The SHOTGUN: Whittier Miscellany
* Whittier College Student Complaints
Published Jan. 27, 2011 in Quaker Campus' Entertainment section; compiled by
Korrine Hilgeman
1 - C I (Campus Inn) food is "TERRIBLE"
2- C I has inadequate seating
3 - Inadequate parking
4- Impaired drivers on campus
5- Cell phone dead zones on campus (this is not only inconvenient, it's also
dangerous)
6- Dorm maintenance response times (for broken windows, doors, ceiling cave-ins,
etc.) continue to be outrageously long
7- Only cold water in dorm showers (and sometimes not even cold water's available)
8- Heavy machinery noise (from Graham Athletic Center construction that should've
been scheduled for summer, not November - June) starts at the "crack of
dawn" (Athletic Director Robert Coleman says, "The pool was falling
apart, with the pool decks caving in during...summer sport camp" and of
the renovation that it's "good for recruitment...because facilities sell."
Coleman said the same thing about the health, safety, and environmental hazard
artificial turf installed in place of the natural grass stadium field... Meanwhile
administrator Delaphine Hudson continues to work on her sitdown comedy act,
claiming that there hasn't been a single student complaint about construction
noise on campus, when in reality there isn't a single student who hasn't complained)
and leaf blowers and lawn mowers being operated well before 9 AM on weekends
9- Dorms way too loud late into the night on weekdays as well as on weekends
10- Financial aid cuts (Work Study positions seem to have disappeared this year)
* Transformers Blow
On September 28, 2010, a heat wave blew out transformers causing an emergency
evacuation of those on campus. Portable generators eventually provided limited
electricity until power was restored.
On September 30, Quaker Campus ran a story entitled 'Unreliable electricity
poses threat'
* Jan Term Students Find Selves In One Mess After Another
Students returning to campus for Jan Term 2011 had to deal with overflowing
toilets, flooded buildings, no hot water, an electricity blackout and internet
failures
Hoover Hall was renovated only two years ago, but a winter break downpour flooded
Hoover as well as Mendenhall so badly that electrical infrastructure in the
halls' basements was severely damaged. Jan Term classes had to be moved from
Hoover to Wardman Library and other campus locations. Limited electricity was
provided to Hoover intermittently through rented generators.
There have been three complete blackouts already in 2011, including one on New
Year's weekend and one during midterms, which also knocked out internet service
on campus. Backup generators didn't work, again
* Campus Falling Down or Blowing Up or both?
"...a clock fell on a student's head in a Hoover classroom..."
A Turner Hall boiler failure caused pipes to clang and released a gas smell
that had to be investigated by the Gas Company. It was discovered that water
was leaking onto a boiler burner.
* At least $2.5 mil is projected as necessary to make Whittier College infrastructure
dependable for even a limited period
* How Bad and Overcrowded Are Whittier Dorm Rooms?
The Whittier Fund Phonathon Program room in the Ball Hall basement (isn't this
taking 'boiler room' operation a little too literally?), and sometimes ad hoc
student lounge, now, despite there being no shower or windows with any view
at all, but plenty of falling ceiling tiles, etc., houses four students, and
this is a sought after living space!
* Always More Fires
Smoke engulfed Johnson Hall on the night of Feb. 13, 2011. Jessica Camp reported
for Quaker Campus that the student who started the fire came running down a
hallway wearing only underwear and goggles and was restrained by Campus Safety
officers. The Whittier P. D. was called but you'll never find any report on
or charge stemming from this incident. What's a little fire - until students
are badly burned or burned alive...
* From Brobible.com
Posted Dec. 15, 2010:
"WHITTIER COLLEGE THE SHITTIEST SCHOOL IN THE LAND NO HOT GIRLS let me
repeat myself NO HOT GIRLS the parties are wack as shit each year there's...about
one small house that throws parties yea i said only one it has the worst food
and is full of hipster fags Whittier College is like being stranded in antarctica
with no clothes except for skinny jeans and hipster hemp necklaces for a bro
never go there"
* New Traffic Accident Record
A three car accident at Painter and Philadelphia, believed to set a record for
vehicles involved in a single incident on campus, was blamed on a dog jumping
on a driver's lap. The allegedly distracted driver struck two other vehicles
and ended up on a Hoover Hall lawn.
This same intersection has been the site of repeated vehicle-pedestrian and
vehicle-vehicle(s) accidents and injuries. A Whittier student's mother was seriously
injured by a car while crossing on foot at this intersection in December of
last year. Other accidents have occurred during the past few academic years
at other locations on campus as well, including the Painter and Mar Vista intersection
and Shannon Center and Mendenhall parking lots.
* Speaking of Traffic Issues...
"The parking is out of control. The school is getting bigger." - Ray
Schooler, Whittier College neighbor
"...Whittier College has become the neighbor from hell." - Whittier
College neighbor complaining about increased motor and pedestrian traffic and
parking problems exacerbated by construction on campus during the fall and spring
terms
* Dangerous Even When Parked
At least five bicycles were stolen on campus during September 2010
Two campus parking lot smash (parked car windows) and grab (purses in cars)
incidents were reported on Oct. 10, 2010, the same day a student reported that
her car was stolen from the Turner parking lot.
On October 28, 2010, a window screen fell from a second-story Weingart Hall
window frame and struck a staff member's car.
* Students Beware of Whittier College IT Services...
If you download a lot in a short time, you will be investigated.
Andre Coleman has admitted that he has downloaded music through the internet,
but punishes students who do what he has done.
* Search Letter
A Search Letter is the equivalent of a search warrant used by Whittier College
when student dorm rooms are searched for contraband
* Can Campus Safety officers detain students and/or non-students on
campus?
A Whittier College student and a non-Whittier College student were detained
in Philadelphia House until they sobered up
* Dopey and Dopier
Two non-students caught smoking marijuana in a campus parking lot were escorted
off campus, no doubt relieved of their dope and no doubt no arrest was made
and that dope was never turned over to the Whtitier P. D. So where's the dope?
Ask John Lewis?
* Student assaulted in her dorm room: Another case of a Whittier College student
reporting assault, Campus Safety facilitating the perpetrator getting away and
persuading the victim to not file a police report
On Oct. 12, 2010, a student reported being assaulted in her dorm room by a non-student.
The suspect "was banned from campus and the student declined to file a
report with the police." The perpetrator is freed to commit more assaults,
this victim has no counseling, no justice, no peace of mind, and Whittier College
crime statistics are made to look better, much better, than they actually are.
Shame on Campus Safety and Whittier College.
* Rep. Linda Sanchez calls Arizona legislators "White supremacists",
then hides from media at Whittier College
Rep. Linda Sanchez called Arizona legislators "White supremacists"
at a Mark Twain Democratic Club meeting and when local media, including a KABC7
TV Eyewitness News team, tried to speak with Rep. Sanchez at Whittier College,
Campus Safety blocked journalists while Rep. Sanchez made her getaway.
Whittier College "security personnel blocked the entrance and kept reporters
from approaching Sanchez. She left through a back exit." - John North,
Los Angeles KABC TV Eyewitness News
"The Whittier Daily News and a television crew from KABC-TV were denied
entrance to Whittier College on Thursday [June 3, 2010]" when trying to
see Rep. Linda Sanchez. - Randy Economy
http://economy4abc.blogspot.com/2010/06/congresswoman-linda-sanchez-tells-mark.html
http://economy4abc.blogspot.com/2010_06_03_archive.html
'Media denied access to Linda Sanchez at Whittier College' by Mike Sprague,
Whittier Daily News
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_15220133
* Another Reason Why Whittier needs La Voz de Aztlan
Where was Rep. Linda Sanchez been when Whittier College's housekeepers were
being sold out to the rapacious multinational Sodexo corporation and where has
she been while these housekeepers have been doing their best to stand up for
their dignity and rights? MIA!
Clearly enough, Linda Sanchez is just another corrupt politician, in this telling
circumstance valuing her special relationship with Whittier College over her
obligation to workers sold out by her pals, all the more disgusting because
Sanchez would have us believe that she speaks for Latino and even more for Latina
workers, like Whittier College's housekeepers.
Last year a reporter from radical local La Voz de Aztlan was barred by Campus
Safety from a meeting on campus held to discuss the College's housekeepers'
plight. When the La Voz reporter complained about Campus Safety employing threatening
strong-arm tactics while removing him from campus, Ana Lilia Barraza, an administration
mouthpiece charged with keeping the campus MEChA (Chicano Student Aztlan Movement)
chapter distracted from its purpose, falsely portrayed the La Voz de Aztlan
reporter as a racist.
With sellout representatives like Linda Sanchez, and Tia Tomasinas like Ana
Lilia Barraza, local Latinos would have to be deaf and blind to dispense with
La Voz de Aztlan, one of the only local groups who really cares about and stands
up for them. Linda Sanchez will come to Whittier College to play softball and
pal around with campus leadership, but not to walk in a demonstration in support
of exploited and disrespected Latina workers nor talk with this College's administration
about their unconscionable sellout of these workers and the College's refusal
to now terminate the Whittier College-Sodexo contract and rehire these housekeepers,
just as a coalition shamed U C Davis into doing for service workers on that
campus.
* To whittiergate: "I tried to find Whittier College's ranking athttp://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings
and couldn't find Whittier listed, so apparently Whittier College ranks below
the Tier 2 level. Whittier wants an awful lot of money for a maybe 3rd Tier
school!"
* "Silence is consent." - Sherry Jones
* A Senior Opinion: 'Four years of apathy - Poets should be more competitive'
"I expected better. I was promised better. When I first came to Whittier.
I was told that students were dedicated to their studies and that Quaker values
were heavily intertwined in the institution."
"Four years later my expectations of students and this institution are
significantly decreased. I have learned to expect apathy from students and that
the amount of respect and integrity within our community would disappoint our
Quaker founders."
"It seems like everyone lowers their standards once they come to Whittier."
"Whittier has made me apathetic and allowed me to succeed by doing just
enough to slip by. ...thanks to my experience at Whittier, I am going to have
to work much harder in order to reach the competitive level I was at when I
first arrived." - Opinion by Tyler Chin, Quaker Campus, April 28, 2011
* "Lasting success often does not come easy...I know that can be frustrating,
particularly for young people like you who've been raised in a popular culture
that doesn't always value hard work and commitment; a culture that instead glorifies
easy answers and instant gratification - fast food, instant messaging, easy
credit."
"...a culture that elevates today's celebrity gossip over the serious issues
that will shape our future for decades to come."
"It's a culture that tells us that our lives should be easy, that suffering
and struggle should be avoided at all costs, and that we should be able to have
everything we want without a whole lot of work. But we know life really doesn't
work that way." - Michelle Obama, Excerpts from University of Arkansas
Commencement Speech 2010
* Speaking of commencements...
Not to appear superstitious, but what college other than Whittier would schedule commencement for Friday the 13th (2011)? As though Whittier students have any good luck to spare...