The Daily Barometer
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY CORVALLIS, OREGON 97331
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DAILYBAROMETER
MONDAY MARCH 10, 2014 VOL. CXVI, NO. 100
@BARONEWS, @BAROSPORTS, @BAROFORUM
Students respond to racism on campus Sean Bassinger
| THE DAILY BAROMETER
Students Meleani Bates and Justin McDaniels promote the “I, Too, Am OSU” campaign.
Students start “I, Too, Am OSU” campaign to have open, progressive discussions about race, culture, racism on campus
on campus. One such message was in a bathroom located in Kidder Hall. “These behaviors do not reflect who we are,” OSU President Ed Ray said in the email. “Therefore, we will not let people who engage in these terrible and senseless acts control us or persist in their actions.” By Sean Bassinger THE DAILY BAROMETER Friday’s event started around 11 a.m. and extendMore than 200 people across campus visited the ed to 3 p.m. Students and campus community Memorial Union quad throughout Friday to show members were encouraged to stop by, write their their support for open discussions to promote unity story or supporting statement on a piece of paper with the #Itooamosu hashtag and have their picture and combat hate speech. The “I, Too, Am OSU” campaign started with taken. The collection of photos will later be used late-night discussions among various students. for a documentary to be released at the beginning The Friday gathering came after an email sent out of spring term. through Oregon State University’s administrators, The “I, Too, Am OSU” Facebook page currently which acknowledged a series of racist graffiti found has more than 570 likes. n
Justin McDaniels, one of the students who organized the event, said he didn’t appreciate the university waiting to open conversations until the second incident of graffiti was discovered last week. “I thought that was kind of inappropriate,” McDaniels said. McDaniels worked together with Alex Graham, Jeffrey Tsang, Meleani Bates and other students to come up with a plan of action. The initial conversations, which took place Thursday night around 10 p.m., would result in various social media pages and Friday’s table, which was devoted to the cause. McDaniels said it was vital to facilitate dialogue about micro-aggressions and negative perceptions that minorities deal with. See RACISM | page 3
Tour de Franzia parades with little interference Cyclists in costume pedal through Corvallis despite lacking all necessary permits for Saturday’s event
Corvallis residents and out-oftowners — cycle through Corvallis, stopping at private residences along the way. Mostly, participants view the tour as a way to relax and take a break from life, school and other work. Naturally, as it’s in the name, By Kaitlyn Kohlenberg tourers celebrate with Franzia, the THE DAILY BAROMETER popular boxed wine. Last fall, when police broke up the The Tour de Franzia organizers said they would file for all appropri- group at the Campus Way Covered ate city permits following a warning Bridge, Corvallis police issued the received during the previous event group a notice for clogging city in November 2013. They did not streets, stopping traffic and viofollow through for Saturday’s event, lating other municipal codes and Oregon Revised Statutes. No one according to on-site police. The costumed bike parade occurs was arrested or issued a citation every term in Corvallis. Tourers — during the fall tour. See FRANZIA | page 4 Oregon State University students,
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Kaitlyn Kohlenberg
The winter 2014 Tour de Franzia hosted throngs of students biking across Corvallis. Students rode to the Memorial Union before riding to a final party location.
Students use nature’s natural energy n
Oregon State bioenergy minor recruits students to create better way of looking at energy
Hmong Night finally gets its chance n
After 2 cancellations due to weather, cultural night has around 100 guests
By Dacotah-Victoria Splichalova
By Kaitlyn Kohlenberg
The bioenergy program seeks to build a strong foothold at Oregon State University. It would provide students with the opportunity to get involved with an emerging field, to better inform the public on renewable energy and to make a dynamic difference in how future generations deal with energy. The bioenergy minor in the College of Agricultural Sciences at OSU began in 2011. The minor program is funded by a five-year grant from the United States Department of Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The goal is to establish a strong bioenergy minor that is built into OSU’s coursework within the duration of the grant cycle ending in 2016.
Two months after the originally scheduled time for the event, Hmong Night 2014 shared its unique culture Sunday with Oregon State University. The event was set to take place in January, but the power went out in the Memorial Union shortly after it began. At the time, the coordinators chose to continue with the event, hoping the power would come back on. Roughly 250 guests sat in emergency lighting for 15 minutes before the group decided to continue with the dinner, which was served and eaten quickly before the crowd was evacuated from the building just after 7 p.m. The event was postponed again following the snowstorm, which took place in February. “We weren’t frustrated,” said Mao Thao, the president of the Hmong OSU group. “We were See HMONG | page 4
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See BIOENERGY | page 4
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Courtesy of Reece Hammer
Bioenergy minor Britany Swann works in Dr. Steve Strauss’ lab.
Club’s first female boxer wins match
News, page 2
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Baseball dominates in sweep Sports, page 5
Professionalism in the workplace
Forum, page 7
Shoua Vang, a business management alumna, participates in Hmong Night 2014 Sunday.
Justin Quinn THE DAILY BAROMETER