Sentence Edits

1. The tobacco-free policy does, however, reaches farther than just the use of cigarettes,: it bans all tobacco.

2. “I mean, first, it’s just the overwhelming grief, right?” said Paula Adams, associate director of health promotions at Health and Wellness at WSU said . “I’m going to cry right now talking about it. I mean, how sad is that?”

3. Washington and 16 other states allow personal, religious and medical reasons to be valid excuses to not receive mandatory vaccinations., the state can only highly recommend them.

4. “The goal is for school districts to try and to cover the closest tribe’s history and culture,” said legislative assistant Kevin Fenton. Senator Steve Litzow’s Legislative Assistant.

5. WSU nursing student, Makayla Martin, passed the required standardized test last year that allowed her to graduate from high school in Washington state just last year.

Campus Life story

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_9400fae0-794d-11e5-9653-7747ab91b348.html

Here's a story that talks about the new councilmembers elected for the Interfraternity Council, which had its elections conclude last week. The story goes on to detail the processes leading up to the election.

Freshman live-in rule still supported as WSU residence halls become crowded

By Shawn Hutchinson

Outside Salman Ibrahim’s room, there is a paper listing his office hours. This is not unusual to see for professors and teaching assistants, but Ibrahim is a resident adviser on the first floor of Goldsworthy Hall.

In previous years, Ibrahim would have had another RA on the floor to cover some of the responsibilities of the job. This year, with WSU admitting a record 4,220 new freshmen, there are barely enough rooms to accommodate both RAs and all the freshmen required to live in the residence halls.

The freshman live-in rule is codified in the Washington Administrative Code, requiring all first-year students less than 20 years old to live in the residence halls on campus. Exceptions can be made for students who meet one of the following four criteria: they have attended an institution of higher learning before, they can live with an immediate family member, they have an excuse from a psychologist or they can demonstrate financial hardship. These criteria do not bar students from choosing to live in the residence halls.

Pullman resident Laura Guido chose to spend her freshman year in Honors Hall, despite having her family in town. Guido said she wanted to get the separation that comes with living in the residence halls, which allowed her to get the college experience.

“When you actually live in Pullman, you rarely go on campus, so it’s like a new experience,” said Guido.

The common complaint against the residence halls is the cost, which averages about $5,700 per semester. Forcing the overwhelming majority of college students or their families to pay these costs to comply with the law could be seen as excessive. The residence halls do have one thing that many former residents point to as a major perk: community.

Former student Nicole Tuhy said it’s easier to meet people and be informed about campus events when she lived in the residence halls.  

Another former student, Kirstin King, said the sense of community in the residence halls helps to combat loneliness that many students would experience if they started in the apartments.

“You’re out there in the middle of nowhere, and it’s easier to make friends in the dorms,” said King.

Guido said she lived with her best friend in freshman year.

“We knew that we liked each other, but we also wanted to meet new people,” said Guido.

Ibrahim said community is the biggest thing.

“That’s why they’re called residence halls instead of dorms,” said Ibrahim. “Dorms have a connotation of being places where you sleep and eat. Residence halls are really about the community.”

Ibrahim said a lot of students’ most memorable part of college is the year they spend in the residence halls.

“It seems tedious at first, but everyone comes to miss the experiences,” said Ibrahim

Many students have stories that reflect upon the community aspect of their year in the dorms. A lot of these stories couldn’t happen in a different setting, making the residence halls unique.

“In the very beginning of the school year, a friend and I went to another building to watch a baseball game, because there was no lounge in our building,” said King. “By the end of the game, the room we were in was packed with people we didn’t even know. That would never happen in apartment land.”

“One night, we took office chairs and raced them down the ramps,” said Tuhy. Tuhy said the RAs made it memorable when they caught Tuhy and her friends in the elevator preparing for another race.

Despite the memories and experiences, opinions on the freshman live-in rule as a requirement are mixed.

Tuhy said the residence hall experience is not necessarily for everyone, and they are more expensive than other living options.

“Students shouldn’t be required to live in the residence halls,” said Tuhy. “It should be a personal choice.”

Ibrahim said people tend to miss seeing their friends on a day-to-day basis when they move out of the residence halls.

“A residence hall feels more homey than an apartment,” said Ibrahim.

“When I was going to school as a freshman, I didn’t want to live in a dorm, but it was the best thing that could have happened to me,” said King.

Campus Life Story of the Week

This week, there was a demonstration by the Muslim Student Association in response to an email from the Women's Resource Center. The email appeared to rely on a stereotype of a Muslim woman, and the topic of the email was a newsletter about the Week Without Violence. While the two groups are not directly at odds, the disagreement was a powerful opportunity for one set of students to dispel stereotypes and request fair treatment as humans.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_ba1e0648-72d9-11e5-9ed8-53c4c4f51905.html

Campus Life Story

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_f774169c-7089-11e5-ae70-7b1d4c9d268d.html

A somewhat more literal approach to "campus life," this story details the ongoing talks between WSU and Federal Way, Washington, to create a satellite campus for WSU. WSU already has campuses in Tri-Cities, Spokane, Vancouver, and Everett, and since my beat covers students interacting with their campus, stories like this are important to consider. Each campus brings a shared identity of the Cougars with a unique flavor based on their individual location.

Political/Criminal Story Pitch

Two-sentence explanation: All first-year students at WSU have to live in the dorm system under Washington state law. With housing spaces at a premium this year, this law could make it difficult for the university to accommodate everyone.

Evidence: WSU's dormitories are overfilled in some places and under-utilized in others. Orton's second floor is not housing university students. Waller Hall was just closed for this year. The new Global Scholars Hall is not at full functionality yet. There are students living with RAs.

Why now: More students are expected next year than there are this year, which is already an all-time high class enrollment. Wilmer-Davis, one of three all-female dorms, is set to be renovated, furthering the housing crisis in the future.

Interviews: People who don't fit the intention of the law, which is to get 18 year old freshmen living with other people. One of each of the following: a transfer student (past or current), a freshman older than 18, an RA, students with roommates, students living as a single.

Format and Length: 500 written words, hourglass form.

In Class Writing

Charles Capone was charged with the murder of Rachael Anderson on May 1, 2013. 

Capone, and a suspected accomplice David Stone, conspired from January of 2010 to murder each other’s wives, culminating with the murder of Anderson on April 16, 2010. Capone has a history of violent crime, including past convictions for burglary, assault, and armed robbery. 

Capone allegedly stalked and harassed Anderson for months before committing the crime. Capone also allegedly drugged Anderson with the sleep medication Ambien before killing her. Capone is suspected of burying Anderson’s body in the Lewiston area.

Campus Life This Week

The ASWSU made a change to the rules regarding funding requests by student organizations. Under the new rule, the funding request must directly benefit the undergraduate population. This has a huge impact for the students and the campus, as it will create more programs and activities directed at the vast majority of the population here.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_d4581bf8-67ed-11e5-a1a9-c30a5613e980.html

Rural students face uphill climb to higher education

By Shawn Hutchinson

Residents of Colfax, Washington, population 2,840, are like many small town residents across the nation. There is a strong sense of community. Many residents know each other very well. Some work in small, family-owned businesses. Others work on farms outside of town. Just like their urban counterparts, they raise families. Eventually, these children have to make a decision between their small town life and the potentially intimidating transition to a major college or university. 

A study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center in 2012 showed that students from rural communities have generally lower enrollment rates in institutions of higher learning. About 65 percent of rural high school students enroll in college, compared to about 70 percent for urban high school students of a similar family income level, according to the study. About 17 percent of rural adults have a college degree compared to their urban counterparts. Finally, lower income rural students have the lowest persistence rate among college students, at 79 percent. 

For many in rural communities, these numbers don’t mean that much. Colfax resident Chance Hiatt said he believes rural schools definitely prepare students as well as urban schools. 

Hiatt said, “I felt more comfortable than some of the urban students.” 

Attending University of Idaho, Hiatt stayed close to home to study management and information systems. Hiatt said there are not a lot of differences between students from urban and rural backgrounds once they arrive on campus.  

“Some came from wealthier families and didn’t have to worry as much about paying for school,” said Hiatt. 

Another Colfax resident who went to college is Greg Huber. He started at Spokane Community College and then attended Central Washington University. Huber eventually became a pilot after graduating, flying corporate aircraft. Huber said he did not face any different challenges then urban students when he attended college. 

“I feel there was no trouble transitioning from high school to Spokane Community College,” said Huber. 

There is a misconception about rural education. Teacher Bobbi Mackleit said people from cities sometimes tend to think that rural students are not as intelligent because they didn’t have as much hands-on experience with their education. 

“All students have a bag of resources,” said Mackleit. “We have some that urban students don’t use, and vice versa.”

Mackleit said rural schools with the same curriculum and the same class sizes could be even better than urban schools. 

Mackleit said: “Teachers have closer relationships with the kids. They know them from a younger age. Teaching is more effective in class. The standards tend to be a bit higher as well. There’s more accountability on both sides.” 

Mackleit said the closeness between students and teachers makes things easier for students. 

“It is easier to know how kids are doing in rural communities,” said Mackleit. “You can only get to know so many kids at a time.”

Still, the statistics show rural students having lower persistence rates in college. A lot of this can be explained by the closeness of families in rural communities. Elizabeth Huber, Greg Huber’s sister-in-law, said she didn’t need to extend her schooling beyond high school. She now works for the family business, as does Greg Huber. 

“The pull to work on the family farm can override the need for higher education,” said Elizabeth Huber. 

Families in rural communities tend to support their children if college ends up being part of their future. Both Mackleit and Hiatt became the first in their families to go to college, and they said their families supported them in that decision. Greg Huber’s family did the same.

“It was the direction I wanted to go and they supported me in that direction,” said Greg Huber. 

Rural students also face a problem very familiar to urban students: rising costs for education. 

“The cost of college keeps going up and up,” said Elizabeth Huber. “Not as many scholarships are available.” 

Rural communities are home for a lot of people. Despite what statistics indicate, Greg Huber has full confidence in rural communities. 

“Colfax is a great place to raise kids,” said Huber.