Faculty, students sound off on Moore raise at Trustees' meeting
Chase D. Anderson
Editor-in-Chief
UPDATE
Meteor lights up Washington sky
Carol Brocker
Webmaster
Western Washington got quite a surprise at about 2:40 a.m. on June 3.
Reports from Tacoma, to Whidbey Island and Idaho said the sky lit up intensely, and many reported a boom too. Some thought that it might have been lighting, but no lightning was reported anywhere in the area.
The loud noise and bright flash had many people worried. Betty Sumerquest was driving on a long, twisting, lonely road outside of Index, Washington and believed space aliens were about to beam her up.
Leah San Mateo said, “I heard it; it was pretty trippy. I was up all night working on a speech and I thought something was exploding. Then I thought it was an airplane right above because afterwards an airplane went by. I looked out the window, didn't see anything, and forgot about it. I never would've guessed it was a meteor – pretty cool.”
Washington DC’s Naval Observatory reported that the phenomenon was not caused by space junk reentering the atmosphere. Aircraft problems and military flight tests were also ruled out. National Weather Service radar reported that it detected nothing unusual. It most likely had to be a space rock falling from the sky.
Interplanetary space is littered with rocks tens of meters in diameter or less. When these meteoroids strike the Earth's atmosphere at high relative speeds they leave visible trails, created when the intense heat caused by friction vaporizes the rock.
These are called meteors but are commonly known as shooting stars. Meteors commonly appear at random. The small ones can slip by without being noticed. If remnants of the parent meteoroid survive the trip through the atmosphere to reach the ground, then these remnants are called meteorites.
Meteorites of significant size fall to earth daily; however, few are observed and collected in a timely manner. Although 20,000 tons of space rock rains to Earth each year, most is in the form of dust-sized grains that can create shooting stars but almost always burn up before reaching the surface.
If any pieces survived they would be hard to find. With the speed it had to have been traveling it would be deep in the soil and very small.
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Chase Anderson
2004 Student Service Award Winner
Student gets recognition for his work on campus paper
Daniela Mayer
EbbTide Correspondent
Chase Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of the Ebbtide, Student Body President Alex Oh and Bubaccar Singhateh are the winners of Shoreline’s 2004 Student Service Award. On Saturday, June 5, SCC President Holly Moore presented the awards during graduation ceremonies, in recognition of the contributions these students have made to the Shoreline community.
According to Student Programs, the college gives these awards to students based on their exemplary service. The award winners were given plaques and their names will be added to a permanent plaque in the Student Activities office.
The three students nominated this year have gone beyond what is merely required, and have contributed to Shoreline in ways that benefit everyone. This article will highlight Chase Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of the Ebbtide. Anderson, also known as “low-speed Chase” managed the student paper from 2003-2004.
Scott Saunders, Director of Student Programs, nominated Anderson for his contributions to the Ebbtide. “This year happened the way I hoped it could – excellent writing, outstanding job covering events on campus; I’d see him everywhere, sitting in on long student meetings, attending events,” said Saunders. “Chase did a good job managing the over-all quality of the paper; he brought together a quality staff and the success of the paper reflects on everyone,” added Saunders. “I wanted him to be recognized for the good job he did.”
Anderson is known to have a fondness for cheese, and always had a can of “Easy Cheese” by his side. Chris Jones, the Ebbtide’s Managing Editor, jokingly recalls working with Chase as a unique experience, “something between working on a news paper and working in a pizza parlor.” Added Jones, “you never know if he wants an article edited or just wants more cheese.” All kidding aside, Jones continues in a more serious tone, “Chase has brought good innovative ideas and a practical professional attitude to the paper; he has made the staff focus on producing a paper relevant to SCC and he's done quite a good job at it.”
One would expect that such a dedicated editor would be committed to pursuing a career in journalism. Anderson is not. He is more interested in throwing his hat into the political ring someday, “Too many politicians don’t come from the normal populace,” said Anderson. “They’ve lived sheltered lives and have no basis for making decisions that affect the bulk of the people.”
So, if it’s not a career move, what motivates him to attend long meetings, write endless articles, herd a small staff (already burdened by difficult class loads), and pull regular all-nighters in order to get the paper done? “The fact is deadline’s Thursday and paper’s got to be out,” says Anderson. Perhaps it’s just his work-ethic, but it may also have to do with his commitment to keep the public informed.
Throughout our interview, one theme kept recycling – the need for good information in order to make good decisions. “People here care about what’s going on, but most people complain without really knowing what’s going on,” said Anderson. “I don’t blame them, it’s too much for the layperson to attend all those meetings,” he added. “It’s my responsibility to give them the info, information is the key to making good decisions.”
As much as he would like to print a rant at times instead of a well-balanced article he refrains, saying “I shouldn’t be making the decisions for them.”
Anderson feels a special responsibility to do a good job for Shoreline, noting that community colleges are rarely covered in the general news so the Ebbtide is the students’ sole source for information. It is this sense of responsibility that leads him to put in the extra hours digging up details. And by all accounts, he’s done an excellent job of doing just that. This years’ Ebbtide publishes more information about the workings of the school and campus events than previous editions.
Anderson, despite his current decision to not enter journalism, is the consummate beat journalist. Always at the ready with a slim spiral notebook and a mechanical pencil, he takes the pulse of campus opinion, finding out what people are interested in and/or what they are worried about. He lets their interests drive the agenda at the Ebbtide.
When I asked him about the rewards of his job, he replied, “having someone come up to you and say, “heh, I didn’t know this was going on.” He also mentioned the camaraderie of the staff. “Everyone is in it together, and you see the best and the worst of them,” said Anderson. “In this, more than any other job, you really become friends.”
How does he feel about the award? “I was surprised, but it was nice to be acknowledged for all the time we put in,” said Anderson. And what does our award-winning editor have to say to future journalists here at Shoreline? “To succeed you have to come out of your shell and talk to people; you have to get the feel of whatever beat you’re covering. Most people love to talk.
“One more thing,” he added as I was getting ready to leave, “don’t forget to smile and hold doors open. No one wants to talk to the biggest jerk on campus.”
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