The Communicator 509.533.3602 www.twitter.com/_communicator

Racism PG. 3Another look at the attempted bombing

Proposed tax increase PG. 2Governor proposes a new plan to fund schools

Holidays PG. 4Diferent holiday traditions for the winter

Dec. 1, 2011- Jan. 25, 2012 spokanefalls.edu/communicator

Student suicide rate on the riseSFCC staff develop new strategies for countering suicidal thinking

There has been an increase in sui-cide among SFCC students.

With three confirmed SFCC stu-dent suicides this quarter, adminis-trators are taking more steps to pre-vent suicide among students.

“Often times students will say something or have a conversation with someone that indicates that the student is in distress,” said Gregory Roberts, Dean of Student Services and member of SFCC’s Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT). “(Concerns) can be brought to our attention by a number of sources, either faculty or staff; or other students.”

BIT is an outgrowth of a national movement to get ahead of student

crisis such as violence on campus varying from preventing a school shooting to preventing a suicide.

“We are trying to put preventive maintenance in place by creating a network of faculty, staff and students who can report signs of abusive be-haviors,” said Alex Roberts, Vice President of Student and Administra-tive Services and member of BIT.

The referral system has been in place since the beginning of fall quarter. There have been 10 referrals from the online system. For privacy reasons the referrals are only looked over by the BIT team, with other persons being notified on a need-to-know basis. Submissions can be turned in anonymously if desired.

“The best thing anyone can do is turn in a BIT referral because we can then route it to the appropriate place,” said Alex Roberts.

BIT itself is made up of eight mem-Nadia Kurakin | The Communicator

Gregory Roberts, dean of student services, encourages people to bring it to the attention of faculty and staff when they notice a fellow student the seems to be in serious distress.

SIDELINES FOCUSINDEX

NEWS................................2

PERSPECTIVES....................4

SIDELINES ......................... .5

FOCUS

SUICIDE | Page 2

Pg. 7Nadia Kurakin | The Communicator

Number of SFCC veterans might increase

Clayton KraftThe Communicator

SFCC is likely to see an increase in military veteran students in com-ing quarters because of troop with-drawls in Iraq and Afghanistan.

President Obama announced Oct. 21 that all American troops will be withdrawing from Iraq by Dec. 31st of this year, after a long discus-sion of whether a transitional force of 35-50 thousand troops would re-main. More recently it was announced by Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai that half of his country’s provinces will soon be under Afghan control, lowering the requirement of the 140,000 mostly U.S. NATO forces that are currently there until the end of 2014, when it’s expected that all US troops will be gone.

Due to these decreased numbers of active duty and reserve troops engaged overseas, colleges are

likely to see increased numbers of veteran’s applying to their institu-tions.

“There are approximately 400 student veteran’s on SFCC’s campus this quarter, with more and more ev-ery quarter,” said Seth Maier, Veter-ans Program Coordinator for SFCC. “Since the fall of 2009 it’s been on the rise, and it’s only going to go up.

“And that’s just SFCC’s count, SCC has another 400 veteran stu-dents and count-ing other local in-stitutions it’s more like 1,000.”

Veteran’s like national guardsmen, who are not ac-tive duty when not deployed, are un-likely to be immediately redeployed in these circumstances and often find themselves deciding what to do with their lives on short notice.

“The natural transition (out of the military or deployment) is to get a job, and there’s nearly 13 percent

VETERANS | Page 2

Volume 43 | Issue 4

Snowboarding

PG.5

Exotic Pets

PG.8

Kaitlin PetersenThe Communicator

Facebook

PG. 7

“There are approximately 400 student veterans on SFCC’s campus this quarter.”

-Seth MaierVeterans Program Coordinator

Throughout 2011, there have been an increase in various crimes com-mitted on the campuses of schools such as SFCC and EWU.

“Crimes on campus have in-creased,” said Ken DeMello, SFCC Campus Security Supervisor. “It seems as if our calls for service have

Campus crime reports increase Tavis Ferguson

The Communicatorincreased.

“I’d say it could be an assortment of any reasons: economy issues, the recent budget cuts, financial aid trou-ble.”

Some of the incidences occurring on campus range from thefts from rent-a-lockers near the bookstore to assaults on the campus, such as

CRIME | Page 2

Most common campus crimes

theft

alcohol on campus

marijuana possession

dec. 1, 2011 - jan. 25, 2012 NEWS The Communicator

2 Did You Know?: Some of the highest suicide rates in the country come from the Northwest region.Source: nwph.net

The tax increase

would also:

1: Keep K-12 schoolyears from being

reduced by 4 days.

2: Preserve services to people with

developmental disabilites.

3: Ensure offendors are kept behind

bars or under community

supervision.

Source: www.ofm.wa.gov

members consisting of a student services administrator, a counseling department representative, an instruc-tor representative, a disability support service representative, and a campus security representative. Community Mental Health and Veteran’s Services representatives are also participants.

“On the subject of the suicides that have taken place, as an administra-tor I’m frustrated that we couldn’t get involved earlier,” said Alex Roberts. “That is what we are really after in terms of the BIT system...to get ahead of crisis.

“We are really trying to empower the entire campus to be our eyes and ears and to get ahead of crisis situa-tions.”

There are now three full-time coun-selors with mental health certifica-tions whereas last year there was only one.

“We’ve been hiring more coun-selors that have mental health certi-fications in this year...knowing that

economic conditions and the cost of coming to school are creating more mental health issues,” said Alex Rob-erts.

The QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) Institute provides training pro-grams that take, on average, about an hour to complete, teaching how to recognize warning signs, how to offer hope, and how to get help for some-one in crisis.

“We are looking at bringing in other resources, such as the QPR Institute,” said Barb Hahto, SFCC Running Start Counselor. Hahto is also a member of BIT.

Like any mental health system BIT requires the person who needs help to seek it.

“We hope someone in need of mental health support would vol-untarily go seek out help, but (they) must be in immediate crisis for us to call Sacred Heart or Spokane Mental Health to come out to the campus,” said Gregory Roberts. “There are re-sources... you can get help.

“There’s the old saying that friends don’t let friends drive drunk and well, friends don’t let friends go without help.”

Suicide:Administration takes action on suicide preventionFrom Page 1

Veterans:

From Page 1

SFCC veterans discuss school and the armed forces

unemployment among veterans,” Maier said. “The other big option is to go to school.”

According to a study on pattill-manfoundation.org veteran students have higher average GPAs and re-tention rates than their traditional student peers with comparable course loads.

“I think it’s certainly true that our service men and women are a differ-ent kind of student,” said Jim Glass, Fairchild Airforce Base Chaplain and retired instructor. “When I was an instructor I noticed a world of dif-ference between day students who

were attending college because their parents expected them to, and the veterans in night classes who know the value of education and have a serious pursuit of their edu-cation.

“They’ve seen the world and they know the value of what they are get-ting.”

Brandon Henry, a retired Senior Airman in the US Air Force, went to college straightaway after leaving the military.

“Without the new Post 9/11 GI Bill, there’s no way I would have been able to go to school,” said Henry. “I’ve known guys who couldn’t do it (go to school); they got out of the Air Force and ended up going back because they didn’t know what to do.

“It was all they knew.”

Crime:

From Page 1

Campus security describe methods to preventing crime

the recent incident where student was attacked on her way through a parking lot.

“The security department has com-mission courtesy of the Spokane Police Department,” DeMello said. “Which means that we do have the authority to arrest people for city crime.”

A lot of occurrences on campus have come from medical issues, ar-son, car prowling and harassment. Also there have been two building evacuations, and smoking violations.

“Since the installation of the blue emergency phones a few years back, they have not really been used,” De-Mello said. “Interestingly enough, a student at SCC used the phone to turn himself in on an outstanding warrant.”

“We try to make ourselves avail-able and known to the public,” De-Mello said. “There was a time when I was walking through the SUB build-ing, and a student approached me to report some concerns they were hav-ing.

“A majority of the incidences in-clude theft, alcohol and marijuana violations,” said EWU Campus Police Officer, Gary Gasseling.

“We patrol the campus in car and on foot,” Gasseling said. “We run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days per year.

“Our department runs on three shifts, day, swing, graveyard.”

According to Gasseling, officers work four days on with 10 hour shifts. Officers change shifts each quarter so they all get a chance to work each shift throughout the year.

“This year, we have received a half dozen calls on the thirteen emer-gency blue phones,” said Gasseling. “A majority of them were only prank calls though.”

If an individual was planning on breaking any laws, they would have a rough time trying to dodge arrest. The Campus police have the ability to arrest people without the need of the Cheney or Spokane Police De-partments.

“Our arrest commission comes from our department, ” said DeMel-lo. “The arrest powers are under the General Authority law for the State of Washington, meaning we have power to exercise arrest authority anywhere in the state.

“All police agencies have an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with other agencies in their area au-thorizing us to act within our lawful authority in their jurisdiction.”

“Our primary responsibility is to the EWU campus,” Gasseling said. “But we can go wherever needed to investigate crimes involving our stu-dents, faculty or staff.”

Like SFCC, the crime rates at EWU are increasing. The highest crimes committed on that campus range from theft of computers, to alcohol and drug violations such as mari-juana.

“After three years of cutting, now is the time to invest in a better future for all Washingtonians.”

--Christine GregioreWashington State Governor

Governor Christine Gregiore tries to stopgap large education cuts by going to the legislature with her “Building a Better Future” proposal.

Gregiore has cre-ated a supplemental budget to the origi-nal proposition sub-mitted earlier this year, which attempts to blunt some of the most damaging cuts to education with a temporary half cent sales tax increase.

“Once again, I am presenting an all-cuts supplemental proposal to carve another huge portion from the budget — a budget we’ve already cut by $10.5 billion in the past three years,” said Gregiore. “Our state gov-

ernment is smaller, leaner and sadly, meaner to Washingtonians who de-pend on services that the private sec-tor does not provide.

“This latest proposal includes more devastating cuts to education and public safety, and services for seniors, citizens with developmental disabilities and those with mental ill-

ness.”If the sales tax in-

crease is approved by the Legislature it would raise $494 million from June 30, 2013 to July 1, 2015, and stop a planned $160 mil-lion reduction in

state support for the state’s public 2 and 4 year colleges.

“After three years of cutting, now is the time to invest in a better future for all Washingtonians — for all of us to take responsibility and yes, spend a half-penny more,” said Gregiore.

Tax proposal might stop school cuts

Significant looming budget cuts may be avoided

Clayton KraftThe Communicator

Nadia Kurakin | The CommunicatorSFCC Veterans Club organizes students on campus. Seth Maier coordinates the program.

SFCC sends Associated Student Government (ASG) members to leg-islative state meeting in Olympia for a leadership seminar and discussion with legislators about budget cuts.

On Nov. 18-19, SFCC ASG Presi-dent Maria DeLane and ASG Market-ing Director Delaney Paul attended the Legislative Academy event held on at Evergreen State College and the State Capitol building in Olympia.

“We, along with Candice McKin-ley, and Jeremy Meltingtallow, and members from SCC attended as Com-munity Colleges of Spokane (CCS),” DeLane said.

The Student Legislative Academy allows students of Community and Technical Colleges in Washington to discuss the issues that affect the student populations of these colleges.

“The participants of this academy meet state senators and representa-tives from across the state and learn about the legislative process,” Paul said. “We also learned how we can affect the most change in our areas.

“We as groups create presentations about what issues we think need the greatest attention and give these to a committee of persons from around the state.”

The process to attend the Legisla-tive Academy requires the partici-pants to register months in advance and put together presentations to a mock legislature, and plan the bud-getary concerns for the trip.

“Of course there is the cost of travel and lodging,” Paul said.

While there, Paul addressed the need for protected funding for two year community and technical col-leges like the K12 system has.

“Every May, the legislation groups construct the White Paper at the an-nual event in November, topics dis-cussed are chosen from the paper,” DeLane said.

Students requested legislation that will enable greater student access to affordable alternative textbook formats.

“We are not being loud enough for the people on Capitol Hill to hear clearly,” Paul said. “We need to put a face to every story and a name to every face so that when higher edu-cation comes to the chopping block they know the faces of those that are the most affected.”

On Jan. 2, members of the Legisla-tion will be attending a rally outside the Capitol Building in Olympia.

“We’ll be marching around the Capitol steps rallying ‘don’t cut the budgets,” DeLane said.

SFCC sends ASG to legislative academyMemebers of student government sent to Olympia seminar

Tavis FergusonThe Communicator

SFCC Crime

StatisticsArson

1

Assault1

Building Evacuations

2

Drug Incident2

Domestic Violence

1

Harassment5

Indecent Expo-sure/Prostitu-

tion1

Suspicious Activity

6

Robbery5

Source: SFCC Campus Security

dec. 1, 2011 - jan. 25, 2012 NEWS The Communicator

3For more News content visit spokanefalls.edu/communicator/sections/news/news.html.

Domestic terrorist to be sentenced Dec. 20

The attempted bombing in Spokane last January has left its impact on the community.

Kevin Harpham, the man who pleaded guilty to planting a bomb downtown at the Martin Luther King Jr. parade on Jan. 17, was arrested on March 9. He is to be sentenced Tue., Dec. 20 and faces 27-32 years in prison.

On Sep. 7 he admitted in court to targeting minorities by attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction (a hate crime).

“He is in some ways reminiscent of Tim McVeigh,” said Sean Swan, a pro-fessor of political science at Gonzaga University who is currently teaching a class on racism and the far-right.

Swan compared the attempted bombing in downtown Spokane to in-cidents such as Theodore Kaczynski’s (the Unabomber) bombing spree, and the more recent incident in Norway, in which Anders Breivik set off a bomb in Oslo and went on a shooting spree that resulted in at least 77 deaths.

“(The fact that Harpham wasn’t suc-cessful in killing anyone) is kind of ir-relevant in a way,” Swan said. “Not ir-relevant for the people who got killed (in other bombing incidents), but irrel-evant in the sense that it’s just luck of the draw.

“Someone was alert or someone

wasn’t, a timer was too late or too early.”

Kevin Harpham, Timothy McVeigh, Theodore Kaczynski and Anders Breivik all subscribe(d) to far-right wing, anti-government ideologies of different forms.

“Breivik (the Norwegian bomber) was a much more controlled sort of character,” Swan said. “He planned his attack for years, and wrote a huge manifesto.

“Our guy was a member of the Na-tional Alliance, a Neo-Nazi network...and was active on white supremacist web forums.”

Swan said he thinks it’s strange that there’s not more surveillance on these types of groups.

“If (the Spokane attempted bomb-ing) had been an Islamic attack I’m sure we would have heard much about links to al-Qaida,” Swan said. “Nothing much seems to have been made by the FBI of the fact that he was a member of the National Alli-ance and that he was active on these web forums.

“He wasn’t discovered as a result of these guys having been under sur-veillance, he was discovered due to...(contents) he left in his backpack that traced back to a Walmart in Colville; and the fact that they had his DNA on record because he had served in the military.”

Swan said that the Southern Pov-erty Law Center (a Montgomery, Ala. based anti-racism organization) has a better record when it comes to track-ing this type of terrorist activity.

“Spokane is a very white area,” Swan said. “The attraction for these people is exactly the fact that the In-land Northwest is so white.

“(Some of these groups) have this dream...having more (white) people

move up to the 5 (congruous) North-western-most states (Idaho, Mont., Ore., Wash. and Wyo.) and forming a sort of white enclave up here.”

Swan said the best way to counter racist terrorism is not to feed it.

“Tone down the paranoia...develop a more responsible tone,” Swan said. “Irrational conspiracy theories, xeno-phobia...mainstream politics tend to pander to this.

“A thousand people will listen to (ir-rational conspiracy theories) without acting out, but one of them will take it to the next level.”

Chris Halverson, an employee of Nelson Securities in the Chase build-ing downtown, said the attempted bombing could have blown out all the windows of their building.

“Just because this guy had a prob-lem with a certain race, a lot of people could have been killed,” Halverson said. “A lot of damage could have been done.

“But it was an isolated incident...

it’s not like you have people trying to detonate bombs all over the city all the time; I feel safe in Spokane...I love Spokane and I have faith in human-ity.”

Kenneth DeMello, Campus Safety and Security Supervisor, said people who think their race is better than oth-ers are by far the minority.

“Look at the (racist) movement in Hayden Lake, Idaho,” DeMello said. “There were like 20 of them.

“Look at the damage it did to the perception of our region, 20 peo-ple out of a region that has at least 100,000 people.”

DeMello said he has never seen any incidents of race motivated violence on the SFCC campus.

“Our campus is very diverse, more diverse even than the (Spokane) com-munity itself,” DeMello said. “Every race, creed, sexual orientation have the same expectation of respect.

“I’ve seen nothing but respect for people.”

Did You Know?

Harpham lived in Addy, a

town of 265 people, along Highway 395.

He lined the bomb with

lead fishing weights

dipped in rat poision, which

can prevent blood from

coagulating.

Source: The Spokesman-

Review

Perched in this highrise location, Harpham hoped to watch as the bomb he placed detonated. He positioned the bomb to cause the maximum amount of damage.Nancy Locke | The Communicator

Jackson ColbyThe Communicator

Almost a year after the event, the man who attempted to bomb the Martin Luther King Jr. parade is to be sentenced on Dec. 20, sparking conversation and consideration from locals about the man.

Nancy Locke | The CommunicatorThe bomb was placed in a backpack here at this bench, along the path of the MLK parade.

shelby miltner | Editor erspectivesPdec. 1, 2011 - Jan. 25, 2012

4 Did You Know?: The average planned spending for shoppers who have already started thier shopping is $734. Source: American Research Group, Inc. website

The Staff The Communicator, a student-run publication, provides students an opportunity to connect with their campus and enrich their time at SFCC. We hope to maintain a forum in which students are able to voice diverse opinions on campus-related issues. The Communicator also aims to inform students about topics relevant to their education.

Editor-in-ChiefAshley Hiruko

Managing EditorJackson Colby

Web EditorLauren Miller

News EditorClayton Kraft

Focus EditorRandy Breedlove

Sidelines EditorKellen Middleton

Perspectives EditorShelby Miltner

Photo EditorNancy Locke

GraphicsGeoff Lang

Multimedia Nadia Kurakin

AdviserJason Nix

Staff members can be reached via email with the following format:sfcc.firstname.lastname@gmail.com

Please Note

The Communicator is an open forum for student coverage and opinion that is entirely student edited and produced, with absolutely no prior review from the faculty or administrators of Spokane Falls Community College. The content in this publication is the responsibility of the student staff of The Communicator, and as such do not necessarily reflect the view of Spokane Falls Community College administrators, faculty, or the student body.Individual student contributions to the opinion page or any other section of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board or the student staff of The Communicator.

The first copy of an issue is free, additional copies are 50 cents each.

Family traditions

ShelbyMiltner

Kellen Middleton

Black Friday experienceAs I

watched my family leave for Seattle the day be-fore Thanks-giving, I

wondered how the holi-day weekend would play

out for me. Unfortunately, I am a part of the lucky few movie theater employees who were chosen to work on the day of Thanksgiving.

As I arrived to the theater in which I work at, I noticed the park-ing lot was fairly empty. It led me to believe that this night could be short lived and my boss would send me home early.. wrong.

The night consisted of an hours’ worth of work and a whole lot of standing around waiting for the clock to strike midnight. Seven of my eight hour shift was spent ponder-ing my thoughts, wondering if the night would ever end. And as I exited the theater I decided to ex-perience an atmosphere I had never encountered before, Black Friday shopping.

The place I chose to attempt to shop at first was a personal favorite of mine that I regularly walk around in, with no intent to purchase anything. This place was Best Buy, which was right down the street from the theater. This was quite the place to begin, and ultimately end, my Black Friday experience.

Not only was I standing at the back of the line with almost no chance at getting any of the great deals that were advertised in the local papers, I was also clueless to how ruthless people can be at one in the morning on America’s most hectic of business days. As the line began to move into the building, some patrons began to patrol for

people cutting in line, and ulti-mately yelling profanity at them as if it would cause them to stop and reconsider what they were doing. At one point a man who wore an army jacket cut in front of almost two-hundred people, thus causing a man to cry out “Just because you wear an army jacket, that does not make you able to cut!” We had not even got inside the building, and people were already going insane. Once inside, I began to observe the men and women who were racing to the electronics and finding that there was a limited supply, thus causing arguments and childish outbursts.

It was like they were my guests, and I was Jerry Springer, just watch-ing to see what would come next. I had no intent on buying anything, so this was like free entertainment for me.

I had come up with an idea to outsmart Best Buy and their limited supply of $200 televi-sions. By the time I had reached the counter the man said, “We are out of those, sorry.” I decided that since they were adver-

tising the TV right there I would be a step ahead of everyone else in line. “Is this the model here?” I asked. The man replied, “Yes sir that is it.” “Oh, well then I will buy the floor model.”

This did not make them happy, as I had done the unthinkable and thought outside the box. The man proceeded to tell me it was not actually the model and that I could not buy it.

As I stormed off in disbelief that this brilliant idea had fallen apart, I noticed the lines for checkout began to zigzag throughout the store. I decided this was too much for me, and proceeded to the exit doors.

And even though I may remember this Thanksgiving weekend as one of the loneliest holiday weekends I have ever encountered, I will always remember my first Black Friday.

The holiday season is for spending time with family, but today people are not spending as much time with those they love as they used to. Instead they are spending more time

at holiday sales, such as Black Friday. These holiday sales have become out-rageous too, with people becoming very defensive over getting the gifts or toys they want. Some even go to extremes when getting their holiday items; from taking gifts out of peoples hands or shopping carts to full out brawls to get what they want. While people are at holiday sales they are not spending time with family members or enjoying the spirit of the holidays. We would like everyone to keep in mind the traditions and values of this holiday and every holiday season. Although time and money does not al-low for much, there is always enough cheer and family to go around.

“It was like they were my guests, and I was Jerry Springer, just watching to see what would come next.”

-Kellen MiddletonSidelines Editor

Questions? Complaints? Praise?Contact the editor at comeic@spo-kanefalls.edu

Holi-

day traditions have become more mate-rialistic and people are

more interested in receiving and giving gifts, expensive or

inexpensive. Do you remember the times when

every member in your family would have a nice Thanksgiving or Christ-mas dinner, and after dinner would sit down, watch a movie, go outside to play football or get in a snowball fight? I remember theses days; they were the good ole days.

Now, it seems like everyone is out shopping until they drop at Black Friday or other shopping sales. People are still spending time together, but in different ways. Why is this happening?

Corporations are also pushing up the time of the sales for shoppers. This year Walmart moved up its Black Friday sale to start at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. Some people may still be visiting families at that hour, but still want to go to Black Friday. If the time of the sales get earlier, the time being spent with family and friends is cut short. Sure, the family could move up dinner and visiting with their family. But re-ally, would anyone want to do that?

According to the American Re-search Group, Inc. Americans will spend on average around $646 on gifts this holiday season. Last year, Americans spent around $658 on gifts, a 2 percent decrease. With the current economy down, people are going to be spending less on holiday gifts. I know I will.

The holiday season has always been important to me, although since I have moved away from home, Christmas traditions have become especially significant and more meaningful.

When I was younger, a holiday tradition in my family was to have a traditional Thanksgiving and Christ-mas dinner. On Thanksgiving, we would invite the whole family to a big dinner at either my aunt or par-ents’ house. Everyone would enjoy the endless amounts of turkey and ham as well as all the many kinds of desserts such as cherry or apple pie,

to name a few. Our family would also do a gift

exchange over the holidays. We would have everyone write down their names on a piece of paper and put the pieces of paper in a hat. Someone would pick two names out of a hat and the two people whose names were drawn would have to get a Christmas present for each other. This went on until there were no names left in the hat.

The rules of the gift exchange were a spending limit of $20 or less and if your name was drawn by you, you had to draw a different name because no one could get their own presents.

On Christmas Eve, my aunt or parents would host a Christmas Eve party and the gift exchange would be held that night. Everyone who bought presents would put them under the Christmas tree and later we would do the gift exchange.

Some of my family members do not see anyone throughout the year and having a get together allows everyone to get caught up and enjoy yummy desserts or snacks. Christmas Day my family and I would open presents early in the morning and in the evening we would all go to my aunt’s house for Christmas dinner.

For many Americans, traditions change. About 4 years ago, my family traditions changed due to health reasons and a death in the family. My grandmother, who was always the one who helped to orchestrate all of our family gather-ings or holiday events, passed away. The tradition of my family getting together over the holidays has changed slightly; we still get together to celebrate the holidays, but we do not hold the gift ex-change anymore.

Although how we spend this time with our families has changed, spending time with family and friends is still very important. Every American does not have the same holiday traditions, but there is something in common with all traditions: the time we spend with family and friends.

Today, it seems like time spent with family and friends is getting shorter. No matter how much times changes, everyone should remem-ber that family is important and never loose the spirit of the season.

Geoff Lang | The Communicator

Kellen Middleton | Editor idelinesSdec. 1, 2011 - Jan. 25, 2012

5Did You Know? The top recorded speed during a downhill ski competition is 96.6 miles per hour. Source: npr.org

The snow has finally come, skiers and snowboarders must wait no longer to hit the mountain and shred up the hill sides.

With a reasonable cost of gear hard to come by, there has got to be a more affordable way for college students to enjoy the snowboarding/skiing season.

Mt. Spokane, Schweitzer Mountain and 49 Degrees North are just three resorts in the area that have taken into account the tight pockets of college students.

Mt. Spokane Ski Resort opened Friday Nov. 25, and is open Wednesday to Sunday, but it’s open for 2 com-plete weeks over the holidays. Night skiing starts Dec. 16, and runs until early March.

Makenzie Oddino, an employee at the resort, spoke on just a few of the sales being held for a limited time this season.

“We’ve got a stocking-stuffer deal, it’s $99,” Oddino said. “A youth (of seven to17 years old) gets six lift tickets for any day they want to use it, a college student gets five, and an adult gets four.”

This deal doesn’t last long, however, as the price will go up to $129 on Jan. 1, 2012.

If students haven’t gotten their gear yet, Mt. Spokane has a rental and retail shop where students can pick up gear they need. Mt. Spokane also offers a sled-ding/tobogganing slope for those who do not ski or snowboard, which is open on weekends and holidays throughout the season.

Another local hot spot for those looking to hit the slopes is Silver Mountain, which opened on Nov. 21.

One of the ways Silver Mountain tries to save students money is by selling equipment that was rented the previous season. Although this may not be brand new equipment, it still provides students the opportunity to afford equipment that was taken care of properly by the resort.

Season passes for students are $329, for regular adults the price is $599. Students save over $200 just for going to school.

Silver Mountain Resort is open from 9 a.m. to 3:45

things you should know about:

1. Experience is key to this job - “I started off as a staff member, and then just worked my way up. I taught classes, fund-raised, and a lot of other things.”

2. Dedication is required, not influenced - “You have to understand the workload, there’s a lot of night and weekends you need to work. You need to be able to put in the hours needed.”

3. You need to have good people skills - “Not only should you be able to work with your own staff, but also work with the public, with the presidents and students.”

4. Managing skills help tremendously - “You have to be able to manage budgets very effectively, espe-cially now when budgets are gettng cut. You have to be able to use your resources appropriately, and still be able to do your core goal.”

7 being an Athletic DirectorAs told by Ken Burrus

5. You have to have a long-term vision - “In terms of goals and direction for your department, you need to have strategic planning. You have to be able to look at the big picture.”

6. Have a moral compass - “You always want to do things the right way. There should never be any ques-tion about if you’re doing things the right way, you do not want to cheat things, we want to maintain integrity.”

7. Teaching athletes about something other than sports - “We are educating student-athletes, and if they are participating in athletics at a community college in Washington, the chances of them making a living off of it are slim to none. Nobody really makes a living by playing sports, so our focus has to be helping them get a good education and moving them on to what they really want to do in life.

p.m. They do not offer night skiing.“On Jan. 6, we have a deal called Jackass day, where

we offer skiing and riding for $11,” said John Williams, Marketing Executive for Silver Mountain.

“There are also Toyota ski free days that run from Dec. 1 to Feb. 3,” Williams said. “If you have a Toyota, Lexus or Scion, you ski for free.”

SFCC student Meriah McMullen said she enjoys 49 Degrees North because it is not as busy as other moun-tain resorts.

“(Other mountains) get really crowded and the peo-ple at 49 Degrees are usually my age,” McMullen said.

SFCC student Chrystal Kelly also said she enjoys 49 Degrees North, except she prefers the fact that there are better runs and a lot of variety.

“I am not a big fan of Mt. Spokane, their bunny hills are very plain,” said Kelly. “I like the cat-tracks at 49 Degrees.”

49 Degrees North Marketing Executive Brad Nacca-rato said that “Mega Mondays” and “Two for Tuesdays” are the big promotion deals for this year’s season.

“Mega Mondays is when you go to a Yokes or a Qdoba and you pick up a voucher,” Naccarato said. “You don’t have to purchase anything, just bring the voucher up to the mountain on Mondays and you will get $10 off a regular price ticket.”

“Two for Tuesdays is when you go to a Papa Murphy’s, pick up a voucher and again you don’t have to purchase anything; it is completely free.”

Naccarato said that the Two for Tuesdays voucher was a two-for-one voucher that you bring to the 49 Degrees North Resort, while accompanied by a friend or parent, and redeem two lift tickets for the price of one.

With devotion to help students save money, resorts across Spokane continue to offer new deals, while still keeping their profits up.

Mountain resorts help students save

Matt MoffattThe Communicator

Drew Castellaw| The CommunicatorRyan Christensen begins his winter snowboarding season by testing the flexibility of a snowboard at the Spokane Alpine Haus shop.

story by Matt MoffattBrandon Overdorff| The Communicator

Athletic Director Ken Burrus discusses what it takes to do his job.

6

DEC. 1, 2011 - JAN. 25, 2012 Advertisements The Communicator

Bookstore Magic

Alakazam!!

$6.50 Regal & AMC Movie Ticketspurchased at the SFCC bookstore

with college id - some restrictions apply

SPOKANE FALLS BOOKSTORE

Do you need something done?We can do it!

Textbook Rentals Check Cashing Electronic Book Exchange Gift CardsTextbook Buyback Notary Public AMC & Regal Movie Ticket Xeroxing

Laser Quest Tickets UPS Shipping Silverwood Tickets (seasonal)Supply Vending Machine in the lobby of the library Faxing

Located in the Student Union Building (SUB) Building 17533-3566

bookstore.ccs.spokane.edu/spokanefalls

randy breedlove | Editor ocusFDec. 1, 2011 - Jan. 25, 2012

7Did You Know?: Spokane is host to a chapter of the Celiac disease foundation. Source: www.glutenfreespokane.com under the resources tab

Randy BreedloveThe Communicator

Drew Castellaw | The Communicator

Many people may not know about the privacy invasions Face-book has been sited for. Several groups have found serious issues with Facebook’s intrusive terms of agreement in dealing with privacy.

Privacy issues for members of the social networking website Facebook have been brought up by advocacy groups in the past seven years since the website was founded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2004.

According to Carnegie Mellon University researchers, new world-wide photo identification technol-ogy will store photos of a personal profile in a database.

SFCC student Jesse Martin showed some anguish toward the new technology.

“It does worry me,” Martin said. “I don’t want to see my face up on billboards.

“If I do, I want a check for it.”Martin has had a Facebook pro-

file for five years now.“I don’t put my phone number or

email address on Facebook,” Martin said. “I don’t think the majority of Facebook users even have a clue about the potential invasion of their privacy.”

Pictures posted become the property of Facebook, and they are able to sell any of these pictures to corporations wanting to advertise.

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers have tested this new technology and have easily accessed Facebook members’ social security numbers and credit reports. CMU has award winning research-ers that specialize in researching privacy and information security from Internet technology.

According to Huffingtonpost, Facebook is sharing users’ personal addresses and phone numbers with third party sites.

Every time a Facebook “like” button is displayed on a website, even when the user is logged out of Facebook, the information accessed on that website is sent back to Face-book. This is the job of specially built software called cookies. A cookie is a small file that a website places on your computer. This file collects any information that you provide on a page (name, email ad-dress, password).

This information about Facebook using this technology and tracking

a user’s online trail was recently discovered by technologist Nik Cubrilovic.

Cubrilovic is an Australian blog-ger that accused Facebook of this privacy issue on Sept. 25 2011. Facebook did not deny this accusa-tion but assures that they are using the collected information respon-sibly.

The Electronic Privacy Informa-tion Center and nine other groups have filed a letter with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate security and privacy issues surrounding Facebook’s new features.

SFCC student Chandler Jefferson also showed concerns about Face-book’s privacy issues. Jefferson has things on his Facebook profile that he would not like his family to see.

“Partying...people look down upon this, you get stuck in a ste-reotype,” Jefferson said. “You never know who’s looking at your page.”

SCC student Candice Walberg said she uses the site to keep in touch with friends and family that are out of town.

“Facebook really does have use-ful features that people can utilize,” Walberg said. “I use it a lot as a net-working tool to meet people with similar interests to my own.”

Photo Illstration by John Millen |The Communicator

Brandon OverdorffThe Communicator

Facebook uses cookies to track its users whenever there is a like button on a website. There are cookies that can track your Internet activities and private information that could be given to a third party.

Spokane businesses going gluten freeBusinesses are now catering to the needs of people who have Celiac disease or just want to live without gluten-based products.

Grocery stores, restaurants, pizza parlours, and even our own bookstore on the SFCC campus sell gluten free products to ac-commodate the growing number of people with an intolerance to gluten.

People with Celiac disease aren’t able to process gluten due to a problem with the villi in afflicted people. These villi absorb nutrients and proteins, when they are damaged they are unable to absorb gluten. Untreated Celiac disease can cause early on-set osteoporosis, intestinal cancers, and Neurological disorders.

According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, one in every 133 people have Celiacs. 97 percent of the people with the disease have not even been diagnosed. The only way to deal with the disease is to adhere to the gluten free diet.

With the increase of diagnosis of Celiacs, companies are boosting the amount of gluten free products they deal with.

“They move pretty fast, we have to place an order about once a

month,” said Bruce Chesterman in reference to the gluten free section of snacks in the bookstore. “They seem pretty popular.”

The Gluten free products are brought in by Planetdistribution, a California-based company that deals with organic and gluten free foods.

Spokane’s locally based company Rosauers and its sister companies, Super1foods and Huckleberry’s, has a growing number of gluten free products.

“We just finished remodeling and...got an isle with like nothing but gluten free products,” said Leah Croteau, a Super1foods employee.

“I sometimes help stock the isle and there are a lot of products we have now that I haven’t seen before.”

Restaurants like Luigi’s and

Red Robin sell products that have large amounts of gluten but both restaurants also offer gluten free menu items.

“We have a gluten-free burger and gluten free buns now; they are pretty new, you just have to ask for them,” said Megan Majnarich, Red Robin server.

If you want to donate to Celiac disease research you can visit Ce-liac.org for upcomming events and charities or donate directly through the donate tab on the website.

“We have a gluten-free burger and gluten free buns now; they are pretty new, you just have to ask for them.”

-Megan MajnarnichRed Robin Server

Gluten FreeStores:

Rosauers

Huckleberry’s

The Rocket Bakery

Fusion Flour

Trader Joe’s

Gluten Free Restaurants:

Luigi’s

Applebee’s

Maggie’s South Hill Grill

Rock City Grill

Twigs

Tomatoe Street

China Garden

P.F. Changs

SourceGlutenfreespokane.com

Huckleberry’s offers gluten free and organic foods from local farms.

Internet privacy please

For more Focus content visit spokanefalls.edu/communicator/sections/focus/focus.html8

Dec. 1, 2011 - Jan. 25, 2012 Focus The Communicator

Burmese pythons, reticulated pythons, tortoises, monitor lizards, chameleons and anacondas can be purchased at Northtown Mall.

Rasmussen Reptiles, a 3,000-square-foot store, offers ex-otic reptiles for sale.

Joe Rasmussen, who owns the store alongside his wife Jodi, said the store opened their Northtown location in Aug. of 2010, and that they moved their store there from a location they had at the intersection on North Division street.

“We want to sell reptiles,” Joe said.

Controversies regarding exotic pets have arisen in some areas. The state of Florida has seen contro-versy, due to people buying a large breed of snake such as an anacon-da, as a baby, only to release it into

the wild when it grows too big for the owner to manage.

Incidents like these have caused some lawmakers to call for bans on exotic breeds of pets, which have been largely successful in some areas, such as Fla. and Conn.. But Wash. remains one of the more lenient states when it comes to ownership of exotic animals.

According to Rasmussen Reptiles, they promote respon-sible ownership of exotic pets, and the staff offers tips and guidelines to anyone who pur-chases a reptile. In addition, there are warnings on the tanks in which they keep baby reticulated pythons, letting customers know that these snakes will grow to be the longest snake in the world (over 28 feet).

Joe said that the store has had a lot more success at its new loca-tion.

“Northtown begged us to open

the store,” Joe said. “They begged us for 2-3 months before we finally did it.”

He said that they are very happy to have made the choice.

Shawn Davis, a resident of Spo-kane, purchased a Hog Island Boa Constrictor, a rare breed, from the store.

“They have a lot of different va-rieties of snakes that you can’t find normally,” Davis said. “It’s hard to find the Hog Island Boa anywhere.”

Davis said it’s nice to have a snake as a pet, because they require less maintenance than typical pets, such as cats or dogs.

“You only have to clean their cages once a month,” Davis said. “Just make sure they have fresh water regularly, you only have to feed

them once every 7-10 days.“They’ve got their needs, but

they’re pretty low maintenance.”Davis said that owning reptiles is

quite different from owning non-reptilian pets, but there are advan-tages and disadvantages to both.

“(Reptiles) aren’t going to come to their name or recognize what you want from them like a dog,” Davis said. “Snakes don’t care what you do.

“Reptiles aren’t going to come to their name or recognize what you want from them like a dog.”

-Shawn DavisLocal resident and snake owner

Nancy Locke | The Communicator

Jackson ColbyThe Communicator

Spokane’s reptiles soak up spotlightJoe Rasmussen and his wife Jodi run an exotic reptile store in Northtown Mall

“This is nice if you don’t have a lot of time to spend with them; it’s good for a busy pet owner.”

Davis said reptiles will make a good pet for those who work a lot, and don’t have the time it takes to care for a cat or dog.

Jodi Rasmussen, who owns the store alongside her husband, Joe, said the best thing about the store is watching the kids getting to see the animals.

“I loved reptiles growing up,” Jodi said. “I went out and caught snakes and lizards.

“My husband and I always loved them.”

Jodi said that people are allowed to watch the reptiles at their store being fed. The large snakes are fed rabbits, but only once every two weeks. The lizards, however, get fed everyday.

“People really like to see the crickets and roaches get munched up,” Jodi said. “Some of them get grossed out but they’re still fasci-nated.

“It’s just the circle of life.”Rasmussen Reptiles is located in

the Northtown Mall in Spokane, on the 2nd floor.

“I work a lot,” Davis said. “It’s nice to have a pet that doesn’t require much care.

“Even though they don’t grow at-tached to their owners, they’re still very intelligent animals.”

Illegal Exotic Pets inWash.

Non-Human Primates

Badgers

Large Cats

Alligators

Crocodiles

Water Monitor Lizards

Venomous Snakes

Wolves

Hyenas

Bears

Elephants

Source:

bornfreeusa.org

A frilled dragon lizard’s hiss and frill are used to ward off predators.

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