The Dale Effect
Photo by Brynne Norton
Article by Jayden Forsyth
NEWBERG, Ore. – Honors students file into one of Canyon Common’s assembly rooms on a breezy September night. Freshman honors students, entering one of their first program assemblies, take their seats.
The Formation Lecture is underway. Honors Program interns are welcomed up on stage. One by one they introduce themselves.
One such intern walks on stage, a senior computer science student. Before he can even utter a word to the crowd, he is met with loud cheering, shouting, screaming and repeated chants of his name.
Once it quiets down, he shares his name. The crowd loses it once again. This intern is Dale Faubion and this cheering is present whenever he speaks at an Honors Program function. To the average student, it is as contagious as it is confusing.
Faubion, an intern as well as peer advisor, has been showered with this frantic cheering at every Honors event for a year now, without fail, and he’s just as confused as any other Honors student.
“I don’t know how it started,” said Faubion. “It was just happening, and oh no!”
Faubion is a legend in the Honors community, known for his kind heart and humility. As a peer advisor, he is often one of the first faces Honors students get to know. It was through one of these connections that the craze started.
“I think we started the cheering sometime during the freshman Honors retreat [in 2024],” stated Ezra Clark, a sophomore Honors student and the founder of the cheering. “We saw him walk on stage and knew he was a cool guy.”
But the reasoning behind the cheering goes deeper than one moment of Faubion just seeming to be like a “cool guy.”
“We started it not only because he was such a good dude but because he was worthy of respect and admiration from the way he mentored us,” Clark said.
The cheering is out of appreciation for Faubion; while Faubion himself is aware of this, he hates to admit it. “I don’t think that I’m all that great but I hope that I’ve made people feel loved and welcomed.” he said, “Personally, I don’t mind the cheering, just as long as it is not making other interns feel left out!”
“I think it’s totally awesome,” said Clark. “I’m so happy that everyone will remember Dale in this way, and I hope that he takes that with him when he graduates.”
No action by administrators has been taken to hinder the cheering. It is an outpouring of gratitude for a man who has touched many students’ hearts and, despite the craziness of it, is only meant with deep respect.
