Eastern Washington University EWU Digital Commons Eastern Washington University Digital History Student Newspapers Collections 11-4-2015 Easterner, Vol. 67, No. 7, November 4, 2015 Associated Students of Eastern Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.ewu.edu/student_newspapers Recommended Citation Associated Students of Eastern Washington University, "Easterner, Vol. 67, No. 7, November 4, 2015" (2015). Student Newspapers. 900. https://dc.ewu.edu/student_newspapers/900 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Eastern Washington University Digital History Collections at EWU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Newspapers by an authorized administrator of EWU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 67, Issue 5 | A new age for EWU journalism “ of sexual assaults 90are by someone% who is an acquaintance -Tricia HughesDirector of Health, Wellness and Prevention Services ” NEWS ⁄⁄ page 7 CSTEM celebrated 10-year anniversary of program see page 6 for more on the rise in reports on campus SPORTS ⁄⁄ page 6 Eagles volleyball quick stats for Grizzlies, Bobcats games Check in here. Skip here. Eagles vs. Wildcats | page 16 Make your urgent care wait New Boundary brewery | page 12 as short as possible. Reserve your spot now. When you need urgent care, view wait times at our six locations and check in online. Just answer a few easy questions, pick a time that works for you, and we’ll save your spot. We can even send you a text when it’s time to show up. Visit RockwoodClinic.com/UrgentCare to check in and skip the wait. Meet Okera Nsombi | page 4 If your symptoms worsen or you believe you are experiencing an emergency, please call 911 or go to the nearest Emergency Department as soon as possible. Sam Deal vs. noisemakers| page 14 87509_ROCK_ClockwiseMD_5_563x10c.indd 1 10/5/15 5:45 PM 2 THE EASTERNER November 4, 2015 Contents NEWS 4 THE DEAL 14 EAGLE LIFE 9 COMMUNITY 15 OPINION 13 SPORTS 16 Editor’s note: The one from 30,000 feet Eric Long | editor-in-chief wrote this on an airplane, or — as my chief copy editor I called it — a tube of circulated air from Austin, Texas, to Seattle. After delays, flaring tempers and a few hours of sitting in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the group of eight editors from The Easterner that went to the 2015 ACP/CMA National College Media Convention in Austin finally got on a flight, which brought the group at least back to its home state. If you’re reading this, we also made it back to Cheney and printed a paper. For those who don’t know, the conference is four days of nerding out on everything journalism and media related in the collegiate sphere. We learned a lot from the conference and will show it in the future copies of The Easterner. Looking down at the tiny lights miles below this plane, I always remember there’s a whole world of news to cover, and The Easterner only covers a tiny fraction of that world. There is no reason The Easterner can’t give its readers the best sto- ries and the best coverage. Everybody has to wake up, and I think we’ve done just that. ABOUT THE EASTERNER Our Mission: The mission of The Easterner is to inform the students, faculty, staff and nearby residents of Eastern Washington University of the governance, activities and views of the campus while providing a learning environment for students interested in journalism and related fields. Our main goal is to publish high-quality news content to the community of Eastern Washington University. Circulation: The Easterner publishes a weekly print version as well as web content during the week http://www.easterneronline.com. The Easterner is distributed throughout the Cheney campus and business district as well as Riverpoint and various Spokane businesses. If you would like The Easterner to be distributed at your business call the Advertising Department at 509-359-7010. Address | The Easterner EWU, Isle Hall 102 Cheney, WA 99004 News Line | tip: (509) 359-6270 — general office: (509) 359-6737 Advertising | call: (509) 359-6270 — fax: (509) 359-6737 2 THE EASTERNER November 4, 2015 November 4, 2015 THE EASTERNER 3 THE EASTERNER staff list Editor-in-Chief Eric Long - 509-359-6737 News [email protected] Advertising Manager Colton Weiks - 509-359-7010 [email protected] Managing Editor Lawrence Barich [email protected] Okera Nsombi joins EWU Chief Copy Editor Zoë Colburn [email protected] Eastern’s new professor on Africana Studies and his own journey to self-acceptance Online Editor Kayla Lee when his father moved the family from Co- [email protected] lumbia to Hebron, Kentucky, near downtown Cincinnati, to live nearer to his work. Administrative Assistant Mike Manning “[When he] signed us up for school we didn’t realize there were only three black News Editor students in the school,” said Nsombi of a high Jaclyn Archer - 509-359-6270 school he estimates enrolled approximately [email protected] 800 students at the time. Eagle Life Editor “The problem for me was not simply that Ivy Nall there was a lack of diversity at the school,” [email protected] he said. “It was the attitude that the white Sports Editor students had. I had never seen people that Brandon Cline - 509-359-2273 resented so much having black students at [email protected] the school. So you’d have groups of guys that Opinion Editor would get together, cut class and come out and Samuel Deal try to find myself or my brother or someone [email protected] else, and they were asking for a fight. And Art Director there would be 15, 20 guys that would get Claire Simpson together and do that.” [email protected] Raised in the tradition of Southern Hospi- Page Designers tality, Nsombi initially tried to make friends Brian Loupe in his new environment, “But those people up Abbi Vance there — I have never heard the word ‘nigger’ Alyssa Scheller so much in my life.” Graphic Designers Okera Nsombi posing in his office | Photo by Karissa Berg For his part, Nsombi said the principal Linlin Xing By Daisy Garcia | staff writer equated being called “nigger” to his own Rebecca Savinski his parents’ combined 20 siblings and experience of being called “four-eyes” for his “The ‘N’ is silent. It’s not as scary as it homemade baked macaroni and cheese. glasses as a child, dismissing the racial attacks Copy Editors Rachael Pickard looks,” said Okera Nsombi, Ph.D., Eastern’s The world outside his home, however, was as typical bullying. newest assistant professor of Africana Educa- not so peaceful. “I was almost in a fight at that school every Staff Adviser tion-Instruction, as he explained the pronunci- “Racial tensions were tough in South Caro- other week,” said Nsombi, who added that the Jeff Bunch ation of his name. lina,” said Nsombi. “We had the race riots in only redeeming element of the racial prejudice Staff Writers Nsombi is a young-looking, avuncular school every year, blacks against whites.” was the assumption that he was a great fighter, Lelia Thatcher Chris Mudd man with an almond complexion and Nsombi particularly recalls one persistent and thus was rarely confronted one-on-one. Joe Matthews Rosie Perry closely cut hair. He greets students with instance of race-fuelled bullying that took place “They didn’t realize I had never been in a Allison Todd Daisy Garcia a firm handshake and enthusiastic smile, while he was in seventh grade. fight before in my life, except with my broth- Kalli Wolf but is not afraid of a friendly hug. In “There was a guy that would sit on the bus er,” said Nsombi. the summer of 2015, his teaching career everyday, and he would take his index finger The students were bold, however, in their Photographers brought him over 2,500 miles from the and poke me in the back of the head all the verbal abuse. Yelling “nigger” from their lunch Karissa Berg Melanie Flint palm and crescent of South Carolina to way to school and call me a nigger, everyday tables or from their cars as they drove past the Evergreen State, where he teach- … those things hurt,” said Nsombi. him on the street. Distributor es African American History in lilting According to Nsombi, his experience was “It devastated me,” said Nsombi, who began Colton Weiks Southern tones. typical of black children growing up in the crying himself to sleep every night. “That Social Media Director Nsombi was born and raised in Colum- South during the 1970s, where many whites senior year was absolutely one of the worst Bailey Baer bia, S.C. until the age of 16. “It felt like a still resented the gains of the Civil Rights things probably the worst thing I ever experi- Online Content Manager perfect world … our family was so close,” Movement, sported “rebel flags” and believed enced in my life.” Brian Patterson said Nsombi, describing a close-knit family, “Blacks were getting too many rights.” It was around this time that Nsombi, who tranquil home life and Sunday afternoon The bullying did not improve in high school, had long enjoyed athletics, including basketball family gatherings filled with cousins from and took a turn for the worse his senior year, and baseball, began to fish more frequently. 4 THE EASTERNER November 4, 2015 News “That was my outlet,” said Nsombi, who still fishes understand what kind of impact that has on kids today and can be seen tracking fishing tournaments … some kids come up to me and tell me that it online as he grades or meets with students in his really made them struggle with what it felt like to Panhellenic sisters Monroe Hall office.