a climate action plan, that’s not going to happen. Because with the financial issues that the University is facing, there needs to be a long term plan to be able to do that at all. It has to be a consideration in budgeting going forward. We don’t expect it to happen now, but we expect it to be a consideration as we move forward.” The Willamette committee also focuses on educating students about their environmental impact and carbon footprint.  As for the state level, Smith reported that the club engages with Oregon state legislatures to show their support of policies like the Green New Deal.  As for club plans for the rest of the semester, Smith said, “We’ve been talking about how we will go forward with everything changing so quickly and all the unknowns that exist, but I think we will probably be trying to engage with legislatures on the federal level to tell them that we are in support of pushing for a Green New Deal.” The club will be holding meetings over Zoom in order to continue communicating and actively work toward their goals.  The Climate Action Alliance was planning on collaborating with Students for Sustainability to facilitate Climate Action Week during the week of April 20, where many events surrounding climate change awareness and education would be offered. The club also planned on supporting efforts by Sunrise Willamette to coordinate a strike on Earth Day, an event that is a part of a larger strike spurred by the national Sunrise Movement.  The Sunrise Movement’s website states the goals of the strike as, “ the decade of the Green New Deal is here and the people in power can either stand with us or step aside for the leadership who will.” It is currently uncertain as to how COVID-19 will impact the plans for the strike.  Smith concluded with his thoughts about how COVID-19 corresponds to the climate crisis and continued activism is crucial: “It’s a great case study in how poorly prepared we are as a country, as a society, as a world for issues that are hard to address and issues that build over time, which is exactly what the climate crisis is. I, of course, think that the climate crisis is going to be exponentially more devastating than the coronavirus. It will affect more people in more ways. The coronavirus is a singular problem, whereas the climate crisis is a bunch of different issues in different places at the same time that continue. It’s just bigger in every way, and we can’t even deal with the coronavirus.”  To get involved with the Climate Action Alliance, email Smith at and follow the group’s Instagram at @climateactionalliancewu.

Celeste Ferguson Contributor cferguson@willamette.edu Willamette has offered “All You Care to Eat” (AYCE) meals since before some current first-years were born, and for the majority of that time they’ve been very popular among students. There are two categories of currency in a typical Willamette meal plan: meal points and AYCE points. While meal points reset once per semester and can be used for any kind of meal, AYCE points only buy AYCE meals and reset every week. Recently, students have been wondering why they aren’t supposed to take food out of Goudy during AYCE meals and if it’s time to propose alternative setups. While the current system is clearly well-intentioned, it also runs the risk of incentivising theft, which throws off the measurements Goudy staff keep in order to maintain a low-waste operation. It’s quite possible that a change in the rules might actually lead to more accurate food monitoring, as well as better-fed students. Ellen Turner (‘22) expressed concern that “there’s a lot of people who have commitments and sports, and they can’t always make it to Goudy during traditional meal times.”  Niamh Sheehy (‘22), student-athlete and frequent Goudy patron, proposed a window from 7-7:30 p.m. on weeknights during which students could bring their own reusable containers to Goudy and take a reasonable portion of leftovers home. She emphasized that introducing this to-go window would not extend Goudy staff hours, but would allow a specific time-period during which students could leave with leftovers. Both expressed concern that not only couldn’t fellow students make it to the current mealtime window, but that the food that they would’ve enjoyed might go to waste as a result. As it turns out, food that isn’t consumed during dinnertime is rarely thrown away. According to Director of Dining Services Lindsey Leisinger, uneaten food is often repurposed, donated or composted through collaboration with Union Gospel Mission and the Food Recovery Network. This means that our leftovers are generally not going to waste. Lindsey explained that from a business standpoint, allowing students to take leftovers from AYCE meals skews food cost calculations that she feels are particularly important to Goudy’s low-waste operation. Staff prepare meals in small batches specifically to avoid waste, so they need to be able to predict with relative accuracy how much food they should actually be making. Furthermore, from a non-business standpoint, Lindsey sees the AYCE meals as “a time when you can be social with your friends. I find that students who take food to go don’t integrate as much. It can be kind of isolating.” While these rules may have been created in the best interest of the student body as well as in the sustainability of Goudy as a low-waste entity, mild and common forms of theft during the AYCE meals such as that of pastries, hot chocolate packets and even decorative produce out of the building currently go uncounted by the Goudy staff. These items are routinely smuggled out by students who want to enjoy them later, and because they’re often taken covertly or in too small a quantity to warrant concern, there’s really no way to track them. Of course the loss of these low-cost items might not be terribly impactful to Goudy’s measurements, but if that’s the case, why can’t students just take this amount of food overtly? Why can’t they take this quantity of food, but in the form of healthier items? The foods that students are able to leave with are often carbs, sugar and sometimes fruits, whereas complex, nutrient-rich meals can’t be smuggled out. In any case, allowing students to openly take leftovers would allow for better accuracy in measuring consumption, which should in turn further Goudy’s low-waste mission. Students absolutely have a say in how their dining halls are run, and they have every reason to expect to be listened to. Our current hybrid meal plan was researched, planned and proposed by past students, and Leisinger has made it clear that she is always open to hearing new proposals. If students want to be allowed to take leftovers from AYCE meals, they’re welcome to pitch an amendment, especially if that amendment takes into account the sustainability and business demands that the Goudy staff hope to maintain.

Hi all, Like many groups, both on and off campus, the Collegian is taking measures to protect the safety and security of our staffers during this uncertain time. To allow all employees to work remotely, we have decided to forego printed issues and only publish online content for the remainder of the semester. The Collegian will be publishing content as frequently as necessary, in order to keep the community up to date on the University’s rapidly transforming news.  My hope is that this arrangement will allow for all members of the community to easily access our work, as well as for Collegian staff members to continue working and learning with our organization. Finishing the semester without our usual reporting and printing schedules will certainly be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to seeing what the Collegian staff can accomplish under these new circumstances.  Already we are brainstorming ideas to bolster our online presence and connect with the community in more creative ways. In the meantime, I encourage you to follow our Instagram and Facebook pages, where story publications will be announced regularly.   These changes not only alter our operations, but also the content of our stories. How can we create articles when there are no sporting events to cover? No theatre productions or lecture series or choir concerts to write about? The conclusion that the editorial staff has come to is that we need the help of the community, for you all to reach out and help us tell your stories. How have recent events impacted the student organization you run? What is your opinion about the University’s handling of the present circumstances? What are your go-to activities while social distancing? If you’d like to give us a tip or story suggestion, or if you’d like to write your own guest piece or letter to the editor, please send it my way at slsmith@willamette.edu . Finally, I urge you all to make smart decisions as we move forward with this new way of life. Remember that your actions may impact countless others. You’ve heard it before, but I’ll say it again: if you can, stay home. Wash your hands, and save some toilet paper for the next folks in line. If you are able, consider donating to your local food bank or other organizations assisting the people most affected by this crisis. Do what you can to take care of yourselves and the people around you. Sincerely, Sophie Smith Editor-in-chief slsmith@willamette.edu

Dawn-Hunter Strobel Lifestyles editor dsstrobel@willamette.edu After one year of studying biology, Professor Chris Smith told himself, “This is all really boring and I hate this.” But once he discovered the subjects of evolution, ecology and botany, he remembered why he wanted to be a biologist in the first place. Now, Smith is an evolutionary ecologist who focuses on coevolution, which is the process in which species evolve in response to one another. He specializes in plants and insects, and he recently received a Fulbright grant to study a kind of Yucca that only grows in Mexico. Though research is important to Smith, he also takes great joy in his teaching at Willamette.  “You encounter a lot of people, especially at big research schools, who think that teaching is stupid and teaching is a waste of time,” Smith said. But to him, the best moments are when teaching and research overlap. “Working with students in my lab [and] taking students into the field might be the best part of all… The things I do with students in the lab, it’s teaching, it’s just teaching in a different way.”  Smith grew up in Arizona with Saguaro cacti and brushes all around him, so he was interested in the outdoors and the organisms in it from a young age. With several other biologists in his family, he said, he was “biased towards that from the beginning.”  He attended the University of Arizona for his undergrad, then took a hiatus to study bats in Eugene, OR before getting his PhD from Harvard in 2003.  Smith came to Willamette because he wanted to work at a school that valued both teaching and research, and “Willamette was a nice blend of those things,” he said. He also had a love for the Pacific Northwest ever since working on his bat project, so he was eager to come back.  Since coming to Willamette 12 years ago, Smith’s teaching philosophy has shifted substantially. “When I was really young I wanted to be a stage actor, so starting from grad school I was pretty good at lecturing and jumping around in front of the classroom and being entertaining. I think for a lot of the time I was teaching, I was mostly skating on charm,” Smith said, laughing. “I was trying to sort of be the professor that I wanted to have when I was an undergrad. And one of the things that I realized was that that was actually a really stupid way to teach.”  Since this realization, he has shifted from lecture-only classes to trying to find a blend between lecture and having students discuss and figure things out on their own. Smith said that teaching a class with Emily Drew, a sociology professor at Willamette, was something that helped change his thinking. Drew’s classes are predominantly discussion oriented, and though this first seemed strange to Smith, he later came around to that style of teaching. “I started trying doing [classes] that way, and what I discovered was that people got it way, way, way better when they had to go through and figure it out.”  Smith finds it gratifying when his teaching helps students not only discover something about biology, but also gain understanding about what it means to be learning. He said: “The best are the aha moments where they realize not just some obscure thing about biology, but they realize something about themselves. For example, that they may learn differently or that they may have different skills, but they still can become good at doing things. It just may take effort.”  The highlights from Smith’s time at Willamette largely involve working with students in the field. One specific example Smith cited was a time he was teaching a research immersion class and one of his students was able to record a video of a moth pollinating a flower in a way that people hadn’t witnessed in a very long time. “[The student] was able to put the flower under the microscope and get this video of something that nobody had seen for 110 years,” Smith said, his voice brimming with excitement. “That night all the students were sitting around the fire and telling stories and we had this great research day and I was like, ‘Wow, this is it. This is the thing that I have been trying to build my whole life around.’ It was amazing.”  Another exciting highlight for Smith is the Fulbright grant he just received. With his grant, he will live in Mexico City from January to May 2021 and work with global experts in the Yucca called Yucca Queretaroensis , which Smith has been studying for years.  Smith expanded on this, saying, “Yuccas and yucca moths are special, special, special, and the reason they’re special, special, special is that the moths do something very weird, which is they actually go around and pick up pollen and put it right on the spot on the flower where it’s supposed to go, which is not like what most insects do. A bee is trying to get some nectar, maybe some pollen, but it really couldn’t give a shit about the flowers and they just sort of accidentally pollinate. In this case it looks like the moths are doing it on purpose.”  But there’s one particular species of Yucca that no one can agree upon where it lives in the family tree of Yuccas. Different scientists get different results for where it should be classified, depending on what part of the Yucca leaf they’re getting their DNA sample from. “It’s very strange. So it’s what we call a rogue taxon. A rogue species,” Smith says.  While Smith is in Mexico, he will hike up to the mountains where this species of Yucca lives to gather new samples. “Everybody’s kind of been using the same stuff that someone collected 20 years ago, more than that. So I’m gonna go there and I’m gonna get more,” Smith said.  Outside of his work in the classroom and in the field doing research, Smith volunteers at the humane society and fosters dogs. He also is taking part in a fundraiser for HIV research, treatment and resources for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, which involves biking 500 miles from San Francisco to L.A. “It’s one of the more awesome things I’ve done in a long time,” Smith said. Smith also camps and hikes frequently and recently helped start up Willamette’s OSTEM club. “OSTEM is Out in Science Technology Engineering and Math. It’s a national organization… It’s intended for LGBT people who are in the sciences or science inclined.” Smith then added with a smile, “Or science questioning.”

Vice President Angel Park My goal as Vice President of the Associated Students of Willamette University is to represent all students and working to make ASWU efficient and effective for the student voice in official matters on campus, making it an open and collaborative organization for students who want to make a difference and inspiring students to be active in what they believe in. I want everyone to recognize that the bigger changes aren't always the best and the smaller ones can have meaning and the same power to impact student life for the better. In order to achieve this, I want there to be more transparency between administration, faculty, and students like the current ASWU body and exec has been working towards. If given the opportunity I hope to take on the project even further and hope that every student feels supported and represented. Dani Garcia-King To the Willamette Community, My name is Dani Garcia-King and I am a second-year Sociology major with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, who uses they/them/theirs pronouns. While this is only my second year, I have found myself on this campus for five other years from my time in the college access program, Willamette Academy. Being able to experience from the outside what the Willamette Community was, helped me to see how, as the ASWU Vice President, I could try to listen to the voices trying to be heard. In the two years so far on the inside, I found that there is always room for growth. Since my time in ASWU as a first-year senator and now this term as a senator for the second-year class, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to reach towards improving the way in which students experience this campus, is to ask them directly how to help. As a candidate of the ASWU Executive Branch, I envision a legislative body that directly communicates with the students in hopes of supporting the belief that students deserve to have their voices lifted up. Mary Robicheaux Hello Bearcats! My name is Mary Robicheaux and I am running for the position of Vice President of ASWU for the 2020-2021 academic year! I am a class of 2021 psychology major and have served as an ASWU senator for the current school year. Through my experience as an ASWU senator this past year, I have worked on three campus improvement projects, including putting content warnings on the list of suggested syllabi language, the current caucus project, and a project focused on helping students notarize their absentee ballots. I have also served on the dining advisory committee, which involved creating strategies to improve students’ dining experience at Goudy and holding themed dinners at Goudy, and on the Food Recovery Network, which helped Salem’s homeless community by bringing food to the Union Gospel Mission. As Vice President, I would look forward to working with senators on their campus improvement projects and ensure that each senator is able to have their voice heard in Senate. Please remember to cast your vote between March 18th – 20th, and I hope you choose me, Mary Robicheaux, for Vice President of ASWU! Treasurer Michael Burke My name is Michael Burke and I’m running for ASWU Treasurer. I’m from Portland, just an hour from Willamette and have lived in the PNW all my life. Over the past year, I have gathered experience in Willamette student government while serving as an ASWU Senator. Through this position, I have gained experience working with the allocation of ASWU funds. Working side by side with other Senators and the current ASWU Treasurer, I have personally worked to interpret and discuss funding procedures for clubs. This same experience I have from being an ASWU Senator has prepared me to fill the position of ASWU Treasurer. As ASWU Treasurer, I plan to focus on ensuring all clubs and student organizations are treated fairly and without bias. When serving the whole of campus as ASWU Treasurer, it will be my utmost priority to ensure the needs and desires of all students are met as fairly as possible. Jordan Samuel Hi Willamette! Are you a member/officer of a club? Do you want to join a club? Student organizations are an integral part of Willamette culture and I plan on streamlining the process for funding them. Club officers know that applying for funding can be a big procedure. There are three funding rounds per semester and you have to exchange several emails to submit purchase plans, wait for those plans to be approved, get money into the club account, and then actually buy the items and ask to be reimbursed from the account. If at any point ASWU forgets to respond, or the proposal fails to pass through the bylaws, or market prices change, the process has to be restarted and clubs have to wait until the next round. Also funding is always capped at a precedent set when the club was created or earlier, and club members and officers have no influence in how these precedents are set and no way to change them. As a former treasurer of Nerf Club and your future ASWU treasurer I would do all I can to simplify the funding process. I will give club members/officers a seat at the table for Juan Vargas Hey Bearcats! My name is Juan Vargas and I am running for treasurer of the ASWU Executive Branch. As an Oregonian for almost my entire life, I am an outdoors lover. I am also part of Willamette’s cross country and track team. During high school, I have been part of several student organizations in my community. I have experience with budgeting for non-profits and using the limited amount of resources strategically to get the best out of it. As the treasurer, I will focus on efficiently managing the ASWU finance system. Working with the rest of the ASWU Executive branch to create and plan awesome activities for y’all, I will use all of my knowledge to carefully administer and serve as an advisor. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, my email is and my instagram is @juan9_vargas. Hope y’all have a good day, vote Juan Vargas for treasure it only takes “Juan” second.

Olivia Frenkel Staff writer okfrenkel@willamette.edu Over the last few decades, love has grown for America’s wigged, powdered and sparkling drag queens. From the play “Kinky Boots,” to the drag cast on “A Star is Born” and to the millions of Americans who tune into “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” it is safe to say that the glittery and once illusive subculture of the LGBTQ+ community has become a well-known and deeply appreciated form of self expression and art.  On Friday, March 6, Rainbow Alliance and Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC) held a drag show in Smith Auditorium. There were performances to songs from the play “Wicked,” Lady Gaga, Adele and Lizzo, as well as sound clips from “Spongebob” and the movie “Selena.” Drag queen Carmen Kiara Cortez hosted the show and introduced the three Phoenix sisters, as well as Willamette’s own queen, Diva Dott. Each performed two routines that were mixed, choreographed and costumed by each individual. “Drag is all self-produced,” said Carmen Kiara Cortez while hosting. “You do your own makeup, your own music and your own costumes because it’s your art.”  In addition to the show itself, the event was also a fundraiser for the Sexual and Gender Minority Youth Resource Center (SMYRC), which is based in Portland. SMYRC is run by New Avenues for Youth, which is a nonprofit organization that works to prevent youth homelessness. Since 1997, they have built a program that includes resources like SMYRC, drop-in day services that provide meals and showers, educational opportunities, supportive housing and counseling.  As described on the New Avenues for Youth website, “SMYRC provides a safe, supervised, harassment-free space for sexual and gender minority youth ages 13-23 who participate in positive activities like art, music, community organizing, open mic nights, drag shows and support groups and receive services including case management, counseling, education and more. With the goals of increasing academic success and access to jobs, reducing poverty and school drop-out, SMYRC honors, empowers and supports LGBTQ youth to be their best selves and become leaders in their communities.” Carmen Kiara Cortez used the clips from “Selena” to comment on the difficulties of growing up as a trans Latina in a small town. She lip synced the words, “ We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It's exhausting!” Despite some audio hiccups, the show went on and the audience had a great time.  “I’ve been to several shows before, and even though this one wasn’t as organized, the queens were still amazing,” said Ted Alberon (‘23).  Juliana Adams (‘23) echoed a similar sentiment and said that “I’ve been to a handful of drag shows and this one was pretty good! From what I’m used to, the stage situation could have been better because it was a little difficult for the queens to move around the audience, but that being said, they were still incredible.” Kristell Mares De Juan (‘23) had never been to a drag show before. “I didn’t know they prepared their own shows,” she said. “My favorite part is when [the Phoenix Sisters] all danced together, but honestly the whole show was amazing.”  The queens interacted with the audience as well, going into the crowd and accepting dollar bills as tips throughout their performance. Glow sticks and candy were thrown into the seats during the dances and everyone clapped and cheered along with the show.  Jaclyn Rojo (‘23) had seen RuPaul’s Drag Race before, but loved the essence of live drag even more because of the energy. “I would love to see another show at Willamette because this one was so fun and one of the queens goes here and it would be fun to see how she grows from this first performance,” Rojo said. The night was full of energy, self-expression and generosity, and Willamette students now wait in anticipation for another.

Jacob Bloom Staff writer jhbloom@willamette.edu Last week, Community Service Learning (CSL) and a variety of organizations at Willamette University participated in a Food Justice campaign that seeks to address and combat issues such as food disparity and food insecurity. Throughout the week, a food audit, convocation and food labelling event occured. According to the website NIH.gov, food disparity and food insecurity are defined as problems people face when they are unable to access nutritious food or are forced to go hungry due to financial or geographic restrictions. Food justice can be broadly defined as a grassroots movement with the goal of providing equal access to healthy food for everyone.  According to CSL Coordinator Sarah Connor (‘21), a major goal of Food Justice Week is to communicate to students the current efforts that are already going on at Willamette to achieve greater food justice. Connor said that although presently there are many food justice programs at Willamette, many students are unaware of them or do not know how to get involved.  This week’s convocation addressed this lack of awareness and aimed to inform and connect students to these resources. It consisted of a panel of members from food justice groups at Willamette, including the Food Recovery Network, Students for Sustainability, Delta Chi Beta and Zena Farm Club. “We try to do one service event and a few educational events because our whole goal is service learning. A main goal for Food Justice Week is disseminating information to the student body in order to make the changes on campus that we want. People don’t even know that the Bearcat Pantry exists, people don’t know food is there... Our goal is not to start up new programs, but to educate students about what’s already there,” said Connor. A major part of Food Justice Week has been its collaboration with CSL, which provides students with the opportunity to volunteer in the Willamette and Salem communities. On Monday, volunteers worked to label containers for the Bearcat Bites Program, which provides healthy free food to students experiencing financial hardships and food insecurity. Volunteers had planned to package meals into jars to put in the Bearcat Pantry, but given sanitation concerns regarding COVID-19, this plan was called off. This past Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m., CSL conducted “food audits,” which sought to raise student awareness on food waste. During a typical night at Goudy Commons, Willamette students gather in the cafeteria and choose from a variety of prepared foods set out for them across different stations. After they are finished eating, they place their cups, plates, trays and leftovers on a conveyor belt that carries the dishes and leftover food to an area where the dishes are washed and food is either composted or disposed of. During the “food audits” that took place this week, volunteers for Food Justice Week set up a station across from where students normally dispose of their food, with a sign encouraging all students to put their leftovers in the “food audit” tray. After each of the three nights, volunteers measured the amount of uneaten food students left in the audit tray. The goal of this activity was to encourage Willamette students to become more aware of the food they do not eat. It also acted as an experiment of sorts to determine whether a simple “food audit” would reduce the amount of waste students produce over the course of three nights. Over the course of three days, 215 pounds of food waste were collected. “The all you can eat model is really problematic in terms of food waste, because people will fill up their tray with food and then not eat half of it,” said Hailey Paisley (‘21), who works for Bon Appetite on Willamette’s campus. Connor said that many Willamette students are unaware of what happens to their leftover food and Goudy’s food waste procedures. One specific organization she pointed to is the Food Recovery Network, which takes leftover food from Goudy to distribute to the Salem community. She also said that an awareness of what happens to leftover food would help minimize waste. “At Goudy, if you leave everything on your plate it’s composted or recycled—people often throw away their food. Leave everything on your plate. Try to reduce as much food as you can while you’re eating,” said Connor. Paisley agreed with Connor, but also added that she thinks a systematic change is necessary to tackle issues such as food disparity and insecurity. “Reducing food waste is really important, and it’s upsetting that there are so many people that go hungry when we have more than enough food for everyone… it’s a matter of distribution,” said Paisley. “I think those are things that are more important than getting people to not take an extra scoop of mash potatoes, but it’s all for the same goal, so it’s cool. I do think it’s good to be aware of the things that you contribute personally, while also working to attack bigger systems.”

Sophie Smith Jasper Jones Editor-in-chief News editor slsmith@willamette.edu mgjones@willamette.edu Since early last week, University officials have been working overtime to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and to comply with the directions of local and federal health agencies. Already, major changes have rocked campus, most notably the decision to transition all classes to online learning for the rest of the semester. University staff members have been meeting daily to make such decisions and to plan for the upcoming months. In a March 17 interview, University President Steve Thorsett discussed the possibility of closing campus and the uncertain futures of Commencement and Bearcat Days, as well as who is involved in making decisions about subjects like these. Thorsett said the University is currently unlikely to close, unless the Oregon Health Authority [OHA] directs otherwise. “If there were a time that the health authority told us we have to close, then we’d have to close. I don’t foresee that at the moment,” he said. “To date, all of the advice continues to be that schools should remain open.” Thorsett also noted that the University is aware that some students are unable to leave campus, for a variety of reasons. “We have students who don’t really have good options, whether they’re international students or if they’re students who don’t have a safe space to go to. We feel it’s important that we provide that.”  Regarding Commencement, Thorsett said, “It’s hard to make definitive decisions.”  On March 15, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommended that gatherings of 50 or more people be cancelled or postponed until at least May 10. Commencement is scheduled for May 17.  The University is in the early stages of devising alternatives should Commencement be unable to take place as scheduled. It may be postponed until later in the summer or during Opening Days, for example, Thorsett said, or the University may modify Commencement events in order to avoid drawing such a large crowd. The University will make a decision about Commencement by April 3. “Commencement is a really important event, for lots of reasons, and I think we’re going to work really hard not to cancel it,” Thorsett said. Similar uncertainties surround Bearcat Days, the admissions events that take place three times each spring semester. The first Bearcat Days happened last week. The second and third are scheduled for April 2 and April 16. “We aren’t going to do the Bearcat Days as they have been done,” Thorsett said. Most likely, many prospective students will be taking virtual visits, which may include pre-recorded campus tours and panels or meetings with faculty and students conducted through Zoom. “At the last Bearcat Days, there was a camera crew filming the events, in part to get ready for the idea that we might have to put more of that on the web,” said Thorsett. Two University task forces are at work addressing issues surrounding the pandemic. Both groups are responsible for tracking updates from external organizations such as the OHA and CDC, and for making decisions based on these updates and on the community’s needs. The main task force, headed by Director of Bishop Wellness Center Don Thomson, is composed of about 28 University officials, as well as ASWU President Amarit Ubhi (’20), who recently joined the group as a student representative. The second, smaller group, includes Thorsett, Thomson, several University vice presidents and staff from the Communications office. Since the beginning of last week, both groups have been meeting at least once a day.  Emphasizing how quickly the University has had to respond to the virus, Thorsett noted that many staff and faculty members have had to work well over their normal hours in recent days. “Don [Thomson] is working almost 24/7, I think,” Thorsett said, adding that Thomson is frequently in conversation with the OHA and other agencies about updates concerning the virus.   Thorsett and other University leaders are also in communication with their counterparts at other colleges and universities, particularly the schools affiliated with the Northwest Conference, or the athletics league Willamette competes in. “We’re all in this together,” Thorsett said. “It is really useful, at a time like this, to be able to talk about these really big challenges that we’re all facing.” Thorsett urged community members to offer their feedback to staff and faculty members during this time of transition.  “There are a lot of people working really hard to try to figure out how to make what is a really, really hard situation as good as it can be,” he said. “People need to hear what’s working, and what the priorities need to be if everything can’t be done at once. There are lots of people listening.” All updates about the University’s response to COVID-19 can be found on the Coronavirus Updates page on the Willamette website.