Volume 73, Number 1

2 News The Pioneer Log, February 18, 2011

EDITORS IN CHIEF:
Natalie Baker & Lindsey Bosse
BUSINESS MANAGER:
Lindsey Bosse
NEWS EDITORS:
Zach Holz & Laura Nash
OPINION EDITORS:
Beau Broughton & Julia Stewart
FEATURES EDITORS:
Darya Watnick & Mari Yamato
ARTS EDITORS:
Hayley Trivett & Zibby Pillote
SPORTS EDITORS:
Michael DAngelo & Fiona Corner
STYLE SOURCE:
Alicia Kroell
ILLUSTRATION EDITOR:
Kate Owens
ILLUSTRATORS:
Kyla Covey, Frances Li & Amy Rosenheim
PHOTO EDITOR:
Sam Margevicius
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
Rosalie Kelly, Samantha Bromberg,
Maggie Oliver, Hannah Prince, Daniel
Shaver, Leo Qin, Tammy Jo Wilson &
Elana Webb
COPY CHIEFS:
Natalie Eagan & Sarah Gottlieb
COPY EDITORS:
Robin Cedar, Gabby Hands, Kathleen
Daly, Alix Roberts & Kelsi Villarreal
STAFF WRITERS:
Kate Barhydt, Jerred Blanchard, Alix
Finnegan, Stephanie Gonzalez, Adrian
Guerrero, Maggie Hennessey, Ally Hub-
bard, Chloe Waterman, Micah Leinbach,
Drew Lenihan, Kevin Muhitch, Megan
Morin, Chris Graham, Eric Protsman,
Anthony Ruiz, Libby Howard, Jake
Simonds, Sara Miller & Rachel Young
ADVISORS:
Peter Christenson & Jason Feiner
The PIONEER LOG serves to inform the
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According to Vance, the program has
been in the works since 2008, when the Ex-
ecutive Council met to discuss some ways to
make the budget more solvent. A program
similar to VESP was implemented at the
Claremont University Consortium in 2008,
and their eforts served as a model for LCs
manifestation of the incentive program.
Te proposal was brought before the
Board of Trustees, and after their approval
it was brought to some Q&A meetings with
faculty and staf.
On the aims of the program, Vance said,
its true to say that we were trying to save
dollars; its not true to say that economic
collapse was imminent [one of the Cla-
remont Colleges] wasnt going to collapse,
they were [implementing a program similar
to VESP] because they realized that their op-
erating costs and operating income were not
in line, and they were trying to bring them
closer.
Vance continued, Since labor costs [of
paying faculty and staf] make up two thirds
of our operating costs, we had for several
years been trying to trim non-labor costs.
However, since thats only 33% of the bud-
get, theres a limit on how tight you can
squeeze that and still make economic sense.
Te endowment dropped by 32% in one
year. Everyone all of a sudden had a lot less
money in their pocket. Giving to the college
took a dramatic dive. Teres been sort of a
sea-shift theres a term thats being used
[for this] now, the new normal.
Te new normal though, has some im-
portant, and certainly controversial, caveats
to it. If a faculty or staf member enrolls in
the VESP program, and is accepted, he or
she is for all intents barred from coming back
to teach full-time at any of the LC institu-
tions.
A professor can come back on for what
is referred to as .5FTE, which essentially
equates to a single semester, teaching a single
class, or leading an Overseas Program.
As Charlie Ahlquist of Campus Living ex-
plained, that defnitely was a sticking point
for a lot of people the people who are eli-
gible for this are people who have invested a
lot of time and part of their lives to the in-
stitution, so to say essentially that youre not
welcome to come back here, even on a con-
sulting basis, was kind of like, well, dont let
the door hit you on the way out.
Te VESP program has provoked a mix
of emotions from the senior staf and faculty
who have enrolled. Put succinctly by Pam-
plin Professor of History Stephen Beckham,
in my [present] circumstance, I had not an-
ticipated retiring.
For some others, according to Ahlquist,
this has been a great opportunity, as [those
faculty and staf] have been planning to re-
tire in the next few years anyway.
However, Ahlquist mentioned, I know
there were some people who were perhaps
of-put initially because [VESP] seemed very
distanced and businesslike. Tats not nec-
essarily the timbre of the institution we
defnitely hold ourselves up as being a much
more intimate, welcoming, person-oriented
place.
Current fgures, in a release from Vance
on Te Source, state that 24 of the 45 fac-
ulty and staf who have accepted VESP are
from the College of Arts and Sciences, eight
are from the Law School, four are from the
Graduate School, and the remaining nine are
from shared Common Services.
Preliminary estimations from Vance sug-
gest that about $1,750,000 will be saved
during the frst year, with an additional
$1,200,000 saved in the second year and be-
yond.
However, there is much that will be lost
as well with this change. Rather than think-
ing solely about how much money the Col-
lege will save, Beckham also wanted to high-
light what that saving and tradeof entails.
Id rather put it in terms of [the fact that] a
signifcant amount of institutional memory
will be leaving Palatine Hill in May, Beck-
ham said.
Also citing institutional memory,
Ahlquist added, in order to even be eligible
for this program you have to have worked
here for ten years or more. Tat means that
the people who are
leaving have at least
450 years of [collec-
tive] experience of
what Lewis & Clark
College is like.
Ahlquist con-
tinued, mentioning
that all of the con-
nections that these
faculty and staf have
made with past stu-
dents, colleagues
and people around
the world will also
vanish, along with
the felt presence of
the people who, as
Ahlquist puts it,
have invested their
love in making this
the place all that it
is.
Tere is a cer-
tain degree of back-
ground change
present in every in-
stitution. Tenured
faculty retire, new
hires step in and be-
gin making a name
for themselves, and
the pitch of the
college changes in
subtle ways. In an
institution with
something on the or-
der of 400 employ-
ees, 45 retirements
in a single year is cer-
tainly signifcant.
Ahlquist con-
sidered, certainly,
their contributions
will be missed. But I
think the institution
and the community
as a whole is always
changing, and this is
just going to be the
punctuation in the
beginning of another big change.
As the many search committees spread
between departments continue bringing in
new faculty candidate after new candidate,
the school begins to get the sense that a cer-
tain reorganization is in mid-orchestration.
I dont anticipate that its going to sud-
denly be an entirely diferent place next year
once these people are gone, but, it will be dif-
ferent, there is no question of that, Alquist
concludes.
Tis article is the frst in a series of three
chronicling the impact of the VESP program on
the present and future of Lewis & Clark Col-
lege. Staf Writer Adrian Guerrero contributed
to this story.
VESP program projects $1.75M savings for school
Community members suggest a loss of institutional memory
Story continued from page 1
ILLUSTRATION BY KATE OWENS
I dont anticipate that its
going to suddenly be an
entirely diferent place next
year once these people are
gone, but, it will be difer-
ent, there is no question of
that.
A resolution has been reached
Beaverton School District will pay Seth Stambaugh $75,000
BY LINDSEY BOSSE
Editor-in-Chief
On Sept. 15, 2010, Lewis & Clark alum
and current graduate student Seth Stam-
baugh was dismissed from his student-teach-
ing position at Sexton Mountain Elemen-
tary because of concerns with his sexuality.
By Oct. 28, Stambaugh was reinstated in his
original classroom at Sexton Mountain.
Last Friday, Feb. 11, Beaverton School
District and Stambaugh issued a Joint Pub-
lic Statement stating Beavertons plans for
preventing future discrimination, as well as
plans for a settlement of $75,000 from the
district to Stambaugh. Both parties agreed to
avoid any litigation.
In addition, Beaverton reinforced their
eforts to enforce their new discrimination
policies, while also promising district-wide
leadership training related to issues of sexual
orientation and gender identity.
Te resolution marks an ofcial end to
the dispute between Beaverton and Stam-
baugh.
We have always wanted to have a really
clear resolution from the beginning and have
communication about this issueboth per-
sonally to Seth and the districts response to
these kind of questions, said Lake Perriguey,
Stambaughs attorney. Seth just wants to
move forward and be a teacher.
Stambaugh was upfront from the begin-
ning, claiming that he had no intentions of
being an activist, and only wanted to be back
in his classroom. In the frst forum discuss-
ing the matter back in September, Stam-
baugh had expressed resistance to media at-
tention on the matter.
PHOTO BY LEO QIN
Story continued on page 2
ILLUSTRATION BY KATE OWENS & LINDSEY BOSSE