Barometer The Daily
Tuesday
November 1, 2011 59/26
Partly cloudy
Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.
Football Two freshmen making an impact on the defensive line Sports, Page 8
dailybarometer.com
Vol. CXV No. 35
Occupy-OSU floods MU Quad to protest economic disparity n
Oregon State University student protestors speak against wealthy one percent, unequal wealth distribution By Amanda Antell The Daily B arometer
As many heard and saw yesterday, Occupy Wall Street expanded its roots to Oregon State University in the Memorial Union Quad yesterday afternoon. OSU demonstrators showed their support for protests occupying different cities around the country. Occupy Wall Street started in Zuccotti Park in the Wall Street financial district of New York
City on Sept. 17, 2011. Hundreds of thousands of middle class citizens and university students protested corporate greed, economic inequality, corruption and influence within government, particularly toward the financial service sector and its lobbyists. Their famous slogan, “We are the 99 percent” refers to the difference in wealth between the wealthiest one percent and the rest of the population, and according to occupywallst.org, has stretched across America to 70 major cities and over 600 communities, even crossing international borders. Other protests have mimicked OWS in over 900 cities worldwide. Yesterday, despite the rain and cold, protesters stood their ground and amplified their voices using their hands, because a permission note was needed to check out a megaphone. “The people united will never be defeated,” said the group of protesters. Such was their grand mantra throughout the event, which was meant to illustrate a united front and unwillingness to compromise on their position. The protestors, mostly students, were in a situation unique to college campus demonstrations, which only made their wills for victory stronger. For various reasons, several sources refused to give their names. “We don’t need permits to amplify our voices because this is free speech, and this is our right,” said the Occupy-OSU protest organizer, who wished to remain anonymous. “OSU was established as a land grant college to create opportunities for students, but now those opportunities are being taken away,” another student protestor said. “When will we get those opportunities back?” Though tension was high, especially when they spoke against university administration, demonstrators were sure not to act out in violence. When protestors were asked about Occupy’s main goal, responses varied. “Corporations are buying out our political system, it’s out of control,” said Stan Johnson, an Occupy protestor who moved with his fiancé to Oregon from Alabama due to lack of business. He fears that small businesses everywhere
Interfaith Community Service Initiative a developing campus presence n
Enacted by Obama upon inauguration, Interfaith is a platform to connect religions The Daily B arometer
Since the events of Sept. 11, Oregon State University has seen a dramatic increase in campus faith and ministry programs that represent all religions. However, the newest program, called the Interfaith Community Service Initiative, is different from the rest in that it seeks to unite these campus programs, alongside desired measures taken by the White House. The president’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge has been in development since President Barack Obama was inaugurated. The program “involves people from different religious and non-religious backgrounds tackling community challenges together” as a means of “build[ing] understanding between different communities,” according to the White House website. Universities will use this academic year to create plans for implementing faith development combined with community service. Those with the most successful plans will receive recognition by the White House at the end of the year. Student’s interest in urgently pursu-
will close due to the “injustice.” “In 2010, Citizens-United gave corporations unlimited funds, and they bought out political seats with that. I’m tired of the one percent getting everything we work for,” said Nancy Mildren, a major in fine arts in education. The rudimentary message of Occupy-OSU was to demonstrate a right to free speech and dissatisfaction of the results of graduation. As stated by one of the protestors, quoting a political scientist whose lecture he attended, “kids are graduating off a cliff.” According to protestors, despite all the time and money spent getting a degree, there is little reward and students are either left broke or working at jobs they could’ve obtained straight out of high school. Occupy protests everywhere aims to change the face of the economy to the point where it isn’t catering to that one percent. One of the protesters, who also asked to remain anonymous, from Oakland, N.Y., has been with Occupy from day one, and plans to ride it out until the end.
OSU’s second Diversity Summit to promote themes of student identity, culture, engagement By Alex Hilborn The Daily B arometer
Neil Abrew | THE DAILY BAROMETER
OSU grad student Hannah Pynn, is working with a panel of OSU leaders and Interfaith. ing faith stems from recent studies that regard the ability to ascertain one’s own beliefs as necessary for a full and holistic development. Students are beginning to realize this need as well. “I think without a strong faith foundation, you are influenced so much by everything around you and you lose sight of what is important,” says OSU See INTERFAITH | page 3
“I’ve been protesting these things since the sixties,” the source said. “I’m a Vietnam veteran, and I was protesting for peace.” Confronted with a question of why Occupy turned violent in New York, the source said, “Occupy didn’t turn violent, the police did. They shot tear gas bombs and beanbags at us, and my eyes are still stinging from it a little. There was one guy who got shot right in the head with a tear gas bomb and the pig didn’t even care.” When asked what he wanted to change in the economy, the source said that based on research and experience in the army and corporations, “We, as country and society, need to have complete control of our banks and we have to make hedge funds completely transparent. No secret deals between governments, banks aren’t allowed to gamble with our money, and we have to decrease income tax. If Occupy does have an agenda, it’s to make the economy fair and equal for all.” See OCCUPY | page 3
Diversity Summit hosts sessions to address social justice concerns n
By Kelly Ward
john zhang | THE DAILY BAROMETER
Protestors joined one another in the Memorial Union Quad for OSU’s own Occupy event, which demonstrated for free speech and an even distribution of wealth within society. OSU students also spoke out against university administration.
The Division of Student Affairs will host the second Oregon State University Diversity Summit, themed “[c.a.r.e.] harmonize our voices, transform our world” at the CH2M HILL Alumni Center to promote dialogue on the importance of accepting and acknowledging differences between people in a community. “The hope is that the theme for the conference, ‘[c.a.r.e.] harmonize our voices, transform our world,’ creates openings and possibilities for us to create the inclusive and welcoming educational environments we seek at OSU and beyond,” said Eric Hansen, associate director of University Housing and Dining Services. During the two day summit, starting at 8 a.m. on Nov. 2 and ending at 5 p.m. Nov. 3, members of the OSU community, including students, staff and faculty, are invited to participate in over 30 free program sessions that cover a wide range of topics on recognizing and tolerating diversity.
The program sessions will focus heavily on the themes of this year’s summit: identity, culture, consciousness, justice and engagement. The summit’s planning committee settled on these five themes for the conference because they address social justice concerns by bringing people closer together. The summit will feature various keynote speakers such as poet Joaquín Zihuatanejo, comedian Nancy Giles, writer Helen Zia and diversity speaker Dr. Maura Cullen. Each of the speakers received invitations to talk at the conference because of the insights they could provide on summit themes and their varied individual life experiences. Two student dialogue sessions will occur during the conference to give students a chance to voice their concerns about diversity issues on campus as well as an opportunity to brainstorm ways to create social change on campus that inspires diversity. Summit organizers have catered meals for signed up summit participants to partake in during the conference. The organizers hope that providing food will allow participants to mingle in the conference building during downtime as a means for fostering
communication between individuals of varied backgrounds. “There seemed to be a need for serious dialogue around issues of diversity around campus,” said Yuliya Dennis, a Student Events and Activities Center employee, about generating discussions involving diversity on campus. “This event has been the effort of many departments and offices.” This year’s summit exists as a successor to the first diversity summit held by OSU back in February of 2001. After such a long gap in providing an event as an outlet for discussing diversity in the college community, various organizations on campus decided to revive the concept of the diversity summit to get people talking again. People from all walks of life on campus have come together to collaborate on the diversity conference. The event organizers hope that by getting as many varied opinions on the content of the conference as possible, they can truly craft a diversity conference that reflects the wide range of diversity present in the university. In fact, the words comprising the acronym ‘c.a.r.e.’ in the summit name remain purposefully undefined. Each participant in the conference can See DIVERSITY | page 3