by Jon-Michael McCahan

The Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team clinched the conference title after Saturday evenings win against Mesa State College.

This is the third consecutive year that they have accomplished this feat, but this is not the final goal according to members of the team.

Senior Katie Mackey who is a senior on the team enjoyed the moment for a little while, but knows there is still much to do before this season is over.

“I mean it’s always cool when you can cut down the nets, especially when we did it for the third time. A three peat is fun, but not where we want to stop for sure,” said Mackey.

Becoming conference champions was one of the team’s goals, along with winning the western division title, hosting the regional tournament, becoming RMAC champions, and a few others according to head coach Mark Kellogg.

The presidential candidates have arrived. After months of deliberations, the council has chosen three possible presidents, and recently they visited campus to introduce themselves to Durango and vie for the highest job at Fort Lewis.

The first candidate to visit was Dr. Kent Tingey, Vice President for Advancement at Idaho State University, Pocatello, from Feb. 23-24. Next was Dr. Dene Kay Thomas, President of Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, from March 1-2. Finally, from March 3-4 came Dr. Elizabeth S. Grobsmith, Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Northern Arizona State University in Flagstaff.

Dr. Dene Kay Thomas says she can bring economic stability to the school while maintaining important traditions, such as its strong liberal arts background and the Native American tuition waiver. While president of Lewis-Clark State College for the past nine years, enrollment has risen from 2700 to 4200 students and in 2009 LCSC had the lowest tuition increase of any school in Idaho. Regarding budget issues, she was clear on her intentions to work with students and faculty to prioritize the most important areas and make cuts where necessary.

“We have to look at what is most important and what we can survive without, at least for a time,” she said.

Thomas said she would work with students, staff and faculty to prioritize the most important areas and make cuts where necessary. She has also worked extensively with Native American tribes in the Lewiston area and is planning to continue to do so in Durango. With her history in liberal arts schools she hopes to continue the broad spectrum of learning available at Fort Lewis while encouraging the integration of more international and study abroad students.

By Dakota Jones

Doodling is an odd concept. The idea of art arising from the complete shutout of the brain to any outside interference, like a lecture, is abstract and difficult to comprehend. This is further complicated by the fact that many times the brain is actually working furiously to express the emotions produced by the lecture, as when a student is highly interested in the subject and wishes to convey this enthusiasm through art. To say doodling is marginal is to describe it twofold, as it is not only an underappreciated type of art but also mainly done in the margins of notes and such. The reason for this is simple - most people wouldn’t call their doodles art unless they were drawn with care on large sketch pads or canvases that legitimize the drawing as being of artistic quality. Few people recognize that much of the best art comes from the spontaneity of the mind creating at will, instead of premeditated copies of production drawings. The question that lies at the heart of this debate is one that has plagued the community since the dawn of time: what is art? What constitutes one drawing as being better than another in a world of vastly differing conceptions of reality? Certainly some drawings are better, but where is the line drawn, and how to differentiate between different styles? It’s all very complicated, and that’s why I have come to the conclusion that the more abstract a piece of art is, the better. This is much simpler than thinking, and doodling embodies this concept, since many times the only thing shown by doodles is a collection of twisting lines weaving throughout each other. The artistic vision of a doodler that allows him to break free of the conventional bonds of artistic expression with such abstract imagination is both magnificent and innovative, and cannot be understated. Indeed, the nature of doodles can be compared to the nature of humans at both their most mundane and spectacular, and the combination of these two opposing aspects of human nature is what makes doodling so important to our society as a means of expression.