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The Cooper Point Journal (May 30, 2018)
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the cooper point journal
The Evergreen State College Newspaper Since 1971| May 30, 2018
SPOTLIGHT ON EVERGREEN
INTERVIEW WITH STUDENT,
EGGPLANT STAFF MEMBER
BUDGET CUTS AT EVERGREEN
PREFORMING ARTS CUT IN
WAKE OF FISCAL CRISIS
3
5
OBSIDIAN NO MORE
REVIEW ON NEW DOWNTOWN
CAFE, OCTAPAS
8
The Cooper Point Journal
STAFF
Editor-in-Chief
J a s m i n e K o z a k - G i l roy
Business Manager
April Davidson
News Editor
Mason Soto
C o mm u n i t y E d i t o r
Georgie Hicks
A r t s & C u lt u r e E d i t o r
Sally Linn
Comics Editor
Morrissey Morrissey
Writers
S eb a s t ia n L o p e z
Br itta nya n a P ier ro
FROM THE ARCHIVES Students prepare for a performance on The Evergreen State College
Campus. Photographer unnown, courtesy of The Evergreen StateColege Archives.
CONTACT
O f f i ce
T h e E v e r g re e n S t a t e C o l l e g e
CA B 3 3 2
2 7 0 0 E v e r g re e n P k w y N W
O l y m p i a , WA
Email Us
cooperpointjournal@gmail.com
Call Us
(360) 328 1333
Visit Us
O u r We e k l y M e e t i n g
We d n e s d a y s a t 2 p. m .
C o ve r A r t B y
Pe n ny H e n ze l
WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
© 2018 the Cooper Point Journal
02 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
HOW WE WORK
The Cooper Point Journal is produced by students at The Evergreen State College, with funding from student
fees and advertising from local businesses. The Journal is published for free every other Wednesday during the
school year and distributed throughout the Olympia area.
Our content is also available online at www.cooperpointjournal.com.
Our mission is to provide an outlet for student voices, and to inform and entertain the Evergreen community
and the Olympia-area more broadly, as well as to provide a platform for students to learn about operating a
news publication.
Our office is located on the third floor of the Campus Activities Building (CAB) at The Evergreen State
College in room 332 and we have open student meetings from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. every Wednesday. Come early
if you’d like to chat with the editor!
WORK FOR US
We accept submissions from any student at The Evergreen State College, and also from former students,
faculty, and staff. We also hire some students onto our staff, who write articles for each issue and receive a
learning stipend.
Have an exciting news topic? Know about some weird community happening? Enjoy that new hardcore
band? Come talk to us and write about it.
We will also consider submissions from non-Evergreen people, particularly if they have special knowledge on
the topic. We prioritize current student content first, followed by former students, faculty and staff, and then
general community submissions. Within that, we prioritize content related to Evergreen first, followed by
Olympia, the state of Washington, the Pacific Northwest, etc.
To submit an article, reach us at cooperpointjournal@gmail.com.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
We want to hear from you! If you have an opinion on anything we’ve reported in the paper, or goings-on in
Olympia or at Evergreen, drop us a line with a paragraph or two (100 - 300 words) for us to publish in the
paper. Make sure to include your full name, and your relationship to the college—are you a student, staff,
graduate, community member, etc. We reserve the right to edit anything submitted to us before publishing,
but we’ll do our best to consult with you about any major changes.
News
Students Perform “Skin of Scarlet: Sex, Politics, and the Body” in 2016. SHAUNA BITTLE.
BUDGET CUTS AT EVERGREEN
DECADE LONG BATTLE WITH PLUMMETING ENROLLMENT
CULMINATES IN MAJOR BUDGET CUTS, LEAVING
PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS SLASHED
By Georgie Hicks and Mason Soto
On Wednesday May 23, giant
bounce houses spread across Red
Square for the annual Play Day as
a number of tense budget meetings happened at nearby Purce
Hall. After an email announcement was sent out on May 21
about structural changes to the
administration, and as conversations about the future of jobs and
academic structures on campus
continue, the school’s leaders held
meetings to explain the upcoming budget overhaul, including
the loss of 24 faculty lines and the
closure and elimination of major
theatre facilities and programs on
campus. Students, staff, and faculty showed up to the meetings to
voice strong concern, questions,
and criticism of the decisions.
“We elected to make a difficult choice,” said Academic Dean
David McAvity as he opened the
first budget meeting of the day
at one o’clock. It was a forum to
discuss changes to the theater
department, namely the closing
of the experimental theater, the
scene shop, and the costume shop
over the summer and indefinitely.
The choice was part of a series
of decisions from the adminis-
tration to eliminate three positions from the Communications
Building (COM), reduce budgets
in the library and media services,
and reorganize administration
and other campus structures.
Despite rumors otherwise, the
COM itself will remain open, but
with a single staff member, and
Chief of Staff John Carmichael
said in a later meeting that the
building will not support theatrical productions “for the next few
years”. Carmichael said changes
to the library and media services
will “require users of those areas
to plan ahead a little bit more”, as
well as, “significant changes in enrollment and marketing including communications and building
services, [and] custodial staff.”
According to multiple statements from the administration,
reasons for the operational changes are a result of enrollment being
down 700 students for next year,
creating $5.5 million worth of
projected losses. The 24 lines disappearing means that some teaching contracts will not be renewed,
retired positions will be left unfilled, and certain jobs will be cut.
The group who made these de-
cisions includes senior administrators, McAvity, other deans like
Walter Niemiec, Greg Mullins,
Trevor Speller, and Provost and
Vice President of Academic Affairs Jennifer Drake among others.
The speakers suggested that
theater on campus focus on smaller productions and reach out to
the community. One student suggested working with South Puget
Sound Community College for
productions, but others were fearful this cut would be too much
for theater students to handle.
A member of the GSU was vocal about their concerns for what
would be lost, saying, “You say do
smaller productions but without
scenes and costumes and lights,
there’s no show.” Other students
shared similar concerns, that even
if there was limited production,
the school could not offer technical experience necessary to get
into theater graduate programs.
“I was going to be lead at
my job,” a student who worked
in the Costume Shop shared
through a shaky voice. “Now
that’s been taken away from me
too.” The cuts will create a loss of
more than twenty student jobs.
Overall, it was clear the speakers were not offering ways out of
closing facilities, or any secure
plans to reopen. At one point a
student asked if theater students
should just transfer to another
school. McAvity said that they
would “make it work” for junior
and senior students, but that for
new students, they could probably find better tools for their
focus elsewhere. The theater
department has seen continuing cuts for over ten years, and
classes for next year are being
restructured with faculty and the
deans to work out production
plans with the limited facilities.
Things became more tense as
the meeting went on, and students continued to lay out the
stakes of this loss. A theater
student and Student Activities
Staff Member spoke bluntly to
the presenters, “So far what I’ve
heard out of all y’all is bullshit,”
and then shared how closely the
theater department had worked
with hard of hearing students,
imploring the speakers to respond to these cuts to the needs
of differently abled students:
“ASL [American Sign Language
classes] has been cut next year,
why?” Other students have similar concerns. One said, “Disabled
students come to this school to be
a part of theater that they can’t be
at any other institution.” Speakers
did not respond directly to concerns about ability and theater.
Parts of the school outside of
classical theater will also face new
gaps, including dance and other
performance arts, as well as classes that have used theater facilities
for years like criminal forensics
and photography. Long-practiced
Evergreen classes of Odissi dance
will see their last performance
this June, as many other programs
expect to. Of the loss echoing
across the campus, a student said,
“I feel like you’re diminishing the
Evergreen idea, where it is interdisciplinary,” and another asked,
“How can you do something that
goes against the pedagogy of interdisciplinary studies?”, to which
the answers were insubstantial.
Multiple students asked that
at least one more staff member be
allowed to stay, so that the lineage
of knowledge would not be entirely lost, but there was no cede. A
sign up sheet was offered, apparently for students who wanted to
mediate future budget meetings.
“This was not an easy thing
to do,” McAvity said. “Well,
you did it,” replied a student.
As the meeting went on, multiple students rushed into the
room to announce that another
relevant meeting was happening at the same time, starting at
1:30 P.M., with President George
Bridges leading a presentation on the budget. A student
MAY 30, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 03
News
said, “They scheduled meetings
on top of each other because
they’re scared of our numbers.”
At the 1:30 meeting, the first
presentation of the budget lead
by Bridges, the president went
over current restructuring of the
administration as well as information on where other budget
cuts are being made, followed by
Q&A. Purce’s Lecture Hall 1 was
nearly packed with faculty and
staff, plus a number of students
strewn among the crowd, all waiting to hear details of the changes
that will soon impact their livelihoods and learning at Evergreen.
President Bridges presented
slides that showed the top-down
restructuring of the administration at Evergreen including how
senior administrative leadership
positions will shrink. The Chief
of Staff position will be eliminated, currently occupied by John
Carmichael, who “will move into
a different position that is being
vacated, [where] he will become
Head of Finance and Operations.”
Another position for government
relations will be consolidated under college communications. An
all-campus email from Bridges
on May 14 announced the loss
of two executive positions, reduction of select administration salaries, and consolidation
of duties onto existing positions,
saying that the changes will
make a “more centralized budgeting system for the College”.
In regards to the consolidations
of government relations President
Bridges said in the meeting that
it would help the school’s external
communication: “College Relations… are the ones who have
overseen the development of telling the new Evergreen story…
We reduce one senior leadership
position and what we do at the
same time is ensure that there is
greater continuity in the messaging that we give to the legislature.”
John Carmichael explained
more in detail about layoffs, saying it would take several weeks
for the process to occur and that
Evergreen is focused on supporting those people most affected by
the changes. Continuing, Carmichael emphasized that, “[these]
are big changes for a lot of those
areas and some of them are getting more attention than others
right now. That’s a product of the
fact that some of the work is more
visible to faculty, students, staff
and others but in all of these areas
these are real significant changes.”
Jennifer Drake, Provost and
Vice President for Academic Affairs clarified that though there
is a lot of confusion surrounding the COM, certain parts like
the music curriculum, the moving image curriculum and audio
technology will be “up and running as usual.” About the future
of Performing Arts at Evergreen,
Drake said, “[it] was important
to us that performing arts aren’t
disappearing completely from the
curriculum, but there is a reduction particularly in theater and
somewhat in dance.” This seems
to be in tension with statements
Dean David McAvity made in
relation to the future of theater
on campus among suggestions
to look elsewhere, and especially
at odds with how students feel.
One student shared, “I feel very
skeptical of Performing Arts continuing at Evergreen… You aren’t
saying this outloud but from the
actions I can see the Performing Arts are eventually going
to be cut from the academics.”
As the general meeting moved
forward, Carmichael picked up
where Drake left off to illustrate the next steps, saying, “we
[will] take the budget to the
board and I expect the board will
adopt the budget the day before
graduation. It’s unlikely they will
make any big changes there but
that’s a critical step and its after
graduations that we will have
a chance to catch our breath.”
Bridges closed out the presentations by talking about his vision
for the future of Evergreen and
his faith in the school: “When I
first came to Evergreen I believed
that the model of education that
we offer undergraduates is superior to any other model I have
seen in my career… I still believe
after two and a half years here,
indeed, my faith in this model
is reinforced. What I see happening to students in their lives
and their experiences, it is possible, it is only possible here.”
He said the changes mean that
the school “will continue... increasing our support for student
success, we will continue our work
on equity and inclusion in new
ways that are being developed
and… begin to promote, actually,
the new story of Evergreen, our
strengths and our restructuring of
our academic curriculum and the
rest of the college, in ways that
ensure we thrive in the future.”
This lead into the question
and answer section of the meeting. To begin, one community
member asked whether there
would be more layoffs in the future and if so, when. President
Bridges assured them that, “We
do not anticipate more layoffs
this spring [or] this summer,
next year I don’t know, depends
upon enrollment, depends upon
those issues. I don’t think anyone should think there’s going
to be another shoe that drops.”
Lin Crowley, professor of Media and Chinese Studies, who has
been with Evergreen for decades,
stood to speak to the room and
said, “Any time where we have
to go through this kind of bud-
“For being here for more than 28
years now at this college, I do not
feel I was engaged, I do not feel
I was consulted with, and when
I was asking to be participating
in that process I did not feel like I
was given an opportunity
to do so.”
get cutting process, we shouldn’t
be thinking about all of this just
as numbers. Each one of those
numbers represent a person, and
I am going to be one of them.”
She continued, “For being here
for more than 28 years now at
this college, I do not feel I was
engaged, I do not feel I was consulted with, and when I was asking to be participating in that
process I did not feel like I was
given an opportunity to do so.”
She concluded her statement
by saying, “I don’t know if there is
anything that can be undone but
I want to tell you how truthfully
I feel about this and how hurt I
feel… I wanted to tell folks because I have been here for a long
time, that there’s a reason for the
college to have low enrollment
and we do have to find out the
reason and see if we can turn it
around. But by not engaging our
staff, faculty, and students in this
process to help the whole college
to really survive and succeed... I
think we should really give [involving everyone] a chance.“
Left; a student from an intensive Student Originated Studies program focusing on the performance arts takes flight. Right; a student acts in an Evergreen rendition of “Metamorphoses”. CARLOS JAVIER SANCHEZ.
04 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
She then asked a question
about who was going to feel the
impact of these issues compared
to who made the decisions: “I’d
like to know because I care about
all of my brothers and sisters… I
really would like to know, how did
those decisions get made and who
are those [decisions] going to be
impacting in those divisions, like
finance and administration, students affairs, advancement, so on
so forth, so can you take a little bit
of time to share with everybody?”
Without taking much time,
Carmichael answered, “Thanks
Lin, I appreciate you sharing
that. And we don’t have a whole
lot of time left. I’m glad to talk
more about it with you, and
what I want to express is, what
I think, is none of us are happy
with the choices we have to make
and we looked as broadly as we
could in the short amount of
time we were given, and I think
you have given us a lot to think
about in terms of the process because I recognize it’s not ideal in
any respect. Yeah, I think that’s
what I have to say about that.”
A chorus of voices responded asking whether anyone was
going to answer the question,
some saying they had come
for those answers specifically.
“I am not able to explain in the
amount of time we have now,” he
responded, to a disgruntled audience. In closing, he said, “I’m not
settled with [the loss to humanities at the school] in any way, but
I’m also still convinced that this
is a good place for students, and I
want us all to feel that and to convey that… so that we can begin
to rebuild some of the things we
are losing and have a college we
are proud of. I want to thank you
for coming. I’m sorry, I know we
left some questions unanswered.”
Most faculty left the meeting
to immediately attend a regular
faculty meeting at three o’clock
a few classrooms over. Sentiments voiced at the meeting were
similar to the student and staff
concerns voiced earlier. The meeting began with presentation of
emeritus and acknowledgement
of retirement for a few faculty,
including a photography professor and a theater professor.
Next, Jennifer Drake presented
on the budget changes and the
administrators took questions.
Many faculty were unhappy with what decisions were
made. “Liberal Arts without
the arts,” said one professor,
“I’ve got a problem with that.”
Professor of Media Studies
Ruth Hayes shared worry that
the archives of work in the costume shop collection might be
sold, as suggested in Drake’s presentation. Much of the costumes
are handmade by students, others bought and gifted over the
years, and the faculty member
felt that the money and time it
would take to replace the collection make it so that if they
are to sell everything, the costume shop “is not coming back.”
McAvity had told students,
“We can’t negotiate with people’s
jobs,” when asked why these decisions were made before students
input could be given, and Drake
similarly mentioned meeting
with faculty and staff first, but
many faculty felt equally left out
of conversation. Media Arts Faculty Laurie Meeker called the
cuts “a serious loss of life to the
college,” and said that the “Listening Sessions” the school had
with select faculty to discuss the
budget were inadequate, and did
not describe in any way how the
theater department would be
gutted. Like Crowley in the earlier meeting, these professors and
others felt a fault had been made
by not allowing those outside the
administration to help come up
with creative solutions. Terry Setter, a retiring professor of Audio
Production who will continue to
work under a post-retirementcontract offered up one such out,
saying that after doing a little
math, a four percent cut to faculty
salary would fix the academic part
of the budget, and he suggested
the cut could be a temporary loan
to the school until they can pay
teachers back. A handful of others raised hands in support. Other
staff worried at the already belowaverage salaries sinking lower.
Beth Shelley, a representative from the Geoduck Student
Union also voiced concern at the
meeting. She asked why ideas like
Setter’s were just now being addressed, and said that denying student voices, “not just data”, from
being included “seems unethical.”
In an interview with the
Journal, Shelley shared how the
Student Union “heard about
the budget cuts and that decisions were being made… and
we thought that it would be imperative that students be a part…
and therefore we asked to be a
part of those decision making
processes.” Shelley said the administration did not give solid
answers for how they could be a
major part of the changes: “We
were instead given information
about budget forums being held,
Continued on page 9.
Community
Yosha poses in the back room at the Flaming Eggplant Cafe. BRITTANYANA PRIERO.
SPOTLIGHT ON
EVERGREEN:
Yosha Auch-Kness
By Brittanyana Pierro
Yosha Auch-Kness is an Evergreen first year and an employee at
The Flaming Eggplant Cafe. Her
experience at Evergreen so far, like
many other Black and Brown students, has not been as she expected. “It [has] felt very isolating,”
Auch-Kness said. “There’s like
no real support system for me.”
Auch-Kness grew up all over
the west coast, but her primary
community was based in Portland,
Oregon. When she was younger,
Auch-Kness watched her mother
organize and attend marches,
and in more recent years she has
also taken on a leadership role
in Portland’s activist community.
In 2016 and 2017 Auch-Kness
and a few of her peers started a
group called Portland Student
Action Network (PSAK). PSAK
was active in marches all around
the city’s school district, mostly
focusing on organization against
armed Portland police being present on school grounds.
Coming from an activist background, “Evergreen was more of
a transition than expected, es-
pecially given the promotion of
diversity and equity work this
school advertises,” Auch-Kness
said. In her time being here, she
expressed facing a lot of discrimination as a Black student:
“There’s ways in which I’ve
gone to seek out support and it’s
felt very much like I wasn’t getting support, because I’m black.”
Recently Auch-Kness approached Trevor Speller, Academic dean of curriculum to
speak on her discomfort being
one of the only students of color
in her program ‘Culture as History’, and having to deal with the
bias of teachers and students. The
end result of this meeting and
additional meetings with class
faculty ultimately led to what
she felt was a dead end. “Kids in
my class were saying things that
were racist, the whole situation
was just really frustrating,” said
Auch-Ness. “I tried to go talk to
someone about it but I feel like
nothing really came out of it.”
One of the few places that
Auch-Kness is able to feel com-
fortable in Evergreen’s environment is The Flaming Eggplant
Cafe. The Flaming Eggplant operates as a cooperative business
model, meaning there is no boss
and no subordinate, but rather
each employee works together
to collectively make decisions.
“My experience with The Eggplant has been great. I love it so
much. Everyone there feels really
supportive,” Auch-Kness said.
“I know exactly how everything
I [do] affects everything else.”
The Eggplant’s mode of operation is somewhat juxtaposed
to Auch-Kness’s experience
with Evergreen as an institution.
“The school itself needs to
figure out ways to include everyone’s voices because right now…
it doesn’t feel like students have
a lot of say in what’s happening,” Auch-Kness said,“ I feel
like there needs to be more cooperation between everyone.”
She went on the express Evergreens need to “actually listen to
students of color, especially black
students and what we say we need.”
MAY 30, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 05
Arts & Culture
PENNY
HENZEL
work and artist
statement by
Penny Henzel is a student at the Evergreen State College. You can
find more of their paintings and writing on the net at
pennyhenzel.com
06 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
What I am most interested in
lately has been less the content of
the painting itself and more the
phenomenon that reciprocates
thought and feeling from the body
to material. The detail object paintings function as a way to distinguish the moment when a painting
is happening, acting as a production
of symbolic movement. I stare at
the object and its form is illuminated; it becomes weighted with
the incandescence of my total focus. I like to think of the Crate as a
kind of exodus– through the details
of its form I enter Absolute Zero.
I have to disorganize in order to
organize. The Meticulous Act (the
name I’ve given this theory/project)
distills time, and in contact with the
material I feel myself presencing in
acuity. It is not an instant in which
one is sitting alone, motionless and
pondering their existence. Rather,
I seem to be in a strange, intimate
alignment with a rhythm that exists both within me and outside of
me. I follow the rhythm until I am
brought into permeation. At the
heart of the instant, thoughts pass
overhead in a silent fog and the
order of reality fragments. Later, I
return to myself and always feel a
sense of harmony, even if things
around me before felt threatening
or painful. But the activity of this
work does not simply end here in
the instant of creative reverie. For
even when I am is lost in the activity, the work itself contains the very
thoughts in my mind which have
fled from me. I experience a kind of
Arts & Culture
sensuousness with the paint, and as
we interact with one another I can
feel a silent language being communicated. All of these sensations happen together– the high instant, the
transference of hand to paintbrush
to paint to surface, and the contact
with a circuit of internal and external
rhythms, which are otherwise silent
in me, until those rhythms weave
in and out of one another to form
a melody. But this melody continues to live and resonate in the work
after I have finished the painting
and can be perceived by the viewer.
Almost all of my past work- the
blue cow, the blue rock, the body
paintings ect– have an entirely
different function. They are heavily conceptual images, in which the
meaning lies directly in the forms
“I stare at the object and its form is illuminated;
it becomes weighted with the incandescence
of my total focus. I like to think of the Crate as a
kind of exodus– through the details of its form I
enter Absolute Zero.”
and relationship of image to surface.
The blue rocks were not about rocks
but temperature, edges, reconciliation, beauty, solidity, plastic... I got
super obsessed last year and wrote
a ton of theory about it (some is on
my website). In the midst of that
work and for the past few years I’ve
kept a similar focus on the body, nature/ organic forms, never seeming
to be able to get away from it. The
Blue Cow is about the secret. And
rocks. I don’t know how or why I
chose the subjects I did, The process of painting used to be extraordinary impulsive– I never thought
of the concept beforehand, instead
I would watch the image appear as
my hands moved the paint. After
painting I would spend time theorizing/conceptualizing the work,
which is a part of this ongoing book
I’ve been writing for three years.
The work– both painting and
writing– is inextricable from my life
and purpose. Art guides me through
the world, and my absolute passion
for it makes me feel real. I gain a certain protection from it, because art
has and will always be around. All of
my work is a sort of description or
processing of the situation around
me in some way, usually in a far
more abstract and phenomenological sense. I think it is so immensely
crucial to spend some time with
yourself and make things, even if
the outcome doesn’t mean anything.
Reading art theory/ theory / just
reading all the time has greatly influenced my ability to not only
think but also see and make– Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory has really
changed my entire life in a crazy
way. I came to Evergreen my first
quarter and read T.J. Clarks Farewell To an Idea and aesthetic theory
and immediately started writing art
theory and was like wow holy shit. I
absolutely love Julia Kristeva, Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space,
Sartre, Arendt, Clarice Lispector... I always try to read three different kinds of books intermittently when I paint or write- one
book of poetics, one theory, and
one novel. I think it’s important
to not get caught in a theory hole,
as I’ve done many times and start
to forget the world is happening.
MAY 30, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 07
Arts & Culture
The Food on offer at Octapas. Not quite tapas, not quite traditional cafe fare. JASMINE KOZAK-GILROY.
&
UP
COMING
WED. MAY 30
Le Voyuer
9 p.m., All Ages.
Vomity 186 with Sara June (LA)
SAT. JUNE 2
i5 Guns & Ammo
“WHAT’S THE DEAL
WITH OCTAPAS?”
8 a.m. to 3 p.m., $135.
Women’s Basic Pistol Course
The Evergreen State College
9 a.m. to 2 p.m., All Ages.
June Jamboree in the Constantino
Recreation Center
SUN. JUNE 3
Lost Peacock Creamery
10 a.m. to 11 a.m., $20, All Ages.
Goat and Mini Pig Yoga
Olympia Film Society
7 p.m., $10 general, $7 members.
Olympia Mountaineers & The
Evergreen State College Outdoor
Program Presents DIRTBAG: The
Legend of Fred Beckey
MON. JUNE 4
Washington State Capitol
2 p.m. to 5 p.m., All Ages.
WA Poor People’s Campaign; Right
to Health + Healthy Planet
TUES. JUNE 5
Arbutus Folk School
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The Wheel Deal: Making Yarn on a
Spinning Wheel
FRI. JUNE 8
Jake’s on 4th
9 p.m., 21+.
Pride Party Kick Off
SAT. JUNE 9
Speakeasy Salon + Bistro
3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Free, All Ages.
Speakeasy Pride Block Party
Located outside on Adams Street
between 4th and 5th.
Speakeasy Salon + Bistro
7 p.m., $10 presale, $12 door, 21+.
America’s Next Top Bottom Drag
Show
SAT. JUNE 9
Heritage Park
12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Free, All Ages.
Capitol City Pride
Review by Morrissey Morrissey
Imagine this: an octopus, a cracked
submarine, and my mom browsing pinterest all walk into a bar which is also
somehow both a cafe and a tapas place,
too. Welcome to Octapas, the latest
iteration in the hermit crab shell of a
building on 4th Avenue between McCoy’s and The Eastside Tavern. What
used to be Obsidian (and Jezebel’s before that) is occupied once more, and
the building which used to be just another completely black building in Oly
is now deep blue with drippy orange
accents donning Octopus decals.
The husk of a building first showed
signs of life post-Obsidian when a mysterious sign was erected in the window
one day advertising espresso, lunch,
cocktails, and more, all accompanied by
a little funny lookin’ hand-drawn octopus. The sign also advertised a softopening to which I showed up, but
unfortunately the doors were locked
and no one was in the building. Had
they known I was coming, harboring
deep scars of mistrust for this building
and also for fish? Could they hear me
thinking very loudly how scary their
drawn octopus was? Or maybe I just
wrote the time and date down wrong
in my planner? I may never know the
answer.
Despite this, all hope was not lost.
I, along with the rest of the CPJ staff
(all four of us) eventually made our way
to Octapas for a TESC funded happy
hour (haha just kidding, George!).
Walking in felt like dreaming. It didn’t
feel like the normal dream, though.
This dream felt like a weird hipster take
on the popular late-2000’s first person
shooter “Bioshock” except it’s set in
Olympia so it’s far less exciting. The
08 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
roomy interior was filled with poorly
rendered, aquatic-themed art of salmon
and submarines hung near the bar. The
general color scheme was dizzyingly
reminiscent of the oranges and blues
of the Neopets homepage, perhaps another homage to the aughts. On the far
left wall a single pewter octopus hangs
high toward the ceiling, alone.
A half-letter sized blue rectangle of
average thickness (i.e. not very thick at
all) with some stains served as an offcenter happy hour menu. Six dollars for
cocktails, five for wine, and appetizers
(what tapas are commonly referred to
as when they are not of Spanish origin) (which these were not) ranging
from two to five dollars each. All four
of us in the CrewPJ (that’s like CPJ
but with the word crew in it. Get it?
It’s a cute little thing I’m trying out.)
ended up ordering one drink and appetizer each and sharing each dish, and
the total came out to be a little over ten
dollars for each of us. This was a pleasant surprise of a price that I think can
maybe only be matched by buying an
Oly Dog and a nasty well at Jake’s, but
here I didn’t fear being groped even
once. Nice!
The first of our four apps was a plate
of two lonely tacos. I don’t know what
I expected, but you have never felt loss
like the loss I felt when realizing there
were two tacos and four of us. After
taking one bite each, the general consensus seemed to be that of mild enjoyment. Although bland, the meat
was cooked just how carnitas should. It
was juicy yet crispy, and in no way resembled pulled pork as carnitas in this
town are wont to do.
The wings we ordered came next
with an unexpected bread-y coating
which drew to our attention the absence of literally any allergen labels on
the menu. Gluten-free? Vegan? Too
bad. Go to New Moon for that, you
hippy. Here at Octapas we live fast and
loose and we always have a belly ache.
That aside, the wings came in a tiny
mountain formation and tasted as good
as they looked. They were evenly breaded and each was well-sized and satisfying. The freaky orange sauce (Buffalo
sauce? I’ve never had wings before in
my life.) was just the right amount of
flavor, not too strong and with hints
of citrus. With a side of celery, my
45-year-old-dad LARP was complete.
Thanks, Octapas!
The last two dishes came out and
ended the night with whatever is the
opposite of ending the night with a
bang (Ending the night with a poot?),
both sort of boring and plain. The brussel sprouts and bacon, although plentiful in quantity, were just bacon flavored.
So bacon flavored, in fact, that I’m not
confident that if there was no bacon
that there would be anything to taste
at all. To their redemption, they were
crispy on the edges and tender in the
core and were not bad at all.
Unfortunately, I could say the same
for the pickles which accompanied the
sprouts. We were presented with a mix
of cauliflower, carrot, and other veggies soaked in an incredibly lackluster
brine which failed to wow. This feeling
of anticipation followed by a strange
confusion seemed to be the theme of
the night. Each dish on its own was
pretty good. All together, they didn’t
quite come together. The experience
felt unfocused and hopeful. Each element of Octapas felt like it was trying
to achieve too much and as a result, not
doing anything extraordinarily. What I
think is aiming to be a really hip smallplates joint ends up giving off a disorienting pirate-themed potluck vibe. The
food was great, the drinks were great,
but I would be lying if I said I didn’t
miss the cohesive atmosphere of Obsidian.
GOODBYE
2017- 2018
GALLERIES AND
CELEBRATIONS TO CAP
THE SCHOOL YEAR OFF
INTERWORKINGS
The Evergreen Gallery
Opening Monday, June 4.
Open from June 4 to June 15.
STUDENT ARTIST LECTURES
Recital Hall
Wednesday June 6 at 11 a.m.
Students producing creative work
of any kind can sign up to present their poems, art, or insights by
emailing theorynpraxis@gmail.
com. Priority given to graduating
seniors.
LOVE/ SICK
Seminar 2 D4107
Friday, June 8 at 7 p.m.
Love/Sick by John Cariani is presented by special arrangement
with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.,
New York and performed by
students in Theater and Dance
Intensive Lab.
STUDIO/ARCHIVE/FIELD
EXHIBITION
Olympia Press Building
Opening Friday, June 8 at 7 p.m.
Open as well on June 9 + 10.
LAVENDER GRADUATION
Evergreen Longhouse
Wednesday June 13 from 3 p.m.
to 5 p.m. Register to walk online.
Deadline to register is May 31.
Continued from page 4.
but budget forums are not a seat at
the table, cnted on page 9 and that’s
what we think students deserve.”
Faculty are also worried that the
changes will undermine the line of
communication with the administration, despite claims of bettering communication among departments. Losing the Chief of Staff position is one
thing, and Professor Eric Thuesen said
that the new duties put onto Drake’s
Provost position “deludes” the faculty
line. Someone suggested that bad reputation of the arts among the deans may
have led to these decisions. Drake responded that she understood the concern, and is hopeful conversations with
Vice President and Vice Provost for
Equity and Inclusion Chassity Holliman will hammer out that issue, but
said there is still “lots to be determined.”
Other areas that have faced student
enrollment reduction like MiT, Native
Pathways, and Tacoma Campus are
going to see different kinds of reforms.
MiT programs are planning three new
pathways for first year students, transfers, and graduate students. All three
areas will see staff reductions as changes roll out. There will also be increased
motor pool rates, lab fees, and study
abroad fees. Some of the specific losses here and other places were hard to
parse out of the presentation, and one
faculty member mentioned how the
loss of the Grace Harbor College program was not reflected by the speakers,
worried that such losses are being dealt
out “without some kind of notice.”
On the other hand, police on campus continue to see budget increases.
When asked if police services would
be cut in line with other parts of the
school in one of the general meetings,
John Carmichael explained that the
state legislature has provided specific
funding for expanding police services,
and none of the losses to the budget
will affect the extension of the police.
Drake also presented the new Faculty Retirement Incentive which offers
one quarter’s worth of base salary to
those who agree to retire in Spring 2019
and forego a post-retirement-contract
that secures later work with the school.
Overall, people are asking that what
budget changes come in the future do
not falter in the same way, as Shelley
said, “I’m hoping that in the future
they can see the aftermath of these
budget cuts and how people didn’t
feel included, and they can make improvements for the next time the system decides to do whatever it wants.”
Arts & Culture
PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE
Proposed Updates to Code of Student Rights &
Responsibilities, WAC 174-123
Wednesday, June 6, Library 1005, 1:30-2:30pm
Wednesday, July 11, Library 1005, 1:30-2:30pm
Leave feedback and see proposed draft online at
http://www.evergreen.edu/studentaffairs/student-conduct
For accommodation requests contact
360.867.6296 or williamn@evergreen.edu
MAY 30, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 09
Letters and Opinion
COMIX
space.png Tuckie Johnson
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Letters and Opinion
RUBY THOMPSON.
the urge to escape from everything, to pack up
and go. But what you need is to look to friends
and to your own home for this escape. Don’t
turn outward; look at what you already have.
Re-evaluate your relationships, and make sure
you are getting what you need from them. Reorganize or redecorate, this will help you center
yourself in reality and keep you focused.
CAPRICORN 12/22- 1/19
by Kristin McCosky
ARIES 3/21 - 4/19
You crave control, you thrive in it- but relinquishing this yearning will help you cultivate
qualities of trust and ease. This week will be a
time when you will need to learn how to be in
control, but to not let it consume your entire life.
The sun has entered Gemini, the sign ruled by
Mercury; a planet based in communication and
the process of learning. Prepare yourself for an
intense wave of mental rapor and energy that
almost seems to burst at the seams. Let this time
be one for reflection instead of constant action,
even when that reflection might ask for you to
face some painful truths. Let this month build
up your internal fire to inspire ideas and also
learn to let this light the way for others as well.
TAURUS 4/20 - 5/20
You are a natural healer, you revel in the sweetness of life’s riches and comforts. You are also a
fighter, who can handle most things with calm
and grace. Your natural ability to find out things
that other people miss, and your intense depth
of healing, can leave you overwhelmed. But you
should know that you’re not bound to be anyone’s cure or therapist. The sun is in Gemini,
and you might feel misplaced right now and a
little mentally exhausted and acute to sensitivity. You might be in search of stability and feel
that it’s so much simpler to retreat into yourself
and your home, preparing to embrace the inevitable. This is not the time to go back to the same
old places; embrace that change is coming. The
changes that are coming will give you balance
and substance, if you let it.
GEMINI 5/21 - 6/20
You are the mind, mercurial and enchanting. To
others, you are out of this world, a gateway to a
different mental realm, an entity who cannot be
construed. This week, the sun is being ruled by
Mercury, a planet ruled by reason and rationality, and you are so embedded in it. Yet, right now
you can be lost in nervous energy recoiling from
a bout of self-satisfying indulgences that satiated your curiosities. This energy will also be accompanied by a spark of creative endeavors and
heightened communication in the social realm.
You might begin to see people in a new light,
which will make you consider if your relationship with them is really even worth it. If you
communicate this, don’t break your teeth over it.
CANCER 6/21 - 7/22
Being ruled by the moon, your emotions are
constantly pushed and pulled and fervenerently
changing. You might feel the pull to let someone back into your life that has hurt you or been
gone for a while. As good as it might feel, and
as good as it might be to revisit the past, your
expectations might be unrealistic and the end
result may make you feel more alone.
LEO 7/23 - 8/22
With spring in the air, you feel light and playful
and loving. The blues from the winter have left
you with an opening for new experiences, new
people, new places; but also a contempt because
you know that nothing can stay. Being ruled by
the heart, you forget that sometimes our heart
is in the wrong places. This week, don’t overlook the insignificant. Think about what kind of
people you want around you and what kind of
energy you want and need to surround you.
VIRGO 8/23 - 9/22
You’re able to take any energy that you have and
put it into a productive outlet. You know that
any answer can be found if you get inventive and
dip into the infinite expanse of your mind. You
don’t rely too heavily on others. This week, your
mind can play tricks on you. To combat this, acknowledge it. Remember your mind can keep
secrets from you. But you don’t have to face this
alone. Ask for help. Ask for assistance. And ask
yourself what you truly need. It’s okay to not
have everything in order. Its okay to not be okay.
Your self reliance is strong and will never break,
even if you think this will make it.
LIBRA 9/23 - 10/22
AQUARIUS 1/20 - 2/18
SCORPIO 10/23 - 11/21
PISCES 2/19 - 3/20
You are feeling lighthearted and romantic right
now. You see the very best in people and are able
to connect with people who may have been on
the fringe of your life for a while. You have so
much going on inside your head, and are constantly wanting to learn about people, because
you look for the good in everyone. This week,
take a trip somewhere, a museum, a place, somewhere to ignite your natural love for beauty.
Don’t stop to question it. Ask someone who you
want to know more about to go with you, explore something that interests you both, somewhere beautiful, and engage with it; it will teach
you more about them. It will help you learn that
the natural beauty you desperately seek out, is
also right inside you.
You’re always at constant war with yourself,
Scorpio. You question yourself to a higher degree than most, and you question others to this
degree as well. Your innate ability to transform
and regenerate is at a peak this week. Take some
time to be by yourself, it doesn’t have to be a
long time, just enough time to make sure you
are concentrated on taking care of yourself.
Something else is happening right now, someone has caught your eye and you can’t ignore the
attraction and its magnetism. Instead of jumping right in, consider what kind of structure of
a relationship works best for you and take the
steps to integrate rationality over loving as a
form of distraction.
SAGITTARIUS 11/22- 12/21
Tension is coming this month. Your may feel
a restless mood encompass your entire being.
Your instincts lean toward the flight response,
meetings wednesdays at 2 p.m.
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Pay attention to what kinds of feelings your
home life has been causing you. Take action if
those feelings are anything other than support
and assurance. If I had to guess, there’s probably
a lot of worry and concern but it really does not
need to be a complicated issue. Speak your truth
and push for a revisement in current systems.
The only way you’ll get the reorganization you
want is to take the risk, your family are people
you should be able to be vulnerable with.
You are a grounded sign, one who knows what
they wants and takes the initiative to achieve
them. With the sun in Gemini, your natural
groundedness and introversion will be catapulted towards activity and performance. You
want to share this with everyone, you want to
laugh and let go and enjoy something creative.
You have so many aspirations this month, an increasing feeling that nothing can hold you back.
Keep this energy up, keep doing what makes
you feel everything. Though intrinsically, you
are an self questioning person, someone who
doubts that they can accomplish what they really want to, and someone who feels the need
to constantly prove themselves; this week if utilized well, will bring so much inner strength and
positivity.
You feel overwhelmed right now, your emotions
and empathetic nature have been used to their
full capacity these past months. This week your
communications may be unpredictable and you
feel past wounds start to resurface in your daily
communications with others. You might feel the
need to retreat into yourself and cut off contact
with others. Work might now will be coming
to an intense cumulation and you will have the
chance to show what you have been working
on and be given praise. Your intellectual sphere
is broadening and you want to learn and study
something that you haven’t been interested in
before. This week you should do something that
will let you apply your spiritual and empathetic
knowledge and skills to the material realm. Romance may become something that you want
right now, learning how to have a romance with
yourself is where it should start.
send your applications to cooperpointjournal@gmail.com
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formatting skills. Affection for research work and pop country preferred but not required. Send in your applications
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MAY 30, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 11
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